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FLASH! As you may imagine, we loved Flash Gordon (especially Brian Blessed!) and now have the theme stuck deeply in our brains. Happy birthday, bob! This week, voting is back and everyone was hoping to finally choose Terminator... but we didn't and instead John Woo somehow won the poll for what returning director we'd like to see. So this week we'll be watching his Chinese-era masterpiece Hard Boiled (1992) which was surely a favorite of the Wing Commander III team! You can join us this Friday via Discord to watch along.
After greatly enjoying Hard Target, John Woo's American debut, we were interested in seeing one of his earlier Chinese movies. When we watched that movie, we talked about how John Woo was referenced repeatedly in Wing Commander III's quotes file. "Two-Fisted John Woo Action" is specifically cited in the list of the team's inspiration and programmer Chris Todd's section shouts out to him alongside family and friends. It's pretty clear the Wing Commander III team loved John Woo movies! The connection this time is another something hidden in Wing Commander III: one of many little nods in the game's wild lines. These are the almost unheard PA announcements that play as background noise over the Victory's options screens. And one of them shouts out John Woo's frequent collaborator actor Chow Yun Fat: "Passenger Chow-Yun-Fa, please report to customs." Good enough for us!
Why does the Victory have passengers? That's not completely clear, but several of the wild lines reference them:
34) All passengers must be briefed on emergency procedures, Class One thru Class Two, before boarding. Please report to the nearest service representative if you have not been briefed.
36) Golden Princess Lines cruiser Shwee Ka has docked at ring three, terminal four. Passengers will be debarking in five minutes.
42) Will passenger Vax, passenger Vax, please report to the nearest paging terminal.?
43) Passenger Paul Headrick or passenger Vincent Lin, please contact the nearest service representative.
52) Attention. As required by Confederation law, notification of the inherent risks of traveling during periods of potential conflict must be acknowledged by all passengers.Where can I find a copy of the movie for the watch party?
Hard Boiled is available for rent or purchase on all of the standard streaming services.If you would like a physical copy, it was released on UHD in the US in 2025 and remains in print around the world. A copy is available for download from the Internet Archive. If you are not able to locate a copy please stop by the Discord and ping a CIC staff member before Friday's showing.
How do we watch the movie together?
It's pretty low tech! Simply join the Wing Commander CIC Discord on Friday and we will be chatting (in text) along with the film in the main channel. Everyone who wants to join in should bring their own copy and we will count down to play them together at 10 PM EST. Everyone is welcome and we encourage you to join in the conversation; sharing your thoughts helps make the experience better for everyone!
How can I help pick future movie club movies?
The movie club movies are voted on each week by the Wing Commander Discord. The poll is typically posted 24 hours before each week's screening and the next movie is announced at the end. The choices for the poll come from a master pool of Wing Commander-related movies. If you would like to suggest a film for inclusion in that pool you can post it to this thread.
