"Cause and Effect Ratio: Big Trouble in Little China (1986) and Silent Hill Origins (2007)"

“I’m a reasonable guy but I’ve just experienced some unreasonable things.”
–Big Trouble in Little China

 “The following is a contributor post by the Teal Time Mage.”

Greetings, all you intrepidly inquisitive individuals! I’m the Teal Time Mage and nostalgia and mythology are my stock and trade – this is especially true for the 80s and 90s!

I’m overjoyed that the years of my childhood are getting quite the resurgence thanks to such films as Bumblebee and Captain Marvel. Video games have likewise sparked a massive interest in retro-gaming from the aforementioned eras with the release of “Classic” systems from the Nintendo, Super Nintendo, and Sony’s PlayStation – the latter of which many, including myself, are hyper-critical of – with a future Sega Genesis Classic to arrive this coming fall.

Comparing the two pop culture genres, I couldn’t help but reminisce about great movies and games I’ve witnessed over the years and it was at that moment I had an epiphany: is there a cause and effect ratio between the silver screen and the gaming world? Purely speculation on my part but I hope to find the connections, both outright and obscure, between movies and retro games with a segment I call “Videogames and the Films that May Have Inspired Them”. These segments aren’t meant to be taken as truth or fact but rather to get you, the reader, to ponder the realm of possibility. Bear in mind this article will contain spoilers aplenty so if you haven’t seen or played either of the works discussed, I highly recommend you do. I’ll just wait here with my bottle of Surge and Dunk-a-Roos… alright, in the immortal words of Mario: “Here we goooooo!”

The story of the everyday hero has permeated itself into the modern pop culture cinematic collective. Characters like John McClane, Ellen Ripley, and William Somerset exemplify the average person being thrown into the surreal and oftentimes dangerous situations that take physical and psychological damage on them. These individuals don’t try to shrug off these experiences – rather, they become irrevocably changed because of them.

One of my favorite John Carpenter films, Big Trouble in Little China, revolved around a reluctant, everyday man named Jack Burton (played by the man who rocked the best mullet in the 80s, Kurt Russell), a trucker who finds his cab stolen by an evil death cult in China Town who plan to sacrifice his friend Wang Chi’s fiancé to give eternal life to their leader Lo-Pan (legendary actor James Hong played this character, whom I consider one of the most iconic villains in cinema history). Burton himself is extremely cynical of the ordeals he goes through with little preparation and even less competence at overcoming. As he battles cultists, lightning throwing demigods, and even a monster or two, ‘ol Jack relies on his own dumb luck to survive the hellish landscape he finds himself in, proving he is the very definition of an average hero.

The concept of the everyday protagonist is no different in video game media. Beyond Good & Evil, The Last of Us, and Dead Space are examples fitting the bill, however, I feel there’s no better representation of the everyday hero than the Silent Hill series. These men and women are not Special Forces or some magically enhanced protagonist, they’re average individuals put into a nightmarish scenario they’re not only unprepared for but also severely traumatized by. Regardless, the majority of characters within the Silent Hill franchise always seem to have a personal connection to the main story, with one entry as an exception: Silent Hill: Origins.

Silent Hill: Origins serves as a prequel to the original Silent Hill game. Set seven years beforehand, the player takes on the role of Travis Grady, an average truck driver making a routine delivery passing through the town of Silent Hill. While en route, Grady almost hits the ghostly apparition of a young girl and ventures into town to make sure she’s alright. What Grady finds is a house on fire with the same little girl, Alessa Gillespie, trapped inside. Braving the flames, Grady rescues Alessa, only to pass out and mysteriously awaken at the center of town. From there, our intrepid trucker investigates the fog-ridden Silent Hill, the mysterious girl Alessa and the enigmatic residents responsible for her near death experience. The perpetrators include Dr. Michael Kaufmann and Alessa’s own mother Dahlia Gillespie. It’s a story of secret cults, repressed childhood memories and the literal dark mirror of our own reality, all the while our hero Grady keeps reflecting incredulously about his circumstances. All Grady wants is to leave town but he finds himself continuously drawn towards the horrifying ritual being planned around Alessa’s sacrifice. A regular joe swept into a sinister plot? This smacks of the average hero.

Gathering what we know of the two respective pieces, one can make the argument that Big Trouble in Little China may have inspired some of the characters and narrative of Silent Hill: Origins. Primarily framed through the journey of the average reluctant heroes, namely Jack Burton and Travis Grady, we can see a connection. In order to fully comprehend the connection, we need to compare and contrast each aspect in turn. As Jack Burton would say, “Ah, what the hell!” Let’s follow down the dual rabbit holes of the scary, the spooky and the occasionally side-splitting.

The main themes that connect John Carpenter’s film to Silent Hill: Origins lies in the story of the everyday hero. The best place to start is by examining both protagonists. Travis Grady from Silent Hill: Origins is your average trucker on a routine delivery who happens to stumble upon a supernatural experience while on the road. Flashback 20 years prior to the release of the Konami game and you find Jack Burton from Big Trouble in Little China, a trucker finishing his run and being swept into a nefarious plot by a death cult. This serves as an interesting similarity despite the two-decades gap between the Silent Hill: Origins and Big Trouble in Little China. Both truckers also show some degree of altruistic chivalry: Grady when he rescues Alessa from the burning house and Burton when he interrupts an attempted kidnapping of Chi’s fiancé at an airport. Another important facet connecting both heroes are their shared reluctance in the overall grand scheme: Burton simply wishes to find his truck, as does Grady in the joke UFO ending of Silent Hill: Origins. Grady also wishes to leave Silent Hill. Sharing more than a fondness for driving trucks and wearing auto-company baseball caps, one can make the argument that Burton may have been the inspiration for Grady. Does that mean Big Trouble in Little China could have inspired Silent Hill: Origins? Possibly. Let’s foray furthermore.

Scratching the surface of both film and game with our mutual everyday heroes, let’s examine their competition. Travis Grady’s efforts in traversing the foggy town of Silent Hill are hampered by the Order; their plan is to sacrifice Alessa in order to bring about the resurrection of their god, Samael. One can make the connection to John Carpenter’s film via Jack Burton’s run-in with the Wing Kong sect who plan to sacrifice Burton’s love interest in order to power their leader Lo-Pan with eternal youth from the god Ching Dai. Strange that both groups of antagonists are centered around cults who plan on bringing about a sacrifice in order to attain immortal power from a god.

Is there a connection between Silent Hill: Origins and Big Trouble in Little China in the case of cults? Unfortunately, I’m going to have to say no, as Silent Hill: Origins is a prequel. Released eight years after the original video game, the events experienced by Harry Mason and his adopted daughter Heather Mason from Silent Hill and Silent Hill 3 respectively flesh out the Order well in advance of the prequel game. It stands to reason that Big Trouble in Little China did not serve as an inspiration in that particular instance.

One last piece of connectivity I want to touch upon is the journey both Grady and Burton undertake in order to see if there’s any cause and effect. Grady searches Silent Hill in order to find Alessa and make sure she’s alright. Along the way, Grady visits a sanitarium, theater and a hotel. While he progresses through Silent Hill, Grady suffers traumatic flashbacks to his childhood, culminating in him battling monstrous constructs of his parents and confronting his own inner darkness in the form of “the Butcher” (more like a Pyramid Head wannabe if you ask me). On the film side, Jack Burton merely fumbles around in China Town with his only thought centered on finding his truck. Burton suffers no psychological trauma during his venture nor does the plot go into any of his backstory as opposed to Grady. It seems doubtful Big Trouble in Little China inspired Silent Hill: Origins in terms of plot or narrative as the character arcs are too different.

In conclusion, I’d say Big Trouble in Little China didn’t serve as inspiration for Silent Hill: Origins. An extremely entertaining film but not one I’d say evokes a feeling of cause and effect with its Silent Hill: Origins counterpart. The aesthetic of an everyday hero stumbling onto a supernatural plot shows a strong correlation between Travis Grady and Jack Burton but that’s where the similarities end. Silent Hill: Origins already had a cult established well in advance without showing any outward signs of similarity with Big Trouble in Little China – which lacks any sense of backstory for Burton as opposed to Silent Hill: Origins‘ portrayal of Grady. Both super-cool truckers fighting evil but not much more than that sadly.

Final Rating: Unlikely

Thanks, guys, which Game/Film Combo would you like to see next month?

Working on my next article for @theWellRedMage entitled
"The Cause and Effect Ratio"
This segment will analyze the hypothetical correlation between videogames and the films that may have inspired them. Here's a poll for next month's videogame topics for anyone interested.

— Time Rune Bearer🔜 PAX East (@ArosElric) August 11, 2019

The Teal Time Mage lives at a fixed point in time that is set between 1991 and 1997. Outside of his time vortex of nostalgia, he writes horror short stories, cosplays, and coordinates for various charity groups. Find him on Twitter @ArosElric, on Facebook @ArosElricCosplay, on Final Fantasy XIV’s Cactuar Server under the name “Aros Erlic”.

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