Movie references

[THOTH13]

Hey guys, I am not sure if this has been covered anywhere on the forums but a bunch of my gamers and I were discussing creating a movie list to help potential new players get a feel for what rifts is about and I wanted to see what the rest of you though, or could come up with as well. Some of the examples we had were:
Doomsday - because the film shows how different societies popped up after a major catastrophe
Priest - for the old west/sci-fi feel of the town and people, as well as the hive

[Razzinold]

The Mad Max series.

Rifts Australia aside, they are relevant to anywhere in North America as well, these films show the desolation of the world, the hardships and lengths that a "good person" will do to survive and how savage people can become with no law to govern over them.

They demonstrate that the average person may lack a formal education but is now more versatile when it comes to trade work i.e. mechanics, welders, etc.
People will go to great lengths to protect what is theirs' and others are willing to kill just to take it. For some human life is worth less then basic necessities and something like a fork could be worth more than them.

Settlements are spread out over greater distances and are mistrustful of strangers, that is unless they possess something of great worth to them such as the encampment taking all of Max's gear until he had something of worth to offer (the location of the truck).

[flatline]

The Chronicles of Riddick aren't bad for setting the atmosphere.

[Killer Cyborg]

Hey guys, I am not sure if this has been covered anywhere on the forums but a bunch of my gamers and I were discussing creating a movie list to help potential new players get a feel for what rifts is about and I wanted to see what the rest of you though, or could come up with as well. Some of the examples we had were:
Doomsday - because the film shows how different societies popped up after a major catastrophe
Priest - for the old west/sci-fi feel of the town and people, as well as the hive

This comes up from time to time:
viewtopic.php?p=2242964#p2242964

http://forums.palladium-megaverse.com/viewtopic.php?p=2094200#p2094200

The Tripods was a BBC release based on the books by John Christopher. It's a post-apocalypse setting where alien tripods have taken over the Earth generations ago, and a group of children decide that maybe the giant tripods that want to mind-control them aren't their friends after all, and try to escape to the mountains.
The books are better, of course.

Circuitry Man
In a world where the atmosphere has been destroyed, oxygen is money and people live underground. A Romeo-Bot and a female bodyguard try to smuggle a case of stolen microchips from LA to New York, pursued by the evil cyborg Plughead.

Cyborg II
The first film to feature Angelina Jolie, this quasi-sequel to Van Damme's Cyborg also has Jack Palance and Billy Drago.
If that doesn't draw you in, here's a plot summary via Wikipedia:

In the year 2074, the cybernetics market is dominated by the USA's Pinwheel Electronics and Japan's Kobayashi Robotics. Cyborgs are commonplace, used for anything from soldiers to prostitutes. Casella Reese is a top-of-the-line cyborg developed for corporate espionage and is programmed with the "Glass Shadow" program, meant to mimic human senses and emotions such as fear, love, pain and hatred. However, Glass Shadow is also an explosive that runs through her entire circuitry. Guided by the renegade prototype cyborg Mercy, who can communicate through any television screen, she and combat trainer Colton Ricks escape the Pinwheel facility so she can avoid her fate of self-destruction, one that faces most corporate espionage cyborgs.

12 Monkeys
Bruce Willis travels back and forth between a future where humans have been mostly wiped-out by a terrorist created plague and a time right before the plague was released where he might be able to stop it from being unleashed.

The Blood of Heroes
Rutger Hauer and Joan Chen.
If the cast alone doesn't get you to see it, I don't know what will, but this is also perhaps the greatest sports movie of all time.
A ragged team of Juggers try to win enough dog skulls in The Game to get the attention of The League, and win a place inside the Nine Cities instead of having to live out in the wastelands.

Def-Con 4
The crew of a nuclear missile satellite refuse to fire their missiles during a nuclear war, only to have their satellite crash-land on a post-apocalypse Earth ruled by savages and mutants.

Hell Comes To Frogtown
Roddy Piper stars as Sam Hell, the last fertile man in the world who is recruited by a female government to infiltrate Frogtown and rescue a group of human women who have been kept as sex slaves by the mutant frogs- then to help start repopulating the world with humans.

The Mad Max Series
If you need a description, you don't deserve to have it.

Six-String Samurai
In 1957, the US went to war with the Soviets and a nuclear war ensued.
After the apocalypse, the last bastion of freedom was a city called "Lost Vegas," where Elvis ruled as king for 50 rockin' years before eventually dying.
After the King's death, every rocker with a sword and a guitar (including Death himself), starts making their way across the wastelands to get to vegas for the contest to crown the new king.
The soundtrack is provided by The Red Elvises- if you don't know who they are, you need to find out.

http://forums.palladium-megaverse.com/v ... 0#p1933220

The problem is that Rifts has so many different aspects and angles, a single movie can only probably cover one or two of them.

But here are some I'd use:
Crash & Burn
Star Wars (original Trilogy)
Krull
Robocop
Heavy Metal
Phantasm (1-4)
Robot Carnival
Akira
Dog Soldiers
Starship Troopers
Vampire Hunter D
Nemesis 1 & 2
Hellboy
Serenity
Screamers
Iron Man
Ninja Scroll
Big Trouble in Little China
Waterworld
Excalibur
Brotherhood of the Wolf
Lair of the White Worm
Resident Evil
The Mummy

[glitterboy2098]

The Postman
Reign of Fire
Judge Dredd (1995)
Dredd (2012)
Hellboy 2: golden army
Wizards (Ralph Bashki, 1977)
Terminator Salvation

[Raze_7]

Hey guys, I am not sure if this has been covered anywhere on the forums but a bunch of my gamers and I were discussing creating a movie list to help potential new players get a feel for what rifts is about and I wanted to see what the rest of you though, or could come up with as well. Some of the examples we had were:
Doomsday - because the film shows how different societies popped up after a major catastrophe
Priest - for the old west/sci-fi feel of the town and people, as well as the hive

War of the Worlds (book version) explains how humans would feel at the time, being ravaged by aliens, with no way to stop them, and explains why the Coalition is so popular..

The classic Star Wars can be used to get people into the feel of MDC vs SDC, although, make sure to remind them that rocks can rarely penetrate power armor.

I'll get back to you with more.

[Secondhand Smoke]

Akira.

Ghost in the Shell.

Judge Dredd.

Mad Max.

From Dusk til Dawn.

Captain America: Winter Soldier.

Sin City.


Each film hits on certain themes I feel run strongly in rifts. I myself believe Akira sums it up best.

[THOTH13]

great lists so far guys, I do realize that a few movies wont every encompass all of the Rifts universe. The big thing is seeing what everyone else uses as an example to compile a better list of movies to show just how versatile the system is as well as the theme ETC

much appreciated and by all means keep adding to the list!

[random_username]

Bah just go for the 3 min 26 second crash course version (found this late 2014): Particularly for the conclusion at 2:41.

Warning Ridiculous Nonsense Alert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ef201LbbAPE

[masslegion]

stargate

[ShadowLogan]

Maybe the Matrix Triology in some respects

Planet of the Apes maybe

Tank Girl

Can't really think of any movies beyond that, TV Shows:
Captain Power and the Soliders of the Future
Thundarr the Barbarian
maybe even Thundercats

Computer Game: Fallout or Boarderlands

[Zer0 Kay]

Hmm It is funny saying that the cyberpunk Bubblegum Crisis may not be dark enough and to corporate political intrigue for Rifts. However it's Influence Bladerunner is a great example of what life inside one of the Mega cities may look like.

The movie Hardware is a good cautionary tale to not bring home any "dead" skelebot parts to your artist girlfriend.

[Zer0 Kay]

Trinity Blood a strange mix of eras, supernatural and technology

[glitterboy2098]

Hmm It is funny saying that the cyberpunk Bubblegum Crisis may not be dark enough and to corporate political intrigue for Rifts. However it's Influence Bladerunner is a great example of what life inside one of the Mega cities may look like.

The movie Hardware is a good cautionary tale to not bring home any "dead" skelebot parts to your artist girlfriend.

original OVA bubblegum crisis actually works fairly well, given how much of it palladium cribbed for rifts.

the remake TVshow (which i'll admit is my favorite version) however is not quite gritty enough to qualify.

[Killer Cyborg]

The movie Hardware is a good cautionary tale to not bring home any "dead" skelebot parts to your artist girlfriend.

True.
Shame the movie wasn't more than that, though.

[Razzinold]

I'm three episodes in to Season 1 of "Falling Skies" and it would be some good inspiration for a Chaos Earth game.

Humans are still around and always on the move trying to find food and weapons but they are still unsure how to fight them best because it's still a fairly recent invasion.

Also the game Dying Light would be pretty good as well. Scavenging anything you can to make weapons, like wrapping up some nails around a pipe wrench, living in partially destroyed buildings/city.

Venturing out during the day and for the majority of the population locking down tight and hiding during the night when those seemingly invulnerable creatures emerge.

[Zer0 Kay]

The movie Hardware is a good cautionary tale to not bring home any "dead" skelebot parts to your artist girlfriend.

True.
Shame the movie wasn't more than that, though.

what are you talking about? Could have sworn like so many SciFi movies of the era of was also about *****. And those are important, billions of babies can't be wrong and I'm sure if you asked those in possession of them if they'll give em up.

[Mercdog]

My list is pretty similar to Killer Cyborg's list, but I'd add
District 9
Equilibrium
Mutant Chronicles
Reign of Fire
No Escape
Steel Frontier
Soldier
and just because I acquired it recently, the Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future television series.

[Killer Cyborg]

The movie Hardware is a good cautionary tale to not bring home any "dead" skelebot parts to your artist girlfriend.

True.
Shame the movie wasn't more than that, though.

what are you talking about? Could have sworn like so many SciFi movies of the era of was also about *****. And those are important, billions of babies can't be wrong and I'm sure if you asked those in possession of them if they'll give em up.

Only barely.
Mostly about slow, dusty landscape shots.
Only one infra-red sex scene.

[Alrik Vas]

Bah just go for the 3 min 26 second crash course version (found this late 2014): Particularly for the conclusion at 2:41.

Warning Ridiculous Nonsense Alert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ef201LbbAPE

that went exactly how I wanted it to.

[H.P. Hovercraft]

All of the above suggestions are great Rifts-fodder, but the problem is, "What aspects of Rifts are you trying to get across to your players?"

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children -for a mix of alternate societies, magic and technology.

District 9 -humans living w/ D-Bees, plus some sweet weaponry & PA.

Deliverance _showing how even the seemingly mundane can be life threatening, and how other cultures respond to outsiders.

The TV show Defiance -showing humans and aliens attempting to live together on a post-apocalyptic Earth.

.................again, everyone else here has given up great lists, and most of the titles I first thought of have already been mentioned.

But FTW...............yup, it's The Road Warrior.

[random_username]

Bah just go for the 3 min 26 second crash course version (found this late 2014): Particularly for the conclusion at 2:41.

Warning Ridiculous Nonsense Alert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ef201LbbAPE

that went exactly how I wanted it to.

Cool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-CG5w4YwOI

[guardiandashi]

the IMO horrible movie skyline also can apply.

anime vipers creed, Cross ange (especially later episodes) bits and pieces of cowboy bebop.
heck the "classics Macross, and the Americanized robotech saga especially the invid invasion "era" can work for setting inspiration.

[Alrik Vas]

The third leg of the Robotech sage works for inspiration, yeah. I think that, going old school myself, that the manga for Battle Angel Alita works pretty good, too.

Outlaw Star for anime, though. That show, along with Trigun, pretty well encapsulate how a lot of Rifts seems to be, at least from the post apocalypse type era. Well, take out the cooky comedy...or leave it in. Your mileage may vary.