This video has been seconded as a duplicate; transferring votes to the original video and killing this dupe - dupeof seconded with isdupe by dingens.

*dupeof=http://videosift.com/video/Short-story-about-the-astronaut-Ronald-McNair

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*dupeof http://videosift.com/video/Short-story-about-the-astronaut-Ronald-McNair

>> ^Hive13:

I have to agree with some of the comments here. Having read and loved the short story first, I was very disappointed by this movie, however this ending at least is a tiny step closer to the original. The scary part of the short story was that the vampires spoke and verbally harassed Neville every night. Turning them into guttural monsters ruined that aspect. Also, the ending of the story was a fantastic twist in that Neville, having hunted and killed the "monsters" every day, had, himself become the last living man and thus the "monster". Great stuff.


I actually thought the first half of the movie was excellent. IIRC, they even seemed to be setting up the idea that the "vampires" were intelligent as in the book (didn't they set a trap for Neville?), but then it just chickened out and devolved into a dumb action/horror.

I thought Will Smith was pretty good (not normally a fan). The scene where he kills his dog was very well done.

I have to agree with some of the comments here. Having read and loved the short story first, I was very disappointed by this movie, however this ending at least is a tiny step closer to the original. The scary part of the short story was that the vampires spoke and verbally harassed Neville every night. Turning them into guttural monsters ruined that aspect. Also, the ending of the story was a fantastic twist in that Neville, having hunted and killed the "monsters" every day, had, himself become the last living man and thus the "monster". Great stuff.

I've always been a big fan of SK's short stories over his longer works. His early long work is great (Firestarter, The Dead Zone, etc) but after Misery he went down hill (imho). Not as concise or scary. His short work has always been great though. I still get creeped out when I think about The Breathing Method (Book 4 in Different Seasons).

Yeah, few people are reading that title and thinking 'yeah, I don't want to see that'.>> ^hpqp:

^upvote^ almost entirely for the title; it's like a one-line short story!

Soo... science just proved the theory behind the short story, The Nine Billion Names of God by Arthur C Clarke

^upvote^ almost entirely for the title; it's like a one-line short story!

I'm perplexed that no-one here is pointing out that the original PKD story was really short.... and had alien mice, and was called 'We can remember it for you wholesale'. The Total Recall movie took the tiny nugget and spun a whole thing from it.

Depending on whether this is more based on the movie or the short story it can veer off in all sorts of directions.

But being that it's directed by the Underworld guy and Beckansale is in it, it'll be crap

Maybe he's a construct as well. Just because we hear keystrokes and a bit of surprise in his voice doesn't mean he's human.
>> ^Ghostly:

It's fine, he's not paid to think either, perfectly realistic
>> ^EvilDeathBee:
>> ^mxxcon:
as a tech demo, it's shit.
as an emotional story, it's pretty good.

Funny, i was thinking the exact opposite. As a tech demo it's showcasing some very impressive facial animation. As a short story, it was poor. Cliched, convenient and rushed.
"You're defective, I have no choice but to disassemble you."
"Pretty please with sugar on top?"
"Oh, alright."
His reaction to her being sentient is as if this sort of thing happens a lot, not "Oh my god, how is this possible? Maybe we should study this" astonishment. If it does happen a lot, why let her free this one time? We don't get any feeling from him as this being the straw that broke the camel's back (could just be bad acting/direction on the male character's part). It's just "Oh, you're sentient. Ok, just this once I'll let it slide... Wow, what a weird occurrence. Ooo, it's lunch time!"

It's fine, he's not paid to think either, perfectly realistic
>> ^EvilDeathBee:

>> ^mxxcon:
as a tech demo, it's shit.
as an emotional story, it's pretty good.

Funny, i was thinking the exact opposite. As a tech demo it's showcasing some very impressive facial animation. As a short story, it was poor. Cliched, convenient and rushed.
"You're defective, I have no choice but to disassemble you."
"Pretty please with sugar on top?"
"Oh, alright."
His reaction to her being sentient is as if this sort of thing happens a lot, not "Oh my god, how is this possible? Maybe we should study this" astonishment. If it does happen a lot, why let her free this one time? We don't get any feeling from him as this being the straw that broke the camel's back (could just be bad acting/direction on the male character's part). It's just "Oh, you're sentient. Ok, just this once I'll let it slide... Wow, what a weird occurrence. Ooo, it's lunch time!"

>> ^mxxcon:

as a tech demo, it's shit.
as an emotional story, it's pretty good.


Funny, i was thinking the exact opposite. As a tech demo it's showcasing some very impressive facial animation. As a short story, it was poor. Cliched, convenient and rushed.

"You're defective, I have no choice but to disassemble you."
"Pretty please with sugar on top?"
"Oh, alright."

His reaction to her being sentient is as if this sort of thing happens a lot, not "Oh my god, how is this possible? Maybe we should study this" astonishment. If it does happen a lot, why let her free this one time? We don't get any feeling from him as this being the straw that broke the camel's back (could just be bad acting/direction on the male character's part). It's just "Oh, you're sentient. Ok, just this once I'll let it slide... Wow, what a weird occurrence. Ooo, it's lunch time!"

Sort of....this was adapted from a short story by Roald Dahl. The version I first saw was a remake in 1985 for the "New Alfred Hitchcock Presents" that starred John Huston in the Lorre role and Melanie Griffith as the Girl. Tarentino's version refers to the classic Hitchcock episode as the inspiration for the bet...and as you know has a completely different ending then the story it was inspired by. >> ^ctrlaltbleach:

Same bit is used in Quentin Tarantino's Four Rooms.