0314 – BioShock (2007 video game)

spacetime coordinates: 1960, the underwater city of Rapture

BioShock is a first-person shooter video game developed by 2K Boston (later Irrational Games) and 2K Australia, and published by 2K Games.

The game’s concept was developed by Irrational’s creative lead, Ken Levine, and incorporates ideas by 20th century dystopian and utopian thinkers such as Ayn Rand, George Orwell, and Aldous Huxley, as well as historical figures such as John D. Rockefeller. The game is considered a spiritual successor to the System Shock series, on which many of Irrational’s team including Levine had worked previously.

BioShock is set in 1960. The player guides the protagonist, Jack, after his airplane crashes in the ocean near the bathysphere terminus that leads to the underwater city of Rapture. Built by the business magnate Andrew Ryan, the city was intended to be an isolated utopia, but the discovery of ADAM, a genetic material which can be used to grant superhuman powers, initiated the city’s turbulent decline. Jack tries to find a way to escape, fighting through hordes of ADAM-obsessed enemies, and the iconic, deadly Big Daddies, while engaging with the few sane humans that remain and eventually learning of Rapture’s past. The player, as Jack, is able to defeat foes in a number of ways by using weapons, utilizing plasmids that give unique powers, and by turning Rapture’s own defenses against them. BioShockincludes elements of role-playing games, giving the player different approaches in engaging enemies such as by stealth, as well as moral choices of saving or killing characters; additionally, the game and biopunk theme borrow concepts from the survival horror genre.

Bioshock Trailer

BioShock received critical acclaim and was particularly praised by critics for its morality-based storyline, immersive environments, and its unique setting, and is considered to be one of the greatest video games of all time and a demonstration of video game as an art form.

pc requirements (MINIMUM): Operating System: Windows XP (with Service Pack 2) or Windows Vista. CPU: Intel single-core Pentium 4 processor at 2.4GHz. RAM: 1 GB, Video Card:Direct X 9.0c compliant video card with 128MB RAM and Pixel Shader 3.0 (NVIDIA 6600 or better/ATI X1300 or better, excluding ATI X1550)

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steam

291 – Upside Down (2012)

Upside Down (French: Un monde à l’envers) is a 2012 Canadian-French romantic fantasy written and directed by Juan Diego Solanas, starring Jim Sturgess and Kirsten Dunst.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1374992/

0276 – Pain & Gain (2013)

spacetime coordinates: 1994 – 1995  Miami, Florida

Pain & Gain is a 2013 American dark comedy crime film directed by Michael Bay and starring Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson, and Anthony Mackie. The film reunites wrestlers Dwayne Johnson and Kurt Angle. The film is loosely based on a story Pete Collins published in a 1999 series of Miami New Times articles and compiled in the book Pain & Gain: This Is a True Story (2013), which details the kidnapping, extortion, torture, and murder of several victims by an organized group of criminals comprising bodybuilders affiliated with the Sun Gym. The film’s title is a play on the common adage, frequently used in fitness: “No pain, no gain“.

Comparisons between the film and actual events

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1980209/

https://film.avclub.com/with-pain-gain-michael-bay-tackled-the-big-dumb-ame-1798246007

0265 – American Pastoral (2016)

spacetime coordinates: 1960s  New Jersey

American Pastoral is a 2016 Hong Kong | USA crime-drama film directed by Ewan McGregor and written by John Romano, based on the 1997 novel of the same name by Philip Roth.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376479/

223 – Pompeii (2014)

spacetime coordinates: Pompeii 79 A.D.

Pompeii is a 2014 3D romantic historical disaster film produced and directed by Paul W. S. Anderson.  An international co-production between the United States, Germany and Canada,  it is inspired by and based on the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. that destroyed Pompeii, a city of the Roman Empire. The film stars Kit Harington, Emily Browning, Carrie-Anne Moss, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Jessica Lucas, with Jared Harris, and Kiefer Sutherland.

historical accuracy

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1921064/

201 – Straight Outta Compton (2015)

spacetime coordinates: 80’s 90’s  Compton, California, Los Angeles

Straight Outta Compton is a 2015 American biographical film directed by F. Gary Gray, depicting the career of gangsta rap group N.W.A. Titled after N.W.A’s 1988 debut studio album, the film focuses on members Eazy-E, Ice Cube, and Dr. Dre, and the rise and fall of the group. Members of N.W.A were involved in making the film, including Ice Cube and Dr. Dre as producers, as was Eazy-E’s widow, Tomica Woods-Wright, while MC Ren and DJ Yella served as creative consultants. Ice Cube is portrayed by his son, O’Shea Jackson Jr., with Corey Hawkins as Dr. Dre and Jason Mitchell as Eazy-E. Paul Giamatti also stars as N.W.A’s manager Jerry Heller.

Historical accuracy

imdb                   wiki

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175 – Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)

spacetime coordinates: 2012  southern Louisiana bayou community called the “Bathtub” (a community cut off from the rest of the world by a levee)

Beasts of the Southern Wild is a 2012 American drama film co-written, co-scored and directed by Benh Zeitlin. It was adapted by Zeitlin and Lucy Alibar from Alibar’s one-act play Juicy and Delicious. 

…Meanwhile, in the Arctic, the frozen Aurochs in an ice shelf start drifting into the ocean…

The fictional island of the film, “Isle de Charles Doucet” known to its residents as the Bathtub, was inspired by several isolated and independent fishing communities threatened by erosion, hurricanes and rising sea levels in Louisiana’s Terrebonne Parish, most notably the rapidly eroding Isle de Jean Charles. It was filmed in Terrebonne Parish town Montegut.

imdb, wiki

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Hushpuppy: [about an emergency shelter] When an animal gets sick here, they plug it into the wall.