Disclaimer: This piece was originally written as a script for a video that can be seen here.
It’s obvious to anyone that the biggest trend in Hollywood at the moment is the Superhero blockbuster. Marvel Studios has built an unstoppable money printing machine by adapting not only their beloved characters to film, but also the mechanics of universe building and continuity that have kept comic book fans obsessing over these properties for decades.
Hell, adaptation has been an important staple of film almost literally since the invention of the art form. And in recent decades, some of the most ambitious and successful undertakings in the creation of film franchises have almost all been based on stories from another medium, most- often- literary.
Successful film adaptations of books, poems, plays, musicals, radio programs, and television shows are abundant in the industry. But, one medium of storytelling that has yet been able to make the jump is one that’s nearest and dearest to me. Video games.
When you think about video game movies, what probably comes to mind is something like the Resident Evil series, the recent Assassin’s Creed and Warcraft, or maybe... I don’t know... Hitman? Max Payne with- Marky Mark? Not exactly landmark achievements in the space of cinema is what I’m saying.
This, rightfully, begs the question of why Hollywood can tackle outlandish concepts like the ones seen in superhero movies or sci-fi and fantasy adaptations, but have such a hard time making movies out of video games?
And the answer to this, while it may sound shocking or ignorant, is that most, not all, but most video games could not- and should not- be adapted to film.
The reason I believe this is because most impactful moments in video games are created with the belief that the context in which the game will be experienced is by a player with a controller in their hands, who is directly in control of some aspect of the experience.
The quiet Tibetan village in Uncharted 2, the Psycho Mantis boss fight in Metal Gear Solid, the human cost of your actions in Spec Ops: The Line, the pace at which you discover the truth about your sister in Gone Home, and Andrew Ryan’s final speech in BioShock are all examples of moments where a player’s input to the game has a direct relation to the emotional impact that those points in the experience will carry.
On BioShock, this video is actually directly inspired by a Reddit post I saw today about how Guillermo Del Toro’s The Shape of Water presented a set of visuals that, to this user, beg to be used to create a BioShock film. Which, to be fair, has been in development hell for a long- long time.
But, this sentiment is one that runs rampant in video game fandom, and completely misses the point I just made about what makes video games so impactful. This is the idea that in order for a video game movie to be good it only needs to capture the aesthetic qualities of a game. This ignores the meaningfulness of these games, and the themes the present, and will leave you only with a husk of these properties, devoid of whatever substance it is that you’d expect.
Yes. Rapture is an extremely interesting setting, and a concept for a world so original I don’t really believe we’ve seen much else like in the ten years since its release.
But, I think the reason BioShock is so impactful is because it's a game, not in spite of it. It isn't incidental that this is the medium chosen to tell this story. BioShock is a game about games, and how players never give any thought to the rules or objectives they're given, no matter how grisly the implications. Which is why the reveal [INCOMING SPOILERS FOR BIOSHOCK, A TEN YEAR OLD GAME] that you never actually had any free will at all is so impactful. Because players are generally told by developers that they’re in control, that they have complete freedom. People who watch movies to don’t have any free will within the story, they don’t even ask for it. But BioShock punishes you for thinking that way in the first place.
In order for a Bioshock movie to work it would need to be a film about stories in movies, or about how we watch them. Which would require a lot of retooling, and rewriting. And at that point you might as well make something else entirely.
A direct adaptation of BioShock would look very nice, yes. And you’d get to see a Big Daddy in live action. Neat. And, you’d get to see Andrew Ryan’s speech recited by some big name actor. But, ultimately what’s the point of all that? These things have already been expertly realized in the way that they were meant to be experienced.
Does the jump to film provide legitimacy to these games? Being made into a film doesn’t provide legitimacy to these stories and experiences. They’re already legitimate in their own right as masterpieces of their artform. Hell, even just by virtue of existing these games are provided legitimacy.
The only option I see for video game adaptations to work is for the people behind these films to take the universes of these games and to tell their own stories within them. This way you can potentially end up with substantive text, all wrapped up in that familiar aesthetic that these fuckin nerds can’t get enough of.
Hollywood must create their own stories because video game stories on a structural level cannot work in the span of a two or even three hour movie. Because they’re too long. The story for The Last Of Us would require almost five three hour movies to tell that story.
Now, you’re probably saying, “but Brad, you could cut out all the gameplay, trim down the cutscenes, and bing bam boom you got yourself a movie.”
And to that I say, “have you not been paying attention for the entirety of like this whole fucking video?” Because look. THIS, would not work without the player being directly responsible for THIS!
That’s not to say I don’t think the world of The Last Of Us can’t be used for a film, just that Joel and Ellie’s story cannot be adapted correctly.
And no. That doesn’t mean we should get a fucking Ish movie either. Discovering that story through the notes is 100% the point of that whole thing.
It’s that line of thinking that leaves you with the Star Wars prequels. [show obi-wan talking about the clone wars]
Surprisingly, Hollywood has kinda started to figure this out. 2016’s Assassin’s Creed took place within the universe of
