This series is nothing if not eclectic; it’s about game ideas–where to find them, how to develop them, how to use them. A lot of our columns have been directly about the creative process, but we’ve also addressed puzzle solving, referee technique, adventure ideas, and more. Some of the ideas are new; but some are not so new. So I hope you’ll stay with me while I do something with this entry that’s probably been done more times by more people than I’ve written web pages. I’m going to suggest a few gamer movies.
By gamer movies, I mean that these are films I think every gamer should see. They contain and present ideas, characters, stories, or something that is of particular interest to those of us who are trying, in essence, to create adventure stories on the fly. I know that it often happens that I’ll mention a film, and say it’s one of the great gamer movies; but I’ve never made a list. So I’m going to attempt to recall a few of these to your minds, explain why I think they’re gamer movies, and recommend that you see them if you have not done so. These aren’t in any particular order, that is, no order in which I’d say make them important; they’re sort of subjectively sequenced such that those you might not have recognized as gamer movies are toward the end.
Part of the impetus for this is that I recently saw Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. It’s too soon to say whether this is a gamer movie or not, but I’m inclined to think so. Captain Jack Sparrow is an incredibly fun character, extremely competent and yet apparently blundering at the same time. I think it’s a bit laser-sharky; but that’s an idea for another article. It brings the swashbuckler back to the screen in a wonderful way, and has a few lessons in adventure to share.
It also sports one of my favorite elements in gamer movies: the ordinary person who becomes the heroic adventurer. I’ve been asked whether I prefer the pirate captain or the grown up boy, and I don’t actually know which I do prefer. There is something appealing about the boy who becomes the hero, even when he begins with some skills and a mysterious background.
Thus it will not surprise anyone that Star Wars is on my list; but I limit my recommendation to the first episodes, numbered four, five, and six. Although billed as the redemption of Anakin Skywalker by the creator, they focus on the story of the rise of young Luke from promising farm hand to most powerful hero in the galaxy. This is the crowning achievement in science fantasy. The newer episodes don’t impress me so much, feeling much more like their inspirational source, old Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers serials, although the story is still good.
What Star Wars is to science fantasy, Lord of the Rings is to swords and sorcery. Often it is said of films that the book is better than the movie, but in this case I’m not so sure that’s true. I think every fan of fantasy should read the books, but I also think every gamer should see the movie. The fight scenes alone bring a vividness to our imagined recreations that should be part of every gamer’s visual storehouse. The thorough integration of magic into the world is certainly to be considered. The third of this series is not yet out, but already I can recommend it: the unbeatable source material has been wonderfully realized on film. Still unseen, rumors already are spreading that it is going to sweep the Oscars.
As I said, I’m not working from best to worst, or number one down, or up to number one. I started with those films because they were the most obvious. The next one is less so. True Lies is not your typical Schwartzenegger action film (although there’s something to be said for those). It’s very much in the genre of heroic action comedy. Someone once told me that there are some films that are worth seeing for one scene, and this has got one of those scenes. Jamie Lee Curtis, playing the displaced housewife in the midst of the worst trouble in her life, drops one of the automatic weapons taken from the terrorists; as it tumbles down the wooden steps in front of her, it randomly fires, killing at least a dozen terrorists. Every time it plays, one of my kids says that’s a General Effects roll of 3–the absolute best way it could go, beyond anything you could hope. Getting moments like that into the game can be a big plus; seeing it happen can help make it work.
The person who spoke of those movies with one must-see scene was at the time referring to FX, the Brian Dennehey/Bryan Brown action film. The misdirection in this, the uncertainty about who is on what side, the chances both of the main characters take, all play to make this a great gamer movie. The theme song sings of illusion, and everyone in this story creates an illusion of one sort or another. One of the important things is to let your heroes be smart, and that means sometimes the villains have to be played at least a bit dumb. Outsmarting the villains is a big part of great adventures.
The Last Action Hero is another Schwartzenegger picture, with a wonderful twist. A real kid winds up inside an action movie, and starts telling the hero about the rules of the world. Some of that translates directly to many of our games: the hero has plot immunity; the villains ultimately can’t win. Not all games are like that (nor all movies), but seeing the way it works, and particularly the way the characters in the world are oblivious to it, is a great example of how to make such things work in games.
Not so long ago, our forum started several regulars in playing a Multiverser game based directly on The Postman (the Costner film, not the foreign romance also known as Il Postino); only one of the players had not seen the film before the game started, but all took it in very different directions. There have been a number of post-apocalyptic games and settings published over the years, but this one works as a believable short-term future following a catastrophe. It also gives a lot of insight into heroes, particularly as the central character is never named despite becoming famous.
Although I’m not much generally for thrillers, I have to say that The Game was a great film for gamers. Michael Douglas (who should be mentioned for Romancing the Stone and Jewel of the Nile, both of which would be on this list were it longer, for their wonderful modern adventures and quirky situations and characters) is the unwitting victim of the game. I’m afraid to say more, because if you have not seen it I could easily spoil it. However, you’ve read my suggestions in previous articles that sometimes the referee can manipulate his players, and this is an incredible example of that.
While I have Romancing the Stone in mind, I must thank my wife for introducing me to another Kathleen Turner film, Undercover Blues. She teams with Dennis Quaid as a couple of spies on vacation with their baby daughter in New Orleans who become embroiled in preventing a certain enemy spy from selling a new explosive. It’s light-hearted, very much a caper picture, but has many clever bits in it. One that I particularly would highlight is the way they work together: “Remember Paris?” Of course, he doesn’t always get the right city for the ruse he wants to use, but they manage anyway.
On spy pictures, you could name quite a few that are worth seeing. The double-oh-seven series is filled with great ideas, Jack Ryan has made his mark, and there are others more serious out there. Yet I’m always taken by a rather silly Richard Greico piece, If Looks Could Kill. It’s got that recurring theme of mine, the nobody who becomes somebody, in this case through mistaken identity. I enjoy this film so much, I’ve run it more than once as a Multiverser game. If you pull out the French Club and replace it with friends of the player character, it works extremely well.
Staying with the young kid who takes the place of the expert, Dragonslayer moves back to the fantasy genre. Perhaps there’s something nostalgic about this for me; but I love the way the magic works, and particularly the fact that Galen doesn’t always have so much control over it as he thinks. There’s a lot to be said about magic in this film, but I’ll leave it to you to consider.
No list of gamer movies could be complete without mentioning one of the great fantasies of all time, Ladyhawke. Clerics, fighters, and thieves all play their parts in this, with magic and curses and mystical transformations all just part of the scenery. The mysterious answer to breaking the curse is a wonderful touch, as no one knows what it means; and Philippe Gaston has to be one of the best thieves ever put to film, right up there with Villa Reston, for his wonderful blend of competence, cowardice, and repartee.
I’m nearing the end of my list, but my favorite film, listed next, is not the last one here; I’ve one more after it. The Last Starfighter has that wonderful idea that the ordinary nobody who believes in himself becomes the hero who saves the universe. Somehow I think that’s part of the dream that brings many of us to the gaming table, and I like to let my players realize that as much as I can manage during play. Roger Ebert once listed this as one of his guilty pleasures, a sci-fi movie that came out in the wake of the Star Wars phenomenon that was actually a good story worth watching. I also love the beta unit, and would like to have one to help out around here sometimes–but not with my wife.
The last film struck me immediately as a gamer movie; I told a fellow gamer who had not seen it, and he watched it and was so taken with it that he adopted the name of the central character for his own use. It is a film in which a character has created an image of who he is, and then created a separate persona through which he projects this image. No one knows who the villain really is; the police are closing in on the wrong guy, a guy who is dead, but whom they believe has slipped through their fingers and faked his death. Everyone is convinced that this villain is one of the most dangerous and elusive men in the world, and no one knows where he is. Yet he is right in front of us the entire time. I am of course talking about The Usual Suspects, a film every gamer should see to remind them that their characters are who they want them to be, that whatever a person projects is who they are seen to be. The villain in that movie is an illusion he projects; no one knows the truth about him, because he spins his own truth and makes them believe it.
This list of movies could be much longer; but hopefully there are at least one or two here you have not seen, and I have not spoiled them for you. I’m sure that we’ll see more must-see movies on the forums in the coming days; undoubtedly I’ll be asking how I could forget this film or that film. Even now, great moments from movies come to mind–The Gump saying “You’ll do” when Tom Cruise’ forest boy asks where they can find a hero in Legend; watching Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven character climb back from worthless to priceless; nearly all of The Last Unicorn, and particularly that great moment,
What good is all the magic in the world if it can’t save one unicorn?
No, I can’t save her, because that’s not what magic is for. That’s what heroes are for.
He’s right. That’s exactly what heroes are for.
So many moments in so many action pictures, from Conan to Alien; the spy who lost her memories in The Long Kiss Goodnight; Tom Hanks’ still wonderful The Man with One Red Shoe; so many Bruce Willis flicks, but what of Unbreakable? I would not be able to produce a top ten list from these. But I’m sure I’ll come up with more that I’ve forgotten even before you start reminding me.
Next week, something different.
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M. Joseph Young is co-author of Multiverser and Vice President for Development at Valdron Inc. His many contributions to online literature are indexed for convenience, and he looks forward to discussing these things by e-mail or on our Gaming Outpost forums.
