-Thief as Noir

            It’s not rocket science to note that Thief: The Dark Project’s story is similar to the hard-boiled crime stories of classic noir films. Ken Levine, who worked on the initial story design for Thief: The Dark Project, acknowledged such in one of the Irrational Behavior podcasts. It’s akin to noting Half-Life 2’s story similarities to 1984—it’s an easy comparison to make.

            But, for fun, I will start here a series of posts drawing comparisons between Thief: The Dark Project’s story and those of noir films.

            This time, the film is Kiss Me Deadly. I recently watched it for the first time. Comparisons between its story and Thief’s aren’t across the board, but here are some (do note that there are spoilers below for both Thief and Kiss Me Deadly):

            -Mike Hammer is like Garrett: Both are the guy who comes upon a big opportunity, pursues it for the money, and ends up getting deep into something that is wider and graver. Both are also seedy antiheroes who are not scrupulous (Garrett a thief, Mike a crooked divorce investigator).

            -The cops / official investigators are like the Keepers: Both are shadowy organizations that work in the background and know more about what’s going on. In these cases, (spoilers) knowledge of the return of the Trickster (via prophecies) and knowledge of a… well, I won’t spoil that.

            -The Carver woman is loosely like Viktoria, in that she is a femme fatale who leads the Garrett / Hammer character further astray.

            -Don’t think there’s a comparison for the Trickster. The climactic moments from both could be compared, though…(won’t spoil them here)

            See? That’s all. I’m just having a little fun. I’ll be noting things like this with other noir films (as I already stated above). Next up I’d like to do The Maltese Falcon and then The Third Man—two films that I have seen, but not for a good while.

            Cheers!