Action Films / Action Games
Action films fit Hollywood's desire for spectacle perfectly. Faced with competition from television, Hollywood studios in the sixties needed to manufacture a reason for people to see films in the cinema. The most effective, lasting strategy was to shift the films into widescreen format, up the budgets, and aim for spectacle. This first manifested itself in what Justin Wyatt calls the "roadshow" film(1) : musicals and epics such as The Sound of Music and Doctor Zhivago (both 1965). However, the list of roadshow flops quickly grew to be only a few titles short of the list of all such films made, and these productions had largely died out by 1970. In the mid-seventies, however, the more successful "blockbuster" formula emerged. One of the key elements in the transformation between the two types was a shift of genre: blockbuster films continually emphasise science-fiction and action (and more often than not the science fiction is action oriented anyway). This has placed action films in a very prominent cultural role, and that centrality has been maintained in emerging media forms such as computer games.
The blockbuster formula arrived, in its most fully realised form, in 1977 with George Lucas' Star Wars and Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind, though productions such as the disaster films of Irwin Allen and Spielberg's Jaws (1975) had laid some groundwork. Blockbuster films are distinguished from their roadshow predecessors by their more carefully profit-oriented construction. Blockbusters are usually underwritten by stars (though there are notable exceptions(2)), and often by a pre-existing brand recognition, such as from a novel or comic book. They feature amazing spectacles, most often special effects of some kind. The core target audience is a carefully targeted one, usually the young, though blockbusters will try to create enough hype to penetrate many audiences. The aim is to create as surefire a hit as possible, by ensuring money is spent on "above-the-line" elements that will help pay for themselves(3). This combination of elements is slickly packaged and sold by carefully differentiating the blockbuster from the inferior fodder elsewhere in the cinemas(4). Ideally, the film should become an event, encouraging profits not only through theatre box-office, video rentals and television sales; but also through sales of related merchandise, which the conglomerate-owned studios are increasingly positioned to exploit(5).
James Cameron's Aliens (1986) provides an excellent example of the modern blockbuster's marketing approach. Not only does it represent a thorough integration of both the science fiction and action traditions of post-Star Wars filmmaking, but it has also been a key influence on the next generation of action product, the action computer games. Cameron's film is a classic example of the assembly of elements designed to ensure success. While graced only with a minor star (Sigourney Weaver), the film was based on a tried and proven concept that had been introduced to audiences via Ridley Scott's predecessor (which itself was hardly an original story). In addition, James Cameron himself was a star of increasing prominence after The Terminator (1984), and the film followed the Lucas example by providing numerous vehicles, characters and creatures that could all be turned into action toys(6). Its comic book franchise potential, while perhaps not immediately obvious at the time of release, has also proven particularly lucrative.
The spectacle of the modern blockbuster is largely based on special effects, which in many cases become the real stars of the film(7). Special effects are an excellent method for differentiating product, as they carry instant visual appeal that is very easy to get across in advertising. Ideally, a film should create some kind of signature special effects image: if appealing enough, such images can almost carry the marketing. Examples from recent cinema include the wall of fire rushing down the street for Independence Day (1996), the Tyrannosaurus attacking the four-wheel drives in Jurassic Park (1993), or the liquid metal transformations in Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991). Aliens features a couple of moments that are visually dramatic and which featured heavily in advertising, including the rise of an alien from underwater behind a small girl, or the dramatic appearance of Sigourney Weaver in a massive roboticised suit of armour. As Brooks Landon points out, such moments in science fiction films often freeze the narrative and make the special effects the entire focus: the "showstopper(8)". This marks a return to the "cinema of attractions" identified by Tom Gunning as central to much early cinema(9).
This is also an important concept in the action film, a tradition to which Aliens also belongs. Action exists to induce a visceral thrill in the audience. Gunning's reassessment of audience's reaction to Lumiere's Arrival of a Train at the Station(10) can usefully be applied to how they do this, as it raises the issue of the different ways audiences respond. An action moment can be enjoyed in a narrative sense, with the audience's excitement being induced by their submersion in the situation: the thrill is a diegetic one. If, when watching the climax of Mission Impossible (1996), we are fearful that Ethan Hunt will fall off the train and thus not maintain control of the NOC list, we are reacting in this way. However, audiences are never this naive, as they know they are watching a film, and are also willing to be impressed and excited by the means used to bring the scene to the screen: a non-diegetic thrill. Hence an audience draw excitement not only from the plight of Ethan Hunt, but also from the amazing technology used to make it seem as if Tom Cruise is on top of the train. These responses draw not on the audience's involvement in the narrative, but on their knowledge of elements outside the narrative such as the filmmaking process, special effects, or stunt work.
Though one or the other of these types of thrill might be dominant in any given scene, they rarely exist in isolation(11). Hence in the climax of Aliens, Ripley and Newt arrive in the alien queen's hatchery. There is considerable diegetic excitement in this moment, with suspense about whether they can escape from the extremely dangerous situation they have stumbled into. Yet there is also a notable degree of non-diegetic excitement, as the scene marks the unveiling of the alien queen, an astonishing piece of special effects created by Stan Winston (the revelation of which is a classic example of Landon's narrative suspension(12)). Similarly, a horror-style shock moment (such as the numerous moments in which aliens suddenly appear from nowhere) typically evokes screams from an audience, which is often followed by uneasy laughter. The first reaction is a largely diegetic one, with the audience involved enough in the narrative that the sudden threat to the characters is reacted to as if it really existed. The laughter, however, arises from the audience's non-diegetic recognition of how well the director has evoked their response.
Modern blockbuster action films compete to outdo one another in providing these two types of thrill: the result is super-slick high budget actioners, what screenwriter Larry Gross calls the Big Loud Action Movie (perhaps out of love for this term's acronym)(13). In these films the narrative is pared down, though ideally it still possesses some emotional resonance (Gross cites Aliens and The Fugitive as examples that effectively achieve this(14)). The look is slick, if not always strictly "high concept(15)". Because the film must differentiate itself from competition, the films are ideally built around a clever, easily described hook, which often represents the film's challenge to existing genre structures. In Aliens, this was conveyed through the advertising's evocation of the original (through imagery and the title itself), followed by slogan "this time it's war." Between them, the slogan and the pluralised title indicated this film's hook, the dramatic possibilities of multiple aliens: Alien only more so. This kind of one-upmanship extends to the continual amplification of excitement (on both narrative and non-narrative levels) through ever more realistic imagery and sound.
Action-based computer games borrow a great deal from their film based inspirations. While there are a number of action genres of computer games (including platform games, flight simulators, and driving games(16)), the ones that have most thoroughly absorbed the cinematic tradition are the "corridor" games, originated with Wolfenstein 3D (1992) and followed by Doom (1993), Doom II (1994) and Duke Nukem 3D (1996), amongst many others. Unlike most other computer games, which tend to feature clear, cartoon-like graphics, these games (starting with Doom) used more sophisticated graphics to emulate a cinematic appearance. In Doom, the corridors are poorly lit, with the lights sometimes flickering erratically, the combined effect strongly emulating typical suspense film cinematography. The addition of a brooding music score and realistic sound effects makes the effect even stronger.
The plots for these games are strongly derivative of action films. Doom's scenario of a space marine on an outer space colony coming up against hordes of strange creatures is straight from Aliens (official Alien trilogy variations on the games do exist, as well as countless unofficial Alien "wads," third party game modification files). The other chief influence is Sam Raimi's Evil Dead trilogy(17), from which the liberal doses of gore are taken. Repeated allusions are made to both these sources across a range of games made by different designers. The chainsaw in the Doom games, for example, is inspired by Ash's chainsaw arm in the Raimi trilogy(18), and id Software's recent followup, Quake (1996), includes zombies who attack by dismembering themselves and throwing their limbs at the player - a decidedly Raimi-esque image. Duke Nukem 3D takes the allusions to both sources even further. When the hero we control, Duke Nukem, acquires a new weapon, he quotes Bruce Campbell's line for the equivalent situation (a victorious "Groovy!"). The Alien series is even more clearly referenced: enemies encountered by Duke include aliens that pop out of eggs and attempt to attach themselves to the Duke's face (our screen); while the decor includes women cocooned against the walls who beg "kill me," just as in Cameron's film. Homage is also paid to Doom, the game's predecessor in its own format, when the Duke stumbles across the dead body of that game's lead character. Those who don't recognise it are given a strong hint with the Duke's comment, "Now that's one doomed space marine!"
Action in the computer game space is often surprisingly similar to that in action films. The similarity to Aliens is particularly strong, since that film includes several sequences in which characters stalk through dark rooms attempting to evade or kill hostile creatures. This is exactly the scenario in virtually all corridor games, and very similar feelings of tension are evoked. Just as Cameron's film enjoys surprising the viewer by having aliens emerge from nowhere, corridor games are often designed so that the enemies appear in the same way. The nature of computer games means that there is not as sophisticated a level of control over our responses as films can achieve (through manipulation of mise-en-scene, editing rhythms, and other cinematic devices). However, this is partly made up for by the fact that audience identification is much more direct: because we are the protagonist, our level of diegetic thrill (as defined earlier) is strengthened. An example is a moment in Duke Nukem 3D in which, while walking down a tunnel, the roof suddenly collapses: this is extremely startling, and the fact that we can "die" (in game terms) makes our backward run to avoid the falling rocks more exciting.
Games have also absorbed the tendency towards spectacle found in action cinema. This manifests itself most clearly in show-stopping moments (usually at the climax of a game "episode," or group of levels) which emulate the climaxes of Aliens-style films by presenting a super-large "boss" creature. In games, unlike films, the excitement of such a spectacle is not based at all on non-diegetic enjoyment: the process of bringing the "boss" alien to life does not involve any special effects as the alien queen in Aliens does. Yet non-diegetic enjoyment is a constant background factor in the gaming experience. The quick development of the new medium means a large part of the enjoyment of most new games is provided by a decidedly non-diegetic admiration of the improvement in graphics, sound, and game design over previous games. This aspect of non-diegetic enjoyment is far more crucial in the field of computer games than cinema, because it is by getting us to admire their construction that the games market themselves.
This is necessary because the game industry has not developed the elaborate advertising structures associated with cinema. While some advertising is done in game magazines, one of the most widespread ways of establishing a product is through "shareware" releases. This method of game release (used for all the games mentioned in this essay) involves releasing limited versions of games for a nominal fee such as $10. These can then be copied and exchanged freely by game players, who then decide whether or not they wish to pay the higher price (usually between $60 and $90) for the full version. This means that the games are less dependent on advertising (and the concept of a signature "image") than a film, and sell themselves based upon the merits of their sample levels: the game itself becomes the commercial. Hence many games are oriented around moments of non-diegetic spectacle that emphasise the game's design breakthroughs.
Duke Nukem 3D, for example, immediately sets about breaking the generic "rules" that had already been established in the few years since Wolfenstein 3D. Despite the introduction of height variations (such as stairs, ramps, and ledges) in Doom, corridor games had continued to take place in essentially flat environments, with little vertical exploration. In Duke Nukem 3D, virtually the first thing the player does is fall off a building. The game quickly emphasises other ways in which it differs from predecessors. Duke Nukem, it turns out, can swim, use a jet-pack, and even shrink to run through small air vents. His environment is far more responsive than those in most of his predecessors, in which the "use" key (the spacebar) was essentially used only to open doors and operate switches. In Duke Nukem 3D, it quickly becomes apparent that nearly any object can be "used," including toilets, mirrors, pool tables, and women (this is not a game that will be noted for its feminist agenda). Duke Nukem carries a variety of weapons that seek to be more interesting than the simple Doom weapons: the array includes two types of time delay bombs, as well as guns that shrink or freeze opponents so Duke can step on or shatter them. Even the areas Duke explores change, as with the collapsing cave that has already been mentioned. Similar occurrences include buildings that explode and cliff faces that collapse, effects that the less sophisticated Doom could not achieve.
Games also have to differentiate themselves from Hollywood product. They do this, first and foremost, through interactivity(19). This is the most blatant difference between action games and their cinema counterparts. The spectator becomes participant, choosing where to go and what to kill. In theory, instead of one fixed narrative as in a movie, there is a never ending array of narratives. Yet this is a little misleading, relying on a loose definition of what a "narrative" actually is. In fact, corridor games regiment the action quite strongly. The player is limited to a certain space, can only carry out certain actions, and shares the space with only a limited number of other actors. The player must exit the space through one given door, and probably has a number of set actions (usually simple acts of problem solving) that they must carry out to get there. Each room has a number of opponents waiting in pre-set positions for the player to arrive, and when the player dispatches them, the room is emptied of narrative possibilities. Essentially, a level of Doom or Duke Nukem 3D contains a number of rooms, each of which is a small narrative "pocket." The player can, by changing their route, alter the order in which these narratives are entered into, or even skip some of them. Skilful play can reduce injuries, avoid any "deaths," and thus increase the efficiency with which the narrative is uncovered. However, each narrative pocket has been pre-planned, and the wider thrust of the narrative (the progression from level to level) is as rigidly set as that of any Hollywood film.
Since the interactivity of the corridor game is its central differentiation from the structure of action as established in cinema, this represents something of a problem. It is not an essentially new one: text-based adventure games presented a similar problem. Since the programmers of these games could not anticipate every desired action, these games orient themselves around a few pre-programmed narratives. The gameplaying experience essentially became an interrogative process, with the aim of the game being for the player to divine the correct commands to extract the programmer's prewritten narrative. The way to get around this is to create text-based narratives in which people could interact: MUDs(20). Corridor games, with a similar problem, have reacted in the same way, encouraging multi-user play. This has become a central concept in recent corridor game design (indeed, multi-player gaming is a major growth area in virtually all game genres). The trend can be seen in certain aspects of Duke Nukem 3D, with the inclusion of weapons and devices (the laser trip-bomb, or the "holoduke") that have almost no function in the single player game, but which could be used to great effect against human opponents. The more recent Quake also seems designed largely for multi-user play, with more open levels that facilitate inter-player combat. This represents a major shift in the way these action games function: suddenly the action is no longer comparable to an action film at all. The games, used this way, make good on their promise of interactivity and abandon narrative, instead becoming a social activity.
The progression is in many ways a
logical one. Action films
highlight spectacle
at the expense of narrative: now, with the genre crossing into a new
medium,
the narrative has been superseded entirely. In this case, the attempts
to
push generic boundaries has indeed resulted in a distinct generic
form..
However, when played by an individual, the corridor game remains
notably
indebted to its cinema based inspirations. Action games, like their
cinema
counterparts, emphasise spectacle and their own increasing
technological
sophistication. They knowingly play on genre conventions. The action
scenes
they present stimulate us in very similar ways. The differences that
exist
are centred primarily around the player's active involvement in the
action,
which becomes (at least until boredom sets in), the ultimate
high-concept
"hook" for differentiating action games from their Hollywood
competition.
Written in November 1996 for the Melbourne Unviersity subject "The Entertainment Experience."
Notes
1. Wyatt, Justin, 1994, High Concept: Movies & Marketing in Hollywood, University of Texas Press, Austin, pp. 71-72. (Back)
2. Examples include some of the biggest of them all: Star Wars, Jurassic Park, and Independence Day. These exceptions are usually films that invest heavily in other factors of production such as special effects and take a gamble by using unknowns or minor stars. (Back)
3. As opposed to "below-the-line" expenses such as studios, technicians and supporting cast, which do not help sell the film. See Falk, Quentin, 1981, "Movies in Production," in Pirie, David (ed), 1981, Anatomy of the Movies, MacMillan, New York, p. 162. (Back)
4. See Wyatt, 1994, op. cit., p. 94. (Back)
5. Hollows, Joanne, 1995, "Mass Culture Theory and Political Economy," in Hollows, Joanne, & Jancovich, Mark (eds), 1995, Approaches to Popular Film, Manchester University Press, Manchester & New York, 1995, p. 32. (Back)
6. Staying power of such toys in the age of home video is remarkable. Aliens toys can still be found in shops, ten years after the release of the film. Star Wars toys are also in shops, though this is largely due to the upcoming Star Wars "special edition" and prequels. (Back)
7. For general discussion of science fiction's use of spectacle and technology see Landon, Brooks, 1992, The Aesthetics of Ambivalence: Rethinking Science Fiction in the Information Age of Electronic (Re)Production, Greenwood Press, Westport & London, particularly pp. 61-74. (Back)
8. Landon, 1992, op. cit., p. 69. (Back)
9. Gunning, Tom, 1993, "Now You See it, Now You Don't: The Temporality of the Cinema of Attractions," The Velvet Light Trap, no. 32, Fall 1993, pp. 3-12. (Back)
10. Docker, John, 1994, Postmodernism and Popular Culture - A Cultural History, Cambridge University Press, p.71. (Back)
11. Since no audience is completely drawn into a film, some degree of excitement in an action film must always be non-diegetic. However, a spectacle based production (such as an IMAX film) can be entirely without narrative, meaning the second type of thrill can exist on its own. (Back)
12. Landon, 1992, op. cit., p. 69. (Back)
13. Gross, Larry, 1995, "Big & Loud," in Sight and Sound, August 1995, pp. 6-10. (Back)
14. Ibid., p. 10. (Back)
15. As defined in Wyatt, 1994, op. cit., pp 26-31. (Back)
16. For a reasonably thorough taxonomy of game genres, see Anon, 1993, "Game Over," Edge, issue 3, December 1993, pp 62-67. The notable omission from this article is corridor games, few of which had been released at the time of writing. (Back)
17. Ndalianis, Angela, 1996, "The Rules of the Game - Evil Dead 2. . . Meet thy Doom," in Jenkins et al, 1996, Hop on Pop: the Politics and Pleasures of Popular Cultures, Duke University Press, forthcoming. Page 2 as found in this subject's reader. (Back)
18. Ibid., p. 4. (Back)
19. Ibid., pp. 9-11. (Back)
20. My experience with adventure games is first-hand, but my knowledge of MUDs is based on Dibbel, Julian, 1994, "A Rape in "Cyberspace: or How an Evil Clown, A Haitian Trickster Spirit, Two Wizards, and a Cast of Dozens Turned a Database Into a Society," in Mark Dery (ed), 1994, Flame Wars: The Discourse of Cyberculture, Duke University Press, Durham & London, pp. 237-261, and Reid, Elizabeth, 1994, "Cultural Formations in Text-Based Virtual Realities," Master of Arts Thesis, Department of English, University of Melbourne. (Back)
References
Anon, 1993, "Game Over," Edge, issue 3, December 1993, pp 62-67.
Dibbel, Julian, 1994, "A Rape in "Cyberspace: or How an Evil Clown, A Haitian Trickster Spirit, Two Wizards, and a Cast of Dozens Turned a Database Into a Society," in Mark Dery (ed), 1994, Flame Wars: The Discourse of Cyberculture, Duke University Press, Durham & London, pp. 237-261.
Docker, John, 1994, Postmodernism and Popular Culture - A Cultural History, Cambridge University Press.
Falk, Quentin, 1981, "Movies in Production," in Pirie, David (ed), 1981, Anatomy of the Movies, MacMillan, New York.
Gross, Larry, 1995, "Big & Loud," in Sight and Sound, August 1995, pp. 6-10.
Gunning, Tom, 1993, "Now You See it, Now You Don't: The Temporality of the Cinema of Attractions," The Velvet Light Trap, no. 32, Fall 1993.
Hollows, Joanne, 1995, "Mass Culture Theory and Political Economy," in Hollows, Joanne, & Jancovich, Mark (eds), 1995, Approaches to Popular Film, Manchester University Press, Manchester & New York, 1995.
Landon, Brooks, 1992, The Aesthetics of Ambivalence: Rethinking Science Fiction in the Information Age of Electronic (Re)Production, Greenwood Press, Westport & London.
Ndalianis, Angela, 1996, "The Rules of the Game - Evil Dead 2. . . Meet thy Doom," in Jenkins et al, 1996, Hop on Pop: the Politics and Pleasures of Popular Cultures, Duke University Press, forthcoming.
Reid, Elizabeth, 1994, "Cultural Formations in Text-Based Virtual Realities," Master of Arts Thesis, Department of English, University of Melbourne.
Wyatt, Justin, 1994, High Concept: Movies & Marketing in Hollywood, University of Texas Press, Austin.
Filmography
Aliens (1986), James Cameron
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Steven Spielberg
Doctor Zhivago (1965), David Lean
The Fugitive (1993), Andrew Davis
Independence Day (1996), Roland Emmerich
Jaws (1975), Steven Spielberg
Jurassic Park (1993), Steven Spielberg
Mission Impossible (1996), Brian De Palma
The Sound of Music (1965), Robert Wise
Star Wars (1977), George Lucas
The Terminator (1984), James Cameron
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), James Cameron.
Gameography
Doom (1993), id Software
Doom II (1994), id Software
Duke Nukem 3D (1996), 3D Realms
Quake (1996), id Software
Wolfenstein 3D (1992), id Software
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© 2005 by Stephen Rowley