Space Truckers (1996)

Costume Design by:

- Ann & John Bloomfield ( notable efforts: The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970), Doctor Who 'The Face of Evil' & 'The Talons of Weng-Chiang' (1977), The Wicked Lady (1983), Conan the Barbarian (1982), Conan the Destroyer (1984), Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987), Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), The Mummy (1999), The Mummy Returns (2001) )

The title tells you all you need to know about what this film's about! A surprisingly overlooked effort by cult director Stuart Gordon, mostly famous for his gorey comedic horror films made for Empire Pictures, this film details a dystopian future where corporations have taken over all of space, with unlucky spaceship crews totally at their mercy - and if that sounds familiar, then yes, this was definitely poking a bit of fun at Alien whilst extrapolating its more satirical elements. Space Truckers details the struggle of space trucker John Canyon (Dennis Hopper), along with his would-be replacement Mike (Stephen Dorff) and sweetheart Cindy (Debi Mazar), to get a mysterious shipment to Earth on time, whilst facing several threats such as asteroids, space pirates and the murderous cyborgs that happen to be his shipment. The costumes in this film, designed by John Bloomfield in perhaps his only proper science-fiction outing since the Doctor Who serial 'The Face of Evil' in 1977, reflect the grubby and tacky corporate world the film is set in, with most of them reflecting the trucker theme very well. John Canyon is for the most part in a futuristic riff on a trucker's outfit, wearing a battered denim vest with leather pads over the shoulders, and a cap that has had its top cut in half to be able to fit inside a spacesuit. Meanwhile, his would-be replacement Mike is usually in a bright green shirt, string top and leather vest, worn with flightsuit trousers.

A lot of the various corporate uniforms of the film are actually rather garish, such as the 'official' trucker uniform Mike briefly wears as part of his career in the 'InterPork' company, which consists of a bright pink vest and overalls. His boss Keller (George Wendt) wears a more typical outfit mostly notable for the pink warning stripes and pig-patterned tie (again, as he's an official of a pork company), with a fair few of the background truckers in the space diner in very garish outfits as well - notice the fellow in the cowboy hat and bright blue overalls emblazoned with red and yellow logos (these are the logos of the fictional beer company whose products characters regularly drink out of in the film).

Cindy, the waitress of the space diner that Canyon and Mike meet each other on, is first seen in a futuristic riff on a cowboy outfit, wearing a translucent lilac shirt with yellow bandana, a similarly translucent pink miniskirt, and a white stetson and wrist cuffs, both being made partly with see-through plastic. A lot of the costumes in this film utilize synthetic materials, partly to fit a parodic take on 'futuristic' costume design, partly also as a more tacky future.

Cindy's second outfit is a clear example of the use of plastic in the film's costumes, wearing a see-through plastic jacket over a red leather vest and shirt, as well as blue flightsuit trousers. The plastic jacket seems to be made of the same material as raincoats and ponchos tend to be, with red markings on the sleeves as well.

Cindy's final outfit is a brown fabric top that is also made with bright green thread that actually goes over the brown fabric of the main jacket, being similarly worn over a vest and with trousers.

Some of the film's most memorably creative costumes are sadly not seen in full, these being the makeshift jacket worn by the rather shady Mr. Zesty (Birdy Sweeney), as well as the dress worn by the android woman in a toilet that doubles as an escape hatch. Zesty's outgit is coated in electronics and mechanical pieces, with his even his goggles having such patterns painted on them - it gives him the appearance of looking like a massive circuitboard (Bloomfield was certainly used to being able to make 'junk' outfits work!). Meanwhile the android lady is black and pink striped top worn with similarly patterned gloves and, keeping in with the film's costume design sense, a clear plastic top worn over it.

There are of course futuristic suits in this film as well, these being worn by the conniving corporate leader E.J. Saggs (Shane Rimmer) and his lackeys. Saggs always wears silvery jackets made of some sort of synthetic material, whough his second one has a bit of a snakeskin pattern to it and has red lining along one side of it. His henchmen however have their suits made out of some golden material, worn with goggles.

Canyon and company get hijacked by a group of space pirates lead by Saggs' former assistant Nabel (Charles Dance), who just wears a leather jacket and military cap so I didn't find it worth noting in detail. However, there is his deputy Mr. Cutt (Vernon Wells) who along with the other pirate crewmen is definitely inspired by the post-apocalyptic bandits of Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (it's no surprise that Cutt is played by the same actor as Wez from that film!), though this wasn a year after Bloomfield had been costume designer on Waterworld, which was just 'Mad Max on water'.

Lastly, are the bulky spacesuits that are stored onboard Canyon's space truck, which are grubby, brown and were intended by Bloomfield to be a cross between a spacesuit and a diving suit. It should be worth noting that the spacesuits in Alien - which definitely provided some inspiration for the sequences where the spacesuits are used in Space Truckers - were also intended to resemble a diving suit as well, though the Space Truckers suits are a bit less obvious about that in some ways!

Super Mario Bros. (1993)

Costume Design by Joseph Porro

By the time costume designer Joseph Porro was working on Super Mario Bros, the production had eschewed the original game's vibrant whimsy for a dystopian, Blade Runner-influenced look.

Porro's costumes for Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo as Mario and Luigi were still colourful, and used the original game designs as reference, though Porro ditched the dungarees!

Instead, Porro came up with a one-piece jumpsuit with blue highlights. The only difference past the colour was the headwear; Leguizamo wore a baseball cap, while Hoskins wore an old-fashioned flat cap.

The 'thwomp stomper' boots were custom-made by the prop department rather than the costume department, and were constructed using real ski boots as a basis.

Dennis Hopper starred as Koopa, reimaginined as a corporate dictator. Hopper spends most of the film wearing a shiny black suit made of a snakeskin-like fabric, worn with a synthetic reptile-skin shirt, evoking the character's origins as a reptilian monster.

The tie was made up of plastic segments to resemble scales; being a 'hard part', Koopa's plastic ties were not made by the costume department, but instead by Allan Apone and Paul Elliot's Makeup & Effects Laboratory, who handled much of the puppets and costume 'hard parts' in Super Mario Bros.

In a deleted scene, Hopper wears a futuristic uniform as dictator Koopa; it is only seen better in a publicity photograph. Hopper's suit as 'Larry Lazard', meanwhile, was presumably just bought clothes.

Porro designed an array of glamorous costumes for Fiona Shaw as Koopa's wife, Lena. Her first dress is a blue design with a 'hard' chestplate; the breasts are sculpted to resemble broken eggs, fitting the reptile motif.

Shaw's second dress is silver, with jagged edges around the shoulders. It is only seen very briefly in the film, obscured by the mud Lena's bathing in.

Shaw's third dress is a blue and silver stroped design, worn with a blue bolero jacket that itself has silver rings around the cuffs.

Shaw's fourth dress echoes 1980s power dressing, with black vinyl panelling on the chest giving a kinky touch. Unfortunately this is another costume never seen in its entirety in the film.

Lena's fifth (and final) outfit is a blue gown with layers of fabric around the chest, and is cut to expose almost all of the back. Towards the end of the film, it is worn with a bright red cloak with ribbed sleeves and back.

A silk dress was designed and made for Samantha Mathis as Daisy. The Daisy dress is dyed so that the purple fades to white, and it is ornamented with crystals around the sleeves and neckline.

No doubt all the costumes in the Earth scenes, including those of the main players, were bought clothes. However, I feel Porro designed and built the suit worn by Fisher Stevens as Iggy Koopa in the earlier scenes, judging by the pattern evoking scales, as well as the character intended to be larger than life.

While the costume worn by Richard Edson as Spike Koopa in the early scenes consisted mostly of bought clothes, I do feel Porro made the deep plum suit jacket he wears over the contemporary clothing!

Iggy and Spike wear more flashy costumes for the Boom Boom Bar sequence. Iggy sports a grey pinstriped suit with light grey panelling and metallic ornamentation around the shoulders. Spike wears a futuristic 'dandy'-style costume, consisting of a zip-up red waistcoat and futuristic blue frock coat.

The 'Boom Boom Bar' scene also required Leguizamo and Hoskins to ditch their contemporary garb for futuristic disco suits. An orange jacket with pink sleeves and no lapels was made for Leguizamo.

Meanwhile a yellow jacket with jagged lapels and metallic ornamentation was made for Hoskins, the look completed with a zip-up sweater and (bought?) yellow gloves.

A spiked red dress and jacket were both made for Francesca Roberts as Big Bertha, with spiked red gloves completing the look.

While the costumes worn by the extras in the 'Dinohattan' scenes, including the Boom Boom Bar, were bought, I feel the costume worn by Terry Finn as the 'Hatcheck Girl' was designed and custom-made for her!

Several risque metallic outfits were made for the 'Boom Boom Bar Rap' sequence, that also ended up cut from the final film. While the costumes were designed by Porro, they were constructed by Makeup & Effects Laboratory rather than the standard costume department, due to all the 'hard parts'.

A set of futuristic (and slightly fetishistic!) hazard suits were designed and made for the 'Snifits', consisting of chainmail vests and custom-made leather gas masks.

Porro also designed and made another set of futuristic hazmat suits for the 'Shyguys', who wear striped smocks fitted with custom gas masks.

(Interestingly, futuristic hazmat suits feature regularly in Porro's costume design career, in particular 1988's The Blob, 1992's Universal Soldier, and 2006's Ultraviolet).

A set of custom leather police jackets with spiked sleeves were made for extras playing Dinohattan's police. Meanwhile the ties and helmets, again being 'hard parts', were fabricated by Makeup & Effects Laboratory. The shirts, trousers and boots however were most likely bought items.

(The uniform worn by Don Lake as Sgt Simon was presumably an off-the-rack police uniform with the shirt minimally altered to have vinyl cuffs and pockets. The uniforms worn by the 'Devo chamber' technicians were presumably also just bought overalls altered with vinyl pockets).

A set of uniforms were made for the extras playing the Goombas. These were a collaboration between the costume and special effects departments, in particular Makeup & Effects Laboratory.

Porro designed a uniform that was custom-made with a very wide chest and shoulders to fit the puppet harness worn underneath the costume, that would operated the creature head. At least one uniform was custom-made at a 'normal' size to fit Mojo Nixon before he is transformed into a Goomba.

The uniform was designed as a brown overcoat, worn over a leatherette vest and mesh fabric undershirt; the vest and undershirt give the uniform a futuristic feeling, with the overcoat bringing a militaristic flair.

Several of the images on this article are from Larry McQueen's Collection of Motion Picture Costume Design. Much of the information is also derived from the Super Mario Bros: The Movie Archive fansite, as well as this Nintendo Player article of props saved from the film.