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"I find myself on the planet Ogo, part of an intellectual elite, preparing to subjugate the barbarian hordes on Pluto. But even though this is a totally convincing reality for me in every way, nevertheless Ogo is actually a construct of my psyche. I am mentally divergent, in that I am escaping certain unnamed realities that plague my life here. When I stop going there, I will be well. Are you also divergent, friend?" -Twelve Monkeys
I got to go as Bruce Willis, time-traveler from the future, in Terry Gilliam's classic Twelve Monkey's, almost by accident. Everything fell into place a week before Halloween for a near-perfect James Cole costume. It's pretty bizarre and I'm pretty amazed my brother didn't mind being seen with me and I think that's all the introduction it needs. Here's how I did it.
Quite a few people approached me to find out "what the heck I was supposed to be" ("Ghostbusters 2020" and "Bubble Boy" were the most common guesses) so I think I at least met the "obscure" criterion for my personal checklist of costume goals. But then again, everyone got it when I told them, so there is that consolation.
The funny thing about the costumes I pick is that I need a freaking handler. I just seem to have a knack for making unwieldy ludicrous death traps.
I got to go as Bruce Willis, time-traveler from the future, in Terry Gilliam's classic Twelve Monkey's, almost by accident. Everything fell into place a week before Halloween for a near-perfect James Cole costume. It's pretty bizarre and I'm pretty amazed my brother didn't mind being seen with me and I think that's all the introduction it needs. Here's how I did it.
Quite a few people approached me to find out "what the heck I was supposed to be" ("Ghostbusters 2020" and "Bubble Boy" were the most common guesses) so I think I at least met the "obscure" criterion for my personal checklist of costume goals. But then again, everyone got it when I told them, so there is that consolation.
The funny thing about the costumes I pick is that I need a freaking handler. I just seem to have a knack for making unwieldy ludicrous death traps.
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Signing UpStep 1Parts and Tools
I took a few artistic liberties with this but that really is the best way to do it if you want to have fun making it. As long as it is in the same style, and has a few overall definitive features, you've got a costume. In this case it's the easy parts that really have to be dead on:
The Suit: This is the most important part. It is the seed of the costume. Mine is a completely transparent two-piece anti-chemical suit from a nuclear power station. I can't think of anywhere else you could possible get on of these. It will take a little modification to allow you to breathe and so forth.
Boots: The ones in the movie are military issue "Bunny Boots," designed for subzero temperatures. They have a neat little valve on them so the air bladder in them doesn't explode if you wear them on an airplane I got these on accident, thinking I could never even come close to the ones in the movie. Turns out, the only difference between mine and Bruce Willis' is that mine are black. They call 'em "Mickey Mouse" boots, instead. Military Surplus rocks.
Gloves: Lot's of things will work, Heavy rubber linesman's gloves worked the best for me.
Goggles: They do nothing. Bt they look good. Tank driver goggles. Military Surplus again!
Some Kind of Underpants: I made the decision to wear nothing underneath except something to make my costume g-rated. It made the whole thing a lot more surreal and Gilliamesque, and even though that's not how it was in the movie, I opted to basically combine naked-in-a-tube-traveling-through-time Bruce Willis with collecting-bugs-in-a-wierd-see-through-suit Bruce Willis into one super-weird Willis. For some reason time traveling nearly naked is just... awesome.
I had my heart set on the space-thong Sting wears in Dune but I couldn't find anything close on short notice. At the last minute I tried to throw something together using anti-static bags from motherboards, but I ended up just wearing black jockeys instead. Dang.
Ray-gun: The ray-gun I had made earlier and fit the style of the costume. I needed a prop for Bruce Willis to carry, as in the movie he had all sorts of wierd bags and tubes and stuff he was carrying around for some reason. This worked just swell, and added to the blinky light quotient of my costume.
Backpack: This is the part that requires a straight day and night of nonstop, hardcore work. I basically filled up three grocery bags with hardware and electronics and tubes from Ax-Man Surplus (shameless plug; i work there and got almost all the parts for this there) and bolted it to a backpack frame. More on that later.
Tools & Materials
* Dremel
* soldering iron & solder
* Hot Glue gun & glue
* Wierd electronics and neat looking odds and ends
* lots of tubes
* backpack frame
* giant glowstick
* suction cups of some kind
* 2 9v batteries and clips
* 2 small 12v muffin fans
* suction cups of some kind
* spirit gum (and remover!)
* medical tape
The Suit: This is the most important part. It is the seed of the costume. Mine is a completely transparent two-piece anti-chemical suit from a nuclear power station. I can't think of anywhere else you could possible get on of these. It will take a little modification to allow you to breathe and so forth.
Boots: The ones in the movie are military issue "Bunny Boots," designed for subzero temperatures. They have a neat little valve on them so the air bladder in them doesn't explode if you wear them on an airplane I got these on accident, thinking I could never even come close to the ones in the movie. Turns out, the only difference between mine and Bruce Willis' is that mine are black. They call 'em "Mickey Mouse" boots, instead. Military Surplus rocks.
Gloves: Lot's of things will work, Heavy rubber linesman's gloves worked the best for me.
Goggles: They do nothing. Bt they look good. Tank driver goggles. Military Surplus again!
Some Kind of Underpants: I made the decision to wear nothing underneath except something to make my costume g-rated. It made the whole thing a lot more surreal and Gilliamesque, and even though that's not how it was in the movie, I opted to basically combine naked-in-a-tube-traveling-through-time Bruce Willis with collecting-bugs-in-a-wierd-see-through-suit Bruce Willis into one super-weird Willis. For some reason time traveling nearly naked is just... awesome.
I had my heart set on the space-thong Sting wears in Dune but I couldn't find anything close on short notice. At the last minute I tried to throw something together using anti-static bags from motherboards, but I ended up just wearing black jockeys instead. Dang.
Ray-gun: The ray-gun I had made earlier and fit the style of the costume. I needed a prop for Bruce Willis to carry, as in the movie he had all sorts of wierd bags and tubes and stuff he was carrying around for some reason. This worked just swell, and added to the blinky light quotient of my costume.
Backpack: This is the part that requires a straight day and night of nonstop, hardcore work. I basically filled up three grocery bags with hardware and electronics and tubes from Ax-Man Surplus (shameless plug; i work there and got almost all the parts for this there) and bolted it to a backpack frame. More on that later.
Tools & Materials
* Dremel
* soldering iron & solder
* Hot Glue gun & glue
* Wierd electronics and neat looking odds and ends
* lots of tubes
* backpack frame
* giant glowstick
* suction cups of some kind
* 2 9v batteries and clips
* 2 small 12v muffin fans
* suction cups of some kind
* spirit gum (and remover!)
* medical tape
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This Halloween I was Disney's Robin Hood, auxiliary costume was Mighty Max. That's right, I attend multiple Halloween parties in different costumes. You always need to have a 'showboat' costume though.
Good job.
www.widerscreenings.com/brazil1.jpg
But this...this is Flippin' sweet! You are a brave man, to venture into the night thusly attired...
Your backpack is a good template to follow for doing a Ghostbusters proton pack, something that has been eating at the project portion of my brain for a time now.
Fantastic job!
Pros- That character is played by Michael Palin, you could carry around all sorts of dangerous-looking instruments.
Cons- Not enough electricity involved...
Let me know when you're a technology samurai, and we can do battle, Brazil-style!
Oh, and thanks! I don't regret it (it was way fun) but I still can't remember how I convinced myself to wear just underpants.
2. the sting picture made me el oh el.
On behalf of my warcraft guild, Cassandra Complex, I salute you and your creation, sir.
Is Ben Nye in any way related to BIll Nye?