How much of Blade Runner has come true?

[billbuckhead]

How much of Blade Runner has come true?

We love to look for echoes of our present in the sci-fi films of the past. A new UN report suggests 1982's rather bleak Blade Runner may be in danger of proving all too accurate.
The world's climate could soon resemble the urban smog shown in the popular science fiction movie Blade Runner, suggests a report by UN scientists working for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The sort of chemical pollution which keeps the futuristic Los Angeles of the film in permanent, drizzling twilight, could actually spread across much of the northern hemisphere in the coming decades, warns the UN.

Blade Runner - the story of a policeman on the trail of four murderous genetically-engineered androids - was one of the first sci-fi blockbusters to paint a dystopia (i.e. non-Utopian) picture of the future.

Although set in 2019, the film deals with issues and problems familiar to us today, says Ed Lawrenson from Sight and Sound magazine.

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1154662.stm>

This article was written in 2001, Blade Runner seems more eerily prescient than ever in 2005. Terrorists vs technocrats. The climate change deal. The genetic engineering, The relentless synthesis of Darwinism and the marketplace. The lack of reality.

[JanMichael]

1. Well...We were at the Grand canyon last week and the LA smog was there.

Not sure this answers your question but the decline in visibility has been attributed to the LA Basin...

[kingfisherbeer]

2. ..like tears in the rain

Wait until we all speak mishmash Japanese and English. Yeah.. that would be Roy Batty's world all right.

[gumby]

3. And those at the top still think they can

live Above it all; way over the tops of those slimy, rainy, crowded, polluted masses Below.

[camby]

6. They can protect themselves in gated communities,

but they can't escape the air we all have to breathe. Of course, these folks think that global climate change is a myth propagated by hysterical tree huggers.

[seemslikeadream]

4. Do androids dream of electric sheep?

http://www.philipkdick.com.nyud.net:8090/covers/PKD_DO_ANDROIDS.jpg

http://eclectech.co.uk.nyud.net:8090/b3ta/sheepstalk.gif


:hi:

[kingfisherbeer]

8. :)

I have seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I've watched C-Beams glitter in the dark near the Taunhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time. Like tears in rain. ...Time to die.
-Roy Batty

[dweller]

5. i'm glad ..i think.. i have a copy

of this film. I still break it out and watch now and then. Seems to be many undercurrents that only are revealed on multiple viewings.

it's not the director's cut, but still a fine film.

my other recommendation: VIDEODROME

dp

[wiggs]

7. This was on last night...directors version ( no narrative)

What a beautifully shot movie.

Rollerball. Soylent Green. Farenheit 451. Three Days of the Condor. Time Machine.

One I haven't thought about for a while but will have to watch again: The President's Analyst, in which the phone company is as powerful as the government.

[Blue_Tires]

11. i saw it, too

and I was speechless...(so that's what the director was trying to show us all along!!)

Even though I saw it a couple of times years ago, it was on regular TV, heavily edited, and the non-letterbox version.....The widescreen director's cut was like an entirely different movie, and only now after all these years do I feel i finally 'get it'

[gumby]

12. "The President's Analyst"

is definitely a Keeper! The Phone Company indeed!!!

[RoyGBiv]

9. Strange Synchronicity ...

The subject of this movie came up in conversation between a friend and me today. We ended up talking about the book more than the movie, but still. Weird.

Anyway, the discussion inspired me to look around for something that might feed my thoughts, and I ran across this. It's long and involved, but if you're truly interested, it has some passages relevant to your question.

http://binarybonsai.com/files/androids_and_bladerunner.pdf

[havocmom]

10. "How much of Blade Runner has come true?"

Probably a whole lot more than we know about.

[Neshanic]

13. "Wild Palms" has been more on the mark than "Blade Runner"

[Must_B_Free]

14. We're going offshore to the new colony

leaving all the B grade people behind

[Baclava]

15. Not enough...

I keep talking to my computer and it refuses to listen.
Stupid machine!

And where's my damn flying car?

How come all the "futuristic" movies have fucking flying cars?
I want one...