Released in 1974, "Black Planet" is the debut work of John Carpenter, a Hollywood horror film director and B-level master. This is an alternative space science fiction film. This patchwork (borrowing and parody of many sci-fi works), shoddy (low-budget production) absurd comedy is probably one of the most overlooked Hollywood sci-fi masterpieces. After all, in the 1960s and 1970s, there were many excellent sci-fi films: before "Black Planet", "Planet of the Apes", "2001 A Space Odyssey", "The Universe is Quiet" and other sci-fi films with different styles and themes were launched. It laid the foundation for the popularity of sci-fi films in the future; after "Black Planet", the launch of "Star Wars", "Alien" and other works made sci-fi films join the ranks of mainstream movie types.
Dan O'Bannon, who wrote and co-starred the film, later described the film this way: "We were supposed to make one of the most impressive student work in the world, but it ended up being the world's least impressive Impressive professional film."
It's a crazy comedy about four space hippies. The protagonist of the film is four astronauts far from Earth, they are on a dangerous space mission (destroy an unstable planet), but the missile on board the spacecraft malfunctioned unexpectedly. Meanwhile, astronauts are finding ways to have fun in the boring space life, enriched by music, adult magazines and pets. To make matters worse, the bomb suddenly went out of control...
There is a very interesting plot in the film. One of the protagonists, "Pinback", was chased and killed by an alien creature with a body resembling a balloon. In the end, he shot its body with a pistol, causing the alien creature to leak air. To be able to escape. Afterwards, he told his companions about his experience, but no one was interested. In this section, the low-cost investment and spoof spirit of the film are perfectly displayed, but the arrangement and atmosphere when "Nailhead" was trapped in the elevator shaft when he was chased and killed was still very serious. The shadow of many of Carpenter's future works.
Dan O'Bannon, who played "Nailhead", co-wrote the script for the film with John Carpenter, and later participated in the script creation of more well-known sci-fi films such as the "Alien" series. The balloon-shaped alien creature in "Black Planet" is, to a certain extent, one of the predecessors of "Alien".
The film ends with a wild ending: the bomb explodes, and the two remaining survivors start space drifting and cosmic surfing, and the scene is hilarious. This ending is comparable to the famous scene in Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove", which is both romantic and nonsensical.
John Carpenter once said that "Black Planet" was influenced by Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" from beginning to end. In particular, the out-of-control smart bomb in the film, and the plot of the characters in the film talking to them, obviously alludes to and spoofs the artificial intelligence Hal 9000 in "2001: A Space Odyssey". Carpenter, who likes horror films, action films, and rock music, made his debut film actually a work that borrowed and stole from the British film master Kubrick. It can be seen that Kubrick's work has had a pervasive influence on Hollywood.
"Black Planet" was described as the "ultimate cosmic comedy" in a later rerun, and while somewhat misnomered, for John Carpenter, this debut was his "ultimate cosmic comedy" because After that, he never made such a work again.
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