2385 – Weathering with You (2019)

timespace coordinates: summer of 2021 in Tokyo

Weathering with You (Japanese: 天気の子, Hepburn: Tenki no Ko, lit. ’Child of Weather’) is a 2019 Japanese animated romantic fantasy film written and directed by Makoto Shinkai, produced by CoMix Wave Films and distributed by Toho.

It follows a 16-year-old high school boy, Hodaka Morishima, who runs away from his troubled rural home to Tokyo, and later befriends Hina Amano, an orphaned girl who has the ability to control the weather. (wiki)

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2306

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

timespace coordinates: 1970’s San Francisco

Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a 1978 American science-fiction horror film directed by Philip Kaufman and starring Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Veronica Cartwright, Jeff Goldblum, and Leonard Nimoy. It is based on the 1955 novel The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney.

The plot involves a San Francisco health inspector and his colleague who over the course of a few days discover that humans are being replaced by alien duplicates; each is a perfect biological clone of the person replaced, but devoid of empathy and humanity. It is hailed as one of the greatest remakes ever, as well as one of the best science-fiction horror films of all time. (wiki)

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Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

timespace coordinates: 1950’s Santa Mira, California

Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a 1956 American science-fiction horror film produced by Walter Wanger, directed by Don Siegel, and starring Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter. The black-and-white film was shot in 2.00:1 Superscope and in the film noir style. (wiki)

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Body Snatchers (1993)

timespace coordinates: 1990’s military base in Alabama

Body Snatchers is a 1993 American science fiction horror film directed by Abel Ferrara and starring Gabrielle Anwar, Billy Wirth, Terry Kinney, Meg Tilly, Christine Elise, R. Lee Ermey, and Forest Whitaker. Body Snatchers is the third film adaptation of Finney’s novel. (wiki)

analysis   //   imdb

The Invasion (2007)

timespace coordinates: 2000’s Washington, D.C.

The Invasion is a 2007 American science fiction horror film directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, with additional scenes written by The Wachowskis and directed by James McTeigue, and starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig.

analysis: Writer David Kajganich described the story to reflect contemporary times, saying, “You just have to look around our world today to see that power inspires nothing more than the desire to retain it and to eliminate anything that threatens it.” (wiki)

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2278

Kandahar (2023)

spacetime coordinates: 2010’s  Iran / Dubai / Herat, Afghanistan > Kandahar

Kandahar is a 2023 American action film directed by Ric Roman Waugh and written by Mitchell LaFortune. The film stars Gerard Butler (who is also a producer) and features a supporting cast that includes Ali Fazal, Navid Negahban and Travis Fimmel.

The film is based on former military intelligence officer Mitchell LaFortune’s spec script Burn Run inspired by his experiences working for the Defense Intelligence Agency and being deployed to Afghanistan in 2013 during the Snowden leaks. (wiki)

imdb  //   rt   //    The Covenant (2023)

2268 – Sisu (2022)

spacetime coordinates: the Lapland War, 1944

Sisu is a 2022 Finnish historical action film written and directed by Jalmari Helander. Set in Lapland during World War II, the film follows a gold prospector who attempts to secure his gold and defend himself from a German death squad led by a brutal SS officer. The film stars Jorma Tommila, Aksel Hennie, Jack Doolan and Mimosa Willamo.

According to Helander, the 1982 American action film First Blood and the real-life Finnish military sniper Simo Häyhä, who fought against the Red Army, served as great inspirations for the film. (wiki)

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2265 – The Covenant (2023)

spacetime coordinates: 2018, during the War in Afghanistan

Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant (or simply The Covenant) is a 2023 American action thriller film co-written, produced and directed by Guy Ritchie. The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Dar Salim. Its plot follows a former U.S. Army special operations sergeant and Afghanistan War veteran, John Kinley, who returns to the country to rescue the interpreter who once saved his life from the Taliban. (wiki)

imdb   //   rt   //   afghanistan-the-great-game-documentary-tv-mini-series-2012/

2241 – Johnny Mnemonic (1995)

spacetime coordinates: 2021, Beijing / Newark, New Jersey (society is driven by a virtual Internet, which has created a degenerate effect called “nerve attenuation syndrome” or NAS. Megacorporations control much of the world, intensifying the class hostility already created by NAS.)

Johnny Mnemonic is a 1995 cyberpunk film directed by Robert Longo in his directorial debut. Based on the 1981 story of the same name by William Gibson, it stars Keanu Reeves, Dina Meyer, Ice-T, Takeshi Kitano, Henry Rollins, Barbara Sukowa, Udo Kier and Dolph Lundgren. Reeves plays the title character, a man with an overloaded, cybernetic brain implant designed to store information. The film portrays Gibson’s dystopian, prophetic view of 2021 with the world wracked by a tech-induced plague, awash with conspiracies, and dominated by megacorporations, with strong East Asian influences.

Shot on location in Canada, with Toronto and Montreal filling in for the Newark and Beijing settings, a number of local sites, including Toronto’s Union Station and Montreal’s skyline and Jacques Cartier Bridge, are prominently featured.

Gibson said that the film was “taken away and re-cut by the American distributor”. He described the original film as “a very funny, very alternative piece of work”, and said it was “very unsuccessfully chopped and cut into something more mainstream”. Gibson compared this to editing Blue Velvet into a mainstream thriller lacking any irony. Prior to its release, critic Amy Harmon identified the film as an epochal moment when cyberpunk counterculture would enter the mainstream.

In 2022, a black-and-white edition of the film, titled Johnny Mnemonic: In Black and White, was released. (wiki)

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2157 – One Way (2022)

spacetime coordinates:  2020’s Downtown Los Angeles >> deep California desert

One Way is an American Noir crime thriller film written by Ben Conway and directed by Andrew Baird. The film stars Colson Baker (Machine Gun Kelly), Kevin Bacon, Storm Reid, Drea de Matteo, Luis Da Silva and Travis Fimmel. (wiki)

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