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Thursday, August 25, 2005 » art gaming movies thought

About a year ago there was this game where the protagonist was trapped in his tiny apartment and his only means of escape were passages into altered realities. The game, of course, was Silent Hill 4: The Room. For some reason I mentioned the title to Palidor during a conversation and he asked, "Does the entire game take place in one room?" Although the original concept intrigued me, as soon as he asked the question I found that I was disappointed that the developers hadn't taken the confinement idea to this extreme. This had been done before, but it would take some ingenius ideas to squeeze a horror game out of a single room. At least, without making the player go insane.

So almost a year later, ads start popping up for Red Eye, in which Cillian Murphy basically blackmails the girl he's sitting next to on a plane while they're in flight. Imagine! A suspense movie that takes place entirely on an airplane. I immediately thought back to The Room and started wondering if the film could work. The different medium would probably help, since it's no doubt easier to keep someone on edge by giving them things to watch for two hours, as opposed to keeping them busy with actual tasks to complete for ten or fifteen. But still, a pair of plane seats is a lot more confining than an apartment. And wouldn't other passengers be able to hear them talking? My doubts remained.

Then came the TV commercials with car chases and a rocket launcher. Clearly the smartly-plotted airplane thriller was not going to happen. Not only that, but it turns out the plane sequence is just part of an absurdly elaborate and improbable assassination attempt. I figure this movie arrived via one of these development sequences:

1. Ambitious screenwriter starts writing thriller which takes place completely on an airplane, but halfway through decides it's not possible and pads it with flimsily-rationalized action sequences.
2. Hack screenwriter is inspired after watching his son throw a toy plane into his daughter's game of Mouse Trap.

Maybe next time, Hollywood.

Oh, and I made this.