While Jules Vern does posit the ability to walk to the center of the earth, that’s not quite the same as the Hollow Earth theory. The Hollow Earth theory – as I understand it, which is a limited understanding and I don’t want to delve deeper (so to speak) – probably derives from Edgar Rice Burroughs Pellucidar series. The author of the Tarzan books also wrote a series about a lost world – dinosaurs and scantily-clad warriors and such – living in a separate world inside the earth.
Do you have any links? EvD is my favourite nut case.
The theory had already been around quite some time before Burroughs adapted it for fictional purposes. Edmund Halley proposed a hollow earth theory as early as 1692, but at that time it may have been more reasonable than it is today. I seem to recall Edward Bulwer-Lytton was a proponent of the theory.
The same one who wrote “It was a dark and stormy night”?
I refer you to the made-for-ABC-TV version with Michael Caine doing quite a good Capt. Nemo. Atlantis indeed was there.
Isn’t THe Matrix a documentary?
The upcoming The DaVinci Code, if it’s anything like the book, is nicely fraught with conspiracy theories, secret societies, and really imbecillic plot holes.
Oh, wait, that last one wasn’t really part of the question. Well, it’s true, anyway.
The Rock, starring Nicholas Cage, had a peripheral reference to Sean Connery’s character having stolen microfilm detailing all sorts of conspiracy theory confirmation, such as who actually killed Kennedy, etc.
Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan really were abducted by aliens. What, would a Star Trek: Voyager scriptwriter make that up?
[Mel Brooks]
“We’re Mormons in Space! We’re floating along protecting the Mormon Faith!”
[/Mel Brooks}
National Treasure-Freemasons ran the country, and they have a gigantic treasure stretched back to the beginning of human history.
Lovecraft- Aliens, Magic and Secret Societies are all around us.
Independence Day
Mr. President: There is no Area 54, there are no alien spacecraft, and there are no aliens.
Sec’y of Defense: Actually, Mr. Present, that isn’t entirely true…
I don’t think I saw that. I know there’s one that the sci-fi channel loves to replay where Richard Crenna plays the professor and his assistant is a girl dressed like a boy. I remember Atlantis in that one.
Also the other made-for-TV version (which aired on another network the same year) with Ben Cross doing quite a bad Capt. Nemo. Atlantis was there, too.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118247/ The Ben Cross version.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118248/ The Michael Caine version.
Men In Black - The tin foil hat crowd is right! There are aliens among us - in fact, that weirdo you know? Probably an alien!
Isn’t the point of Foucault’s Pendulum that there was no conspiracy until people started acting like there was one?
Special Unit 2- The government is aware that dragons, gnomes, banshees, et exist but hides their existence from the public.
You’re misremembering. Only some conspiracy theories were true. These were almost entirely centered around "The military/industrial/political complex has vast secret powers and hidden technology and is controlling you in terrible ways."For Example, there is a massive underground military base in New Mexico. Besides making nasty bioweapons (a few ounces of their modified hanta virus is enough to kill everybody in New Mexico and all surrounding states) they also keep the cure for AIDS handy. You see, AIDS really was a bioweapon released by the government and the pharmaceutical industry. It serves the government’s purposes and the industry can make profits on medications.
The US Government also has huge, hidden detention camps
Governments have made a deal with aliens (though these are extra dimensional rather than extra terrestrial) this includes implanting alien parasites in human hosts.
At least one corporation does sell crack in the ghetto. Their stuff is made to be lethal at lower doses than normal. It also allows board members with proper equipment to inhabit the corpse after death.
Terrence McKenna is right and the world (in fact the universe) will end when the Mayan calendar runs out.
In Other Comics
Preacher
(minor spoiler) Jesus didn’t die on the cross but was given a soporific drug. He later married Mary Magdalene and had children. A secret organization called The Grail has guarded this sacred bloodline (sang real) since that time. They have vast wealth and control most of the world’s governments.
HellBlazer
I’m sure there are more but OTTOMH, there are clubs where those with vast wealth or positions of great power go to let off their special tensions. They can just buy a drink and watch shaved, starved cats fight to the death in a small glass case, pay a prostitute for any sexual service imaginable, or kill another human being without fear of ever being caught.
Hyperkind
By adding signals to radio and television, destroying hard evidence, and adding brainwashing chemicals to the water, a Billionare industrialist has been able to make the world forget a very important historical detail.
WE-3
The government currently has cybernetic animals built for warfare, years beyond publically known technology, and incredibly dangerous.