Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
Directed by	Hironobu Sakaguchi
Produced by	Chris Lee
Written by	Al Reinert Jeff Vintar
Starring	Ming-Na as Aki Ross (voice) Alec Baldwin as Gray Edwards (voice) Ving Rhames as Ryan Whitaker (voice)
Music by	Elliot Goldenthal
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	July 13, 2001
Running time	106 min
Language	English
Budget	$137 million[1]
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is a science fiction film by Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of the Final Fantasy series of RPGs. It was released on July 13, 2001 in the United States and it was the first animated feature to seriously attempt photorealistic CGI humans. DVD cover or insert scan from the movie Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, personal scan, claiming fair use (does not detract from original work, scanned from legal copy, image is of sufficiently low resolution). ... Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of Final Fantasy series Hironobu Sakaguchi (坂口 博信, born 1962) was the Director of Planning and Development for Square Co. ... This page may meet Wikipedias criteria for speedy deletion. ... Ming-Na (born November 20, 1963) is a Chinese-American actress. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Alexander Rae Baldwin III (born April 3, 1958) is an Academy Award-nominated, Screen Actors Guild Award-winning, and Golden Globe Award-winning American actor. ... Irving Christopher Ving Rhames (born May 12, 1959) is a Golden Globe winning American actor. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... July 13 is the 194th day (195th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 171 days remaining. ... 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Poster for 2001: A Space Odyssey, an archetypal science fiction film Science fiction film is a film genre that uses speculative, science-based depictions of imaginary phenomena such as extra-terrestrial lifeforms, alien worlds, and time travel, often along with technological elements such as futuristic spacecraft, robots, or other technologies. ... Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of Final Fantasy series Hironobu Sakaguchi (坂口 博信, born 1962) was the Director of Planning and Development for Square Co. ... For the first installment in the series, see Final Fantasy (video game). ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... July 13 is the 194th day (195th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 171 days remaining. ... 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Pioneering uses of computer-generated imagery in film and television: // 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s External links CG production companies and CGI in the movies - detailed historical information Categories: Special effects | Computing timelines ... Animation refers to the technique in which each frame of a film or movie is produced individually, whether generated as a computer graphic, or by photographing a drawn image, or by repeatedly making small changes to a model (see claymation and stop motion), and then photographing the result. ... Photorealism is the genre of painting resembling a photograph, most recently seen in the splinter hyperrealism movement. ... Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is the application of the field of computer graphics (or more specifically, 3D computer graphics) to special effects. ... Trinomial name Homo sapiens sapiens Linnaeus, 1758 Humans, or human beings, are bipedal primates belonging to the mammalian species Homo sapiens (Latin: wise man or knowing man) under the family Hominidae (the great apes). ...

The story follows scientists Aki Ross and Doctor Sid in their efforts to free Earth from a mysterious but deadly alien race known as the Phantoms, which has driven surviving humanity into "barrier cities." They must compete against General Hein, who wishes to attack the planet with the Zeus space cannon to end the conflict. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Despite aggressive promotion by Sony, it became the second-biggest box office bomb in film history (behind Treasure Planet), with losses of over $124 million, effectively bankrupting Square Pictures. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Cleopatra is the biggest box-office bomb of all time. ... Treasure Planet is a 2002 science fiction animated feature film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation, and released by Walt Disney Pictures on November 27, 2002. ... Square Pictures, located in Honolulu, Hawaii, was a computer-animated film division of Square Co. ...

Production

Square accumulated four SGI Origin 2000 series servers, four Onyx2 systems, and 167 Octane workstations.^[2] The basic movie was rendered at a home-made render farm which consisted of 960 Pentium III-933MHz workstations. The render farm was made by Square Pictures located in Hawaii. The film had cost overruns during the end of production.^[3] Silicon Graphics, Inc. ... SGI Octane2 (2000-2004). ... A render farm is a computer cluster to render computer generated imagery (CGI), typically for film and television visual effects. ... Pentium III logo The Pentium III is an x86 (more precisely, an i686) architecture microprocessor by Intel, introduced on February 26, 1999. ... Square Pictures, located in Honolulu, Hawaii, was a computer-animated film division of Square Co. ...

Prior to the film's release (and subsequent box office failure), Square had indicated plans for the Aki Ross "synthetic actress" to appear in other films, possibly even interacting with live actors. A sample of what this might have looked like can be seen on the introduction to the second DVD in the Special Edition release, which shows Aki "breaking character" after filming a scene and walking through the studio, interacting with both CGI and real people. Chris Lee, the producer of Final Fantasy, defended his use of animation, stating that live actors often cannot physically accomplish what computer characters easily can, citing his experience from making Starship Troopers and Godzilla. An early scene in the movie, in which Aki floats weightless in an orbital spacecraft, illustrates his point; although, an argument can be made that such scenes are trivial to shoot when your actress has no weight to begin with. Lee also noted that the difference between the CGI and live action footage can be jarring for viewers when the film requires heavy use of computer effects in almost every scene. Shortly after the release of the film, the character of Aki Ross became the first computer-generated entry in Maxim's Hot 100. Starship Troopers is a 1997 film directed by Paul Verhoeven, written by Edward Neumeier, and starring Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer and Denise Richards. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Actors in period costume sharing a joke while waiting between takes during location filming An actor or actress is a person who acts, or plays a role, in a dramatic production. ... In the United States Maxim Magazine is an industry leader with a circulation of 2. ...

Aki Ross in the opening of The Spirits Within.

Plot

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is set on an alien-infested Earth in the year 2065. The remaining humans live in "barrier cities" all over the world and attempt to free their planet from the Phantoms, an alien race. The only hope for the planet comes from the scientist Aki Ross and her mentor, Dr. Sid, who have a plan to destroy the Phantoms without damaging the planet, but a general named Hein is determined to use the Zeus space cannon to destroy the Phantoms—even if it means destroying the Earth in the process. While the film does carry the name Final Fantasy, it is only vaguely thematically related to Square Co., Ltd.'s popular Final Fantasy series of games. However, Dr. Sid's Gaia Theory, relating to a lifeforce within the planet to which spirits belong, is highly reminiscent of the Lifestream/Mako in Final Fantasy VII. The plot, characters, and storyline were all created specifically for the movie although the character of Dr. Sid does continue the games' tradition of having a character named Cid appear in most Final Fantasy games, despite the Doctor's name spelled with an untraditional "S". Extraterrestrial life is life that exists and originates outside the planet Earth, the only place in the universe currently known by humans to support life. ... Adjectives: Terrestrial, Terran, Telluric, Tellurian, Earthly Atmosphere Surface pressure: 101. ... (Redirected from 2065) Millennia: 2nd millennium - 3rd millennium - 4th millennium Centuries: 20th century - 21st century - 22nd century Decades: 2010s 2020s 2030s 2040s 2050s - 2060s - 2070s 2080s 2090s Years: 2060 2061 2062 2063 2064 2065 2066 2067 2068 2069 The Decade as a Whole This decade is expected to be called... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Square Co. ... Understanding planetary habitability is partly an extrapolation of the Earths conditions, as it is the only planet currently known to harbor life. ... Final Fantasy VII ) is a console and computer role-playing game (RPG) developed and published by Square Co. ... Cid ) is a character who appears in all Final Fantasy series of computer and video games. ...

The Story starts with Aki Ross in the Zeus station waking up after a dream about the phantoms. After she has recorded her dreams, she proceeds to landing in the Old New York City, in a mission to find the 6th spirit. She continues looking until she runs into some Phantoms, and it appears that she is about to be killed until a squad team appears to save her life. Despite the captain indicating to her that she is under arrest, Aki runs and eventually finds the 6th spirit which is a plant. At this moment the squad and Aki are then surrounded by Phantoms, and they escape by going to higher grounds and getting on a transport. Afterwards, a violent altercation opposes doctor Ross and the captain of the mission, who blames her for her irresponsibility. Afterwards, he removes his helmet, and reveals to be Capt.Gray, and old acquaintance of doctor Ross. When they land they are all scanned for Phantom contamination (except Aki because of her clearance). The captain is found to be infected with a phantom inside him. Aki then performs bio laser surgery on him herself. She saves his life with 1 second to spare and then proceeds to talk to Doctor Sid. Aki confirms that the plant she found is the 6th spirit. Sid shows Aki a diary he wrote when he was her age and after she has read it, he burns it stating that their ideas were unpopular among men. After waking up from another "Phantom" dream, Aki proceeds to a debate that is deciding the use of the Zeus cannon, a weapon that was designed to destroy the phantoms. Sid argues the use of the cannon by saying that the cannon would destroy "Gaia - The spirit of the planet". The general mocks the theory and asks for proof. Aki then shows her the proof by revealing that she is the person that has been infected by the Phantoms however she still remains alive.

After the debate, Aki proceeds to search for the 7th spirit when Captain Gray tags along. They are both stranded when members of Gray's squad short circuits the system saying that they want the captain and Aki to have time to talk to each other, building their relationship. Gray asks Aki about the spirits and Aki proceeds in saying "When I was young, I was infected by a phantom however I didn't die because Doctor Sid placed a membrane around the infection, therefore the first spirit was me, the second was a fish, the third was a deer I found in a wildlife preserve outside Moscow, the fourth was a bird... ever tried tracking a sparrow from space, its not fun, and the latest one was the plant I found" Gray then answers " You missed one, you said that the plant was the 6th one what happened to the 5th?" Aki then hesitates saying "The 5th was a little girl, dying in a hospital, I managed to get the sample however she..., I told her that everything had a spirit, little girls, the earth, plants, trees, she said that i didn't need to lie to her to make everything feel better and she said she was ready to die, only 7 and ready to die" Aki then sobs quietly and proceeds to kissing Gray. However, before Gray gets to kiss Aki, the power is turned back on.

Paranoid that Aki might be a spy for the Phantoms, The General orders Gray and the deep eyes to guard Doctor Ross and report any suspicious behaviors. If she were to react in anyway abnormal way, she was to be arrested.

Dr. Ross, accompanied by the rest of the squad, then leaves the barrier city for the Tucson Wastelands,where she hopes to find the 7th spirit. After dropping energy boeys as a bait for the phantoms, they descend and attempt to locate and retreive it. After a while, they find it - it is located in the ovo-pac of a dead soldier, which contains living tissues containing the spirit. After retreiving it, they discover that they are surrounded by Phantoms, who, apparently, have been attracted to the one located inside Dr.Ross. The squad is picked up, but the General's soldiers try to apprehend Dr. Ross. One is killed by a Phantom, and the team narrowly escapes.

General Hein, meanwhile, is desperate to gain clearance to fire the Zeus Cannon. He tells the operators of one of the barrier cities to lower the shields of a section of the city. Hein's plan is to sacrifice a small part of the population in order to convince the government that the Phantoms can breach the shields, allowing him to take necessary steps. His plan backfires, as the Phantoms are able to use plasma conduits to travel through the rest of the city. Aki and only a handful of her crew survive the resulting attack.

Hein is floating in space, about to commit suicide, when a transmission comes in that following the disaster, he is now authorized to use the Zeus cannon. Dr Ross and Dr Sid devise a plan to destroy the phantoms at their heart, the phantom crater. The plan involves Aki and Gray being lowered into the crater inside a bio-etheric shield vehicle, and finding and removing the 7th spirit, which is a phantom. The pair have just located the phantom when suddenly a laser from the zeus station comes crashing into the crater, killing the phantoms on the surface, including the 7th spirit. The laser incident has left the vehicle rendered shieldless and exposed to the phantoms, which now cover the crater in response to the attack. Gray leaves the confines of the vehicle to protect aki from the phantoms. Meanwhile, Aki has her final vision in which a phantom tells her that the spirit within her is in fact the new 7th spirit. As soon as aki wakes up she calls Gray in to use his oval pack battery in order to project the completed wave pattern. As soon as the wave begins, another laser penetrates the atmosphere and triggers a mass response from the phantom's world's spirit, which resided in the crater; the bio-etheric shield vehicle is completely obliterated by this new attack. With the vehicle destroyed, Gray sacrifices his own life to distribute Aki's wave, using his body to transmit it directly to the phantom world spirit. The phantoms all turn into bright floating orbs which return to space, and the end scene is of Aki holding Gray's body and looking into the newly liberated world. Suicide (from Latin sui caedere, to kill oneself) is the willful act of killing oneself. ...

Reception

The North American box office results were at $32 million. The shortfall from the high cost of production of $137 million (including $30 million for marketing) essentially bankrupted Square Pictures, the subsidiary of Square that produced it. However, Square Pictures did survive long enough to produce an animated tie-in to The Matrix, Final Flight of the Osiris (see also The Animatrix). Final Flight of the Osiris increased the level of realism shown, addressing some of the "painted statue" criticisms. Notice of closure stuck on the door of a computer store the day after its parent company, Granville Technology Group Ltd, declared bankruptcy (strictly, put into administration - see text) in the UK. Bankruptcy is a legally declared inability or impairment of ability of a individuals or organizations to pay their... Square Pictures, located in Honolulu, Hawaii, was a computer-animated film division of Square Co. ... The Matrix is a science fiction / action film written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski and starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano and Hugo Weaving. ... An opening scene from Final Flight of the Osiris. ... Animatrix The Animatrix is a major part of the Matrix series, a collection of nine animated short films set in that fictional universe. ...

The film also made $55 million more overseas, meaning total losses were approximately $123 million (the studio typically receives half the box office gross). The domestic box office loss was--at the time--the largest in film history. It is commonly agreed that the financial failure of the film coupled with other circumstances at the time proved to be the catalyst that inspired Square Co., Ltd.'s merger with Enix. Square Co. ... Enix, or more formally Enix Co. ...

Aki must discover the meaning behind the vivid dreams she keeps having about the Phantoms.

The film received mixed reviews but was not a popular success. Because the plot is typical of Japanese science fiction anime in melding science fiction and spirituality, the movie seemed to be best received by otaku, or at least regular viewers of anime. In some aspects, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was more or less a big-budget anime movie. It became more unpopular when fans of the Final Fantasy series watched the movie to discover that it had little connection to the game series. Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... The main cast of the anime Cowboy Bebop (1998) (L to R: Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, Ed Tivrusky, Faye Valentine, and Ein the dog) For the oleo-resin, see Animé (oleo-resin). ... Otaku is a Japanese descriptive term sometimes used pejoratively to refer to people who are enthusiasts of certain pop cultural genres. ...

While many of the critics of the film cited problems with the story or complained of one-dimensional characters, others focused on the failings of the animation itself. While the rendering is intended to be photorealistic, the characters' motions and expressions can be seen as stiff and unexpressive compared to real human motion. This is most notable in the "doll-eyed stare" of the characters, but also in the rigid poses and gaits of the characters and the lack of deformation in skin and tissue accompanying character motion such as speech and grasping. The modeling of lighting on skin and hair (which in reality are subtly translucent) is also limited, giving the characters a "painted statue" look. As a result, the film is often cited as an example of animation that falls into the uncanny valley, perhaps most famously by critic Roger Ebert. Rendering has several different usages: Rendering (computer graphics) is the process of producing the pixels of an image from a higher-level description of its components. ... The Uncanny Valley is a hypothesis about robotics concerning the emotional response of humans to robots and other non-human entities. ... Russ Meyer (left) and Roger Ebert, (1970) Roger Joseph Ebert (June 18, 1942 - ) is an Emmy Award-nominated American television personality, author, and film critic who began writing for the Chicago Sun-Times in 1967. ...

Roger Ebert was one of the films biggest advocates, giving the film 3 1/2 stars out of 4. He also expressed a desire for the film to succeed in hopes of seeing more films made in its image, though he was skeptical of its ability to be accepted.[1] Russ Meyer (left) and Roger Ebert, (1970) Roger Joseph Ebert (June 18, 1942 - ) is an Emmy Award-nominated American television personality, author, and film critic who began writing for the Chicago Sun-Times in 1967. ...

Cast

• Aki Ross: Ming-Na
• Dr. Cid: Donald Sutherland
• Gray Edwards: Alec Baldwin
• Ryan Whittaker: Ving Rhames
• Jane Proudfoot: Peri Gilpin
• Neil Fleming: Steve Buscemi
• General Hein: James Woods

This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Ming-Na (born November 20, 1963) is a Chinese-American actress. ... For other persons named Donald Sutherland, see Donald Sutherland (disambiguation). ... Alexander Rae Baldwin III (born April 3, 1958) is an Academy Award-nominated, Screen Actors Guild Award-winning, and Golden Globe Award-winning American actor. ... Irving Christopher Ving Rhames (born May 12, 1959) is a Golden Globe winning American actor. ... Peri Gilpin Peri Gilpin (born Peri Kay OBrien on May 27, 1961, in Waco, Texas) is an actress best known for the role of Roz Doyle on the very successful U.S. television series Frasier, for which she won a Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Ensemble in a... Steven Vincent Buscemi (born December 13, 1957) is an Emmy and Golden Globe nominated American film and stage character actor and film director, based in New York City. ... James Howard Woods (born April 18, 1947) is an Oscar-nominated American actor. ...

Parallels to the video games

Although the film was based on none of the (then) existing nine games plus numerous spinoffs, a number of references and parallels to elements of the games are noticeable:

• The name of Dr. Sid was born from the fact that there has been a character by the name of Cid in almost every Final Fantasy game (the first Final Fantasy being the exception).
• The film introduces the same blend of science fiction technology (the future setting, spaceships) and magic/spirituality (Gaia, spirits) that Final Fantasy VI, VII and VIII were noted for.
• The lair of the film's main antagonists and the location of the film's climax, was located in a crater in some remote mountains. In Final Fantasy VII, Sephiroth also resided in a crater in the Northern Crater's mountain range, which is where the game's final battle takes place.
• The concept of Gaia (the "living planet") in the film is almost identical to the concept of the Lifestream and Planet in Final Fantasy VII.
• The film uses abstract naming for military units that give the appearance of a direct translation from Japanese, in this case Deep Eyes (as opposed to SOLDIER in Final Fantasy VII, SeeD in Final Fantasy VIII, etc.)

Final Fantasy ) is a computer role-playing game developed and published by Square Co. ... Gaia or Gaea (from the Greek words Ge (γη) = Earth (Pelasgian), and *aia (αια) = grandmother (PIE)) thus Gaia (γαια), can refer to any one of the following: Gaia as myth, Greek goddess (her equivalent in Rome is Terra), in Sumerian mythology she is refered to as Ki; Gaia as metaphor - set of philosophical... Final Fantasy VI ) is a console role-playing game developed and published by Square Co. ... Final Fantasy VII ) is a console and computer role-playing game (RPG) developed and published by Square Co. ... Final Fantasy VIII ) is a console and computer role-playing game created by Square Co. ... Sephiroth ) is the antagonist in the Square Enix role playing game Final Fantasy VII. He has had — relative to Final Fantasy VIIs continuity — four non-canonical appearances in other games: Ehrgeiz, Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts II and Itadaki Street Special. ... Modern soldiers. ... A ripe red jalapeño cut open to show the seeds For other uses, see Seed (disambiguation). ...

Trivia

Despite the graphical complexity of the movie, in 2001 nVidia released a technology demo for the Quadro DCC, rendering several scenes from the movie in real-time (compared with 1.5 hours per frame for the movie), albeit at only 10 frames per second and with much lower quality. However, this was more of a publicity stunt than a technical comparison. This is because the Square Pictures' render farm and the nVidia demo used completely different and unrelated rendering algorithms. High quality renderings use robust CPU-based ray tracing designed for the highest quality attainable and are generally not intended to be used at interactive speeds. On the other hand, high end GPU units utilise rasterized polygon mesh pixel-by-pixel techniques and are designed for an extremely high yield using pseudo-realistic mathematical representations. The render farm also rendered at resolutions far higher than the (high-end at the time) GeForce 3 was even capable of. This makes frame-rate comparisons between the two uninformative. Rather, the demo showed the high quality that raster graphics had achieved. NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) (pronounced ) is a major supplier of graphics processors (graphics processing units, GPUs), graphics cards, and media and communications devices for PCs and game consoles such as the original Xbox and the PlayStation 3. ... A technology demo is a prototype, rough example or an otherwise incomplete version of a product, put together with the primary purpose of showcasing the idea, performance, method or the features of the product. ... The GeForce3 (codenamed NV20) was NVIDIAs third-generation GeForce chip. ... Frame rate, or frame frequency, is the measurement of how quickly an imaging device produces unique consecutive images called frames. ... Rendering has several different usages: Rendering (computer graphics) is the process of producing the pixels of an image from a higher-level description of its components. ... CPU can stand for: in computing: Central processing unit in journalism: Commonwealth Press Union in law enforcement: Crime prevention unit in software: Critical patch update, a type of software patch distributed by Oracle Corporation in Macleans College is often known as Ash Lim. ... A ray traced scene. ... VPU redirects here. ... A mesh is a collection of vertices and polygons that define the shape of an object in 3D computer graphics. ... The GeForce 3 (codenamed NV20) was NVIDIAs third-generation GeForce chip. ... Suppose the smiley face in the top left corner is an RGB bitmap image. ...

Novelization

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was novelized by Dean Wesley Smith. The Making of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was also made available, which was edited by Steven L. Kent. Dean Wesley Smith is a science fiction author, known primarily for his Star Trek novels, movie novelizations, and other novels of licensed properties such as Smallville, Spider-Man, X-Men, Aliens, Roswell, Men in Black, and Quantum Leap. ... Steven L. Kent is an American writer, best known for his video game journalism. ...

See also

• Uncanny Valley

The Uncanny Valley is a hypothesis about robotics concerning the emotional response of humans to robots and other non-human entities. ...

Reference

For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... January 1 is the first day of the calendar year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... August 2 is the 214th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (215th in leap years), with 151 days remaining. ... 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... July 30 is the 211th day (212th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 154 days remaining. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... October 16 is the 289th day of the year (290th in leap years). ... 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... October 2 is the 275th day (276th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 90 days remaining. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... October 16 is the 289th day of the year (290th in leap years). ...

External links

• Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within at the Internet Movie Database
• Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within at Rotten Tomatoes
• Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within at Box Office Mojo