Southland Tales part I: Two Roads Diverge (2006)

SPOILER WARNING!!! This post spoils comic Southland Tales I: Two Roads Diverge (2006).

Comics were released before movie got real release year 2007. It is bit strange that these comics have small spoilers. Not anything major, but something that is revealed later in movie as minor twist. I will through those in this post, if they bring something new to story.

Southland Tales happen in alternative time line, where two nuclear bombs were exploded in Texas three years ago. After that USA turned into police state which monitors it's citizens and has mounted guns everywhere, that shoot everyone who acts hostile. You need to have state visa to travel between states.

First comic has three main characters, movie star Boxer Santaros, ex-pornstar Krysta Now and gambler Fortunio Balducci. Who is Fortunio Balducci you may ask? He is the character, who made least sense in movie. If you weren't paying attention, you might have missed him. He was the bald guy at Krysta Now's house and that is all I can tell at this point. I will get later to why his character made least sense. Balducci has lot of gambling debts to wrong people in Las Vegas. He is planning to escape to another state to give himself more time. His problem is, he doesn't have valid state visa and no money to buy new one. At boat party he meets Krysta Now, who promise to help him, if he can't get to another state another way.

Boxer Santaros wakes up at desert. He has lost his memory and doesn't know who he is. He has injection needles with something, that he uses on himself. Balducci finds Santaros at desert. He figures out, Santaros could be his key to different state. He takes Santaros to Krysta Now. Krysta comes up with plan to exploit Santaros' memory lost. She tells him, that they are planning to make new movie and Santaros has pay some money to get things going and to pay Balducci for finding him. Santaros pay gladly, because he feels, Balducci saved him. Balducci can pay his debts and he keeps hanging with Krysta and Santaros.

Police finds SUV with badly burned corpse at the desert. Baron von Westphalen and his gang is pulling strings behind the scenes. They steal the corpse from police and call to Santaros to tell him, he should do what Krysta Now tells him to do. They gave Santaros injection needles and tell him not to go to rollercoaster. Krysta Now tells him, he has to go to roller coaster before they can leave. Santaros goes to rollercoaster, which goes to fourth dimension and Santaros see indians over hundred years ago. This somehow closes the drift to fourth dimension. Did I tell you Southland Tales is weird?

That ends first part of Southland Tales. It was good and made sense until the roller coaster. That destroyed all the credibility comic had build up to that point. How Krysta knew, Santaros had to ride roller coaster? She had written screenplay, that reflected reality. She didn't know, she had this strange understanding of fourth dimension and apocalypse. Until that point she had been ex-pornstar, who wanted to make it also with her clothes on. Most of the movie she is like that. At Mega Zeppelin she knows what will happen. Until that there are no hints, she knows her secret powers. To be honest, story would be better without this angle.