SHORT FILMS
Watch: Josh Tanner's Thrilling New Sci-Fi Short Film 'The Landing'
by Alex Billington
December 30, 2014
"Ain't no war without a real enemy, is it?" Wow. This a great short film to end the year with. Titled The Landing, this sci-fi thriller is about a father and his son who encounter something mysterious one night on the farm. As usual, the premise may not sound like much but this film just pulls you in and delivers a thrill with quite a big twist, which I won't dare spoil – you've got to watch this. The style is what makes this particularly impressive, it almost has an old Amblin/Spielberg feel to it, which is probably what they were going for and it works very well. Even the VFX are nice for a short film. Take a few minutes and fire this up.
From Vimeo: A man returns to the Midwestern farm of his childhood on a desperate mission to unearth the horrifying truth of what landed there in the summer of 1960. The Landing is directed by Josh Tanner, written by Josh Tanner & Jade van der Lei, produced by Jade van der Lei. The cast includes Henry Nixon, Tom Usher and David Roberts who you may recognize from The Matrix Revolutions as Roland. The film has won many awards, including Best Short Film at the 46th Sitges International Film Festival. To see a VFX featurette on the production, head to Vimeo. For more on the short film, visit thelandingfilm.com.
35 Comments
1
to make the twist they are playing with the laws of nature and think we are stupid! To hit earth with that velocity you will die for certain. Russian landingpods land with 3 big big parachutes. So completley idiotic movie,,
ari smulders on Dec 31, 2014
2
If you think it's so idiotic, how about you make a better short film....troll
Joker's hideout on Dec 31, 2014
3
i wouldn't make a movie who thinks the audience is stupid and ignorant. I think it's specialy made for you haha
ari smulders on Dec 31, 2014
5
omg! you not comprehend life,sorry for judging to fast!
ari smulders on Dec 31, 2014
7
indeed english is not my first language but in this case i did it on purpose...
ari smulders on Dec 31, 2014
8
In that case Ari you have graduated from being a troll to an online douche.
Joker's hideout on Dec 31, 2014
9
says the guy with no hair on face and watching porn al day,,,
ari smulders on Dec 31, 2014
10
You sure you're not looking in the mirror? *you walked into that one*
Joker's hideout on Dec 31, 2014
11
says the guy who names himself the joker's hideout? Hahaha you are tiny little guy and you don't have balls to show himself and hides behind his mommy! Realy you are child and a backstabber...
ari smulders on Dec 31, 2014
12
Ari, whatever is going on with you, you're obviously very frustrated. I'm sorry you're having such a terrible day. Hopefully in the new year things will look up. Remember, things are not as bad as they seem....
TheOct8pus on Dec 31, 2014
13
noop not frustrated,just looking down on everybody who haven't got the guts to use there own name and critizise other for there opinion. Realy i am a way better person than people who hide!
ari smulders on Dec 31, 2014
14
You're right Ari. Your video named "Thuis" on your Youtube channel is far better and more realistic that this short film.
TheOct8pus on Dec 31, 2014
15
thanks fr your tip! i erased it immediately...was a test...
ari smulders on Dec 31, 2014
16
Why would you erase a video? Thought you didn't want to hide? The way you respond to forum members is below anything I have seen in a long time. Please stop that. Let's go back to the topic. Ari says the beginning of this movie lacks realism because he thinks the pod is crashing so hard that the passenger should have died instantly. The point itself seems valid to me. Realism is relevant in a movie unless the whole premise of a movie is centered around unrealistic starting point. Like the starting point in a zombie movie is that dead people start walking and want to eat us. We accept that because it is the whole premise. What we should not accept in a zombie movie is other unrealistic stuff that is not by itself part of the premise, like arbitrary laws of nature not working as they should. Having said that; have a look again at how fast the pod is falling from the sky. It moves from cloud to the ground in a full 10 seconds (2.23 - 2.33). Since it is only a few hundred yards away from the farm, the distance it covers in 10 seconds is not that big. Hence the speed of the pod is not extremely high. Maybe there were parachutes, but perhaps they have been dropped before. We don't know. Maybe there was some kind of airbag system, we don't know. So perhaps it was realistic for the passenger to survive.
Nash on Jan 1, 2015
17
in the beginning you see something crashing with high velocity. Than the dad circles a round metal object( the son digs it up years later). No human can survive a crash at that time( 1960-1970) in a round metal sphere . But the director lets us think it's from outerspace in the beginning. If he had changed the impact of the sphere it would be plausible,. But to make the twist factor is like you said is very wrong and it defies the laws of gravity.
ari smulders on Jan 1, 2015
18
I understand your point but the crash doesn't seem so hard because the distance the pod seems to travel in those 10 seconds is very little. Look at the perspective from 2.23 - 2.33. The distance the pod covers while falling is smaller than the distance from the farm to the crash site. Meaning the fall from the clouds would have been about a 100 or 200 yards down. If I do the math, I would end up with an impact speed of around 50 km per hour. That is a solid crash, but it can be survived. The fact that the son has to dig the pod up in order to expose it, doesn't mean the crash was very hard. The father likely buried the pod later on. I agree the crash leaves us with questions about how the passenger survived, but I don't think survival was impossible.
Nash on Jan 1, 2015
19
None of any of what you've written (especially your last post) made any sense in any language. Work on your combacks Ari...they're pathetic.
Joker's hideout on Dec 31, 2014
20
combacks??? hahaha and i am from the netherlands!! haha great! the joker's hideout is getting emotional! hahahaha
ari smulders on Dec 31, 2014
21
You are the biggest d-bag troll ever
santabunny on Dec 31, 2014
22
and your name is santabunny????? haha
ari smulders on Dec 31, 2014
23
Slow day, Ari?
TheOct8pus on Dec 31, 2014
24
What makes you think they didn't use parachutes? Maybe we, the audience, just didn't see them. Besides, this is A MOVIE, not a true to life documentary. Seriously, have some imagination.
TheOct8pus on Dec 31, 2014
25
it's big mistake,so a shitty movie...
ari smulders on Dec 31, 2014
26
It's not a mistake. While it's futile to argue with you, you should learn to suspend your disbelief and accept things in films that don't make sense in reality. Like I said above, your beef is unfounded. How are they playing with the laws of nature? Who said there WEREN'T any parachutes? And who gives a shit anyway!!? You've completely missed the point of the movie by getting hung up on something IRRELEVANT to the spirit of the story.
TheOct8pus on Dec 31, 2014
27
realy crashing into the ground in a iron ball with 330 km and surving it ? I think everybody in russia have superpowers! hahahahahahahah
ari smulders on Dec 31, 2014
28
The Cosmonaut in this film didn't exactly look like he was going to run a marathon. Maybe he did get hurt, or maybe his pod had a special airbag inside to protect him. We don't know that! We definitely don't know that the pod crashed at 330 km an hour. Where did you get that number anyway? Don't you care about things like Character Arc or Cinematography? These are the things that make films great, not complaining about plot holes! Some of the best films have HUGE plot holes that we overlook because the film itself is beautiful! Why did the builders of the Death Star design it with a self destruct hole that merely needs to be shot into by a tiny spacecraf? Why couldn't the Eagles have come at the beginning of Lord of the Rings and taken care of the Orcs and dragons? Interstellar is filled with plot holes…the list goes on, but who cares? This is FICTION and what makes fiction beautiful, is our ability to experience something that is not rooted in reality.
TheOct8pus on Dec 31, 2014
29
realy for 14 minit movie its a big mistake,and realy do you think a human can survive?
ari smulders on Dec 31, 2014
30
Nobody cares but you. I feel sorry for you that you can't enjoy things like fiction, without getting your panties in a bunch. And no, probably nobody can survive in REALITY, but this is a MOVIE where ANYTHING can happen, so your point is irrelevant. How did that old man dig such a huge hole without getting COVERED in dirt? Who cares? It's IRRELEVANT to the plot.
TheOct8pus on Dec 31, 2014
31
Snap! I caught this when io9 featured it. Wow!...so good.
DAVIDPD on Dec 31, 2014
32
That's some heavy shit.
TheOct8pus on Dec 31, 2014
33
Story was fine but so needlessly meladramtic which ruined it for me.
ff on Dec 31, 2014
34
That's why it's good. You expected an alien but then there was something else.
Nash on Jan 1, 2015
35
I can not believe the number of idiots who completely miss the point of this film!! Its a film, its not mean to be real or scientifically accurate what it does do is deal in a very real way with prejudice and social stereotyping. Of course its wrong on so many levels from a technical point of view. That is not the point of the film any more than technical accuracy is the point of Star Wars or Star Trek! This film is brilliant in the way it defines so many different things, the Cold War, Xenophobia, and last but not least if we react with such hostility to a 'human alien' how much worse might we react to a real 'alien'
Remollino on Apr 25, 2015
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