Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is a film released on September 17, 2004 in the United States. It was written and directed by Kerry Conran, in his directorial debut.
The film stars Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Angelina Jolie. It is set in New York, New York in an alternate 1939 and is a science fiction adventure film. It is the first movie to be shot with actors entirely in front of a bluescreen, with all the sets and nearly all of the props computer-generated. The actors spent only 28 days in principal photography. The role of the villain, Dr. Totenkopf, is "played" by Sir Laurence Olivier, who died in 1989; archive footage of him from the 1940s was manipulated by computer to allow him to make this posthumous film appearance.
Homages
Conran incorporated many elements of classic genre films into his. Here is a partial list.
Synopsis
Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.
The film opens with the arrival of the Hindenburg III zeppelin in New York City. A frightened scientist named Dr. Vargas makes arrangements for a package to be delivered to a Dr. Walter Jennings, before vanishing.
Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow), a reporter for the Chronicle newspaper, is looking into the mysterious disappearances of Vargas and five other renowned scientists. She receives a cryptic message, telling her to go to a movie theater that night. She arrives and encounters Dr. Jennings, who is terrified, and tells her that Dr. Totenkopf is coming for him.
Just then, air raid sirens go off, heralding the arrival of numerous massive robots that prove all but unstoppable. In desperation, the police call for the aid of the Sky Captain, Joe Sullivan (Jude Law). Sullivan's attempts to stop the robots are only partially successful, but he does save Polly from meeting her death (she was caught in their path while trying to photograph them).
The wreckage of one of the robots is brought back to Joe's airstrip, so that Joe's mechanic Dex (Giovanni Ribisi) can examine it. Polly arrives as well, hoping to get information for her story. She and Joe are ex-lovers, who broke up three years earlier. Each has a different account of the wrongs the other committed; Joe constantly accuses Polly of sabotaging his airplane, which led to him spending six months in a Manchurian labour camp; Polly accuses Joe of fooling around with another woman while he was in Nanjing. Since Polly has some useful information, Joe agrees to let her in on the investigation.
This takes them to the laboratory of Dr. Jennings, which has been ransacked, and Jennings near death. The Assassin (Bai Ling) escapes, while the mortally wounded Jennings warns of Dr. Totenkopf's plans. He also gives Polly two vials, which he says are crucial. Polly doesn't tell Joe about this (presumably so that she can keep her edge).
They return to Joe's base, which comes under attack by squadrons of airborne drones. In the ensuing battle, Dex is captured, but he succeeds in leaving behind a clue as to where Totenkopf's base is located.
Joe and Polly track the signal to Nepal, and venture into the mountains. There they find a mining outpost, long abandoned, and are nearly killed by two of Totenkopf's goons, who take the two vials from Polly. Joe and Polly escape but are knocked out by an explosion in the mine. They wake up together in the mythical Shangri La. The monks who live there tell of Totenkopf's enslaving of their people, forcing them to work in the uranium mines, which killed most of them. The final survivor of the mines, horribly mutated, provides another clue as to where Totenkopf is hiding.
This leads them to rendezvous with Joe's other ex-flame, Captain Franky Cooke (Angelina Jolie), who commands a mobil airstrip for the Royal Navy. Franky helps them get to Totenkopf's hidden island. Getting in requires an extended trip underwater, making use of amphibious aircraft.
Joe and Polly find themselves inside the mountainous island, which contains numerous new creatures created by Totenkopf (many of which appear to be variations of dinosaurs). They travel to the very centre of the island, where robots are loading animals onto a massive rocket (see Noah's Ark). Joe and Polly are nearly killed, but Dex arrives with the missing scientists (they escaped from the robots), and spirits them away. Dex explains that Totenkopf has given up on humanity, and seeks to end the world as he begins a new one. The group goes to Totenkopf's lair, aiming to end his evil scheme, only to discover that Totenkopf has been dead for nearly two decades; his machines have carried on his work. The only way to stop the rocket from incinerating Earth during its launch is to cause an internal malfunction; unfortunately there is no way to escape from the rocket before it explodes. Joe knocks out Polly, and then goes to sacrifice himself, while the others escape. Polly recovers and goes after Joe, arriving in time to save him from the Assassin (who, as it turns out, is a robot). The two then go into the rocket just before it launches, ready to stop it before it reaches 100 miles up (at which point the atmosphere is incinerated). They succeed, and then use an escape pod to flee the exploding rocket.
See also
