The Sci-Fi List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

An ongoing project to survey the best films of individual decades, genres, and filmmakers.
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DarkImbecile
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Re: The Sci-Fi List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#801 Post by DarkImbecile » Thu Mar 04, 2021 4:13 pm

Top 15:
1. 2001: A Space Odyssey
2. Stalker
3. Alien
4. Arrival
5. The Thing (1982)
6. The Fly (1986)
7. Under the Skin
8. Robocop (1987)
9. Annihilation
10. Blade Runner: 2049
11. Metropolis
12. Mad Max: Fury Road
13. Aliens
14. Midnight Special
15. The Matrix

Other Orphans:
27. Take Shelter - What exactly do you people have against Michael Shannon?
44. The Matrix Reloaded - Assumed this would be an orphan, but as deeply flawed as it is I still think it deserves a little more respect (as does the original!)
46. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes - Et tu, knives?

Apologies to the backer of The Fountain, which I haven't seen in a while but would have tucked into the back of my list had I thought to include it. Further apologies to Thelma and Enemy, both of which I love but couldn't quite justify including using my own metric for sci-fi.

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DarkImbecile
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Re: The Sci-Fi List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#802 Post by DarkImbecile » Thu Mar 04, 2021 4:21 pm

Also, real talk: anyone who participates in these List Projects should be much more grateful than they already are to domino and swo.

Not only for doing many more hours of tabulation and formatting than I understood were necessary to produce a final list, but also for planning, scheduling, and spending months running these projects, which are arguably the best part of the forum. Thanks, guys.

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Never Cursed
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Re: The Sci-Fi List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#803 Post by Never Cursed » Thu Mar 04, 2021 4:27 pm

therewillbeblus wrote:
Thu Mar 04, 2021 4:05 pm
27. Repo Man - I blame society for this omission
Dammit, I was wondering how long it would take for someone to post a film that I love and should have voted for, but forgot about. How did this one slip my mind???

bamwc2
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Re: The Sci-Fi List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#804 Post by bamwc2 » Thu Mar 04, 2021 4:27 pm

Thanks for the work. Here's my list. Orphans in bold:

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
2. World of Tomorrow Trilogy (Don Hertzfeldt, 2015, 2017, 2020)
3. Things to Come (William Cameron Menzies, 1936)
4. Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927)
5. Bride of Frankenstein (James Whale, 1935)
6. Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979)
7. Videodrome (David Cronenberg, 1983)
8. The Invisible Man (Leigh Whannell, 2020)
9. Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979)
10. Death Race 2000 (Paul Bartel, 1975)
11. RoboCop (Paul Verhoeven, 1987)
12. Akira (Katsuhiro Ôtomo, 1988)
13. A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971)
14. Solaris (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1971)
15. The Iron Giant (Brad Bird, 1999)
16. WALL-E (Andrew Stanton, 2008)
17. Ex Machina (Alex Garland, 2015)
18. La Jetée (Chris Marker, 1962)
19. Island of Lost Souls (Erle C. Kenton, 1932)
20. Arrival (Denis Villeneuve, 2016)
21. L'inhumaine (Marcel L'Herbier, 1924)
22. Aelita (Yakov Protazanov, 1924)
23. Phase IV (Saul Bass, 1974)
24. The Endless (Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, 2018)
25. Space is the Place (John Coney, 1974)
26. Her (Spike Jonze, 2013)
27. Gojira (Ishirô Honda, 1954)
28. The Man Who Fell to Earth (Nicolas Roeg, 1976)
29. Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015)
30. Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse (Bob Persichetti, et al., 2018)
31. Woman in the Moon (Fritz Lang, 1929)
32. Shivers (David Cronenberg, 1975)
33. Coherence (James Ward Byrkit, 2014)
34. Fantastic Planet (René Laloux, 1973)
35. Liquid Sky (Slava Tsuckerman, 1982)
36. Minority Report (Steven Spielberg, 2002)
37. Black Panther (Ryan Coogler, 2018)
38. The World's End (Edgar Wright, 2013)
39. Primer (Shane Carruth, 2004)
40. Robinson Crusoe on Mars (Byron Haskin, 1964)
41. Days of Eclipse (Aleksandr Sokurov, 1988)
42. Queen of Atlantis (Jacques Feyder, 1921)
43. A Boy and His Dog (L.Q. Jones, 1975)
44. Seconds (John Frankenheimer, 1966)
45. Escape from New York (John Carpenter, 1981)
46. Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982)
47. Ghostbusters (Ivan Reitman, 1984)
48. The Fly (David Cronenberg, 1986)
49. Possessor (Brandon Cronenberg, 2020)
50. Another Earth (Mike Cahill, 2011)

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zedz
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Re: The Sci-Fi List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#805 Post by zedz » Thu Mar 04, 2021 4:49 pm

Thanks for the hard work of compiling the lists.

I could only come up with a list of 25 films, as fifty would have been stretching it to films I was cool on, though I'm now reminded that I should have voted for Melancholia and Seconds. I guess it's a comment on how dull I find mainstream science fiction that those were the only two films of interest on the final list that I'd overlooked.

My orphans and also rans were:

4. Lessons of Darkness (Herzog, 1992) - Visions of a hellish alien world where the earth spews fires into the atmosphere and human-like creatures struggle to put them out.

6. Under Electric Clouds (German, 2015) - Very mild science fiction set only a few years into the future (and shifting backwards and forwards in time), but already noticeably changed. Aleksey German, Jr. still hasn't enjoyed any English-friendly releases, as far as I know. If we were doing a "science fact" list, Paper Soldier would be at or near the top of my list.

8. The Untamed (Escalante, 2016) - I think somebody else watched this and liked it, but didn't seem to vote for it. Trippy and disturbing.

10. August in the Water (Ishii, 1995) - I'm guessing Swo was the other adoptive parent who didn't quite love this child enough. I wish I could see this again, but it left enough of an impression on me to scrape into my top ten. If you stuck 2001 and a high school drama in the Large Hadron Collider, you might end up with something like this.

11. Holy Motors (Carax, 2012) - For me, this is a good example of incremental science fiction. As the film progresses and we infer more and more of the world in which it operates, the further behind it leaves our one, and various markers of sci-fi quietly take their place in the background.

12. Last and First Men (Johannsson, 2020) - Best science fiction film of the decade, so far. (Also, I believe, the only one I've seen!)

14. The Gladiators (Watkins, 1969) - Of the several eligible Watkins, I selected this one because of the clarity of its science fiction thesis.

16. Die Parallelstrasse (Khittl, 1962) - I'm not exactly certain what genre category this bizarre film (the first feature of the New German Cinema) falls into, so maybe it's science fiction by default.

18. Come into My World (Gondry, 2002) - On the principle that time travel always counts as science fiction, here's one of only two films I know that portrays time travel with no elision and no need for suspension of disbelief. The other one is Mokri's marvellous Fish and Cat, but the time travel there is only one aspect of a beautiful, bonkers film, whereas here it's everything.

20. The Face of Another (Teshigahara, 1966) - I'm not alone in my appreciation of this existential nightmare, but almost!

22. Electric Dragon 80,000V (Ishii, 2001) - I'm guessing swo also came to the party on this. Perhaps we should have colluded to ensure Ishii made the final list and break up the cheesy franchise films. This is, of course, a cheesy franchise film without the franchise, and the best superhero movie ever made.

Honorary orphan: Sion Sono's The Whispering Star, which I just watched last night. Completely unlike any other Sono film I've seen, this is a quiet, whimsical, melancholy film about an android delivering packages to the far-flung remains of the human race across the universe. The alien worlds are played by the devastated landscape of Fukushima, and the cosmic diaspora by its survivors. A stunningly original film with a strong Lynchian feel (the "let's re-cast David Bowie with a giant kettle" and Eraserhead David Lynch) and more than a soupcon of deadpan Jarmusch.

Hey, I could have voted for Eraserhead, too. . .

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Maltic
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Re: The Sci-Fi List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#806 Post by Maltic » Thu Mar 04, 2021 5:05 pm

therewillbeblus wrote:
Thu Mar 04, 2021 4:05 pm
29. Brand Upon the Brain! - Surely the most insane mad scientist experiments and their effects on memory translated via technique should have accrued greater interest?
To be honest, Maddin's films tend to wear me down, though I did consider 6-minute-long The Heart of the World.
31. Idiocracy - I guess not many share my sense of humor..
Sure, just didn't get around to rewatching it as I had planned. I ended up submitting only 25 titles, though, so it probably wouldn't have made the cut anyway.

I'm somewhat surprised no one else chose The Nutty Professor or New Rose Hotel

bamwc2
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Re: The Sci-Fi List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#807 Post by bamwc2 » Thu Mar 04, 2021 5:10 pm

I am a bit sad that there was no orphan listing this time around. I always add each and everyone one of them I'm unfamiliar with to me to see list.

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knives
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Re: The Sci-Fi List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#808 Post by knives » Thu Mar 04, 2021 5:13 pm

Thanks Dom and DI this looks disjointed enough it must have been hell to coallate.

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DarkImbecile
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Re: The Sci-Fi List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#809 Post by DarkImbecile » Thu Mar 04, 2021 5:16 pm

bamwc2 wrote:
Thu Mar 04, 2021 5:10 pm
I am a bit sad that there was no orphan listing this time around. I always add each and everyone one of them I'm unfamiliar with to me to see list.
There is a roster of orphans, domino just spoiler-boxed it!

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Re: The Sci-Fi List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#810 Post by Murdoch » Thu Mar 04, 2021 5:23 pm

My list of 25, in order:

End of Evangelion (1997)
The Midnight Gospel (2020)
Kairo (2005)
Aniara (2018)
The Thing (1982)
The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
La jetee (1962)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
2046 (2004)
Tetsuo the Iron Man (1988)
Solaris (1972)
Annihilation (2018)
White Christmas (Black Mirror) (2014)
A Trip to the Moon (1902)
Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971)
The Fly (1986)
Children of Men (2006)
Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
Man in the White Suit (1951)
A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001)
Forbidden Planet (1956)
World of Tomorrow Episode 1 (2015)
Time Enough at Last (Twilight Zone) (1959)
Another Earth (2011)
Patlabor: the Movie (1989)

I've seen 74 of the top 100.

Thanks to domino for tabulating the results!
zedz wrote:
Thu Mar 04, 2021 4:49 pm
20. The Face of Another (Teshigahara, 1966) - I'm not alone in my appreciation of this existential nightmare, but almost!
Darn, that one would've made my list easily had I remembered it.
Last edited by Murdoch on Thu Mar 04, 2021 7:26 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: The Sci-Fi List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#811 Post by bamwc2 » Thu Mar 04, 2021 5:24 pm

DarkImbecile wrote:
Thu Mar 04, 2021 5:16 pm
bamwc2 wrote:
Thu Mar 04, 2021 5:10 pm
I am a bit sad that there was no orphan listing this time around. I always add each and everyone one of them I'm unfamiliar with to me to see list.
There is a roster of orphans, domino just spoiler-boxed it!
Thanks! I didn't realize that!

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domino harvey
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Re: The Sci-Fi List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#812 Post by domino harvey » Thu Mar 04, 2021 5:43 pm

My Top 10

01 Jurassic Park
02 Triangle
03 Inception
04 Another Earth
05 Detention
06 War of the Worlds (2005)
07 Gravity
08 Upstream Color
09 her
10 Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Very modern/space-age obv. I don't remember all my orphans but the classic wacky number 50 was Welcome to Planet Earth, if just for the unforgettable scene of George Wendt beating a mugger to death with their own dismembered limb while lecturing them on manners

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domino harvey
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Re: The Sci-Fi List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#813 Post by domino harvey » Thu Mar 04, 2021 5:53 pm

Also, I've seen 79/100 and voted for 0 of the Top 5 films

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Re: The Sci-Fi List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#814 Post by DarkImbecile » Thu Mar 04, 2021 6:27 pm

67/100, which was a little disappointing... guess I’ll finally have to cave and watch Triangle after it making two genre lists

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Re: The Sci-Fi List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#815 Post by therewillbeblus » Thu Mar 04, 2021 6:38 pm

Never Cursed wrote:
Thu Mar 04, 2021 4:27 pm
therewillbeblus wrote:
Thu Mar 04, 2021 4:05 pm
27. Repo Man - I blame society for this omission
Dammit, I was wondering how long it would take for someone to post a film that I love and should have voted for, but forgot about. How did this one slip my mind???
I think I've mentioned this before, but Repo Man and Brazil were my two most-rented VHS tapes at the video store at the start of middle school (and Se7en until the Blockbuster guy gifted me his personal copy, which made me feel great) but only the former made my final list.. I still like the Gilliam but it's no longer the epic dark sci-fi dream it once was in my youth
Murdoch wrote:
Thu Mar 04, 2021 5:23 pm
World of Tomorrow Episode 1 (2015)
I'm curious if folks specifically voting for individual eps split the vote, or if it wound up counting towards the series vote (and if the former, what impact this had on the final list)..

It's interesting to read some fellow likeminded members' top ten lists and see similarities to my own original list. her, The Science of Sleep, Alphaville, Detention, Contagion and Another Earth were all in my top ten at one point, and some of those wound up only just outside. Conversely, I didn't really vote for many horror sci-fi classics like Alien, The Fly or The Thing, which leaned more heavily on the former genre.

I really struggled omitting Annihilation from my list, because even though it's ultimately too flawed for me, the film is the perfect example of using sci-fi in the most frightening way possible- by eliminating all predictability to the scientific effects of time, evolution, development, etc. and making the symptoms affect each character differently, thereby reminding us of how little control or consciousness we have to feel stable in this world. I wrote more about it in the horror thread, but commend all votes cast its way here. The second act is relentlessly operating as one of the most effective uses of the genre I can think of offhand.

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Re: The Sci-Fi List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#816 Post by bottled spider » Thu Mar 04, 2021 6:52 pm

Thanks for all the hard work in compiling. When I think about how I'd go about tallying myself, it seems a horrendously daunting task.

1. La Jete (Marker,1962)
2. Heart of a Dog (Bortko, 1988)
3. Late August at the Hotel Ozone (Schmidt, 1967)
4. Children of Men (Cuaron, 2006)
5. World of Tomorrow (Hertzfeldt, 2015, 2017, 2020)
6. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Gondry, 2004)
7. Possible Worlds (Lepage, 2000)
8. Miracle Mile (De Jarnatt, 1988)
9. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Kaufman,1978))
10. The Man in the White Suit (Mackendrick, 1951)

Most of my orphans I knew would probably be orphans. The Man in the White Suit not getting orphaned is a pleasant surprise that vindicates the philosophy of not voting strategically. Miracle Mile was a copout of my own rule of not voting for films I don't really consider part of the genre. But I liked it so much and thought others were going to be voting for it, so I went for it. The Man with Two Brains was another dubious entry.

I should have voted for Paprika. I even saw it recently.

I've seen 57/100.

I voted for World of Tomorrow as the series, ranking it as I originally ranked my favorite episode, the first one.

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domino harvey
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Re: The Sci-Fi List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#817 Post by domino harvey » Thu Mar 04, 2021 7:17 pm

I would have voted for Miracle Mile if I’d thought about it!

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Re: The Sci-Fi List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#818 Post by willoneill » Thu Mar 04, 2021 7:19 pm

DarkImbecile wrote:
Thu Mar 04, 2021 4:13 pm

Other Orphans:
27. Take Shelter - What exactly do you people have against Michael Shannon?
I had a harder time than I thought I would making a Sci-Fi list, not because I couldn't choose 50 great films, but because I personally disqualified many of other people's orphans because I wasn't sure if they qualified as sci-fi. Take Shelter would definitely have been in my top 15 or so, but in my view it only qualifies as sci-fi depending on one's interpretation of the ending. Because that ending is ambiguous, I didn't count it.

Similar thoughts went through my head for films like Melancholia, Last Man on Earth, Miracle Mile etc. I short-listed them, but then thought, "are they actually sci-fi?" I think in retrospect I was probably too picky.

tldr; I have absolute nothing against Michael Shannon; in fact quite the opposite.

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Re: The Sci-Fi List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#819 Post by zedz » Thu Mar 04, 2021 7:20 pm

Only eight films on the final list that I haven't seen:
The iron Giant, The One I Love, Annihilation, Time Enough at Last, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, Midnight Gospel, Unbreakable and Maniac.

Which three have you not seen, twbb? And are you planning to see them now?

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Re: The Sci-Fi List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#820 Post by The Pachyderminator » Thu Mar 04, 2021 7:24 pm

zedz wrote:
Thu Mar 04, 2021 4:49 pm
11. Holy Motors (Carax, 2012) - For me, this is a good example of incremental science fiction. As the film progresses and we infer more and more of the world in which it operates, the further behind it leaves our one, and various markers of sci-fi quietly take their place in the background.
I considered this, wasn't quite sure if it fit into the sci-fi category, and decided against it, but I'm starting to regret it. You're right, one of its features is that it gradually reveals its very strange world in the manner of the best sci-fi.

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Re: The Sci-Fi List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#821 Post by Murdoch » Thu Mar 04, 2021 7:25 pm

I only voted for episode one of World of Tomorrow since I hadn't seen the others.

I'm surprised Aniara didn't get more votes. I thought the Arrow release and it being available on Hulu would have cinched it for at least an also-ran. It and another orphan, Tetsuo: the Iron Man, made my top ten and I obviously recommend them to anyone who hasn't seen them. Aniara is easier to access right now.

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Re: The Sci-Fi List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#822 Post by domino harvey » Thu Mar 04, 2021 7:35 pm

zedz wrote:
Thu Mar 04, 2021 7:20 pm
Only eight films on the final list that I haven't seen:
The iron Giant, The One I Love, Annihilation, Time Enough at Last, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, Midnight Gospel, Unbreakable and Maniac.
I haven’t seen the two animated ones, but of the remainder, I think you’d get something out of the One I Love

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Re: The Sci-Fi List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#823 Post by therewillbeblus » Thu Mar 04, 2021 7:52 pm

zedz wrote:
Thu Mar 04, 2021 7:20 pm
Only eight films on the final list that I haven't seen:
The iron Giant, The One I Love, Annihilation, Time Enough at Last, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, Midnight Gospel, Unbreakable and Maniac.

Which three have you not seen, twbb? And are you planning to see them now?
The Hole, L'Inhumaine, and Phase IV (I've been specifically saving The Hole but I guess I won't anymore). Yeah, similar to the Horror list where I was only missing four, I'll just watch them sooner rather than later.

zedz your blind spots are all excellent films. Annihilation is my least favorite, but as I posted above, it executes its sci-fi in a profoundly interesting and surprisingly unique way. Obviously I'll throw my weight behind Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, The Midnight Gospel, and Unbreakable as priorities, which were all in my top fifteen.

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Re: The Sci-Fi List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#824 Post by Rayon Vert » Thu Mar 04, 2021 7:58 pm

Thanks domino!!!

The Curse of Frankenstein is cited twice in the Orphans - is it possible it's not one?

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Re: The Sci-Fi List Discussion and Suggestions (Genre Project)

#825 Post by Mr Sausage » Thu Mar 04, 2021 8:01 pm

“therewillbeblus” wrote: I really struggled omitting Annihilation from my list, because even though it's ultimately too flawed for me, the film is the perfect example of using sci-fi in the most frightening way possible- by eliminating all predictability to the scientific effects of time, evolution, development, etc. and making the symptoms affect each character differently, thereby reminding us of how little control or consciousness we have to feel stable in this world. I wrote more about it in the horror thread, but commend all votes cast its way here. The second act is relentlessly operating as one of the most effective uses of the genre I can think of offhand.
Did you watch the Folding Ideas video about how the movie is about the various ways we process trauma and grief? Seems like it’d be right up your alley.

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