If you’ve ever imagined Contra, the classic Nintendo Entertainment System game, as an action-packed live-action movie, you’re in for a treat. A series of breathtaking images, produced by Taras Bambine with the aid of Artificial Intelligence, has surfaced on the Midjourney Official Facebook page. These stunning images are sure to make you believe that J.J. Abrams has taken on the task of bringing the 1987 video game to life on the big screen.
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Introducing Contra by J.J. Abrams
Taras Bambine, an avid user of the AI image rendering technology Midjourney, has created these stunning images using the prompt: ‘“Contra” (NES, 1987) film adaptation produced by J.J. Abrams” and the results are compelling.
The first image we see is the infamous Lance Bean, one of the two main protagonists of the Earth Marine Corp’s Contra unit, walking through the forests (whether it’s the fictional forests of the Galuga archipelago or the Amazon Jungle which was changed depending on where you got your copy of the game, we won’t know). His usual silver hair and bare chest have been traded for some fatigues and light blond hair.
Marking the scene with authentic J.J. Abrams action and effects is a soldier walking over a bridge through the jungle towards an epic-looking explosion. Where this would take place in the story is questionable, especially because “Cool guys don’t look back at explosions” and usually don’t walk towards them.
Next, we see a mean-looking tank in the excellent retro-futuristic style that marked any futuristic media in the 1980s, when the game was initially made. It blends in perfectly with the surrounding forest, clearly there for some covert exploration while assessing the threat to the compound in the woods.
The following image in the series is a group of Red Falcon enforcement patrolling the forest but in bright red tactical suits. While the game’s enemies wore dark red suits sometimes, it’s almost like the AI mixed up Contra and Metroid on this one.
Red Falcon has set up their base in the forest, but the outpost looks like it has been there for a while and doesn’t look too futuristic. Perhaps in this version, they have been working on their plan to wipe out humanity for a while, and the Earth Marine Corp’s Contra unit is there to stop them just in time.
Don’t worry, no one forgot about Bill Rizer, the brown-haired and usually equally bare-chested counterpart to Lance Bean, and unlike his squad mate, in this version, he has chosen to keep his short of as well. Walking through a retro-futuristic base that could be the Red Falcon outpost or a spaceship from the early Alien movies, he’s wielding a futuristic weapon that looks like it could do some severe damage.
This collection of images also gives us some of the antagonists to look at, including Black Viper, who looks like a highly menacing alien with glowing eyes and a set of extremely dangerous-looking bioluminescent teeth.
Speaking of the Alien franchise, next up, we see the Para-Slug Java, but the only thing that identifies the creature as the said entity is the teeth and the slightly fleshy skin tone. Otherwise, it looks like a xenomorph or even a neomorph, but with pinkish skin and missing the signature mouth within a mouth situation.
Lastly, we see the frequent boss of many games, the “Heaven King Demon-Breeding Heart”, Gomeramos King. This time, the beating heart of the demon who runs the Red Falcon outpost, and the mastermind behind the operation, takes up an entire room in yet another stunning image where biomechanical elements meet architecture. If this scene doesn’t make you think of H.R. Giger, the mastermind behind the xenomorph design, I’m not sure what will.
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Contra (1987)
This run-and-gun video game was developed and published by Konami, originally meant to be an arcade video game, in 1987. However, a home version of the game was also released for the Nintendo Entertainment System so anyone could enjoy it from their homes.
The story goes that two commandos from the Earth Marine Corp’s Contra unit, Bill Rizer and Lance Bean, are sent to investigate and destroy the Red Falcon base set up in the jungle, only to find an alien entity controlling the entire operation.
Unfortunately, these images were created by a fan, and this doesn’t mean that J.J. Abrams is making an epic, action-filled movie about the games, but looking at these images makes you want it to be true.
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TL;DR
- Taras Bambine set to work creating a set of images for a live-action Contra movie directed by J.J. Abrams, using AI.
- The images are well done, with everything in the right place. Besides one or two, it could be a live-action adaptation of the original NES game.
- This doesn’t mean that J.J. Abrams is actually making a live-action adaptation of Contra. Still, it would look as fantastic as these images if he ever did.
