Movie Universe(s)

[Erik]

For the most part movies are taken induvidually. I was wondering then if there were movies out there that in your mind COULD take place in the same universe? And in terms of a Bond then I would mean the entire series. And in this case I don't even mean that you could put all of the comedies in the same universe, saying like FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH could exist in the same universe as FRIDAY. But, I guess you could almost take it that way if you want.

In my mind I could see THE GOLDEN CHILD and BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA taking place in the same universe. They share many similair qualities between each other that could be extruded to exist in each other movie.

I'll keep my one (or two) examples at this for the moment and see what everybody else comes up with.

[Derrick]

There's three movies that I like to consider part of what in my mind I call "The Breifcase Saga" These three movies have nothing in common except one thing: a mysterious suitcase that everybody is after.

KISS ME DEADLY (1955) P.I. Mike Hammer pursues a briefcase that contains a dangerous shining object that is quite possibly nuclear. It's opened twice in the movie but we never see what's in it. There's a strong hint at the end of the movie that it can destroy the world. People who look into it are hypnotized by it's destructive beauty.

PULP FICTION (1994) Hit men Jules and Vincent are assigned to retreive a briefcase that contains a dangerous shining object. In one scene a character looks into the briefcase and is hypnotized by it's beauty and says: "Is that what I think it is?"

RONIN (1998) Robert DeNiro and a band of mercenaries are hired to steal a mysterious briefcase. They and we are never told the contents of this briefcase, why it is wanted so badly and why so many people are willing to kill to possess it.

I consider the mysterious briefcase in all three of these movies to be the same briefcase and that's why I think they all take place in the same universe.

[james]

Stanley Kubrick's movies strike me as being in the same "universe," but maybe only in the sense that Kubrick was a world-class director who truly placed his unique sensibility in them. I don't really agree with the accusation that his films "cold" or "clinical" or that he wasn't interested in his characters. I think all of his films deal with what it means to be human (yeah, even 2001) - mainly through the theme of his characters struggling with a larger force (the military, military training, crime, social programming, social climbing, technology, cabin fever, madness) that is oppressing or corrupting their sense of self. That could be a universe.