Simlar Sci Fi Movies -Time Travel, Alternate Reality etc - The Quiet Earth (1985) Discussion

[–] greg-233 17 years ago

There is The Philadelphia Experiment (1984).

The Philadelphia Experiment 2 (1993). In this film there is an alternate reality where Germany won World War Two and conquered America.

I don't remember too much about them but they sound interesting.

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[–] Anton299 17 years ago

"SLIDERS" is a very interesting TV series. Really. Not 80's, but ... really a very interesting thing.. )

http://imdb.com/title/tt0112167

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[–] psycho-578-407405 11 years ago

Fatherland
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109779/?ref_=sr_1
Alternate reality. Nazis won WW2.

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[–] teapee28 17 years ago

You have to watch Donnie Darko. That movie is a mindtrip and very intelligent. It wasn't made in the 80's though.

California's number one cash crop is marijuana, and it's illegal. What?

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[–] mikhaelmeir-1 17 years ago

Even though it was made in 2001, it takes place in 1988, and it really got the feel of that year right to me--I graduated high school that year. Donnie Darko is a movie that I can't make up my mind whether I like or not, though.

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[–] Romanflak 12 years ago

Donnie Darko isnt intelligent.Plot holes and bogus made up physics isnt intelligent. i like the movie but its not intelligent just trendy.

Joinking it!

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[–] thecultofhorror 17 years ago

RUN LOLA RUN or (LOLA RENNT)
TWELVE MONKEYS
BRAZIL
ICE FROM THE SUN
OMEGA MAN
THE LAST MAN ON EARTH

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[–] bladewrecker 14 years ago

A few interesting 80's movies ( sorry if some of these have already been mentioned)

Night Of The Comet (1984)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087799/

Creature/Titan find (1985)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088961/

Galaxy of Terror (1981)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082431/

Dead End Drive In (1986)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090915/

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[–] Dom-Droz 17 years ago

Definitely "The Lathe of Heaven"! (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081036/)

It's a scifi-movie of the 80s as well, based on a novel by Ursula K. leGuin. It features outstanding performances by Bruce Davison & Kevin Conway. It's about a guy, George Orr (Davison) in a not-so-distant future, who is convinced that his dreams shape reality. He goes to the psychologist Dr. Haber (Conway) for help. Haber doesn't believe him of course, until extraordinary changes start to happen...

To reveil more of the movie's plot would ruin the experience of this very original and thought-provoking story, which features some nice twists and turns along the way. And the ending is quite cryptic as well. My personal favourite sci-fi movie (closely followed by 2001, Donnie Darko, Solaris and of course The Quiet Earth).

Only a very bad VHS copy of the film survived and it could not be re-distributed due to a case of copyright infringement (one scene featuring an uncredited Beatles-song). But there is a remastered DVD-version out now. There is also a 2002 remake with James Caan & Lisa Bonet, but I havn't seen it & don't know if it is as good as the first adaptation.

So, if you liked The Quiet Earth, chances are good you're going to dig this one as well. The subject is different, but the tone, atmosphere and philosophical under-current is very similar.

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[–] u2theedge 17 years ago

Two words "Last Night"

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[–] kholmes1965 17 years ago

Okay, here's another one: "The night before" starring Keanu Reeves. Funny stuff.

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[–] old-georgieboy 17 years ago

the remake is NOT as good as the original.

i would watch the remake first, then the original - that way you won't be disappointed.

The young recruit is silly ’e thinks o’ suicide
’E’s lost ’is gutter-devil ’e ’asn’t got ’is pride

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[–] lauro-1 17 years ago

Doppelgänger (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064519/) is a good movie about alternate realities.

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[–] metabol 16 years ago

The funny thing is that the remastered version of Lathe of Heaven does not have the original version of with a little help from my friends as the original had. Whatever you do, don't waste your time on the remake, it is horrible. The book, though hard to find, was even more incredible (as usual) and since I saw the movie before reading the book, I was pleasantly surprised at the job the movie did with the story.

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[–] writelasse 17 years ago

"Event Horizon" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119081/). Not a "main" timeshifting movie, but still interesting. Morpheus from the Matrix is the captain of a spaceship who is send out to investigate the strange reappearance of another spaceship equipped with some kind of scary time/space-bending technology.

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[–] dean2900 17 years ago

Not as charming but Primer is more recent but extremely low budget film which is very interesting but very hard to understand.

Donnie Darko is of course very similar and took me a 2nd time of viewing to appreciate. The Directors cut helps if you are seeing it for the first time. I would recommend seeing the Directors cut first since it explains the philosophy of time travel and then the theaterical cut which is probably the better of the two.

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[–] SHaGGGz 17 years ago

as dean2900 mentioned, Primer is a great time traveling movie. its different than the rest because of its ultra-realism and plausibility. the physics/science buffs will definitely enjoy it.

---
AIM/MSN: SHaGGGz

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[–] JonasNightengale 16 years ago

I know the original post is over a year old now, but I hope I can chime in with some help. As previously mentioned, Primer really is an excellent film dealing with time travel. Extremely difficult to understand the course of events, mostly because the ending seems rushed, more than likely an editing issue. It's one of those films you want to see right away after you've seen it to make sense of it all while it's fresh in your mind. Once you grasp all that's happening, it really is excellent.

However, my real contribution is an actual 1980 space-and-time film called "The Final Countdown". It's about the aircraft carrier Nimitz being catapulted through time to the day before the Pearl Harbor bombing. You're in charge of the most sophisticated piece of war machinery that 1980 has to offer, you're in 1941 and know what's going to happen. What would YOU do? Great film. Still holds up today, IMO. Not to mention great performances by Kirk Douglas and a young Martin Sheen.

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[–] leengee 16 years ago

On the off chance that anyone is still reading these posts, I've got a couple of plot lines that I recall that maybe you can help me with.

The first is something very similar to Quiet Earth. A person, or a few people seem to be alone on the planet but eventually they discover that there just slightly out of step timewise.

The second movie is a space exploration thing. A rocket is sent from earth to travel around the sun. It returns in half the expected time but something is a little odd. We learn that there is a second earth, on the other side of ths sun, that is a mirror image of our own.

If either of these sound familiar, clue me in please.

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[–] lordhellfire57 16 years ago

Hay leengee the first movie is stephen kings's langoliers, exellent movie. the second sound familiar to me to but i dont know what it is

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[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] osmanzeki 16 years ago

http://www.amazon.com/Journey-Far-Side-Sun-Thinnes/dp/6305081158

or

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064519/

I think this is the movie you're looking for (the second one). The UK release was named Doppelganger (as previously cited in this topic) but this is the US release name.

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[–] Bogmeister 16 years ago

Yes, Journey to the Far Side of the Sun aka Doppelganger is the movie ('69) about an astronaut going to the other side of the sun and ending up on a mirror image of Earth. There are also a couple of episodes of the Outer Limits (the old sixties show) that are similar: "The Parallel" has the same plot about an astronaut ending up on a near-duplicate Earth, which has slight differences in its history. "The Premonition" is the one about 2 people, a husband & wife, getting unstuck in time. Everything else appears frozen still and they find out that they actually jumped ahead a few minutes in time and have to wait for everything to catch up. Stephen King's The Langoliers copied this idea.

Other interesting films in this vein: The Time Travelers (1964) - a cheap sci-fi film about time travel to the future & back, but with a twist at the end which elevates it above many films of this nature. Also, Quest For Love(71), where-in the main character (played by Tom Bell) finds himself on a parallel Earth, where history proceeded a bit differently and his counterpart had a less-honorable personality. Joan Collins shows up as his wife. Unfortunately, both these latter two films are hard to find and have not been released on DVD.

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[–] leengee 16 years ago

Excellent info, thanks Bogmeister. I saw the previous note about the Langoliers. I've read the story, but I haven't seen the movie. In any event, I was sure that the plot about "waiting for time to catch up" that I recalled was from some time ago. It's entirely likely I'm recalling the Outer Limits ep you've indicated.

There was some other episode story, maybe the twilight zone about a couple who discovered that time stopped moving when they were in bed together.

Great info, thanks again.

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[–] Bogmeister 16 years ago

Right, I think the Twilight Zone episode you're refering to (couple wakes up to find that time has stopped) was in the new series version of the 1980's, called "A Matter of Minutes." It featured Adam Arkin & Karen Austin as the couple. They find out that they're 4 hours or so in the future and a bunch of 'blue men' destroy and rebuild everything second to second.
So, since the couple is a bit in the future, not everything is built yet. It was trippy; the eighties show had some good episodes, overshadowed usually by the original.

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[–] lokis_angels 10 years ago

first one: the langoliers?

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[–] projectcyclops 16 years ago

Dark City is really impressive, I'd recommend that.

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[–] andybob-3 16 years ago

Here's what I think are some excellent films:

- The Day the Earth Caught Fire

- Where Have All the People Gone?

- Sunshine

- A Fire in the Sky (1978) / not really end-of-the-world, but certainly the end of Phoenix Arizona

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[–] Murr 16 years ago

The Butterfly Effect.
Groundhog Day.

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[–] tau-7 16 years ago

The Quiet Earth

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089869/

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[–] avortac 12 years ago

tau-7 suggested: "The Quiet Earth"

What movie's board do you think this is, tau-7?

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[–] federicocristina 10 years ago

hahaha epic!!

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