Topic: Westworld - HBO's next thingamajig

[Macphisto80]

Also, do we know what happens in turns of regeneration? The man in black has killed a ton of characters, do they respawn or something?

There was a scene in episode 2 where

Spoiler

one of them woke up on the operating table and wandered into the area where they get taken to get patched up again. They probably just stick them under one of those machines you see in the credits that grafts skin and muscle back, pump them full of blood, and then reactivate them to go back out to the park with their memories reset.

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[HighSix]

Trying to get into the story but really has just made me want a HBO Western. Reminds me of Assassins Creed in that way.

[oojason]

They pay $40,000 per day.

Tight git!

http://www.slashfilm.com/westworld-map-and-contract/ has it as $687,000 for a week on the Silver deal.

Wasn't impressed with the Butlins Sliver Room at Minehead - so may have to opt for Gold at Westworld

For Gold (for 10 people) - https://i.redd.it/malrctnkpxpx.png


Fucking Brexit - shit £to$!

[Trada]

Nolan explained the bullets.

“It’s not the guns,” Nolan said. “It’s the bullets. We thought a lot about this. In the original film, the guns won’t operate guest on guest, but we felt like the guests would want to have a more visceral experience here. So when they’re shot it has sort of the impact. They’re called simunitions. The U.S. military trains with rounds like the ones we’re talking about. But there’s a bit of an impact, a bit of a sting.

Found it odd that Teddy would shot at Ed Harris when he was away from him but not when the gun was against his head like it was against his programming then because it may harm him.

[Newman96]

Trying to get into the story but really has just made me want a HBO Western. Reminds me of Assassins Creed in that way.

I've never seen it but is that not what Deadwood is/was?

[WTF?]

Nolan explained the bullets.

“It’s not the guns,” Nolan said. “It’s the bullets. We thought a lot about this. In the original film, the guns won’t operate guest on guest, but we felt like the guests would want to have a more visceral experience here. So when they’re shot it has sort of the impact. They’re called simunitions. The U.S. military trains with rounds like the ones we’re talking about. But there’s a bit of an impact, a bit of a sting. So it’s not entirely consequence-free for the guests.”
They pay $40,000 per day.

I get the whole guns business, but what about knives? Surely there's a real risk that a guest could unwittingly use one on another guest?

[Brian Blessed]

I get the whole guns business, but what about knives? Surely there's a real risk that a guest could unwittingly use one on another guest?

The hosts have a "good Samaritan" programme, so they'll take a knife for the guests. And, of course, the guests sign waivers.


Watching Westworld is a decent enough podcast, going over each episode, and discussing the implications. They also go into the side stuff, like the Delos Westworld website, which has the waivers etc.

[oojason]

Someone on reddit has seemingly found the

Spoiler

maze - https://www.reddit.com/r/westworld/comments/5799zf/found_the_maze/ & http://imgur.com/jrZmJrc

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[Mr Mingebag Squid]

What's with the man in black? I don't understand what he's trying to achieve?

[SamAteTheRedAcid]

What's with the man in black? I don't understand what he's trying to achieve?

One man's quest to become a Johnny Cash tribute act in a world populated by robots.

[Mr Mingebag Squid]

One man's quest to become a Johnny Cash tribute act in a world populated by robots.

Ah - so he's eliminating all potential rivals?! 

[SamAteTheRedAcid]

Ah - so he's eliminating all potential rivals?! 

Yep. Season finale is him going to serenade Anthony Hopkins with 'A Boy Named Sue'

[Brian Blessed]

This show is a bit of a head fuck and I love it.

[UntouchableLuis]

Saw episode 1 last night and loved it - felt unsettled all the way through.

[Blinis]

What did you think of that third episode and of the series until now?

I can't say that I have not seen series starting stronger than Westworld. We were waiting for last episodes' events, and I can only hope that the series gets started from now on.

Anthony Hopkins is still impeccable. Each of his screen appearance is a delight. Jeffrey Wright also does a tremendous job, as we have often seen lesser actors get eaten (figuratively) by Hopkins when sharing a scene.

[Zee_26]

That third episode was brilliant at creating tension in the last 10 minutes or so. You just had that feeling that something big was going to happen to any one of the three principal storylines of the episode.

[Trada]

Really enjoyed the 3rd episode. loved they gave the couple a quit game option and offered to take them back to town before it when to the next level.

The part that really hit home for me was the whole thing about when you first wake up and for a split second everything feels ok then you remember.

Thats happens to me all the time but could have added when you go to bed at night you realise that first split second was the best part of the day.

[Redcap]

What's with the man in black? I don't understand what he's trying to achieve?

I suspect it'll have something to do with the big picture stuff Theresa and Lee were talking about in the first episode. The stuff corporate is interested in.

I hope it will be a good reveal. Narratives built around mystery live or die by their reveals. More often than not, it's the latter. I have high hopes for this though.

[Yiannis]

Like the slow deterioration of the hosts and how the focus on Dolores evolves. Also enjoyed

Spoiler

the conversation she had with Bernard and how he made the call to let her 'free'

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Subdued Anthony Hopkins is very good too.

[saoirse08]

Two episode in and this is far more gripping and intellectually stimulating than I'd thought it would be. Superb meditation so far on human consciousness, what it means to be human, memory - both human and machine - and the morality of game simulations which enable the player to act in an 'evil' or perhaps in an 'out of character' fashion.

But, "these violent delights have violent ends," seems to foreshadow the carnage to come, I expect.

Also, found this interesting, but seemingly confused, piece about the use of Shakespeare's language throughout the programme and the popularity of Shakespeare in the old west.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/10/17/westworld_is_full_of_shakespeare_quotations_but_it_s_using_them_all_wrong.html

Worth it for this nugget of information: "Ulysses S. Grant was cast as Desdemona in an army production of Othello..."

[red_lfc_costello]

Two episodes in and I'm enjoying it. Bit confusing at times but its good.

Love the modern music being played in the background, first episode I think it was Paint it Black played on the piano, very cool.

[Red Viper]

Three episodes in now and it's not really getting me hooked. I think it's started well but I'm just not finding it to be must watch TV so far.

[CHOPPER]

Feels to me that its trying to be too clever for its own good and its laying of the story is becoming a tad too long - things need to start moving along a bit quicker.

I'll give it a couple more episodes before I either cut it loose or persevere.

[Schmidt]

Feels to me that its trying to be too clever for its own good and its laying of the story is becoming a tad too long - things need to start moving along a bit quicker.

I'll give it a couple more episodes before I either cut it loose or persevere.

Disagree, I think they need to start slow to show just how much the hosts have been through, plus I like seeing the slow twisting of the hosts from docile robots to creatures questioning their existence.

When a Host fires at a character with no effect, i.e. he doesn't kill them, it's an indication that the latter is a Guest, right ?

This has to do with

Spoiler

This Wyatt’s group that Marsden's character encountered and got hacked to pieces by.  He fired point blank at them with no effect.

On that group, and if are "Guest's", wonder if they're intruders coming from outside, some sort of protesters maybe.

Another thing, didn't really find out that the girl who was with him was a Guest as well as the guy who was escorted back by the black deputy till I read a review of episode.

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Get's a bit confusing at times re. who's who in this, a Guest or a Host.

Spoiler

I'm still wondering about this, the story involving Wyatt is really new so I'm not sure how he could've brought in a bunch of guests so quickly, it's also possible that he and his crew have the same invulnerability to hosts as the guests do for some reason, maybe an intentional move to make the guests the only way to stop them, or maybe not.

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[Xxavi]

I am mostly liking this, but like some mentioned here, you don't want to keep things hanging for too long. Slow reveal can be TOO slow.

Whoever said this show would seamlessly replace Game of Thrones was wildly optimistic. Whilst Game of Thrones had slow story arcs and major reveals, still, most of what was going on was very interesting to watch. With Westworld, it seems like we have watched some scenes about 5 times. I guess we notice changes from one time to the next, but hope it isn't the same in the next 2 episodes.

[Beav]

Really loving Evan Rachel Wood in this, her scenes with Bernard are some of my favourites in each episode.

[cptrios]

When a Host fires at a character with no effect, i.e. he doesn't kill them, it's an indication that the latter is a Guest, right ?

This has to do with

Spoiler

This Wyatt’s group that Marsden's character encountered and got hacked to pieces by.  He fired point blank at them with no effect.

On that group, and if are "Guest's", wonder if they're intruders coming from outside, some sort of protesters maybe.

Another thing, didn't really find out that the girl who was with him was a Guest as well as the guy who was escorted back by the black deputy till I read a review of episode.

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Get's a bit confusing at times re. who's who in this, a Guest or a Host.

Spoiler

I think they've been designed to be invulnerable. Perhaps they're either meant to be on some kind of herbal PCP as part of Wyatt's cult-thing, or Hopkins could have even made them 'supernatural' in some way. Either way, it's a good method of instilling real fear in the guests - make them think that there's a group of unkillable robots out there that pose a genuine danger. I actually really liked the guest woman's slightly goofy "Holy fucking shit!" It felt exactly like something someone would say in that situation in real life.

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[Skidder.]

I watched the original again for the first time in years and oh god, I forgot how:

Spoiler

Bad the third act is. Literally looked as if they had no idea what to do, so they decided to create a high-tension chase scene that would... Well, use up the last of film that they had

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Anyhow, I'm still going to reserve judgement for the time being and see how the rest of the series pans out - at the minute though, they do have the perfect vehicle to string it out and keep us thirsty. As I've said, I quite like it, but will always be dubious about programmes that have 'big' names attached - I know it is pretty standard now, but Jonathon Nolan on as an Exec and Writer/Director (for a few episodes at least), doesn't really add anything for me.

I invested time into Boardwalk Empire on the back of Martin Scorsese being attached to it - yet, it felt like he basically lended his name to it, as oppose to actually actively producing it. The same could be said for a number of programmes that have gone down the same route - almost like a franchise of sorts.

Anyhow, still do enjoy Westworld - but I have to admit, aside of a great concept and some interesting ideas (and Anthony Hopkins); I'm not overly pepped as of yet.

[cptrios]

I watched the original again for the first time in years and oh god, I forgot how:

Spoiler

Bad the third act is. Literally looked as if they had no idea what to do, so they decided to create a high-tension chase scene that would... Well, use up the last of film that they had

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I actually watched it last night, and I totally agree. I fell asleep at one point (not the movie's fault - I had gotten about 3 hours the night before) and woke up for the last five minutes of the movie. I thought to myself "oh man, I must have missed a TON," but upon skipping back to the last part I remembered, that "ton" turned out to be approximately 6 minutes. The movie is barely even about Westworld.

Interestingly, Roman World and Medieval World do seem to exist in the series as far as interviews go (though I don't totally buy it). Is it just me or is Roman World a completely terrible idea? It might work as a pleasure palace, I guess, but there's not much in the way of adventure to be had. Even Medieval World seems like a shaky premise, especially since fighting would be mostly sword-based and it's got to be much harder to protect people against that.

[Graeme]

Been watching this, headfuck at times but I'm enjoying it. Now I didn't actually know about the 2 films or the other TV series - where do they sit and do I need to have watched them?

[Brian Blessed]

Been watching this, headfuck at times but I'm enjoying it. Now I didn't actually know about the 2 films or the other TV series - where do they sit and do I need to have watched them?

There is no other TV series as far as I'm aware.

Ah, so there was!

[red_lfc_costello]

When a Host fires at a character with no effect, i.e. he doesn't kill them, it's an indication that the latter is a Guest, right ?

This has to do with

Spoiler

This Wyatt’s group that Marsden's character encountered and got hacked to pieces by.  He fired point blank at them with no effect.

On that group, and if are "Guest's", wonder if they're intruders coming from outside, some sort of protesters maybe.

Another thing, didn't really find out that the girl who was with him was a Guest as well as the guy who was escorted back by the black deputy till I read a review of episode.

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Get's a bit confusing at times re. who's who in this, a Guest or a Host.

I know what you mean, can be confusing but....

Spoiler

I thought it was quite clear that she was a guest as she was excited about the shooting / killing in the town and then when she was in the saloon the hooker said 'you're new blah blah blah.....' although I know she said that to Marsden's character in the beginning.


Talking about Wyatt, do we know for sure that this gang at the end of the Ep is Wyatt's gang or are we just thinking it might be? I think Marsdens's character assumed it was Wyatt and a gang when the shooting took place but these guys have axe's etc (although the same weird noise happened in both attacks). Could be anything / any group, its the wild west after all! haha

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[cptrios]

Spoiler

By the way, did 'Wyatt's' horn/whatever sound remind anyone else a bit of the noise from Bone Tomahawk? I thought the Westworld one was a nice bit of understated creepiness.

(By the way, Bone Tomahawk is a pretty cool movie but definitely not for the faint of heart.)

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[Brian Blessed]

It reminded me of the smoke monster from Lost.

[Trada]

Just watched episode 4.

Brilliant so many layers to it.

I love the we have found an Easter egg.

[MagicHat]

Caught up on the first three episodes. Not quite GOT loving it but next level down perhaps. I'm really glad they have taken the right things from the film, that is an intelligent work that explores humanity and kept that while creating very much their own work. Great opening twist

Spoiler

Thinking Teddy was the human wooing the old robot flame and getting a rescue storyline... only for the baddie to be the human

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, I enjoy the hosts and the admin/tech team behind them, the guests are very much third wheel so not warmed to any. I don't mind the slow pace and very interested as to where this is all going to head for all the characters

[Redcap]

I'm also up to episode 3. It's getting a bit out of hand. The number of characters and narrative strands need to be controlled a little bit tighter, because I think by this early stage we're getting a little too much going on.

[red_lfc_costello]

It reminded me of the smoke monster from Lost.

that's what I thought too!

[MichaelA]

I loved the film, although I haven't seen it for decades, and as a result I have always loved the sci-fi trope of sentient robots (rather than AI). I've watched the first two episodes and it's been fascinating so far, really impressed with the behind the scenes stuff, especially the lazy humanity of the workers set against the precision behaviours of the hosts. The only irritation so far has been the snotty overwritten British story line writer, the character was too much of a cliché and the actor was the weakest link in an otherwise strong cast.

[CHOPPER]

Fucks sake Mick, don't forget Thandie Newtons tits an arse as well lad