Shadowrun Master Movie List, Alphabetized even Options

[Wesley Street]

Have you seen either of those movies?

First, there is a whole discussion about "Dude..." in another thread that makes a compelling argument. As for Legally Blonde, I'm going to guess it has something to do with Elle being an uber-Face.

Of course!

Can you give me a link to the "Dude" discussion thread? Now I'm intrigued.

I'm still not convinced on "Legally Blonde", despite Elle's potential as an uber-Face ("Election" would be a more appropriate choice if we're talking Reese Witherspoon movies (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) ). Really, any movie about a slick-talking lawyer/gambler/criminal would fit the bill as a "Face" movie. Glengarry Glenn Ross isn't a Shadowrun movie despite the real-estate salesmen/Faces, rainy nighttime setting and thievery.

[Kyoto Kid]

But it's the concepts I just listed that are unique to Shadowrun. So using those criteria here's what I came up with in terms of a movie list along with what Shadowrun elements apply. Please note that these are only the films I've seen and I don't claim to be an expert... there are more out there.
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I welcome additions!

Two that come to mind...

...Enemy of the State [Computer based subterfuge, SINless (invisible) lifestyle, covert ops]
...The Net [Computer based subterfuge, Hackers, Internet (matrix) terrorism]

[Green Eyed Monst...]

Silver Streak [Pretty good Face example, getting through security checkpoints, motivation for running, racism]
Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man [armored long coats]

[martindv]

Of course!

Can you give me a link to the "Dude" discussion thread? Now I'm intrigued.

I'm still not convinced on "Legally Blonde", despite Elle's potential as an uber-Face ("Election" would be a more appropriate choice if we're talking Reese Witherspoon movies (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) ). Really, any movie about a slick-talking lawyer/gambler/criminal would fit the bill as a "Face" movie. Glengarry Glenn Ross isn't a Shadowrun movie despite the real-estate salesmen/Faces, rainy nighttime setting and thievery.

No. But it's Mamet, and it's good.

If your group can't take away the inspiration to make your games better, you're out of luck. Every time I've seen it it makes me want to be a better role-player.

Let me be more blunt. If someone can't sit through that movie, they don't sit at my table. I don't want someone who can't "get" Mamet gaming with me. It tends to result in a "black" campaign being interrupted by some jerkoff playing a troll with ADD. And I mean, it's not like I'm asking someone to sit down to an Albee production. This is a guy who worked on Ronin, The Shield, and created The Unit.

Hey, gee, what's that that's a running thread through all of his work? It's the con! What do you know, he writes about complex manipulations and backstabs. Why on Earth would a masterpiece of said peculiarity not be required by any Shadowrun player or GM with standards? It's not like that's a staple of the game.

Oh... Wait. It is.

[Dallas]

There are some good movies on that list, but many of them are not the least bit shadowrunny.

[Aaron]

Can you list its Shadowrun elements [of Shoot Em Up]?

• Adept-like action hero.
• Plot driven by government and corporate intrigue.
• Hero living in a slum/barrens.
• High-tech firearms.

[Wesley Street]

No. But it's Mamet, and it's good.

If your group can't take away the inspiration to make your games better, you're out of luck. Every time I've seen it it makes me want to be a better role-player.

Let me be more blunt. If someone can't sit through that movie, they don't sit at my table. I don't want someone who can't "get" Mamet gaming with me. It tends to result in a "black" campaign being interrupted by some jerkoff playing a troll with ADD. And I mean, it's not like I'm asking someone to sit down to an Albee production. This is a guy who worked on Ronin, The Shield, and created The Unit.

Hey, gee, what's that that's a running thread through all of his work? It's the con! What do you know, he writes about complex manipulations and backstabs. Why on Earth would a masterpiece of said peculiarity not be required by any Shadowrun player or GM with standards? It's not like that's a staple of the game.

Oh... Wait. It is.

As a huge fan of Mamet (and a film snob) I completely agree. You can pull bits and pieces of what would make a good Shadowrun game (or any action/intrigue RPG) from any of his films. Spartan, The Unit, The Spanish Prisoner, Glengarry Glen Ross, The Edge, and Wag the Dog all have elements that you could (and should) pull into any slick-con, tactics and survival based game. There are many, many other good movies that are required-viewing for good story telling GMs. But when it comes to setting and tone none of those films really toes the Shadowrun line, you know? They're gold-standard movies but so is Citizen Kane. Not like it's a Shadowrun movie (it's just noir).

Hmmm... a dying Damien Knight calls out for his cyberdeck "Rosebud". Dibs on this idea! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

I guess my baseline standard for a Shadowrun-style setting movie is something like Blade Runner or Strange Days. Your mileage my vary.

Trolls with ADD catch bullets in the brainpan in my games. I don't mess around with gamer stupidity and I run a tight ship when it comes to character creation. So I sympathize there. One of my players hasn't seen Blade Runner all the way through. I have my mental crosshairs on him. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[knasser]

I haven't read through this whole thread, so I apologise if it's already been listed, but if it hasn't I think I've just found a new one.

Haven't actually seen this, but I think the trailer alone is... sufficient.

The Machine Girl

(Warning: Limited character development).

-K.

[Redjack]

Wow.... That was just..... wrong. Granted it appears no worse than some of Tarantino's new stuff... but I guess that's the point..

[knasser]

Wow.... That was just..... wrong. Granted it appears no worse than some of Tarantino's new stuff... but I guess that's the point..

It's better than Tarantino's stuff - it doesn't pretend to be ironic art.

[tisoz]

• Adept-like action hero.
• Plot driven by government and corporate intrigue.
• Hero living in a slum/barrens.
• High-tech firearms.

I have not seen the movie and only remember the line you want to buy bullets with food stamps? from the preview. I am reluctant to cite the reasons you give as many action heroes could be described as Adept-like, and I do not know the degree of government/corp intrigue (and since you state both, it sounds wishy-washy.) Is the slum the hero lives in a good representation of the barrens? And just how high tech ae the firearms? Are some of them representative of specific SR firearms or something like a smartlink?

I can not say having not seen the movie, and your short points seem to assume everyone has. There has been too much complaint about including every other movie that is released, that until someone clarifies the SRishness, I am reluctant to include it.

It would be nice if everyone could state why when nominating a movie. It would also be nice if people went through the listed movies, especially the ones with no SR references cited and listed their SR features. Someone at some time said it should be on the list. If enough people say take it off with no one defending it, the title is coming off.

[hyzmarca]

I have not seen the movie and only remember the line you want to buy bullets with food stamps? from the preview. I am reluctant to cite the reasons you give as many action heroes could be described as Adept-like, and I do not know the degree of government/corp intrigue (and since you state both, it sounds wishy-washy.) Is the slum the hero lives in a good representation of the barrens? And just how high tech ae the firearms? Are some of them representative of specific SR firearms or something like a smartlink?

I can not say having not seen the movie, and your short points seem to assume everyone has. There has been too much complaint about including every other movie that is released, that until someone clarifies the SRishness, I am reluctant to include it.

It would be nice if everyone could state why when nominating a movie. It would also be nice if people went through the listed movies, especially the ones with no SR references cited and listed their SR features. Someone at some time said it should be on the list. If enough people say take it off with no one defending it, the title is coming off.

The plot of Shoot 'Em Up is that an anti-gun Congressman has an absurd plan to ban firearms that somehow had popular support. A mid-sized family-owned handgun manufacturer notices that if handguns were banned they'd go out of business and thus decides that it would be best if the Congressman died. They couldn't just shoot him because then he'd be a martyr to his cause. However, they discover that he has a terminal illness and will soon die without a transplant and that, in a desperate last-ditch attempt to create a compatible donor he has secretly impregnated several women with his clone offspring.
Thus, the corporation's hit-squad is sent after these women, killing them one-by-one knowing that once all of them are dead their enemy's death is inevitable. However, the the gun manufacturer is eventually able to get into contact with the Congressman about this matter once there is only one baby left and the Congressman decides that he likes living more than he hates handguns agreeing to intentionally tank his bill in exchange for the baby's bone marrow.

The protagonist is the son is a gunsmith who was a military special ops guy until becoming disillusioned with the morality of the government and settling down to a quiet life running his family gun store and then became dissillusioned with gunsmithing and gave up that career after a weapon he sold was used to kill his wife and child. Having no skills other than making guns and killing people and being disillusioned with both, he settles into a upper-squatter-class lifestyle in the loft of an abandoned factory and occasionally does criminal odd jobs (apparent from the backstory but not actually seen in the movie).

As to the protagonist's adept-like abilities.
In the beginning of the movie he sees a bunch of thugs chasing a pregnant woman. The thugs have guns but he does not. He only has carrots. So he kills the thug by stabbing him to death with a carrot and takes his gun, eventually killing all the thugs and helping deliver the woman's child before she herself is killed by the antagonist. He then takes the baby to a playground and leaves it on the merry-go-round on the assumption that it will be found by a good family and taken home. However, he notices just in the nick of time that a corporate sniper is aiming at the baby and, to disrupt the sniper's shot, he shoots one of the merry-go-round's handles, causing the merry-go-round to start spinning. He does this repeatedly, without missing, to make the merry-go-round spin faster and faster and escapes before the sniper can compensate for it.
There is also a scene in which the protagonist is having sex with the female lead (a lactation fetish prostitute who he went to because he needed someone to nurse the baby) and corporate SWAT busts into the room. The protagonist proceeds to single-handedly take out the entire SWAT team while having sex with the female lead, never once pausing the activity during all of the killing.

For high tech firearms, the villains (except for the hired thugs at the beginning) use SOTA guns with biometric locks so that they can only be fired by someone with the correct fingerprint. The protagonist gets around this by simply cutting off a villain's hand.

All in all, it is an extremely violent live-action Bugs Bunny cartoon, with the protagonist taking the role of Bugs Bunny (he even eats carrots and says "what's up, Doc" to drive this home) and the antagonist in the role of a slick semi-competent amoral misogynistic Elmer Fudd.

[Aaron]

Don't forget about the gun battle in free-fall.

Basically, it's a budget film by an indie director.

[Critias]

It's also one that drives some people batty, because they can't wrap their head around the fact that it's a tongu in cheek (albeit affectionate) sort of homage flick towards all the existing "Shoot 'Em Up" flicks that came before. The one-liners, the insane gunplay, the stereotypical "Go To Guy" with the long-barrel revolver fetish, all that fun stuff -- it was by no means meant to be a "real" action movie.

[Nath]

Since you include obscure French movie in the list: Les loups entre eux, 1985, released under the title Among wolves in english-speaking countries. A team of deniable assets (that point is clearly stated) comprising mercenaries of various origins, a burglar, a rock climber and a dog handler, is sent to rescue a NATO general held hostage. Not an action movie, as it most of it focuses mostly on how the teammembers with different background relate during the op planning and training.

Les loups entre eux [SR style teamwork and SR style team]

[Phantastik]

Pretty comprehensive list!

I'd certainly add Jean-Jacques Beineix's "Diva", which has a very Paris "Shadowrun" feel.

And while it's not particularly high-tech, a Thai film called "Bangkok Dangerous" is one of the grittiest assassin flicks I've seen.

[Wesley Street]

There are definite elements of SR in "Shoot 'Em Up" (like the evil fire-arms manufacturer) but I'm bouncing back and forth one whether it's a SR movie or not. The SOTA pistols with the finger-print safeties are starting to enter the mainstream arms market now in the form of holsters (I'll post a link to the article I read shortly). Mr. Smith's abilities, while "adept-like" on screen, are meant to exaggerate the invulnerability of traditional action film protagonists. But, they would be good examples to show a player how a gun slinger adept would look and move. And he just lived in an abandoned building... not really a lawless Barrens. If the movie took place 10+ years in the future, Smith was jacked up on cybertech, and he lived in a burned-out Mad Max urban wasteland I'd be more inclined to agree.

Just as an aside, if you liked "Shoot 'Em Up" you should check out "Crank." Same kind of movie but add twenty doses of meth and Jason Statham. It has some SR elements too (and the plot itself would make for a great SR game session).

[DocTaotsu]

Zatoichi's been around since forever, I ran into a 5 disc box set over here in Japan. And I was informed that it wasn't complete.

Plus the new one is pure movie goodness, the ending song and dance routine just rounds out a delightfully enjoyable movie.

[thorr]

I'd like to see the list split into movies with a shadowrun setting vs movies with sr elements or feel to it. I think that would make things alot simpler even if some movies might be debatable about which list to end up on.

[nathanross]

Zatoichi's been around since forever, I ran into a 5 disc box set over here in Japan. And I was informed that it wasn't complete.

Plus the new one is pure movie goodness, the ending song and dance routine just rounds out a delightfully enjoyable movie.

Zatoichi is like 26 movies + one that came out in 2003. Im only up to like the 11th movie and Ive been watching it hardcore.

BTW, is Machine Girl out yet? That movie looks GREAT! I also must agree that it is better than Tarantino. It makes absolutely no excuse about what it is, Yakuza, Ninja, Decapitator, Tempura, Saw Bra, and hot high school girl with minigun. OH YEAH!

[chromedog]

I couldn't see Immortel (Immortal) on the list.

A french film by French Croatian Director Enki Bilal based upon his comic series "nikopol". It's a live action/CG strange amalgam of various styles and themes. A couple of years old, it was either 2005 or 2006. Essentially as French as it gets. It has entries on Imdb.

Visually, a cross between The Fifth Element, and Final Fantasy:the spirits within, by way of "Sky captain".

It's set in New York, 2095 with towering skylines and overhead cableways (cars don't fly through the air, they're more like a scenic skyway kinda thing, but you can fly up to an away from the 'grid').

[Wesley Street]

Awww, man. I can't believe I forgot about Immortel! I highly recommend this one. Switch out the shapeshifting Egyptian gods in their flying pyramid with dragons and the weird-looking bio-engineered people with metahumans and you've got Shadowrun. This comment would be more appropriate for the comics thread but any Enki Bilal comic is worth a read.

I'm all for creating an "Elements of Shadowrun" movie-list and an "Almost-or-Just-Like Shadowrun" movie-list.

[Wesley Street]

Just remembered another one. The Korean film Natural City. Take Blade Runner, add a heaping helping of Asian-style gunfights and there you go. It's actually so much like Blade Runner, visually and story-wise, it's almost funny. But it isn't a bad film. Worth a rent at least.

[pbangarth]

Not out yet, but coming this year will be The Expendables, a movie about mercenaries in South America. Get this: Sylvester Stallone, Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, and Arnold Schwartzenegger.

[hahnsoo]

Not out yet, but coming this year will be The Expendables, a movie about mercenaries in South America. Get this: Sylvester Stallone, Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, and Arnold Schwartzenegger.

AND Jet Li. AND Dolph Lundgren. AND Jason Statham (The Transporter/Transporter 2, you'll recognize him). The cast is studded with more stars than an Astronomy textbook.