 The orbital weapons platform that creates a beam of light before it  destroys is taken from the 1988 Japanese animated film  _Akira (1988)_ (qv) as is the basic design for the orbital weapons  platform itself. In fact, one of the directors of animation at Tokyo  Movie Shinsa (the Japanese animation company where most of the film  was done) was the actual animator of the scene in  _Akira (1988)_ (qv) when Kaneda was briefly chased by the beam from  the orbital system. When the scene of Terry being chased by the beam  came up, the director snagged the storyboarding duties on it for  himself, under the auspices of aiming to top himself.