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Old 07-03-2007, 05:05 AM   #1
Silverback
 
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Default Movies as 'inspiration'?

I'm still fairly new to Transhuman Space and was wondering which movies people consider to fall into the category of hard-fi? My list is as follows:

2001: A Space Odyssey
A.I.
Bicentennial Man
Blade Runner
Contact
Equilibrium
Event Horizon
Gattaca
I, Robot
The Abyss
The Sixth Day
Total Recall

Am I pretty much in the ball park with these suggestions? What other films/tv series would you suggest?
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Old 07-03-2007, 05:53 AM   #2
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Just 'found' this list on the Transhuman Space section of the website.

Documentaries
The Blue Planet (BBC, 2002).
Secrets of the Ocean Realm (PBS, 1998).
Volcanoes of the Deep (NOVA/PBS, 1999).

Film and Television
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Richard Fleischer, 1954).
The Abyss (James Cameron, 1989).
Blue Submarine No. 6 (Mahiro Maeda, 1998).
Deep Blue Sea (Renny Harlin, 1999).
Gasaraki (ADV Films, 1998).
Ghost in the Shell (Bandai Visual, 1996).
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (Production, I.G., 2002).
Planetes (Sunrise, 2003).
SeaQuest DSV (Universal TV, 1993-1995).
Waterworld (Kevin Reynolds, 1995).
Sealab 2021 (Williams Street, 2001).
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Old 07-03-2007, 11:18 AM   #3
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Default Re: Movies as 'inspiration'?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Silverback
Sealab 2021 (Williams Street, 2001)
The hell?!?!? That's like citing Monty Python and the Holy Grail as source material for Banestorm!

Honestly, there is precious little genuine hard SF in the visual media. Of those you've listed, I'd only classify 2001, Contact (from what I understand; I've never seen it), and maybe Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex as being hard SF. Not that most of the others don't have something to offer to a THS campaign, they're just not what I'd call hard SF.
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Old 07-03-2007, 01:26 PM   #4
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Default Re: Movies as 'inspiration'?

Quote:
Originally Posted by MrTim
The hell?!?!? That's like citing Monty Python and the Holy Grail as source material for Banestorm!
Those recommendations in my second post are from the Transhuman Space section of this very website!

Quote:
Originally Posted by MrTim
Honestly, there is precious little genuine hard SF in the visual media. Of those you've listed, I'd only classify 2001, Contact (from what I understand; I've never seen it), and maybe Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex as being hard SF. Not that most of the others don't have something to offer to a THS campaign, they're just not what I'd call hard SF.
I was thinking more along the lines of the social issues, etc. implied by those movies that I've listed rather than the obvious observation which is that they're primarily action films.
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Old 07-03-2007, 01:42 PM   #5
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Default Re: Movies as 'inspiration'?

Quote:
Originally Posted by MrTim
Honestly, there is precious little genuine hard SF in the visual media. Of those you've listed, I'd only classify 2001, Contact (from what I understand; I've never seen it), and maybe Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex as being hard SF. Not that most of the others don't have something to offer to a THS campaign, they're just not what I'd call hard SF.
Gattaca is hard science fiction (certainly harder than GitS). 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (the novel, anyway) is classic hard sf.

Last edited by sir_pudding; 07-03-2007 at 02:37 PM.
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Old 07-03-2007, 01:45 PM   #6
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Default Re: Movies as 'inspiration'?

Quote:
Originally Posted by MrTim
The hell?!?!? That's like citing Monty Python and the Holy Grail as source material for Banestorm!

Honestly, there is precious little genuine hard SF in the visual media. Of those you've listed, I'd only classify 2001, Contact (from what I understand; I've never seen it), and maybe Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex as being hard SF. Not that most of the others don't have something to offer to a THS campaign, they're just not what I'd call hard SF.
Contact?!
After watching that drek, I feel the very poor taste urge to disinter Carl Sagan and kick him in the rocky mountain oysters.
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Old 07-03-2007, 02:35 PM   #7
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Planetes is doubly-recommended. Had it more biotech it would be set in the THS universe.

For a vacuum-cleaner campaign is obligatory reference.
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Old 07-03-2007, 05:50 PM   #8
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Originally Posted by hackbarth
Planetes is doubly-recommended. Had it more biotech it would be set in the THS universe.

For a vacuum-cleaner campaign is obligatory reference.
Yeah, Planetes is awesome. I watched too many episodes in one go, and started dreaming about it.
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Old 07-03-2007, 05:38 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Flyndaran
Contact?!
After watching that drek, I feel the very poor taste urge to disinter Carl Sagan and kick him in the rocky mountain oysters.
To be fair, I've heard that the movie mangled the book very badly. I think I'll read the book and find out.
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Old 07-04-2007, 03:37 AM   #10
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Default Re: Movies as 'inspiration'?

Quote:
Originally Posted by MrTim
The hell?!?!? That's like citing Monty Python and the Holy Grail as source material for Banestorm!
Actually, that could be quite fun.

But anyway. There are of course no actual Transhuman Space movies. There are movies and similar which one can raid for inspiration for bits of Transhuman Space, though. For example, 2001 should give something of the feel of gritty hard SF space travel, while any version of Ghost in the Shell is good for definining the atmosphere of a high-action, somewhat cinematic Fifth Wave game.

I've not seen the anime of Planetes - must borrow it off my GM sometime - but I've read some of the manga collections. It is of course a good point of reference for vacuum cleaner campaigns (despite the occasional traditional cluelessness about orbital mechanics), though I can see why someone would find it unengaging; its ambitions exceed the writer's ability to tell a good story. Moonlight Mile is another recent anime which seems to have been created by someone who at least knows what hard SF is.

I'd guess that 20,000 Leagues is in the filmography for Under Pressure, and hence on the SJGames site, because it is an at least vaguely cool underwater movie. There aren't many of those around, at all, so that particular filmography maybe ends up looking a bit desperate.
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