Introduction

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is a 2004 American science fiction action-adventure film written and directed by Kerry Conran in his directorial debut, and produced by Jon Avnet, Sadie Frost, Jude Law and Marsha Oglesby.

The film stars Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Angelina Jolie.

It is an example of “Ottensian” (pre-WWII) dieselpunk.

Outline

In a technologically-advanced 1939, the zeppelin Hindenburg III moors itself atop the Empire State Building. Aboard the airship is Dr. Jorge Vargas, a scientist who arranges for a package containing two vials to be delivered to Dr. Walter Jennings. The courier looks back while leaving with the vials, to see that Dr. Vargas has vanished.

Polly Perkins, a reporter for The Chronicle, is looking into the disappearances of Vargas and five other renowned scientists. A cryptic message leads her to Radio City Music Hall, against the warnings of her editor, Mr. Paley, where she meets Dr. Jennings during a showing of The Wizard of Oz. He tells her that a Dr. Totenkopf is coming for him next. Suddenly, seemingly indestructible robots attack the city. Clearly outmatched, the authorities call for “Sky Captain” Joe Sullivan, the city’s hero and Perkins’ ex-lover and the commander of the private air force the Flying Legion.

While Joe engages the robots with his modified Curtiss P-40 pursuit fighter, Perkins photographs from the street with little regard for her personal safety. He eventually manages to disable one robot; the rest leave thereafter. News reports show similar attacks around the globe. The disabled robot is taken back to the Legion’s air base so that technology expert Dex can examine it. Polly follows and convinces Joe to reluctantly let her in on the investigation. Her information takes them to the ransacked laboratory of a dying Dr. Jennings, while an assassin escapes. Just before he dies, Jennings gives Polly the two vials and states that they are crucial to Totenkopf’s plans. Polly hides the vials and withholds the information from Joe. They return to the Legion’s base just before it comes under attack from squadrons of ornithopter drones. Dex tracks the origin of the signal controlling the drones and notes it on a map before his capture.

Joe and Polly find Dex’s map and fly to Nepal and then Tibet, where they discover an abandoned mining outpost and meet up with Joe’s old friend Kaji. Two guides working for Totenkopf force Polly to turn over the vials, locking the duo in a room full of dynamite. Joe and Polly manage to escape just before the room explodes, knocking them unconscious and destroying most of Polly’s film. They wake up together in the mythical Shangri-La. The Tibetan-speaking monks there tell of Totenkopf’s enslavement of their people, forcing them to work in the uranium mines. Most were killed by the radiation, but the final survivor provides a clue to where Dr. Totenkopf is hiding. With insufficient fuel to make it there, they run into a Royal Navy flying aircraft carrier commanded by another of Joe’s ex-flames, Commander Franky Cook.

Franky leads the attack on Totenkopf’s island lair while Joe and Polly enter through an underwater inlet. Joe and Polly find themselves on an island with dinosaur-like creatures, which Polly hesitates to photograph as she has only two shots left. They find a secret subterranean facility in a mountain, where robots are loading animals, as well as the mysterious vials, onto a large “Noah’s Ark” rocket. Joe and Polly are detected but Dex, piloting a flying barge, arrives with three of the missing scientists. One of the missing scientists explains that Totenkopf has given up on humanity and seeks to start the world over again: the “World of Tomorrow”. The vials are genetic material for a new Adam and Eve. Sky Captain says they should just let Totenkopf go but Dex states that they can’t; if the rocket reaches space, the afterburners will ignite the atmosphere and kill everyone on Earth.

As the group attempts to enter Dr. Totenkopf’s lair, one scientist is electrocuted by the defence system. A hologram of Totenkopf appears, speaking about his hate for humanity and his plans to rebuild it as a new master race. Dex disables the defences and the group discovers Totenkopf’s mummified corpse inside with a scrap of paper clutched in his hand: “forgive me”. He had died 20 years prior, but his machines continued his plan. Joe decides to sabotage the rocket from the inside while the others escape. Polly tries to tag along, but Joe kisses her and then knocks her out. Polly recovers, following Joe and saving him from Dr. Jennings’ assassin, a female robot. Joe and Polly then board the rocket. Before the rocket reaches 100 km, when its second stage is scheduled to fire and thereby incinerate the Earth, Polly pushes an emergency button that ejects all the animals in escape pods. Joe tries to disable the rocket only to be interrupted by the same assassin robot. He jolts the robot with its electric weapon and then uses it on the controls, disabling the rocket. Joe and Polly use the last pod to save themselves as the rocket safely explodes.

Joe and Polly watch the animal pods splash down around their escape pod, while Commander Cook leads a group of flying aircraft carriers towards them. Polly then uses the last shot on her camera to take a picture of Joe rather than the animal pods. Joe grins and says: “Polly – lens cap.”

Trivia

• Conran spent four years making a black and white teaser with a bluescreen set up in his living room and using a Macintosh IIci.
• He was able to show it to Avnet, who was so impressed that Avnet spent two years working with him on his screenplay.
• No major studio was interested, but Avnet convinced Aurelio De Laurentiis to finance Sky Captain without a distribution deal (a worldwide distribution deal would later happen with Paramount Pictures).
• Almost 100 digital artists, modellers, animators, and compositors created the multi-layered 2D and 3D backgrounds for the live-action footage, while the entire film was sketched out via hand-drawn storyboards and then re-created as CG animatics.
• Ten months prior to shooting the live action scenes, Conran first shot them with stand-ins in Los Angeles, then converted that footage to animatics so the actors could accurately envision the film.
• Despite being a box office bomb, generating only $58 million at the box office on a $70 million budget, Sky Captain received largely positive reviews, particularly for the style of filming that was used; some criticism was directed at the plot and characterisation.
• The film has since gained a following and is regarded as a cult classic.
• It was one of the first major films, along with Casshern (2004) and Immortal and Sin City (2005), to be shot entirely on a “digital backlot”, blending actors with CG surroundings.

Production & Filming Details

• Director(s): Kerry Conran.
• Producer(s): Jon Avnet, Sadie Frost, Jude Law, and Marsha Oglesby.
• Writer(s): Kerry Conran.
• Music: Edward Shaermur.
• Cinematography: Eric Adkins.
• Editor(s): Sabrina Pilsco.
• Production: Filmauro, Brooklyn Films, and Natural Nylon.
• Distributor(s): Paramount Pictures.
• Release Date: 17 September 2004.
• Running Time: 106 minutes.
• Country: US.
• Language: English.