timespace coordinates: 2020’s Los Angeles
Night Swim is a 2024 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Bryce McGuire (in his feature directorial debut), and based on the 2014 short film of the same name by McGuire and Rod Blackhurst. The film stars Wyatt Russell (Lodge 49) and Kerry Condon. Its plot follows a suburban family who discover that their backyard swimming pool is haunted. (wiki)
timespace coordinates: August 2011 Los Angeles / Santa Monica area / Camp Pendleton
Battle: Los Angeles (also known as Battle: LA, stylised as Battle Los Angeles in the opening sequence and internationally as World Invasion: Battle Los Angeles) is a 2011 American military science-fiction action film directed by Jonathan Liebesman. The story follows a Marine Staff Sergeant played by Aaron Eckhart who leads a platoon of U.S. Marines, joined by other stranded military personnel, defending Los Angeles from alien invasion. The ensemble cast includes Michelle Rodriguez, Ramon Rodriguez, Bridget Moynahan, Ne-Yo, and Michael Peña. (wiki)
“Experts consider the prospects of an actual invasion of Earth by extraterrestrials to be extremely unlikely, due to the enormous cost in time and resources.” (wiki :))
timespace coordinates: 1980’s Tri-Oceanic Corp deep sea station, the Atlantic Ocean
Leviathan is a 1989 American-Italian science fiction horror film directed by George P. Cosmatos. It stars Peter Weller, Amanda Pays, Richard Crenna, Ernie Hudson, Lisa Eilbacher and Daniel Stern as a team of deep-sea miners that comes face to face with a mutant creature.
The creature effects were designed by Academy Award-winning special effects artist Stan Winston. (wiki)
Dr. Glen Thompson: Natura non confucius. Loosely translated: “don’t fuck with Mother Nature”.
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)
spacetime coordinates: 2021, Beijing / Newark, New Jersey (society is driven by a virtual Internet, which has created a degenerate effect called “nerve attenuation syndrome” or NAS. Megacorporations control much of the world, intensifying the class hostility already created by NAS.)
Johnny Mnemonic is a 1995 cyberpunk film directed by Robert Longo in his directorial debut. Based on the 1981 story of the same name by William Gibson, it stars Keanu Reeves, Dina Meyer, Ice-T, Takeshi Kitano, Henry Rollins, Barbara Sukowa, Udo Kier and Dolph Lundgren. Reeves plays the title character, a man with an overloaded, cybernetic brain implant designed to store information. The film portrays Gibson’s dystopian, prophetic view of 2021 with the world wracked by a tech-induced plague, awash with conspiracies, and dominated by megacorporations, with strong East Asian influences.
Shot on location in Canada, with Toronto and Montreal filling in for the Newark and Beijing settings, a number of local sites, including Toronto’s Union Station and Montreal’s skyline and Jacques Cartier Bridge, are prominently featured.
Gibson said that the film was “taken away and re-cut by the American distributor”. He described the original film as “a very funny, very alternative piece of work”, and said it was “very unsuccessfully chopped and cut into something more mainstream”. Gibson compared this to editing Blue Velvet into a mainstream thriller lacking any irony. Prior to its release, critic Amy Harmon identified the film as an epochal moment when cyberpunk counterculture would enter the mainstream.
In 2022, a black-and-white edition of the film, titled Johnny Mnemonic: In Black and White, was released. (wiki)
spacetime coordinates: 2036. waste disposal planet Arcadia 234
Soldier is a 1998 American science fiction action film directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, written by David Webb Peoples, and starring Kurt Russell, Jason Scott Lee, Jason Isaacs, Connie Nielsen, Sean Pertwee and Gary Busey. (wiki)
A soldier trained from birth is deemed obsolete and dumped on a waste planet where he is reluctantly taken in by a community of defenseless, stranded wayfarers. (imdb)
Trivia
Writer David Webb Peoples has said that Soldier is a “side-quel” to Blade Runner (1982) (which he also wrote) it takes place in the same universe, and in fact the vehicles used by the Blade Runners – spinners – are also used in Soldier. The premise of Soldier was actually based on an unused opening scene for Blade Runner, where a group of Replicants are dumped and left for dead on an Off-world colony. Both films were released by Warner Brothers, and both were box-office failures that gained a cult following after being released on home video.
An implication in the film is that the genetically-engineered soldiers meant to replace Todd and his fellow soldiers are in fact replicants, continuing a theme from Blade Runner. The 2017 short film 2036: Nexus Dawn, set in between the original Blade Runner and its 2017 sequel Blade Runner 2049, implies that Nexus-9 replicants were developed in 2035, the year in which Soldier takes place.
Todd’s service record, displayed on a computer screen, includes the following: – The battles of Tannhauser Gate and Shoulder of Orion (references to Blade Runner (1982)) – Receipt of the “Plissken Patch” (reference to Escape from New York (1981) and Escape from L.A. (1996)). Receipt of the “O’Neil Ring Award” (reference to Stargate (1994)) – Receipt of the “Cash Medal of Honor” (reference to Tango & Cash (1989)) Receipt of the “MacReady Cross” (reference to The Thing (1982)) – Receipt of the “Capt. Ron Trophy” (reference to Captain Ron (1992)) – Receipt of the “McCaffrey Fire Award” (reference to Backdraft (1991)) – Receipt of the “Dexter Riley Award” (reference to The Strongest Man in the World (1975), Now You See Him, Now You Don’t (1972), and The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969)) – Citations for the Nibian Moons Campaign, the Antares Maelstrom War, and the War Of Perdition’s Flames, locations referred to in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982).
Among the garbage on the planet is the U.S.S. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the F-117X Remora from Executive Decision (1996), a spinner from Blade Runner (1982), and a piece of the Lewis & Clark from Event Horizon (1997).
The Trinity Moons screen near the end of the movie, also includes references to “Eminiar 7” from Star Trek: A Taste of Armageddon (1967), and “Kessel”, possibly referring to the Kessel Run, mentioned by Han Solo, in Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977) and several references to “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy“. The “Top Archive Specifications” comes up with ZZ9.Plurl.ZA (the sector in which Earth is reported to be) which comes up in Zaphod mode. On the right under “Search Results” you can see “Slartibartfast” complete with an “HHG” reference number.
Todd’s weapons training record lists the “USMC Smartgun” and “M41A pulse rifle” (references to Aliens (1986)) and the “DOOM MKIV BFG” – a reference to the computer game Doom.
Todd’s Unit Statistics reference the Dungeons and Dragons Ability scores: STR, DEX, INT(L), WIS, and DEX. It also shows stats for his damage (DAM), hit points (HTPT), language (LNG), loyalty (LOY), and even RSR, which means “Resurrection.”
spacetime coordinates: 1967 – 1968 New York City / Vietnam
“A man’s story of leaving New York in 1967 to bring beer to his childhood buddies in the Army while they are fighting in Vietnam.”
The Greatest Beer Run Ever is a 2022 American biographical war action comedy-drama film directed and co-written by Peter Farrelly. Based on the book of the same name by John “Chickie” Donohue and Joanna Molloy, the film stars Zac Efron, Bill Murray and Russell Crowe. wiki
TimeSpace Warps 