More than two years ago, I started an experiment called “The Dark Side of Everything.” The idea was to see what happens when you play the classic album Dark Side of Moon along with non-Judy Garland classic films. The first installment was Star Wars, and some of the coincidences turned out to be really cool. Then I pretty much forgot about the project, because I have the attention span of a magpie with ADD.
But this summer, Michael Bay treated us to a monster blockbuster that was just begging for the Dark Side treatment. It was, of course, Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Even before it was released, I was thinking, “Man, I cannot wait to sync this movie up with Pink Floyd.” And that’s pretty much the only way I recommend watching it, by the way. It’s a total headachy mess, and this is coming from someone who loves Speed Racer.
However, replace the bombastic score with a little Roger Waters, and the whole thing becomes much more entertaining…
I followed the same procedure as the traditional Wizard of Oz syncing, starting the album the moment the studio logo appeared. Let me run you through the highlights.
01:00 – The movie begins with a scene on Cybertron, as an Autobot ship tries to make a desperate escape. As it screeches away from its attackers, the opening track of Dark Side reaches its screechy conclusion and segues into “Breathe.”
04:00 – Now we get a montage of NASA’s first manned moon mission. This syncs almost perfectly with the beginning of “On the Run.” According to Wikipedia, “it is an instrumental piece that deals with the pressures of travel.” Beyond this coincidence, the synth works nicely with all the 1960s tech.
05:45 – The song reaches its climax just as the movie gets to the big reveal: a giant Autobot ship is hidden on the dark side of the moon. I swear I didn’t add the creepy sci-fi sound effects.
08:15 – The camera zooms through the derelict spacecraft, revealing Sentinel Prime. Almost perfectly in time with the first bass note of “Time,” Sentinel’s eye lights up. More sinister bass notes play as the movie’s title unfolds itself.
20:20 – The song “Money” begins as Shia LeBoeuf goes on a series of job interviews. As he attempts to charm a series of skeptical business types, David Gilmour scowls, “Don’t give me that do goody good bullshit.”
40:50 – As the album’s final track begins, a mysterious man confronts Shia LeBoeuf with a secret about the dark side of the moon. “It is code Pink, as in Floyd. Dark Side! Why do you think no one’s been up there since 1972?” That’s the year that most of the album was recorded, by the way.
42:15 – Dark Side‘s final chord rings out as we see a shot of a book called Moonfire. Coincidence? Well yes, coincidence. But still fun!
I have one more “Dark Side of Everything” to share sometime. I’ll give you a hint: it involves Meryl Streep dancing almost perfectly in time with the song “Brain Damage.”
Can we conclude that Pink Floyd might go with everything?
Those are some awesome transitions. That would be a great easter egg for Netflix to set up… the ability to sync any movie with Dark side, so you can jump to places you suspect convergence.
Not worth the trouble, but I would like to see how things fall in Metropolis, Matrix, Amadeus, Apollo 13, Christmas Vacation… oooh, that might even get me to watch some movies I never planned to otherwise, like Sex in the City or Twilight.
Yes, I was disappointed by the latest transformers. I kinda like these genre of movie, it´s good for entertainment. I think Dark Side of The Moon went too far though: no context, facts just happened with somehow no meaning, etc… But I find it funny that so many games / movies / documentaries have been showing up lately with ideas that transcend our actual paradigms! Now that´s some philosophy for modern men, men who don´t really care much about phylosophy itself… I can make a list of phylosophy-to-watch for those interested in “open minded phylosophy” :
Good one to start with History Channel´s Ancient Aliens – Which brings up ideas from the 60´s (when these ideas where ridiculed, and today, not so much anymore) – A lot of Atlantis and Egypt enigmas.
Then that one game Bioshock with some phylosophy
Of course Matrix, Avatar with other paradigm shifiting ideas.
The Day Before Disclosure, found easily on Youtube is a must-see.
Contact from Carl Sagan shows some cool ideas of The Numinous within us all. (Book)
In the end, it´s aways nice to think with open-minds, and these are materials that make us easily think on the edge (differently from our everyday life)
Moon Shine – Found on youtube, for those who saw the latest Transformers and are asking themselves… is that any possible?
And there´s one more documentary that MUST be seen:
Mysterious Origins of Man. (1996)
Regards! Feel free to contact me via e-mail: [email protected]
OH! And yes, Pink Floyd goes fine with nearly everything, except Justin Bieber I guess…
“Coincidence? Well yes, coincidence. But still fun!”
If you don’t mind, I will use this quote as my go-to reply when someone presents me with some bogus research result reported in the media.
Thanks for the article; I applaud you for submitting yourself to watching T:DotM for the public understanding of popular culture.
On a somewhat tangential note, I recently watched Apollo 18, and completely failed to take it seriously because i couldn’t stop hearing the refrain from Ziggy Stardust about spiders from Mars in the back of my head… I haven’t tried watching the movie while actually listening to the album, but I rather suspect it would be an improvement…
Pray tell, how did you accomplish the title effect on your “Cut by Matthew Belinkie” end credit? These are the things I must know…