How The Terminator and Planet of the Apes Influenced AMNESIA.

People would be surprised the variety of films that influenced the story development, shot style and overall look and concept of AMNESIA.  Two in particular influenced the chase sequences of the film:  The Terminator and The Planet of the Apes.

When I first watched The Planet of the Apes, it was on TV, because of that it was edited for time.  The cut right to the waterfall where the non-speaking humans stole their cloths and they went after them to get their cloths back.  Then suddenly the humans are chased by... Apes?  And so the film starts off, for me, with a bit of an amnesia like effect.  Where are we?  What's going on?  And what are these ape doing chasing humans?  And then things would develop over time, making me want to know the answer to the story.

After the first 2 drafts of AMNESIA it was discussed with my brother James that we really needed to bring more of the chase effect into the story.  The character of Allan doesn't just ask questions, but has to do it every so oftern between chase scenes.  The audience is always left wanting to know more.  Then we took the story up to the next level of this chase element.  These "soldiers", or whatever the audience wants to call them, are chasing the characters around, but they seem a bit impersonal.  We needed a main nemesis.  Someone, whom we can connect with as being the main antagonist that we are rooting willl loose.  This was when the "Derek" character was developed.  And this is where The Terminator influenced the film.  No, it wasn't because "Derek" has a red eye (that's a whole new story, and a much more important part of the story than anyone realizes).  It because if you watch the first terminator film the cyborg is scary, because he rarely talks.  He says only what is absolutely necessary.  "Derek" is much the same way.  The acting would have to be in the eyes, in the body gestures.  My friend, and actor, Andrew Doph played "Derek".  I knew he could give the expression with his eyes and his body to pull off the character.

In this scene below, Derek is chasing Allan Carter and a girl known as "Sandra".