Editorial 28/01/2015- Random Spec-Fic Concepts

The area of speculative fiction (science fiction and fantasy) seems to be in a sort of dry spell lately. There are still great films in these areas coming out, as my Top 7 of 2014 list can attest to. The problem is that none of those are truly original concepts. Almost all are based on franchises that have been running since the last decade, and many of their tropes are heavily recycled from almost every major summer blockbuster. With five sequels, three post-apocalypse films, two time-travel plots, and something that borders parody, one might even say that Hollywood has run clean out of ideas. However, there are still several science and fantasy concepts that have either fallen out of usage or just haven't brought up everything that they can give. These are a few picks of mine and my thoughts on how they could be used to make a fresher movie market.

Alternative History

For those not in the know, this is a plot that develops off of the infamous "what if" question. This isn't exactly an uncommon trope, but it's not really used for anything other than "What if the Nazis won World War II?" There are multiple other turning points in history that the question can apply towards. For instance, "what if the South won the American Civil War?" "What if the Persian Empire never collapsed?" or even "What if the Dinosaurs never went extinct?" all deserve at least a good ounce of thought, and each can produce an infinite amount of themes based on where you show the perspective from.

Boltzmann Brains

Perhaps the least understood principle of the universe is entropy, or the tenancy for matter to break down into a more chaotic state. One philosopher, a certain Ludwig Boltzmann (1844-1906) suggested that the universe is a series of fluctuations of chaos and that the more extreme areas can bend what we truly know about time and space. Taken to its logical depths, this means that literally anything can happen. Perhaps a random being can come into existence from absolutely nothing, or disasters can arise from the laws of physics breaking apart. Perhaps the closest thing we've come to a plot like either of these is Roland Emmerich's "2012", which could barely be considered a decent example of what this field can do.

Cyberspace Translation

In 1982, there came a spectacular revolution in filmmaking- TRON. While not the perfect film, it was the first to extensively use computer animation to tell the story of a man sent to the world inside a corrupt corporation's computer network. What resulted was a truly thought-provoking look at religion, of all things. It was immensely creative, and introduced the concept of entering cyberspace as a world, not as an omnipotent being. (I'm looking at you, "Transcendence"!) We've started to explore this idea more with films like "Source Code", and games like "Halo 4", but I have a feeling that those are only the tip of the iceberg.

Dungeonpunk

Sir Isaac Clarke is quoted as saying "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic," suggesting that the later is simply anything we don't understand. What if we looked at it backwards, though? What if magic became advanced enough for practical uses and started looking like modern technology? Would phantoms build automatons to allow more freedom of movement? Would elementals create steam or wind to push trains and cars? Would there be anti-transcendentalists pushing against using this new technology for fear out of what it can do? It may not sound like much, but outside of a handful of paperbacks and cartoons, this hasn't been explored to much ingenuity, in spite of how many new ideas could come out of it.

Minimalism

If there is one thing that bogs down any movie, it's the exposition. Often, at the beginning of a speculative fiction film, we are forced to sit through an expo-dump that has to explain everything relevant about the universe we want to be a part of. Even so, any or every plot device thereafter has to have some unique feature that only makes sense in their world, so the audience has to listen to them explain everything again. It can disconnect the viewer from the situation, especially if there is a narrator involved, and it doesn't leave them feeling any smarter. Perhaps if there were only a few subtle hints laid throughout the piece to give it some context, we may eliminate the need for that type of exposition, or even dialogue in general if we do it cleverly enough. A few experimental films have tried this ("All is Lost". starring Robert Redford being a prime example) and I'm excited to see what happens when a bigger investment is placed.

Religion and Science Vs. Evil

Think about the last time you saw religion in a fantasy or science fiction film. Without even knowing what it was, I'm going to say that that film treated it rather antagonistically.

Was I right?

Society in general has developed a philosophy that says religion is basically useless compared to science, that it represents the ignorance and stubbornness of mankind. It's become very heated on Youtube discussion boards, and, frankly, neither side seems to be giving a point besides "I'm right and you're wrong". Perhaps we need to show something that says that it doesn't have to be one or the other. True, religious extremists have started several wars in the past, and everyone's afraid of the mad scientist who'll give us the next atom bomb, but neither side is wholly false or evil. The whole truth can only come out if we look at the positives of each side.

Siamese Twins

Imagine being born attached to a duplicate of yourself, sharing a skeletal system and several vital organs so that you can never successfully be separated. You may never be alone for the rest of your life, because half of 'you' isn't you. Siamese twins (or, more accurately, conjoined twins) have always been a spectacle in live entertainment as well as in philosophy, mostly because of the questions it poses about identity and biology. Unfortunately, these questions never make it on the screen. Whenever conjoined twins do appear in film, they are often minor, unimportant characters that never really use any clever writing. You could see those or the ones (twos?) that only add a bizarre atmosphere. It may not be necessary or immediate, considering the cost of putting two live actors in one costume, but there are definitely some larger creative leaps that can be taken here.

Wonderlands

Remember when the world of nonsense was really nonsense? Before they were generic "Hero's Journey" remakes, Alice's Wonderland was a place where you could never run into the same person twice until the climax, Oz was a mystical land of friendly scarecrows and a Lollipop Guild, and the land of fairy tales was a place of solid good and evil. Nobody really seems to be making these types of stories for the experience anymore, though. Everything must now be darker and gritter, and it all has to make sense. There's no playing with the rules of story structure, no random encounters, and- most importantly- no fun. This can't be the case for every movie or book, though. Something has to bring us back up to the minimalistic idea of trying to find a few things out for ourselves. Some of the more recent dealers of this trope were the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" trilogy of six, Terry Pratchett's "Discworld" series, and many of Neil Gaiman's works, all of which were immensely enjoyable. We all just need to remember at some point that "respectable" and  "smart" do not have to clash with "wild" and "bizarre".

As I mentioned earlier, there are still a few ideas that can be used in mainstream science fiction and fantasy without digging into old, broken ideas. Even so, these are simply my ideas and not necessarily demands. I do hope, though, that someone somewhere can get the creative spark needed to make this worn field fresh and exciting again. If you have some ideas, we here at Th'Den Wheja would be happy to hear them, so let us know in the comments, or send us an eMail with what you'd like to see in the cinema of the future. Perhaps you may be the one to help revolutionize the field of speculative fiction.