Hello, Hollywood?! Make THIS Into a Movie!

Is there an obscure historical event that Adam Savage feels is ripe for movie/miniseries treatment? Does Adam ever shop in thrift stores? In this live stream excerpt Adam answers these questions from Tested members Thomas Esson and J. Nathan Simmons, whom we thank for their support! Join this channel to support Tested and get access to perks, like asking Adam questions:

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[tested]

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[jimmimlitsch]

One of my favorite stories of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake involves the largest bank in the city. The bank was damaged and consumed in fire, but the vault was closed and its contents were safe. However, the heat from the fire jammed the vault doors and made the vault too hot to approach.

Upon hearing this, an employee from Bank of Italy in San Jose drove North with all the cash he could carry. He knew people would need money to survive the coming days and weeks, so he went to give them loans on a handshake basis.

Eventually the vault cooled, was able to be accessed and the city rebuilt itself. The goodwill Bank of Italy accrued immediately after the earthquake fueled its growth over the next decade, when it changed its name to Bank of America.

[proesterchen]

The Galapagos Islands are in the Pacific. No need for any Horns or future Canals to be traversed.

[fakename]

1906*, and the Galapagos Islands to San Francisco would not require a trip around any capes or, if it had existed, through the Panama Canal.

*The "1905" I am correcting/referencing here may have been referencing the start of the voyage. If so, please ignore.

[AugustMcKenna]

Adam's line about the transposition of institution reminds me of a Terry Pratchett line about the Speed of Monarchy being the fastest thing in the universe. Even faster than light. When a monarch dies, their heir instantly becomes the next monarch, even before the news of their ascendency reaches them.

[knowingyourmind]

The battles of Bataan and Corregidor at the beginning of world war two, where America had its greatest defeat to a foreign foe. They held out for close to six months when the Japanese timetable called for them to be finished in ninety days. Our men and women then went into captivity for three and a half years. Nice long run. PLENTY of heroes.

[justasoundguy]

Mine is a movie adaptation of Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance Expedition to Antarctica (The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition). There have been a couple of documentaries and at least two miniseries made about it, but no big budget movie that I am aware of. The story is truly spectacular and has it all: high stakes, a larger historical context for the world the men left behind (WWI started when they were at sea), grave peril, a truly hopeless situation, and a daring attempt to accomplish the impossible to find help. It’s not the most obscure historical event, but I have no idea why anyone hasn’t tried to adapt it. If you want to know more about this remarkable story of survival and adventure, check out Shackleton’s book South.

[lordofuzkulak]

5:50 - the destruction of the building in San Francisco instantly making a ship halfway around the world the museum reminds of the joke that the only thing faster than light is kingship, because the instant the old king dies, the next in line is now king.

[SmallBlogV]

One thing I want to see made into a film is the seminal automotive voyage of Bertha Benz. A woman seeing her husband slide towards depression when his Motor Wagen invention isn't catching on, "borrows" it with their sons and drives 106km from Mannheim to Pforzheim, in 1886, when there was zero infrastructure for cars (she bought fuel from a chemist!) and no garage when something went wrong (she invented brake pads when the brakes overheated, using bits of leather from a cobbler). It's a Hero's Journey with a stong, self-reliant female character who really existed, and it changed the world – for good and for bad, admittedly. The only risk is that Mercedes would turn it into a giant commercial...

[animefreak]

I used to love sharing this part of the Calacademy history when I was a docent there. Thanks for sharing!

[jordangruber]

Love SF's stories on stories... and more to come! I saved one of the oldest building in Melbourne once. A multinational building developer hired some goons to flood the Donkey Wheel House building by turning on all the fire hydrants on every level of a 200 year old building at 1am. Happened to still be working (on a meeting actually), so stripped down and ran the levels of the fire escape to manually switch them all off. Building owners still owe me a case of beer!

[CasualSpud]

We need a movie about the Halifax Explosion of 1917. Between it being the largest man made explosion before the nuclear bomb (they used this blast to study), family tragedies and known heros .. tons of material. Many Titanic victims are buried in Halifax, so it wasn't long after.

[yoschmoyo]

My father helped build an Army Airfield in the Aleutians during WWII.

[samhain]

You make me smile. Not because of anything else than your love for obscure things that make you smile. I love it keep it up.

[garydargan]

Objects and history. I used to work in the Geological and Mining Museum in Sydney. After over 120 years the bean counters decided to close it and I had the job of recovering the collections. I also managed to recover some of the historic furniture and display cases but much of it went to auction
There were two pieces, a pre 1940's public service Australian cedar desk complete with the government crown stamped in the leg and a circa 1900 Federation era chair with a patterned seat which used to adorn the curator's office. Both were very much the worse for wear so I got them cheaply. I have restored both of them and they are sentimental memories of another era where such institutions were valued.

[technosworld]

On the note of Panama Canal and saving wildlife for museums...a proper Hollywood movie or mini-series about Teddy Roosevelt would be great. I know it's been considered a few times, but he was such a larger than life character who has probably 3 lifetimes worth of things that he was involved in.

[GruffyddFO]

I love that the Cal Academy these days is best known by its acronym CAOS, pronounced "chaos". It's a wonderful museum, I highly recommend it.

[danielabbey]

They should make a movie on the life of British engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Amazing man!

[jennypaxton]

The glider program of WWII! It’s everything Hollywood loves. The glider pilots were often the oddballs, the washouts, too old, etc. What they did was crazily dangerous, yet essential. Once they landed behind enemy lines (or “landed”; most landings were controlled crashes at best) they couldn’t take off again, so the pilots had to get back to friendly lines however they could. Hair-raising. Amazing.

[oldsoul]

The old TV series Warehouse 13 comes to mind speaking of artifacts...