2298 – Doom (2005)

spacetime coordinates: In 2026, a wormhole portal, the Ark, to an ancient city on Mars is discovered deep below the Nevada desert. 2046, the 85 personnel at the Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC) research facility & archaeological dig at “Olduvai” on Mars are attacked by an unknown assailant.

Doom is a 2005 science fiction film directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak. The film was an international co-production of the United States, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic and Germany. Loosely based on the video game series of the same name by id Software, the film stars Karl Urban, Rosamund Pike, Razaaq Adoti, Richard Brake, Dexter Fletcher, Ben Daniels, DeObia Oparei and Dwayne Johnson (credited as The Rock). (wiki)

imdb   /   /trivia/

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Running ‘Doom’ on E. coli cells…

2285 – Asteroid City (2023)

spacetime coordinates: 1950s desert town of Asteroid City

Asteroid City is a 2023 American comedy-drama film written, directed, and produced by Wes Anderson, from a story he wrote with Roman Coppola. It features an ensemble cast including Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Liev Schreiber, Hope Davis, Steve Park, Rupert Friend, Maya Hawke, Steve Carell, Matt Dillon, Hong Chau, Willem Dafoe, Margot Robbie, Tony Revolori, Jake Ryan and Jeff Goldblum.

Its metatextual plot simultaneously depicts the events of a Junior Stargazer convention in a retrofuturistic version of 1955, staged as a play, and the creation of the play. It is Anderson’s homage to popular memory and mythology about extraterrestrials and UFOs witnessed in the Southwestern desert in close proximity to atomic test sites during the postwar period of the American 20th century. (wiki)

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2073 – Event Horizon (1997)

timespace coordinates:  2047, the Event Horizon spaceship in a decaying orbit around Neptune

[first lines]

Title Card: 2015 First permanent colony established on moon.

Title Card: 2032 Commercial mining begins on Mars.

Title Card: 2040 Deep space research vessel ‘Event Horizon’ launched to explore boundaries of Solar System. She disappears without trace beyond the eighth planet, Neptune. It is the worst space disaster on record.

Title Card: 2047 Now…

Event Horizon is a 1997 science fiction horror film directed by Paul W. S. Anderson and written by Philip Eisner. It stars Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill, Kathleen Quinlan and Joely Richardson. Although the film met with mostly negative reviews and a disappointing box office result at the time of its release, it amassed a considerable cult following over the years.

The Event Horizon was modeled on Notre Dame cathedral. Its long corridor resembles a church nave, and its interior is filled with cruciform shapes, columns and vaults. Also, its engines resemble rotated church towers.

The Event Horizon was named after the theoretical boundary surrounding a black hole, within which gravitational attraction is so great that nothing, not even radiation, can escape because the escape velocity is greater than the speed of light. Technically, it is where the physical universe ends and physical laws no longer apply. So the ship’s name is symbolic for its journey beyond the borders of the known universe.

The script originally described the Gateway machine as a smooth and featureless black orb, 10 meters (nearly 33 feet) in diameter, suspended in midair between large, rotating mechanical arms. It also was said to contain a stable black hole within it at all times (which the ship used as a power source), as opposed to briefly creating a temporary one. Paul W.S. Anderson decided to redesign it to involve interlocking circles as a homage to the puzzle box in Hellraiser (1987), which served as an inspiration.

Lost footage

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Some space suits have flags showing hypothetical future political changes on Earth. Characters portrayed by British actors wear a European Union flag with 22 stars, replacing the Union flag. Sam Neill‘s character wears a modified Australian flag, with the Union flag removed from the top left-hand corner and the Aboriginal flag in its place.

imdb   /   TV series

2049

timespace coordinates: 1990’s / 2020’s Woodsboro, California

Scream (1996 film)

Scream is a 1996 American slasher film directed by Wes Craven and written by Kevin Williamson. The film stars David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Matthew Lillard, Rose McGowan, Skeet Ulrich, Jamie Kennedy, and Drew Barrymore. Released on December 20, it follows Sidney Prescott (Campbell), a high school student who becomes the target of a mysterious killer in a Halloween costume known as Ghostface. The film satirizes the clichés of the slasher genre popularized in films such as Halloween (1978), Friday the 13th (1980) and Craven’s own A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). Scream was considered unique at the time of its release for featuring characters aware of real-world horror films who openly discussed the clichés that the film attempted to subvert.

Inspired by the real-life case of the Gainesville Ripper, Scream was influenced by Williamson’s passion for horror films, especially Halloween (1978).

The soundtrack by Marco Beltrami was cited as “[one] of the most intriguing horror scores composed in years”. The score has since earned “cult status”. Scream marked a change in the genre as it cast already-established and successful actors, which was considered to have helped it find a wider audience, including a significant female viewership.

Scream was credited with revitalizing the slasher genre in the 1990s, which was considered to be almost dead following an influx of direct-to-video titles and numerous sequels to established horror franchises of the 1970s and 1980s. Scream‘s success spawned a series of sequels. (wiki)

Controversies   /   imdb

Scream (2022 film)

Scream (also known as Scream 5) is a 2022 American slasher film directed by Radio Silence (Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett). It is the fifth installment in the Scream film series. Though billed as a relaunch of the film series, the film is a direct sequel to Scream 4 (2011) and is the first film in the series to not be directed by Wes Craven, following his death in 2015. The film is dedicated to Craven at the beginning of the closing credits.

The film stars Melissa Barrera, Kyle Gallner, Mason Gooding, Mikey Madison, Dylan Minnette, Jenna Ortega, Jack Quaid, Jasmin Savoy Brown, and Sonia Ammar, alongside Roger L. Jackson, Marley Shelton, Skeet Ulrich, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, and Neve Campbell, who reprise their roles from previous installments. The film takes place twenty-five years after the original Woodsboro murders, when yet another Ghostface appears and begins targeting a group of teenagers who are each somehow linked to the original killings. Similar to previous entries, Scream combines the violence of the slasher genre with elements of black comedy and “whodunit” mystery to satirize the trend of reboots and legacy sequels. The film also provides commentary on fandom culture and the divide between “elevated horror” and classic slasher films.

Scream was praised by critics for honoring Craven’s legacy and offering thoughtful meta-commentary on horror films, with some calling it the best of the Scream sequels. The development of a sequel was announced in February 2022. (wiki)

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1960 – Prisoners of the Ghostland (2021)

spacetime coordinates: In a region in Japan devastated and quarantined years ago in an accident in which highly volatile nuclear waste was spilled after a crash between the waste transport and a prison bus, a settlement called Samurai Town is ruled by an unscrupulous Governor who has blended elements of Japanese society (both modern-day and pre-modern) and the old American West together at his whim, and is keeping a harem of adopted “granddaughters” as his sex slaves. The outside is a wasteland known as the Ghostland, inhabited by half-crazed outcasts and victims of the irradiated environment.

Prisoners of the Ghostland is a 2021 Japanese/American neo-noir Western action film directed by Sion Sono (first overseas production and English-language debut), from a script by Aaron Hendry and Reza Sixo Safai. The film stars Nicolas Cage, Sofia Boutella, Nick Cassavetes and Bill Moseley.  (wiki)

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1947 – EarthNight (2019 video game)

“Dragons have taken over the Earth, and humanity has fled to space. You must help Stanley and Sydney skydive back to Earth while careening across the backs of massive, snake-like dragons as they soar high above the planet, all while an original chiptune soundtrack pounds away in the background. Every moment is intense and layered with intricacy.

Explore five layers of the atmosphere all brought to life by artist Mattahan, who meticulously painted each of EarthNight’s 10,000+ frames of art and animation.

We intend to change the way you think about auto-runner games by designing on a much grander scale.  EarthNight is currently available on Apple Arcade, Nintendo Switch, PS4 and Steam.” www.cleaversoft.com

1757 – Psycho Goreman (2020)

PG: Psycho Goreman, or simply Psycho Goreman, is a 2020 Canadian science-fiction horror comedy film written and directed by Steven Kostanski (Astron-6). It stars Nita-Josee Hanna and Owen Myre as a young sister and brother who unwittingly resurrect an ancient extraterrestrial overlord (played by Matthew Ninaber). (wiki)

Having been acquired by RLJE Films and Shudder, Psycho Goreman is scheduled to be released in theaters and on video on demand on January 22, 2021.

imdb   /   rottentomatoes