movies with a shadowrun feel Options

[Nikoli]

For me:
City of Lost Children, great Dystopic feel
Dark City, again Dystopic with some awakening
The Indiana Jones collection, Jones is so a phys ad with Cursed Karma
Predator, for that Merc feel
Farscape, Law enforcement run amok
Babylon 5, goverment and corps run amok
The Mission, one mans journey of redemption through blood shed
Shawshank redemption, a good dystopic study of cause and effect in a closed system

(and for the record, while Jet knows everybody, he fits the Detective template moreso. Faye is the Face as she tries to sweet talk her way in. Ein and Ed are otaku, and well Spike is Spike)

[Tanka]

Well, considering how much Faye sucks at negotiations, I highly doubt she's the Face. Maybe Face-on-the-side, but not Face.

[Nikoli]

I didn't say she was good.

[Garland]

[Black Isis]

No one has menitoned Big Trouble In Little China, which, while silly, is an amusing blend of crazy kungfu and fantasy.

Escape from New York is specifically noted in Bug City as the atmosphere for the setting.

[Guest_Crimsondude 2.0_*]

Really? It has before, although maybe not in this thread.

[Ol' Scratch]

I always thought that the European ending for Army of Darkness was a great set-up for Bug City, too. I even used it in a Halloween game where we all got to design movie characters for a mindless bug splattering session, and I chose Ash. :D

[Toxic_Waste]

Anyone mention the A-Team yet?

[Prospero]

I love it when a plan comes together! 8)

[Nikoli]

Not to mention, the true archetypical "Face"

[PBTHHHHT]

What else needs to be mentioned...

Anyone seen the movie 'The Perfect Score'?
High schoolers learning the basics of Shadowrun while trying to steal the SAT's!

Also there's that other movie
Foolproof. I saw that on dvd last year and was pleasantly surprised.

Oh, another recommendation... Safehouse starring patrick stewart.
Here, he's an ex-operative who's past is coming back to haunt him. All the while he's dealing with his grown daughter and the progression of alzheimers. I think this is a great little story for maybe an ex-runner who's really getting long in the tooth and is trying to live the quiet life, but alas the past does not want to stay buried... or is he just getting delusional?

[Nikoli]

That was a great movie, loved the ending.

[FSBO]

I am surprised that "Once upon a time in the West.", "The professionals", "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.", "A fist full of Dollars", "The Outlaw Josey Wales" and "The Seven Samurai/The magnificent seven". Didn't make the lists. Granted mostly westerns but the situations and the feel all reek of Shadowrun.

[Nikoli]

as do the remakes
Also:
The Last Boyscout
Diehard
The Whole 9 yards

[Tanka]

[DeadNeon]

[kevyn668]

What about "The Golden Child"?

[Arethusa]

[Patrick Goodman]

[Foreigner]

Greetings, all.

I personally prefer action flicks, or the occasional film about assassins.

I've seen both versions (in fact, I own them on VHS tape) of THE DAY OF THE JACKAL--the 1973 original (starring Edward Fox and Michel Lonsdale), as well as the 1997 remake (called simply THE JACKAL) starring Bruce Willis, Sidney Poitier, and Richard Gere.

I've also seen RONIN, and I have a VHS tape of it, as well as others, such as THE EIGER SANCTION, which I've also seen--although it isn't really a Shadowrun-type movie, there isn't a much better example of "the reluctant spy-assassin working for a faceless secret government agency" genre than this mid-1970's Clint Eastwood film; the only other example that comes to mind is the mid-1980's action/comedy film REMO WILLIAMS--THE ADVENTURE BEGINS, starring Fred Ward, Joel Gray, and Wilford Brimley, and based upon THE DESTROYER series of novels created by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy.

I also own a VHS copy of THE PROFESSIONAL, although I haven't managed to find the time to watch it yet.

A couple of less-well-known examples, which I also own VHS copies of, are the Bridget Fonda star vehicle POINT OF NO RETURN, which is a remake of the more well-known--and better-made, according to most people who've seen both films-- foreign film LA FEMME NIKITA, and CODENAME: JAGUAR (released to cable under the title SUBLET, although most video stores probably have it under the first title), starring David Carradine (although he has a minor role, he's the most-well-known member of the cast).

Another film which might fit into the SR genre (at least as far as the basic plot is concerned--a professional criminal, victim of a double-cross-- returns (after being shot and left for dead) for revenge upon his betrayers, is PAYBACK, starring Mel Gibson and Kris Kristofferson, a remake of the classic Lee Marvin film POINT BLANK.

Another couple which might fit (although the first is essentially a made-for-cable remake of the aforementioned Arnold Schwarzenegger film THE RUNNING MAN), are the 1997 Rutger Hauer star vehicles WEDLOCK (a/k/a DEADLOCK)and 1989's BLIND FURY, a blind-swordsman flick which may have been inspired by the classic 1963 version of the Japanese film Zatoichi kenka-tabe (released in 1968 in the U.S. under the title ZATOICHI'S FIGHTING JOURNEY (I'm not certain of this, as I've only seen the Rutger Hauer film)).

The basic plot of Robert A. Heinlein's STARSHIP TROOPERS would also work--set it inside the Chicago Containment Zone instead of on an alien planet, substitute UCAS Special Forces or Marines in powered (or unpowered) Mil-Spec armor for the Troopers, and Bug Spirits for the insectoid alien Bugs in the original book, or the 1997 film loosely based upon it. The same idea would also work for the ALIEN series, although the second film, ALIENS, would most likely be the easiest to adapt.

Also, at least five of the films in the James Bond series would work as SR plots, with minor revisions--GOLDFINGER, its remake A VIEW TO A KILL, THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, and MOONRAKER (all three of which deal with a megalomaniacal industrialist intent on some form of world control (cornering some sort of world market in the first two--gold in GOLDFINGER, the market in computer chips in A VIEW TO A KILL), or total control over the Earth itself by destroying existing civilization and replacing it with a better one (THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, MOONRAKER). Although it's a little *TOO* campy for my tastes, Christopher Lee's character, "Francisco Scaramanga", in THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN, is another film example of "the world's best assassin"--in this case, an "independent contractor" working only for money, and for anyone who can afford his services ($1,000,000 U.S.; it doesn't sound like much today, but at the time the film was released (1974), that was a fortune). [Although I suppose you could recreate the character for SR, using such stuff as a Zoe` Futura suit (white linen, of course :)), and either a Shiawase Puzzler LP (closest in design to the original "Golden Gun", except that it's a semiautomatic repeater and the original was a single-shot) , or a Weapons World Infiltrator HP, loaded with Hi-C ammunition.]

End rant. :D

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

I now return you to your regularly-scheduled Dumpshock Forums. ;)

--Foreigner

This post has been edited by Foreigner: Nov 14 2005, 08:09 PM

[Tanka]

Augh, Remo Williams, augh!

Good movie, but horribly cheesy.

[Necro Tech]

I scrolled through and don't know if it got a mention but I just saw a movie called Series 7. It takes the form of a reality television show that I can imagine being very popular in 2064. Its got manufactured drama, cheesey heartfelt moments, serious propaganda and a bunch of wackos, just like regular reality TV. It was fun and seriously disturbing to watch.

[Shadow]

[Ol' Scratch]

I preferred the "American" ending, too. But the European one fit the Bug City scenario better.

[kevyn668]

Here's two more that I don't think have been said:

Cloak and Dagger, starring Dabney Coleman and Grosse Pointe Blank with John Cusak and Minni Driver.

Good flicks.