Nash, TN Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow - homages and references (spoiler warning!)

I really enjoyed watching Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. I believe the film captured the feel of the old movie serials while paying homage to many different sources. I?ve listed below the references in the movie that I have been able to come up with so far. If you can think of any more please list them.

1. The ray gun that shoots rings of energy is from the Captain Future pulp magazines.

2. Godzilla is shown in a newspaper clipping of Japan being attacked.

3. The old RKO pictures "World antenna" logo is used to show signals being sent out to contact Sky Captain.

4. The giant robots are from the Fleischer Superman cartoon.

5. When the robots fire ray beams the sound used is from the movie "War of the Worlds".

6. At the bottom of the ocean you can see a sunken ship called "Venture". This was the ship used in "King Kong".

7. Also at the bottom of the ocean you can see a ship which falls from a set of underwater cliffs. The ship appears to be the Titanic.

8. The drilling machine shown in the mining caves is from Edgar Rice Burrough?s novel "At the Earth?s Core"

9. The title of the movie ("Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow") is a reference to the 1939 New York World?s Fair which was named ?The World of Tomorrow.?

10. The symbol of the 1939 New York World?s Fair was the Trylon and the Perisphere. An homage to these can be seen at the mining camp.

11. The hologram scene of Lawrence Olivier as Totenkopf is an homage to the Wizard of Oz.

12. Immediately after the Lawrence Olivier hologram scene, Sky Captain delivers Olivier?s famous line from The Marathon Man: ?Is it Safe??

13. The number on the door to one of the Scientist?s lab is 1138. Obviously a Star Wars/Lucas reference.

14. When Sky Captain lands his plane on the British flying skyport, he is directed to land on platform 327. Another Star Wars reference.

15. There is a sign in New York for the Coronet Club. Perhaps another Star Wars reference (to the city of Coronet.)

16. The only survivor of Totenkopf?s experiments bears a strong resemblance to Yoda.

17. The island at the end of the movie is, I think, a combination of homages. It represents both Skull Island from King Kong (especially note the fallen log spanning the chasm) as well as Dagobah.

18. Also, the mooring of the dirigible to the Empire State Building at the beginning of the movie may have been an homage to King Kong as well. (Note: in actuality only two dirigibles ever moored to the Empire State Buildings mooring mast. One was naval and one was civilian. Updrafts and high winds made the moorings unsafe so no more were ever attempted.)

19. Buck Rogers comic books were shown in a few scenes. I?d say that was a pretty strong reference to, ah, well..., Buck Rogers.

20. Sky Captains's line "Why won't you die?" is a line from one of the Austin Powers movies (could it also have been used in other movies?)

Scott

 

That's pretty cool if you only saw it once and remember all that!

 

I didn't come up with the entire list on my own, I've been talking with other people as well. I think I caught 14 of the items out of the entire list though.

But I have seen the movie twice now as well, heheh. The second time I saw it on the IMAX screen. It was awesome.


Scott

 

20. Sky Captains's line "Why won't you die?" is a line from one of the Austin Powers movies (could it also have been used in other movies?)

Close to the line delivered by Alec Trevelyan to James Bond in Goldeneye, Why can't you just be a good boy and die?

Also, some are from the IMDB:

When Joe & Polly go to meet Dr. Walter Jennings their costumes appear to be the same as worn in the closing scenes of Casablanca.

The villian's name "Totenkopf" translates from German as "Dead Head" or "Death's Head", the symbol of his army.

The logo for the Flying Legion is a winged lion with a banner reading "Ille Caelum Fremitus." Translated from Latin, this reads "The Sky Thrill." (although there is some disagreement over the proper conjecation of this translation and some translate it as "The Roaring Sky")

There is a scene near the end during the big battle when a ship flys out of a hanger at a fast rate of speed that is shot at a low angle; in the same manner & angle as when the Naboo fighters are flying out of the Royal Hanger in Theed to attack the Droid Control ships and a nearby droid cannon crew fires off a shot downing one of the fighters.

Several scenes appear to parrot actions that Indiana Jones would perform, especially when Sky Captain wears his brown fedora. One scene is when they're outside room 1138 he's proposing to use a strand of rope (like a bullwhip) to enter the glass pane over the doorway.

The Mysterious Woman uses a come get some motion similar to The Rock's taunt in the WWE, but also when Neo fights Morpheus in the dojo in "The Matrix."

The promos promoted that Capt. Francesca 'Franky' Cook led a wing of all female pilots. This was also true of Pussy Galore in 1964's "Goldfinger."

The flying robots are inspired by Max Fleischer's Superman cartoon Mechanical Monsters (1941).

Some of the sewer portals into Totenkopf's island appear to mimic shots where the Navy Seals assaulted the prison in "The Rock."

 

The fight on the catwalk between Joe and the Mysterious Woman at the end was reminiscent of the final duel on the catwalk in The Phantom Menace (complete with the hero dangling over a deep pit by his fingertips and a villain in black swinging a double-ended weapon with a glowing tip).