Inspirational Movies and TV for Dark Conspiracy

[Linden]

Under the Skin seems to feature some DC style tropes - alien serial killer at large in a bleak urban environment - but looks as if does something a bit different with them.

[Linden]

Here's a retro one for you: White Tiger. Russian tankist (with high level empathic healing and machine empathy skills) takes on the ultimate Nazi Animator.

At the risk of letting slip a spoiler, the film's metaphorical story and inconclusive ending means the White Tiger itself could quite easily survive into the Dark Conspiracy era. It may even be a Dark One that feeds on, and somehow embodies, conflict.

[ReHerakhte]

Well... even without the supernatural elements White Tiger was a damned good piece of WW2 movie, although the ending did leave me wanting more.
But anyway, thanks for the tip Linden, well worth sitting through the subtitles!

To go further with your comment about the White Tiger surviving into the Dark Conspiracy era, the tankist himself says that the White Tiger is waiting and it might wait 20 years, 50 years or even 100 years but it will come back.

What I do find interesting though, is the coincidence that you yourself penned a somewhat similar scenario (Tiger on the Loose), based on something you and Norm thrashed out on the Yahoo group many years ago if I remember correctly.


Following on the WW2 theme, some time back I ran a game for two friends where a lizardman-like race had been brought in by the Dark Ones to cause some mischief in the early 1900s. One had been captured by the Germans in the 1940s after it had been severely wounded with a Lewis Gun (captured by the German Army during WW1). The creature got loose in 2012 when a building project in a small town south of Berlin broke open the WW2 bunker it was imprisoned in. During its escape it caused some "unusual" deaths and the PCs were called in to track it down.

They investigated the bunker it had been loosed from and also stumbled upon the very well cared for Lewis Gun crated up with all its necessary supplies.
They found that the creature was incredibly tough (its skin was AV2) but they discovered it had some sort of psychologically induced empathic weakness if the Lewis Gun was used against it - making the Lewis Gun a sort of "artefact", unfortunately for the PCs it only worked against this one lizardman but fortunately, they never encountered any more (although there were plans hehehe)

[Linden]

Well... even without the supernatural elements White Tiger was a damned good piece of WW2 movie, although the ending did leave me wanting more.
But anyway, thanks for the tip Linden, well worth sitting through the subtitles!

I thought it lost it's way a bit in the last twenty minutes or so. It sort of jumps to a straight historical drama reminiscent of Downfall then back to the supernatural again. Quite jarring I thought. Still well worth a watch though. The copy I watched the subtitles were white and I sometimes had to squint to read them during the more brightly lit scenes. I suspect that's still preferable to the dubbed version, which judging from the trailer has everyone talking like Trigger from Only Fools and Horses.

What I do find interesting though, is the coincidence that you yourself penned a somewhat similar scenario (Tiger on the Loose), based on something you and Norm thrashed out on the Yahoo group many years ago if I remember correctly.

Well you know, there aren't any new ideas Challenge magazine had Gorgon Hunt, a 2300 scenario featuring a monster tank although that was closer to Ogre with its AI controlled supertanks and qualifies as straight sci-fi rather than horror. I think the film's conception of the White Tiger as a supernatural force is great, especially with the tankist embodying some sort of opposing principle. A few people have moaned about the Tiger itself being a dressed JS tank and thus not historically accurate in appearance but I think it's acceptable if we're dealing with some kind of mutant product of the National Socialist psyche. It resembles the Porsche Tiger prototype in outline and I there's something that just seems right about one of Hitler's nightmare creations looking as if it's been filtered through the eccentric brain of Dr Porsche. Don't know how practical it would to command a T34 from the driver's seat though, but then again the tankist has abilities beyond the ordinary crewman.

Following on the WW2 theme, some time back I ran a game for two friends where a lizardman-like race had been brought in by the Dark Ones to cause some mischief in the early 1900s. One had been captured by the Germans in the 1940s after it had been severely wounded with a Lewis Gun (captured by the German Army during WW1). The creature got loose in 2012 when a building project in a small town south of Berlin broke open the WW2 bunker it was imprisoned in. During its escape it caused some "unusual" deaths and the PCs were called in to track it down.

They investigated the bunker it had been loosed from and also stumbled upon the very well cared for Lewis Gun crated up with all its necessary supplies.
They found that the creature was incredibly tough (its skin was AV2) but they discovered it had some sort of psychologically induced empathic weakness if the Lewis Gun was used against it - making the Lewis Gun a sort of "artefact", unfortunately for the PCs it only worked against this one lizardman but fortunately, they never encountered any more (although there were plans hehehe)

Your scenario sounds like an interesting variation of the Outpost style setup (we could probably all do with a change from Nazi zombies?) plus a spot of Lewis Gun aversion therapy! Would be good inspiration for a Cold City scenario as well.

[ReHerakhte]

WARNING: My post contains SPOILERS for the movie.

I agree, the transition between the historical and the supernatural definitely feels clunky and the philosophical musings at the end, while making me think Hitler was conversing with the Devil (or even God), make it particularly jarring given the first half of the movie.

I was curious about the White Tiger as it appeared to me to have a little more bulk in the hull than a Tiger should have. This however, gave me no problem with the movie because I realize the White Tiger is the embodiment of all the fears of the Soviet soldiers and perhaps their fear gave it its form. If anything, it made it look more menacing.

The White Tiger was a supernatural, perhaps even evil, force - it doesn't have to be strictly historically accurate. Too many people piss and moan about this sort of think, they should watch some of the 60s Hollywood war movies with M3 Halftracks filling in for the German SdKfz251 and M48 tanks filling in for all manner of German Panzers!

And into the movie trivia...
I found the following vid on YouTube that is apparently a testdrive of the replica Tiger that was meant for the movie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wlv6iuLT6-s
According to the comments section, the tracks broke up and they wouldn't get replacements soon enough and so they modified a JS tank and used that instead.
Personally, I kinda like the way it looked in the movie, the slightly "not-Tiger" appearance made it look even more so the supernatural entity.

[Linden]

And into the movie trivia...
I found the following vid on YouTube that is apparently a testdrive of the replica Tiger that was meant for the movie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wlv6iuLT6-s
According to the comments section, the tracks broke up and they wouldn't get replacements soon enough and so they modified a JS tank and used that instead.
Personally, I kinda like the way it looked in the movie, the slightly "not-Tiger" appearance made it look even more so the supernatural entity.

Really nice replica they built, a shame they couldn't get it fixed in time for the film. I think they made the best of a bad job though and the bulked out Porsche style tank they ended up with does add a suitably weird element to the film.

[Phulish]

Since the Yugoslavian civil war, it will be a lot harder to scrape those vehicles together for a movie.

[Linden]

Since the Yugoslavian civil war, it will be a lot harder to scrape those vehicles together for a movie.

Maybe not. Modern productions often use mock ups built on existing vehicles e.g. the Tiger tanks in Saving Private Ryan productions being shells built around ex-Soviet T55s. Kelly's Heroes probably did it first though.

[Phulish]

Isreal still has some super shermans in reserve.

[Linden]

Isreal still has some super shermans in reserve.

I think some of those were used in The Big Red One, as German panzers ironically enough. White Tiger featured plentiful examples of T34/85s and T34/76s so must be a fair amount of those still knocking around the former Soviet Union.

[Phulish]

Old panzers were pulled out of underground storage in russia, but no one can afford shipping! They were in the same areas that those pristine mauser rifles that were sold all over the world. You know a piece of old Dark Tek could be sold by illegal dealers.....

[Phulish]

Has th SYFY show "Helix" been mentioned? It has some DC elements, or at least some adaptable ones.

[ReHerakhte]

Recently (as in the last week) saw two movies that I think were listed here. Under the Skin as mentioned by Linden and also In Time although having a quick look back I don't see a mention of it (could be further back than I looked).

Under the Skin was very interesting although the opening was for me a bit of a strain to watch - minimalism is fine but if it runs for too long it just gets tedious.
I read some of the background to the movie and the book it was based on and while in hindsight I can see some of the themes of the novel hinted at in the movie, the dark satire of big business and factory farming appears to have been left out - I'm not saying that's good or bad but it may have lent more weight to the movie.
Irrespective of that, I did enjoy the movie and I'm interested in finding the novel now.

I think the big message though is that when a Scotsman is confronted by the weird and alien, they WILL sort it out "right quick"

In Time was a little silly in places but the overall theme was well known (and common) enough to carry the movie - poor boy overcomes the bad things in life by playing Robin Hood. The DC interest for me comes from two main aspects of the movie: -
1. people are paid not in money but in time, this is achievable because everyone has been genetically engineered so that they stop aging at 25 but a clock that is embedded "under the skin" will stop their life functions in one year (i.e. age 26) unless they can add time to the clock. Naturally the rich have plenty of time while the poor are underpaid and heavily taxed so that the rich can gain that wealth. The poor are a resource for the rich to maintain their status.
2. the segregation of living/working zones from rich and poor, specifically the toll booths on roadways connecting the different zones. These booths cost progressively more to pass through as you get closer to the wealthier districts. There are also distinct differences in the behaviour of poor and rich such as the poor often run to places they have to be just so that they can save "time" while the wealthy have so much time they can afford to take as long as they like on the trip.

There's also the manipulation of civil servants (e.g. police officers) by paying them enough "time" to do their daily duties but no more than that. This forces them to work day to day because if they don't, they will die after 24 hours.

[Linden]

Not seen Under The Skin yet, had only a brief run in UK cinemas. I'm sure to rent the DVD at some point. From what I've read the film is quite different to the book, think it only keeps the basic idea of a killer alien disguised as a glamourous woman harvesting human beings.

In Time sounds like the basis of an RPG in itself, or the background for a Dark Conspiracy variant world, or maybe even a protodimension?

[Linden]

Following on from the conversation on another thread I finally got round to watching 1970s kids' TV classic Children of the Stones. Found it didn't quite live up to its reputation but still a worthwhile watch. It blends elements of Quatermass and The Wicker Man in its depiction of an ancient English village in thrall to powerful cosmic forces. There's a whole raft of ideas introduced in the first couple of episodes but their implications are never satisfactorily resolved. That's probably inevitable given the sheer weight of them, yet the end is frustratingly anti-climatic and something of a cop out, a variation on the hoary old "with one bound he was free" cliche. The child actors are also uniformly terrible. On the plus side it features some excellent location work in the Wiltshire village of Avebury, given an extra dose of atmosphere by being filmed in the long hot summer of 1976, plus some solid performances by British character actors including the ever brilliant Freddie Jones.

In terms of inspiration for Dark Conspiracy you've got a possible Protodimension, empathic powers, weird science, retro computer technology, the local squire as a Dark Lord or at least a ranking minion, and something living in a black hole that just might be living off people's negative energy.