So I'm sure countless of you have seen the Repo Men trailer and maybe some of you know what this movie is?
Repo! The Genetic Opera, started somewhere in the 90's, I'll just stick it to mid 90's since it's either a bit later or a bit earlier, anyways it started out as a Rock play and quickly gained enough fame and funding to turn into a movie/musical, the plot?
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In the year 2056 - the not so distant future - an epidemic of organ failures devastates the planet. Out of the tragedy, a savior emerges: GeneCo, a biotech company that offers organ transplants, for a price. Those who miss their payments are scheduled for repossession and hunted by villainous Repo Men. In a world where surgery addicts are hooked on painkilling drugs and murder is sanctioned by law, a sheltered young girl searches for the cure to her own rare disease as well as information about her family's mysterious history. After being sucked into the haunting world of GeneCo, she is unable to turn back, as all of her questions will be answered at the wildly anticipated spectacular event: The Genetic Opera.
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Now the plot descriptions may have a bit of variation to them, but mind you the movie itself is no where near original, I'll take the rest of this out of color so it won't hurt your eyes... Spooky Dan is credited for some of these facts.
Repo! The Genetic Opera, started somewhere in the 90's, I'll just stick it to mid 90's since it's either a bit later or a bit earlier, anyways it started out as a Rock play and quickly gained enough fame and funding to turn into a movie/musical, the plot?
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In the year 2056 - the not so distant future - an epidemic of organ failures devastates the planet. Out of the tragedy, a savior emerges: GeneCo, a biotech company that offers organ transplants, for a price. Those who miss their payments are scheduled for repossession and hunted by villainous Repo Men. In a world where surgery addicts are hooked on painkilling drugs and murder is sanctioned by law, a sheltered young girl searches for the cure to her own rare disease as well as information about her family's mysterious history. After being sucked into the haunting world of GeneCo, she is unable to turn back, as all of her questions will be answered at the wildly anticipated spectacular event: The Genetic Opera.
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Now the plot descriptions may have a bit of variation to them, but mind you the movie itself is no where near original, I'll take the rest of this out of color so it won't hurt your eyes... Spooky Dan is credited for some of these facts.
Organ Financing.
Repo Men: (chapter 5) Remy discusses in great detail how the world has changed and poor people can apply for new body parts. The people are about to become the victims of The Union Bio- Repo Men, because they can’t really afford it.
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Repo the Genetic Opera: In the first part of the movie comic panels describe detail how the world has changed and poor people can apply for new body parts. These people are about to become the victims of The GeneCo Organ Repo Men, because they can’t really afford it.
Estranged Children.
Repo Men: Remy the repo man has an estranged son.
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Repo the Genetic Opera: Nathan the repo man has an estranged daughter.
The 90 Days Agreement.
Repo Men: (Pg 39) Remy says “Ninety days is grace beyond grace, and I didn’t hold pity for anyone who welshed on a loan with straight arrows like Kenton.”
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Repo the Genetic Opera: Nathan the repo man sings “Ninety days delinquent gets the Repo treatment”
The Dumpster Diving!
Repo Men: (pg63) “On the way downtown, I jumped into a china store and pilfered a leaded-crystal vase, along with an attending box from the trash dumpster outside.”
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Repo the Genetic Opera: Graverobber jumps in dumpsters to look for used drug paraphernalia.
The Magic Surgery Drugs!
Repo Men: (pg 18 ) Garcia introduces a anti rejection drug called “Q”. (pg120) “He sucked up enough Q to kill a Clydesdale…he offered me the sparkling red powder on six or seven occasions…” later “…the central processor was crusted over, filthy with crystallized cerebrospinal fluid. That’s what happens when your hooked on Q, and it’s a shame that even after the most expensive of artiforg implantations, he wasn’t able to reprogram himself to beat the habit.”
(Pg 234) “Fritzed on the Q.”
(Pg 271-276) details the effects of the drug Q.
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Repo the Genetic Opera: Has a drug called “Zydrate”, “Z” for short. A glowing blue LIGHT gets brighter and brighter as the Z-yringe draws out “Z” from the woman’s skull. It lights the room and the dead woman. In the song Come Up and Try My New Parts it’s referred to as “Z” when Amber sings “I want a hit of Z”
Early posters of Amber Sweet state “Z up responsibly”
Q – Sparkling red powder
Z – Glowing Blue liquid
Bar-Coded Heart.
Repo Men: The poster artwork for a Repo Men poster is a picture of an artificial heart with lines on it that quite closely resemble a barcode.
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Repo the Genetic Opera: since 2001 the website for Repo Opera has had an iconic image of a heart with a barcode . In the opening of the Repo Opera Film Jessica Adams is taken down by the repo man, and he holds her bar-coded heart directly up to the camera. Also a bar-coded heart is a hero prop of the song “Mark It Up”.
AI Eyeballs.
Repo Men: (pg 27) Remy talks about wanting “…artiforg eyeballs, the new ones from Marshodyne have zoom capabilities of 200X and near perfect color enhancement.”
1B. Repo Men: (pg 199) “Narrowing her eyes into tiny little slit, I got the feeling that she was inspecting me again, Trying to get a hold of me. For a moment I was pretty sure I could hear mechanical lenses focusing spiraling in and out.”
1C. Repo Men: (pg 293) Remy watches a recording of a repossession “It’s Just like a movie, just like gong to the pictures” as they watch the recording through the dead mans eyes.
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Repo the Genetic Opera: Blind Mags character has artificial eyes, which she received from GeneCo after being born blind. Mag is the spokesperson for GeneCo, and her eyes project holographic apparitions of past events, at which time the iris spirals in and out.
The Outsider - Repo Men ~ The Graverobber - Repo!
Repo Men: (pg 230) Remy is introduced to a vigilante named Ashbury (termed an “Outsider”). Ashbury steals artiforgs from the dead bodies and redistributes it to those in need of surgery. Ashbury sizes him up to see if he might have any artiforgs that he can take to sell on the black market. “ …there was distinct possibility he was sizing me up for artiforgs. Wondering if I could be of any financial value to him down the line.” (pg 234) Ashbury proceeds to drug the Remy with the Q drug “ on the filthy fingertips, nails long and unfiled, was a sparkling red powder glittering in the glare from the exposed overhead bulb.” He then offers Remy safe housing away from the Union
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Repo the Genetic Opera: The Graverobber is a vigilante who steals drugs (Zydrate) from the dead bodies and redistributes it to those in need of surgery (or those who are just hooked on Z). Graverobber offers to help Shilo stay away from GeneCo.
The Flying Circus Artist.
Repo Men: (pg 235-239) Remy recounts a story about dealing with a great couple of trapeze artists named Hans and Edward, who were on target for repossession. “they were trapeze artists, good ones too, who regularly defied death by flying 50 feet above the midway floor.”
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Repo the Genetic Opera: Blind Mag in her final performance flies high above the crowd on wires while she sings her final song “Chromaggia”
Commercials!
Repo Men: (pg 202-203.). Remy talks about the different commercials used by The Credit Union, and its much used Slogan, “What’s new in you?”
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Repo the Genetic Opera: throughout the film Commercials for body parts from GeneCo are shown and heard to “See if Surgery is right for you?”, and “At GeneCo, an affordable organ makeover is just a simple financing away. Take control of your life, because it’s what’s on the inside that counts.”
Melinda - Marni.
Repo Men: (pg 203, 204, 270-275) we are given insight that Remy’s (ex) wife has artificial organs, which is why he killed her. And this causes a bad relationship between Remy and his son. Remy explains “And that’s how I found out that Melinda was packing Metal. I suppose it was better for me to know than as opposed to finding out later on, but I wonder if things would have changed if Peter (Remy’s son) kept his mouth shut. Probably not. I would have killed her either way.” Later he finds Melinda strung out on Q and kills her, his son will not forgive him after this.
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Repo the Genetic Opera: One of the main plot points is that Nathan Wallace had to kill his wife to save his child. Because he killed her he is tricked into being a repo man for the evil GeneCo to hide this fact from his daughter. “That dark fateful night when you murdered your wife, It’s too painful, Marni (Nathans wife) was past helping…. We made an agreement, I will honor that agreement, I will honor that agreement, I’ll do as I’m told so Shilo never knows, about that dark and fateful night, or my secret repo life, don’t deny your repo life.”
This list goes on and on of how many points they stole... Repo! Was more of an Indie but was backed by some big named producers, some of them coming from Japan. Repo Men was backed by universal studio's and is a main stream Sci-Fi horror and in my eyes, done very wrong and unoriginal.. I'd like you to voice your opinions on this, If you've seen it.
Or if you've just read the similarities in my post, I want to hear what you have to say and think, yes they do have their differences and sometimes are nothing alike.. But you cannot deny that most of it's theme in itself from these comparing notes, has been taken from Repo!
