Sunday, August 30, 2009

Six Degrees of Geeks

[Q| Anyways, a few weeks ago, I finally saw "Spaceballs" at a midight screening at the Landmark Sunshine movie theater. Towards the end of the movie, John Hurt, playing himself, suffers another Alien heartburn attack.

As I watched the credits, my mind got to thinking... Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, using only sci-fi, fantasy, and comics movies! (Horror only counts if it falls into the above three categories... vampires, yes; slashers, no; Freddy Kruger, yes, because of dreams.)

Bill Pullman was also in Independence Day with Jeff Goldblum, who was in The Fly with Geena Davis, who... (darn, couldn't remember a link!)

But John Hurt was in Alien with Sigourney Weaver who was in Galaxy Quest with Alan Rickman who was in Excalibur with Patrick Stewart who was in...Wow... PS has been in a lot of geek movies! Star Trek, Excalibur, Dune, Life Force, X-Men... I selected ST:Generations, for some big star power... Roddy McDowell, who was in Planet of the Apes with Charlton Heston, who was in Soylent Green with Edgar G. Robinson.

This was all in my head as I walked to the subway. Then I pulled out my notebook and started working on the nexi (nexuses?). Star Trek 7 has a link to Independence Day via Brent Spiner. X-Men links via Cyclops to Superman Returns which links to Kevin Spacey which leads to Moon and the lead (which I can't remember). Alan Rickman links to Excalibur, Galaxy Quest, Harry Potter (and John Cleese!). Then there are other actors, like Natalie Portman and Will Smith who link to all sorts of stuff. Portman links to Smith via Jason Bateman. Using that same movie, P links to Dustin Hoffman, Hook, Robin Williams (nexus!) which links back to P (Jumanji) to Mars Attacks (nexus) to Jack Nicholson (!) to Batman to Michael Keaton to Beatlejuice to Geena Davis to The Fly...)

Now, if you want to make a game of it... Each linked Oscar nominee or winner gets a point. If a person cannot continue a link, she or he loses a point. A person continuing that link earns a point.

To Be Continued...

2 comments:

  1. Alan Rickman wasn't in Excalibur, in fact I don't believe he and Patrick Stewart have ever been on film together

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  2. You are correct. So:
    Alan Rickman (Hitchhikers/Harry Potter) Warwick Davis (Willow) Val Kilmer (Batman Forever) Rene Auberjonois (Star Trek 6) Michael Dorn (Star Trek: Generations) Patrick Stewart ... (Soylent Green) Dick Van Patten

    which brings us back to Spaceballs, which started it all!

    If you like, you can cross through Spaceballs again with John Candy, which leads to Little Shop of Horrors...

    A point is scored if you link the same actors to two or more movies (such as the Rickman-Davis link above) or if two actors link to another actor (such as Rick Moranis and Bill Murray linking to John Candy, as both were in Little Shop of Horrors and Ghostbusters).

    Visually:
    Rickman
    Hitchhikers/Harry Potter
    Davis

    Candy
    Little Shop
    Murray/Moranis
    Ghostbusters

    Of course, series do not count, since the main cast appears in more than one film.

    Points accrue exponentially. The first "double" scores one point. The second, two; the third, four; the fourth, eight points; and so on.

    Actually... I just discovered a shorter link for Rickman/Stewart: Helen Mirren. Style point given for the fact that neither Alan Rickman nor Helen Mirren appear on screen in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Plus one Oscar point for Mirren.

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