[ 04-13-03 ] [ 9:30 a.m.]
[ Science fiction nightmares ]

(The following entry is a total spoiler for the movie "The Core", so if you've already seen it or don't want to, please proceed. But if you still want to see it, then don't read this entry.)

If there's one thing that still gives me nightmares at sixteen years old, it's science fiction movies that think of gruesome ways to kill their main characters.

I think it's the funniest anomaly about myself, because, when watching a science fiction movie, I'm simply awed at the gross ways they come up with for their characters to die. And then I'll talk about it after the movie gets over like it was the coolest thing I've ever seen. But after I'm safe at home in my room, I'll start thinking about those gruesome ways to die and get goosebumps, and usually I'll wake up in the middle of the night from a dream about being in space and having my helmet ripped off or something like that (that mental picture courtesy of "Mission to Mars", which still freaks me out a little, even though it's been a couple years since I've seen that movie.)

I'm a sucker for a good science fiction movie. 80% or more of the movies I own are science fiction movies, and since I'm such a fan of the genre, it doesn't take much to give me nightmares anymore. In fact, I hadn't seen a good science fiction movie capable of giving me nightmares for a very long time.

Until last night, when I saw a movie that gave me four separate nightmares.

Ever since I saw the trailer for "The Core" during the previews for some other science fiction movie, I wanted to see it. The second I saw the trailer I thought that it was going to be "a science fiction movie whose earth-saving situation is so unbelievable that it's believable." I was right, sort of.

Let me get this straight out - the fact that some guy came up with a movie script that has plasma storms and people with PaceMakers dropping dead because the core of the earth stopped spinning is NOT what gave me nightmares. Hell, if the core of the earth stopped spinning and there were plasma storms all over, I'd probably go watch (because that's what I do whenever there's a good old fashioned Midwestern thunderstorm) and I wouldn't be afraid, because I don't have a PaceMaker. Okay, off topic. Anyway, it's not the pretense of Hollywood science fiction movies or special effects that make lightning storms seem hair-pricklingly scary that makes ME scared. Definitely not.

It's the way they choose their main characters to die.

"The Core" has about nine main characters that I can see, and through the plot of the movie, all nine are in some sort of position to die. Six of them are mission commandos, whatever, that have to go to the center of the earth to "jumpstart" the core and get it working again so everybody on earth doesn't fry. The other three are ground control, you know, think NASA. I'm not going to take the time to explain exactly how six people could survive in the center of the earth (according to cinematics), which is so hot and so dense that you'd burn up AND be compacted into a tiny you-box in a matter of seconds. I'm just going to tell you why I had problems sleeping last night.

Four of the nine main characters died. (I TOLD you this was a trailer!) I won't tell you which ones, just in case you missed the disclaimer and still want to see the movie. I'll just highlight for you four of the most gruesome on-screen deaths I've seen in a while.

While some of the crew members are outside their safeship (again, humongously impossible) trying to fix it, one of the guys gets smacked in the head with a ball of molten lava that fell from the lining between the crust and mantle. Seeing this immediately made my hands snap to my head as though there were a ball of molten lava about to fall on MY head. If that wasn't enough, the guy fell backwards into a pool of lava, which immediately made me go twitchy. Nightmare number one, check.

The second death I think was the worst of the four. One of the guys got trapped in a breached compartment of the ship, and the only way to save the ship was to eject the compartment with him in it. Since the compartment was cut off but still attached to the rest of the ship, the guy was still breathing and living, but the pressure was making everything in the room close in on him. When they finally ejected it, the compartment immediately compacted into this little piece of metal probably smaller than my computer. Ewww! Nightmare number two, check.

The third guy died when the mission specialists realized that in order to make their crazy plan work, they had to eject the remaining compartments, one by one. The ship's designer explained that the only way to eject the compartments was to override the thing that kept them to the main hull. And the only way to do that was to go out into a 4500 degrees C to release it. The guy just got it released when he burned up. Nightmare number three, check.

The fourth guy died simply. He was trapped in one of the compartments with a nuke with no way to disable it. Um... Sayonara? Nightmare number four, check.

This is why I still get the creeps from science fiction movies. Not because of the frighteningly believable plot. Because they find gross ways to kill their main characters.

I mean, come on, who would wanna die like that? Definitely not me!

I'm perfectly well aware that gruesome character deaths are part of what makes a science fiction movie so good.

I mean, why else would I go see "The Core" again?

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