What do you do when you can’t leave the house? You could learn a new game. You could support one of the many charity gaming streams. Or you could get very desperate and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:play Dungeons & Dragons by yourself. Having already done some version of all of those, however, my roommate and I have turned to binging bad movies. That’s when I disco𓂃vered that Tom Hanks once starred in a movie about the dangers of .
The made-for-TV ‘80s flick is called Mazes and Monsters, and it stars a fresh-faced Hanks as troubled college student Robbie Wheeling. Wheeling and his friends all face some kind of family trauma, with his being that his brother ran away from home. Rather than properly face their demons (or apply themselves and get real hobbies, the movie warns), they escape through the titular tabletop RPG. When the G♒M tries to turn it into a LARP by having them play in an abandoned mine shaft, Wheeling loses his sense of reality. He comes to believe that he’s an actual cleric on a holy quest.
This mental health struggle is depicted in the best way a direct-to-TV movie in♔ 1982 knew how: through close-ups of Hanks shaking his head and writhing. He’s also haunted by a chee𒈔sy monster costume and a Gandalf-looking spirit guide who tells him to find two towers. This leads him to New York City, where he stabs a mugger because he hallucinates him as a monster. The climax is when Wheeling's party members talking him down from jumping off the Twin Towers.
But let’s back up. Why exactly is the D&D-esque game Mazes and Monsters to blame for all of this? The answer lies in the novel that it’s based on, also called Mazes and Monsters. The novel in turn is based on the true story of a college student who disappeared. The prevailing rumor at the time was that the student tried to play “real” D&D in an old service tunnel and died. This was at a time when many believed D&D 🔜to be a silly distraction at best and a demonic cult at worst. It would later be revealed that the student suffered from depression and tried to commit suicide, later going into hiding after the media circus over his disappearance. But, not unlike today, people weren’t 🦋willing to let a good headline go unused.
The novel was released quickly after the incident, taking advantage of the narrative that D&D was a dangerous fantasy that causedไ a young man’s decline. The movie follows suit by making the game the catalyst for Wheeling's ♒downfall. Yes he has some underlying issues, and desperately needs treatment. But in the end it was the fantasy roleplaying that broke him beyond repair.
As if to hammer that point home, the other party members are also depicted as being held back by the game. The GM (or Maze Controller, as this game calls it) who designs the mine shaft LARP is shown to have a flair for the dramatic. At the end of the movie he learns to channel this talent as a member of the theatre club. The guy who forms the Mazes and Monsters club wants to be a g꧅ame designer, but after the incident abandons his “silly” dream to be a computer engineer like his parents wanted. And it’s all wrapped up neatly by the party warrior, who wanted to be a writer. She narrates the ending, finding a lesson in how moving on from the game mad𝓡e all of their lives better.
Of course, this hot take on D&D doesn’t really understand D&D. It’s a match made in heaven when the gang discovers that Wheeling “Plays at the ninth level.” They also talk often about their “spell points” but never explain how they even work. When one player gets tired of the game, he throws his character into a spike pit and dies. No rolling for damage, no revival spells, and no rolling a new character to con༒tinue. Just game over.
Putting it all together, Mazes and Monsters sounds like the perfect fodder for bad movie night. Except it’s honestly kind of dull. There’s about 20-30 minutes of setup before they even play Mazes and Monsters. Then there’s another 20 or so minutes of that before the premise of the movie, Wheeling's hallucination, happens. Considering that neither the D&D or trauma are particularly accurate or compelling in their rendering, it’s not really worth the wait. As a D&D fan, it’s fascinating to know that this movie exists, and why it exists. It’s also neat to see a young Tom Hanks make the best of his first big role. But if you are curious about Mazes and Monsters, I’d suggest just going to Youtube for clips.