4. Jupiter's Name Is Inspired By The Three Investigators
Jupiter Ascending's influences should be pretty obvious to anyone with a fleeting knowledge of genre fiction. There's a heavy debt to Dune, and probably more than The Wachowskis wish to the likes of Flash Gordon and The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. The whole thing feels like an adaptation of the first entry in an epic book series that runs for eleven entries of ever increasing complexity, only without the presence of said book series the lack of depth is more glaring. Those aren't the only literary touchstones, however. Jupiter Jones is named after the lead in The Three Investigators, a kids crime series noteworthy for having the children report to Alfred Hitchcock for some reason. Jupiter in print is the leader of the gang, consistently solving the crimes. So, somewhat destined to save the day then? Yeah, that's a bit tenuous. The likely strong link between the two is Jones' outlook - he solves the crimes using Occam's razor, the idea that the theory with the least assumptions is correct, which links to the film's Jupiter's gradual acceptance of the whole Abrasax Corporation. Whatever, at least it explains why a Russian family took the name Jones (and also serves as the inspiration for Titus' name - he's Jupiter's uncle in the books).
