Science Fiction Trivia

[DaddyHoggy]

Well done Disembodied - especially if he didn't Google

Why, thank you ... to be honest, I didn't google: but then again I didn't answer the question, either.

[Selezen]

Did U Google?

Yes, and I came across the TTA Wiki at www.niflheim.net.

Shame there's nothing on it, and double shame that the logo seems to say "TAT"...

Yeah, the illustrations in TTA are all book covers, and they all look oddly similar to a lot of the illustrations (or the style, at least) in the Traveller and Megatraveller RPGs.

[Commander McLane]

This time I'm looking for a fairly well-known director. His very first movie features a device which is capable of making all our lives much easier: weather control. Unfortunately weather control can be used as a weapon as well, so—naturally—the military abuse the device for their ends, with catastrophic results. The film deals mainly with how the crew of the device struggle against its remote-controlled abuse.

So, who is the director, and what is the title of the movie?

Bonus points if you can tell me what the military wanted to do with the device, and by which RealLife™-events this idea was inspired.

Time for another hint?!

The device is a manned satellite.

[Disembodied]

I'm getting nowhere with this ... although I have found that there are a surprising number of nutter sites out there dedicated to weather control conspiracy theories.

[Poro]

I'm getting nowhere with this ... although I have found that there are a surprising number of nutter sites out there dedicated to weather control conspiracy theories.

Ah, the crazy world of HAARP, ionospheres, directed beam energy weapons et al.

Why should real physics get in the way of conspiatorial webmasters?


P.S. I likewise am getting nowhere with this one, though mention of the "remote-controlled" aspect feels like it's stirring a memory.

[Commander McLane]

This time I'm looking for a fairly well-known director. His very first movie features a device which is capable of making all our lives much easier: weather control. Unfortunately weather control can be used as a weapon as well, so—naturally—the military abuse the device for their ends, with catastrophic results. The film deals mainly with how the crew of the device struggle against its remote-controlled abuse.

So, who is the director, and what is the title of the movie?

Bonus points if you can tell me what the military wanted to do with the device, and by which RealLife™-events this idea was inspired.

Time for another hint?!

The device is a manned satellite (or a space station).

Another day, another hint:

The movie was actually the director's thesis in film school. It was by far the most ambitious and expensive project ever attempted for a thesis at its time—and probably even to date. (The film had a budget of approximately 600,000 USD at the time, while the usual film school thesis film would have a budget of about 10,000 USD.)

[allikat]

It's not THX1138 is it?

[Commander McLane]

It's not THX1138 is it?

No, it's not.

[Disembodied]

I think I've got it: it's Roland Emmerich's Das Arche Noah Prinzip (The Noah's Ark Principle). I assume from the title that the military want to create a massive flood. Real-life inspiration: the US Star Wars/SDI initiative, perhaps?

[Commander McLane]

Correct, it's Emmerich's first movie.

(The next hints would have been that the movie was (rather mistakenly) announced as the "German Star Wars" back in the day, that the director's first Hollywood success was a van Damme-flick ("Universal Soldier"), and that he is particularly known for his obsession with destroying cities ("Independence Day" et al.). )

As to the bonus points, they stay with me this time. The US military want to use the station's microwave beam in order to create a cloak covering the invasion of Saudi Arabia (make the troop movements invisible for other satellites and ground-based reconaissance). IIRC this was inspired by the RealLife™ failed attempt to free the hostages in the American embassy in Tehran. The result in the movie is that the microwaves create big cyclones over India, and tens (even hundreds?) of thousands perish.

The information can be googled on the German Wikipedia (the English version is more like a stub and doesn't contain a lot of actual information about the movie.)

Your turn, Disembodied.

[Disembodied]

To be honest I got it by googling "most expensive student film" ...

Right, me again. Name the evil genius:

Using technology gleaned from a crashed spaceship, he created a clutch of superhuman beings as part of a top-secret project for the British military. The creatures were kept unconscious, made to dream that they were comic-book superheros in an attempt to keep them under control – but they started to wake up ...

[snork]

Sounds fun.
I have no idea, but I certainly want to know.

[Commander McLane]

To be honest I got it by googling "most expensive student film" ...

Well, it's all about knowing how to search for something.

EDITED 1 DAY LATER: By the way, I failed miserably when trying to formulate a search for your challenge, Disembodied. I came up with absolutely nothing.

So, perhaps, time for another hint? Pleeeeaaze.

[Disembodied]

OK, no attempted answers yet, so here's the first clue:

Try playing the third track on the B-side of Blondie's 1979 album Eat to the Beat ... backwards.

[Cody]

Is it from Marvelman? He had to say 'atomic' backwards, I think, for some odd reason.

Don't know the name of the evil genius, though.