Michael Clayton is becoming one of my favourite films.
I keep coming back to it, and every time I do, I get more from it.
One thing that nags at me is "Realm and Conquest", a book/card game that exists in the world of the film. Tony Gilroy says that he wrote some words for the book and developed the game a bit. There are printed cards. A few printed books. You can see them in the film. The pages of the book were filled with words, mostly the same few passages repeating, with bits edited out to change up the look of the text on each page so it wouldn't look odd if a character flipped through it while filming.
Well, a character does flip through it and this is all the text I have been able to transcribe:
"“Push!” came the cry from the back. And so they pushed. Nine teams had been sent from the fortress, one toward each of the nine Kusch (?) frontier towers. Their mission was simple, track the traitors and kill them where they stood. There would be no break for food or water. The pace was set. You fed as you moved or went without. Those who slowed the pack were to be slaughtered as they ran. There was not a single instant to waste. If the betrayers were not found – if every one of them were not found and killed – there would not be reason to return. Everything was at stake. Lango, however, kept silent. As the dawn broke and smell of food replaced the stink of sapsmoke, he sat back beneath his rainhide and watched the spectacle unfold. He knew what was happening. The first blow had landed. The Yor Mage’s warning had been no idle threat. The power that could share a thousand men’s minds – even if only for a moment – was a force that could not be allowed to grow. And if the prophecy was true, then somewhere in this mob there had to be three others just like him – three others sitting back in silence – stunned not by the dream, but by the knowledge that from this moment on nothing would ever be the same. “I will ask you a question,” said Nor Mage, “and I will only ask you once. Lie to me and I will know the answer. Tell me the truth and you might live to lie again. Whose hand has drawn this map?” “And if I’m silent?” Lango asked. “Kill him," was the answer. And no sooner were the words spoken that the (?) fell away and Lango knew he was doomed and was shocked that he had time to make the thought – even..."
There's more written on the pages but it's all out of focus.
The book is about destiny and fate, so says Michael Clayton's child Henry. The characters are all denizens of a strange land, deserters who don't know who they are, and dare not reveal any information lest they be speaking to their sworn enemy and not know it.
I can't imagine what the game must be about.
Anyway. I'm mostly recording this for posterity. If someone else is out there looking for more, here is what I have found.
If it eats at me anymore I may have to make the damn game myself. I make games now, after all, it's not outside the realm of possibility.
and found this delightful post
