星际之门

　　《幸存者》讲述了十亿年前，外星异种来地球，进行各种生物培育，因为地壳运动剧烈，被火山岩浆淹埋。荒凉的北极科学探测站内，正欢呼石油的到来，钻台无故断电、矿井喷出神秘的胶体、员工被大卸八块……顿时失去控制，当站长亚当、凯特等反应过来，并组织起武装防卫时，95%的人们成了无辜冤魂，血肉模糊、脑髓迸射；不可抗力的人类浩劫就此爆发，从北极向全球疯狂蔓延……

　　一个外星人家庭在不幸意外地被美国探测太空船携回地球，他们在一阵混乱中冲出太空总署逃向沙漠，但小外星人麦克与家人失散，溜上了不良于行的艾瑞克家人的旅行车而跟著车到了内华达州。麦克在一次意外事件中救了艾瑞克之后，与艾瑞克兄弟和邻居女童黛比等人结为好友，并要求他们协助搜救在沙漠中垂死的家人。艾瑞克一行人终于在麦克的指引下找到他的家人并带他们回家，却不意在超级市场中造成骚动，警方及尾随而来的科学家们企图抓住他们而引发了冲击…

　　Wunder der Schöpfung is an extraordinary, fascinating Kulturfilm trying to explain the whole human knowledge of the 1920s about the world and the universe. 15 special effects experts and 9 cameramen were involved in the production of this film which combines documentary scenes, historical documents, fiction elements, animation scenes and educational impact. It its beautifully colored, using tinting and toning in a very elaborated way. Some visual ideas in the sequences with a space shuttle visiting different planets in the universe seem to have to be the inspiration for Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.
　　In the context of Germany's Kulturfilm phenomenon, Wunder der Schöpfung was among the greatest achievements of the 1920s. The production was constructed, rehearsed, and shot over a period of two and a half years, under the supervision of Hanns Walter Kornblum. The idea to describe the universe and man's place in it well suited UFA's Grossfilm mentality, one year before the Metropolis catastrophe. Hundreds of skilled craftsmen participated in the project, building props and constructing scale models drawn by 15 special effects draughtsmen, while 9 cameramen in separate units worked on the historical, documentary, fiction, animation, and science-fiction sequences. Without star roles or even protagonists, the film's plot is crowded with meticulously structured and skillfully acted single scenes an artful mosaic of small vignettes. No less than four credited university professors ensured the factual background behind the scientific and historical events portrayed.
　　The film's symbol of progress and the new scientific era is a spacecraft, travelling through the Milky Way, making all the planets and their inspiring worlds familiar to us, with the extravaganza of their distinctive features. The film's educational intentions, however, become steadily more obscure, humorous, or even campy as this popularization project proceeds. With the excuse of presenting the end of the world a not-so-new concept as a new, undeniably scientific truth, the film veers happily along a new path, displaying detailed apocalyptic scenes of the end of mankind. For today's audiences, this amazing film demonstrates how the universe was comprehended in the 1920s, and how that view was sold to contemporary audiences.