"Beachworld" | |
---|---|
Short story by Stephen King | |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Genre(s) | Horror, Science fiction, Short story |
Publication | |
Published in | Weird Tales (1st release), Skeleton Crew |
Publication type | Magazine |
Media type | Print (Periodical) |
Publication date | 1984 |
Beachworld is a science fiction short story by Stephen King, first published in Weird Tales in 1984, and collected in King's 1985 collection Skeleton Crew . [1]
8,000 years in the future, two crewmembers, Rand and Shapiro, survive the crash-landing of their spacecraft on an uncharted planet made up entirely of sand. Rand becomes hypnotized by the endless dunes and refuses to either move from the very spot he's standing on or drink water. Shapiro also feels drawn to the dunes but, unlike Rand, finds this hypnosis frightening and is relieved to go inside their shipwreck, where the dunes are out of sight. At one point he sees, or imagines, how the unnamed world once hosted civilized intelligent life, but over time the cities, bodies of water, and ultimately everything on the planet was overtaken and buried by the sand.
When another spacecraft arrives in response to Shapiro's distress beacon, the crew initially treat his account with skepticism. Rand fights them off, drawing strength from his eroded sanity. The captain sends out an android to force Rand to leave, but it quickly breaks down as sand gets into it. The sand also rises up to stop a tranquilizer dart a crewman fires at Rand. As the black glass burned into the sand by the ship's thrusters on landing steadily crumbles, the captain finally heeds Shapiro's demands to leave. The ship lifts off, narrowly managing to reach escape velocity as a giant hand-shaped wave of sand tries to bring it down. Rand stares up at the ship as it disappears and begins to pile handfuls of sand into his mouth.
A live action version of Beachworld was released in 2015.
A Dollar Baby version of Beachworld from OneNinth & Pointed Pictures premiered online in 2021 as part of the Stephen King Rules Dollar Baby Film Festival. [2]
Skeleton Crew is a short story collection by American writer Stephen King, published by Putnam in June 1985. A limited edition of a thousand copies was published by Scream/Press in October 1985 (ISBN 978-0910489126), illustrated by J. K. Potter, containing an additional short story, "The Revelations of 'Becka Paulson", which had originally appeared in Rolling Stone magazine, and was later incorporated into King's 1987 novel The Tommyknockers. The original title of this book was Night Moves.
Arrakis —informally known as Dune and later called Rakis—is a fictional desert planet featured in the Dune series of novels by Frank Herbert. Herbert's first novel in the series, 1965's Dune, is considered one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time, and it is sometimes cited as the best-selling science fiction novel in history.
The Tommyknockers is a 1987 science fiction novel by Stephen King. While maintaining a horror style, the novel is an excursion into the realm of science fiction for King, as the residents of the Maine town of Haven gradually fall under the influence of a mysterious object buried in the woods. King has since soured on The Tommyknockers, describing it as "an awful book", due to his drug addiction while writing the novel, though acknowledges the story's potential: "There's really a good book in here, underneath all the sort of spurious energy that cocaine provides, and I ought to go back."
"Shore Leave" is the fifteenth episode of the first season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek. Written by Theodore Sturgeon and directed by Robert Sparr, it first aired on December 29, 1966.
"The Naked Time" is the fourth episode of the first season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek. Written by John D. F. Black and directed by Marc Daniels, it first aired on September 29, 1966.
"The Enemy Within" is the fifth episode of the first season of the American science fiction television series, Star Trek. Written by Richard Matheson and directed by Leo Penn, it first aired on October 6, 1966.
"Night Surf" is a post-apocalyptic short story by Stephen King, first published in the spring 1969 issue of Ubris. In 1978 it was collected in King's book Night Shift.
Zero-X is a fictional Earth spacecraft that first appeared in two of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's Supermarionation productions, the 1966 film Thunderbirds Are Go and the 1967 television series Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. Although publicity material for the various Supermarionation series, and the TV Century 21 comic, made references to connections between the Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet canons, Zero-X is the only official link between the two series.
"The 37's" is the first episode of the second season, and seventeenth episode overall, of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager. Due to differing release schedules, it was also released as the final episode of the first season in other countries. The episode aired August 28, 1995, on UPN. Directed by James L. Conway, it was written by producers Jeri Taylor and Brannon Braga. It was originally intended to be a two-part episode to bridge between the first and second seasons, and was subsequently re-written to be a single part. Due to late changes to the final act of the episode, special effects shots of the settlers' cities could not be completed, with which Braga and series creator Michael Piller were unhappy.
Space Odyssey: Voyage to the Planets, marketed as Voyage to the Planets and Beyond in the United States, is a 2004 two-part fictional documentary created by Impossible Pictures and produced by BBC Worldwide, Discovery Communications and ProSieben. Space Odyssey chronicles a fictional crewed voyage throughout the Solar System, which is used to convey scientific information on spaceflight and on the different planets. The programme was initially announced under the title Walking with Spacemen as an instalment in the Walking with... franchise of documentaries. Though the title was changed before release and its connection to the other Walking with... programmes was removed, it was broadcast under the original title in Canada. The special effects and scientific accuracy of Space Odyssey was praised by critics, though some criticism was leveled at the storylines and drama portions of the programme.
The Dollar Baby was an arrangement in which American author Stephen King would grant permission to students and aspiring filmmakers or theater producers to adapt one of his short stories for $1. King retains the rights to his work, but as he began to experience commercial success, he decided to use the Dollar Baby to help the next generation of creatives. The term may be used to refer to both the adaptation itself and the person adapting it; for example, "The Sun Dog" was made as a Dollar Baby and filmmaker Matt Flesher became a Dollar Baby upon adapting it.
"That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French” is a horror short story by American writer Stephen King. It was originally published in the June 22, 1998 issue of The New Yorker magazine. In 2002, it was collected in King's collection Everything's Eventual. It focuses on a married woman in a car ride on vacation constantly repeating the same events over and over, each event ending with the same gruesome outcome. In his closing remarks, King suggested that Hell is not "other people," as Sartre claimed, but repetition, enduring the same pain over and over again without end.
Battle Beyond the Sun is a 1962 science fiction film. It is an English-dubbed and re-edited American version of Nebo Zovyot, a 1959 Soviet science fiction film. Roger Corman acquired the Soviet film for US distribution and hired a young film-school student named Francis Ford Coppola to "Americanize" it.
Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx is the second in a series of six Japanese martial arts films based on the long-running Lone Wolf and Cub manga series about Ogami Ittō, a wandering assassin for hire who is accompanied by his young son, Daigoro.
"The Lawnmower Man" is a short story by American writer Stephen King, first published in the May 1975 issue of Cavalier and later included in King's 1978 collection Night Shift.
The Martian Chronicles is a 1980 television three-episode miniseries based on Ray Bradbury's 1950 book The Martian Chronicles and dealing with the exploration of Mars and the inhabitants there. The series starred Rock Hudson, Darren McGavin, Bernadette Peters, Roddy McDowall, Fritz Weaver, Barry Morse, and Maria Schell. It was aired on NBC in January 1980 in three episodes with a total running time of just over four hours. The series depicts Mars as having a "thin atmosphere" which humans can breathe, with water-filled canals and desert-like vegetation. The miniseries was directed by Michael Anderson and written by Richard Matheson.
Galaxy of Terror is a 1981 American science fiction horror film directed by Bruce D. Clark and produced by Roger Corman through New World Pictures. It stars Edward Albert, Erin Moran, Ray Walston, Taaffe O'Connell, and future horror film stars Sid Haig and Robert Englund. Set in a dystopian future where humanity is a spacefaring race ruled by a sole person called "The Master," the film features a space crew confronting primal fears after they are marooned on a distant planet.
Alien is a 1979 science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Dan O'Bannon, based on a story by O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett. It follows a spaceship crew who investigate a derelict spaceship and are hunted by a deadly extraterrestrial creature. The film stars Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, and Yaphet Kotto. It was produced by Gordon Carroll, David Giler, and Walter Hill through their company Brandywine Productions and was distributed by 20th Century-Fox. Giler and Hill revised and made additions to the script; Shusett was the executive producer. The alien creatures and environments were designed by the Swiss artist H. R. Giger, while the concept artists Ron Cobb and Chris Foss designed the other sets.
Nebo Zovyot is a 1959 Soviet science fiction adventure film directed by Aleksandr Kozyr and Mikhail Karyukov. It was filmed at Dovzhenko Film Studios in 1959 and premiered September 12, 1959.