Other "Slide" and descent into the underworld references?

18 replies jump to bottom
downer
Joined: 05/20/2011
User offline. Last seen 1 year 43 weeks ago.

I remember seeing "Journey to the Center of the Earth" back when I was a kid, and later on "Tron" and "Fight Club." I recently read "Journey to the Center of the Earth" and saw it has a direct reference to "slide", as does the ice cave scene in "Fight Club." In the both books there're also references to pools of water at the bottom: In "Journey" its at the center of the Earth, In "Fight Club" its inside intestines, and in the movie "Tron" its in the power cave scene. Does anyone else think there was an intentional link between these books and movies, or was it just a similar reference because of common influences?

From the introduction to "Journey to the Center of the Earth":
"Some of the most influential texts of the Western cultural tradition, from Homer's "Odyssey" and Virgil's "Aeneid" to Dante's "Divine Comedy", prominently feature the protagonist's descent into the underworld, the realm of the dead, as an important part of his social and spiritual development." To me, this also really seems fitting for Fight Club.

Referencing "Tron" may seem a bit of a stretch, but it does have a power cave instead of power animal. The characters also slide before they meet Dumont with his chilling quote, one character passes, and then meets his maker. (Matrix "Waiting for your next life, who knows?") Could Dumont be mistaken for a power animal penguin when he's first introduced with only half of him showing, wearing a strange hat, and rotating around?

My real question is, does anyone know of any other books or movies that reference "slide," slippery slope, or anything else similar that leads to the underworld? Movies and books with this theme really interest me right now.

Tuffy
Fuck Plants
Tuffy's picture
From: Rampant
Joined: 03/29/2009
User offline. Last seen 3 hours 20 min ago.

Inferno.

__________________________

This is why we can't have nice things.

Tuffy
Fuck Plants
Tuffy's picture
From: Rampant
Joined: 03/29/2009
User offline. Last seen 3 hours 20 min ago.

Star Wars, Episode 4: A New Hope

__________________________

This is why we can't have nice things.

downer
Joined: 05/20/2011
User offline. Last seen 1 year 43 weeks ago.

Yes, Dante's Inferno is a good one. I'd have to look up Episode 4 though. Too many remastered classics becoming "eleven fingered" movies are pissing me off lately. Maybe those directors would get the hint if their favorite movies were "restored and remastered" using horrible over the top unused outtakes of their favorite actors.

I've also seen literal ones like "Tomb Raider" with its huge model of our planets hidden underground and the characters slide behind dogs teams with and without their sleds, but I'm interested in more than just blunt models. I guess the "Speed Racer" movie with Racer X's transformation inside an ice cave to the underground world of crime fighting isn't too far off also.

Tuffy
Fuck Plants
Tuffy's picture
From: Rampant
Joined: 03/29/2009
User offline. Last seen 3 hours 20 min ago.

Garbage chute?

It's practically a trope.

__________________________

This is why we can't have nice things.

downer
Joined: 05/20/2011
User offline. Last seen 1 year 43 weeks ago.

Thanks, I guess I was stuck on caves.

I'd forgotten "The Cave" is also another one, and actually has Jack and Tyler as main characters.

downer
Joined: 05/20/2011
User offline. Last seen 1 year 43 weeks ago.

I gotta see "Logan's Run"

Tuffy
Fuck Plants
Tuffy's picture
From: Rampant
Joined: 03/29/2009
User offline. Last seen 3 hours 20 min ago.

Josie and the Pussycats is another good one.

__________________________

This is why we can't have nice things.

downer
Joined: 05/20/2011
User offline. Last seen 1 year 43 weeks ago.

At first I thought you were pulling my leg, but I guess people say there's some pop culture satire in there.

To add to the Racer X and Speed Racer "slide" allegory, there's always Superman's icy cave and Batman's cave, but those might be more of a place of permanent refuge, and not a part of a journey to "Know thyself" like in Fight Club and Journey to the Center of the Earth. Anyway, I thought the Batman movies with Penguin and Mr. Freeze could've been better, and maybe there's also a similar link to the Matrix and underground Zion.

Tuffy
Fuck Plants
Tuffy's picture
From: Rampant
Joined: 03/29/2009
User offline. Last seen 3 hours 20 min ago.

Josie and the Pussycats is Fight Club for tweens and, as such, *far* more subversive.

__________________________

This is why we can't have nice things.

downer
Joined: 05/20/2011
User offline. Last seen 1 year 43 weeks ago.

Mimicking is not understanding, tuffy.

dbdurden
dbdurden's picture
Joined: 08/31/2010
User offline. Last seen 1 day 19 hours ago.

HellBoy 2

JKabol
yeah, we talked
JKabol's picture
From: le rock
Joined: 12/03/2003
User offline. Last seen 5 weeks 14 hours ago.

the matrix. (one; not two or three. two and three almost destroyed the one.)

__________________________

__________________________________

play hard, like it's work to be done.
Tuffy
Fuck Plants
Tuffy's picture
From: Rampant
Joined: 03/29/2009
User offline. Last seen 3 hours 20 min ago.
downer wrote:
Mimicking is not understanding, tuffy.

Have you seen it?

__________________________

This is why we can't have nice things.

downer
Joined: 05/20/2011
User offline. Last seen 1 year 43 weeks ago.
Tuffy wrote:
downer wrote:
Mimicking is not understanding, tuffy.

Have you seen it?


All you see is subversive, so it doesn't matter what you've seen.
Tuffy
Fuck Plants
Tuffy's picture
From: Rampant
Joined: 03/29/2009
User offline. Last seen 3 hours 20 min ago.

That's a "no" then.

And your point is "literal decent often indicates metaphorical descent in popcultural references"? A great thesis for Jr. High English class.

__________________________

This is why we can't have nice things.

audreythirteen
audreythirteen's picture
From: City of Dreams
Joined: 05/12/2009
User offline. Last seen 42 min 34 sec ago.

dont know why this topic reminded me of this scene

__________________________
PGoutis01 wrote:
I will shit internationally!
downer
Joined: 05/20/2011
User offline. Last seen 1 year 43 weeks ago.
Tuffy wrote:
That's a "no" then.

And your point is "literal decent often indicates metaphorical descent in popcultural references"? A great thesis for Jr. High English class.


To me, this movie has a lot in common with a walkabout and its contagious pop culture insults are too much of a distraction.

I get the feeling I must have wronged some people in a previous life or something.

downer
Joined: 05/20/2011
User offline. Last seen 1 year 43 weeks ago.

Not that the Red Hot Chilli Peppers or me should be taken seriously, but I dig their Walkabout song.