Inspirational Movies and TV for Dark Conspiracy

[Zvezda]

I have just seen the Japanese anime: Blood the last vampire. A very nice, short, animation film with deamonhunters and bloodsucking bats. It is set in 1966 on a US Base in Japan. The creatures are interesting and the film is not bad. Not much shooting though...

[shade_1313]

virus.

not the greatest movie, but fun, and the sort of thing i could definitely take inspiration from.

one of the things i really do like about DC a lot is how it can be so many subgenres. it can be "x-files" type government conspiracy, it can be gothic horror (with guns!), it can be dystopian sci fi, etc, etc.

[Linden]

"The Last Enemy" - New series on BBC1 on Sunday nights. Set in a near future UK which is on the verge of becoming a total surveillance state. DC type elements include: The sleazy corporation supplying the government with surveillance technology, deadly foreign plague, paramilitary style cops and shadowy intelligence types, including Robert Carlisle's taciturn wet job specialist. Also a bit of a retro vibe as many of the cast seem to be wearing 1970s cast offs. A particular highlight was the main character's downstairs neighbour with his Frank Spencer style tank top and Benny Hill hat. The latter obviously marked him out as a wrong 'un and I wasn't surprised when he subsequently turned out to be a hit man.

It's a bit slow (four more episodes) but I'll try and stick with it. Good cast and at least the BBC are showing something with a bit of ambition for a change.

[Zvezda]

That sounds very interesting. Thanks for the update.

[shade_1313]

you know, the idea occurs to me that your typical, low budget movie from the sci fi channel goes right hand in hand with the suggestions from the first two editions to look for plot hooks and the seeds of story ideas in tabloids... low budget movies don't have to be good to give you that flash of inspiration for the plot of the next DC adventure...

[Linden]

All true. As an example I nicked the plot of Dog Soldiers for the second adventure in my campaign. I discarded the bit about the lady scientist also being a werewolf as that never made much sense to me. In my version she's become a recurring NPC/contact in my campaign.

Lifting the plot wholesale worked out quite well although I probably wouldn't do such a blatant "steal" again (all of my PCs had seen the film of course) Probably inspiration rather than imitation should be the order of the day?

[Zvezda]

If you want to indicate that Dog Soldiers is a bad movie and only good as a small inspiration I probably have to challenge you to a fight to the death.

[Linden]

If you want to indicate that Dog Soldiers is a bad movie and only good as a small inspiration I probably have to challenge you to a fight to the death.

Perish the thought. I really enjoyed Dog Soldiers, and actually travelled a fair old distance to see it at the cinema. What I was getting at was that perhaps it's bad form to do a wholesale rip off of a movie plot. I did it because I needed a "This is not an Exercise" type scenario for my players at rather short notice. Them having seen it made it all rather obvious. Next time I borrow from the movies I'll make an effor to camouflage the source material a bit.

[Zvezda]

I know what you mean it was just too tempting, having military PCs capture some Werewolves (and die in the attempt). I had the advantage that my players watched the film after the game.
So whenever you use a movie for inspiration you have to make sure that your players either don't know it or that you have done enough so they recongnize it only when it is too late.

[Linden]

It's a bit slow (four more episodes) but I'll try and stick with it. Good cast and at least the BBC are showing something with a bit of ambition for a change.

I stuck with it all the way through and regret to say it wasn't much good. Well acted, but badly written: An implausible plot full of contrivances and holes strung out over a month when the whole thing could have been done much more tightly and convincingly in a two hour drama. The final twist where bad-guy-turned-good guy Robert Carlisle turns out to be a bad guy after all was particularly risible.

Aside from the acting the one other interesting thing about it for DC purposes was the community of ID-less people living in what looked like a disused bunker, but was probably a warehouse. Could be good inspiration of Ant-hill type settings.

[Morthrai]

Aside from the acting the one other interesting thing about it for DC purposes was the community of ID-less people living in what looked like a disused bunker, but was probably a warehouse. Could be good inspiration of Ant-hill type settings.

That bit reminded me of the old Max Headroom TV series, where there were people known as "Blanks" who had managed to get their details removed from the official databases. Of course, being a Blank was enough to get you arrested in itself...

[Linden]

The latest Indiana Jones film has a few DC style elements although none of them are elaborated on to any great extent.

1. Extra-dimensional travel by flying saucer riding greys.

2. A reference to the Roswell crash.

3. Irina Spalko is plainly an empath although she doesn't exercise her psychic powers that much. Possibly the hurly-burly of an Indiana Jones film doesn't provide the right environment for their use, which would be consistent with DC. I'd say it would count as Great Stress/Combat at least, and require a Formidable task roll.

Thought the film was ok, despite being a bit of a mess. Preferred it to the previous two sequels anyway.

[Zvezda]

So far I have only heard the worst things of Star Wars Episode whatever. NO Nazis, Aliens and Jar Jar Binks on Indy's side. Also no real connection to the previous movies. Anyways...

I have a nice one: Outpost! It is rather cheap (which often is a good thing in my oppinion) and features an average DC night of gaming. ALL characters who appear in the movie are Special Forces. Ex-KGB Alfa, Royal Marines and even a former child soldier, turned mercenary. An evil executive of some unnamed corporation leeds them to a very secret location somewhere in the middle of a war in eastern europe. That's about all I should say about the movie. It is not as good as dog soldiers but has a lot of nice similarites. And it has nazis.

[Linden]

So far I have only heard the worst things of Star Wars Episode whatever. NO Nazis, Aliens and Jar Jar Binks on Indy's side. Also no real connection to the previous movies. Anyways...

The malign influence of George Lucas can definitely be felt, most notably in the muddled story telling and "comedy" appearances from cute furry animals (what I would term an outbreak of Ewok fever) but it's held together by some good performances and solid direction from Mr Spielberg.

[Zvezda]

Hell! Jar Jar Binks and Evok Fever? That sounds too horrible for me. Has anybody volunteered to watch Cloverfield?