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At some point, AI will replace stuntmen with completely synthesized action scenes. Contrast that with the money that was poured into one scene in MI7 where Tom Cruise rides a bike off a cliff.

If AI could make us feel the same way as Tom Cruise himself jumping off a cliff, isn't it a no-brainer to use it?

If we stretch this scenario to the ultimate - Generating an entire movie using AI, it doesn't feel as fun, as real. But I wonder if it is the future



I don't know. Part of the appeal of Tom Cruise doing it for real is that you know it's real. They emphasize that in the behind the scenes materials. The experience is vastly different to mostly-CGI movies like Marvel.


Agreed; watching Marvel movies these days feels like watching someone else play a video game. Less interesting, actually.


But the Marvel movies make more money and sell more merchandise, which is really all that matters.


Don’t be so sure! Top Gun Maverick made more money than any marvel movie last year.


Yes, but I am sure Marvel made it up in volume. There are only so many Tom Cruises on bikes to go around, while Marvel is pumping out something every other week.


They also didn't field a marquee marvel title, and people are suffering a bit from marvel fatigue at any rate.


TIL they made a sequel to Top Gun...


Today? Go watch it, it might still be in cinemas, it's a fantastic movie.

(Disclaimer: I'm a big fan of Tom Cruise's movies, especially the Mission:Impossible franchise)


Yep. They absolutely could have done that stunt for much much cheaper by using a stand in. Tom Cruise does his own stunts because its marketing for the movie, and he enjoys it


Yeah. It feels overdone because it can all be CGI so just go crazy with it. Sure, it's a fantasy movie, but at a certain point it feels too much

(they're not the only ones guilty on that, obviously)


This generative AI stuff always makes me feel like my world is just a dynamically generated RPG or MMORPG.


Same. I don't actually believe this to be true, but I have had the thought that as I get older there's been a clear progression of tech being created which could convincingly create a fake reality. The thought being that at the culmination of my life will be the perfection of this tech followed by the universe revealing that my existence has been an elaborate generative hallucination all along.


> my existence has been an elaborate generative hallucination all along.

Consider the fact that there is no objective 'blue', there is a wavelength with a particular frequency measured in hertz, but the wavelength is not the same thing as what we know to be color...

See, what happens is: a photon (oscillating at a frequency) hits a rod or cone in your eye tuned to detect that frequency of light: which travels down the optic nerve as an electro-chemical signal (no more photons involved at all at this point). Which eventually turns into a chemical reaction in your brain. That chemical reaction is 'blue' to us - not the photon that never reaches this point nor even the original frequency: just our brain's translated chemical signal; it's interpretation of 'blue'.

Blue is your brain hallucinating what it thinks that frequency actually is... blue is a "guess" at reality...

So yes, your brain IS generating an elaborate hallucination after all.


Even more so than that, “blue” is not even attempting to “guess” at reality. A more accurate statement is that the concept of “blue” is a useful abstraction for the goals of the vision system of your brain.


What makes you believe those photons and chemicals and the brain exist when you have no access to any of that and all of the information about it comes from your mind (the only thing guaranteed to exist)?


i mean...wow. that's a bit mind blowing


That's just simulation theory with extra steps.


" Contrast that with the money that was poured into one scene in MI7 where Tom Cruise rides a bike off a cliff."

I don't know much about stunt stuff but I don't really understand the fuzz about this. Taking a bike down a ramp and then pulling a parachute doesn't seem to be that crazy compared to a lot of other stuff people are doing.


But not today.

I still prefer the practical effects of films like Mad Max Fury Road over most full CGI FX movies.


Or even further back in time: I watched "The Thing" (1982) the other day and the practical effects were far more frightening than any CGI monsters I've ever seen.


This is the new "you will own nothing and be happy."

Your world is synthetic and you will like it.


Maybe once it can also make Tom Cruise feel like he rode that bike off a cliff.




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