Oh no! It seems the Prime Minister of Canada was on a flight to a very important U.N. conference when his plane was shot down somewhere over an isolated war-torn location and now he has been kidnapped by Neo-Nazi communist hippy ninjas. We received a message from them demanding that the United Nations deliver Belgium's top-secret nuclear launch codes by May 31 or they will kill the Prime Minister. Oh, it's a catastrophe. Whatever shall we do? If the Prime Minister doesn't make it to the conference in time for his speech and fails to present the contents of his top-secret briefcase it could mean the end of civilization as we know it!
It seems the only thing we can do is find the toughest men and women available and put them together as a ragtag force of crack commandos who can get in there, find the Prime Minister, take out the enemy, and bring him back in time for the conference. Are you a bad enough dude (or dudette) to organize this team and rescue the Prime Minister?
Rules:
- Select a group of 12-15 characters from action movies. They are not required to be military, but they should be tough enough to look after themselves when things inevitably go wrong.
- For each character you choose, include a few words on why you selected him/her and what skills they have that could contribute to saving the Prime Minister of Canada.
- Much like my Voyage to the Stars Blogathon, there must be gender and/or racial diversity. Ideally, I would prefer it if you could manage both but one or the other is acceptable. If possible, national and sexual diversity is also greatly encouraged (but not required). Either way, I do not want to see any all-white, all-male squads. Doing so means an automatic disqualification.
- There are no restrictions regarding the era in which your chosen characters originated or their nationality. You could in theory assign Vazquez from Aliens with Nantz from Battle: Los Angeles and Dutch from Predator.
- You cannot include two or more characters from the same film.
- I would like you to include the above banner in your post. However, if you want, you may design your own provided it contains the title of the blogathon and imagery that fits.
You have until May 31 to rescue the Prime Minister and bring him back safely before the Neo-Nazi communist hippy ninjas kill him. If all goes well, then on June 1, I will post a list of everyone who contributed to saving him and any messages he would like to give you.
Cool. Looking forward to putting together this team. 12-15 sounded steep at first, but I've literally watched hundreds of action flicks, if not thousands. Great idea John!
ReplyDeleteThank you. I know 12-15 does sound like a lot of people, but that should add a little bit to the challenge of the whole thing. I was originally going to assign roles that you would have to fill, but ultimately I decided that would be too much of a hindrance to creative freedom (not to mention participants might think of skills I didn't). It should be interesting to see what you come up with.
DeleteMy entry is up!!!
Deletehttp://dellonmovies.blogspot.com/2015/05/summer-blockbuster-cast-thon.html
What an awesome idea! I don't watch many action films, but I'll give this some thought. :-)
ReplyDeleteIt's certainly an interesting exercise. It should be fun to see what you come up with.
DeleteThis question might sound stupid, but what if I choose a character from a franchise? Technically it's not the same movie, but they revolve in the same universe. Does that count or I can only choose one from the franchise?
ReplyDeleteAh, that's a very good question, and a tricky one to approach. What I would say is that if you are going to use two characters from a franchise, try to find ones that appeared in different installments. For instance, if you wanted to look at something like Alien (it's half-action franchise), you could put someone like Vasquez (Aliens) and Call (Alien: Ressurection) together, since they weren't in the same movie, but you wouldn't be able to use either if you chose to include Ellen Ripley (who appeared with both). I hope that helps.
DeleteTanks for inviting me to this blogathon. I love the concept, but I don't feel like I can participate because I don't know very many action film characters/stars. I could definitely do this if you opened it up to any film characters/stars - that could be a lot of fun too. But I do want to give you a massive high five for rule #3. That is a very awesome rule!
ReplyDeleteWell, if it is any help I am open to flexibility, which is why I was somewhat vague in reference to what defines an "action movie". Even going on the film scholar's idea that the modern "action film" first emerged in the 1970's, that still covers a lot of ground and, much like other film genres, encompasses a wide range of different sub-genres. These include, but are hardly limited to: urban vigilantism (Dirty Harry), martial arts (Enter the Dragon), disaster films (The Towering Inferno, Runaway Train, Unstoppable), "Die Hard on an X" films (Die Hard, Passenger 57, Speed, Executive Decision, Con Air, Air Force One, The Rock, Olympus Has Fallen, White House Down, Non-Stop), hardbodied action heroes (Rambo, as well as a large number of Schwarzenegger films), comic book films (Marvel's entire cinematic canon), espionage thrillers (The Bourne Series, Salt, James Bond), police procedurals (S.W.A.T.) and probably a few others I'm forgetting.
DeleteThis isn't even getting into the numerous early genres that helped to shape the modern "action" film. A lot of these might not generally be considered action films but I'd still be open to considering them valid choices. In the silent era you have the popularity of train chase films (an early precursor to the car chases often featured in modern action films). In the Studio Era there are a few things, such as the swashbuckler films of Errol Flynn. Certain noir films for sure, especially those dealing in crime such as gangster films or detective stories. Also there is the World War II Combat film. In the 1960's you also have more direct precursors in the form of police procedurals like Bullitt and (somewhat unfortunately) espionage films like the original Bond movies. It's debatable if any of these could be considered "action films" in a modern sense, but I'd still consider them valid choices if that helps at all (though this would probably be a strange team). The reason why I didn't go into detail about what defines an "action film" was so that there would be room for flexibility in people's choices.
If you have anything specific in mind in terms of what movies you want to draw from and you're not sure if they would fit my idea of an "action film", I suppose you could run the titles by me either through email or Twitter and I can tell you if they seem like good choices or not.
Damn...I haven't watched many action films. Most of the characters I can think of is from Superhero films
ReplyDeleteThat's okay. A lot of superhero films could be considered action movies.
DeleteHey John, I hope I'm not too late to the party. Here's my contribution:
ReplyDeletehttp://ramblingsofacinephile.com/2015/05/31/the-wild-bunch/
Great idea for a blogathon! Thanks for organising.
That's great. I was actually started to give up hope that anyone else would join in!
Delete