Monday, April 4, 2011

Freeze Frame! - The Fate of the Venture


Here at Boom Pop! we consider Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow to be a modern classic.  Masterfully realized and distinctly underrated, it is a loving homage to pulp, movie serials and golden age comic book heroes.  I decided to seek out one of its notable but not altogether obvious Easter Eggs, one that pays subtle tribute to a very famous film classic.

When Sky Captain navigates an underwater landscape on approach to Dr. Totenkopf's island, he passes by a sunken vessel identified on its hull as the Venture.  The S.S. Venture was the tramp steamer used to travel to Skull Island in the original King Kong and its sequel Son of Kong.   Peter Jackson recreated the Venture in his 2005 King Kong remake.  Totenkopf is in fact the German word for "skull," and Totenkopf's island is not so coincidentally populated with prehistoric-type creatures.