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The Philadelphia Experiment (1984)

 
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Bogmeister
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 01, 2019 2:48 pm    Post subject: The Philadelphia Experiment (1984) Reply with quote

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__________ The Philadelphia Experiment (1984)


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Ever heard of the Manhattan Project? Well, here's the even more radical Philadelphia Experiment.

In 1943, a test was conducted on one of the U.S. ships to make it invisible to the enemy (Germany), i.e. to radar. Only a few were 'in the know' — all the Navy sailors were unaware of the nature of the experiment. However, the experiment went one step further — the ship disappeared completely.

Two of the sailors aboard (Michael Pare and Bobby DiCicco) jumped overboard when things started to go haywire. They fall through a time warp — yep, it's a time travel tale.

This is the reverse of the earlier The Final Countdown (1980), in which an entire ship and crew go back to 1941. The two sailors in this one end up in the middle of the Nevada desert; it's only hours later that they find out "when" they are — in 1984 — from a modern woman (Nancy Allen) that they hook up with.

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This film is based on the urban legend about the U.S. Battleship Eldridge, which was brought into Delaware Bay in 1943 to ostensibly conduct "Degaussing" experiments. This refers to the neutralization of magnetic lines, so that the ship would be invisible to underwater mines.

As with all such legends, the story expanded from there, until it includes the possible disappearance of the ship. In this film, one of the two sailors is ill and, while in a hospital room, he dematerializes. This leaves the one (Pare) on the run from modern military forces while a strange superstorm escalates — this is a direct effect of the time rift which has stayed open because the scientist in charge has started a new experiment in 1984.

The remaining sailor seeks out his buddy, who had returned to 1943 and is now an old man, haunted by the events of 1943. He doesn't want to speak with his old friend, who must eventually save the day by returning to his old ship and turning off the generator.

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Though this has a rather grisly moment near the conclusion — showing sailors halfway materialized on the ship's deck — it's mostly inoffensive, an old-fashioned and simplistic adventure. As to be expected, the better moments are when the two sailors are wandering in a rather alien landscape and later finding out that they are in the wrong time. Those moments all recall the old Twilight Zone episodes.

There was a sequel in 1993, but none of the actors from this 1984 film returned. There was also a remake in 2012 for SyFy TV with Michael Pare.

BoG's Score: 6.5 out of 10

Trivia Experiment: The sf/horror film playing on the TV in the diner and which shocks one of the sailors is Humanoids From the Deep (1980).



BoG
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 01, 2020 2:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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IMDB has several interesting trivia items for this production. Very Happy
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~ This film is widely believed to be based on a real-life and ill-fated experiment with invisibility and force fields in the 1940s. However, to the best of any factual knowledge, no such experiment ever occurred, and the story was the work of an eccentric loner, Carl Allen, who sent notes on the "experiment" to the government in the 1950s, and whose story was later leaked.

Despite the lack of any factual evidence, the story has become an urban legend, and favorite of conspiracy theorists, who point to the lack of evidence as proof that it's being covered up.


Note from me: I don't know if this movie would have been better if the premise had been handled better, to me it was as dull as Navy training film about personal hygiene. Sad

~ At the time of its release, it had the fastest theatrical-to-video window in film history (it opened in August and was released on video by late October).

Note from me: Apparently I wasn't the only one who didn't think this movie was another Citizen Kane. Rolling Eyes

~ Stewart Rafill re-wrote the screenplay so that a love story developed between the characters David (Michael Paré) and Alison (Nancy Allen). Rafill also removed a lot of scientific dialogue concerning explanations for the why and how of the time travel element of the film.

Note from me: I suspect the movie might have been better with a little more sci-fi and little less hanky panky. Besides, I'm sure the film didn't make good use of Miss Allen's charms the way Dress to Kill and 1941 did. Laughing

~ The town showing the destruction of buildings was shot in Utah. The city needed funds to help pay for a new sewage system, so Stewart Rafill purchased a block of run-down, abandoned buildings and had his special effects team blow it up for the film.

Note from me: Clever! Don't build miniature buildings and then blow them up. Just buy real buildings . . . and blow them up!

~ The U.S. Navy did not support the making of the film, as it did not wish to be associated with the allegedly true events surrounding the events of Philadelphia Experiment.

Note from me: This is clear evidence that the Philadelphia Experiment DID happen! A complete lack of evidence means the Navy is covering it up! Shocked

~ The original script had more incidents that demonstrated David's newness to arriving in the new time period. Stewart Rafill toned down these elements, to concentrate more on the two central characters.

Note from me: Again, more hanky panky which mreplaced the sci-fi. Rolling Eyes

~ While the stories are generally hearsay, one of the more likely alternative theories of what may have morphed into the so-called "Philadelphia Experiment" is noted in the Wikipedia entry: "Researcher Jacques Vallée describes a procedure on board USS Engstrom, which was docked alongside the Eldridge in 1943.

The operation involved the generation of a powerful electromagnetic field on board the ship in order to deperm or degauss it, with the goal of rendering the ship undetectable or "invisible" to magnetically fused undersea mines and torpedoes.

This system was invented by a Canadian, Charles F. Goodeve, when he held the rank of commander in the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve, and the Royal Navy and other navies used it widely during World War II.


Note from me: This sounds like it was written by somebody who knows what he's taking about. I looked up the definition of degauss and found this.
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"To remove unwanted magnetism from devices like a television or monitors in order to correct color disturbance."
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That peaked my curiosity, so I found a Wikipedia article about magnet mines, which were invented in — get this — World War I! The following is an excerpt form the Wikipedia article.
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The British experienced a stroke of luck in November 1939, when a German mine was dropped from an aircraft onto the mud flats off Shoeburyness during low tide.

Additionally, the land belonged to the army and a base with men and workshops was at hand. Experts were dispatched from HMS Vernon to investigate the mine.

The Royal Navy knew that mines could use magnetic sensors, Britain having developed magnetic mines in World War I, so everyone removed all metal, including their buttons, and made tools of non-magnetic brass.

They disarmed the mine and rushed it to the labs at HMS Vernon, where scientists discovered that the mine had a magnetic arming mechanism.

A large ferrous object passing through the Earth's magnetic field will concentrate the field through it, The mine's detector was designed to trigger as a ship passed over, when the Earth's magnetic field was concentrated in the ship and away from the mine.

The mine detected this loss of the magnetic field, which caused it to detonate. The mechanism had an adjustable sensitivity, calibrated in milligauss. The U.S. began adding delay counters to their magnetic mines in June 1945
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Good Lord, I thought that mines had to be struck by a ship to detonate, like a bomb hitting the ground! I didn't know the damn things could "sense" a ship passing over them because of a change in the Earth's magnetic field!

Add to this the idea that the Navy conducted experiments to degauss (partially demagnetize) their ships so that they were "invisible" to these mine when they passed over them.

Frankly I find this whole idea much more interesting than a lot of bogus crap about an experiment involving "invisibility and force fields" back in the 1940s which ended up causing time travel! Rolling Eyes

Clearly this is an example of fact being more amazing then fiction.

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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