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Has anyone watched 'The Strain' TV Series?

The group that unites to stop the enemy in the story is very much like a group of Minion Hunters.

Marcus Bone wrote:Has anyone watched 'The Strain' TV Series?

The group that unites to stop the enemy in the story is very much like a group of Minion Hunters.

And the Strigoi are very minion like. Plus UV light used as a weapon!

Cypher (2002) features Jeremy Northam and Lucy Liu as industrial spies caught up in the machinations of two huge companies. Brainwashing, double-crossing and general weirdness abounds. More than a touch of The Matrix and Total Recall about it although the film mostly goes for a cerebral mood rather than action. It's the sort of thing you could imagine Phillip K Dick or William Gibson writing. Stylishly directed on what looks to be quite a low budget (the FX are a bit shaky at times), has an almost monochrome look to it which perhaps fits in with the Dark Conspiracy retro aesthetic.

Don't know if this one has been covered previously (didn't show up when I searched) but I've been watching Total Recall 2070. I'm sure some of you are already familiar with it, a German-Canadian co-production from the 1990s which contains elements of both Total Recall and Bladerunner. Possibly a bit of Alien Nation and Strange Days in there as well. It's not particularly well acted but the set design and FX budgets seem well spent. Storylines often have strange lacunae in them e.g. the easiness of getting into a corporate building varies with the exigencies of the plot. A lot of the costumes have a retro-look e.g corporate goons in overcoats and trilby hats which fits in with the Dark Conspiracy aesthetic.

The setting with its rival corporations, bureacratic police force and potentially self aware alph-androids might work quite well in a game of Remember Tomorrow.

Started watching the new "X-Files" episodes. you never know when something might be worth stealing.

Phulish wrote:Started watching the new "X-Files" episodes. you never know when something might be worth stealing.

As with the original run there's plenty in the new version to borrow from, though with them being away for so long we know more than Mulder nowadays

I hope I don't sound too grumpy but I've got zero interest in the X-Files revival. I lost interest long before David Duchovy did the Offman's first time round. Given the focus of this site it might sound strange me saying this but I always found the alien conspiracy story arc a total bore. I much preferred the one-offs where Mulder and Scully investigated ghostly phenomena, cryptids or weirdo criminals.

Linden wrote:I always found the alien conspiracy story arc a total bore. I much preferred the one-offs where Mulder and Scully investigated ghostly phenomena, cryptids or weirdo criminals.

Oh. absolutely with you on that one! I think the big conspiracy arc was brought in when they got a guaranteed renewal, which is doing things backwards for a long-running show. As for the revival, Mulder continually takes the P out of his younger self and the third episode is a decent stab at a humourous monster of the week episode.

Don't know how many people may have seen it but I think the movie Sicario can be some useful inspiration, not for the general setting as such but for the way a large intelligence agency bends the rules to get a desired outcome and particularly for their method of fighting fire with fire (I don't want to elaborate because that would involve plot spoilers).

ReHerakhte wrote:Don't know how many people may have seen it but I think the movie Sicario can be some useful inspiration, not for the general setting as such but for the way a large intelligence agency bends the rules to get a desired outcome and particularly for their method of fighting fire with fire (I don't want to elaborate because that would involve plot spoilers).

That looks pretty interesting. On another topic, I think I still owe you 20 quid - must sort that out for you

Heya Lee, yeah I'm not really worried about it
I had a great time in Bromsgrove, got to meet you and Linden in person - just wish I could have spent more time exploring the area, I would have liked to have had the chance to wander around Birmingham instead of just seeing the airport when I was leaving haha!

ReHerakhte wrote:I would have liked to have had the chance to wander around Birmingham instead of just seeing the airport when I was leaving haha!

Might be one for the future then - you never know!

I don't think anyone's mentioned Walter Hill's "The Warriors". Seems to take place in a parallel late 1970s where the streets are overrun by street gangs. It's obviously stylised with all the extravagantly costumed gang factions but I think this is an idea that works well in DC, and is even hinted at in the Gangers section of the stock NPC chapter of the rulebook: "Gangs always have some flashy name, and they usually have a uniform of some sort..." It's certainly influenced how I depict street gangs when I've been running DC.

The 1st Ed. Empathic Source Book has a "Warriors" reference.

I have to say that the David Michod's The Rover - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rover_%282014_film%29 - is one of the best post apoc movies I've ever seen. Based 10 years in Australia after 'the Collapse' it depicts what I would call 'The Outlaw' perfectly. To me it is summed up in a few scenes:

• - at one point the main characters are travelling down a highway, and there are bodies hung on the telephone lines.
  - at another point in the drive, their car is passed by a convoy to three fast moving black SUVs. No reason or comment is made
  - The military patrol in Humvees, but they are few in number and isolated
  - The protagonist's car stops at this railway crossing in the middle of nowhere, as a massively long train passes by (this would be one of the mining trains they have in Oz). On it is a few well armed mercs who eyeball the characters as they pass.

But the scene that always sticks in my mind is when the main character (Guy Pierce) has been detained by the military. He is a bit of a mad man the whole movie, but explains to NCO 'booking him' in that he knows that he has no future, and he has known it ever since he killed and buried his wife and her lover... and no one came to arrest him.

Brilliant stuff!