Sci-Fi High

Need some tiding over between annual installments of the beloved, 24-hour Music Box Massacre? This weekend, the Music Box and Massacre organizer Rusty Nails are inaugurating what should become the Massacre's less grueling but equally captivating and deranged little sibling: The 14-hour Sci-Fi Spectacular, running from noon Saturday to 2 a.m. Sunday. Those who show up early at 11:15 a.m. can catch an episode from an old Flash Gordon serial. Here's what you'll see:

12:10 p.m: Metropolis (1927)
A formidable, two-hour start to this long day and night, the recently restored Metropolis remains an eerie, gorgeous experience. It's not so much Fritz Lang's vision of utopian struggle; it's the way he turned the limitations of the day's production values into an otherworldly universe.

2:15 p.m.: A Trip To The Moon (1902); Haredevil Hare (1948)
The further back you go, the more fanciful the imagined future seems, as these animated shorts prove. A Trip To The Moon captures Jules Verne's vision; Haredevil Hare puts Bugs Bunny in space (what more do you need?).

2:30 p.m.: Forbidden Planet (1956)
Brawny, bulky '50s sci-fi, with plenty of melodramatic talk like: "In times long past, this planet was the home of a mighty, noble race of beings who called themselves the Krell. Ethically and technologically they were a million years ahead of humankind . . . "

4:30 p.m.: Serenity (2005)
Say what you will about Buffy nerds, that show was damned entertaining. Because Joss Whedon, who wrote and directed Serenity, is a fast-paced, sleek, and funny entertainer.

6:30 p.m.: Duck Dodgers In The 24 1/2 Century (1953); The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)
The Day The Earth Stood Still star Patricia Neal will be on hand for the screening of yet another urgent-toned '50s classic, and will speak and sign autographs afterward.

9:15 p.m.: THX 1138 Electronic 4EB (1971)
A student film from George Lucas. Possibly more arousing to nerds than Stan Lee's sweaty socks.

9:30 p.m.: Mad Max (1979)
From the Music Box's description: "We see the final days of normality of a man who had everything to live for, and his slip into the abyss of madness." And then saw it again on the evening news.

11 p.m.: 10-minute break
Pussies!

11:15 p.m.: La Jetee (1962)
A short film that reputedly inspired 12 Monkeys.

11:45 p.m.: Terminator (1984)
You think you can snub it, film snobs, but you don't have the strength.

1:34 a.m.: Starship Troopers (1997)
Any film based on a Robert Heinlein novel is bound to be a little crazy, but Starship Troopers is truly a brutal, psychotic fit of a film, and an amazing one at that. The perfect batshit-crazy end to a perfect batshit-crazy outing.

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