On this day, 31 May, 1996, with the release of the film “The Arrival” the rocket scientist known as Charlie Sheen uncovered a dastardly alien plot to [spoiler alert] accelerate global warming.
No, seriously, spoilers.
My favourite scene by far – Charlie confronts his erstwhile boss in the “Search for Extra-terrestrial Intelligence” project (obvs the aliens – actually lizards in skin suits – would infiltrate humanity’s advance warning system, to make sure they were not detected.
I don’t have the IMDb to hand, so I am paraphrasing.
Charlie: I have figured it out – you are changing the Earth’s climate with your fiendish alien technology. It’s totally immoral!
Baddie (played by Ron Silver): We are merely accelerating a process that your species started, that you are fully aware of, and are too lazy or stupid to stop. Where’s the immorality?
(Compare Theodore Sturgeon’s short story, “Occam’s Scalpel”)
Why this matters.
There have been interesting cultural responses for a long time. This relatively early one is a goodie.
What happened next?
Sheen went off the deep end.
Silver went off the deep end after 911.