Screamers (film)
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| Screamers | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Christian Duguay |
| Produced by | Franco Battista Tom Berry |
| Written by | Philip K. Dick (novel) Dan O'Bannon (screenplay) |
| Starring | Peter Weller Roy Dupuis Jennifer Rubin |
| Music by | Normand Corbeil |
| Cinematography | Rodney Gibbons |
| Distributed by | Columbia TriStar |
| Release date(s) | January 26, 1996 |
| Running time | 108 min. |
| Country | Canada / US / Japan |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $11 million |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Screamers is a 1995 film directed by Christian Duguay based on the short story Second Variety by Philip K. Dick. It is set in 2078 on the planet Sirius 6b. Screamers stars Peter Weller, Roy Dupuis, and Jennifer Rubin.
Contents |
[edit] Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Peter Weller | Colonel Hendricksson |
| Roy Dupuis | Becker |
| Jennifer Rubin | Jessica |
| Andrew Lauer | Ace Jefferson |
| Charles Powell | Ross |
| Ron White | Elbarak |
| Michael Caloz | David |
| Liliana Komorowska | Landowska |
| Jason Cavalier | Leone |
| Leni Parker | Cpl. McDonald |
| Sylvain Massé | NEB Soldier |
| Bruce Boa | Secretary Green |
| Tom Berry | Technician |
| Henry Ramer | Screamers Crawl Narration (voice) |
[edit] Plot
Screamers are killing machines created by an organization called The Alliance to use as weapon against their enemy, the New Economic Bloc. Formally designated as "Autonomous Mobile Swords", the reason they are called screamers is that their original version makes a screaming noise when they attack. However, the screamers have evolved on their own to produce more sophisticated versions of themselves. Throughout the film, several models of screamers are introduced:
- Type 1 - Machines that crawl through the dirt and jump out on attack (the original screamers).
- Type 1 Revised - Machines that still crawl through the sand, but are of a more sleek disign, have small legs with which to walk around on other surfaces than sand, are much more intelligent than the standard screamer, and can hack into computer terminals. Armed with a buzzsaw blade on its head.
- Type 2 (number speculated) - As a man usually acting as a wounded soldier that cries for help. Seemingly not armed with weaponry, though they do possess a great deal of strength. One claims that it acquired its current face by cutting it off the former wearer.
- Type 3 - As a small boy, who calls himself "David", holding a teddy bear. During a scene in which many of these are torched, they're revealed to have buzzsaw blades imbeded in their hands. At one point it's shown their faces can mutate into a more monstrous visage.
- Type 4 (number speculated) - As a woman. This type of screamer is the most advanced and can even bleed, unlike the earlier versions. Strong, and seemingly able to produce a scream to possibly incapacitate or kill foes (the full effect is not shown in the film before it gets destroyed).
- Type 5 (number speculated) - The teddy bear usually found in the hand of a Type 3.
On a remote mining planet called Sirius B the commander of a handful of Alliance soldiers still alive called Colonel Hendricksson attempts to negotiate a peace with The New Economic Block forces on the planet after being betrayed by his leaders. To reach the enemy, he must cross a war-ravaged wasteland inhabited by screamers. To protect him from the screamers he uses a device that keeps the screamers away, but he is unaware of the new generation screamers against which the device does not work. He goes together with a young man called Ace who is a skilled sniper. Along the way, they find a young boy named "David", clutching a teddy bear, who appears to be an orphan refugee who's managed to survive out in the open all this time. They eventually arrive at the base of the New Economic Block, where the NEB soldiers shoot David on sight, revealing that he is actually a screamer robot. Hendrickssen and Ace are told about the new types of screamers by Jessica, a black market merchant who sells hard to get supplies to NEB soldiers. Besides her there are only two NEB soldiers left, and eventually they kill one thinking he is a screamer, only to see that blood is left on the knife they killed him with: screamers don't bleed, so they killed a human by mistake. Together with Ace they return to the base of Hendrickssen but find that everyone has been killed by screamers. Ace dies in a fight with screamers. The other NEB soldier following Jessica turns out to be one of the type 2 screamers, which pretends to be a wounded soldier, and they kill him (but not before Ace is crushed after falling for the machine's ploy). Hendricksson and Jessica head for an escape spacecraft that only Hendricksson knew about. When they arrive they see that there is only room for one passenger. Hendrickssen first decides that he will let Jessica use the spacecraft. Just then, someone who looks identical to Jessica walks in and Hendrickssen realizes that Jessica is in fact a screamer too. However, during the course of the film, Jessica has somehow developed emotions or otherwise learned to care about Hendrickssen, and thus decides to save him. The good Jessica and the new evil one engage in a fight, which results in the "good" Jessica killing the "bad" Jessica, but getting mortally wounded in the process. As the "good" Jessica lays dying, Hendrickssen tells her that her kind are moving up in the world: they've learned how to kill each other (just like humans). Hendrickssen manages to get into the spacecraft and sets off for Earth. The movie ends with the viewer seeing that a "David" teddybear aboard the spacecraft moves slightly and is thus probably a type of screamer, however Hendrickssen has no idea that he is taking a screamer to Earth.
[edit] Differences with Second Variety
Although the movie is based on the short story Second Variety by Philip K. Dick, and the basic ecophagy scenario remains unchanged, there are several key differences between Screamers and Second Variety that make the film somewhat less pessimistic.
- The automata of the film are known as "Screamers", while their counterparts in Second Variety are reffered to as "claws".
- The main character of Screamers, Colonel Hendricksson, is given a side-kick, the young and inexperienced Ace Jefferson. This helps lighten the mood of the first half of the movie. In Second Variety, the main character, Major Hendricks, travels alone.
- Screamers takes place in the distant future, while Second Variety takes place in the near future (for the 1950s).
- The on-going war in Screamers is a fictional war, fought between two fictional groups, the Alliance and the New Economic Bloc, over a futuristic resource. In Second Variety, the war is the Cold War which has turned into an all-out open war, and is being fought between the UN and the Soviet Union.
- Screamers takes place on the distant planet Sirius B, one of many planets colonised by the human race, and the only planet on which the screamers have been unleashed. Thus, the screamers are not a threat to the human race as a whole, only to the troops stationed on Sirius B. Second Variety takes place on Earth, and there are no human colonies in space, save for a small moon base. Thus, the entire human race is at risk of being wiped out by the claws.
- In Screamers, the screamer Jessica betrays the other screamers and helps Hendricksson escape the planet. In Second Variety, Tasso is loyal to the claws and escapes with the ship, leaving Hendricks stranded on Earth.
- In Second Variety, Hendricks has doomed the last humans by giving a claw access to the moon base. This fact is made explicitly clear, and Hendricks himself realises it in the end. In Screamers, it is shown that a screamer has stowed-away on Hendricksson's ship, but Hendricksson is not aware of it.
