Editing 1751: Movie Folder

{{comic
| number    = 1751
| date      = October 26, 2016
| title     = Movie Folder
| image     = movie_folder.png
| titletext = That's actually the original Japanese version of A Million Random Digits, which is much better than the American remake the book was based on.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] is looking through [[Black Hat|Black Hat's]] downloaded movies, which are all adaptations of non-literary works, improbable sequels, and/or crossovers between very disparate properties. Cueball reacts with increasing incredulity to Black Hat's collection, while Black Hat casually responds with equally unlikely (non-)explanations. Knowing Black Hat, his movie folder is deliberately weird just to provoke this kind of reaction.

In the real world, there are movies which can provoke similar shock. For example, many successful films get {{w|direct-to-video}} (or, now, {{w|direct-to-digital}}) sequels and spinoffs, often featuring none of the original cast and which get very little marketing. Therefore, someone might be surprised to know that there's an ''{{w|American Psycho 2}}'', a ''{{w|Starship Troopers 3: Marauder|Starship Troopers 3}}'', a ''{{w|Dr. Dolittle: Million Dollar Mutts|Dr. Dolittle 5}}'', or a ''{{w|Bring It On: Fight to the Finish|Bring It On 5}}''. [[Randall]] previously made fun of the proliferation of direct-to-video sequels in [https://what-if.xkcd.com/65/ What If: Twitter Timeline Height], with at least 27 ''Land Before Time'' films (in reality, there were 14).

Another source of weird titles are {{w|mockbuster}}s. When a film uses a {{w|public domain}} property as its basis, or a title that is too generic to trademark, other studios will simply create their own films and pretend that they're a sequel to the more famous film. Examples include ''{{w|Titanic II (film)|Titanic II}}'', ''{{w|Troll 2}}'', ''{{w|Troll 3}}'', the ''other'' ''{{w|Quest for the Mighty Sword|Troll 3}}'', ''{{w|Day of the Dead 2: Contagium}}'', ''{{w|Alien 2: On Earth}}'' (not to be confused with the real sequel ''{{w|Aliens (film)|Aliens}}'') and ''{{w|War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave}}''. 

Marketing wheezes have also produced some crossovers almost as unexpected as those in the comic — ''{{w|Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde}}'', ''{{w|Scooby-Doo! WrestleMania Mystery}}'' and ''{{w|Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter}}'' are all real films.

A similar setting with Cueball and Black Hat also discussing movies was seen in [[493: Actuarial]]. Back then Black Hat was still reading newspapers. Black Hat has previously given similar non-answers to long series of questions from Cueball in [[908: The Cloud]] and [[1159: Countdown]].

=== Black Hat's downloaded movies ===
{|class="wikitable"
! Title
! Explanation
|-
| ''Lorem Ipsum: The Movie'' ||  ''{{w|Lorem Ipsum}}'' are the first two words of a common block of garbled Latin filler text used by typesetters to lay out pages before real text is available.  This title implies that this movie is entirely random filler with no meaningful content, although according to the Internet Movie Database, there is a 2011 movie titled [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2032487/ Lorem Ipsum] and an unrelated [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13368250/ 2019 one].
|-
| ''Titanic XCVIII'' || The most famous  film about the ship {{w|RMS Titanic|Titanic}} is {{w|James Cameron|James Cameron's}} {{w|Titanic (1997 movie)|''Titanic''}} from 1997. But there have been {{w|List of films about the RMS Titanic|several since then}} (at least five) some of which where probably trying to cash in on the name, especially the one called ''{{w|Titanic II (film)|Titanic II}}'', which is about a ship in 2012 called ''Titanic II''. But the producers probably hoped some people would buy the DVD believing it was a sequel to the 1997 movie, a real mockbuster, originally released directly for TV. Black Hat's dialogue implies the preceding films are about at least 97 different Titanics which all sank, creating an artificial reef, and this film is about the 98th (Roman numerals XCVIII = 98) hitting that reef (rather than an iceberg). Black Hat also indicated that the series first got great when the ships began to crash into the reef, indicating that more than one film had this as the plot. He indicates that the 98th in the series (the one Cueball mentions) is one of the good, but he doesn't say that this was the first. But if it was, then they probably also reached ''Titanic C'' (C = 100 in Roman numerals), since at least [[1070: Words for Small Sets|a handful ships]] must have hit the reef to make his sentence make sense. [[1339: When You Assume|Assuming]] that the 98th was the first to hit the reef: As Titanic rests on the Atlantic sea floor at a depth of 3,784&nbsp;m (12,415&nbsp;feet), each of the previous ''Titanic''s would need to a) settle immediately on top of its predecessor and b) increase the height of the "reef" by about 40&nbsp;m (128&nbsp;feet) on average.  The original Titanic was 53 m (175 feet) tall and (assuming a and b above), the keel of the 98th ship would sink to a depth of 20&nbsp;m (65&nbsp;feet).  However, it would be impossible to stack only 97 Titanic replicas in a more than 3 km high pile in this location to reach this height.  
|-
| ''Debbie Did 9/11'' || A combination of ''{{w|Debbie Does Dallas}}'', a 1970s porn film about a cheerleader squad trying to raise money, and a {{w|9/11 conspiracy theory}}. Actual ''Debbie Does Dallas'' sequels include 5 numbered ones, two titled ''Debbie Does Dallas Again'', several with subtitles, and some parodies, unofficial sequels and spinoffs that — like the title quote here — change what Debbie does. IMDb lists, among others, ''Debbie Does Iowa'', ''Debbie Does Wall Street'', ''Debbie Does 'em All'' and ''Debbie Does Damnation''. But it is always Does and never Did. However, in this kind of movie when she does something it of course means to have sex, while {{w|September 11 attacks|9/11}} is a historical event. The assertion that she "did 9/11" is a reference to conspiracy theories attributing the 9/11 attacks to some source other than Osama bin Laden (e.g. an "inside job" designed to rally the public behind the government).
|-
| ''Time Jam: A Connecticut Huskie on King Arthur's Court'' || A combination of the novel ''{{w|A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court}}'' by {{w|Mark Twain}} and the 1996 movie ''{{w|Space Jam}}''. Mark Twain's story is one of the first {{w|time travel}} stories, while ''Space Jam'' stars {{w|Michael Jordan}} and features the {{w|Looney Tunes}} cartoon characters playing basketball against aliens. The huskie is a reference to the University of Connecticut sports teams called the {{w|Connecticut Huskies}}, most notably their basketball team.  So in this movie it is one of these Connecticut players who gets Time Jammed (rather than Space Jammed) back to the fictional {{w|King Arthur|King Arthur's}} {{w|Court (royal)|court}} in the late 5th and early 6th centuries AD. An additional basketball reference is the use of "''on'' King Arthur's Court" rather than the original "''in'' King Arthur's Court". The fact that this movie is presumably about a dog playing basketball may also be a reference to {{w|Air Bud}}.
|-
| ''Harold and Kumar Go to Howl's Moving Castle'' || A combination of ''{{w|Harold and Kumar go to White Castle}}'' — about the meandering and very adult adventures of {{w|Harold and Kumar}} (a pair of stoners) — and ''{{w|Howl's Moving Castle (film)|Howl's Moving Castle}}'' — a tender, often philosophical children's {{w|anime}} film by {{w|Hayao Miyazaki}}, based on a novel by {{w|Diana Wynne Jones}}.
|-
| ''A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates'' || This is actually {{w|A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates|a real book from 1955}} (also referenced in [[1210: I'm So Random]]) — back before scientists had access to computers that could easily generate random numbers, this book was very useful for statistics and for setting up scientific experiments. The bulk of the book is {{w|File:Random digits.png|literally just a list of numbers}} (with a preceding chapter explaining the mathematics surrounding the numbers and randomness), so there would be no movie in it except for flashing numbers on a screen. Black Hat comments that the movie came before the book, which was a {{w|novelization}} of the film. The '''title text''' says that the movie is an adaptation of Japanese version. But in the modern world 'Arabic' digits are nearly universal, so it is hard to understand how an adaptation would be different from the Japanese original, unless they used {{w|Japanese numerals}} (which are rarely used for mathematical purposes).  It is very common that great/successful Japanese movies (and other countries' great movies) get (often mediocre) American remakes, like the famous horror movie ''{{w|Ring (film)|Ring}}'' from 1998, which was remade in America as ''{{w|The Ring (2002 film)|The Ring}}'' in 2002.
|-
| ''Michael Bay's The Vagina Monologues'' || ''{{w|The Vagina Monologues}}'' is a famous play by {{w|Eve Ensler}}. It consists entirely of a series of women talking frankly about their bodies, their sexuality and their lives. There's no place in it for explosions, but {{w|Michael Bay}} (who is known especially for the modern {{w|Transformers (film series)|Transformers movies}} as well as ''{{w|The Rock (film)|The Rock}}'' and ''{{w|Armageddon (1998 film)|Armageddon}}'', and is also known for his [http://www.thewrap.com/megan-fox-quit-transformers-over-michael-bays-abuse-17614/ rather unfeminist behavior] and excessive explosions in the movies he directs) found a way. Black Hat comments that he found it good despite all those {{w|Computer-generated imagery|CGI}} explosions.
|}

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat is sitting in an armchair, with the right arm on the armrest and looking at his smartphone held in his left hand, when a voice from behind him (off-panel left) addresses him. It turns out in the next panels that it is Cueball.]
:Cueball (off-panel): Your movie folder is so ''weird''. Where do you find all this stuff?
:Black Hat: Dunno.
:Black Hat: Around.

:[In an frame-less panel Cueball is seen sitting in an office chair at a desk facing left. He is looking at Black Hat's computer while typing on the keyboard which is on a shelf lower than the regular desk surface. Black Hat replies to his queries from behind him off-panel right.]
:Cueball: ''Lorem Ipsum: The Movie?''
:Cueball: ''Titanic XCVIII?''
:Black Hat (off-panel): That series gets good when they start hitting the reef created by all the previous wrecks.

:[Cueball leans in closer to the screen.]
:Cueball: ''Debbie Did 9/11?''
:Cueball: ''Time Jam: A Connecticut Huskie on King Arthur's Court?''
:Black Hat (off-panel): Really underrated ''Space Jam'' sequel.

:[Zoom in on the scene so nothing beneath the keyboard is visible. The screen and Cueball's head almost spans the width of the panel.]
:Cueball: ''Harold and Kumar Go to Howl's Moving Castle?''
:Cueball: ''A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates?''
:Black Hat (off-panel): That's the original-the book was a novelization.

:[Back to Black Hat sitting in the chair as in the first panel, but leaning a bit further back and the arm on the armrest has been moved closer to him.]
:Cueball (off-panel): ''Michael Bay's The Vagina Monologues!?''
:Black Hat: It's pretty good, despite all the CGI explosions.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Fiction]]