Your Personal Continuity - Page 3

To actually add to the thread topic. Bruce Willis is playing a disgraced and forgotten super soldier Captain America in Live Free or Die Hard. That's the only way to enjoy the batshit action in the film.

It's no coincidence that Agent Coulson from S.H.I.E.L.D. and "Michael Casper," the FBI liaison to the Bartlett administration (The West Wing) are the same person.  (Actor Clark Gregg btw)

Apologies if some feel this is a dead horse but...

My personal continuity is that the Star Wars saga is effectively a chronicle told in four parts telling the story of Luke's journey into manhood as he learns the value of freedom, friendship and loyalty and realises his own potential as a philosopher-warrior.

The series begins with Star Wars (erroneously labelled as Episode IV in a typographical mistake not picked up in the challenging production of the first film then turned into an ongoing in joke by the film's creative team), continues with ESB and then on into ROTJ.

After the scene where Yoda confirms that the story told to Luke by Vader that he is in fact Luke's father is true, Ben sits Luke down and relates the story of Vader's fall to the dark side. At this point we flashback to the weeks before Luke's birth and the events of ROTS unfold, effectively as an extended exposition by Kenobi revealing his last encounter with Vader, the identity and rise of the Emperor and the existence of Luke's sister.

After Ben tells him the story of the duel and how he and his sister Leia are hidden at the time of his birth, we rejoin the "present" of ROTJ. Luke goes off to engage with his friends and the sister he never knew he had to help the Rebellion in their final battle with the Empire. Having been told the story of his birth, Luke is armed with the knowledge that since his father's fall was brought about by the love for Luke's mother, perhaps there is goodness in him after all that can be reached and turned against the Emperor.

As the audience we are left wondering whether the narration of ROTS is entirely reliable, or whether Kenobi continues to manipulate Luke by telling a story "from a certain point of view". Perhaps Kenobi as a last roll of the dice banks on the compassion stirred within Luke, the understanding that facing death is more important than defeating it, and Luke's desire to protect a woman who may be his only surviving relative will in and of themselves be the catalyst to generating enough conviction and commitment to swing Vader at the last to help Luke overthrow the Emperor.

As an experimental film to test new technologies, the creator of the Star Wars saga, George Lucas, separately makes a standalone children's story (playing more explicitly with a homage to his great influences, John Ford and Akira Kurosawa) set in the same universe. The Phantom Menace tells the story of two children, one a slave and one a queen, who overcome an opportunistic attempt to invade the queen's planet with the help of two Jedi and the planet's other race of unsophisticated amphibians. Like all good experimental movies it leaves the audience uncertain whether several characters and indeed all those affected by the children's victory over the pillaging invaders will truly live happily ever after.

There is no fifth film.

The Star Wars saga consists of two chapters and a big-ass appendix. I consider ROTJ authorized fanfic.

 

Also, for the record, that 'typographical error' didn't pop up until 1980, with the theatrical rerelease of Star Wars: The Movie That Has No Other Name.

...written by an f'ing 5 year old.

Gentlemen, Return of the Jedi may be my least favourite of the original trilogy, but it's still nowhere near as bad as fan-fiction. I enjoy the odd bit of well-chosen hyperbole to get the point across as much as the next guy, but come on. The climactic dogfight and resultant attack on Death Star 2.0 alone are too good for that argument to stand up.

Yeah I know, you're right. My Jedi bashing is just a result of having a case of the "Monday's".

Space: Above and Beyond begins its second season with West and Hawkes breaking in the green Marines assigned to reenforce the 58th "Wild Cards". Runs for 5 seasons.

The very concept of Death Star 2 may be the thing I hate the most about that film. It should be the poster child for creative bankruptcy. No slight intended to the FX artists, who did indeed knock themselves out.

Can you tell me why you don't like Mondays, Art?

 

 

I have to say, that honestly never bothered me. While I can see how it doesn't work for you, I appreciate the logic in trying to build a more powerful version of the weapon that so nearly took care of business for the Empire before. There's no getting around the similarity between the two battles: effectively two trench runs, one inside and one outside; and two video game style targets that have to be pummeled until they blow each station up.

 

However, flying inside the incomplete station and navigating an even more confined route at incredible speed with enemy ships in pursuit made for a very cool sequence. That, coupled with the epic dogfight outside with the Star Destroyers and larger rebel cruisers, the lightsaber battle / showdown with the Emperor, as well as the Endor-based shenanigans made it more than the sum of its parts. All with better SFX and a much more epic canvas. Upon reflection, it's easy to see how that book-end makes Jedi feel disappointing, but in the moment I still think it gives us too much for there to be any real problem.

 

From a storytelling standpoint, it isn't an improvement on Star Wars, but I don't think it's in any way an embarrassment. It's a fun action / adventure finale with some wonderful sequences and FX that still hold up well.

 

We're told that it's larger and more powerful, but onscreen it appears identical (shouldn't there be some anti-small-craft defenses this time?) and it isn't shown wreaking damage comparable to the original. Maybe it's a factor of my age, remembering the three-year wait between films, but Empire went out of its way to be different from the first film and the revisited elements in Jedi always felt to me like... eh, you say 'bookends', I say 'letdown'...

 

I once got mugged by Bob Geldof & Shaun Ryder outside of a Bangles concert.

I always figured the second death star was a case of the empire going 'why build one when you can build two for twice the price.'

 

All right, in an attempt to steer this topic away from becoming another Star Wars thread...'Deep Blue Sea' takes place in the same universe as 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes.' Both movies have scientists using animal test subjects to try and find a cure for Alzheimer's. Maybe they were rivals working for different companies, with Samuel Jackson doing for sharks what Franco did for chimpanzees. I like the idea of a shared world where intelligent sharks rule the oceans and super-smart apes take over the rest of the world.

I'm steering it right back, just to say that I fucking love the idea of considering The Phantom Menace to be a stupid kids movie spin-off, like The Ewok Adventure, that has no connection or consequential ties to the series.

 

...

 

Hey, can we do the same thing with Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith?

You, sir, are my kind of people.

 

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SHIELD covertly acquired Continental Sports Channel's parent company, Continental Corporation, and its Sports Night franchise so they could use Isaac Jaffe and his team as cover on a special mission to Wakanda to discuss recent claims of new source of the metal alloy known as vibranium.   Casey's ability to screw his love life up in front of both 5th graders and the greater citizenry of Wakanda allowed Agent Coulson to negotiate a deal.

I think we're invited to believe that it would have been an obvious improvement (both aesthetically and technologically) on the original were it completed. So the Star Destroyer fleet was intended both as an ambushing force for the Rebels and as a kind of makeshift defence against smaller craft and so on until it was finished. And I think was more of a plot point that it wasn't shown destroying another planet. Most of us are well aware of what a fully operational Death Star can do. And the way it obliterated those rebel cruisers was a striking reminder.

 

When I said book-end before, it was more me trying to understand the thinking behind having another Death Star. It wasn't the defence of someone who thinks it was the perfect thing to do. I don't think that's what my ideal final target for the Rebels would have been. Maybe an attack on Coruscant or something? Flip the concept of the Rebels having to always be on the back-foot with them mounting an assault on the Imperial Center? I know that would be hard with them being the rag-tag guerrilla force going up against the sleek, robust Imperial Navy, but this is the final showdown. Maybe they get a lifeline or some new technology of their own or something. I dunno. Something beyond just another space station to blow up, anyway.

 

This isn't meant to come off as a ravenous defence of Jedi, by the way. I make no bones about not liking it as much as its two predecessors.

 

This is not meant as a dig at you guys so please don't take it as one, but I am BAFFLED by how much people love talking about Star Wars.

One that occurred to me this past weekend: Freaks and Geeks is a modest success that runs for four full seasons, ending with the high school graduation of Sam, Bill and Neil.

Some days I wish I could just rip the whole effing thing from my brain, but then I wouldn't be fascinated by movies anymore. Star Wars (and more importantly, books like The Star Wars Album) taught me that movies don't just happen; that they result from specific choices and decisions and realities, and that all creative work rests on the shoulders of works that preceded it. I don't know if I love or even like Star Wars but it's my Rosetta Stone.

I almost included something to this effect a few days ago, but opted against it because I sensed an impending complaint about the thread descending into wishful thinking as opposed to a personal take on how to mentally "edit" what we already got from certain franchises.

 

I'm not having a pop at you though. I would have loved even one more series of that show.
 

I still have tremendous time for the original trilogy (which holds up insanely well) and all of the other stuff that goes along with the franchise has no bearing on the quality of those films because they don't take away any of what's on screen. I can't really remember a time without Star Wars, but it's more than just nostalgia that makes me still appreciate it - aside from the first three being extremely enjoyable films.

 

I think it's testament to how powerful the universe of that franchise is that, no matter how many disappointing movies, games or what have you may come out, the potential for what it can give us endures. People still hold out excitement that the next thing will be able to match what it gave us before. And that probably extends to some of the people who say they've washed their hands of the franchise as well.

 

As long as we're talking about personal Star Wars continuity, I remember absorbing a lot of the trilogy's art design and concepts via some kind of "cultural osmosis" during the mid-90's merchandising resurgence before I had ever had a chance to watch any of the movies all the way through. During this time, for some reason I thought Jedi was the second film and Empire the third, along with the idea that the second Death Star was actually the still-functioning wreckage left over from the first movie. Despite my naive idiocy I still can't help but imagine the Rebels are destroying the final remnants of the Death Star in RotJ rather than a completely new, incomplete space station.

I smell a fan edit a-brewing!

I always turn off Cast Away as soon as that oil tanker passes by Hanks' raft.  The movie's over.  

Barbara Hershey's character "Carla" in The Entity changes both her and her son's name after the paranormal activity in her life dies down. Her son Billy's new name? Josh, from Insidious. Suffice to say, the paranormal fucks their family up for at least three generations. One literal, and two figurative rapes. 

 

I've always liked the idea of the 'Juliette Lewis has terrible luck with foster families' Trilogy ... Whereby after the traumatic events of 'Cape Fear', her parents get into a rough divorce, which in turn leads to Jessica Lange vanishing with a stranger she meets in a bar. Despondent, Nick Nolte turns to the sauce, and before long is legally declared incapable of being Juliette Lewis' legal guardian. She's put up for foster care, and changes her name to rid herself of the stigma of what had occurred in her life. Eventually she's adopted by Jacob Fuller, a preacher who soon after loses his wife and his faith. She, her father, and her foster brother, Scott, run afoul of the Gecko Bros. and the events of 'From Dusk til Dawn' transpire. 

Returning to the states, she again changes her name to 'Mallory' and is once again tossed back into the foster care system; only this time winding up in the horrible clutches of Rodney Dangerfield's Ed Wilson and his family. She finally reaches the mental breaking point, and upon getting saved / kidnapped by Mickey Knox, goes completely and utterly insane. 

I really hate that Fox didn't give Glee a chance.   I think if it were given a full first season, it would have caught on.   Still, ending it at the Glee club winning sectionals made for a bittersweet send off.

I wouldn't have thought to mention Glee, but I share your feelings precisely!

After the events of The Exorcist, Regan lives a happy, Pazuza free, life.

 

I don't want to live in a world without the delightfully weird, compellingly bad EXORCIST II

 

Beckinsale dates Wiseman during production, Underworld tanks, and she decides to go back to her WAY more talented ex.......................Michael Sheen.

 

 

I'm pretty sure Leone himself declared TGTBATU a prequel............which obviously makes Eastwood's character the same person throughout.  Also, the iconic outfit isn't the only carryover.  No Name's hand is brutalized in A Fistful of Dollars and he wears a brace on it in For A Few Dollars More.  He might have three different names (Joe, Manco, Blondie) in each of them, but they are all nicknames given to him by other characters.  He never actually states his own name in any of them.

 

Sometimes I like to imagine a continuity where the following are in chronological order:  The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly, A Fistful of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More, Once Upon A TIme In The West, Two Mules For Sister Sara, Unforgiven, and High Plains Drifter.  Will Munny's murderous exploits are legendary, but the life wears him down.  He reforms himself before disappearing into obscurity, finally reappearing for the events of Unforgiven.  Upon his death (of old age), he becomes the Angel of Vengeance in the Old West to atone for his sins.
 

 

 

 

Also, Universal Soldier: The Return and the two TV movies do not exist in this dojo.  The UniSol trilogy will finally be completed next year:  Universal Soldier (1992), Universal Soldier: Regeneration (2009), and Universal Soldier: A New Dimension (2012).

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I like this alot!  I want you to work in Way of the Gun somehow though. 

 

Halloween III: Season Of The Witch is a rousing success and spawns a new spinoff franchise of having different movies with the name Halloween before them, while Moustapha Akkad decides that to bring in even more money, they should resurrect Michael Myers for a proper sequel, and thus we have 2 Halloween franchises, the un-numbered and successful anthology series, and the numbered Myers films that become increasingly bizarre. Eventually they decide to just make the anthology films.

Neglected to mention that only Rob Zombie's Halloween II figures into this continuity, and Halloween: H20 doesn't exist, but Halloween: Resurrection does.

Also that Tom Atkins is the star of every one of the Halloween anthology films. Whether he's playing Dr. Daniel Challis or not.

After the events of Pet Cemetery 2. Chase Matthews suses for Wrongful Death because of his wife getting friend and gets a huge check. To help his son deal with all the crazy shit of the last year he spoils him and gets him a state of the art video game system. To pass the the time he buys a new game called Brainscan

I like this, although I kinda see Will Munny turning more into the preacher from 'Pale Rider'.  It's far more redemptive.

 

Pale Rider does seem like a sequel to High Plains Drifter. Maybe being dead has mellowed Lago's former Marshall. He just wants to preach the good word, but he is drawn into a situation where he must put his gun slinger skills to good use. Don't forget the head Pinkerton agent says to him,"Your supposed to be dead!"

I have no problem adding Pale Rider to the tail end of that continuity.

"Walking Dead" is a small, quiet zombie AMC movie that revitalizes interest in made for television film production.  Morgan Jones's struggle to emotionally leave behind his infected wife in the shattered world captivated audiences.  The movie's last shot, Rick Grimes as he rides his horse into Atlanta down Interstate 75, was compared to Darabont's The Mist.  Despite critical praise, AMC has wisely not returned to the series, allowing that success to bring audiences for their next endeavour.

Highlander 1:  Connor MacLeod slays the Kurgan and wins the Prize. He is granted mortality and infinite wisodm, with the promise that he will go on to do great things for humanity.

 

Highlander 2: MacLeod finally fulfils the terms of the Prize by showing humanity how not to make a sequel. 3.4 nanoseconds after the last shot of the film a giant boot descends from the heavens, crushing him so he doesn't get any further ideas.

 

Franchise over.

Retain "Sleeping in Light" as a Season 4 epilogue, and I'll high-five the hell out of you.

 

The thought of this - the trilogy left as a two-film saga/snippet of life in a galaxy far, far away just blows my mind.

I've never thought of a life without Jedi - newvr knowing the fate of the characters - ever. Wow, just wow!

 

30 years on I cannot imagine the potential that move would have had on any of us who see Star Wars as a cultural touchstone.

 

Well done Spike - genius.