# Games that would maake great movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 12, 2003, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382 "2003-06-12T17:12:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Man_With_The_Golden_Gun)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382/81 "2003-06-13T15:53:53Z")
I think **Perfect Dark** would make a good movie. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Carnage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/max_carnage/32/12775_2.png) [@Max\_Carnage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Carnage)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382/82 "2003-06-13T17:02:09Z")
If I may interrupt the Fibber and Drastic show here… I think **Pirates of the Carribean** may be the closest thing to a **Secret of/Escape from/Curse of Monkey Island movie** we may get. When I go, I’m gonna pretend Geoffrey Rush is the Pirate LeChuck, Orlando Bloom is Guybrush Threepwood, and Keira Knightley is Elaine Marley. Johnny Depp I guess can play the talking skull. Tell you a game I loved, that I’d like to see a movie of… **Goldeneye**! Actually, that kinda goes hand in hand with the topic. Games based on movies usually suck even more than movies based on games. But there are exceptions. And I’m looking forward to the next Resident Evil, and I’ll also throw in my hat for an **Eternal Darkness** movie. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Tambo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/76d3ee/32.png) [@Mr\_Tambo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Tambo)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382/83 "2003-06-13T18:29:28Z")
FWIW, I’d assumed _Max Payne_ was at least tongue-in-cheek, if not total parody. There are a great number of puns and jokes in the cut scenes and even the characters’ names. A huge amount of the conversations guards/thugs/mercenaries are having before you shoot them are discussions of action movie cliches, and other self-referential stuff. It’s a piss-take on the cliches of the hard-boiled noir genre that exists within that genre, the way _Scream_ exists within the slasher flick genre. ---
**Author:** ![Jayrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Jayrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayrot)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382/84 "2003-06-13T19:14:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by j\_kat\_251 \* > \*\*Vladimir: “I’m going to make you an offer you can’t refuse. I’ve always wanted to say that.” > > The Finito Brothers: “Ladies and gentlemen, it’s the pain in the butt.” > “Yeah! Pain to da max!” > > “There was something disturbingly familiar about the letter before me. The handwriting was all pretty curves.” - Max > > “The truth was a burning green crack through my brain. > Weapon statistics hanging in the air, glimpsed out of corner of my eye. Endless repetition of the act of shooting, time slowing down to show off my moves. The paranoid feel of someone controlling my every step”. - Max > > * * * > > They breach the fourth wall and this isn’t enough? Maybe they should write COMEDY in neon letters on a giant baseball bat and smash it into your face. Oh, wait, that’s just too subtle. \*\* Personally, I think this is some pretty strong evidence. I’d like to see Fibber’s attempt to reconcile this with the non-intentional parody theory. That last quote is exactly the same as the Simpsons line where Marge says something to the effect of “That’s ridiculous, no one is watching us _right now_!”, and then they all pause and look around for a couple seconds. ---
**Author:** ![ElJeffe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/958977/32.png) [@ElJeffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElJeffe)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382/85 "2003-06-13T21:56:57Z")
> [@](#): > > I’m sorry. You think Metroid would be a bad choice because it has only one character, but Myst, which has zero characters, would be good? In either one, the movie would need to add characters in order to make a decent story. With Myst, this could be done easily, while preserving the feel of the game. Essentially, the game is about wandering around weird-ass worlds, custom-made by some eccentric genius, or something. You could write in some new world that, for some reason, has people. With Metroid, though, the whole allure of the game is that it’s you, one person, against a bunch of alien creatures. The fact that there’s only one character is a vital part of the experience. Throw a team of bounty hunters at the movie, or a group of people to be rescued, or anything of the sort, and you’ve instantly destroyed the essence of Metroid. What you have left may be a good movie, but it wouldn’t be a Metroid movie, in which case why bother with the license at all? Oh, yeah, because it’ll sucker fans of the game to see a (likely) sub-par movie. Jeff ---
**Author:** ![ElJeffe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/958977/32.png) [@ElJeffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElJeffe)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382/86 "2003-06-13T22:05:53Z")
Oh, and for the record, I too thought that Max Payne was pretty obviously parody (and I also thought it was funny as hell). I mean, c’mon, even the _name_ of the game is parodical (parody-esque? parodoxical? whatever). Jeff ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382/87 "2003-06-13T22:08:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by green\_bladder \* > \*\*If they did **C&C/Red Alert** right, it could turn out to be a halfway decent war movie. > > \*\* How about the Tiberian Dawn/Sun Games? The first time I saw **Con Air** , I thought John Malkovich’s character reminded me a lot of Kane. He could probably do a good job with it too. Hell, Jerry Bruckhemier or Micheal Bay could do a good job with it. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382/88 "2003-06-13T22:11:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by samarm \* > \*\*I see Keanu Reeves in the lead role of Deus Ex: The Movie. 🙂 \*\* I was about to disagree with you, but he’d probably be able to pull it off, considering JC is pretty monotone. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382/89 "2003-06-13T22:15:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Drastic \* > \*\* > Back to topic, my interest meter would pique if I ever heard a movie was being made out of Infocom’s “A Mind Forever Voyaging”. \*\* The only problem is, I can easily see them trying to make it into a Matrix Rip-off. I like the Matrix, and the sequel, but AMFV needs a different touch. Though if say…Lucasarts were to buy the rights to and remake AFMV using some of today’s tech, that would be interesting. As long as they can resist putting in all the stars wars references, it could be really good. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382/90 "2003-06-13T22:24:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Muldoon III \* > \*\*The Terran and Zerg part were sorta done in the movie **StarShip Troopers**. > > I want to see something that follows **Contra** from the Nintendo system. Contra. . . the war the universe forgot. You go thru jungles, and bases, and a waterfall, and a spiky hangar, then at the end in the alien base you shoot a huge, innervated brain that is protected by aliens and you save the entire UNIVERSE!! Jason Stratham and Bruce Willis could play the parts of Scorpion and Snake. > > I should be made a king for this idea. \*\* Except that both borrowed a lot from the first two **Alien** Movies and **Predator**. I figured **Starcraft** is the closest we’ll ever get to seeing an RTS set in the **Alien** universe, with some predators-like creatures thrown in as the third race(If nothing else, the Protoss looked a lot like the Predators). Same for **Contra**. The ending stage was very Gigerish, and the two heros looked very much like Sly and Arnie in their prime. They are both good games, but making a movie out of a game that borrowed from other movies in the first place(sometimes heavily) seems rather ironic and perhaps unnesscary, don’t you think? ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382/91 "2003-06-13T22:30:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Justin\_Bailey \* > \*\* > > And Doom is in development hell right now, meaning they’ve been trying to get it off the ground for years but things keep falling apart. > > \*\* Actually, they’ve been trying to get it going ever since the first game came out. They’ve never even gotten around(at One time, they wanted Arnie and Sly, I think) to casting it as far as I know. Apparently they lost the rights and had to start over from scratch because it took so long. I’ll probably have grandkids before that movie comes out(and considering I don’t plan to have childern, you can see what I’m getting at here). ---
**Author:** ![Fibber\_McGee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a6a055/32.png) [@Fibber\_McGee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fibber_McGee)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382/92 "2003-06-13T22:51:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jayrot \* > \*\*Personally, I think this is some pretty strong evidence. I’d like to see Fibber’s attempt to reconcile this with the non-intentional parody theory. > \*\* :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Fibber\_McGee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a6a055/32.png) [@Fibber\_McGee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fibber_McGee)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382/93 "2003-06-13T22:55:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by j\_kat\_251 \* > \*\*Vladimir: “I’m going to make you an offer you can’t refuse. I’ve always wanted to say that.” > > The Finito Brothers: “Ladies and gentlemen, it’s the pain in the butt.” > “Yeah! Pain to da max!” > > “There was something disturbingly familiar about the letter before me. The handwriting was all pretty curves.” - Max > > “The truth was a burning green crack through my brain. > Weapon statistics hanging in the air, glimpsed out of corner of my eye. Endless repetition of the act of shooting, time slowing down to show off my moves. The paranoid feel of someone controlling my every step”. - Max > > * * * > > They breach the fourth wall and this isn’t enough? Maybe they should write COMEDY in neon letters on a giant baseball bat and smash it into your face. Oh, wait, that’s just too subtle. \*\* I was playing the same game you were. The fourth-wall breaching sequences you speak of were pretty clever, but they weren’t especially funny. If that was comedy, it was failed comedy. As for the other lines you mention . . . wow. Mildly clever one-liners. Never heard those in action movies before. Yep, definately parody. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Wumpus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8c91f0/32.png) [@Wumpus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wumpus)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382/94 "2003-06-13T23:31:40Z")
What cuts of steak would be good with chocolate sauce and whipped cream? What kind of ice cream goes with a baked potato and a nice Burgundy? That’s pretty much how I feel about mixing games and movies. I like 'em both, but I don’t feel the need to mix 'em. Things that make a game good (e.g. non-linearity) are often totally different than the things that make a movie good (e.g. linearity). That being said, you could probably make a really fun flick out of Grim Fandango. As for a movie based on Fallout – what’s wrong with Road Warrior? (Fallout was inspired by Wasteland which was inspired by Road Warrior.) ---
**Author:** ![Wolfian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Wolfian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolfian)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382/95 "2003-06-14T01:01:12Z")
Wow, I opened a can of worms here. I just thought Max Payne would be a nice movie to check your brain at the door and watch some explosions. Star Fox, anyone? It would probably have to be all CG. Guys in animal suits seems a bit silly. I think it would make a nice kids’ movie. Just enought plot to work with, lots of explosions, and a happy ending. Yea! I can see F-Zero the same way. Characterize the four main guys more and throw in a villian. Pilotwings could make a decent movie. Kinda like Police Academy in the air, but the title is “great movies,” so nevermind. ---
**Author:** ![Eternal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@Eternal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eternal)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382/96 "2003-06-14T03:42:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fibber McGee \* > \*\*I was playing the same game you were. The fourth-wall breaching sequences you speak of were pretty clever, but they weren’t especially funny. If that was comedy, it was failed comedy. > > As for the other lines you mention . . . wow. Mildly clever one-liners. Never heard those in action movies before. Yep, definately parody. :rolleyes: \*\* I think I solved the mystery of why you don’t get it’s a parody, but to explain it I’d have to start a Pit thread, and I’m far too lazy for all that. ---
**Author:** ![Eternal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@Eternal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eternal)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382/97 "2003-06-14T03:48:30Z")
I’ll also add a 😛 just to make sure you know I was at least semi-kidding. You bastard. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382/98 "2003-06-14T04:23:43Z")
Well, after reading far more about _Max Payne_ than I ever thought I’d have reason to, I’ll third the much earlier nominations of _Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers_. It could be adapted for the big screen with very few changes. The hero actually has a distinct personality (a rarity in games), the supporting roles are well characterized, the storyline is both coherent and interesting, and there’s even real tension and suspense. Chop out the more game-like puzzles and you’ve got yourself a pretty strong mystery/thriller script. ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382/99 "2003-06-14T04:53:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Wumpus \* > I like 'em both, but I don’t feel the need to mix 'em. Things that make a game good (e.g. non-linearity) are often totally different than the things that make a movie good (e.g. linearity). Possibly, then, the OP is not asking “What games are so good they should be movies?” but rather “What games would make good movies?” Nobody said that only _good_ games make good movies, if you follow me. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382/100 "2003-06-14T04:53:16Z")
I keep wishing Square would make a full-fledged _Vagrant Story_ movie. It has a pretty good plot, rich medieval scenery and costumes, big ol’ monsters, and some memorable scenes (I’m thinking of “Now begins the slowest dance,” “Get thee gone, Darkness!”, and “Grissom, you have left this coil!”). The Shakespearean touches to the translated dialogue were also quite interesting. …So I say, but the truth is I’m asking for a _Vagrant Story_ movie just so I can see me some live or fully rendered Ashley butt 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382.md?page=6)