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Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies

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root root's picture
Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
root@Transhuman Movies [hr] It doesn't come out until March 2011, but Suckerpunch seems like a good movie for Simulspace inspirations. I'm compiling a list of Eclipse Phase inspirational movies over at the Darkcast, but it's limited to the movies Netflix is currently streaming. I'm looking for movies that are at least somewhat decent, or have some strong element of transhumanism to them. I've avoided adding crappy scifi movies that happen to feature a robot (Can anyone say Cyborg 2?), but I'm sure I'm missing piles of good movies. Do you have any suggestions for me?
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Rhyx Rhyx's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
Hmm well sci-fi in general isn't that hard to find EP itself has a very unique brand so finding movies is a bit harder. I did see Pandorum yesterday and that wasn't too bad in a scary/survivalist kind of way. I think the rotten tomatoes 20-something % is a bit underrated. It's pretty hard not to overlap into Cyberpunk of course. I did like Strange Days that had a very VR/XP thing going and few people have actually seen it. Not too long ago I re-watched the first Robocop and it aged pretty well all things considered, the rest (2 and 3) were still crap... Gattaca was also a good one especially for showing off the bias inherent to a world full of modified individuals versus normal people. I also enjoyed Minority Report but for the world itself, the conceit behind pre-crime made me cringe a bit. Also if (and that's a big IF) you can find it: 8th Wonderland I liked a lot, it's imperfect but it's an awesome introduction to cyberdemocracy, virtual countries and it's possible excesses, and that just the live action, don't get me started on the anime.
Decivre Decivre's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
Surrogates: The joys of synthmorphs, synthetic masks, and shell jamming. Neat story about the effects it would have on people's daily lives Inception: Long-distance psychosurgery to steal or insert memories while people sleep. Total mindfuck. Ghost in the Shell: Anime that deals with anti-terrorism forces in a world where cybertechnology is universal. Loves to toy with philosophical concepts Armitage III: A transhuman anime love story about a robot-hating detective who gradually grows feelings for his robotic partner (she's an AGI), and discusses how one would define humanity in a world where a large portion of the population is not organic. XChange: Weird movie about a world where resleeving is common technology. People who wish to travel long distances in very short time will sign a contract to swap bodies with someone else who wishes to travel long distances and lives at the destination. Not a great movie, but it's at least an interesting movie considering the topic. 2B - The Era of Flesh is Over: Deals with a society that goes through a hard transition into the transhuman age, as the first transhumans are created.
Transhumans will one day be the Luddites of the posthuman age. [url=http://bit.ly/2p3wk7c]Help me get my gaming fix, if you want.[/url]
fafromnice fafromnice's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
Rhyx wrote:
I also enjoyed Minority Report but for the world itself, the conceit behind pre-crime made me cringe a bit.
I quote Rhyx for this ... think about your assurance compagnie who calcul your risck (did I ortograph well ?) factor and if in a world like Eclipse Phase your local police departement was able to calcul your criminality factor just in the same way ... in a world where all your movement are registered somewhere it will be easy to find your probable criminality factor ... this guy is only 13 % anarchist ;) 2001 for the habitat Blade Runner for the every life

What do you mean a butterfly cause this ? How a butterfly can cause an enviromental system overload on the other side of a 10 000 egos habitat ?

root root's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
root@Transhuman Movies [hr]
fafromnice wrote:
Rhyx wrote:
I also enjoyed Minority Report but for the world itself, the conceit behind pre-crime made me cringe a bit.
I quote Rhyx for this ... think about your assurance compagnie who calcul your risck (did I ortograph well ?) factor and if in a world like Eclipse Phase your local police departement was able to calcul your criminality factor just in the same way ... in a world where all your movement are registered somewhere it will be easy to find your probable criminality factor ... this guy is only 13 % anarchist ;) 2001 for the habitat Blade Runner for the every life
"Think about your insurance company who calculates your risk factor, and in a world like Eclipse Phase your local police department would be able to calculate your criminality factor in just the same way. In a world where all of your movements are registered somewhere it would be easy to find your probable criminality factor ("this guy is only 13% anarchist")" I think that's what you were trying to say? Good point on the total surveillance state and behavior prediction. I know that some corporations already do this by having employees fill out personality tests when they are first employed.
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Rhyx Rhyx's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
Ironically the ones who most often use personality tests to see if an employee will fit their business is... insurance companies. As for using statistics for police work, that is in large part what psychological profiling is all about. That's the funny thing about people with mental discrepancies, they tend to act in ways that are predictable because to a certain point they can't help but do what they do (it's practically compultion) , so the same thing that makes them dangerous is what makes them predictable.
fafromnice fafromnice's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
tank you for the translate :)
What do you mean a butterfly cause this ? How a butterfly can cause an enviromental system overload on the other side of a 10 000 egos habitat ?
flatpointer flatpointer's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
Moon should be on the list. I don't want to give away too much, but the movie explores a fair couple of themes in Eclipse Phase, the non-spoiler among them being the problems of being a contract worker for a hypercorp in a remote location. Check it out - understated, not heavy on _crazy_action_ but very well-acted (Sam Rockwell! Creepy AI voiced by Kevin Spacey! Woot!).
Killebrew Killebrew's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
Not necessarily the best of examples, but [i] Repo! The Genetic Opera [/i] gives an idea of the potential pull a Hypercorp could have. Essentially the premise of the musical/film is that an epidemic resulting in massive organ failures struck humanity and GeneCo, a company dedicated to biotechnology, steps in and offers a solution by providing transplants. The catch is that they aren't free, they are willing to offer them through financing programs but they expect timely payment and defaulting on the plan has deadly consequences in the form of repossession. The aspect of biotechnology strikes me as a bit obsolete in the EP setting, however, considering the whole creation of morphs and healing vats.
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GreyBrother GreyBrother's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
Just take Blind Meg. "We give you a new morph and you will work for us!" That's indenture at its prime. And she even knows she can't escape. While not very transhuman, i agree, that it is a great inspiration for Eclipse Phase.
The Doctor The Doctor's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
GreyBrother wrote:
Just take Blind Meg. "We give you a new morph and you will work for us!" That's indenture at its prime.
The hypercorps operating on Venus sweetened the deal even more by not installing cortical stacks in the morphs they supply to indentures. Makes one less likely to make a break for it, it does...
Extrasolar Angel Extrasolar Angel's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
Not transhuman but still: HARDWARE M.A.R.K-13 Post-Fall Earth(less damaged), Reclaimers, dangers of dealing with Fall-tech items.
[I]Raise your hands to the sky and break the chains. With transhumanism we can smash the matriarchy together.[/i]
periklis periklis's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
Just finished watching this french SF film, Chrysalis. It's about sleeve-tech. Well worth watching, looks like Minority Report (the same "clinical" dystopic look) but thematically it's inspired from an earlier horror film (eyes without a face , also french).
"In role-playing games, SF and fantasy have exploded into psychotherapy" - Brian Aldiss, "Trillion Year Spree"
bakho bakho's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
Babylon A.D. with Vin Diesel. Not the best movie in the world, but it does show a dystopic future of humanity (and the AG hyperlayered New York City really looks awesome in the movie!).
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icekatze icekatze's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
hi hi I can't really think of any particularly transhuman movies out there that haven't already been mentioned. Least not any that are good. For general Eclipse Phase inspiration though, the original 1979 movie [i]Alien[/i] comes to mind. It very nearly has it all, overbearing corporations, sentient machines, X-threats, plausible treatment of space travel. I could see it as a one shot with some Planetary Consortium indents. I also think it does a pretty good job of showing how different character archetypes might respond to an unknown threat, after all not everyone is a combat expert. Only thing it is missing is resleeving into transhuman morphs.
pablofiasco pablofiasco's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
icekatze wrote:
hi hi I can't really think of any particularly transhuman movies out there that haven't already been mentioned. Least not any that are good. For general Eclipse Phase inspiration though, the original 1979 movie [i]Alien[/i] comes to mind. It very nearly has it all, overbearing corporations, sentient machines, X-threats, plausible treatment of space travel. I could see it as a one shot with some Planetary Consortium indents. I also think it does a pretty good job of showing how different character archetypes might respond to an unknown threat, after all not everyone is a combat expert. Only thing it is missing is resleeving into transhuman morphs.
actually, now that i think about it, i choose to think they do have some resleeving, after all Ripley Dies at the end of alien3, and is cloned for alien:resurrection, complete with memories/personaliety, sure any cortical stack would have been destroyed in the smelter, but maybe the used that "scrape of genetics" to clone the current body, and uploaded an old backup into it, it would make some of the odder "quirks" of that movie fit much nicer

"the hunt is not complete until the targets heart is pulled from its chest and eaten" -hunter

icekatze icekatze's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
hi hi Though some of them might be very enjoyable, I don't think the other alien movies really have an Eclipse Phase feel to them. In the first film, one can understand why they don't have a high technology solution to the problem. (and while that remains true in the third, the setting is downright archaic) The second and fourth iterations have this almost caricatured militarism theme in them that really grounds them in the previous century. The towering technological backdrop in the fourth movie it makes it hard to take their ineptitude seriously, in that it feels like the actors are essentially cave men living in the far future.
pablofiasco pablofiasco's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
good points, my one caveat:
icekatze wrote:
The towering technological backdrop in the fourth movie it makes it hard to take their ineptitude seriously, in that it feels like the actors are essentially cave men living in the far future.
bascially, how "hollywood" of Ep would portray sterotype a "Jovian Military Goons" perhaps? Rawr, we have Guns, morphs bad, we have Electronic supersonic ballbusters, Dont need no cyber, rawr, ya we got a synth, but he's so heavily restricted he cant even pick up a gun to kill non-human alien skum, rawr"

"the hunt is not complete until the targets heart is pulled from its chest and eaten" -hunter

Zen Shooter Zen Shooter's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
The television series Dollhouse deals a lot in sleeving and psychosurgery. (But of course isn't a movie.)
Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
Just ran an impromptu scenario where a Firewall agent was guided into the White Zone by a crazy Martian async scavenger... although just an improvisation, it *really* reminded me of Boris and Arkady Strugatsky's sf novel "Roadside Picnic", later filmed as Stalker by Andrei Tarkovsky. Probably a good source for gatecrashing too - weird artefacts, deadly environments looking innocuous. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalker_%28film%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadside_Picnic Hmm, now I just need to return the dog... it got decapitated by a headhunter drone.
Extropian
Rhyx Rhyx's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
Quote:
bascially, how "hollywood" of Ep would portray sterotype a "Jovian Military Goons" perhaps? Rawr, we have Guns, morphs bad, we have Electronic supersonic ballbusters, Dont need no cyber, rawr, ya we got a synth, but he's so heavily restricted he cant even pick up a gun to kill non-human alien skum, rawr"
And with how Luddite and conservative Hollywood is...they would probably be the good guys.
urdith urdith's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
Rhyx wrote:
Quote:
bascially, how "hollywood" of Ep would portray sterotype a "Jovian Military Goons" perhaps? Rawr, we have Guns, morphs bad, we have Electronic supersonic ballbusters, Dont need no cyber, rawr, ya we got a synth, but he's so heavily restricted he cant even pick up a gun to kill non-human alien skum, rawr"
And with how Luddite and conservative Hollywood is...they would probably be the good guys.
Diversion Incoming! How did someone put it? "America is conservative in the broad sense, but functionally liberal." Ask people a general question about an item (Do you support legislative health care reform?) and they will give a conservative response. But ask about specifics (Do you support a government funded program to cover poor children who are unable to afford private insurance?) and you get a liberal response. Or, the "I Am Legend" dichotomy. The Will Smith version of "I Am Legend" had two different endings. One ending preserved the 'bad guys' as mindless freaks and gave Will a 'heroic' exit from the film. This is the essential conservative view which appeals to people in the broadest sense - They're the bad guys, they don't have any redeeming qualities, and we're in the right. The other ending doesn't opt for a heroic death, but instead gives an uncomfortable realization the Enemy isn't all evil, but has reason and motivation for its actions. And by dehumanizing the enemy, the main character tainted everything he was fighting to preserve. It's more nuanced and way more uncomfortable...thus unpopular in the broad view, but understandable in smaller scale views. End Diversion Now, back to the topic at hand: WALL-E is probably the best little EP film out there. A lot of the different elements translate very well to EP, especially the portrayal of the abandoned Earth.

"The ruins of the unsustainable are the 21st century’s frontier."
— Bruce Sterling

The Green Slime The Green Slime's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
Haven't seen it myself yet, but [url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0804529/]Sleep Dealer[/url] sound slike one of the most transhumanity-themed scifi movies of recent years. It's about a guy in Mexico who takes a job that involves daily resleeving into a labour case situated hundreds of miles away on an American construction site. An excellent concept with, I imagine, a lot to say about current and future globalised economies. I believe there's also XP elements to the setting. Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mex99UVhZdo
urdith urdith's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
The Green Slime wrote:
Haven't seen it myself yet, but [url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0804529/]Sleep Dealer[/url] sound slike one of the most transhumanity-themed scifi movies of recent years. It's about a guy in Mexico who takes a job that involves daily resleeving into a labour case situated hundreds of miles away on an American construction site. An excellent concept with, I imagine, a lot to say about current and future globalised economies. I believe there's also XP elements to the setting. Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mex99UVhZdo
Sleep dealer is an excellent film. I highly recommend it. They did a great job working with a limited budget to bring this world to life in a way which felt very real.

"The ruins of the unsustainable are the 21st century’s frontier."
— Bruce Sterling

nezumi.hebereke nezumi.hebereke's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
Alien Apocalypse, starring Bruce Campbell - a great example of TITAN-run camps and a post-apocalyptic landscape The Cat from Outer Space, starring Mr. Whiskers - examples of asynch abilities Not precisely related, but still a great movie - Freejack, starring Emilio Estevez and Mick Jagger. It's unreal watching this movie, set in NYC 2009, and realizing how eerily similar it is... I wish all my Shadowrun games ran like this.
Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
"you wouldn't even catch a cold, Raszek!" that's the only line I remember from Free Jack still, it's a good inspiration, as it treats of consciousness backed up into computers and attempt to resleeve in human bodies
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emaughan emaughan's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
I did not see Bladerunner mentioned - a true groundbreaker and set the stage for cyberpunk through the 80s (best decade!). Appleseed also has some good stuff in it, synthetic humans, cyborgs, a city controlling AI, cool power armor and weapons along with great anime visuals mixed with some stupid interpersonal dialog.
Davidism Davidism's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
Equilibrium- AF paranoia, with themes on Planetary Consortium control on habitats. Kimera- an anime film. Planet of the Apes- All the films, great happenstance BF. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within- Not a good film but visually evocative.
Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
Since I just watched a few episodes again: Aeon Flux, the animated series. So many good ideas for truly weird machines, environments, people and plots.
Extropian
Lilith Lilith's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
Arenamontanus wrote:
Since I just watched a few episodes again: Aeon Flux, the animated series. So many good ideas for truly weird machines, environments, people and plots.
If you're talking about the original shorts, I suppose that makes it even more appropriate, given how the main character dies in every episode. I imagine Aeon would have an extremely difficult time getting resleeving insurance.
Decivre Decivre's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
I recently saw the film In Time, and I have to say it was an interesting parable regarding traditional economics spliced onto the backdrop of soft transhumanism. In it, the human race has genetically eliminated the aging process, and people cease physically aging at 25. In order to curb population inflation, they implement a system in which everyone has a clock on their left arm which starts off with a single year and begins counting down once they reach the age of 25. Time becomes the new currency, and people now work for hours and days rather than dollars and cents. The hyperelite of the world are effective immortals that live for hundreds of years, and have thousands to come. I won't spoil the plot for you, but it was an interesting look upon the cutthroat nature of classic capitalism, and the flaws of social Darwinism. I highly recommend.
Transhumans will one day be the Luddites of the posthuman age. [url=http://bit.ly/2p3wk7c]Help me get my gaming fix, if you want.[/url]
Decimator Decimator's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
So that movie ignores that the better off people are, the fewer kids they have?
Decivre Decivre's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
Decimator wrote:
So that movie ignores that the better off people are, the fewer kids they have?
Not really. The only wealthy parent you explicitly meet in the movie has only a single child. On the other hand, you see quite a few kids living in the ghettos. It seems like the usual status quo is maintained. Of course, this also plays into the central point of the storyline... time is a commodity, and for you to gain it, you must take it from others. For a few to be immortal, many must die.
Transhumans will one day be the Luddites of the posthuman age. [url=http://bit.ly/2p3wk7c]Help me get my gaming fix, if you want.[/url]
Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
I would strongly recommend Mardock Scramble it's a set of several linked direct-to-DVD animated movies (à la Garden of Sinners) though it's referenced as "new wave of cyberpunk", it has a lot of transhumanism tropes, and some elements that would reminds a lot of Eclipse Phase. I won't say what, because it'd spoil some of the intrigues this is story of a teenaged girl who was murdered, then brought back to life in a rebuilt body (you might say she was resleeved) and choose to cease being a victim to go after her murderers. Yet not everything is really as it seems. Played as an adventure, this would fit right into the "uncomfortable/tabou" tread of this forum! here's an AMV of the subject, on the song "Going Under" from Evanescence. Quite a fitting song. Btw, the ost of the movie(s) is quite excellent too. [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-DXdMfXjkU&feature=related[/url]
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OpenInsurgency OpenInsurgency's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
Gattaca is a movie from 1997 that has very strong EP themes; I am surprised it hasn't been mentioned. It focuses itself around the central idea of genetic enhancement, and while in essence it is a cautionary tale against genetic enhancement it provides an interesting view of a purely free-market genetic augmentation system. Very worth watching.
Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
Welcome To Gattaca is already mentionned in the corebook, actually
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bRA1N-b0X bRA1N-b0X's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
I scanned through the posts and I didn't catch anyone mentioning the television series "Quantum Leap." This may be time travel, but it's method is through consciousness transfer. Would that be a tachyon egocasting method? In a similar vein, the movies "Source Code" and "Deja Vu" use variations on that theme, I think. And with a stretch of definition, "Groundhog Day" movie and "Daybreak" (?) television series had future consciousnesses regress back in time, memories intact, which is more time-traveling egocasting, I guess. The morph is relatively the same, of course. Maybe a little less worse for wear, at least.
Gorkamorka Gorkamorka's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
I already put this up on the RPPR forum, but I thought it would belong here as well. Event Horizon in Eclipse Phase. A long range science exploration ship on a tour of the solar system sends a single SOS and then stops responding to communication. The players, who are a rescue team or a salvage team are ego cast to the nearest facility and then sent to intercept the ship. Once the players are there they find an empty ship and damaged communication gear (to keep the PC sealed in) and signs of foul play. Also as soon as all the players are in the ship something needs to happen to their rescue craft stranding them in the research ship. It turns out that the ships wasn't about exploration. It was an attempt to create a secure and covert research facility to research the exergent virus. The virus got out and infected the ships AI. Do to the exergent virus the AI gains psi equivalent of reading memories it then used the information found there to drive them the crew into to murder each other. Now the rescue crew is there with new memories for the AI to read and new minds to drive insane. To spice things up one of the players can be a firewall agent, another one a corporate implant with conflicting goals. Can the PCs solve the issue before the ship drifts close enough to a built planet to pass on the virus? What other horror movies would fit into EP?
Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
Gorkamorka wrote:
What other horror movies would fit into EP?
Many can be imported extremely simply. The Shining: the PCs are custodians on a habitat or sleeper ship in a long transfer orbit. Everything is automated, they should just relax and enjoy themselves. But what happened in the past their environment? As the stress points slowly build up they will start to crack... Dracula: an eccentric gerontocrat arrives to the habitat. Strange things are starting to happen. Exactly *what* is Mr Dragwlya? Are we talking about perverted human appetites, an exsurgent infection, or something utterly alien that is trying to blend in while it cultures qubit fungi inside the morphs of people? Attack of the Body Snatchers: All too obvious. Blair Witch Project: Why not start the game as a flashback, essentially framing the whole story as "This is what we found in the recovered stacks?" The players know things will end badly, but not how. The Thing is of course *the* classic exsurgent horror. The Fly: An ordinary egocast, and something goes wrong with one of the PCs. They get merged with someone or *something*. Gradually hallucinogenic and frightening visions and memories are emerging - and if they revert to the backup they find it corrupted too. Conversely, maybe the bodyshop they got their new morph from was not entirely kosher. Exactly *what* have they sleeved into? Rosemary's Baby: how do you make a TITAN interface for mankind? You have it grow up as a child, of course! Singularity seekers have secretly set in motion a plan to have their TITAN software manifest through a growing child, allowing it to learn how to interact with humans in a "natural" way. They just didn't tell the mother about it. Silence of the Lambs: How do you catch a horrific Fall criminal and identity thief? You make use of another one, safely (?) locked up in a simspace prison and giving advice in exchange for small favors. Except that there might be more things going on than mere human evil... and danger can spread through a few words into your ear. Psycho: The PCs need to go somewhere quiet, or visit a remote location. They egocast to a Brinker habitat, where they only see Norman as representative of the population - the others value their privacy, he claims. They also seem to be pretty xenophobic in their beliefs. Of course, the real problem is that Norman killed them... and anybody defiling their nice pure morphs by inhabiting them. In the Mouth of Madness: The PCs are sent by Firewall or some other organisation to pick up the work of a genius consultant, researching xrisks. As they get to his abode things get stranger and stranger - they encounter characters or events from his various scenarios. Which recently have gotten increasingly bizarre. And they soon start to feel as if they are inside one of his last reports, something about "cosmological psychotic breakdown"... The Monolith Monsters: A gatecrashing team accidentally brings back something that looks entirely innocuous. It isn't. Imagine getting something into a habitat that grows explosively in contact with water... or information.
Extropian
Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
Event Horizon is already part of the reference sheet, actually As for new movies: -Eva (Spain) A story about a robotic engineer pioneering in AGI programming using his niece as template, but finding out why it might be a bad, bad idea -Lockout (France, USA) An ex-CIA agent is arrested then given the mission of a risky rescue of the daughter of the president who was visiting a low orbit prison, when an mass escape occurred. - Total Recall Do I really need to introduce Total Recall to you lot?! All I 'll say that this version of TR is much closer to a PKD spirit, and somewhat progression from Minority Report visually Plenty ideas for descriptions. The city itself really reminded me of Valles New Shanghai. Instant fave!
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GreyBrother GreyBrother's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
- The Mountains of Madness It should have been just a simple exploration through one of the gates. A job rolled up by the Miskatonic University (Valles-New Shanghai) and they needed the PCs skillsets. The First Team found some strange ruins and mummified lifeforms which are similar to ruins found on another Exoplanet. The First Team didn't report back through the portal and so the PCs and their investigative Expedition are launched through the portal. They find the camp in ruins, death is everywhere, one person is missing, tracks leading west, towards the mountains and the lifeforms are buried anew. What happened here? And where is the missing teammember?
DrewDavis DrewDavis's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
Maximum Overdrive - Reclaimers make a successful landing at a survivor colony on Earth. To their dismay the survivors are being used as bait by a group of sapient motor vehicles. Can the characters survive and rescue the survivors? The Mist - Colonists on an exoplanet are trapped in a supply depot as a storm and sudden arrival of local mega-fauna mangle their colony outside. Old rivalries flare in the close quarters and a strange madness starts to overtake the survivors. Inside the depot may be the only place more dangerous then outside.
urdith urdith's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
I probably missed the reference but Videodrome would should be on anyone's list of horror influences for Eclipse Phase. Conspiracies, dangerous information hidden in media signals, unexpected growth of unusual organs due to exposure to messages hidden in data, and infolife in the form of Dr. Brian O'Blivion, who exists entirely on television.

"The ruins of the unsustainable are the 21st century’s frontier."
— Bruce Sterling

Christian de Kell Christian de Kell's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
Useful movies with a EP accent: -Stargate series (SG1 and Atlantis) ----> Stargates = Pandora Gates... -"Silent Running" film -Outland (Atmósfera Cero) film
Quincey Forder Quincey Forder's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
Lockout: former spy to rescue the First Daughter from a orbital jail during a massive breakout. It screams Jovian Junta themed operation with a crazy vilain EVA: Spanish flick about a robotics programmer using his niece as template for robot personna, finding himself in the middle of a family tragedy. very nice and poetic visual ideas for psychosurgery and object programming Battleship. suffice to say that the alien canon shells look a lot like a TITAN touched reaper morph, and the aliens themself would do great Exhumans
[center] Q U I N C E Y ^_*_^ F O R D E R [/center] Remember The Cant! [img]http://tinyurl.com/h8azy78[/img] [img]http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg205/tachistarfire/theeye_fanzine_us...
GreyBrother GreyBrother's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
Meh, i thought the aliens in Battleship would just be some interesting Dvergr with a hedgehog glued to the chin, but thats just me, making everything silly probably. Who would give Iron Sky points for being "eclipse-worthy"? :D
King Shere King Shere's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
Since Eclipse Phase has simulspaces basically any movie can be used inside them & thus be in Eclipse Phase. Anime movie, Magnetic Rose Space Scifi Salvage & junkcleaning crew picks up a distress call from a retired socialites space ship/habitat. Cabin in the woods, Parody/Horror/Thriller, Dont wont risk spoil this with a deeper description
Murdoch Murdoch's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
Screamers; based upon a novel from Philip K Dick as some elements of it. Like Two side battling and ending up trying to survive as their weapons reached autonomy. Horror and survival also. I also thought that In Time, while being full of scenaristic holes; was a good example of society organized slavery (or indenture), time being earned by working and spent for everything; and they show really well how they could indeed increase time for contracts. So you want us to preserve an actualized backup of you in case you meet some threats and get destroyed? Extra fee. You want to take a pause that you don't really need? Extra fee. You make a mistake that cause us loosing money? Extra fee. Your original backup maintenance? Extra fee Oh; but we are kind; whatever ressources you use as you re working for us is given a discount integrated in the calculation of your contract time. Meet you in 10 years; citizen. Enjoy Life... On the other hand, there are the ludicrously rich immortals. Johnny Mnemonic and the novel from Gibson, Neuromancer, also makes up for some transhumanism, as there are some rich assholes living in space habitats; who are old like mathusalem and get every health take you could think of, while at the bottom corporate slaves take some dangerous contracts hoping for better life. There are also anarchist. Indeed; whatever qualifies as cyberpunk can be seen as premises for transhumanist I guess. The Fifth Element may also be not gritty compared to EP, but when you see the treatment reserved to Willis, not even qualified as human; the overcrowding; some kind of "body refactoring by using some fancy tech that could not be far from conurcopia things", some kind of ascetism in the Mangalore aliens, I found some similitudes. At last, Demolition Man has a thought free society; edited with brainwashing, mind reeducation and reprogramming; some kind of "cold storage" (ok, bad pun intended) and "skill softs", and social discrimination. Plus cool guns;)
What piece of work is a Man, How noble in Reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, In action how like an Angel! In apprehension how like a god, the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals. and yet to me, what i
Murdoch Murdoch's picture
Re: Eclipse Phase inspiration: Transhuman Movies
Just thought of Limitless; for the mind improving drug and some takes about improved mental abilities (YMMV about the fact they are hitting the spot or not, yet)
What piece of work is a Man, How noble in Reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, In action how like an Angel! In apprehension how like a god, the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals. and yet to me, what i
hyades hyades's picture
as a long time lurker, I
as a long time lurker, I finally have something to contribute... Has anyone here by any chance seen Alien Cargo http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0184197/ ? Because aside from being an astonishingly well-made scifi movie, that one totally reminded me of Eclipse Phase, especially the great "Continuity" scenario. The setting is a colonized Solar System and the protagonists are the crew of a long-haul freighter departing Titan on course for a certain major problem.
Spoiler: Highlight to view
The premise that some far-out spacecraft picks up a piece of space-junk that then begins infecting the crew is basically the same as in Continuity. And the two protagonists really act like true Firewall sentinels at the end.
btw Jason Londons banter conjures up some nice reminiscenses of Randall "Pink" Floyd...in spaace;-)
[...] vidi ingentis portenta ruinae, vidi hominum divumque metus hilaremque Megaeram et Lachesin putri vacuantem saecula penso. Stat. Theb. 3, 640-42.
nezumi.hebereke nezumi.hebereke's picture
Thank you for the
Thank you for the recommendation! There are not nearly enough good sci-fis out there.

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