Wednesday, May 14, 2025

Story Idea (Suggestions Wanted!)

So here's a story idea I've been tossing around in my head for a white: What if someone could magically transport themselves into fictional worlds?

Think of it like the movie Last Action Hero. For those who haven't seen it, it's about a 10 year old kid with a magic movie ticket that accidentally transports him into the Arnold Schwarzenegger action movie he's watching. The villain of the movie-within-a-movie eventually steals the magic ticket and figures out how to leave the movie and go to the "real world", followed by the kid and Arnold's hero character.

Completely off topic, but I always enjoyed this movie. It was a box office disappointment at the time, because people were expecting a real action movie from Arnold, not this parody of his usual action movies. It was ahead of its time in terms of being meta and self-aware of its tropes, but as I said, I always liked it.

But back on topic: My story idea is about a woman who has a ticket like that, or some other way to visit movie, TV, maybe even comic book, or novel worlds, and later return to her "real" world. But instead of just playing along with the plots of these fictional worlds, she decides it would be fun to visit sci-fi and/or fantasy worlds where she can gain superpowers, just see what it's like to fly, lift cars, turn invisible, etc. I'm assuming she'd essentially become a supervillainess in the worlds she visits, not because she's actually evil, but just because she figures it doesn't matter, since it's a fictional world anyway and the people aren't "real", so she can do whatever she wants.

What fictional settings would she visit? What powers would she gain? I've got a few specific ideas, but I'm looking for more suggestions. 

To be clear on what I'm looking for: I'm leaning towards sticking with live action movies and TV, unless someone has a compelling suggestion for cartoons, novels, or comic books to include. The works of fiction she visits should include some relatively easy and straightforward way that she can acquire superpowers within that world. So something as involved as surgery to become the next Bionic Woman would be too much. But "borrowing" the red kryptonite gun to steal Superman's powers in the Ultrawoman episode of Lois and Clark would be obvious. 

One detail I haven't decided is whether superpowers gained in one setting should transfer to the next, when she moves between works of fiction. Obviously, none of them come with her when she returns to her "real world", much like Arnold's character losing his movie mojo when he leaves the movie and goes to the "real world" in Last Action Hero. I'm open to opinions on that.

So if anyone has suggestions for movies, TV show episodes, or anything else my character should visit to gain superpowers, let me know.

3 comments:

  1. Knowledge gained in one world would translate? Suppose she goes into a world where she's a super genius? As a super genius she might come up with a chemical that would give normal people extra strength, beauty, etc. She memorizes it, and when she goes home she makes the chemical and takes it. Maybe it just enhances her rather than makes her truly super? Maybe she learns to fashion diamonds or something else valuable very cheaply and becomes rich? In any case her normal life is much easier. Not sure if you want to go there.

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    1. How would she become a super genius? The whole idea is that she's always the same person, just visiting fictional worlds. Unless there's something in that fictional world that can give her superpowers. That's why I'm soliciting suggestions for works of fiction where she could pick up powers.

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  2. Here are the specific ideas I have for fictional worlds where she could visit and easily pick up superpowers. I figured I should post these, just to give everyone an idea of what I'm thinking of.

    1. As already mentioned, she could visit the Ultrawoman episode of Lois and Clark to steal the red kryptonite gun that allows Kryptonian powers to be transferred to another person. Then, she could use it to steal Superman's powers, either within that episode, or in any other TV show or movie with Superman in it. This would probably require a second person to fire the gun at her and Superman/whoever she's stealing the powers from.

    2. Star Trek: The Original Series episode Plato's Stepchildren. Kirk and the crew visited a world of human-looking aliens who had telekinesis. In order to fight back against being dominated, Dr. McCoy synthesized an injection based on what he found in the blood of one of the aliens and the local food to give Kirk the same telekinetic powers, but more powerful than any of the locals. Our protagonist could visit that episode at just the right time to steal that injection from McCoy and give it to herself.

    3. And the one that kinda makes all the others irrelevant: She could visit the pilot episode of I Dream of Jeannie and grab Jeannie's bottle before Major Nelson gets to it. With an all powerful genie under her control, she could wish for any superpower she wants, although Jeannie does tend to screw up the details.

    What other worlds would you all want to see her visit and steal powers from?

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