If you’re reading this update you probably already know that, but our main inspiration for “Squadron 51” is, obviously, the science-fiction of the nuclear era that captures the Cold War anxieties in the form of imaginative stories and crazy special effects. It’s estimated that more than 500 sci-fi films were released between 1948 and 1962.
Extraterrestrials are part of popular imagination for centuries, but in this post-war time, with the chance of happening a nuclear holocaust, the fear of a communist invasion in America and the crazy space race that was taking place between USA and USSR, those elements of alien spaceships, mind control and radioactive monsters acquired new meanings.
In appropriating this iconography in the context of a game produced in Brazil, we are re-signifying them within our experience as a colonized country. Discover some of the main films that inspired “Squadron 51”, both aesthetically and thematically.
PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE (1959)
Well, let’s start with the one named as “the worst film ever made”, by the infamous director Ed Wood. Released in 1959, the film’s confusing plot involves an alien invasion, ghouls and grave robbers, and features horror icons like Vampira and the great Bela Lugosi, who died during production. Combining elements from science-fiction, atompunk and gothic horror, the film did not have the budget that the scripts’ epic ambitions required, but it got made anyway. The flying saucers resembled paper plates glued together and you can easily see the strings. There’s so much crazy details concerning Plan 9’s production and so much cult following around it that we can’t even start to tell all of it here, but you can check it out in Tim Burton’s Ed Wood (1994) starring Johnny Depp as the failing director or in one of the many documentaries made about the subject.
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EARTH VS. FLYING SAUCERS (1956)
Another classic B-movie featuring the iconic plate-shaped alien aircrafts similar to those you see in “Squadron 51”. “Earth vs. Flying Saucers” is known mostly for the stop-motion effects achieved by the legendary Ray Harryhausen. It’s actually based on the best-selling non-fiction ufology book “Flying Saucers from Outer Space” by Donald Keyhoe, and the film is smart in invoking a documentary-like aesthetics decades before the concept of “mockumentary” becomes popular. Even if the film is not that well-known nowadays, it’s one of the most influential films of the atomic era.
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FORBIDDEN PLANET (1956)
Fred M. Wilcox’s Forbidden Planet is one of the biggest classics of science fiction, and Robby the Robot might be even more of an icon than the film itself. It’s one of the first films to be set entirely in interstellar scenery, and to feature faster-than-light space travel. The groundbreaking Oscar-nominated visual effects show us that there was nothing “B” about this one by the time it was released. This film is a milestone for science-fiction and it’s been present in popular culture ever since.
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THE WAR OF THE WORLDS (1953)
This one is probably the most famous sci-fi movie of the 1950’s, mainly because the book in which is based was already a classic for half a century by the time the movie hit theaters. H. G. Wells’ novel tells us about the martian invasion on planet Earth and it was published when the British Empire was expanding its dominance, and is widely interpreted as an allegory for European imperialism.
Before the film, it also inspired a radio sensation when Orson Welles narrated the facts described in the book as broadcast news in 1938, allegedly causing panic among the audience on the brink of World War II.
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In the 1950’s, however, the Oscar-winning film was released and it reframed its meanings to the Cold War paranoia and helped define alien iconography for generations.
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More recently, another adaptation showed the power of H. G. Wells’ novel to reframe itself to the changes of the political zeitgeist when Steven Spielberg retold the story in a post-9/11 context in the Tom Cruise vehicle also named “War of the Worlds” (2005).
GODZILLA (1954)
At the same time American science-fiction of the 1950’s was expressing the fears of Cold War and communist paranoia, the greatest Japanese kaiju classic was mourning the consequences of atomic violence. Godzilla established the template for kaiju films and tokusatsu media for ages. In the film, the Japanese authorities are dealing with the sudden appearance of a giant lizard-like monster that was awaken by nuclear explosions. It became not only the greatest monster movie of all time, but also a beloved symbol, a franchise with almost 40 films, not to mention all the classic hits it inspired in the west, such as “Jurassic Park” (1993) and "Cloverfield" (2010).
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