0935 – Das Boot (1981)

timespace coordinates: October – Christmas Eve 1941  harbour of La Rochelle, harbour of Vigo,  Strait of Gibraltar

Das Boot (German pronunciation: [das ˈboːt], German: “The Boat”) is a 1981 German submarine film written and directed by Wolfgang Petersen, produced by Günter Rohrbach, and starring Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, and Klaus Wennemann. It has been exhibited both as a theatrical release and as a TV miniseries (1985), in several different home video versions of various running times, and in a director’s cut version supervised by Petersen in 1997.

An adaptation of Lothar-Günther Buchheim‘s 1973 German novel of the same name, the film is set during World War II and follows German U-boat U-96 and its crew, as they set out on a hazardous patrol in the Battle of the Atlantic. It depicts both the excitement of battle and the tedium of the fruitless hunt, and shows the men serving aboard U-boats as ordinary individuals with a desire to do their best for their comrades and their country.

During production, Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock, the captain of the real U-96 and one of Germany’s top U-boat “tonnage aces” during the war, and Hans-Joachim Krug, former first officer on U-219, served as consultants. One of Petersen’s goals was to guide the audience through “a journey to the edge of the mind” (the film’s German tagline Eine Reise ans Ende des Verstandes), showing “what war is all about”.

Today, the film is seen as one of the greatest of all German films. (wiki)

Historical accuracy

---

imdb

929 – FAR: Lone Sails (2018 video game)

timespace coordinates: post-apocalyptic dried-out oceanFAR: Lone Sails is an exploration adventure video game developed by the Swiss development company Okomotive. The game released on Microsoft Windows and OS X on 17 May 2018, with Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions in development. (wiki)

FAR: Lone Sails is a vehicle adventure game. In a unique vehicle you travel across a dried-out ocean following the tracks of a once thriving civilization. Through an array of roadblocks and through hazardous weather you need to keep your vessel going. Where will this journey take you? Are you the last of your kind? (steam)

---

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS (MINIMUM): OS: Windows 7+ (64-bit OS required) / Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.4 GHz, AMD FX 8120 @ 3.1 GHz / Memory: 4 GB RAM / Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 460 / 650m, AMD Radeon HD6570 / DirectX: Version 11 / Storage: 3 GB available space / Additional Notes: Not recommended for Intel HD Graphics cards.

0850 – The Meg (2018)

timespace coordinates: near future Mariana Trench,  the Pacific Ocean/ Hainan, China, Thailand, Japan

The Meg is a 2018 US–Chinese science fiction action thriller film directed by Jon Turteltaub, loosely based on the 1997 book Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror by Steve Alten. The film stars Jason Statham, Li Bingbing, Rainn Wilson, Ruby Rose, Winston Chao, and Cliff Curtis. the film follows a group of scientists who encounter a 75-foot-long (23 m) megalodon shark while on a rescue mission at the floor of the Pacific Ocean. (wiki)

imdb / trivia

---

Sequel

0833 – The Wicker Man (1973)

timespace coordinates: 1973  remote Hebridean island Summerisle

The Wicker Man is a 1973 British mystery horror film directed by Robin Hardy. It stars Edward Woodward, Britt Ekland, Diane Cilento, Ingrid Pitt, and Christopher Lee. The screenplay by Anthony Shaffer, inspired by David Pinner‘s 1967 novel Ritual, centres on the visit of Police Sergeant Neil Howie to the isolated island of Summerisle, in search of a missing girl. Howie, a devout Christian, is appalled to find that the inhabitants of the island have abandoned Christianity and now practise a form of Celtic paganism.

In 2011, a spiritual sequel entitled The Wicker Tree was released to mixed reviews. This film was also directed by Hardy, and featured Lee in a cameo appearance. (wiki)

Potential graphic novel and third film   /   Wicker man   /   imdb

832 – The Equalizer 2 (2018)

timespace coordinates:  2018 urban Massachusetts /  Brussels

The Equalizer 2  is a 2018 American thriller film directed by Antoine Fuqua. It is a sequel to the 2014 film The Equalizer, which was based on the TV series of the same name. The film stars Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, Ashton Sanders, Melissa Leo, and Bill Pullman.

imdb

0825 – The Forgotten Space (2010)

timespace coordinates: 2000’s Netherlands / United States / Belgium / China / Spain

The Forgotten Space (Allan Sekula & Noël Burch, 2010) follows container cargo aboard ships, barges, trains and trucks, listening to workers, engineers, planners, politicians, and those marginalized by the global transport system. We visit displaced farmers and villagers in Holland and Belgium, underpaid truck drivers in Los Angeles, seafarers aboard mega-ships shuttling between Asia and Europe, and factory workers in China, whose low wages are the fragile key to the whole puzzle. And in Bilbao, we discover the most sophisticated expression of the belief that the maritime economy, and the sea itself, is somehow obsolete.

A range of materials is used: descriptive documentary, interviews, archive stills and footage, clips from old movies. The result is an essayistic, visual documentary about one of the most important processes that affects us today. The Forgotten Space is based on Sekula’s Fish Story, seeking to understand and describe the contemporary maritime world in relation to the complex symbolic legacy of the sea.

---

The sea is forgotten until disaster strikes. But perhaps the biggest seagoing disaster is the global supply chain, which – maybe in a more fundamental way than financial speculation – leads the world economy to the abyss. (http://www.theforgottenspace.net/)

---

imdb

0818 – Push (2009)

timespace coordinates: 2000’s  Hong Kong

Push is a 2009 American superhero film directed by Paul McGuigan and written by David Bourla. Starring Chris Evans, Dakota Fanning, Camilla Belle, and Djimon Hounsou, the film centers on a group of people born with various superhuman abilities who band together in order to take down a government agency that is using a dangerous drug to enhance their powers in hopes of creating an army of super soldiers.

imdb