What Do They Have in Common?

Check out the next post and find out!

Six Degrees of Geeks

Okay... last part.

Susan Sarandon can link to Speed Racer, or Witches of Eastwick to Jack Nicholson to Mars Attacks (nexus) or to Batman...

Puzzles: what is the shortest link containing all seven Batman movies? (Adam West to the present) No direct linkage allowed.

All Star Trek movies? Star Wars? All Marvel movies? Lord of the Rings?

Enjoy.

Six Degrees of Geeks, continued

Actors must be well known, if not for the role in a movie, then for another role in another movie or television show. (Kevin Bacon's appearance in Animal House is brief, but it does count.)

Any challenges will be settled by IMDB.com, or an agreed upon paper source if the internet is not availble, such as Video Hound. If those do not exist, majority rule will suffice. The victor gains a point (either for using an obscure role, or for challenging the error). One point is subtracted from the loser.

In the course of each game, a player may use a wild card. The player can link via a non-actor such as Director (Terry Gilliam), Composer (John Williams) or writer (Harlan Ellison). The next player can nullify that link by using an actor, thus gaining a point.

Players can link back to a player already used, but cannot use the movies already linked to the actor. (If V for Vendetta and Star Wars I were already used to link to Natalie Portman, they cannot be used if one links back to her later.) Also, if an actor costars with an actor in two or more movies in a series, a player cannot use any other movies in that series as a link. (Brent Spiner and Patrick Stewart can be linked via any of their Star Trek movies, but only once.)

Now, back to my link... Robinson on one end, Portman or Smith on the other... Smith links to Men In Black to Rip Torn to The Man Who Fell to Earth to David Bowie to Labyrinth to Jennifer Connelly to Hulk to Eric Bana to Star Trek (nexus) to Rachel Nichols to GI Joe (nexus) to Ray Park (nexus) to Star Wars I (nexus) to Samuel Jackson to Unbreakable to Fifth Element to Bruce Willis to Gary Oldman to Batman Begins to Liam Neeson (nexus) (Star Wars I = shortcut) to Natalie Portman (SW I) to Dustin Hoffman to Hook (nexus) to Robin Williams (nexus) to Jumanji to Kirsten Dunst (nexus) to Interview With a Vampire (nexus) to Tom Cruise to Legend to Tom Curry to Annie (dead ends with Peters, Finney, Burnett?) or Rocky Horror to Susan Sarandon to...?

continued...

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...