Detailed spoilers for the whole film, if you don't want to be spoiled, exit now!
If I only go to the cinema to watch one movie this Spring Festival, I will only choose "The Wandering Earth". After the Spring Festival, if there is any Chinese New Year movie that I plan to make a second time, I think it may only be "The Wandering Earth" (some films may not last after the Spring Festival). Although it is a bit difficult to switch states when watching, but in accordance with the principle of dismantling it first, I still try to dismantle it once and take a look. After all, the rhythm of this movie is still relatively obvious.
Before dismantling, I really want to praise Mr. Wu Jing once again. In a sense, he saved Chinese films and found a way for China to tell the main theme story in the 21st century, and he did this kind of pioneering work twice: once for the realistic war film, "Wolf Warrior 2", Once was the romantic sci-fi disaster film, The Wandering Earth. If anyone doesn't understand this meaning, I implore you to read "Independence Day", then "Wandering Earth", and recall the brand-new political ideal term "Community with a Shared Future for Mankind" born last year, if you don't If you suffer from "Wolf Warrior PTSD", you should be able to see the meaning contained in it.
At a time when we are tired of watching "one/a group of heroes save the world" or "the powerlessness of tiny human beings in the face of magnificent nature" created by Hollywood, such a film completely abandons the nationalist stance and focuses on all human beings 's movie, when people in the northern hemisphere are freezing to death in the southern hemisphere, may make us start to reflect on our own choices and the future of mankind.
Well, without further ado, let's start dismantling.
Type Analysis
The first is still type analysis.
It has to be said that Guo Fan chose a very ingenious angle and method when adapting "The Wandering Earth", and used this sci-fi narrative that mainly focused on discussing the changes of human social structure and living conditions in the end-of-the-world environment (to a certain extent, it is rather a "Brain hole display", as Da Liu has always been), has become a show of the relationship between the survival of small people and the macro destiny of mankind under the plan of "Wandering Earth". For the movie, "show" rather than "narrative" would obviously be a better choice. The choice of "Sci-Fi Disaster Film" undoubtedly anchors the film in the "troublesome guy" genre.
Sci-fi disaster films have long been considered by many filmmakers to be the "flower of the mountain" for sci-fi filming because it requires the highest level of industrial production, processes and organization. "The Wandering Earth" started to build the entire movie almost at the foundation stage. Even if the final finished product can only score 70 points (out of 100 points) in the Hollywood scoring standard, I think its significance to Chinese movies has far exceeded. Which Hollywood sci-fi blockbusters with 80 or even 90 points. "The Wandering Earth" generously chose a global perspective, and there is no doubt that it belongs to "disaster trouble".
In a "troublesome" type of movie, we usually see the following key elements:
An "innocent guy": In "The Wandering Earth", the entire earth is this ignorant innocent person, after all, "Who would have expected such a sudden increase in Jupiter's gravity, otherwise we would use the celestial body that was responsible for calculating the orbit before. Let the team of physicists pull out and fight.
A "disaster fell from the sky": Jupiter's gravitational force suddenly increased, which made the earth not only unable to use Jupiter's gravitational slingshot to escape the solar system as planned, but may even be torn apart and fall into Jupiter due to Jupiter's huge gravitational force, and the entire human civilization will be doomed. .
A "dead or alive" fight: In "The Wandering Earth", this fight takes place simultaneously on the ground, where conditions frequently occur due to drastic changes in the space environment, and on the space station where human feelings and AI rationality clash violently. The final result of the struggle - whether human beings can survive or not, is the biggest suspense that tugs at the heartstrings of all audiences until the last moment.
Under the shell of the disaster, Mr. Zhong Jie from Peking University, as a consultant, assisted the production team to fill in the emotional core that can touch everyone's heart for this story, and at the same time added a crossover type that enriched the film. : Adolescent transitions of transition rituals.
Although as a cross-genre, and to serve the theme of the entire film, the genre characteristics of "Adolescent Change" are not particularly obvious, but there are still traces to follow:
A problem in life: Liu Qi, a left-behind child who has been separated from his father for a long time, feels bound by the protection of his grandfather and lacks freedom.
A "wrong method": Liu Qi mixed with his sister Han Duoduo into the engineering team, trying to find the meaning of his existence through this lawless behavior.
A "real solution": After experiencing a series of life and death (sorry, in fact, only death), Liu Qi understood his father's choice, chose to take responsibility, and made every effort for the survival of mankind.
Beat Teardown
Since I only read it once and discussed it a lot, there may be confusion or errors in the memory of many episodes, sorry. After the Spring Festival, when I return for the second brush, I should revise and improve the dismantling part.
Opening scene + foreshadowing: Liu Peiqiang took his son Liu Qi and his father-in-law Han Ziang to camp on the beach. Discussions about Jupiter, about Liu Peiqiang's mission, and Liu Peiqiang explaining to Han Ziang why he did it. Liu Peiqiang's further explanation on the Wandering Earth Plan, Han Zi'ang took Liu Qi to the underground city for refuge, and the surface of the earth cooled to minus 84 degrees Celsius, which was no longer suitable for human survival - this is the most important foreshadowing of all the surface conditions in the future. All the dramatic conflicts revolve around this extremely harsh external environment.
Theme presentation: Han Duoduo was in a language class. Regarding "what is hope", a girl who looked at her back as a standard "good student" answered "hope is more precious than diamonds" in a very contrived recitation. [No, child, diamonds are not precious at all, you say it is more precious than gold, diamonds are really worthless]
The two propositions of "hope" and "despair" are important themes that run through the entire "Wandering Earth" original work and the movie, and the Chinese people who are fighting the sky and the earth, choose "to fight to the end, and never accept fate" (Squinting at the Japanese next door) Rescue Team and Indian Rescue Team).
Promoting: Liu Qi chose to bring Duoduo to the ground, but the reason is very vague. I can only guess that it was a runaway from home brought about by a rebellious adolescence. This choice is a little lacking, so it feels a bit sudden. I hope there will be a director's cut in the future. The version can make up for the problem of this family relationship.
Dispute: Liu Qi took Duoduo away from the class (showing the effect of the LED simulation screen in the dungeon), and together with Duoduo, he used the altered uniform to sneak into the engineering team and boarded the surface. From driving, to finding a destination, to being detained by a car inspection, to re-boarding my grandfather's car in the detention center because of the earthquake and escaping. A series of tossing revolved around one question: should Liu Qi and his party return to the dungeon, or continue to venture on the surface.
The connection point of the second act: The transporter was requisitioned by the rescue team, which ended all the arguments and forced the opening of a new main task: transporting flint to Hangzhou and igniting the stalled Hangzhou engine.
Story B: Liu Peiqiang served on the last day of the "Navigator" space station, his old partner Makarov gave him a bottle of vodka as a parting gift, and hid it in Liu Peiqiang's space suit mezzanine to give him a "surprise" . Due to the turning of the earth, the space station will enter the "low energy consumption mode" under the control of AI, so Liu Peiqiang, who was planning to "go home", had to delay the time to go home. What's worse, the rescue was due to the ice avalanche. The team gave up Han Ziang's carrier, so Liu Peiqiang could not get in touch with his grandfather and grandson again.
Entertainment game: Wang Lei, the captain of the rescue team, explained the current situation to the requisitioned team. The team struggled to pass through Shanghai, which was frozen by hundreds of meters high ice blocks (by the way, the frozen Jinmao Building and the Oriental Pearl Tower were shown) , However, when the rescue team went through hardships and dangers, paid part of the team to disband, and arrived in Hangzhou at the expense of two people, the Hangzhou engine had been destroyed by the gushing magma. Later, Liu Qi appeared with another carrier vehicle heading for Sulawesi engine, and changed the mission objective to go to Sulawesi and restart the Sulawesi engine.
Midpoint: Before the rescue team arrived in Sulawesi, other rescue teams from Saturated Rescue had already brought the flint to Sulawesi and all existing engines had been restarted.
The villain is approaching: Liu Peiqiang, who was forced to sleep, woke up from the dormant state forcibly, but found that the Jupiter projection on the porthole had already deviate from the original white outline. Liu Peiqiang, who realized that the orbit of the space station was deviated, was transferred from the outside of the cabin into the central control room with the assistance of Makarov, and asked why the AI control core MOSS defected, but MOSS explained that because the earth has missed the opportunity to escape from Jupiter, it will inevitably be Reached the Roche limit of the rigid body, was torn apart by Jupiter's gravity, and then fell into Jupiter (remember the "Shoemaker-Levy 9 Comet" on the shore of Daming Lake?). Therefore, the United Earth Government has signed the authorization document to change the space station to a spacecraft, carrying human fertilized eggs and plant seeds, and continue to sail into the depths of the universe to find a new home.
(In fact, this paragraph should be a deep transformation of the original battle between the "spaceship faction" and the "earth faction", but the effect is excellent)
(The scene where the single-handed astronaut talks to the AI camera with only one red light flashing perfectly pays homage to "A Space Odyssey 2001", which is indeed a director who loves science fiction)
Nothing: MOSS has released its final broadcast to Earth, asking everyone to reunite with family and friends before the planet is destroyed. Despair spreads on the earth, order in the dungeon completely collapses, and people start all kinds of "last madness". The destruction of the earth is imminent, and Liu Peiqiang, who is far away in the space station, can only wait and watch helplessly in despair at what is in front of him.
Soul Night: Rescue Captain Wang Lei reluctantly announced that the mission had failed and ordered the rescue team to be disbanded. The rescue teams turned around and went home, or simply cut themselves off on the spot.
The connection point of the third act: Liu Qi, looking up at Jupiter's Great Red Spot, remembered that when he and his father met for the last time, his father had told him that the main component of Jupiter was hydrogen, and he immediately thought that if he ignited hydrogen, it might cause an explosion. The resulting shock wave pushes Earth away from the crash path. After calculations, Li Yiyi found that if the "flint" could be detonated along the connecting belt of Jupiter's accretion of the earth's atmosphere to the surface of Jupiter, it would indeed generate a sufficient explosive thrust. And to send the flint, it is necessary to rely on the propelling after the jets of the planetary engine converge. After learning the news, Duoduo, who has been making soy sauce, reconnected with Liu Peiqiang in the space station through the communication chip left on the vehicle console, and informed him of the plan. Liu Peiqiang decided to save the earth no matter what. .
Outcome: Although MOSS informed Liu Peiqiang that this ignition and detonation plan had been proposed by a team of scientists but was rejected, but under Liu Peiqiang's mediation and negotiation, the United Earth Government still opened a global broadcast to the Chinese rescue team and called all rescue teams to assist in completing the ignition . At the last moment, due to the insufficient jet of the engine, Liu Peiqiang chose to use the space station as the fuze bomb (Flint itself should be a high-density fusion fuze bomb) to cause the explosion. Using the vodka that Makarov hid for him, Liu Peiqiang turned off the fire system of the space station (why can the fire system be turned off? Although I know it's for the sake of the plot, who can explain to me why the fire system can be turned off so easily? This is Who designed the space station? Drag it out and kill it!), ignited the space station, completely destroyed Plan B, where humans fled, and forced MOSS and the United Earth Government to agree with his choice. At the sacrifice of Liu Peiqiang, Jupiter was finally ignited, and the huge explosive thrust successfully pushed the earth beyond the Roche limit-after paying a heavy price, the earth finally escaped.
Final scene: The survivors of the rescue team are back in the Beijing Underground City to continue their lives. The "Wandering Earth" program has just entered the second stage.
A final little thought:
Praise Wu Jing once again, thank him for saving this Chinese sci-fi movie that was about to die again, and bringing the real first year to Chinese sci-fi movies.
I also praise director Guo Fan and the entire production team, as well as the scientist consultant of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the teacher Zhong Jie of the School of Psychology and Cognition of Peking University who provided support for this film (you were playing this film half a year ago), thank you for your support The domestic main theme commercial film has found a feasible industrialized production process and method, and thank you for your efforts to achieve such a good film that stands side by side with Hollywood blockbusters without feeling embarrassed.
In the end, I wish the secret key of "Wandering Earth" will be renewed more and the box office will sell out!
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