Movies - Screamers

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	Movies - Screamers

Screamers is a 1995 film directed by Christian Duguay based on the short story Second Variety by Philip K. Dick. It is set in 2078 on the planet Sirius 6b and stars Peter Weller, Roy Dupuis, and Jennifer Rubin.

Cast

Plot

Screamers are killing machines created by an organisation called The Alliance to use as weapon against their enemy, the New Economic Bloc. Formally designated as "Autonomous Mobile Swords", the reason they are called screamers is that their original version makes a screaming noise when they attack. However, the screamers have evolved on their own to produce more sophisticated versions of themselves. Throughout the film, several generations of screamers are introduced: #Machines that crawl through the dirt and jump out on attack (the original screamers). #In human form as a small boy. #As a wounded soldier begging for help. #As a woman. This type of screamer is the most advanced and can even bleed, unlike the earlier versions.

On a remote mining planet called Sirius B the commander of a handful of Alliance soldiers still alive called Colonel Hendricksson attempts to negotiate a peace with The New Economic Block forces on the planet after being betrayed by his leaders. To reach the enemy, he must cross a war-ravaged wasteland inhabited by screamers. To protect him from the screamers he uses a device that keeps the screamers away, but he is unaware of the new generation screamers against which the device does not work. He goes together with a young man called Ace who is a skilled sniper. They eventually arrive at the base of the New Economic Block and are told about the new types of screamers by their leader Jessica. Together with Ace they return to the base of Hendrickssen but find that everyone has been killed by screamers. Ace dies in a fight with screamers. Hendricksson and Jessica head for an escape spacecraft that only Hendricksson knew about. When they arrive they see that there is only room for one passenger. Hendrickssen first decides that he will let Jessica use the spacecraft. However someone who looks identical to Jessica then walks in and Hendrickssen realizes that Jessica was a screamer too. After a fight between the good Jessica and the new evil one Hendrickssen manages to get into the spacecraft and sets off for Earth. The movie ends with the viewer seeing that a teddybear aboard the spacecraft moves slightly and is thus probably a type of screamer, however Hendrickssen has no idea that he is taking a screamer to Earth.

Differences with Second Variety

Although the movie is based on the short story Second Variety by Philip K. Dick, there are several key differences between Screamers and Second Variety that make the former much more light-hearted than the latter.

The main character of Screamers, Colonel Hendricksson, is given a side-kick, the young and inexperienced Ace Jefferson. This helps lighten the mood of the movie. In Second Variety, the main character, Major Hendricks, travels alone.
Screamers takes place in the distant future, while Second Variety takes place in the near future (for the 1950s).
The on-going war in Screamers is a fictional war, fought between two fictional groups, the Alliance and the New Economic Bloc, over a futuristic resource. In Second Variety, the war is the Cold War which has turned into an all-out open war, and is being fought between the UN and the Soviet Union.
Screamers takes place on the distant planet Sirius B, one of many planets colonised by the human race, and the only planet on which the screamers have been unleashed. Thus, the screamers are not a threat to the human race as a whole, only to the troops stationed on Sirius B. Second Variety takes place on Earth, and there are no human colonies in space, save for a small moon base. Thus, the entire human race is at risk of being wiped out by the screamers.

In Screamers, the screamer Jessica betrays the other screamers and helps Hendricksson escape the planet. In Second Variety, Tasso is loyal to the screamers and escapes with the ship, leaving Hendricks stranded on Earth.
In Second Variety, Hendricks has doomed the last humans by giving a screamer access to the moon base. This fact is made explicitly clear, and Hendricks himself realises it in the end. In Screamers, it is only implied that a screamer has stowed-away on Hendricksson's ship, Hendricksson is not aware of it, and the fate of the human race is left undecided.

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Movies - Screamers

Cast

Plot

Differences with Second Variety

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