Display MoreI think every member of the Wing Commander movie club can agree that 1492: Conquest of Paradise was not the most thrilling film in the world. It's not that it wasn't well made but it just… sort of sat there with lavish production values that never seemed to quite live up to the story it was telling with characters that just weren't engaging enough for you to put your full head into them. But my philosophy is that mediocrity should be met with a little extra work to make things better… so we're going to use our viewing of 1492 as an excuse to really look at part of the Wing Commander movie!
We watched 1492 for a very important reason: its opening titles were a major influence on the ones Chris Roberts created for the 1999 Wing Commander movie (alongside Sphere and The Fan, which we will be viewing in the future). So technically our Wing Commander interest was over in the first four minutes but it was pretty exciting to see what helped Chris dream up a particularly cool part of our favorite film. In 1492, we see the titles set over stylized drawings of monsters and explorers telling the story of early attempts to explore the Atlantic. Here's a copy from YouTube:
There's little argument that the coolest part of the Wing Commander movie is the coolest part of the film. Here's a refresher:
And it has an excellent story: it wasn't scripted alongside the rest of the film, it was developed during post production by Chris Roberts as a replacement for his original opening scene that FOX refused to finance. Origin Systems had a company-wide design philosophy about putting as much effort as possible into the opening of a game and Chris understood that was just important in a movie. The movie intro went through a number of iterations intended to set the stage, quickly explain the Wing Commander world and also visually impress immediately. Earlier versions featured Star Wars-style text and sometimes voiceover by either Paladin or Blair. Here's a tape of an earlier attempt:## video AD sent
And here's the 'setting card' which is very similar to how 1492 ends its titles:
Eventually, Chris settled on telling the story less directly, with a series of historical vignettes that would be quoted and then seen as animated stills played over a stunning map of the Wing Commander universe. The map and the artwork was created by veteran illustrator Peter Heer. Here's a very high resolution reproduction of the map itself; you can lose yourself for hours studying this!
Peter Heer created a video showing some of his process; sadly it's low resolution these days but it's still well worth viewing!
The story for the intro changed a little as development went along. Here's an early version scripted:
And here's a second one from a day later which has already expanded and rearranged the plan. We believe Heer used the first for most of his work.
Here are Peter Heer's initial storyboards which suggest a total of sixteen sketches are being developed. We'll see a few more!
The final version that you know essentially repurposes (some of) the images created for that first draft to tell three small stories: human expansion into the galaxy and the rise of the Pilgrims, the destruction of the TCS Iason and then march to war with the Kilrathi. So we've done a little work and we've synced the original scripts with Heer's storyboards and art and the final intro! The most exciting part is that eleven of the original sketches have been located and we've included 600dpi scans of them below! When a sketch wasn't available we've tried to find the most clear still to chart out what was being seen. Enjoy!
... SMALL GROUP of KILRATHI WARRIORS MID FIGHTING)
This one appears in only a couple of frames as the intro 'flashes'. The sketch is repeated later.
... a strongly idealized (heroic) portrait of a few
PILGRIM/HUMAN MARINES, putting up the PILGRIM/CONFED BANNER
against an exotic space-scape. This image represents the
heroic era of the Pilgrim exploring space and refers to the
IWO JIMA MOTIVE.
... a spinning drawing of the PILGRIM CROSS, embedded in
symbols and numbers and lines, suggesting a 'user guide'for
the ancient (ultimate) navigation tool.
... another exotic landscape.
... a heavy BATTLESCENE. ATTACK FORMATIONS clashing (think
of Revell Assambly Kit Covers)
... a GIANT SPACE SHIP headed towards the camera, a
threatening black behemoth, with guns sticking out along the
fuselage like spikes of a dragons armor.
... another threatening, attacking BATTLESHIP. This time it
is clearly alien (Kilrathi) due to all KILRATHI INSIGNIA
· surrounding the ship. Its cannons blasting bright beams of
fire towards the camera.
... another angle on the previous SPACE BATTLE. Nearly a
dozen vessels involved some on fire others drifting through
3D space.
... a first impression of a KILRATHI WARRIOR in a very
heroic pose with runes around him. ( Think "MARS")
This is the repeat of the first still.
... we see another KILRATHI WARRIOR. This time he is
portrayed in a powerful and expressive action pose (with
sword or blaster).This one has not been located outside of the finished intro; AD has cleaned it up to try and make the image, a Kilrathi warrior lording over a human prisoner, as clear as possible.
At the end of the sequence, we see a Kilrathi silhouette move across the map as it turns red. Since we've located the original silhouette drawing, we've included it in this post.
The following sketches do not appear in the final sequence.
... we see a giant PARADE. According to all strange
engravings and a even stranger looking PALACE in the
background this must be the KILRATHI CAPITOL.
a CITY or COLONY engulfed in black smoke. We see RUINS
and a KILRATHI BATTLECRUISER hovering above it (think ID4).
... we see what looks like a CEREMONY, - A GATHERING OF
STARPILOTS (recognized by their gear and helmet) This image
also features strong INSIGNIA.
It isn't clear what these two Kilrathi sketches were for; but they're excellent!
... we see an old/ancient version of the CONFEDERATION
BANNER engulfed in FLAMES.The burning flag may have never made it to sketch for; it was likely intended to be a practical effect.
We aren't sure what this board was intended to represent.
Now there is one additional note about the movie. We certainly did smile when our old pal Paladin showed up as Martín Alonso Pinzón, captain of the Pinta!
That was a lot of work, Sully, I hope people appreciate learning more about the movie intro!
