movies, music, quotes

0570 – Lost in Space (1998)

spacetime coordinates: 2058 Earth Alpha Prime

Major West [Launching the Jupiter-1]: And the monkey flips the switch.

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Lost in Space is a 1998 American science-fiction adventure / comedy film directed by Stephen Hopkins, and starring William HurtMatt LeBlanc, and Gary Oldman.  The plot is adapted from the 1965–1968 CBS television series Lost in Space. The film focuses on the Robinson family, who undertake a voyage to a nearby star system to begin large-scale emigration from a soon-to-be uninhabitable Earth (due to the irreversible effects of pollution and Ozone depletion), but are thrown off course by a saboteur and must try to find their way home.

Several of the actors from the original TV series had cameos in the film. The television series Lost in Space (1965) was set in the future of 1997 – the year the film began production.

Major West: OK, last one to kill a bad guy buys the beer!

Lost In Space – Apollo 440

imdb

movies

568 – Kongen av Bastøy / King of Devil’s Island (2010)

spacetime coordinates:  Bastøy prison for youths, Norway 191511774854_1300x1733King of Devil’s Island (French: Les Révoltés de l’île du Diable), (Norwegian: Kongen av Bastøy) is a 2010 French-Norwegian film directed by Marius Holst. The story is based on true events that occurred at Bastøy Prison in Norway.kongen-av-basty-757188lheiihybngucqi1vd30fiiwabsepAlthough it is set in winter, the film is a fictionalized retelling of a rebellion among the youth at the Bastøy Reform School in May 1915. The reformatory was located on Bastøy Island in the Oslo fjord south of Horten municipality in the county of Vestfold in Norway. The Norwegian government purchased the island in 1898 for 95,000 kroner, and the reformatory opened in 1900.

See Bastøy Prison for the real events which the film fictionalizes.

imdb

movies, series

0564 – Maze Runner (film series)

Maze Runner is an American film series consisting of science-fiction dystopian action adventure films based on The Maze Runner novels by the American author James Dashner. Produced by Ellen Goldsmith-Vein and distributed by 20th Century Fox, the films star Dylan O’BrienKaya ScodelarioThomas Brodie-SangsterKi Hong LeeDexter Darden and Patricia ClarksonWes Ball directed all three films.

The Maze Runner (2014)

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The story follows sixteen-year-old Thomas, portrayed by O’Brien, who awakens in a rusty elevator with no memory of who he is, only to learn he’s been delivered to the middle of an intricate maze, along with a large number of other boys, who have been trying to find their way out of the ever-changing labyrinth — all while establishing a functioning society in what they call the Glade.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1790864/

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015)

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The plot of The Scorch Trials takes place immediately after the previous installment, with Thomas (O’Brien) and his fellow Gladers, who have just escaped from the facilities of the powerful World Catastrophe Killzone Department (W.C.K.D.), which had imprisoned them. On the run in the desert and in ruined cities, they must escape WCKD soldiers and face the perils of the Scorch, a desolate landscape filled with dangerous obstacles.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4046784/

Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018)

death cure 2

Young hero Thomas embarks on a mission to find a cure for a deadly disease known as “The Flare”.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4500922/

games

548 – The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (2014 video game)

spacetime coordinates: 1970s Red Creek Valley

Experience, in non/linear fashion, a story that combines the pleasures of pulp, private eye, and horror fiction, all of it inspired by writers such as Raymond Chandler, Algernon Blackwood, Stefan Grabinski, and H. P. Lovecraft.

maxresdefault1The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a 2014 horror adventure video game developed and published by The Astronauts for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a first-person story-driven mystery game that focuses entirely on exploration and discovery. Inspired by the weird fiction (and other tales of the macabre) from the early twentieth century, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter aims to significantly evolve immersive storytelling in games. While it features a private detective and quite a few mental challenges, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is not an especially puzzle-ridden game. Our focus is on atmosphere, mood, and the essential humanity of our characters.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS (MINIMUM): OS: Windows 64-bit // Processor: Intel Core2 Duo or equivalent AMD // Memory: 6 GB RAM // Graphics: DirectX11 compliant card with 1GB of VRAM // DirectX: Version 11 // Storage: 9 GB available space // Sound Card: DirectX9c compliant

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Review

documentary

0534 – Machines (2016)

spacetime coordinates: 2010’s Gujarat, India

machines poster

Director Rahul Jain presents an intimate, observantly portrayal of the rhythm of life and work in a gigantic textile factory in Gujarat, India. Moving through the corridors and bowels of the enormous and disorientating structure, the camera takes the viewer on a journey to a place of dehumanising physical labor and intense hardship, provoking cause for thought about persistent pre-industrial working conditions and the huge divide between first world and developing countries. Since the 1960s the area of Sachin in western India has undergone unprecedented, unregulated industrialisation, exemplified in its numerous textile factories. MACHINES portraits only one of these factories, while at the same time representing the thousands of labourers working, living and suffering in an environment they can’t escape. With strong visual language, memorable images and carefully selected interviews of the workers themselves, Jain tells a story of inequality and oppression, humans and machines.

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http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5690244/

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/machines_2016/

movies, series

0527 – The Conjuring (film series)

spacetime coordinates: farmhouse in Rhode Island in 1971 //  London suburb of Enfield 1977

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The Conjuring is an American horror film series distributed by the New Line Cinema division of Warner Bros. Pictures. The films present a dramatized take on the real-life cases of Ed and Lorraine Warrenparanormal investigators and authors associated with prominent yet controversial cases of haunting. The main series follows their attempts to assist people who find themselves possessed by demonic spirits, while the spin-off films focus on the origins of some of the entities the Warrens have come across.

The franchise currently consists of two films in the main series, The Conjuring (2013) (imdb) and The Conjuring 2 (2016) (imdb), both directed by James Wan, co-produced by Peter Safran and Rob Cowan, and co-written by Chad Hayes and Carey W. Hayes. The installments revolve around two of the many famous paranormal cases the Warrens have been a part of, with the first film depicting the case of the Perron family, who are experiencing disturbing events in their newly acquired house in Rhode Island, and the second entry focusing on the controversial case of the Enfield Poltergeist while briefly referencing the events that inspired The Amityville Horror. A third film in the main series is currently in development.

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by rainny_yu_1995

The franchise also includes Annabelle (2014), a prequel directed by The Conjuring cinematographer John R. Leonetti and produced by Safran and Wan, which developed the origins of the doll of the same name before the Warrens came into contact with it at the start of the first film. An Annabelle prequel, Annabelle: Creation (2017), directed by David F. Sandberg, was also produced. A spin-off film, The Nun, is currently in post-production, based on a character introduced in The Conjuring 2. A further spin-off film, The Crooked Man, also based on a character introduced in The Conjuring 2, is in development.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valac

Horror films based on actual events

movies

0522 – City of Ember (2008)

spacetime coordinates:  underground city Ember 241 years after an apocalyptic war

City-of-Ember-movie-poster

City of Ember is a 2008 American science fiction film based on the 2003 novel The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau. It was  directed by Gil Kenan,written by Caroline Thompson, and stars Saoirse RonanHarry TreadawayBill MurrayMackenzie CrookMartin LandauMary Kay PlaceToby Jones, and Tim Robbins.

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City of Ember belongs to one of the best and most enduring genres of children’s films, in which smart kids stand up against the ignorant and aloof adult world and have a big adventure in the process. It also throws in a fantastical city, replete with whiz-bang inventions and secret societies. (…) Ember itself is fascinating, an intricately detailed set that, like Diagon Alley or the Star Wars cantina, you’d like to take a few hours to wander around in.” Katey Rich   //   Irv Slifkin for Video Business wrote, “this lavishly designed adventure saga from director Gil Kenan… plays like Terry Gilliam‘s Brazil — for beginners”.    //    TV Guide  “A fun and moving family film with a subtly dark feel rarely seen in kids’ movies since the ’80s, City of Ember succeeds despite its shortcomings, not only because of its fun and inspiring story, but because most of its flaws are things kids won’t notice anyway… [T]he story spins into a classic fable; the ignorance that seemed so blissful shows it’s just one half of a coin, where the other side holds apathy and hopelessness. The moral might well be lost on kids, but for adults, it’s compelling — all the more so because we like the good people of this dying city”.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0970411/