The strange game board in the opening scene is the "Game of Ur," a game from ancient Mesopotamia. The game is still played in Iraq to this day. The board they're using appears to be a facsimile of the oldest surviving board, discovered in the Royal Tomb of Ur.
In the original short story by Philip K. Dick, the plot takes place on Earth instead of Sirius 6B. Originally, Screamers were developed by American troops hiding in the moon to destroy the Russian army after the Soviet Union had completely wiped out the United States.
In an episode of Entertainment Tonight (1981) which aired in 1995, when visiting the set the interviewer asks Peter Weller about his character. Weller, a notoriously private actor, replied; "he is paid and turns up and says the lines. That's all". No further subsequent interviews were given.
The designs of the helmets worn by Alliance infantry are styled after "galea", the helmets of Roman legionnaires. This is something of a running theme in the film, with two call-signs used by the soldiers being "Livy" (a Roman historian) and "Cicero" (a Roman statesman), Hendricksson's Roman coin, as well as the repeated description of the Screamers as "Autonomous swords". It is also noteworthy that the NEB uniform resembles the armour of a stylised Medieval knight.
Whether this is intended as a "War never changes" subtext or is only an arbitrary design choice is unclear.
Early versions of the screenplay were titled "Claw" in reference to the villainous robots, which are called "claws" in the original Philip K. Dick short story "Second Variety" instead of "screamers."
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content
