Would FTL make a good movie?

[Dragonexx]

Basically what the title says. In FTL: Faster than Light you play a ship carrying crucial information on the rebellion and you need to deliver it to the federation while being constantly pursued by the rebel fleet. You jump from beacon to beacon, and have random encounters that may help or hinder you. You might have to make difficult decisions depending on your resource levels and so forth.

Anyone played it, and anyone else think it might make a good film?

[Kitten Champion]

It's an intentionally generic space opera setting and basically character-less, but the basic premise would make a fine movie, sure.

[Razade]

I think the answer is that it has made a few fine movies. The plot is super standard, there are no characters and the races are as generic as generic can be. Pick a Sci-Fi movie and say it's FTL and you're not fully wrong.

[TheThan]

Yeah, it would make a good movie or a good TV show. In fact I believe it was used in a show called Stargate Universe . Only they were basically locked into a course and had to make do with a deteriorating ship.

I didn’t like SGU as much I should have because they spend too much time yelling at each other simultaneously (I hate that).

[Closet_Skeleton]

No, it would just be Star Wars except only 28 minutes long and end with the Millenium Falcon drifting through space with nothing but a crew of charred corpses.

[Tengu_temp]

No, it would just be Star Wars except only 28 minutes long and end with the Millenium Falcon drifting through space with nothing but a crew of charred corpses.

Come now, don't act like FTL is super hard. After you play it a few times and get a good grasp, you should be able to win more often than you lose. I'm pretty sure at least 80% of my games end with victory at this point. More than 90% with Human Cruiser 2.

In any case. Would it make a good movie? Maybe. Execution matters more than idea when it comes to creating good stories. Do note that most video game movies sucked so far, though.

[Yora]

"Transport ship gets hunted by rebel ships who try to disable and board it before it reaches friendly space." Seems like a pretty solid base to build a story on. Lots of space battles and boarding action. Maybe add an asteroid field to try to lose pursuers and a big battle at the end when a Federation Sector Patrol arrives to protect the transport, and it shouldn't be too hard to fill 120 minutes.

The key would probably be not to try to shoehorn in some romance subplot or a characters troubled past but keep it all about stuff blowing up in space.

[Rodin]

The Wing Commander book End Run is basically FTL. Small group of ships, hit and run fighting against a large enemy fleet, patchwork repairs scavenged off enemy ships...

Heck, the latest Mad Max movie is basically FTL on motorbikes.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

So....Farscape? Especially Season 2?

[BRC]

As others have said, it's deliberately generic.
So yeah, it could make a fine movie, once you included characters, dramatic arcs, and some better worldbuilding.

Even within the game mechanics themselves, there is plenty of room for drama.

The Rebels were once part of the Federation. In fact, by the time the game starts they've almost totally overwhelmed the Federation. Clearly, whatever cause the Rebels had, it was popular, at least among the military.

The game encourages ruthlessness. Usually, you get better rewards for destroying enemy ships than accepting surrenders. Enemy ships range from rebel fighters, to pirates, to alien soldiers attacking out of panic. Yet, the game encourages you to blast them out of the sky and loot the charred husk of their ship for scrap parts.

Depending on the ship you start with, you're probably a federation ship. This means that you're main enemies, the rebels, were previously your comrades in arms. Is the fleet pursuing you being led by your old commanding officer? That rebel boarder that you just watched suffocate on the other side of a sealed door, did he once save your life from Mantis raiders? Is one of those raiders on your crew right now?


The story begins with the ship underarmed and weak, barely escaping the rebellion fleet. By the time they reach the final battle, it's a patchwork monstrosity of technologies from half a dozen different cultures (Remember, you're not just picking up new weapons and components. Everytime you use your scrap to upgrade your ship, you're boosting your systems by patching in parts from other ships). It's been almost destroyed and rebuilt three times. A bulky Engi reactor feeds power to a Rock laser battery. A cloaking field bought off some pirates. Part of ship shows the elegant curves of the Zoltan, where a zoltan shipyard converted part of the ship into a drone factory.

Finally, our ship, now the most powerful thing in what is left of the Federation's fleet, turns to face The Flagship, a massive, overpowering symbol of the Rebellion's obsession with militarism and advanced weapons technology.

[T-O-E]

There's not a lot of depth in FTL but what there is, they let you figure it out for yourself. One example that come to mind are the Rebels being human supremacists (because only humans are on their ships) compared to the more diverse Federation. I mean it's called the federation.

It's baffling when you come across a slug ship because the oxygen room is disconnected from the main ship so you can just destroy that and wait for the enemy crew to die from asphyxiation. The lore reason for what seems like hilariously bad design is that the culturally traitorous slugs don't want fellow crew-members to sabotage the oxygen and jump ship.

The one thing that really sets it apart from something like Star Wars is just reversing the roles of the empire and the rebels.

[Seppl]

The story begins with the ship underarmed and weak, barely escaping the rebellion fleet. By the time they reach the final battle, it's a patchwork monstrosity of technologies from half a dozen different cultures (Remember, you're not just picking up new weapons and components.
The problem is: The in-between is not very interesting. It is just encounter after encounter after encounter with no dramatic structure. That would work for a serialized show (or probably even a procedural one), but not a movie.

[Kitten Champion]

Do note that most video game movies sucked so far, though.

That's because they've been setting the stage for the Tetris movie. It's providence, it is.

[BRC]

The problem is: The in-between is not very interesting. It is just encounter after encounter after encounter with no dramatic structure. That would work for a serialized show (or probably even a procedural one), but not a movie.

Well yeah, but you can turn it into a highlight reel.


Let's give it five Action Setpieces, deviating from the exact game mechanics a bit.

Open with the Ship escaping the Rebel Fleet. They are being pursued by a group of auto-scouts.

The second setpiece involves a fight against a group of Slavers. Their ship is badly damaged, but their weapons are still functional and they pick up a new crewmember. In the end, they decide to spare the Slavers, rather than destroy them (And by doing so kill all the innocent slaves in their cargo hold).

The crewmember they get is an Engi. He is able to repair their ship (Giving it a bit of an Engi look), upgrading it's shields and giving them a drone bay.

The third battle takes place at Icarus Beacon, which has drifted too close to a star. They're up against a Rock Cruiser, which accuses them of being scouts for the Rebel fleet (as the Rocks see it, the Rebels are just the Federation showing their true colors). As both ships get wracked by solar flares, the Rocks teleport over a boarding party.
Then, the Rebels arrive. This finally convinces the Rockmen that the federation ship is not lying. The surviving Rock boarder goes into the burning engine room to repair the FTL Drive, meanwhile, the Rock ships rams the Rebel frigate. The Rock ship, already damaged, is destroyed. The Rebel ship is too damaged to keep fighting, and tries to limp away from the star. The Federation cruiser destroys it, scooping up the Rock's Missiles system on the way. "A mercy killing" they say. "They would never get their FTL working, better they die cleanly then burn to death".

Finally, you have the Zoltan. A Zoltan patrol ship contacts the federation ships, saying they are in violation of Zoltan space, and will be taken in for questioning.
There has been a character arc of desperation this entire time, with the ship's crew more and more willing to have the ends justify the means. The Zoltan patrol ship stops them, the Fed crew decides that their mission is too important, as they're debating
"We can't fight the Zoltan, they're our allies"
"They were our allies. The Federation will be too DEAD to have ANY allies if we don't complete our mission."
"Sir, the Zoltan ship is powering up a beam weapon. GLAIVE Class!"
"OPEN FIRE! We need to drop that shield of theirs before they can bring that Glaive beam to bear!"

They end up fighting in an Asteroid field, we get a nice cinematic battle of the Fed ship using Asteroids to wear down Zoltan shields and block the Glaive beam, returning fire with lasers and missiles. Eventually, the Zoltan ship is stranded, powerless except for that being generated by the Zoltan themselves. They have a choice, approach the Zoltan ship and tow it out of the asteroid field, risking the Zoltan throwing the last of their power into a blast with the Glaive Beam, or leave the Zoltan to be smashed by the asteroids.

The captain decides to rescue the patrol boat, dragging it out of the Asteroid field. The crew search it, finding the surviving crewmembers unconscious, having exhausted themselves pouring their energy into the life support system.
"Captain, they're alive, but badly injured. Should we take them onboard?"
"Negative Lieutenant. They're enemy combatants. Leave a distress beacon and return to the ship."
"But Captain, why did we go through all that trouble of saving them?"
"...it wasn't them I needed to save"
Cut to the Engie installing the Zoltan GLAIVE beam onto the fed ship.


Finally, they reach the Federation fleet, where their battered craft limps in on the last of it's power. Most of the ship is full of holes, with the crew huddling in the cockpit and engine room. They meet with the Fed fleet and hand over the the intel about the rebel flagship. The Fed admiral looks at the plans and says "It's no good. It will take everything we have just too hold off the rest of their fleet. We don't have anything with enough firepower to dent that monster".
Cut to the battered hull of the Federation ship, currently undergoing repairs by a swarm of drones. "Maybe we do."

Then we see the repeat of the opening shot of the movie. This time, instead of the Federation ship being chased by auto-scouts, it's leading a fleet of federation fighters. Also, it's basically unrecognizable, a patchwork of various ships. The orange scaled design of the rock missile battery, and the green Zoltan beam weapon stick out awkwardly. Additional engines and shield generators dot the exterior of the ship. The fleet's clash, the Fed ship ducks between Rebels and attacks the flagship.

We then get the showdown with the flagship as the final battle.

[Derthric]

Well yeah, but you can turn it into a highlight reel.


Let's give it five Action Setpieces, deviating from the exact game mechanics a bit.

Open with the Ship escaping the Rebel Fleet. They are being pursued by a group of auto-scouts.

The second setpiece involves a fight against a group of Slavers. Their ship is badly damaged, but their weapons are still functional and they pick up a new crewmember. In the end, they decide to spare the Slavers, rather than destroy them (And by doing so kill all the innocent slaves in their cargo hold).

The crewmember they get is an Engi. He is able to repair their ship (Giving it a bit of an Engi look), upgrading it's shields and giving them a drone bay.

The third battle takes place at Icarus Beacon, which has drifted too close to a star. They're up against a Rock Cruiser, which accuses them of being scouts for the Rebel fleet (as the Rocks see it, the Rebels are just the Federation showing their true colors). As both ships get wracked by solar flares, the Rocks teleport over a boarding party.
Then, the Rebels arrive. This finally convinces the Rockmen that the federation ship is not lying. The surviving Rock boarder goes into the burning engine room to repair the FTL Drive, meanwhile, the Rock ships rams the Rebel frigate. The Rock ship, already damaged, is destroyed. The Rebel ship is too damaged to keep fighting, and tries to limp away from the star. The Federation cruiser destroys it, scooping up the Rock's Missiles system on the way. "A mercy killing" they say. "They would never get their FTL working, better they die cleanly then burn to death".

Finally, you have the Zoltan. A Zoltan patrol ship contacts the federation ships, saying they are in violation of Zoltan space, and will be taken in for questioning.
There has been a character arc of desperation this entire time, with the ship's crew more and more willing to have the ends justify the means. The Zoltan patrol ship stops them, the Fed crew decides that their mission is too important, as they're debating
"We can't fight the Zoltan, they're our allies"
"They were our allies. The Federation will be too DEAD to have ANY allies if we don't complete our mission."
"Sir, the Zoltan ship is powering up a beam weapon. GLAIVE Class!"
"OPEN FIRE! We need to drop that shield of theirs before they can bring that Glaive beam to bear!"

They end up fighting in an Asteroid field, we get a nice cinematic battle of the Fed ship using Asteroids to wear down Zoltan shields and block the Glaive beam, returning fire with lasers and missiles. Eventually, the Zoltan ship is stranded, powerless except for that being generated by the Zoltan themselves. They have a choice, approach the Zoltan ship and tow it out of the asteroid field, risking the Zoltan throwing the last of their power into a blast with the Glaive Beam, or leave the Zoltan to be smashed by the asteroids.

The captain decides to rescue the patrol boat, dragging it out of the Asteroid field. The crew search it, finding the surviving crewmembers unconscious, having exhausted themselves pouring their energy into the life support system.
"Captain, they're alive, but badly injured. Should we take them onboard?"
"Negative Lieutenant. They're enemy combatants. Leave a distress beacon and return to the ship."
"But Captain, why did we go through all that trouble of saving them?"
"...it wasn't them I needed to save"
Cut to the Engie installing the Zoltan GLAIVE beam onto the fed ship.


Finally, they reach the Federation fleet, where their battered craft limps in on the last of it's power. Most of the ship is full of holes, with the crew huddling in the cockpit and engine room. They meet with the Fed fleet and hand over the the intel about the rebel flagship. The Fed admiral looks at the plans and says "It's no good. It will take everything we have just too hold off the rest of their fleet. We don't have anything with enough firepower to dent that monster".
Cut to the battered hull of the Federation ship, currently undergoing repairs by a swarm of drones. "Maybe we do."

Then we see the repeat of the opening shot of the movie. This time, instead of the Federation ship being chased by auto-scouts, it's leading a fleet of federation fighters. Also, it's basically unrecognizable, a patchwork of various ships. The orange scaled design of the rock missile battery, and the green Zoltan beam weapon stick out awkwardly. Additional engines and shield generators dot the exterior of the ship. The fleet's clash, the Fed ship ducks between Rebels and attacks the flagship.

We then get the showdown with the flagship as the final battle.

*slowclap*

Make the slavers Mantis. Though a Nebula engagement with the Slugs, and Mind Control should at least be a deleted scene.

But I think FTL's plot, or rather bare bones use of one is why this question works so well for it. The nitty gritty details of characters are filled in our heads when our little repair team is racing to try and get the oxygen systems back online or desperately tangling with a mantis in the medbay, etc. But as BRC showed you could absolutely adapt it to a movie. Just need the right people.

[Rodin]

I think a serialized show would work really well. Start an episode with a fight, and then the rest of the episode is them patching up things. Another episode would be the problems with trying to re-fuel from a Slug that's planted bombs on the ship to blackmail them. The decision on how to send the crew in to deal with the giant alien spiders. Finding a pirate ship trapped in the rocks - do they set them free, or blow the ship apart for the salvage?

There's been a few shows with the same basic premise. Voyager was dealing with the baggage of being a Trek show and had writers that were running out of ideas. Battlestar Galactica had the large fleet following them, but the universe itself was too empty for exciting encounters so it fell back on political/personal drama. Stargate Universe suffered from trying to copy BSG instead of doing the world-exploring that made SG-1 so fun.

I'd love to see a show with a crew that is at least somewhat harmonious. All this gritty "everybody on board hates each other" is getting rather old. You can still have character drama, but the focus should be on the setting. An FTL setup would also allow for killing off characters. It's a small crew, so there are no Redshirts. One week a character gets munched by the Alien Spiders, the next week there's a tense confrontation with slavers and one of the slaves winds up joining the crew.

Damn, I really want to watch this now. Too bad space-going Sci-Fi on TV is deader than disco.