Harsh Realm

Harsh Realm
File:Harsh Realm.jpg Harsh Realm title screen
Created by	Chris Carter
Starring	Scott Bairstow D.B. Sweeney and Terry O'Quinn
Country of origin	USA
No. of episodes	9
Production
Running time	approx. 0:44 (per episode)
Original release
Network	Fox Broadcasting Company
Release	October 8, 1999 – October 22, 1999

Harsh Realm is a science fiction television series about humans trapped inside a virtual reality simulation. It was created by Chris Carter, best known for his series The X-Files, and began airing on the FOX Network on October 8, 1999. The series fared poorly in the ratings and was removed from the schedule after just three of its nine episodes had aired. After cancelled, the nine episodes were produced. Three episodes originally aired on FOX Network, the remaining six premiered on Fox's channel FX Networks.

The term "harsh realm" originates from the "grunge speak" hoax of 1992.

The show was loosely based on a comic book by James D. Hundall and Andrew Paquette. When the creators noticed the credits read "Created by Chris Carter", they sued Fox to get properly credited. The credits were changed to read "Inspired by the Harsh Realm comic book series, Created by James D. Hudnall and Andrew Paquette, Published by Harris Publications, Inc."

Setting

"Technology and the threat of nuclear annihilation in the last half of the 20th century have changed the world forever. They changed war and its consequences, as they have forever changed the battlefield and the warriors who must still fight there. It's been estimated that a nuclear device the size of a small suitcase, smuggled in and detonated in New York City would kill several million people instantly and many times that amount with radioactive fallout. This scenario prompted the DOD to create the project code named Harsh Realm. Using the 1990 census, satellite cartography and other classified data, the creators of Harsh Realm have created a virtual reality where landscapes and people are identical to our world, down to every man woman and child. By putting players into this simulated crisis scenario..."
-- An introductory video to Harsh Realm viewed by Tom Hobbes in the pilot episode.

This voiceover was voiced by Gillian Anderson who played Dana Scully on The X-Files and is also this series' only apparent link with its parent franchise.

Harsh Realm is a military simulation programmed by the US Army and went online October 13, 1995. For several hours, there was no distinction between our world and Harsh Realm. At noon, a nuclear bomb the size of a briefcase was detonated in New York City. Four million people were killed instantly. ("Camera Obscura") From that point onwards, Harsh Realm became a training simulation for a post-apocalyptic disaster scenario. With this premise, Harsh Realm borrowed liberally from such genres as Cyberpunk, alternative history, and Fantasy.

Lieutenant Tom Hobbes is unknowingly thrust into this world by his superiors with one mission: to kill Omar Santiago. Along the way, he meets fellow soldiers sent into the game and alternate versions of people he knew in the real world. Tom Hobbes quickly finds companions such as Mike Pinocchhio (a cynical long-time resident of Harsh Realm), Florence (a mute with mysterious powers), and Dexter (an alternate version of his real world dog).

Lieutenant Tom Hobbes' target is General Omar Santiago, the highest scorer in Harsh Realm. General Santiago controlled five eastern seaboard states in a police-state dictatorship and was actively conquering more from a base of power, Santiago City. Its exact real world location is unknown but is located fairly close to New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Santiago City is a police-state dictatorship.

From his new companions, Tom Hobbes learns that General Santiago has in fact hijacked Harsh Realm. Hobbes is merely the latest soldier in a long line of soldiers sent to kill General Santiago. Hobbes also learns from a mysterious "ally", Inga Fossa, that General Santiago is planning the ultimate act of terrorism in the real world so that Harsh Realm is all that remains.

Some fans speculate this to mean that Santiago will execute a terrorist attack in the real world similar to the one in the Harsh Realm scenario, and executing a takeover of the real world using the knoweldge he'd gained in Harsh Realm.

It is this world that Tom Hobbes must survive, defeat General Santiago, save the real world, and somehow return to his real life and his fiancee, Sophie Green.

"It's just a game." -- Harsh Realm tagline.

Episode Information

See also: List of episodes of Harsh Realm

A box set with the 9 completed episodes, including those unaired on network television in the USA, was released on region 1 DVD on August 24, 2004. The box features two commentary tracks on the pilot episode by the show's creator and director as well as other minor special features.

Characters

Tom Hobbes

• Lieutenant Thomas F. Hobbes was close to his discharge from the Army when he was called to do one last mission and sent into the virtual reality simulation known as Harsh Realm. He left behind in New Jersey his fiancee Sophie Green. They had planned to move to California. He was decorated for saving the life of his friend Waters when they served together in Sarajevo in 1994. In the realm, Hobbes was reunited with the virtual character of his dog Dexter. He also came upon the dying virtual copy of his mother, Katherine, at the same time she was dying of cancer in the real world. He grew up in Columbus, Ohio. His name is likely a reference to philosopher Thomas Hobbes. His gun is an Walther P99.

Mike Pinocchio

• Corporal Mike Pinocchio served in Desert Storm. After that, he served in Yugoslavia, where he was severely injured by a land mine. The loss of his leg and eye prompted him to volunteer to go into Harsh Realm (in which Pinocchio has neither injury). In the Realm, he worked for Santiago before presumably faking his own death and going to live outside the fence. He drives a modified 1970s era Chevrolet Chevelle. His gun is an MP5K.

Florence

• Florence is mute and a VC. She has the ability to heal injuries that occur within the game (not pre-existing conditions coded into the game). She was a member of a group known as the Sisters, all of whom were mute healers. But she left the religious group and took up arms. Her gun is an M4 Carbine.

Omar Santiago

• In the real world, Santiago is a Sergeant Major in the Republican Guard and was the most-decorated combat veteran to serve in Southeast Asia. He retired, but apparently that retirement took him to Harsh Realm, where he holds the rank of General and is working from his Santiago City headquarters to take over the United States, with a United States of Santiago. Pinocchio claims that Santiago is able to go in and out of the game. The US government in the real world wants him dead. His plans are said to involve destroying the real world so that Harsh Realm is all that remains.

Mel Waters

• Although they were best friends in the real world, Waters and Hobbes are at odds in Harsh Realm. First Hobbes finds that Waters married Sophie's virtual character. Waters also works for Santiago.

Inga Fossa

• She works with the military in Fort Dix, New Jersey. She can come and go as she pleases between Harsh Realm and the real world, where she approached Sophie Green with information. She has a past connection to Pinocchio. Her motives in Harsh Realm are unclear, having also worked with Santiago, Waters, and aiding Tom Hobbes. "Inga Fossa" translates to "in the trench" in Latin.

Sophie Green

• Sophie is Hobbes' pregnant fiancee, left behind in the real world. She has two sisters and a brother named Sam.

Harsh Realm (TV Series) vs. Harsh Realm (Comic Book)

In the comic book (on which the television series is based), a detective named Dexter living in a dystopian city is sent into a sterotypical High Fantasy world complete with elves, goblins, and liches. This world (and many others) are run by a corporation which sells entry into these worlds as an escape from the city. Dexter is sent into Harsh Realm with a mission to track down the missing son of two parents and in a parallel to the television series, this individual also seeks to take over Harsh Realm (albeit with fantasic powers rather than military power).

Similarities:

• Harsh Realm is a computer created realm
• The main character is sent into Harsh Realm to track down an individual
• This individual has accumulated undue power and seeks to take over all of Harsh Realm

Differences:

• Harsh Realm in the television show is a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Harsh Realm in the comic book is a High Fantasy world
• The television show added a X-Files-esque conspiracy, the details of which were never revealled
• The television show added Cyberpunk-inspired touches to its world mechanics
• Neither version shares characters or plot-points in common

The television series plays a homage to the comic book by naming Tom Hobbes' dog, Dexter.

Harsh Realm World Mechanics

Harsh Realm was built to depict our world after an act of nuclear terrorism. As depicted, Harsh Realm was eerily accurate and functioned first and foremost as a realistic world.

• Unlike Tron and similar to The Matrix, elements of the simulation were never designed to reflect the underlying computers. Nonetheless, computer elements show up in the simulation as glitches allowing the characters to perform seemingly miraculous acts such as teleportation, healing, and seeing the future. Glitches are explained as back-doors built in by programmers, excess storage never populated, or corrupted program code.

• Harsh Realm also accidentally features other tactical training war games, such as simulations of famous old battles ("Kein Ausgang") which were present in earlier builds of the virtual world

• Virtual characters or VC, every person in Harsh Realm aside from solders sent into the game are electronic approximations of people created from compiled data. This term is used by soldiers sent by the military into the game to denote characters in Harsh Realm who are electronic constructs living in the virtual reality simulation. A virtual character has no knowledge that they are electronic constructs or that Harsh Realm is not the real world. VC will Digitize when they die in Harsh Realm.

• As in The Matrix, when a person's mind is in Harsh Realm it is so convinced that what it sees is reality that it does become exactly that, reality. The humans mind is so convinced that what is happening is real that if, for example, you are in a car crash in Harsh Realm and you are killed, your mind is fed this information so strongly that it decides your are indeed dead, and you die for real, your heart just stops.

Trivia

• The chair Hobbes sits in to enter Harsh Realm has "siege" and "perilous" on its armrests.
• The theme music contains samples of speeches given by Benito Mussolini.
• The crossed swords logo of Santiago's army is an ancient symbol for conflict.

External links

• http://www.harshrealm.net/
• VRContinuum's Fan Site
• Harsh Realm at IMDb