What are what you would consider movies that define what the 00's and our current 2010's feel like. Films like the breakfast club that can be pointed to as 80's culture in our own current time.
i'm currently putting a massive play list together in rough chronological order starting with Noah's Ark and ending at Dune with Blade runner/Aliens/ shared universe sort of standing in as a future setting after our current post modern one.
i'll dump the current list as it stands below. it varies in consistency, utilizing some fantastical elements which are played off in other movies as symbolism (its kept rather vague across the movies selected except for some impractical exceptions). A common theme is the encroachment of technology, borrowing heavily from Tolkien's themes, the later end of the list dealing with the eventual rise of AI. I've written some vague descriptions for most of the movies, occasionally trying to explicitly tie them together but haven't fleshed it out entirely. If your as autistic as i am you might enjoy it.
I decided to use Tolkien's mythos as a stand in for a pre historic society i felt Tolkiens primitivist themes fit well with the later part of the playlist
Creation Myth Eru Illuvatar, the god mind or prime mover creates the universe. Along with Arda (later called Earth by post deluge humans), the creator brings to life the Demiurge caretaker Manwe to rule the host of spirits known as the valar and serve as protector to Arda. Eventually humanity and other humanoid races evolve (which millennia later is attributed t the Engineer Space Jockey Race) and come to prominence. Melkor, jealous of the godheads ability to create, became rebellious and began to corrupt Eru’s creation, introducing avarice and vice to the world and turning kidnapped men and elves into physical embodiments of these concepts such as orcs and trolls. A war in heaven eventually resulted, concluding in the casting out of melkor (now known as Morgoth) and the surrender of his secondary commander Sauron. Sauron, imprisoned by the Numenoreans (Atlantis) gradually gained the trust of the Numenorean kings, becoming their advisor. Under Saurons sway, he convinced tem to practice openly in their society what would be viewed today as Satanism (through worship of morgoth and living in vice an violence). Sauron convinced them that humanity could achieve the immortality they had been denied by Eru by striking the Valars seat of power on Arda (Earth). Eru Himself intervenes slaughtering the numenoreans and imprisoning their king in the ground for eternity. As a counter measure to prevent man from ever reaching divinity again Eru makes the Earth Round to prevent them from leaving their bounds (humanity led by Sauron/Lucifer the light bringer/Baal/ in another time tried to circumvent this with the tower of babel leading to another divine intervention)
That's not a Napoleon quote. It mostly gets credited to Voltaire.
Jose Hughes
Sauron, having escaped Numonor following its destruction gathered armies of Orcs and foul men in the East to set about conquering Arda from the demiurge and the Valar and instead fuel the fires of industry and technological progress over the static vision of the valar (sauron is analogous to Prometheus, he may have well been the god that gave man his first technology of fire, the “fire” could of also been symbolic, implying light or in other terms “enlightenment” of good and evil). Sauron’s use of technology in the guise of gifts in order to subjugate life is a theme that is continued throughout the later parts of this list (in particular cybernetics, the root word being the greek Kybernetes which means “to control or steer”). Mortal man rebelled when it was found he intended to use his diplomatic gifts of rings of power to control the kingdoms of man and other sentient races through his one ring to rule them all (this particular aspect draws from the temptation of christ’s implications that kings in order to gain and maintain power make “deals with the devil” for that power, in this case by bartering for rings of power, and is why a desire for power is corrupting).
A coalition of free kingdoms and races pool together to defeat Sauron, his physical body being shattered by the last Numenorean king.
>The Lord of The Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (several thousand years pre deluge)
After several hundred years of peace following Saurons overthrow, his One Ring, taken as a trophy by man, is lost and refound many times over. Sauron has returned but in a semi corporal form, he is constricted to a tower in mordor and his body is a single fiery Eye which is worshipped by men of the East and orcs. Having Finally built up enough military force to return to prominence, Sauron sets out to find the One Ring and begin his reign anew. Eru and the Valar, tired of taking such extreme measures in the past, instead send 5 advisors to inspire and teach rather then outright lead, the Maier
>The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers
As the fellowship of men elf, dwarf and hobbits led by one of the Valars servant’s (akin to a lesser angel) splits up, Sauron and his new proxy Saruman (who has the same affinity for technology as Sauron does) begin their offensive on the free kingdoms of Middle Earth. Saruman uses his newly bred Uruk- Hai army to tie up Rohan in the North while pirates and Orc armies harass Gondorian outlying cities and towns in the south
>The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
With the help of Aragorn, Rohan defeats the Uruk Hai army and routs Saarumans forces, allowing them to lead assistance south in Gondor. Sauron, in response send the Haradrim and Easterling armies to crush Gondor. Aragorn becomes King of a united West (allowing the Eastern peoples who fought under Sauron amnesty and cordial relations) and an era of peace ensues
Napoleon Dynamite is just so 2000s. Honestly one of the comfiest movies ever.
Chase Turner
>Noah (Pre historic)
The legacy of Morgoth and Sauron lingered in mans hearts, as did their propensity for technological growth, following the death of Aragorn in the reign of his son Eldarion, Morgoth cults begin to emerge as peace causes men to degenerate (this was covered in Tolkien’s planned sequel The New Shadow). Over the course of thousands of years the natural resources of the planet are consumed to build thousands of cities and nation states powered by minerals mined from the earth. As the resources dwindle, tenions rise and eventually wars begin, resulting in man being the only sentient race left. With farmable land dwindling and the minerals needed to power their technologically advanced society (a clue as to their advancement and passage of time: tubal cain uses a gun in one scene to kill a nephilium but by this time guns are extremely rare, indicating that the society depicted is a post-apocalyptic one) disappearing, the vast majority of humans turn to greed and violence like the numenoreans once did. The cities, abandoned and humanity entering a dark age of desperate cannibalism and violence, living nomadically, only noah remains the noble man. A gnostic retelling of the abrahamic tale, Noah’s main themes which set the scene for the movies after it are the silence of an apathetic god provoking the misdeeds and anger of humans (particularly tubulcain who serves as both the antagonist and champion of humanity. Of particular note is Noahs retelling of genesis which combines the theory of evolution with the biblical tale. The shot of Cain killing Abel and the accompanying silhouettes of various soldiers through history foreshadows the rest of the series.
>Conan The Barbarian (Unknown number of years post Deluge)
Depicts a time before the Bronze Age collapse and the beginning of western European history. Followers or ancestors of Ham have taken to worshiping the snake from the Garden of Eden and pillage all around them.
A recreation of the illiad, this movie retells the sack of troy by the united greek forces led by Agamemnon and pits the honorable Hector against the spectacular Achilles to secure Helen of Troy as The Spartan king Menelaus’ wife
>300 (480BC)
The Empire of Persia seeks to control Europe after conquering much of Asia, the current king of Sparta, Leonidas, a much wiser man then his ancient predecessor Menelaus, seeks to defend greece from the combned might of the middle East, Asia and India with only his personal retinue of 300 men by funneling them into the greek hot gates where the quality of greek troops outdoes the persian’s quantity
>Alexander (331 BC)
Nearly a century and a half after Xerxes and the Persians are ejected from Europe after the battle of Marathon a young Macedonian unites the greek city states decisively conquers Persia and makes Babylon the capital of his empire as he crusades into Asia, intent on conquering the known world
>Spartacus (71BC)
This movie introduces the concepts of slavery and liberty and the animating will to fight for freedom. After the death of Alexander and the collapse of the greek empire, the descendants of the Trojans have risen to take the ashes, creating the vast roman empire in the middle of Europe. By this time the Romans control much of Germania, Greece, Judea, Gaul, North Africa (primarily through Egypt which is run by the descendants of Ptolemy, Alexander’s Nephew) and use these regions for slaves to build their great empire. One of these slaves, Spartacus is forced into gladiatorial combat, where he refuses to kill his fellow slaves and instead fights a rebellion to free all slaves.
>Cleopatra 1963 (30BC) An important period in roman history. This movie covers the Ides of March and the after math and struggle for power between Augustus and Mark Antony after Caesar’s death as seen through the eyes of Cleopatra, pharaoh of Egypt and descendant of Alexander the Great
>Passion of the Christ (33 AD) The indifference of god continues as his own son is mutilated for being a threat to the jews. Corruption is also an introduced concept.
>After Christ and Dark Ages This period expands on the ideas introduced in the previous, with men fighting over their interpretations of the lessons learned in the previous period
>Caligula (37- 41AD) A couple of years after the execution of Jesus Christ, the decadant emperor of Jesus’ time, Tiberius is killed by his nephew Caligula. Caligula then takes control through a reign of debauchery
>Pompeii (62-79AD) Depicts the Eruption of Mount Vesuvius
>Centurion (117AD) The Ninth Legion of Rome is sent into modern day Scotland to pacify the picts of the north. In order to facilitate the navigation of the ninth the british governor provides them with a briganate guide who knows the terrain. The Briganate woman leads the 9th into an ambush and the legion is slaughtered as the few survivors are forced to trek back to the then under construction, Hadrians wall
>The Eagle (140AD) Following the construction of Hadrians wall and 20 years after the disappearance of the 9th, a son of one of the commanders is tasked with locating and returning the eagle standard the 9th were carrying with them.
>Gladiator (180AD) Corruption leading to murder and the fight against a tyrant highlight this picture, along wth the theme of self sacrifice established in the previous movie
prehaps unsurprisingly, there aern't a lot of movies in the 700's era covering the Islamic invasion of Europe so it seems to skip several hundred years from the fall of the Roman empire into the Crusades
>Red Cliff (208AD) Tells the Chinese story of the Romance of the Three kingdoms of Wu, Wei and Shu.
>King Arthur (467AD) The roman legions withdrawing from Britannia and the beginning of the dark ages
>Valhalla Rising (1000 AD) The Roman Empire, an important figure head in the previous movies, largely standing as an overly extravagant and corrupt empire true to the ideals of the descendants of Cain has collapsed and a near post apocalyptic landscape has taken its place. The pagans of the last few movies have been driven underground and the followers of the story of Christ are rising to prominence. This movie centers on a group of crusaders questing for the holy land. When they fall astray (to somewhere which may indeed be hell) they regress to animalistic states, driven mad by a god who will not speak to them.
>Polansky’s Macbeth (1040-1059) Set in an equally dark british isles to the previous movie, this centers on tyrants and their lust for and rise to power and how power and paranoia corrupt them. England has since become less tribalistic and is featured in this movie with a standing army as do the Scotts however the quality of life and technology are just barely above what we see in Valhalla Rising.
>Arn the Templer (1177)
>Kingdom of Heaven (Crusades, 1184) Frances introduction into the series. A second lot of crusades some time after the previous is taking place. The main character, driven to bring redemption to his wife quests to the holy land only to find a god that does not care for his troubles and a nation of greedy corrupt backstabbers. England is established at the end as a major power
