Guest From the Future

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Guest from the Future (Гостья из будущего) is a 1984 Cult Classic Soviet Science Fiction TV Miniseries directed by Pavel Arsenov. It is based on the book One Hundred Years Ahead by Kir Bulychev, part of a series about Alisa Seleznyova, a girl from the future.

The series is considered a classic of Soviet sci-fi, and is often aired on television to this day. It exemplifies the optimism the Soviets had for science, technology, and futurism, as well as their faith in children. The film was followed by a sequel, Lilac Sphere. The theme song "Prekrasnoye Daleko" (roughly "Fair Unknown") by Yevgeny Krylatov has also become very popular. The star, Natalia Guseva, was inspired by her role in the film to become a scientist herself. The Fan Sequel Guest from the Future 2 may be seen here.

Tropes used in Guest From the Future include:
  • Adaptation Distillation: The plot moves a lot faster, the space pirates are more dangerous, and we get Werther.
  • Applied Phlebotinum
    • The Mielofon.
    • The time machines.
    • The robots.
    • The flying cars.
    • The portals.
    • The inventory chamber.
  • Ascetic Aesthetic
  • Bavarian Fire Drill: Jolly U and Rat tell Albina they are from a psychiatric hospital for dangerous children, and Alisa, the most dangerous person, has escaped. Albina gives them the information they need.
  • The Bechdel Test: Passes. Alisa and Yulia, while in the hospital, start by talking about where they are from, and then talk about food. Later on, they talk about Kolya and other boys, but not in a romantic sense, as they are trying to figure out which Kolya is the one who visited the future.
  • Big Damn Heroes: The children come to save Kolya from the pirates, Marta Erasovna steps in to defend the children against the pirates, and then Polina appears from the future to arrest the pirates.
  • Big Heroic Run: Plenty of running around Moscow.
  • Black Box: The Mielofon, literally.
  • Blatant Lies:
    • Jolly U: "We have no right to traumatize an innocent child."
    • The man who saw the pirates carry Kolya away lies to the children, but is discovered by Mielofon.
  • Brick Joke: Marta Erasovna coming to the old house to look for Alisa, having chased after her for the last two episodes.
  • Casual Interstellar Travel
  • Chekhov's Gun: The Mielofon. It can read the mind of any life form, so Alisa is at first using it on a crocodile at the zoo. Near the end, the children use it to read the mind of the witness and find Kolya in the old house.
  • Children Are Innocent: When the schoolchildren are looking for Kolya after he was carried away by the pirates, the eyewitness asks "What if [the pirates] have a right to carry boys?" The children reply, as one, "THERE IS NO SUCH RIGHT!" The pirates' torture of Kolya is played much darker than most of their other deeds.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture: How the pirates plan to extract the location of the Mielofon from Kolya.
  • Composite Character: Werther is a combination of several future characters from the book.
  • Computer Voice: The time machine has a computer that speaks in a flat male voice. "Enter the circle. Grasp the handrails. Close your eyes. Breathe deeply. [after trip] Transfer finished. Happy trip!"
  • Cool Car: The flying cars.
  • Creepy Basement: In the abandoned house.
  • Cult Classic: Mainstream back when it was released, but today and in the world overall it is a cult classic.
  • Cut Lex Luthor a Check: The book has the Rat using his shapeshifting for actor work.
  • Dawson Casting: Averted.
  • Description Porn: The inventory chamber in the Time Institute gives for life forms their species, location, and home era, and for objects their purpose, make, model, producer, and date of production. See here.
  • Dog Walks You: The big dog that chases Jolly U pulls its owner.
  • The Dulcinea Effect: Alisa chasing after Kolya.
  • Dynamic Entry: The pirates crash their flying car into the doors of the Time Institute.
  • Encyclopedia Exposita: The inventory chamber.
  • Everything Sensor: The inventory chamber.
  • Evil-Detecting Dog: Dogs don't like the pirates very much.
  • Fan Sequel: Гостья из будущего-2 (Guest from the Future 2), in which a now-teenaged Alisa comes from the future and asks Kolya to help her fight Harry Potter, who is in fact a robot from the future who came to the beginning of the 21st century to stupefy people. They fight Harry Potter, destroy his transmitter, and then fix the world by driving a Cool Car Time Machine that returns things to the way they were in the 1980s. See it here.
  • Flying Car
  • The Future: 2084.
  • Getting Crap Past The Mielofon:

"It's some kind of fool who's in love. I don't feel comfortable listening to her."
"It's not entertainment; it's business."
"And we're not supposed to have satisfaction doing that."

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