The author of this article is @NorthS of the Xiaowan family
Find everyone's spiritual nook in the movie
With a box office of more than 800 million and a Douban score of 8.3 in three days of release, "The Wandering Earth 2" continues to maintain the popularity of Chinese-style sci-fi blockbusters.
Whether it's the fall of a space elevator or a shocking solar storm or moon detonation, "The Wandering Earth 2" continues the excellent visual effects while once again celebrating the courage and belief of human beings in the face of crisis.
As a prequel, "The Wandering Earth 2" not only explains the ins and outs of the "Wandering Earth Project", but also completes the world view of the entire series and lays important foreshadowing such as artificial intelligence for the sequel.
So today's [2023 Spring Festival Movie Feature Series] Part 7, let Xiao Wan help you dig out the details & Easter eggs in "The Wandering Earth 2", and see the small ideas buried by these main creators, have you found them all?
Hint ahead: This article involves spoilers, and it is better to read after watching the movie
Space elevator
In The Wandering Earth 2, the most impressive building is the man-made "steel behemoth" space elevator that stretches for 90,000 kilometers.
This cosmic highway that stretches from the surface to outer space is also the first time it has appeared in a Chinese-language movie.
The concept of a space elevator was proposed by Tsiolkovsky, the founder of modern astronautics, and has been appearing in various science fiction novels ever since.
In particular, the science fiction giant Asimov's "Fountain of Heaven" also elaborates on the construction process of the space elevator.
Director Guo Fan once said after filming the elevator scene in the movie "The Wandering Earth 1" that he never wanted to film the elevator scene again.
However, in order to satisfy the audience's imagination of the wonders of science fiction movies, he finally decided to rise to the challenge and challenge the more difficult and special effects of the space elevator.
Soar long shots
Shortly after the beginning of "The Wandering Earth 1", Guo Fan used a special effects composite soaring long shot to take us to see the full picture and grandeur of the planetary engine little by little.
This time, when showing the space elevator, Guo Fan once again used the same technique, and the audience followed the camera all the way to the sky at high speed, and the visual effects were equally shocking.
A tribute to "One Hundred Years of Solitude"
There is also a tribute Easter egg about the space elevator. When the space elevator car returns to the atmosphere, the power of heat combustion through ice friction (called "ice shield" in the film) impressed the audience.
Director Guo Fan said that this idea originated from Asimov's novel, and also paid tribute to the late literary master García Márquez's line in "One Hundred Years of Solitude": "Ice is the greatest invention in our world." ”
A tribute to "2001: A Space Odyssey"
For all sci-fi films, paying tribute to "2001: A Space Odyssey" seems to have become some kind of reserved program, and the "The Wandering Earth" series is no exception.
In the first part, the shape of the artificial intelligence robot MOSS pays tribute to the HAL 900 in "A Space Odyssey".
In the CINITY version of "The Wandering Earth 2", the original data of the "Digital Life Project" is also like a mysterious black stone tablet, both of which have the meaning of "unknown fear".
In addition, does the "human femur" trailer of "The Wandering Earth 2" also mirror the ape-man who hit the ground with a bone at the beginning of "2001: A Space Odyssey"?
"Three-Body Problem" terrier
As a big-screen movie adapted from Liu Cixin's novel, the "Wandering Earth" series will naturally not miss the opportunity to pay tribute to Da Liu's classic work "The Three-Body Problem".
In the previous work, Lieutenant Colonel Liu Peiqiang ordered "Forward Three" to set sail at full speed to rush to the target, which paid tribute to the "Natural Selection, Forward Four" shouted by Zhang Beihai in "Three-Body Problem 2: Dark Forest"! ”
And in the "MOSS trailer" of "The Wandering Earth 2", the artificial intelligence MOSS said: "The biggest obstacle to survival is never weakness, but arrogance" also pays tribute to the novel "Three-Body 3: Death Eternal" of the same name.
Li Xuejian's voice repair
Old drama bone Li Xuejian returns to "The Wandering Earth 2", there are many scenes, and there are many speech paragraphs
However, due to the damage to the vocal cords caused by teacher Li Xuejian's throat surgery, it is difficult to pronounce speech and it is difficult to bite clearly.
In order to make Li Xuejian's lines clearer, the "Wandering Earth 2" team listened to the opinions of netizens and used AI technology to repair the voice. The dialogue we hear in the movie today is the perfect restoration of Mr. Li Xuejian's voice by AI.
Wu Jing Andy Lau regains his youth
The story of "The Wandering Earth 2" spans nearly 40 years, in order to better show the arc of the characters, the production team used post-production technology to let the two starring Wu Jing and Andy Lau "return to 18 years old".
So we have the opportunity to see the young and handsome Hua Zi and the immature Wu Jing, and we can also see their appearance after being eroded by the years, all of which are the credit of technology.
Mirror coincident
In Tu Hengyu's story line, the director uses many mirror elements to express his spiritual contradictions and inner divisions.
For example, when Tu Hengyu broke into the main control room to upload his daughter's memory, he used a broken mirror image;
Liu Peiqiang looked in the mirror when interviewing astronauts, and his facial contours also overlapped with Tu Hengyu, and the fates of the two fathers were intertwined
Han Duoduo
In the two "The Wandering Earth", two different Han Duoduo appeared.
Han Duoduo in "The Wandering Earth 2" is played by Wang Zhi, she is Liu Peiqiang's wife and the daughter of Han Ziang (played by Wu Mengda);
The Han Duoduo in the previous work is played by Zhao Jinmai, an orphan rescued by Han Ziang in a rescue fourteen years ago. In honor of his deceased daughter, the old man gave the little girl his daughter's name.
The food of the future
In The Wandering Earth 1, the main source of protein for humans is earthworms.
Therefore, the protagonist Liu Qi and his sister Duoduo will encounter the new product "durian flavored dried earthworms" in the dungeon, and grandpa Han Ziang also gave "dried aged earthworms" when he gave gifts to officials.
In "The Wandering Earth 2", people's favorite food has become mosquito cakes, and a cake is made of 500,000 mosquitoes, once again reflecting the lack of food in the future.
"Wounded" Shanghai
In the previous game, we saw the ruined "2044 Shanghai Olympic Building" and the frozen Oriental Pearl through the perspective of the ground troops.
In "The Wandering Earth 2", Shanghai has once again become the focus, and it is also Han Duoduo's hometown.
At the ignition ceremony of a star engine, we saw Shanghai, which had been swallowed up by floods, and only towering landmarks such as the World Financial Center, Jin Mao Tower, and the Oriental Pearl were still above the water.
Han Duoduo, who was seriously ill, had a wish before his death to return to his hometown in Shanghai and sit on the balcony of the old house again to see his hometown
Classic lines reproduced
At the beginning of the first part, the movie explains the background of the story with simple and shocking lines:
"At first, no one cared about this disaster, it was just a wildfire, a drought, the extinction of a species, the disappearance of a city, until this disaster was close to everyone..."
In "The Wandering Earth 2", this sentence also became the beginning of the story, and in the following story, the disasters suffered by these earths were restored.
United Nations building and peace sculpture
In the face of the unprecedented solar crisis, people living in the 2040s formed a coalition government called UEG, and their building is actually the United Nations Headquarters building in Manhattan, New York, New York.
It seems that no matter how many years have passed, the United Nations Headquarters building still marks "international territory, permanent neutrality".
At the same time, there is also a sculpture with a knotted barrel flashing in the film.
In reality, it stands in the square of the public entrance to the United Nations Headquarters, gifted by Luxembourg in 1988
The curved and knotted barrel expresses the yearning for non-violence and the call for peace throughout the world. This sculpture is also close to the theme of The Wandering Earth 2.
Wu Jing's signature move
In the selection of the navigator, Liu Peiqiang, played by Wu Jing, met the beautiful and moving Han Duoduo and began a long journey of pursuit.
During a certain mission, Liu Peiqiang took out the roses prepared in advance and posed a standard "Wu Jing-style invitation", which could not help but remind people of this photo.
Ghost in the Shell
When the space elevator was hijacked, Han Duoduo smashed the glass with a mechanical fist and rushed into the bridge, which is easily reminiscent of the 2017 live-action version of "Ghost in the Shell" starring Scarlett Johansson.
Both shots are in slow motion, highlighting the power of women.
"Halo"
Zhang Peng, played by Sha Yi, is Liu Peiqiang's master and an excellent fighter pilot.
The helmet he wears when flying a fighter jet is actually similar in shape to the helmet worn by the master chief in the well-known game "Halo".
Remembering Uncle Da
At the wedding scene of Liu Peiqiang and Han Duoduo in 2046 (this year may also be a tribute), we see a familiar figure - father Han Ziang, played by Wu Mengda.
However, this brief appearance was synthesized by post-CG. In 2021, Wu Mengda died of illness at the age of 69, and his inability to personally appear in the prequel "The Wandering Earth 2" has also become a regret in the hearts of many audiences.
In the end credits of "The Wandering Earth 2", the director also typed "This work is a work dedicated to Wu Mengda", I hope he can see this masterpiece in another world.
Ridicule Beijing housing prices
When Tu Hengyu's team was performing a mission underwater, they saw the National Stadium Bird's Nest, which had sunk to the bottom of the sea.
Through the intermediary information on the side, we were surprised to find that the house price in Beijing in the future has been as low as 500 yuan / ㎡. At this time, Tu Hengyu couldn't help but sigh: "Beijing's housing prices are finally cheaper." “
Unpeeled suit
Liu Peiqiang went to interview the space station navigator in order to win a place for his family to enter the dungeon for refuge, and the camera gave a detail, the suit he was wearing had not even removed the tag.
This suggests from the side that although he was once the hero who saved the earth (the space elevator crash), his life is also facing difficulties after the deterioration of the earth's environment, material deprivation, and his wife's continuous illness, which is really sad.
Origin of "MOSS"
The important concept involved in "The Wandering Earth 2" is the ultra-efficient 550 series artificial intelligence system.
It iterates from A to W, and the final 550W is read upside down as MOSS, which is the origin of its name, and it also has the meaning of algae plant.
The end of the film is really Easter egg
The real Easter egg at the end of the film shows that the original space elevator crisis in 2044 and the moonfall crisis in 2058 were all planned by MOSS.
Its purpose is to put mankind in crisis, so that we abandon the "digital life plan" and be forced to embark on the road of "wandering earth", because only by letting human beings go out is the real civilization.
This ending Easter egg expands the world view of the "Wandering Earth" series and the possibility of sequel stories, and if "The Wandering Earth 3" advances smoothly, it must be inseparable from this clue.