Heyo!
I'm wondering what movies would some of you watch to get the feel for the warhammer 40K universe.
The only interactions i have had with 40K are the RT game that i'm in, (Astropath) and the dawn of war RTS games.
Thanks!
Movies (Or what to watch to get into a 40K mood)
There are a lot of possibilities depending on what aspect of WH40K you want to emphasize.
A few suggestions:
Alien (and the follow-ups). Tyranids.
Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick (Horrifying xenos, death worlds, chaos-ish invaders)
Starship Troopers Imperial Guard light infantry takes on the xeno menace.
B lade Runner Hive. 40Kish feel.
5th Element A bit happy and colorful perhaps, but the setting is 40Kish IMO.
The Mutant Chronicles Could be converted into a 40K movie with very minor tweaks.
Doom Would have fit even better if they'd kept the original "invasion from Hell" theme, but still appropriate.
Enemy at the Gates War movie. 40K military borrows heavily from the Soviets and Nazis.
Since you're playing Rogue Trader movies/series from the Age of Sail are relevant as well.
The Sharpe series is also sort of 40Kish. (Gaunt's Ghosts was partially inspired by Sharpe)
The Quatermass Conclusion. The reason I mention this television series, is because the nature of the menace reminds of what will happen if the Necrons take over the galaxy. Read the Eldar's story at the end of the Necron codex, and it is very similar to what happens to humanity in the Quatermass story:
Spoiler:
Shafts of light strike gatherings of youths, turning them into dust as the biological material is sucked into a sphere of machines orbiting the Earth. The material they don't need - the detritus of humanity - is discarded into the upper atmosphere, turning it green. The miniseries has a great atmosphere - very 40k - as society is breaking down.
Given that 40k riffs on loads of old sci fi themes, virtually any good film from that genre works: Alien, Aliens, Dune (OK, good is perhaps not the word for that one) even Avatar struck me as having a very Rogue Trader-ish flavour in parts. (exploit or assist? Hmmm....) 2001 and Sunshine were always at the more "realistic" end of the difficulties of space travel, for me, too.
For the "medieval mindset" of the 40k universe, you can't do much better than Name of the Rose, a film that absolutely shows that the past is a foreign country. The book is brilliant, too.
Rogue Trader, being a very specific subset of the 40k universe, would probably benefit from viewing of a number of movie genres, like Pirate movies (from Pirates of the Carribean to stone cold classics like the Crimson Pirate ) or the even more obscure conquistadore genre (of which Aguirre: Wrath of God is an outstanding example.) In the 50s and 60s there were loads of swashbuckling movies which explored authority and rebellion in a tall sail setting, things like Mutiny on the Bounty .
There have been a few good BBC TV costume dramas set in a very Rogue Trader-ish world, things like Hornblower (already mentioned, I believe) but a more obscure swashbuckler starring (I think) Ewan McGregor was Scarlett & Black, which is set in a Regency-era world of duels and continental war.
The greatest recent tall-sail era movie is unquestionably Master and Commander , which has already been mentioned. It's a good film, but the books are a hundred times better.
Just a few thoughts!
Event Horizon is perfect for getting a feel of what happens if enters the Warp without a functioning Gellar field.
Event Horizon
Wing Commander (i know, only for the space battles, nothing else)
For that exploration/archaelogical feel, could throw in the Indiana Jones movies (along with that cavalier attitude)
For your local Tech-priest/Explorator there's always IronMan (if that isn't best quality power armor I dunno what is).
Star Gate (more exploration/xeno menace), Titan AE (what an endeavor that would be, a planet creation stc
)
Found a world tainted by the warp? Silent Hill
Counte of Monte Christo (added to the list along with Pirates etc)
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (setting is very pretty and about right)
To go along with the Aliens as Tyranids theme, you could watch the Terminator Movies (especially Salvation, y'know, Batman vs Terminator).
Escape from New York/LA for hive world, scum types.
Ghosts of Mars: Rediscover that mining colony that's had something go horribly wrong with a group of Enforcers.
Awesome suggestions! Thank you, Keep them coming!
Some of them seemed obvious and others just came out of left field, I've got some movies to watch!
Dune : A lot of the 40k universe was inspired by this.
Event Horizon : Geller field failure? This is what will happen on your ship...
Captain Harlock series : The ring of the Nierberlings or Endless Odysee: A brilliant classic manga character about a taciturn anarchic space pirate captain and his uber cool ship the battleship Arcadia (which is so badass it it could take a blackstone fortress just for target practice) Largely unknown in US or the UK its the perfect metaphor for someone who operates beyond any laws and the freedom of travelling a endless universe. And FFG took his name... I agree about Master and commander but also for the claustraphobic feel l would say Das Boot, which is about a German WWii U boat crew, which is good for the idea of a crew which is less spit and polish like a normal naval vessel
Kudos for the mention of the Name of the Rose . Replicates the administratum and the medieval way Knowledge would be feared and concealed from the masses, and would be an excellent primer for the kind of culture a rogue trader would face when he gets back to the Imperium.
I feel I ought to include one about Charming scoundrels and chancers out to make a empire for themselves so I would say " The man who would be King ". With Michael Caine and Sean Connery, two dodgy British soldiers who decide to create their own kingdom in Afghanistan. Ok theres no starship and they are not pirates, but its the Brass Nuts they have to go into the unknown and carve themselves a kingdom that I dig.
Last of all
Apocalypse Now
...for the idea of a journey that is slowly deteriorating into madness and lack of order the futher you go , which is a good metaphor for those who wander further and further from the astronomicon.
the space odessey movies, um ship AI going nuts with age and experiencing program that acts as feelings
There are two series quite interesting: Star Trek Enterprise has a lot of ideas (have in mind, however, it's "too bright" to go as it is, but some episodes are quite jewels to any space game), and quite interestingly Stargate Universe, in this late chapters, is showing quite a handful of ideas... specially if you compare it to a ship, with a lot of reduced crew, heavily damaged, without Astropath and without Navigator... And the warp engines go on from time to time...
"Casshern" features a hive-city, a totalitaeren regime with an neverending war against some outer enemy, absolutly absurd but grim pseudo-science and a final inculding loads of army vehicles ...and a sort-off-battle titan. Oh, did I mentioned that live doesn´t seem to count much and the whole movie is about battles for extinction between the one "breed" of humans and the other?
"Dead Space" (only if you can lend/rent it)
While not a great movie, it has some crazy mutants, a colony, a strange religious group and battle done with sume kind of "energy chainsaws"
"Battle Angle Alita"
for the city of Zareb, the junkers living beneath it and the concept of organ stealing and "buying your passege up to Zareb".
"Repo! -the genetic opera"
Be warned, it is a musical you will get! But the society has a nice "40kish feel" to it since it tries to blend modern with the ending 18th/beginning 19th century.
Basically, grab a heap of Star Trek, TV series, movies, whatever... consider all the nice aspects of humanity, the somewhat egalitarian society, being nice to xenos, exploring new worlds for knowledge and accepting other peoples/critters failings.
Then take a great big steaming turd on the whole lot.
Be an arsehole, consequences only matter when they affect the bottom line, subjective morality gets in the way of productivity
Enslave your fellow man, economic or literally
Grind the xeno into the dirt until they've given up anything of value
Strip mine new worlds for fun and profit with a slave labour force
Beat anyone who fails their job, kill them if they fail it twice
When in doubt- Shoot first
Gregorius21778 said:
"Casshern" features a hive-city, a totalitaeren regime with an neverending war against some outer enemy, absolutly absurd but grim pseudo-science and a final inculding loads of army vehicles ...and a sort-off-battle titan.
We counted something like fourteen successive endings in Casshern. Just when you think the movie will end now, you get another one. Absolutely insane. At some point, your brain stops trying to process it and just... quits. I should also mention the gaudy clothes of the bad guys. They dress like a glam-rock band gone sentai (this is the way Dark Eldars should dress). And I still haven't figured out what caused the dead soldiers to come back to life in the first place (what the hell was that concrete lightning bolt about ?). Definitely worth watching.
Doomsday : an Arch-Militant (and some redshirty Arbitrators) explores a lost colony gone punk.
Mad Max series: Arbitrator on a world slowly falling apart bereft of the Emperors Light
Cyber City Oedo 808: 3 different type of scum and some Heretek/AI stuff
Outpost: Imp Guard Vs Chaos Imp Guard of Nurgle..
Mutant Chronicles (although that will fit probably fit more with the ethos of Death Watch)
Damnatus: Der Feind Im Innern (German fan film, following a small merc group seconded to the Inquisition. WARNING: the distribution of this film was banned by GW legal, due to concerns over precedents and German copyright law, so technically anyone but the cast/crew owning it is piracy. It's very good though, for a fan-film)
Inquisitor is an official 40k short movie. They didn't produce very many copies of it, but as luch would have it, it is on Youtube .
12 Monkeys (weird, post-apocalyptic time-travel film, very good dystopian scenes in the future)
...actually, a number of post-apocalyptic films do well as 40k theme setters: Waterworld and Mad Max spring to mind
Dune, as has been stated is very good for 40k (and if you get the right version, good in general; the 1984 Lynch version just feels like Imperial high society, while the 2000 mini-series is technically closer to the books), Cite des Enfants Perdus is good for life and general weirdness, Metropolis is good for hive life, as is the earlier part of Brave New World.
I forgot a detail: Remember, Star Trek has a "mirror universe". First introduced in the Original Series, then I think it had one or two episodes in Next Generation (don't care much for that series), two or three magnificent episodes in Enterprise (the origin of the mirror universe: Zephram Cochraine shoots the vulcan ambassador because he can't do the vulcan finger thing... xD), and a lot of episodes in Deep Space Nine (which, by the way, has an interesting Warp-related metaplot...).
For the sheer callous bleakness of Imperial Society, films like Brazil work quite well - though they're more suited to Dark Heresy than the Final Frontier of Rogue Trader.
There was once a pretty cool and grimdark adventure film called "The man who would be king", based on Kipling's prose. It's about two English soldiers who travel through India to the fictional country of Karfiristan, where they establish themselves as kings and gods in order to plunder all its goods. Readily translatable into 40k, just change the legacy of Alexander the Great into Macharius. Also, it has Michael Caine and Sean Connery in it.
Ive just checked out Damnatus and quite simply its a awesome effort for a fan film. Such a shame about the copyright/author laws with Germany because Im sure GW would have given it the thumbs up. So much effort and resourcefullness was put into it that its showed just how rich the GW background is. The new Ultramarines movie would actually have to try and TOP it for grimdark because Damnatus hit the nail on the head as far as Im concearned. Ok...its all in German and the had to make the best out of disused factories and girders but fluff wise the thing was flawless.
I am of course not advocating that like me you make a terrible mistake in searching out for this GW deemed heretical vid-cast (the Merrell inquisition is everywhere!) and view it.
But if you should accidentally view it all the way through you wont be disappointed...
In my mind "Event horizon" is the first voyage of a human warp-capable starship. When they discovered the menace of Chaos they noticed the necessity of a geller field. I think I´ll include this in my chronology....
I would add that anything set on a submarine is also worth watching...
If you can handle subtitles, "Das Boot" 1985 (German mini series by Wolfgang Petersen) is about a German uboat in WW2. The crew spend weeks and weeks in claustrophobic confinement under unending assault by enemy ships.