572 – Jazzpunk (2014 video game)

spacetime coordinates:  year 1959B Americasia: The “United Prefectures of Japanada”

Jazzpunk is a comedy Environmental Narrative Game set in an alternate reality Cold War World, plagued with corporate espionage, CyberCrime, and sentient martinis. Gameplay is inspired by spoof comedy films and cartoons of yesteryear, with a focus on weird gadgets, exotic locales, and open-world style exploration.

Now, we want you to take on the task of describing this electronic first-person game by the name of Jazzpunk. (read)

tons of references * fourth wall breaks * easter eggs * mini games within mini games

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS (MINIMUM): OS: Windows XP SP2 or higher // Processor: 1.80GHz Processor // Memory: 2 GB RAM // Graphics: Video card with 512MB of VRAM // Storage: 2 GB available space

http://store.steampowered.com/app/250260/Jazzpunk_Directors_Cut/

0493 – The Shape of Water (2017)

spacetime coordinates:  Baltimore during the Cold War  in 1962

The Shape of Water is a 2017 American fantasy drama film directed by Guillermo del Toro and written by del Toro and Vanessa Taylor. It stars Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Doug Jones, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Octavia Spencer. Set in Baltimore in 1962, the plot follows a mute custodian at a high-security government laboratory who falls in love with a captured humanoid-amphibian creature.

the film was primarily inspired by del Toro’s childhood memories of seeing Creature from the Black Lagoon and wanting to see Gill-man and Kay Lawrence (played by Julie Adams) succeed in their romance.

In an interview with IndieWire about the film, del Toro said, “This movie is a healing movie for me. … For nine movies I rephrased the fears of my childhood, the dreams of my childhood, and this is the first time I speak as an adult, about something that worries me as an adult. I speak about trust, otherness, sex, love, where we’re going. These are not concerns that I had when I was nine or seven.”

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5580390/

0488 – In Time (2011)

spacetime coordinates: 2169 California

In Time is a 2011 American dystopian science fiction action thriller film written, directed, and produced by Andrew Niccol and starring Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried and Cillian Murphy.

[first lines]
Will Salas: I don’t have time. I don’t have time to worry about how it happened. It is what it is. We’re genetically engineered to stop aging at 25. The trouble is, we live only one more year, unless we can get more time. Time is now the currency. We earn it and spend it. The rich can live forever. And the rest of us? I just want to wake up with more time on my hand than hours in the day.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1637688/

476 – Hyper Light Drifter (2016 game)

“Explore a beautiful, vast and ruined world riddled with unknown dangers and lost technologies. Inspired by nightmares and dreams alike.” heart-machine

Hyper Light Drifter is a 2D action role-playing game developed by Heart Machine. The game pays homage to 8-bit and 16-bit games, and is considered by its lead developer Alex Preston as a combination of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Diablo.

REQUIREMENTS (MIN) : OS: Windows 7 and above // Processor: 1.2 ghz // Memory: 4 GB RAM // Graphics: 512 mb video memory // DirectX: Version 10 // Storage: 2 GB available space

steam

0464 – Altered Carbon (TV Series 2018– )

spacetime coordinates:  Bay City, year 2384 // “The Protectorate”

Altered Carbon is an American science fiction television series created by Laeta Kalogridis and based on the 2002 novel of the same title by English author Richard K. Morgan.

In the future, a person’s memories have been decanted into “cortical stacks”, storage devices of alien design which have been reverse engineered, duplicated en masse, and surgically inserted into the vertebrae at the back of the neck. Physical bodies are called “sleeves,” disposable vessels that can accept any “stack”. Takeshi Kovacs (Joel Kinnaman), a political operative with mercenary skills, wakes up 250 years after his sleeve is terminated, and he is given the choice to either spend the rest of time in prison for his crimes, or to help solve the murder of one of the wealthiest men in the settled worlds (James Purefoy). 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2261227/

---

“When everyone lies, telling the truth isn’t just rebellion.
It’s an act of revolution. So think carefully when you speak it,
because the truth is a weapon.”

0459 – Murder on the Orient Express (2017)

spacetime coordinates: the Orient Express,  winter of 1934

Murder on the Orient Express is a 2017 American mystery drama film directed by Kenneth Branagh with a screenplay by Michael Green, based on the 1934 novel of the same name by Agatha Christie. The film stars Branagh as Hercule Poirot, with Penélope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, Judi Dench, Johnny Depp, Josh Gad, Derek Jacobi, Leslie Odom Jr., Michelle Pfeiffer, and Daisy Ridley in supporting roles.

The film is the fourth adaptation of Christie’s novel, following the 1974 film, a 2001 TV film version, and a 2010 episode of the television series Agatha Christie’s Poirot.  The plot follows Poirot, a world-renowned detective, as he seeks to solve a murder on the famous trans-European train in the 1930s.

Sequel

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3402236/

---

0450 – Titan A.E. (2000)

spacetime coordinates: 3028 AD – Pierce, Colorado //  3044 AD (16 AE) salvage station TAU 14,  planet Sesharrim, drifter colony New Bangkok, Andali Nebula Ice Rings Of Tigrin

Titan A.E. is a 2000 American animated science fiction film directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman. Its title refers to the spacecraft central to the plot, with A.E. meaning “After Earth”. It stars Matt Damon, Bill Pullman, John Leguizamo, Nathan Lane, Janeane Garofalo and Drew Barrymore. The film’s animation technique combines traditional hand-drawn animation and extensive use of computer generated imagery.

Film critic Roger Ebert gave it 3.5/4 stars for its “rousing story”, “largeness of spirit”, and “lush galactic visuals [which] are beautiful in the same way photos by the Hubble Space Telescope are beautiful”. He cited the Ice Rings sequence as “a perfect examine [sic] of what animation can do and live action cannot”.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120913/