The Noah's Ark Principle

The Noah's Ark Principle (German: Das Arche Noah Prinzip) is a 1984 West German science fiction film written and directed by Roland Emmerich as his thesis at the Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München (HFF).

Das Arche Noah Prinzip
Film poster
Directed by	Roland Emmerich
Produced by	Wolfgang Längsfeld Hans Weth Peter Zenk Executive producer Klaus Dittrich Ulrich Limmer Gabriele Walther
Written by	Roland Emmerich
Starring	Richy Müller Franz Buchrieser
Music by	Hubert Bartholomae
Cinematography	Egon Werdin
Edited by	Tomy Wigand
Distributed by	Filmverlag der Autoren
Release date	February 22, 1984 (1984-02-22)
Running time	100 minutes
Country	West Germany
Language	German
Budget	DEM 1,2 million

While his fellow students typically raised and spent 20,000 Deutsche Mark for their final work, Emmerich managed to collect a budget of 1,200,000 DM (around US$600,000).

This film, shot in color with mono sound, received a rating of 12 in West Germany, and was sold to 20 countries. It was submitted to the 34th Berlin International Film Festival[1] and received some acclaim for technical skill and special effects, but won no prizes.

Plot summary

The year is 1997, and world peace seems to have come, with most classic weapons of mass destruction having been abandoned. However, orbiting the Earth there is the European/American space station FLORIDA ARKLAB, capable of controlling the weather at any location on the planet underneath. A civil project by nature, it might be abused as an offensive weapon, since it could deliver devastation to any potential adversary simply by creating natural disasters such as storms and floods. The space station soon becomes the central point in rising political tensions between East and West, next stop World War 3 (as indicated by the tagline "The end of our future has already begun"). The film follows the main protagonist, Billy Hayes, an astronaut aboard the station, as he wades through a plot of secrecy and sabotage trying to tell friend from foe in the process.

Cast

• Richy Müller as Billy Hayes
• Franz Buchrieser as Max Marek
• Aviva Joel as Eva Thompson
• Matthias Fuchs as Felix Kronenberg
• Nikolas Lansky as Gregor Vandenberg
• Matias Heller as Security Guard

References

1. "Berlinale: 1984 Programme". berlinale.de. Retrieved 2010-11-24.

External links

• Das Arche Noah Prinzip on IMDb
• The Noah's Ark Principle at Rotten Tomatoes