Progenitors (inspiration and source material)

[Rex]

Cool stuff, I remember the shows but agree, leave them in the past. They were great at the time. I am with Raven on Star Wars, it needed no updating at all. Still stands as one of the greatest movies ever.

[ChubbyPixie]

Agree.

[Inferno]

Bump.

Planet of the Apes (1968)



Peter Graham famously said, “The Golden Age of science fiction is twelve.”

When I was a kid, Thundarr the Barbarian, zombie apocalypses, Mad Max, and the original Planet of the Apes loomed large over my imagination. Probably because of the frightening, exciting idea of civilization ending.

I enjoy Planet of the Apes as much now as I did then. The Rod Serling gags and plot twists, the inverted society, the mighty Heston as a black-hearted cynic, man's civilization cast in ruin, and that incredible soundtrack. Just give a listen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAJBnEk ... qKt0XyvCPV

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TguwOU0 ... PV&index=7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9xZaJM ... qKt0XyvCPV

It's easily one of my top ten sci-fi films of all time. How about you?

[SilverBen]

My favorite all time sci fi film is the Japanese animated Katsuhiro Otomo short feature named "Magnetic Rose" in the anthology "Memories." Second only to his "Akira" feature length film.

If you have never seen it, it is in a single word a masterpiece of sci fi. I advise you take 45 minutes to experience it, even if you dont like reading foreign subtitles! Every frame is a work of art, the music is haunting, the plot is hermetically tight, and the emotional engagement is powerful from act one to its conclusion.

[Inferno]

With a review like that, I'll have to check it out!
Thanks for the reco.

[Inferno]

They Live

If you haven't seen this movie, it's free on Peacock. Go check it out right now. Seriously.

Spoilers:

So, right in the middle of this 1980s low budget sci-fi thriller by John Carpenter is six perfect minutes of paranoid brilliance that rivals any scene ever put to film.





Subversive, visionary and painfully true.





As relevant now as in 1988.





Perhaps with the exception of "I'm all outta bubble gum," the rest of the movie can't compete. But given the shock and power of that scene, how could any film?

[ChubbyPixie]

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[Rex]

LOL, I think I saw this when it came out.

[SilverBen]

Hey Inferno, whatever your game is inspired on, its already better than John Carpenter's They Live movie from my perspective. I haven't seen that movie more than once or twice since the 1980's but I prefer not to revisit it. I remember They Live was disappointing among John Carpenter's other far superior works such as Halloween, Escape From New York, The Philadelphia Experiment, Big Trouble in Little China, and The Thing. These were memorable movies because Carpenter directed them in a three act structure with all the elements of a good RPG game.

In fact, Carpenter's 1980 movie The Fog was the model for a play-by-post game I ran last year after I stumbled upon issue #12 of Dungeon Magazine. Since The Fog is one of my favorite John Carpenter movies, I quickly recognized the adventure Dungeon Magazine published titled "Light of Lost Souls" bore a striking resemblance to the Carpenter movie. Dungeon Magazine published the article in 1988 without crediting any other source material and I still wonder why noone rasied accusations of plagiarism.

Nevertheless, I had uncanny success running it using AD&D rules and openly cited the movie as inspiration from the start of the game. Perhaps the players didn't consider The Fog worth watching or were too lazy to find Dungeon Magazine #12, or perhaps prefered not to use them unfairly to their character's advantage? After all four PCs survived the adventure, the players begged me to extend game. I candidly admitted I was not reliable to deliver another game of equal or greater enjoyment, so we decided to disband while we still felt we accomplished the goal of concluding a short but memorable game.

[ravenn4544]

i love that movie .

good soundtrack too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqcRXHNtw-c

i dig several of john carpenters movies.

[Inferno]

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[Inferno]

Thanks, SilverBen. Will have to check out Dungeon #12!

As to the game-ability of They Live...

[Inferno]

i dig several of john carpenters movies.

Me too!
Here, instead of Kurt Russell, we get Rowdy Roddy Piper. But at least Keith David turns up.

[SilverBen]

Dungeon#12 Light of Lost Souls.pdf

(1.38 MiB) Downloaded 17 times

[Urson]

I thought the movie was an excellent concept, hampered by budget problems. The horribly overlong fight between Roddy and Keith David was a low point.
Despite this, it was a lot of fun.

[Inferno]

Thanks, SilverBen!

Urson, I can't disagree with that. All those hours spent on 1970s Dr. Who must have taught me to ignore budget issues in sci-fi.

[Rex]

Yup, me too. All we had was a black and white TV until I the mid 80's so everything seemed low budget to me. Loved Dr Who.

[Urson]

I didn't get to see much Dr. Who when I was a kid- no local stations carried it. I'm a bit ashamed to say that the few episodes I saw, I didn't care for- because of the low-budget issues. I guess I'm a bit of a snob that way...

[SilverBen]

Gentle correction, not a snob, rather you led a culturally deprived childhood. Its okay, there's still hope and you're in the right place to get what you need!

[Inferno]

The Matrix

The faithful among them know that in many religious traditions there exists a secret world perceived and understood only by the enlightened. A primary example of such theology is The Universal Adventists of Neo the Chosen One.

This influential film had many influences, not least of all They Live!, whose insidious false world is also discovered by violent cop-killers with a penchant for rifles, sunglasses, and invading marble-lined strongholds of The Man.



The Matrix also drew inspiration from 1970s Doctor Who, where, in an episode titled 'The Deadly Assassin,' the Doctor enters the shared hallucination of a computer-generated, life-like artificial reality called... the Matrix.



All that said, the 1999 version is one of my top ten sci-fi films of all time due to its perfect blend of paranoid conspiracies, Philip K. Dickish uncertainty about one's own identity, philosophy, karate, and Rage Against the Machine.

How about you?