Wing Commander (film)
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| Wing Commander | |
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| Directed by | Chris Roberts |
| Produced by | Donna Burkons, Joseph Newton Cohen, Jean-Martial Lefranc, Todd Moyer Tom Reeve Romain Schroeder Neil Young |
| Written by | Chris Roberts Kevin Droney |
| Starring | Freddie Prinze, Jr Saffron Burrows Matthew Lillard Tchéky Karyo Jurgen Prochnow David Warner Ginny Holder Hugh Quarshire Ken Bones John McGlynn Richard Dillane Mark Prowley Davif Fahm Simon MacCorkindale Fraser James |
| Music by | David Arnold Kevin Kiner |
| Cinematography | Thierry Arbogast |
| Running time | 100 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Wing Commander is a science fiction film based on the Wing Commander computer game series, released to U.S. theatres on March 12, 1999.
Directed by Chris Roberts, the creator of the computer game series, it stars Freddie Prinze, Jr., Saffron Burrows, Matthew Lillard, Tchéky Karyo, Jürgen Prochnow, and David Warner.
In the United States, the film was rated PG-13 for sexual references and Sci-Fi action/violence.
The film borrows heavily from naval warfare films such as Das Boot, going so far as to include a scene where the TCS Tiger's Claw is "depth-charged" (the imitation went so far as to have all of the characters try to be perfectly quiet during this scene so they wouldn't be detected, despite the fact that sound doesn't travel in space). It was shot on a minuscule budget (in Luxembourg) - resulting in, among other things, unconvincing aliens that appear as little as possible in the final edit of the film - and was a commercial and critical failure.
The Rapier fighters in the film were built from heavily modified cockpit sections of English Electric Lightning fighter jets; most space special effects were computer-generated.
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[edit] Plot
Set about one month before the first Wing Commander computer game, the story unfolds in the middle of an interstellar war between the human Terran Confederation and the cat-like alien Kilrathi Empire. The movie follows the exploits of Christopher Blair, a young pilot assigned to the TCS Tiger's Claw. There he and the crew of that carrier are given the mission to buy time for the Confederation's fleet to set up a defensive line to protect Earth and to help stop the invading Kilrathi armada. While this is going on, there is also tension between Blair and the crew of the Tiger's Claw due to the fact that he was born a "Pilgrim", one of a strain of humanity (who have special abilities) that had previously fought against the Confederation.
[edit] Relations to other Wing Commander works
The movie, while having several similar features to the games and the books (the names of the characters and ships), has some differences, such as the inclusion of the Pilgrims as a subset of humanity that had not been mentioned before. Other differences are the way the ships look (those in the movie are presented as an earlier model of those in the games), and changes to several characters' ranks and positions. The appearance of the fighters is mainly due to the resourcefulness of the special effects team, who built the fighter mock-ups from scrapped RAF fighters. Character backgrounds have been altered (in particular, Admiral Tolwyn's), rendering the movie of dubious canonicity. The post-film novel Pilgrim Stars takes the conflict with the Pilgrims in Sol Sector well into the time that the Tiger's Claw is known in the game series to have been fighting the Kilrathi in Vega Sector.
Additionally, Angel, who is of Belgian background and speaks with a French accent in the games, is portrayed in the film with a clear British accent and no mention is made about her background. Ironically Paladin, instead of Scottish, is shown as French and speaks with a French accent (actor Tchéky Karyo is Turkish-born but French-raised).
Several sub-plots developed in Wing Commander II and III, including Blair's relationship with Angel and Paladin's assignment to Special Operations, are developed in the film.
Also, the Kilrathi, portrayed in the games as heavily furred, cat-like aliens, became far more lizard like in the single movie scene where they are witnessed in the flesh (Game vs film). However, according to Roberts, the appearance of the movie Kilrathi is how he always intended it to be, while the Kzin-like appearance of the games is non-canon. Roberts, like Star Wars creator George Lucas is, however, known to have changed his creative vision multiple times.
[edit] Trivia
- 20th Century Fox attached the theatrical trailer forStar Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace to all prints of Wing Commander (the first to get the full trailer for the highly anticipated movie); as a result there were reports of many people paying to see the film in the first week for the trailer, with a number of people leaving before the start of the feature.[1][2][3][4]
