Movie Substrate · Film
Small Soldiers (1998)
★ 6.6 · 2,307 ratings on TMDB
Big Movie.
When missile technology is used to enhance toy action figures, the toys soon begin to take their battle programming too seriously.
DirectorJoe Dante
The emergence reading
In Small Soldiers, consciousness is carried by toys and objects — a plane of “toy war”. The story fights on E8/E11 of the E0–E14 reality ladder, compressing technology, militarism, consumerism, corporate, friendship.
↷ toys and objectsUStechnologymilitarismconsumerismcorporatefriendship
Same rung, same subject
Films fighting at the same level of reality, about the same things.
Spaceballs (1987)E8/E11 · consumerism, militarism
Ron's Gone Wrong (2021)E8 · consumerism, friendship
The Brave Little Toaster (1987)E8 · consumerism, friendship
Monsters of Man (2020)E8 · corporate, militarism
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)E8/E11 · militarism, technology
Top Gun (1986)E8/E11 · militarism, technologySame subject, different rung
The same preoccupations examined at another scale — one mind versus a nation.
WALL·E (2008)E13/E14 · rare rung · consumerism, technology
Godzilla 2000: Millennium (1999)E6/E13 · rare rung · militarism, technology
The Stuff (1985)E14 · rare rung · consumerism, corporate
Them! (1954)E14 · rare rung · militarism, technology
Origin: Spirits of the Past (2006)E12/E13 · rare rung · militarism, technology
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water (2015)E9/E10 · consumerism, friendshipAlso hides consciousness here
Other films that move a human interior onto the same kind of thing.
Child's Play 2 (1990)consciousness in objects · killer doll
The Girl Who Escaped: The Kara Robinson Story (2023)consciousness in objects · toy-shelf world
Toy Story 3 (2010)consciousness in objects · toy shelf world
Barbie (2023)consciousness in objects · doll society
Toy Story 2 (1999)consciousness in objects · toy-shelf world
Ted (2012)consciousness in objects · toy-lifeSame subject, different mask
The same preoccupations carried by a different kind of thing — grief told through the dead, an animal, a machine.
Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)consciousness in monsters · consumerism, corporate
Kill Command (2016)consciousness in machines · corporate, militarism
Child's Play (2019)consciousness in machines · consumerism, corporate
Rampage (2018)consciousness in animals · corporate, technology
Monster Trucks (2016)consciousness in monsters · friendship, technology
Aliens vs Predator: Requiem (2007)consciousness in aliens · militarism, technology
