Total Recall

December 9th, 2008

Total Recall is a 1990 American science fiction film. The film features Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sharon Stone, based on the Philip K. Dick story “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale”. The film was directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Ronald Shusett, Dan O’Bannon, Jon Povill, and Gary Goldman. It won a Academy Special Achievement Award for its visual effects.

At the time of its production, Total Recall had the largest authorized budget for a film produced by a Hollywood studio. The film’s success confirmed Schwarzenegger as a major box office draw and launched Sharon Stone’s career scoring her a role in the hugely successful Basic Instinct, in 1992, also directed by Verhoeven and produced by Carolco Pictures.

Plot

The story is set in the year 2084. Douglas Quaid is a construction worker who has been experiencing dreams about exploring the planet Mars with a sexy brunette. After seeing an ad from Rekall, a company that sells imaginary adventures by implanting false memories, he decides to buy a “vacation” on Mars from them, one in which he will take a vacation from himself by becoming a spy. Rekall calls it an “ego trip.” Before buying the vacation, Quaid is cautioned by a co-worker that Rekall is risky, and a memory implant failure “lobotomizes people,” in reference to failed memory implants which caused the recipients to suffer permanent brain damage. Quaid hesitates, but disregards this warning.

After the procedure starts, Quaid has a violent outburst and tries to break free, yelling incoherently about people who are coming to kill him. At first, it seems as though he was merely acting out the “spy” portion of the memory implant; however, when it’s confirmed that they hadn’t implanted the memories yet, the doctors at Rekall realize that they are real memories, and someone else had previously erased his memory. After narrowly subduing him, Quaid is returned home with no memories of ever going to Rekall, but then he is attacked by his friends and even his wife, Lori. She tells him that everything he remembers, including their marriage, is false; memories implanted less than two months before. While evading his assailants, he receives a phone call from someone claiming to be a former friend of his who had been asked to deliver a briefcase if he ever disappeared. The briefcase contains false IDs, money, weapons, devices, and a video player, containing a video disk he left to himself beforehand. Watching it, Quaid starts piecing together his past on Mars as a secret agent. Pursued by Richter, a man working for Mars’ administrator, Vilos Cohaagen, Quaid travels to Mars to discover the truth.

On Mars, Quaid finds out that Cohaagen rules an airtight city via his monopoly of air production, and that the poor workers in the city’s slums have been turned into mutants from living within cheaply-produced domes that do not adequately shield against cosmic rays, which Mars’ thin atmosphere does not shield against. He soon makes several allies, a cabbie named Benny and the woman from his dreams, Melina, who reveals that his name is actually Hauser and that he used to be one of Cohaagen’s men but then switched sides and tried to join the underground resistance.

Quaid is later confronted by Lori and Dr. Edgemar, the man from the Rekall commercials, who try to convince him that the adventure he’s been having, his experiences to this point and his future as the leader of mutant resistance have been part of the “vacation” he bought at Rekall. Quaid is now trapped in the ego trip and needs to let them help him recuperate from his paranoia episode. Edgemar offers him a pill to wake up to the truth, the alternative being lobotomization, since he’s still hallucinating in the Rekall facilities. Quaid is almost convinced until he notices that the doctor is sweating with anxiety. Quaid shoots the doctor in the head, before a group of hitmen storm the room and capture him. Melina arrives shortly after and shoots the hitmen, killing them all, but is then disarmed by Lori. The two engage in a vicious fight. Quaid recovers and shoots Lori, killing her.

Melina and Quaid flee and eventually meet resistance leader Kuato, who is revealed to be a mutant growing out of his own brother’s abdomen. With Kuato’s psychic help, Quaid sees a mysterious alien machine in the Martian mines, but then Cohaagen’s forces storm the resistance hideout. Kuato is killed and Quaid and Melina are captured, with the help of Benny, who is actually a traitor. Cohaagen then reveals that Hauser willingly had his mind wiped in order to gain Kuato’s trust; the whole incident, with the exception of Richter’s maniacal pursuit of Quaid and Quaid’s activation at Rekall, was planned. To convince Quaid that this is true, Cohaagen provides another video that Quaid’s alter ego, Hauser, left for himself. Cohaagen reveals that he has decided to eliminate the rebels by cutting off the air supply to their section of the city. He orders Quaid’s mind to be restored to Hauser’s and Melina’s mind be altered to be subservient to Quaid.

Realizing how evil Hauser truly is, Quaid refuses to go back to being him, and manages to escape with Melina. They hurry to reach the alien machine and activate it. Quaid kills Richter and Benny on the way. Quaid activates the machine over Cohaagen’s protests that it will destroy the planet. In the struggle to activate the machine, Cohaagen is ejected onto the airless surface of Mars where he dies of asphyxiation and decompression. Quaid and Melina almost die from exposure to the atmosphere as well, but the alien machine creates a breathable atmosphere that saves them and the mutants just in time to see the forming of a blue sky on Mars.

As Melina says that it is like a dream, Quaid wonders if the whole thing has been real or if he is still in an implanted fantasy. Melina replies “Then kiss me quick before you wake up.” Just as they kiss each other, a bright flash of white light illuminates the screen, and the credits roll.

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Titan A.E

December 9th, 2008

Titan A.E. is a 2000 animated post-apocalyptic science fiction adventure film from Fox Animation Studios and 20th Century Fox. The title refers to the fictional spacecraft that is central to the plot, with A.E. meaning “After Earth.”

The film’s animation technique combines traditional hand-drawn animation and extensive use of computer generated imagery. The film is rated PG for “action violence, mild sensuality, and brief language” by the MPAA. Its working title was Planet Ice. It has since become a cult film.

Summary

In 3028 A.D. humanity has discovered deep space travel and interacted with several alien species, however, a human experimental discovery called “Project Titan” has caused the Drej, a species created from pure energy, to become alarmed and attack the human race. As the Drej prepare to destroy Earth, Professor Sam Tucker, the lead researcher for “Project Titan”, sends his son Cale on one of the evacuation ships while he and other members of his team fly the Titan spacecraft from Earth and into hyperspace. With the Earth destroyed, the remainder of the human species become drifters and are generally ridiculed by the other species.

Fifteen years after Earth’s destruction, Cale, now working in a salvage yard in an asteroid belt, encounters the human Captain Joseph Korso, who requests Cale help to put an end to the Drej. Cale is initially reluctant but agrees when the yard is attacked by Drej, and the two escape on Korso’s Valkyrie. Cale is introduced to the other members of Korso’s crew, including his alien first mate Preen and the human co-pilot Akima, whom Cale immediately falls in love with. Korso explains that Professor Tucker encoded a map in Cale’s DNA that will lead them to the Titan, humanity’s only chance to gain a home again. They travel to the planet Sesharrim, where the bat-like Gaoul race helps Cale to understand how to interpret the map, but as the group is leaving, they are attacked by the Drej and Cale and Akima are captured. The Drej eventually discard Akima, sending her off into space in a pod, while they are about to extract the Titan map from Cale. Cale eventually escapes in a Drej fighter and regroups with the Valkyrie, learning that Akima’s pod was located and she was recovered successfully. The Valkyrie is able to reach a human drifter colony to make repairs and prepare for the final trip to the Titan when Cale and Akima discover that Korso and Preen are working with the Drej to try to destroy the Titan; the two are stranded on the colony as Korso and the rest continue to the Titan‘s location. With the help of the other humans, Cale and Akima refit one of the derelict spacecraft into a ship they can use to beat Korso and the Drej to the Titan.

Amid a field of giant ice crystals, Cale and Akima board the Titan and discover via holographic messages left by Cale’s father that the ship has the ability to create a completely new Earth-like planet and stores the DNA of all the animal and plant life that was once on Earth, but in its escape from the destruction of Earth, has run out of power to complete that process. As the two try to figure out how to activate the ship, the Valkyrie arrives, and Korso again tries to stop the two. After killing Preen, learning that he was a double agent for the Drej, Korso attempts to wrestle the ring Cale wears from him, as it is the activation device for the Titan, but falls over the edge of the bridge, disappearing into the depths of the ship below. Before Cale can recover, they learn the Drej are attacking the Titan, and gain the help of the other Valkyrie crew to defend it. Cale comes up with a plan; as the Drej are pure energy, he could have the Titan harness that energy to start the planet-creation process, but this requires him to activate three circuit breakers. Two breakers are easily activated but the third refuses to be shut. Korso appears and offers to sacrifice himself to complete the circuit while Cale returns to the bridge to activate the Titan. With the ship active, the whole of the Drej are drawn into its engines, and the entire ice field is used to create a new planet. As Cale and Akima step onto the new planet, Cale decides to call it “Bob”.

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The Terrornauts

December 9th, 2008

The Terrornauts is a 1967 science fiction film produced by Amicus Productions.

Plot

Project Star Talk is based at a UK radio telescope site, its mission is to listen for radio signals from other intelligences. Dr Joe Burke (Simon Oaks) is the head of the project assisted by his small team consisting of electronics expert Ben Keller (Stanley Meadows) and office manager Sandy Lund (Zena Marshall). Due to the lack of success reported by the Site Manager, Dr. Henry Shore (Max Adrian), Project Star Talk is given 90 days in order to report positive results. During this period an accountant Mr. Yellowlees (Charles Hawtrey) is sent to look over the project’s accounts. As luck would have it, a repeating signal is received by the project, but the signal is only coming from a small asteroid with no atmosphere in the outer Solar System. Despite this, Dr Burke spends the balance of his grant to equip the telescope with a powerful transmitter to contact the source of the signals. The night of the transmission, Mr Yellowlees and Mrs. Jones (Patricia Hayes) Who runs the tea trolley, stay to witness this historic event. While waiting for a response, Dr. Burke tells of his father’s discovery at an archaeological dig in France of a cube that gave him strange dreams as a boy, inspiring him to become an astronomer . The signal is sent and reaches the asteroid. The asteroid has on it a huge installation that receives the radio signal and answers it with a spaceship sent riding down the radio beam to the point of transmission. When the spacecraft arrives at Project Star Talk, it picks up the transmitter shed and carries it, the project staff and the 2 witnesses to the alien installation. The telescope staff believe that the transmitter shed exploded, killing the Star Talk team.

Upon arrival at the asteroid, the team is greeted by a robot that takes them through a series of tests to prove intelligence, motivation and knowledge. After each test, they are provided with rewards such as food for the intelligence test, a weapon for the motivation test and a “Knowledge Cube” for the knowledge test. After a tour of a control room, they are then brought to a chamber with a small platform and a figure in a chair, who simply happens to be the long dead caretaker of the base. As they head back to the control room, Ben bumps Sandy onto the platform and she is “transposed” in a puff of smoke to a distant planet peopled by savages who try to kill her. Dr. Burke then follows Sandy to the planet armed with the gun and effects a rescue before she is killed discovering the secret of the Knowledge Cubes in the process. Dr Burke plugs in to the cube, and the horrible secret is revealed, the planet of savages is the home of the survivors of an interstellar war that is fast approaching Earth, and the Star Talk team are the only ones who can use the advanced weapons of the installation to stop an invading enemy fleet from destroying the Earth. The team searches frantically through the huge library of cubes for the instructions to use the weapons of the fort but are unsuccessful. as the enemy fleet comes into range, the robot delivers the cubes needed just in time. the battle is joined but the Star Talk team has a hard time hitting the aliens with missiles so with the cubes instruction, the fortress’s engines are started and they rise off the asteroid to intercept the aliens, who nearing defeat, then crash into the fortress. Dr. Burke sets the “Transposer plates” for Earth and the Star Talk team, Mr. Yellowlees and Mrs Jones are transposed to the very archaeological dig in France where Dr. Burk’s father found the cube so long ago. While they congratulate one another on their luck, a French Gendarme (André Maranne)arrives just in time to arrest them for trespassing.

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Supernova

December 9th, 2008

Supernova is a 2000 science fiction film, from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/United Artists. The film was written by David C. Wilson, William Malone and Daniel Chuba and directed by Walter Hill, credited as “Thomas Lee.”

Though Hill was chiefly responsible for principal photography, Jack Sholder directed some re-shoots, and Francis Ford Coppola was called in to supervise re-editing to try to produce a releasable film. It was reported that the studio, extremely unhappy with Walter Hill’s completed product, called in Francis Ford Coppola to “re-edit” the film. “Thomas Lee” was chosen as a directorial pseudonym for release, as the name Alan Smithee had become too well-known as a badge of a film being disowned by its makers.

Originally developed in 1988 by director William Malone (House on Haunted Hill (1999)) as “Dead Star” with paintings by H.R. Giger and a plot that had been called Hellraiser in outer space.”

The cast featured James Spader as Nick Vanzant, Angela Bassett as Kaela Evers, Robert Forster as A.J. Marley, Lou Diamond Phillips as Yerzy Penalosa, Peter Facinelli as Karl Larson, Robin Tunney as Danika Lund, and Wilson Cruz as Benjamin Sotomejor. This movie was shot by cinematographer Lloyd Ahern and scored by composers David C. Williams and Burkhard Dallwitz.

Supernova received a MPAA rating of PG-13, and was filmed in color with DTS sound.

Plot

Supernova chronicles the search and rescue patrol of a medical ship in deep space in the early 22nd century and its six-member crew which includes a captain and pilot (Robert Forster), a co-pilot (James Spader), a medical officer (Angela Bassett), a medical technician (Lou Diamond Phillips), a search and rescue paramedic (Robin Tunney), and a computer technician (Wilson Cruz). When their vessel, the Nightingale 229, answers an emergency distress signal from a comet mining operation in a distant galaxy, the crew soon finds itself in danger from the mysterious young man (Peter Facinelli) they rescue, the alien artifact he’s smuggled aboard, and the gravitational pull of a giant star about to go supernova, the most massive explosion in the universe.

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Superman

December 9th, 2008

Superman (also known as Superman: The Movie) is a 1978 superhero film based on the DC Comics character of the same name. Richard Donner directed the film, which stars Christopher Reeve as Superman, as well as Gene Hackman, Margot Kidder, Marlon Brando, Glenn Ford, Phyllis Thaxter, Jackie Cooper, Marc McClure, Valerie Perrine and Ned Beatty. The film depicts the origin of Superman, from infancy as Kal-El of Krypton and growing up in Smallville. Disguised as reporter Clark Kent, he adopts a mild mannered attitude in Metropolis. He develops a romance with Lois Lane and battles against the villainous Lex Luthor.

The film was conceived in 1973 by Ilya Salkind. Several directors, most notably Guy Hamilton, and screenwriters (Mario Puzo, David and Leslie Newman and Robert Benton) were associated with the project before Richard Donner was hired to direct. Donner brought Tom Mankiewicz to rewrite the script, feeling it was too campy. Mankiewicz was credited as creative consultant. It was decided to film both Superman and Superman II simultaneously.

Principal photography started in March 1977 and ended in October 1978. Tensions rose between Donner and the producers, and a decision was made to stop filming Superman II and finish the first film. Donner had already shot 75% of the sequel, eventually giving birth to Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut. Superman was released with critical acclaim and financial success. Many found Superman to be a parallel to Jesus. The film’s legacy helped create a reemergence of science fiction films and the establishment of the superhero film genre.

Plot

On the planet Krypton, using evidence provided by scientist Jor-El, the Ruling Council sentences three insurrectionists, General Zod, Ursa and Non, to “eternal living death” in the Phantom Zone for attempting a totalitarian rebellion. Although the Council widely respects him, Jor-El is unable to convince them of his belief that the Kryptonian sun will shortly explode and destroy their planet. As a result, Jor-El launches a spacecraft containing his infant son, Kal-El, towards Earth, a distant planet with a suitable atmosphere, and where Kal-El’s dense molecular structure will give him superhuman powers. Shortly after the ship launches Krypton is destroyed.

Three years later the ship reaches Earth, crashing near an American farming town, Smallville, where Kal-El is found by Jonathan and Martha Kent and raised as their own son, Clark. Eighteen years later, after the death of Jonathan, Clark hears a psychic “call”, discovering a glowing green crystal in the ship. Compelled to travel north, heading to the Arctic, where the crystal builds the Fortress of Solitude, resembling the architecture of Krypton. Activating a control panel inside the fortress, a vision of Jor-El explains Clark’s origins, educating him in powers and responsibilities. After twelve years, with his powers fully developed, Clark leaves the Fortress and finds a job at The Daily Planet in Metropolis. He meets and develops a romantic attraction to reporter Lois Lane, but the feelings are not returned: she regards him as a friend. Lois becomes involved in a helicopter accident where conventional means of rescue are impossible, requiring Clark to use his powers in public for the first time in order to save her.

Later, he visits her at home, takes her for a flight over the city, and allows her to interview him for a newspaper article in which she dubs him “Superman.” Meanwhile, criminal genius Lex Luthor has developed a cunning plan to make a fortune in real estate by buying large amounts of “worthless” desert land and then diverting a nuclear rocket from a missile testing site to the San Andreas Fault. This will destroy California and leave Luthor’s desert as the new West Coast of the United States, greatly increasing its real estate value. After his incompetent henchman Otis accidentally redirects the first rocket to the wrong place, Luthor’s girlfriend Eve Teschmacher successfully changes the course of a second missile. Knowing Superman could stop his plan, Luthor lures him to his underground lair and exposes him to Kryptonite. As Superman weakens, Luthor taunts him by revealing the first missile is headed to Hackensack, New Jersey, in the opposite direction, knowing Superman could not stop both impacts.

Teschmacher is horrified because her mother lives in Hackensack, but Luthor does not care and leaves Superman to a slow death. Teschmacher rescues Superman on the condition that he will deal with the New Jersey missile first. He is consequently too late to stop the second impact, causing a massive earthquake which he battles to correct. While he is busy saving others, Lois’ car falls into the ground by an earthquake, and quickly begins to fill with dirt and debris, which suffocates her. Distraught at being unable to save Lois, Superman ignores Jor-El’s warning not to interfere with human history, preferring to remember Jonathan Kent’s advice that he must be here for “a reason” and travels back in time in order to save Lois. Having finally averted the disaster, Superman delivers Luthor and Otis to prison, where he knows they will be secure until they receive a fair trial.

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Sunshine

December 9th, 2008

Sunshine is a 2007 British science fiction film directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland about the crew of a spacecraft on a dangerous mission towards the Sun. In 2057, with the Earth in peril from the dying Sun, the crew is sent to re-ignite the Sun with a massive nuclear device. The crew is made up of an ensemble cast consisting of Cillian Murphy, Rose Byrne, Cliff Curtis, Chris Evans, Troy Garity, Hiroyuki Sanada, Benedict Wong and Michelle Yeoh.

Boyle, who is best known for films such as Trainspotting and 28 Days Later, directed the film. The script was based on a scientific back-story that took the characters on a psychological journey. The director cast a group of international actors for the film, and had the actors live together and learn about topics related to their roles, as a form of method acting. To have the actors realistically react to visual effects that would be implemented in post-production, the filmmakers constructed live sets to serve as cues.

Previous science fiction films that Boyle cited as influences included Kubrick’s 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, the 1972 Tarkovsky version of Solaris, and the 1979 science-fiction horror film Alien. Sunshine was released in the United Kingdom on 6 April 2007 and in the United States on 20 July 2007. The film grossed £3.2 million in the UK over twelve weeks, and in the US, it placed #13 in the box office in the first weekend of its wide release. With a budget of US$40 million, it ultimately grossed almost US$32 million worldwide.

Plot

In 2057, the failure of the Earth’s Sun threatens life on the planet, compelling humanity to send a spacecraft that carries a payload intended to re-ignite it. The first spacecraft with the payload, the Icarus I, was lost seven years previously for reasons unknown, having failed in its mission. A second spacecraft with a new payload, the Icarus II, is sent to the sun in a final attempt due to all fissile materials on earth having been mined for the payload.

When the Icarus II passes Mercury on its way to the sun, communications officer Harvey (Troy Garity) discovers the distress beacon of Icarus I. Physicist Capa (Cillian Murphy) is asked by Captain Kaneda (Hiroyuki Sanada) to decide whether to change course and approach Icarus I. After a risk assessment, Capa decides to rendezvous with the stricken vessel in order to acquire another payload and double their chances of success, since all simulations of the explosion end with uncertain results. In planning the new course, navigator Trey (Benedict Wong) forgets to realign the heat shield to match the new trajectory, which results in damage that puts the spacecraft at risk. Kaneda and Capa embark on a spacewalk to make repairs, and an unintended automatic override by the ship’s computer puts the two men at risk of fatal solar exposure.

Kaneda orders Capa to return to the ship, choosing to sacrifice himself to complete the vital repairs. The incident that causes the override turns out to be a fire in the ship’s oxygen garden, started by sunlight reflected from an exposed part of the ship, dangerously depleting oxygen levels and making a return trip impossible. Trey blames himself for his neglect, and psychiatrist Searle (Cliff Curtis) sedates him, assessing him as a suicide risk.

The Icarus II rendezvous with the Icarus I, and the lost spacecraft is explored by four men of the crew: Harvey, Capa, Searle, and engineer Mace (Chris Evans). While the Icarus I has a functional oxygen garden, the ship’s operational computer is found to be sabotaged, rendering delivery of the payload impossible. Mace finds a video left behind by Captain Pinbacker (Mark Strong), who states the mission was purposely abandoned, thinking it was the ‘will of God’ that humanity should die. The crew of Icarus I is found dead in the unshielded observation room, having immolated themselves. During the group’s exploration, the airlocks inexplicably decouple, stranding the crew members on the Icarus I. In a risky move, Searle stays behind to jettison the three men using the coordinated vacuuming of the airlock to propel them to the airlock of the Icarus II. Harvey is knocked into space and freezes to death, and Searle, trapped on the Icarus I, submits himself to the same fate as the original crew in the observation room, exposing himself to the sun.

Five remain on the Icarus II: Capa, Mace, Trey, Cassie (Rose Byrne), and Corazon (Michelle Yeoh). The survivors check the Icarus activity file and discover that someone must have manually decoupled the airlock as there was no hardware failure. While Trey — now the prime suspect for sabotaging the airlock — is elsewhere, the four other crew members discuss that the remaining oxygen reserves would only allow them to reach the sun to deliver the payload if there were only four people. Everyone except Cassie decides Trey must be killed, but when they go to Trey, they find he has apparently committed suicide.[A] During a final inspection some nineteen hours before the delivery point, Capa discovers with surprise from the spacecraft’s computer that even without Trey the reserves would not last for them because of an unaccounted-for fifth person on the spacecraft. He discovers that Pinbacker is still alive and had made his way onto the Icarus II observation room.

Pinbacker attacks the crew members, killing Corazon in the oxygen garden (with a scalpel), and then attempts to sabotage the spacecraft so it would not complete its mission, removing the mainframe computer from its cooling system. Mace attempts to undo Pinbacker’s sabotage, but is trapped in the coolant reservoir and freezes to death there. Capa is trapped in an airlock but manages to manually uncouple the bomb from the rest of the spacecraft. He then travels to it via spacesuit shortly before the bomb’s booster rockets are activated, taking it out of solar orbit. He finds a badly wounded Cassie in the payload section, having been pursued there by Pinbacker. Both evade this saboteur long enough for Capa to commence setting off his bomb. Pinbacker, once again goes to stop them and he and Capa struggle as they speedily descend straight down towards the surface of the sun. Capa is able to overpower Pinbacker by flaying his arm and detonate the bomb just before point of impact.

On Earth, Capa’s sister reviews her brother’s last words on video while her children build snowmen. Suddenly, the sky brightens, an indication of the mission’s success, revealing that they were building snowmen near the Sydney Opera House.

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Stargate: Continuum

December 9th, 2008

Stargate: Continuum is a direct-to-DVD movie written by Brad Wright and directed by Martin Wood. The film is a time-travel adventure and is the second sequel to Stargate SG-1, after Stargate: The Ark of Truth. The film features the season 10 cast of Stargate SG-1 and Richard Dean Anderson. The movie was filmed in early 2007 at Vancouver’s Bridge Studios and in the Arctic. The production budget was $7 million. The movie was released on both DVD and Blu-ray Disc in the US on July 29, 2008 and elsewhere in August 2008, followed by upcoming TV broadcasts.

Plot

SG-1 and Jack O’Neill attend a Tok’ra extraction ceremony for Ba’al, the last of the Goa’uld System Lords. He gloats that he is merely the last clone, and that the real Ba’al has a failsafe plan in the works. The real Ba’al travels back in time to 1939 Earth and massacres the crew of the Achilles, the ship carrying the Stargate to the United States; the captain (Mitchell’s grandfather) manages to survive long enough to keep the ship from being destroyed. In the present, people and objects begin disappearing, starting with Vala and Teal’c. Jack is killed by Ba’al before Carter, Daniel, and Mitchell manage to reach the Stargate. They emerge inside the derelict Achilles, which has drifted to the Arctic — Ba’al’s actions have created an alternate timeline in which the Stargate Program never happened. After escaping from the sinking Achilles, they are rescued by a team led by Colonel Jack O’Neill, though Daniel loses his left leg to frostbite. Although General Landry believes their story, permission is denied to change the timeline. The three are separated and given new lives to lead.

A year passes, and SG-1 is called back into action when Goa’uld scoutships appear. Ba’al has defeated the System Lords and now stands ready to conquer Earth, with Qetesh (still residing in Vala’s body) as his Queen and Teal’c as his First Prime. SG-1 is brought to President Hayes and General Hammond, who inform them that, based on their accounts, they have recovered the Antarctic Stargate and are excavating the Ancient outpost. SG-1 is sent on a mission to retrieve a ZPM to power the outpost. Above Earth, Ba’al’s armada arrives. To the displeasure of his lieutenants (all former System Lords), Ba’al announces that he will treat the Tau’ri leniently. Suspicious about Ba’al’s knowledge of Earth, Qetesh betrays him and forces him to tell her everything. She has her ships destroy McMurdo Station and the Ancient outpost, and she kills Ba’al after Teal’c discovers her treachery. As Teal’c escapes to a cloaked Al’kesh, Qetesh orders the fleet to begin the bombardment of Earth while she goes to secure Ba’al’s time machine.

Amidst the massive Goa’uld attack, SG-1 is rerouted to Russia when death gliders intercept their flight of F-15s and SG-1 is saved when Russian MiGs destroy the gliders. When the Russians are retrieving the Achilles’ Stargate from the ocean floor, Teal’c arrives at the facility as well, seeking to use the Stargate to reach the time machine before Qetesh does. The two sides form a tentative truce and arrive together at Ba’al’s time machine: a vast underground supercomputer that monitors solar flares that can affect the wormhole formed by the Stargate. SG-1 must wait for the right flare with which to go to the past, but the steady stream of Qetesh’s forces them to dial Earth in the year 1929 – ten years earlier than their target date. Teal’c, Sam, and Daniel are all mortally wounded in the firefight, and only Mitchell reaches the Stargate before the time machine is destroyed. After a decade of waiting, an older Mitchell stows away on the Achilles on its trans-Atlantic voyage and kills Ba’al and his troops when they appear. Back in the present of the now-restored timeline, SG-1, completely unaware of the previous events, watch the extraction proceed without incident. On Earth, Daniel wonders what Ba’al meant by his failsafe, but they decide not to dwell on it. The final shot shows a close-up of a picture in Mitchell’s locker, in which his older alternate self is shown standing alongside his grandfather.

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Stargate: The Ark of Truth

December 9th, 2008

Stargate: The Ark of Truth is a 2008 direct-to-DVD movie written and directed by Robert C. Cooper. The film is the conclusion of Stargate SG-1’s Ori arc, and picks up after the SG-1 series finale, but takes place before the fourth season of Stargate Atlantis. The Ark of Truth was released as a Region 1 DVD on March 11, 2008. Sky One has broadcast the film on March 24, 2008, to be followed by the Region 2 DVD release on April 28, 2008 with the Region 4 DVD release on April 9, 2008. SPACE has broadcast the film on September 13, 2008.

Plot

The movie covers SG-1’s attempt to recover the “Ark of Truth”, an Alteran device designed to brainwash whoever looks into it. Even though the Ori’s promise of Ascension is a lie, the Ancients believed that people should be free to believe it if they wished.[4]

SG-1 discovers a box that they believe to be the Ark while digging on Dakara, but before they can open it, Ori soldiers arrive, led by Tomin. Daniel tricks them into opening the box, but it is revealed to be a fake. When Tomin is ordered by a Prior to kill them, he refuses, and Mitchell is able to kill the Prior, whose powers are being blocked by the Anti-Prior device.

Back on Earth, General Landry and Mitchell meet James Marrick, an IOA representative sent to interrogate Tomin. When Daniel Jackson realizes that the Ark is still in the Ori galaxy, Marrick is assigned to accompany them on board the Odyssey through the Supergate. In the Ori galaxy, a member of the anti-Ori resistance tells the team that according to legend, the Ark is on Celestis. When SG-1 beams down to the planet, Marrick activates the Asgard computer core which alerts the Ori to the ship’s location.

Mitchell and Carter beam back to the Odyssey and discover that Marrick has used the core to build a Replicator, intending to plant it on an Ori ship and let it spread to their entire fleet. When Mitchell attempts to destroy it with an anti-Replicator Gun, the replicator escapes, and Marrick reveals that the IOA removed that weakness from the design. Marrick is placed in the ship’s brig. With several Ori ships approaching, Mitchell attempts to beam Daniel, Teal’c, Vala, and Tomin up from the planet, but the replicator takes over the system and keeps Mitchell from doing so. With no other option, the Odyssey jumps to hyperspace to escape, leaving the others on the planet.

Daniel finds the Ark in a set of catacombs, and after several ground tremors, decides to bring it to the surface. When the team emerges, they are ambushed by Ori warriors, and Teal’c is shot in the back. When the rest are brought to the city, Vala discovers that the Ori were indeed killed by the Sangraal during the events of The Shroud. Adria has ascended and taken over all of their power. Teal’c, who has been walking toward the city of Celestis since he was shot, collapses from his back wound within sight of the city. He is subsequently revived by Morgan le Fay and continues on to free Daniel. Morgan le Fay then arrives in Daniel’s cell and tells him if he can turn one Prior, the others will be turned by a link in their staffs. This will weaken Adria enough so that Morgan will be able to defeat her.

In the meantime, a Prior arrives on Earth, offering a last chance to convert to Origin. When General Landry refuses to even listen to him, the Apollo detects a fleet of Ori motherships waiting on the edge of the solar system. On the Odyssey, Marrick is attacked by Replicators who infest his body. In the ensuing battle, Mitchell is able to briefly disable the Replicator connection to Marrick’s brain who then informs Mitchell the shut down code for the Replicators is located on the other side of the chip used to create them. Mitchell activates an explosive charge which kills Marrick. Mitchell informs Carter who activates the self-destruct, destroying the Replicators once again.

When the Ark is activated and opened, the Doci is caught by the beam and made to believe that the Ori are not gods and spreads the truth to all of the Priors in the Ori galaxy and through them their followers. In Adria’s new weakened state, Morgan is able to engage Adria in an eternal battle, similar to Oma Desala’s eternal battle with Anubis in Threads. SG-1 exposes the Prior on Earth to the Ark, transmitting the knowledge about the Ori to all of the Priors in the Milky Way, and thus turning all known Priors in the Universe.

In the aftermath, Tomin departs for the Ori galaxy as the new leader of his people, he and Vala agreeing that, while the Ori themselves were liars, Origin itself has a powerful message (Vala personally recommends omitting the part about burning people alive for disagreeing with the religion). Tomin asks Vala to come with him, but Vala apologises and says that she cannot, feeling that her place is with the SGC. Despite Daniel’s objections, the Ark is taken away to Area 51 to study, leaving SG-1 to travel to another planet and see what wonders (and treasure, in Vala’s case) it holds.

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Stargate

December 9th, 2008

Stargate is a 1994 science fiction/action film, directed by Roland Emmerich and written by Dean Devlin and Emmerich, with a soundtrack by David Arnold.

It is the beginning of the franchise of the same name. It was originally intended as the first of a trilogy of films, but creators Emmerich and Devlin moved on from developing the sequels and produced Independence Day. Instead, it inspired the television series Stargate SG-1, which concluded its ten-year run in 2007, as well as its spin-offs, Stargate Atlantis and Stargate Universe, and other related media.

Plot

The film begins in 1928, where a massive stone ring is discovered in the sands of Giza, Egypt. The expedition commissioner’s daughter takes an amulet inscribed with the symbol of the sun god Ra from a work table at the site. In the present day, Egyptologist Daniel Jackson is approached at a symposium by an old woman wearing the Ra necklace and is offered the chance to translate Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs that may prove his controversial theory that the Pyramid of Khufu wasn’t built in the Fourth dynasty of Egypt. Curious, Jackson accepts the offer and is taken to a U.S. military installation inside a mountain in Colorado. Jackson translates the hieroglyphs on the stone ring’s coverstones, which read:”A million years into the sky is Ra, Sun God. Sealed and buried for all time, his Stargate.” Formerly retired Air Force Colonel Jack O’Neil arrives to take command of the project and declares all information regarding it classified.

Jackson makes an accidental breakthrough deciphering strange symbols on the coverstone after noticing that the symbols resemble star constellations. Jackson reveals his findings to the Air Force and theorizes that the constellations on the coverstones are coordinates for a location within space, while the seventh symbol represents a point of origin.

The Air Force decides to show Jackson the stone ring or Stargate; Jackson identifies the seventh symbol and the sequence is entered into the Stargate, creating a wormhole. A probe sent through the Stargate reappears on a planet at the other end of the universe. Images sent by the probe reveal that the Stargate on the alien planet has a different set of symbols on it, making a return to Earth impossible unless the symbols on the other Stargate are translated. Jackson convinces the military to send a team through the Stargate and let him go with them, as he will be able to translate the symbols on the other Stargate.

O’Neil leads a team to go through the Stargate. The old woman gives Jackson her amulet as a good luck charm. Arriving on the other side, the team finds themselves inside a pyramid in the middle of vast sand dunes. After Jackson reveals he can’t dial home without the coordinates for Earth, O’Neil orders the team to set up base camp and returns to the pyramid to assemble an atomic bomb. Outside, Daniel follows tracks and discovers a mining village inhabited by humans. The team approaches the villagers, who assume them to be gods sent by Ra and bow before them. O’Neil tries to offer friendship to a boy named Skaara, but in fear, the boy runs off to get his father Kasuf, the tribe’s leader. The team is forced to stay in the city after a sandstorm hits it. At the base camp, the members of the team who remained behind seek shelter in the pyramid.

Jackson attempts to communicate with the locals by writing, but discovers that this practice is forbidden. A young woman, Sha’uri, is presented to him as a gift, the villagers believing he is the leader because of his Ra amulet. Sha’uri shows Jackson catacombs full of hieroglyphs after he attempts to communicate with her. Jackson learns that the language of the people is a dialect of Ancient Egyptian, which he can understand because of his research background.

During the storm, a huge alien craft lands on top of the pyramid. The team members inside the pyramid are attacked and captured by unknown soldiers. In the city, O’Neil locates Jackson, who manages to translate the hieroglyphs in the catacombs. The writing reveals that the Egyptian god Ra was actually an alien lifeform, the last of his kind, who was attempting to extend his own life. Ra traveled to Earth and encountered humans, whom he enslaved with his advanced technology. Ra used a young boy as a host body and appointed himself ruler of Earth. Humans were transported from Egypt to the other planet through the Stargate and used to mine the mineral on which all of Ra’s technology is based, including the Stargate. The humans on Earth rebelled when they discovered Ra was not a god and buried the Stargate. Fearing the same thing would happen on this planet, Ra outlawed reading and writing to prevent the humans there from learning the truth. After explaining this to the others, the team locates a center stone similar to the coverstone on Earth that has symbols from the other Stargate on it, but the seventh symbol is eroded away. O’Neil orders the team to return to the pyramid, where they are attacked by soldiers and taken to the pyramidal craft. O’Neil and Jackson are escorted to the throne room, where they meet Ra, who reveals he has O’Neil’s hydrogen bomb. Despite wearing fearsome armor, Ra’s gods and servants are humans. O’Neil attempts to disarm the guards and kill Ra, but relents when Ra uses his children courtiers as human shields. Jackson is killed during the altercation. O’Neil is thrown into a dungeon with the captured team members, while Jackson is regenerated in a sarcophagus. Ra reveals that he intends to send the bomb, with its destructive capability enhanced by the mineral, through the Stargate in retaliation for the rebellion on Earth. Ra states that he will kill Jackson and everyone who has seen him unless Jackson kills the rest of the team to show the villagers that Ra is their one true god.

The local people gather before the pyramid craft to witness the execution of the people from Earth. Skaara signals to Jackson that he and the rest of his friends have recovered the team’s weapons. Jackson then shoots at Ra while the kids fire into the air to create a distraction. O’Neil, Jackson and the rest of the team flee Ra’s ship and take shelter in a cave with the boys. Jackson confronts O’Neil about the bomb, and O’Neil reveals that he was given orders to destroy the Stargate if any threats were found. Jackson reveals Ra’s plan to send the bomb back to Earth, and O’Neil declares he will stop it. Jackson wonders why O’Neil would be willing to throw his life away; O’Neil reveals that his son accidentally shot himself with O’Neil’s gun. The next morning, Skaara draws a picture of the people’s victory against Ra, which depicts three moons over a pyramid. Jackson realizes the picture represents the seventh symbol needed to reactivate the Stargate.

Ra’s guards search for the escapees by keeping an eye on the locals coming in and out of the city. A guard locates Jackson and is shot dead by O’Neil. Jackson reveals the truth to the locals about their ‘gods’ and pushes the stub on the guard’s mask to reveal his face as the armor retracts. The people who saw Ra and his guards as gods now believe otherwise. The team poses as a caravan that is delivering a mineral shipmen to Ra in order to deactivate the bomb. O’Neil, Daniel and Sha’uri make it to the Stargate, although Sha’uri is shot and killed. O’Neil sets the timer on the bomb to seven minutes. Just then, the transporter rings activate and Jackson uses them to transport onto the ship with Sha’uri’s body. One of Ra’s warriors transports to the pyramid in Jackson’s place and engages O’Neil in combat

Jackson uses the sarcophagus on the ship to revive Sha’uri. The two of them return to the pyramid using the rings. When the locals begin an open rebellion against Ra’s troops, Ra decides to retreat and prepares his ship for takeoff. O’Neil discovers that the bomb cannot be turned off due to tampering, and so transport the bomb to Ra’s ship in orbit. The bomb explodes, killing Ra, and the team is able to return to Earth.

Jackson decides to remain on the planet with Sha’uri and help the locals build a new society. O’Neil returns to Earth with the rest of the team, a changed man given a purpose and a new reason to live. Jackson gives O’Neil Langford’s amulet and instructs him to tell her it did bring him luck. The film ends with O’Neil returning to Earth through the Stargate.

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Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

December 9th, 2008

Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (originally released as Return of the Jedi) is a 1983 space opera film directed by Richard Marquand and written by George Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan. It is the third film released in the Star Wars saga, and the sixth and final in terms of internal chronology. It is also the first film to use THX technology.

The film is set some time after Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. Luke Skywalker and members of the Rebel Alliance travel to Tatooine to rescue their friend Han Solo from Jabba the Hutt. Meanwhile, the Galactic Empire is planning to crush the Rebel Alliance with a second Death Star while the Rebel fleet simultaneously prepares to launch a full-scale attack on this new space station. Luke confronts his father, Darth Vader, in a climactic duel before the evil Emperor Palpatine.

The film was released in theaters on May 25, 1983, receiving mostly positive reviews, though not to the extent of its predecessors. Several home video and theatrical releases and revisions to the film followed over the next 20 years. It was the last Star Wars film released theatrically until Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace began the prequel trilogy in 1999.

Plot

The Galactic Empire has been working on the construction of a new armored space station which is to be even larger and more powerful than the first Death Star. Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker, Chewbacca, Lando Calrissian, Princess Leia Organa, C-3PO, and R2-D2 return to Tatooine in an attempt to rescue Han Solo from Jabba the Hutt. Leia, disguised as a bounty hunter, attempts to secretly free Solo, who is still encased in carbonite. She succeeds, only to be discovered and captured by Jabba, who makes her his personal slave. Several days later Luke arrives to make one final plea to Jabba to release Solo. Luke is then captured by Jabba’s guards and dropped into a dungeon to battle a Rancor. After defeating the Rancor he is sent along with Han and Chewbacca to the Great Pit of Carkoon to be slowly consumed by the Sarlacc. With the help of R2-D2, Luke escapes and a large battle erupts; during the chaos, Leia repays Jabba for her humiliation by strangling Jabba to death with her slave chains, and Han accidentally knocks Boba Fett, the bounty hunter who brought him to Jabba, into the pit where he is swallowed alive by the Sarlacc. Following this, Luke blasts Jabba’s sail barge with its own deck cannon, and all of the heroes manage to escape before it explodes.

Luke then returns to Dagobah to complete his Jedi training. However, upon arriving, he finds Yoda is dying. Yoda tells Luke that no other training is required, but that he will not truly be a Jedi until he confronts Darth Vader who, Yoda confirms, is Luke’s father. With his final breaths, Yoda tells Luke that “there is another Skywalker”. The spirit form of Obi-Wan Kenobi then appears and confirms that Vader was once Anakin Skywalker, a former Jedi who was turned to the dark side of the Force. Though he initially seemed to imply that Vader was merely another Jedi who betrayed and murdered Anakin, Obi-Wan explains that Vader truly did this in the sense of the dark side consuming Anakin’s mind, apparently destroying the good man who was Luke’s father and replacing him as Vader. Luke asks Obi-Wan about the “other” Skywalker Yoda mentioned—Obi-Wan reveals that this “other” is his twin sister, hidden from Anakin and separated at birth to protect them both from the Emperor. Using his intuition, Luke quickly deduces that his sister is Leia, which Obi-Wan confirms.

Meanwhile, the entire Rebel Alliance is meeting to devise an attack strategy. As part of the attack, Han is elected to lead a strike team to deactivate the shield generator on the forest moon of Endor which is projecting a protective shield up to the orbiting and incomplete Death Star. Luke, having returned from Dagobah, joins him and Leia for this mission; however, he soon fears that, after sensing Vader’s presence within the nearby Imperial Fleet, his own presence may endanger the mission. On Endor, Luke and his companions encounter a tribe of Ewoks, primitive yet intelligent indigenous forest creatures of Endor. With the help of C-3PO, whom the Ewoks believe is a god, they are able to forge an alliance with the forest creatures. Later, Luke decides that the time has come for him to face Vader. He confesses to Leia the truth about her and Vader, and that he has to try to save the man who was once their father. He surrenders peacefully to Vader and unsuccessfully tries to convince his father to abandon the dark side. They go to the Death Star and meet the Emperor, who reveals that he knew of the attack before, and that the Rebel Alliance is walking into a trap. On the forest moon, the Rebels—led by Solo and Leia—enter the shield generator control facility only to be taken prisoner by waiting Imperial forces. Once they are led out of the bunker, however, the Ewoks spring a surprise counterattack. A desperate ground battle begins with the Rebels and Ewoks fighting the Imperial forces. The Rebels eventually gain the upper hand, due in large part to a hijacked Imperial AT-ST Walker.

During the strike team’s assault, the Rebel fleet, led by Lando, emerges from hyperspace for the battle over Endor, only to discover that the shield of the Death Star is still functioning. An intense space battle takes place as the Rebel fleet battles to give the surface party more time to complete their mission of deactivating the Death Star’s shield. During the battle, the Death Star is revealed to be operational; its superlaser is fired at the Rebel fleet and obliterates two Rebel star cruisers. This forces a rethinking of strategy and the fleet closes with the Imperial star destroyers to prevent the superlaser from firing on the Rebel fleet without knocking out its own ships as well.

On the Death Star, the Emperor attempts to tempt Luke into giving in to his anger. A lightsaber duel erupts between Luke and his father; in the heat of battle, Vader reads Luke’s feelings and learns (apparently for the first time) Luke has a twin sister. When Vader suggests that perhaps she will turn to the dark side if Luke will not, Luke gives in to his anger and overpowers his father, eventually slicing off his robotic right hand. However, Luke comes to his senses and, despite the Emperor’s goading, refuses to kill his father. He declares himself a Jedi, like his father before him and discards his weapon. Upon realizing that Luke cannot be turned, the Emperor begins to torture (with intent to kill) Luke with Force lightning; in unspeakable pain, Luke begs his father for help. Realizing that he is seeing his son die before his eyes, Vader finally repents and returns to his former self, Anakin Skywalker. He then turns on the Emperor, grabbing him and throwing him down a reactor shaft to his death, and thus fulfills the ancient Jedi prophecy of restoring balance to the Force by destroying the greatest evil the galaxy had ever known. However, Vader was mortally wounded by the Emperor’s Force lightning during the struggle; near death, he asks Luke to take off his mask so he can see him with his own eyes. Luke does so, and finally sees his father’s true face: that of a pale, withered man ravaged by the dark side. A sad smile spreads across Anakin’s face as he looks at his son for the first time. He entreats Luke to leave him and save himself, and to tell Leia that there was some good left in him after all. With those last words Anakin Skywalker dies, finally at peace.

Back on Endor, the strike team finally destroys the shield generator. The Rebel fleet seizes the opportunity to launch a final assault on the Death Star in space. Lando leads Wedge Antilles and his fighter group into the interior of the Death Star and they fire at the main reactor, causing its collapse. Luke escapes the Death Star with his father’s body in an Imperial shuttle. Moments later, Wedge in his X-wing and Lando in the Millennium Falcon emerge from the Death Star as well, just as it explodes. Back on Endor, Leia senses that Luke had escaped the station before it exploded. Han believes that she loves Luke and is prepared to let her go, but Leia reassures Han of her love for him and reveals (to his surprise and relief) that Luke is actually her brother, and they share a kiss. That evening, Luke cremates the remains of his father in his black armor on a funeral pyre on Endor.

The entire galaxy celebrates the fall of the Empire and the Rebellion’s victory. On Endor, Luke, Leia, Han, Lando, and the rest of the Rebellion, along with the Ewoks, celebrate the victory as well. During the celebration, Luke catches sight of the spirit figures of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda, and the redeemed Anakin Skywalker, who watch over them with pride.

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