Post Apocalypse Hero: I am Legend

[Bygoneyrs]

Hello everyone,

 

************* Spoiler Alert - If you plan to see "I am Legend" do not read****

 

 

 

 

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********************** Spoiler - Last Warning!!! ********************

 

 

 

Ok one of my friends/players and I just got back from watching "I Am Legend".

It was a pretty good movie and is most definately Post Apocalypse Hero setting!!!

 

 

 

 

So basically I like the whole "virus" concept and the "infected" were good but

I would think they should be toned down slightly. No they are not Zombies but

instead mutant humans that have due to the "Virus" have mutated physically

and become enraged, flesh craving monsters. Now I believe they were a little

to strong and will tone them down a bit when I use their plague in my PAH-TH

campaign.

 

As per my view and drawing on the movie, 90% of the world population just

died outright after getting the airbourne virus (cure for cancer!!!). Now 2%

of humanity were immune to it, and the rest fell sick and survived but mutated.

Now I would then state that 2% of the total that got the virus and lived, turned

into the "infected - nightside flesh eaters" mutants. The rest that survived some

6% of the total, were also mutated but not as extreme as the other 2%. These

mutants retained their humanity and had some physical changes but did still

carry the 'Virus' within their blood...thus a kind of immunity of sorts. Animals

can be infected as well buy this Virus if bitten.

 

So im my campaign for Traveller, set in the Verge subsector using the New Era

of 1248...a AI from a Millitary Bio Lab, released the "virus" and spread it in

the Verge Subsector region of the 3rd Imperium. It ravaged worlds and spread

and cause ruin everywhere. It helps to form a major plot line background in

the camapign and helps to add the Horror of a PAH campaign to a TH campaign

setting.

.

 

The movie is well worth seeing!

 

Penn

[Thia Halmades]

Re: Post Apocalypse Hero: I am Legend

 

Penn;

 

I will see it, and I didn't read the thing. But you need to learn a new command.

 

 

Your text here[(slash)spoiler].

 

So when you're done, it'll look like this:

 

 

This keeps people who have fast eyes from seeing anything at all; they have to click the spoiler button first.

 

 

Please adopt post haste, and if possible, edit your thread.

[Bygoneyrs]

Re: Post Apocalypse Hero: I am Legend

 

Well cool and thank you Thia Halmades, I have made the changes you have said and

it works like a charm...AWESOME!!!

 

Penn

[Thia Halmades]

Re: Post Apocalypse Hero: I am Legend

 

Well cool and thank you Thia Halmades, I have made the changes you have said and

it works like a charm...AWESOME!!!

 

Penn

 

We do what we can with our limited resources. You're quite welcome, and I'm sure the other forum goers will be grateful as well.

[eternal_sage]

Re: Post Apocalypse Hero: I am Legend

 

all i want to know is...is the movie based on the old movie....italian i think...named "Last Man on Earth" (also based on a book called I Am Legend)?

 

if so, i hope its better than the Omega Man (another version, without input from the original novelist)...

 

if not that is sad, because the original was awesome and it looks similar (which means it probably is, but no one wanted to give credit)..... but i think it wll be hard for Will Smith to fill Vincent Price's shoes....

[incrdbil]

Re: Post Apocalypse Hero: I am Legend

 

Does the movie have the craptacular ending of the original story?

[lapsedgamer]

Re: Post Apocalypse Hero: I am Legend

 

Does the movie have the craptacular ending of the original story?

No, but the new ending left me a little flat.

[Bygoneyrs]

Re: Post Apocalypse Hero: I am Legend

 

Well the ending was a bit a disapointment, I would have liked them to draw out the final stuff a little more. Do you think they did it like that to make a follow up movie?

 

Penn

[Legendsmiths]

Re: Post Apocalypse Hero: I am Legend

 

The Last Man on Earth is probably the truest movie version of the story. However, I think the new "I Am Legend" really captures the essence of Robert Neville and his experience. The overall plot of the movie isn't as important as the type of horror Matheson was writing about (at least for me).

 

I enjoyed the movie a lot, and appreciated the changes to fit the location and modern technology. I thought the ending was strong and worked well overall.

 

Certainly part of the book is that, in the end, Robert Neville is the monster, stalking and slaying the new people of the world, and that is his legend. The movie takes it in a different direction (somewhat), and I think did a good job of playing on your knowledge of the book as certain things unfold.

 

I also feel that part of the book is a deconstruction of the vampire as a monster, eliminating the supernatural origins, and a reconstruction as a character type with a scientific basis. I think this lays the foundation for modern horror where supernatural origins are generally not as accepted as scientific ones.

 

If you want to read the story (without reading the original book), you can easily do the graphic novel in one sitting which is such a good adaptation of the book.

[Thia Halmades]

Re: Post Apocalypse Hero: I am Legend

 

I haven't read the book nor seen the original film; so all I have to go on is this version of it. And wow. It was incredible. I can't say that I enjoyed it; I don't know if it's a movie one 'enjoys' in the conventional sense that I enjoy "Blade" or "Pan's Labyrinth." But I can certainly say that it's a movie one experiences, more so than many others I've seen.

 

Smith carries the film. He has too; very often he's the only person on screen, and he does a spectacular job of it. You genuinely feel what he's feeling, the type of terror that surrounds certain situations is injected into the audience as Smith goes through it, and that alone is worthy of praise. The writing, additionally, very much reflects not just a man who is a scientist, but someone who's so far out from being exposed to other people that his thinking has stunted. Things that are obvious to the viewer are not clear to the protagonist, but in a way that makes brilliant sense. The story is incredibly well told overall, the direction is superb, and the acting is, well.

 

I didn't think Smith could do that, but he certainly does. I was not a fan of the CGI sections of the film because they looked so... well, CGI. I would have liked a bit more in that regard. But overall the look, feel and pace of the movie are remarkable. An easy recommendation to genre fans (a 300 point film, with some disads having been bought off).

[Bygoneyrs]

Re: Post Apocalypse Hero: I am Legend

 

My comments about the ending...to follow below(push button to read):

 

 

 

 

Ok when the woman and boy stopped at the end of the movie and got out of their SUV,

and walked up to that gate and then it openned...with the camera pulling back and

scanning above and away(seeing the enclosed villiage/area) did everyone get a good

look at the size and makup of those sement HUGE walls?

 

Oh come on, it didn't look like there were more than maybe less than 2,000 people

(and that is most likely high number) living there, and they built solid sement walls

that had to be like 40 feet tall buy maybe 10-15 feet thick at the base. That would

take a highly skilled and small army to do that, plus to make them sculpted as well.

with a catwalk at the top too. Plus that was a huge area they had enclosed as well

too, and they only had like 3+ years to have worked on all that too.

 

First they would have had to be organized or become organized and then get part

of those 2% of humanity to come together to work to do all that. It is a bit much

for such a short period of time.

 

Plus with all the infected around, how did they survive their attacks. They had to be

around and looking at how fast, strong and with their ability to climb and cling onto

objects, wouldn't they be able to just climb up and over those walls too.

 

Also the woman gave whomever that vile of blood, doesn't blood go bad if it is not

kept refregerated and etc. Also whom is to say that that colony has anyone left that

might be able to do anything with the blood to create a serium with it anyway. Plus

even "IF" one captured one of the infected and injected them and suffered them

the cure, one does not know if they would fully ever recover at all. Even if their

physical body recovered the ill effects of the Virus, whom is to say that their sanity

or higher brain humanity would ever be abled to be restored at all.

 

To me it would seem a smarter task to just kill all infected that one encounters,

because eventually they will die from lack of food, or injuries, or just grow old

and burn out. Remember that everyone got sick, but 90% just died from the virus.

Then a part of humanity was imune, and the rest were those "infected flesh eaters".

They don't reproduce and they can not infect the remaining humans so they can't

make more human infected, but can make animal infected but as always Nature

has a way of surviving.

 

 

 

 

Just my 2 cents and thoughts to all!

 

Penn

 

PS: I will use this Virus in my PAH/TH campaign...I like it much better than the pure

Resident Evil (T-Virus) and Dawn of the Dead (Plague).

[Legendsmiths]

Re: Post Apocalypse Hero: I am Legend

 

 

I thought the ending was more about hope than about a specific survival plan. The passing of the blood was symbolic, although handing over a small cooler would probably have been fine, as well. The vial is more torchlike/batonlike and passing the torch/baton is a very strong symbol. Getting to Vermont should have been achievable in a day IF she could get around traffic. Considering how the darkseekers continue to survive, their blood may be able to survive the journey without refrigeration. We also don't know if there was some kind of bunker in the survivor's colony, which given its location would certainly make sense.

 

My point is, there are enough variables that aren't answered by the movie that the existence of the walls is really a non-issue, at least for me. They obviously had full military support to who's to say what else they had.

 

Initially the only thing we really found silly at first was his hunting from a mustang. However, given that he had been there three years and obviously was able to survive, I imagine he just does that for fun. Is it efficient? No, but it sure passes the time. The movie does a good job of helping you understand his position (e.g. placing the manniquins in the video store), so I think a little "sport hunting" is fine by me.

 

"FRED? WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE FRED!?"

 

Also, be wary of your use of "whom" -- you may get dative all over yourself.

 

[Bygoneyrs]

Re: Post Apocalypse Hero: I am Legend

 

Hmmmm....

 

Some comments with spoilers:

 

 

 

Ok as for the 'infected themselves' I did have a problem with the following with them:

- how fast they could run

- the fact that they could climb or hang on things they way they did

- their sheer strength

 

I would have made them Normal in regards to speed and strengths, thus still making

them just as frightening. The climbing thing and hanging onto ceelings and etc, was a

bit much and I would have had purferred them to be more cunning with animal instints

and more cunning, than to be smart with them setting up that trap.

 

I must also say that one "infected" the aka leader type should have bought the farm

a couple of times durring that movie as well too. At least getting some injuries for his

failed efforts and etc. I guess I missed the "S" tattoo on his chest and that tattered

faded red cape flowing off his shoulders... lol!

 

 

 

 

Just more of my thoughts!

 

Penn

[Thia Halmades]

Re: Post Apocalypse Hero: I am Legend

 

 

See, none of this bothered me. The whole point (for me) of the KV Virus was that it turned people into 'vampires.' Faster, stronger, blood thirsty and kinda creepy. The whole bit where they stand around huffing in a circle threw me right off. And Vampirism is a virus; they expressed cunning, use of traps, advanced intelligence, protection of one of their own -- as far as the leader not buying it, well. He was the 'villain' of the film. The embodiment of the evil that had been unleashed. Of course he can't die normally.

 

[Legendsmiths]

Re: Post Apocalypse Hero: I am Legend

 

Have them evolve. Newly infected are savages of normal characteristics. One of the things to consider is that if they fight in a berserk, savage fashion, they are essentially pushing their STR, haymaker-ing, and doing all sorts of over the top stuff.

 

Then they evolve, get stronger, gain a little more cunning, and stop being berserk, only enraged.

 

Perhaps they can move on even from that, gaining SPD, DEX, STR, and anything else to make them truly crazy. Including Flying Dodge.

 

I think your idea of making them closer to normals is fine and they can still be scary.

 

 

The circle of infected standing around huffing in the darkness was creepy to the extreme, especially the way he found them. Because their body temps are 106, with 200 bpm heart rates and breaths per minute, this is how they "sleep". Kind of like cows... they just stop moving and "rest". They are normally hyperaware - give them light sleep & telescopic smell +4 (blood only) and tracking scent (blood only). That explains how he could be sneaky on them but they (within a few seconds) smelled blood in the later scene while resting and went after it, even though it was a full story below their hive location.

 

Very, very scary.

 

[Thia Halmades]

Re: Post Apocalypse Hero: I am Legend

 

The circle of infected standing around huffing in the darkness was creepy to the extreme, especially the way he found them. Because their body temps are 106, with 200 bpm heart rates and breaths per minute, this is how they "sleep". Kind of like cows... they just stop moving and "rest". They are normally hyperaware - give them light sleep & telescopic smell +4 (blood only) and tracking scent (blood only). That explains how he could be sneaky on them but they (within a few seconds) smelled blood in the later scene while resting and went after it, even though it was a full story below their hive location.

 

Very, very scary.

 

 

This was really what sold me; the entire scene, "I can't stay here Sam, I gotta go..." and he was just becoming utterly unhinged I thought was just phenomenal. I hadn't expected anything like that; you see the trailers and it doesn't really come close to delivering the emotional impact that the film really has.

 

When asked, "Did you like it?" I'm forced to say "I did, but I didn't enjoy it in the conventional sense. I experienced it, which I think is what they wanted. I also agree on the blood vial; that wasn't campy to me at all. I wasn't looking for super science; for heaven's sake the measels just wiped out 95% of the population. It was very powerful symbolically, though.

 

[Legendsmiths]

Re: Post Apocalypse Hero: I am Legend

 

Agreed. When I saw the trailers (having read the source material), I was asking, "How the hell is that going to work?" There is nothing like what is in the trailers in the books, and it came off to me as an action/zombie movie with a couple of long shots of him playing golf.

 

THAT is not the movie it ended up being. It was very true to the material in spirit, and very much not a conventional Hollywood movie. Frankly, considering his star power, I'm surprised it was made. He carried the movie, and had too, and it was well done.

 

I agree with you there are just some plane uncomfortable scenes in that movie.

Like when he's suspended and knows he has to cut himself down and that it WILL hurt when he lands. I don't think he expected to get skewered, but knowingly dropping 6-8' on your back and being responsible for that drop is hardcore.

 

[Thia Halmades]

Re: Post Apocalypse Hero: I am Legend

 

I agree with you there are just some plane uncomfortable scenes in that movie.

Like when he's suspended and knows he has to cut himself down and that it WILL hurt when he lands. I don't think he expected to get skewered' date=' but knowingly dropping 6-8' on your back and being responsible for that drop is hardcore.

[/quote']

 

 

Oh, that scene was rough enough; clearly the intent was to cut him open, knowing that it was the fastest & most efficient way to track him. I don't know how "smart" they were when it was done, but they clearly had retained intelligence, a sense of community and a willingness to put themselves at risk to protect one of their own. Clearly, they were a "new race."

 

But the bit with Sam afterwards... and I'm sitting there praying for him to put one round into the poor dog instead of trying to save it and having the inevitable happen, and it does and ... wow. I think I was crying, but I don't remember. The film was also remarkably funny for all the times it was incredibly dark.

 

The bit nearish to the end -- "I promised my friend I'd say hello to you." (long pause) "Hello." Was funny, and then immediately flipped by "Please say hello to me." Astounding. Truly astounding.

 

 

I have nothing but praise for the film; but I don't know that I would watch it again. Unless the girl I asked out decides she wants to see it.

[Legendsmiths]

Re: Post Apocalypse Hero: I am Legend

 

Yes, and yes. HERE HERE! Although I like dark films. I will own and watch this one (as well as Last Man on Earth).

 

I really think I like this movie better than the book in many ways. I think the drinking/smoking in the book added to Robert's decline, and while it was very different, in many ways it was the same. The movie is about the only example I can think of where I think the writers were justified in taking it in a different direction, where usually that ends up destroying a work.

[Thia Halmades]

Re: Post Apocalypse Hero: I am Legend

 

Yes, and yes. HERE HERE! Although I like dark films. I will own and watch this one (as well as Last Man on Earth).

 

I really think I like this movie better than the book in many ways. I think the drinking/smoking in the book added to Robert's decline, and while it was very different, in many ways it was the same. The movie is about the only example I can think of where I think the writers were justified in taking it in a different direction, where usually that ends up destroying a work.

 

I dunno. I'd've become a worthless alcoholic covered in smoke and unwashed clothes by day 7. Being alone? For that long? Thia go "snap."

[egaroadkill]

Re: Post Apocalypse Hero: I am Legend

 

My only gripe is why in the world one would go mucking about with such a dinky weapon as a 5.56 M-4 when it’s obvious a good high capacity semi auto shotgun would have been more useful too shred maniacs. Just kidding, I thought it was a fun movie well worth the matinee price, although, if I had paid the normal $10 fee, I would have been upset seeing that’s what I’d pay to own a DVD of it.

[hancock.tom]

Re: Post Apocalypse Hero: I am Legend

 

I dunno. I'd've become a worthless alcoholic covered in smoke and unwashed clothes by day 7. Being alone? For that long? Thia go "snap."

 

 

Thia, it sounds like you read the book which is a lot more of this. I encourage anyone running a PA Hero campaign to read the story instead of just seeing the film. The film is a sugar coated hollywood version with no balls and no emotion. Don't get me wrong, it is a great movie, but they really butchered the story that was told in the book.

 

I like both, but for different reasons.

[Bygoneyrs]

Re: Post Apocalypse Hero: I am Legend

 

Some more comments:

 

 

 

Ok he was a Lt Col in the US Army, a "Ege head Doctor" but why didn't he carry LOTS

more and better hand held weapons. There should have been all sorts of weapons about

for him to obtain and use. I would wear a double holster myself with a handgun under

each arm, with a buch of other weapons as well too stashed all over my house. I would

have carried something better than a M-16 for sure, plus a gernade launcher might

have been nice with some hand held grenades too.

 

Also my first reaction to seeing that dummy would have been to lob some gernades

into that openning and light that place up. To bad he didn't have a Mini-Gun as well.

I would not have fallen for that trap, knowing it had to be moved by something.

 

Now I feel the "infected" were far to fast, strong, and there climbing abilty was a bit

much too but it added to their creep feel. Now I can use these creatures as a

great Villian in a PAH / TH campaign.

 

 

 

 

Well it was a pretty good movie and I will also buy it once it is out on DVD!

 

Penn

[Zeropoint]

Re: Post Apocalypse Hero: I am Legend

 

I've already GOT a weapon better than his M-4 carbine: a Springfield Armory SOCOM 16.

 

I did notice, however, that he somehow managed to get his hands on a double action M-4.

[Killer Shrike]

Re: Post Apocalypse Hero: I am Legend

 

Hmm...it seems a lot like 28 Days Later from the trailers...not so?