> The members of Heaven’s Gate, which had existed since the 70s, believed they were exiting their Earthly bodies to board a UFO that was hiding behind the Hale-Bopp comet as it made its closest approach to Earth.
I was blown away by the basic concept - an alien ship (150 miles long!) with only 3 living(?) occupants in a wide elliptical orbit that nears Earth every 75 years, whereupon incredibly bad things happen.
A gorgeous female space vampire (Mathilda May) appears unclothed! And Patrick Stewart is in the film!!
"...it is quite simply THE most audacious, spectacular, hilarious, absurd, insane, riotous, crazy, deliriously demented science fiction film of all time. I cannot fully articulate why it is deserving of being one spot ahead of Samuel Fuller's "Pickup on South Street" on my list of favorite films, but I do know that it is. "Lifeforce" elevates craziness to an art form. Quite possibly the most entertaining film known to man, and perhaps our greatest achievement as a species."
Wilson, despite his willingness to take on some really far-out stuff, really is something of a lesser light and a product of his time... his work seemed dated when i was interested in it, and that was a long time ago.
Wilson's persistent fascination with the occult and hidden potentials of "consciousness" (which he accepts as being a sort of fixed thing in all of history)--and his relative willingness to accept without much criticism the authoritarian elements of a huge swatch of that milieu--does lend itself to this explanation.
OTOH his tendency to resort to epicycles in explaining his theories (which are usually postulating, rather than explaining, something) is more the sign of an undisciplined thinker. On edit, Wilson seems like the hippie answer to J.G. Ballard, whose essay on the "half-educated man" seems relevant for what Wilson stumbles towards. Granted, in the wikipedia era, that's all of us.
Lifeforce is a great movie, though. Definitely better than the book.
Hacker Cinema
7 comments on Hacker News
> The members of Heaven’s Gate, which had existed since the 70s, believed they were exiting their Earthly bodies to board a UFO that was hiding behind the Hale-Bopp comet as it made its closest approach to Earth.
Wait. Wasn't this kind of the plot of Lifeforce??
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifeforce_(film)
Edit: Movies, unsorted, from the top of my mind:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_of_Control https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Origins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_East_(2013_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter%27s_Bone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contagion_(2011_film) , seen before Covid, deemed to be realistic, and therefore better than stuff like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Andromeda_Strain with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warning_Sign_(film) somewhere in between. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase_IV_(1974_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizards_(film) The remakes of the Planet of the Apes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/28_Days_Later , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/28_Weeks_Later a little less so, though it had some great scenes of flying into London City Airport and the modern parts around that. Bladerunner in the original versions, the remake not so much. 2001: A Space Odyssey, the intro and first parts, spaceflight to the moon and such, the rest not. Too boring. I liked the sequel 2010: Odyssey Two better, actually. Avatar. Part one only. All of this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_(franchise) with the exception of the crossover stuff. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elysium_(film) for the almost cyberpunkish fuckedupness of it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula_Untold https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beach_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Bergeron_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiocracy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WALL-E https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Island_(2005_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/THX_1138 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan%27s_Run_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropia_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollerball_(1975_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_Dealer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southland_Tales https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Live https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendence_(2014_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_for_Vendetta_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Puppet_Masters_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Survivalist_(2015_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernova_(2000_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine_(2007_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hidden_(1987_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patient_Zero_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capricorn_One https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangar_18_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_One_(2001_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timecop Ron Silverman Badass! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_(2014_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_Blonde https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Are_the_Night_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contact_(1997_American_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truman_Show https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombiana https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowing_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dead_Zone_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphere_(1998_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adjustment_Bureau https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrival_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifeforce_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fourth_Protocol_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machine_(2013_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_(2009_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Final_Countdown_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefox_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paycheck_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cypher_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trigger_Point https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echelon_Conspiracy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Anderson_Tapes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Parallax_View https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Seduction
TV-Series: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivors_(1975_TV_series) and the remake linked from there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Train_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jericho_(2006_TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Strain_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayward_Pines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silo_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_All_Mankind_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_(American_TV_series) and its prequel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1883_(TV_series)
WESTWORLD!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_100_(TV_series) Praimfaya! Yeehaa! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterpart_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ark_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altered_Carbon_(TV_series) All of Black Mirror! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_Experiments_Lain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travelers_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falling_Skies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devs_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Peripheral_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Expanse_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helix_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incorporated_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raised_by_Wolves_(American_TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/See_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_from_the_Loop https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutschland_83 and sequels. ÄXZÄLLÄNNT! JAWOLLJA! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humans_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Into_the_Night_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Worlds_(2019_TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_Nova_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Gods_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozark_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_in_the_High_Castle_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascension_(miniseries) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Person_of_Interest_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Event https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_One https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolution_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resurrection_(American_TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvation_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under_the_Dome_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_(2009_TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caprica
This all began about 2006 with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battlestar_Galactica_(2004_TV_series) after having abstained from possessing a TV, or watching that by other means (with some exceptions for news and documentaries) since 1996, and mostly no cinema either.
That stuff rehooked me in a binge-watching session. Shit happens :-)
Do yoo vanna häff fries wiff thät?
/nerdsnipe off
Lifeforce, also known as "Space Vampires":
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089489/
I was blown away by the basic concept - an alien ship (150 miles long!) with only 3 living(?) occupants in a wide elliptical orbit that nears Earth every 75 years, whereupon incredibly bad things happen.
A gorgeous female space vampire (Mathilda May) appears unclothed! And Patrick Stewart is in the film!!
The primary review on IMDB states:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089489/reviews?ref_=tt_urv
"...it is quite simply THE most audacious, spectacular, hilarious, absurd, insane, riotous, crazy, deliriously demented science fiction film of all time. I cannot fully articulate why it is deserving of being one spot ahead of Samuel Fuller's "Pickup on South Street" on my list of favorite films, but I do know that it is. "Lifeforce" elevates craziness to an art form. Quite possibly the most entertaining film known to man, and perhaps our greatest achievement as a species."
This shows up in the sci-fi/horror film Lifeforce. "Gentlemen, that last remark is not for publication. This is a D-notice situation."
My first association was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_White, the second https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifeforce_(film)
As in https://cdn.flickeringmyth.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/lifeforce-3-2.jpg
:-)
Exciting in any case as an extra-solar/interstellar object. My mind jumped to the movie Lifeforce. Frozen vampires inside!
Wilson, despite his willingness to take on some really far-out stuff, really is something of a lesser light and a product of his time... his work seemed dated when i was interested in it, and that was a long time ago.
Wilson's persistent fascination with the occult and hidden potentials of "consciousness" (which he accepts as being a sort of fixed thing in all of history)--and his relative willingness to accept without much criticism the authoritarian elements of a huge swatch of that milieu--does lend itself to this explanation.
OTOH his tendency to resort to epicycles in explaining his theories (which are usually postulating, rather than explaining, something) is more the sign of an undisciplined thinker. On edit, Wilson seems like the hippie answer to J.G. Ballard, whose essay on the "half-educated man" seems relevant for what Wilson stumbles towards. Granted, in the wikipedia era, that's all of us.
Lifeforce is a great movie, though. Definitely better than the book.