cult films

in a fascist future where all forms of feeling are illegal, a man in charge of enforcing the law rises to overthrow the system.

dir.: kurt wimmer
action / drama / sci-fi / thriller 
2002 

christian bale as john preston
emily watson as mary o’brien
taye diggs as brandt

some facts:

- in certain scenes, the muzzle flash of the pistols and rifles fired by the clerics and guards will reveal the tetragrammaton insignia.
- tetragrammaton (translation: “word with four letters”), is actually a word used in judaism in reference to the name of god. “yhwh”. 
- grammaton cleric wristwatch used in the film is an android alien watch with a black face, no maker name on the dial. 
- the film was not given a wide release because it had already run into profit as a result of overseas sales, and miramax didn’t want to risk turning a money maker into a loss. 
- the inspiration for the cityscapes and the design of libria come mainly from the works of hugh ferriss, an early 20th century conceptual artist. 
- the “kendo”-type swords used during the sparing scene were designed specially for the film and are turned wood which broke quite easily during filming because christian bale and taye diggs were really whacking each other with them. 
- writer and director kurt wimmer invented the martial arts style of gunfighting for this movie in his backyard. 
- despite popular belief, absolutely no wires were used in the film at all. all of the gravity-defying stunts were done through conventional means. for example, the backflip off of the motorcycle was done with a trampoline. 
- originally, the drug prozium was named librium (hence the term “people of libria” as often referred to throughout the film). however, librium turns out to be a registered trade name for the anti-anxiety drug chlordiazepoxide. the name was quickly changed to prozium, a sly combination of prozac, and valium, which both have calming effects.

+: click en la foto 

in a future world devastated by disease, a convict is sent back in time to gather information about the man-made virus that wiped out most of the human population on the planet.

dir.: terry gilliam
mystery/sci-fi/thriller
1995
bruce willis / madeleine stowe / brad pitt 

facts:
- terry gilliam gave bruce willis a list of “willis acting clichés” not to be used during the film, including the “steely blue eyes look”.
- the army of the twelve monkeys is inspired by a passage in l. frank baum’s novel, “the magic of oz”, in which the nome king and kiki aru convince twelve monkeys they will have an endless supply of food if they become human soldiers for them.
- right after dr. leland goines gets off the phone with dr. railly, dr. peters can be seen handling a tray of seven vials filled with a golden liquid. twice in the movie, a passage of the bible’s book of the revelation is quoted referring to seven golden vials filled with god’s wrath.
- looking at the bodies in the aftermath of a fight bruce willis says, “all i see are dead people.” of course, “i see dead people” is the most famous line from 1999’s the sixth sense, which starred bruce willis.
- throughout the movie, actual monkeys appear on camera. from the “monkey and a roast beef sandwich” to zoo animals. some people suggest 12 different monkeys appear in the film.
- in the 24 hour hitchcock theater, katheryn transforms herself with a blonde wig. hitchcock had a notorious obsession with blonde actresses in his films.

simple visualizations for back to the future i, ii and iii