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which other iconic movie could Spielberg have used?


The Shining had special meaning for Spielberg due to Kurbrick (he stated he visited the set in 1980 and first met Kubrick) but what other movies couldve been used? Itd have to be an iconic one and preferably from the 80s.

Indiana Jones – all the talk about leaping and a leap of faith had me thinking it might be the booby traps ending of Last Crusade culminating in Indy making the leap of faith (but then thatd been spielberg recreating Spielberg. plus I sort of knew itd be the Shining before due to spoilers in a review and seeing an interview with Spielberg talking about it) or even the Raiders opening (another leap) and its horrific ending (maybe theyd have to retrieve something from inside the ark as the ghosts are killing all the nazis around them) or even the Temple of Doom (having to get down to the temple and get the stones and then the end drawbridge scene)

Jaws/CE3K/ET/JP – same as Indy Spielberg wouldnt do his own. No matter how fun for the audience (and Jurassic is back in cinemas big time now anyway)

BTTF – maybe too obvious esp with the delorean in every other scene. And Part 2 already sort of did that (revisiting the 1st movie)

Gremlins – could totally see them interacting in the christmas town fighting all the gremlins. Maybe it was like 2nd on Spielbergs list ?

Ghostbusters - ditto

2001 – Kubricks other masterpiece – plenty iconic scenes to choose from esp the end. But is late 60s not 80s

70s Disaster movies – e.g. Towering Inferno – that wouldve been awesome but disaster movies are a staple of the 70s and RP1 was primarily about the 80s

King Kong – original 1933 version in which case too old and 1976 version is too naff (interestingly the Kong used in the race was a really huge version of Peter Jacksons 'gorilla Kong'. Not the stand up walk like a human 1933 version/recent Skull Island)

Blade Runner - maybe with the sequel out recently maybe it wouldve been considered something of a promotion of Blade Runner (although maybe at the end of The Shining segment they could've encountered Deckard and Rachel in a police spinner travelling the landscape:)

Psycho – another iconic horror movie that Spielberg probably worships – couldve been in B&W and set around the Bates Motel with the iconic shower scene and the end mother scene etc. Spielberg is probably a massive fan of Hitch so wouldnt surprise if Psycho was on the list but maybe it being too old (60s and B&W) ran it out (unless theyd used 1983s Psycho II but that not as iconic). As for other iconic Hitchcock movies (Rear Window, North by NorthWest, Vertigo, Birds) likewise all too old/not 80s

Citizen Kane – this is like THE movie for the likes of SS. But again just too old.

Lawrence of Arabia - think this is SS fave movie but again - too old.

Star Wars (any of the originals). New Hope - (Cantina scene/sneaking around deathstar). Empire (Hoth/interacting with the end Vader duel – could totally see the Empire finale being used like we were supposed to see it in Reys vision in Force Awakens). Jedi (jabbas palace/end Luke v Vader v Emperor) . But recently read SS decided against including much SW in RP1 due to SW coming back and new films regularly in cinemas (so maybe it wouldnt seem that special anymore)

Star Trek – 60s tv show wouldve looked amazing on the big screen (the colurful Enterprise bridge/transporter room/beaming down to a Vasquez rocks planet and encountering the gorn, klingons, flying omelettes etc). But then its the 60s and tv not movie. Ok then couldve been one of the 80s Trek movies e.g. Wrath of Khan (bridge/genesis/space battles etc)

Alien or Aliens – ship corridors/derelict/end with the queen etc. scary shit like Shining

T1 or T2 – Tech Noir nightclub scene/police shootout/Mental Asylum/Cyberdyne/Steelmill (however T1 was recreated in the last Terminator)

The Thing – corridors of the base etc

Die Hard – could an action movie have worked? I think so..plenty iconic scenes in DH to use

Matrix – various action fight scenes/the fields etc (didnt see anything to do with Matrix in the movie which was kind of strange considering plot similarities . Maybe it wasnt retro/80s enough to figure?)

Tron – although probably too retro basic looking too use unless they went with Tron Legacy. (like Matrix dont think noticed any Tron references despite obvious similarities - likewise Avatar - probably too recent?)

Planet of the Apes'68 – chased by Apes in their flintstones city/end statue of liberty. But too old like 2001

Superman I or II - seemed to be foreshadowing it what with the reference to superman being hallidays favourite film and then the disguise. plenty iconic scenes to use from the first or second movie and seeing the familiar crystal fortress & late 70s NYC on the big screen would've been absolutely amazing

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Batman '89 – saw that amongst all the vhs covers they were looking at. could just imagine them interacting with Burtons gothic movie esp the end in the church...

Bond – a 007 film mustve been on the list of considerations esp as Spielberg wanted to direct a Bond movie after he got famous (hes stated he developed Raiders with Lucas specically as he wanted to do Bond but they wouldnt let him). Probably wouldve been either a Connery (Goldfinger/Only Live Twice prob the most famous/iconic) or a Moore (Spy Who Loved Me/Moonraker) probably Moore as hes the Bond Spielberg wouldve directed had EON let him direct one in the early 80s


One thing to bear in mind however (thats mightve impacted on which movie to choose) was there was little to no use of particular actors images in the movie - just the iconic characters (that weren't specific to a particular actor) or ships/cars/clothes/equipment associated with them. So this was possibly a rights issue that they couldnt use actors likeness - yeh you can use stuff to do with such and such film but not the actors likeness (probably why no Jack Nicolson in Shining scenes) so some of those movies wouldve been affected if they couldnt show any actors (unlike Shining which could sort of get away with it as the sets, scenes are all iconic so no have to show the actors)

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just listened to the Empire Podcast with the writer of RP1 and he said the original choice was Blade Runner which Spielberg is a huge fan of (and even visited the set back in 82) and is the same studio as RP1 (WBros) but the rights issue were too complicated (maybe why theres no BR references in the movie? or is there?) anyway then they thought about other movies like Monty Python, War Games before coming around to Kubrick 80s movies then they started getting excited about The SHINING...

https://soundcloud.com/empiremagazine/ready-player-one-spoiler-special-ft-ernest-cline
(from 20:50)

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Any others

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Let's see, they got Saturday Night Fever in, how bout
BEETLEJUICE
BEETLEJUICE
BEETLEJUICE!!!

One of my all time faves :-)

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There was a Beetlejuice avatar when Parzival gets mobbed in the archives. Guess that's as far as they were willing to go

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I did get Beetlejuice vibes a little from The Shining ballroom scene. Beetlejuice was the perfect little afterlife ghost story; imaginative, great characters, funny & scary & so well paced. And Keaton sure got to ham it up real good!!

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Just rewatched it on blu and been pausing the VHS covers floating about - so theres Batman (the only one I could remember seeing in the cinema), The Fly, BTTF2, Lost Boys, Alien, Firestarter, Lethal Weapon 2, Gremlins, Blade Runner (which was just near to The Shining which makes sense as was the original choice according to the RP1 writer) also Superman II & Superman III (which actually would've been a good choice with bad Superman v Clark junkyard battle, the supercomputer end in the Grand Canyon/Atari computer game battle) and many more. Also when they were entering the cinema in addition to Shining there were posters outside for Wargames, Flash Gordon, Return of the Jedi, Excalibur.

Shining was obviously a great choice and made sense, but the likes of Superman, Blade Runner, 007, Indy, Gremlins, BTTF, Star Wars/Trek, would've been amazing to see (its a shame they didn't work it so it was several films)

I just wonder if the new Shining movie was put into production due to the RP1 scenes? (maybe they are using the sets that were built for RP1 even?)

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I'd have to go with 2001 even though it's still Kubrick. Star Wars is too familiar for today's audience. 2001 has a good reputation (even though it didn't at first) and is also a very cryptic movie in itself.

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That's true. And yes its like a puzzle movie itself

However..Its a 60s film and RP1 was predominantly 80s so the movie they chose had to be 80s

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Taxi Driver

Heat

The Deer Hunter

Midnight Cowboy

Apocalypse Now

Fantastic Planet

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Labyrinth
Heavy Metal

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