6.9 KiB
A movie idea about a rationalist alien species encountering earth from signals.
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Author: u/richardwhereat *
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URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/2nqjbu/a_movie_idea_about_a_rationalist_alien_species/
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Score: 10
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Created: 2014-11-29T06:06:04
Post:
The nearest Goldilocks planet to us is inhabited. They have a rational society, sadly, it's a planet of the apes fallacy, because we need humans to be the actors. (Unless you've another idea, perhaps a Jim Hensen's Dark Crystal idea)
And the movie is about their society discussing a transmission they received from Earth, with a message of peace, and all the normal information that we send.
They go about their ordinary lives, as a Type 1 civilisation, and every level of their society is discussing the possibility of talking with us, the first sapient species they've heard from. Before the movie started, they sent out a ship with a few scientists, politicians, doctors and engineers to make contact.
All throughout the movie various people at the street/shopping/working levels of their society, are talking about the exciting opportunities. There are even a few dirty minded people talking about interspecies sex. (for the laughs)
When their ship lands, we've destroyed ourselves.
It's kind of a sad ending, but after all of that build up, and everyone expecting an epic first contact...
I thought that's how it should go. No more humanity to greet. Just a beacon at what used to be a combined NASA/ESA outpost to turn off.
Maybe, on the moon.
Movie Ends
Fades to black
Guy in the outpost - "You sure we should just turn it off? What if other civilisations need to see this? What if some of them left, and come back?"
Girl in their ship - "No. You saw that. No-one escaped."
Guy in the outpost - "But to just turn it off, to end them. It seems cold"
Girl in their ship - "You saw the signal, the vast majority of them had death rituals. They appreciated closure, let's give it to them."
Guy in the outpost - "Okay, but, I uh saw a poem in their signal. It was beautiful, and it seemed apt."
Girl in their ship - "Good man."
Guy in the outpost - "Goodnight room
Goodnight moon
Goodnight cow jumping over the moon
Goodnight light
And the red balloon
Goodnight bears
Goodnight chairs
Goodnight kittens
And goodnight mittens
Goodnight clocks
And goodnight socks
Goodnight little house
And goodnight mouse
Goodnight comb
And goodnight brush
Goodnight nobody
Goodnight mush
And goodnight to the old lady whispering "hush."
Goodnight stars
Goodnight air
Goodnight noises everywhere. "
Credits roll silently
The movie wouldn't go into what humanity did or didn't do. The aliens would just arrive right near the end of the movie to see that we were gone, and check, conclusively, that we were indeed gone. But I got the idea from in part from HJPEV's idea that a true wizarding war would be an extinction event, and while it wouldn't be discussed in the film (because how would these planet of the apes fallacy aliens know?) what does wipe out humanity in the end, is a Quirrellmort/HJPEV war (HPMOR) where, for whatever reason, Harry wasn't holding back.
The other seed of the idea came when I was thinking about what the starscape of that nearest habitable planet would look like compared to ours. Would it share most of the same features, only, with some small differences? Then I wanted to explore that planet. I also like imagining a pan narrans civilisation that favours rationality over the stories we tell ourselves to be less afraid of the monsters in the dark.
Then the idea was "What would earth and human civilisation look like to outsiders, to rationalists from beyond?" Even if they come from a story telling society as well.
And that's the story (fan fic) I wanted to tell.
What do you think the society should look like?
Comments:
u/None [+3] (17 hours later)
If you want to think about how the aliens' civilization might work, it could be worth it to look at EY's April's Fools post.
u/richardwhereat [+1] (18 hours later)
Cheers
u/eaglejarl [+2] (11 hours later)
First of all, why do we need humans to be the actors?
Second, how is this a fanfic? Sounds like an original to me.
Third, you've posted the entire story -- why not just have written it instead? It will depend on the surprise ending for its punch, and you've ruined that, at least as far as the readers on this subreddit are concerned. You should change your title to include a [SPOILERS] tag.
u/richardwhereat [+1] (17 hours later)
Because we can't employ aliens to do it, CGI tends to bankrupt the studio doing the CGI, and we need humans to be able to relate.
Because it spins off the HPMOR extinction event, with the hidden backstory being explicitly an all out wizarding war between HJPEV and Quirrell.
Yeah, but lots of people write down stuff all the time, and by the time I'm done writing backstory, character profiles and relationships, maps, civilisation profiles, and then write the script, you, and everyone else I've shown this to will have forgotten. I wanted to see reactions to the base plot, the ending, and to see if anyone had any ideas for the civilisation.
u/MrSink [+2] (17 hours later)
Because it spins off the HPMOR extinction event, with the hidden backstory being explicitly an all out wizarding war between HJPEV and Quirrell.
Honestly, I think your story would work much better without throwing in HPMOR
u/richardwhereat [+0] (18 hours later)
It won't be mentioned. There's quite a lot that won't be mentioned. But that's part of the backstory.
u/eaglejarl [+2] (19 hours later)
It won't be mentioned. There's quite a lot that won't be mentioned. But that's part of the backstory.
If it won't be mentioned, why use it? There are plenty of reasons that humanity could have wiped themselves out. Or will HPMOR have any visible effect on the story?
u/richardwhereat [+0] (19 hours later)
Because that's one of the the origins of the idea, and I like it enough to use it.
u/None [+2] (a day later)
It doesn't need to be a movie. It could be text, a comic, a cartoon...
u/richardwhereat [+1] (a day later)
It could work very well as a graphic novel.
u/eaglejarl [+1] (19 hours later)
Wait, you're actually making a movie of this? Like, it's really going to be shown on a screen? You did say 'movie' right in the title but for some reason I (and apparently others) were thinking it would be a written work.
Well, I wish you all the success with it. Link it here when you're done.
u/richardwhereat [+1] (19 hours later)
I'm not a multimillionaire, so I can't greenlight it from my own ideas. I'm going to write a script, provide all the rest of the information, and hope that a movie gets made.