10 Video Games That Should Be Movies (And Who Should Direct Them)
2. J. J. Abrams' Half-Life
The Game:
Inspired by fellow games Doom and Quake, Stephen King's novella The Mist and an episode of the Outer Limits called The Borderlands, Half-Life is a unique and much-loved first-person shooter.
Set primarily in the Black Mesa Research Facility in the New Mexico desert (a fictional complex similar to Area 51), the game follows theoretical physicist Gordon Freeman in the aftermath of a botched experiment that would become known as the Black Mesa incident.
When an unexpected resonance cascade rips through dimensional seams, it not only destroys the facility, but opens a doorway to the Xen dimension, allowing its alien residents to pass into Gordon's world. The extraterrestrial gatecrashers are the least of his worries, however.
Freeman finds himself caught between aliens and a government task force sent to cover up the incident by eliminating any witnesses, both alien and human.
Why J. J. Abrams?
The newest golden boy of sci-fi expressed an interest in working on a theatrical version of Half-Life back in 2013 after a discussion with developer Valve's co-founder Gabe Newell. Things went quiet for a while after that, and when asked about it during his promotion of the brilliant sci-fi horror 10 Cloverfield Lane Abrams admitted there was nothing exciting to report.
If the film does come to fruition, then Abrams himself is perfectly placed to take on directing duties.
He earned his blockbuster stripes with Star Wars: The Force Awakens and his Star Trek reboot, though his earlier work in TV serves as a better example of what he could bring to Half-Life - Abrams' shows are anchored in the fear of the unknown, and Gordon Freeman's journey certainly isn't short of a mystery or two.