"What If" Movies

In my limited view of things I've noticed, over time, a variety of movies that, though existing in rather small numbers, are what I would call a great answer to that wonderful variety of juvenile conversation that never seems to get old.  I don't know if there's actually a proper name for them and I haven't met anyone who's given them any kind of nickname.  What I do know is that, when I find myself in one (like I did when I was a kid), I can never seem to get enough of it.  Much to my amusement and gratification, there are a few movies that paint very entertaining pictures of the kind of questions and suppositions that I and the friends of my childhood used to love to debate about in our collective daydreams. 

For the sake of identification, I'll call them "what if" movies.  They both ask and answer the kinds of questions and comparisons that come up in these kinds of conversation.  "'What if'" this character and that character were to fight each other?"  "Who do you think would win?"  "'What if'" this character and that character were to team up?" . . . and on and on.  Since I was a kid, and all the way up to now, I've been joyfully indulging in conversations and comparisons of this kind about comicbook and literary characters, movies and TV shows.  I do realize that the producers and directors of the these films, most likely, didn't make them for the purpose of addressing these gratifying daydreams, but, perhaps without trying, they did a pretty good job of it. 

Over the past 30 years there have been a few films, that are personal favorites of mine, which fit quite nicely into the category of "what if".  The first of these films to draw my attention to the "what if" quality that I would begin to notice was Disney's "Tron". 

"What if" . . . a man was somehow pulled in and trapped inside a computer.  (Not just the device, but the program environment itself.)  I know.  It sounds like a geeky question.  But, geeky or not, it made for a good movie. 

Walt Disney's "Tron" was released in 1982.  The film starred Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, David Warner, Cindy Morgan, and Barnard Hughes.  A talented computer programmer, Kevin Flynn, employed at a large successful software firm produces a number of highly marketable video games in his spare time only to have them stolen by a rival in the work place.  He is subsequently cheated out of any profit from the games and is fired from the company in an attempt to hide the fraud.  Aided by his friends in his quest to find the evidence that he invented the video games, Flynn finds himself pulled into the computer and forced to fight for his life. 

With the aid of a security program called Tron, Flynn takes on the Master Control Program that's trying to kill him.     







Back when this film came out, I just couldn't get enough of it. 

I saw this movie as often as I could, whenever I could.  I was in school studying computers at the time that this film came out.  Seeing it increased my enthusiasm for the field.  Being what it was at the time that it was, I found the special effects enthralling. 

A number of years later, another movie came out that somewhat mildly qualified as a "what if" film that was equally as enthralling by virtue of both its story and its special effects.  The story had its similarities to Tron's, but the direction was kind of in the opposite direction.   

"'What if' . . . someone/you woke up and discovered that your world was computer generated?" 

Warner Brothers' "The Matrix" had something of a significantly more involved and developed story than Disney's "Tron", if only by virtue of progression of the two sequels that followed.  But, the question is there nontheless.  And the answer that the story provides is down right amazing. 

Warner Brothers' "The Matrix" was released in 1999 and starred Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Hugo Weaving.  A computer hacker encounters a group of fugitives that show him that his world, his reality is not what it appears.  He discovers that he has been existing inside a computer generated world and that his body is being used as a source of power by its creators.   

 

It can be argued that its sequels place it outside the category of a "what if" film, but , I would hold on to that classification for this film just by virtue of how the story unfolds



In 2003, a film was released that screamed "what if".  To this day it holds a place among my most favorite action movies.  It involved a collection of victorian age characters currently well known in literature and film that find themselves teamed up in an effort to save the world. 

"'What if' . . . Allan Quatermain, Captain Nemo, the Invisible Man, Tom Sawyer, Dorian Gray, and Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde were teamed up?  And, just to make it interesting, what if we added someone who had been turned by Dracula, like Mina Harker?  (I guess including the vampire himself would be a little too much.) 

Angry Film's "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" was released in 2003 and starred Sean Connery, Naseeruddin Shah, Peta Wilson, Tony Curran, Stuart Townsend, Shane West, Jason Flemyng, and Richard Roxburgh. 

Allan Quatermain leads a team of unique individuals against an arms merchant known as "The Phantom" in an effort to avert a world war. 

 

 

I thought the inclusion of Captain Nemo's Nautilus and what was made another of his chronologically premature technological innovations, the "automobile", was a nice touch. 

 

 

All of these movies were fun to watch.  The special effects, the technology being what they were at the respective times of release, gave just enough of a touch of realism to make them all a great get-away for a couple of hours.