I was eleven when John Carpenter’s Big Trouble in Little China came out and wrecked me for life. Written by many of the same people responsible for The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, it has that same rollicking glee, as if it were a movie of unexplored hyperlinks assembled by a brilliant teenager with unlimited creativity and a still-emerging sense of good taste.
In one pivotal scene the heroes pause for a drink in, of all things, the personal mini-bar of the immortal Chinese warlord they’re trying to kill. (I warned you it was that kind of movie.) Here, the friendly wizard Egg Shen reveals he’s brought with him the legendary Six Demon Bag —
“Terrific. Sensational. A Six Demon Bag,” one hero says dryly, unimpressed. “What’s in it, Egg?”
“Wind! Fire! That sort of thing!” Egg declares proudly…
… and we never see it get used again.
Heck of a wasted opportunity, if you ask me.
In the early 2000s I was in graduate school for computer science, and knew in the future I’d want to stake out my own personal domain. I registered sixdemonbag.org, because, hey: there are many worse things to be than an organization devoted to wind, fire, and all those sorts of things.