Rollerball, The Running Man, Robocop and Idiocracy weren't just entertaining movies

[MrScorpio]

They were the very essence of prescience

Who knew?

[Libertas1776]

1. Omni Consumer Congress

has a certain ring to it:nuke:

[scarletwoman]

2. "They Live" pretty much covered it. (nt)

[Libertas1776]

5. Yeah, but in this world, there ain't no satellite dish

to blow up and reveal these scum for what they really are. And try getting the people to get up, chew bubble gum, and kick some ass. Fuhgeddaboudit!

[proteus_lives]

7. "Put on the glasses!"

"This one can see."

[ddeclue]

3. Logan's Run will be the national health care plan!

[ddeclue]

4. Soylent Green is People..

:rofl:

[proteus_lives]

6. I love Rollerball (Caan Version) and Robocop. Dark sci-fi is a fave of mine.

The Running Man novella was much scarier the movie and Idiocracy is criminally unappreciated.

[TheKentuckian]

19. Running Man was such a pleasant surprise for me. The movie almost completely misses it but has the

same basic plot. I wish someone would actually do a more direct treatment of it.

[proteus_lives]

20. Me too.

It's a dark and scary little thing.

The ending is very freaky.

[mochajava666]

28. Only the Cann version of Rollerball

The remake was even worse than the Planet of the Apes remake.

Blade Runner is one of my favorite dark sci fi movies.

[Kalun D]

8. Prescient

the most prescient for it's time was Orwell's 1984

the TV as a tool of control

war without end with a shifting enemy

re-writing history

both the book and movie are online

[Quantess]

9. Now you've done it.

You're going to get people frothing that George Orwell's 1984 was just bandied about tripe, or something. Threads have been started saying so!

I read it, and I thought it was prescient, too. A little too ambitious in terms of the year, that's all.

[immoderate]

11. It was written in 1948. Orwell just transposed the digits.

It was also pretty much true in 1948 -- as it is now.

--imm

[Quantess]

12. Gosh I had no idea!!!

:eyes:


Edit to add: Sorry, that probably seemed bitchy.

[immoderate]

13. So now I'm confused.

I didn't mean to be pedantic -- well, maybe I did. :shrug:

--imm

[Quantess]

21. Do you really think

anyone would read the whole book and not even look at the date of the title, and the date it was written, and expect anything but a whole lot of lovin from my church

[immoderate]

22. Anyone? I find many do not know the date it was written.

That's how I read your post. I've certainly come across people here who need information. Sorry if I seemed condescending.
I've taught this book, and most of the students wouldn't read the copyright page unless it was specifically assigned. :)

--imm

[Duer 157099]

10. It's so much more prosaic

The powerbrokers are so devoid of any imagination that they use sci fi stories as their scripts and then just play them out.

Seriously. I sometimes think we need to caution the sci fi writers from being too pessimistic and draconian because somebody is gonna use it as inspiration.

[MindPilot]

14. "the corporation provides everything...

all it asks in return is that you do not interfere with management decisions."

--Rollerball

[MindPilot]

15. Death Race 2000, Scanners and Videodrome

good anti-corporate sci-fi.

[Echo In Light]

23. "Long live the new flesh."

Very creepy when applied to today's commonly manufactured public mind.

[TheWatcher]

16. When John Carpenter Released "They Live" in 1988, Everybody Laughed.

If they were paying attention at all.

It was preposterous, silly, and simply over the top.

He was out of his mind, and could no longer be taken seriously as a coherent Director Anymore.

22 years later, not only has that film become a beloved Sci-Fi film Cult Classic, it is seen by those who "can see" for what it was meant to be in the first place.

Cautionary, and a DIRE Warning, for those that took the time to look beneath the surface of the film and see what he was really saying.

No one took it seriously then. Everyone laughed, giggled, and snickered.

But many of us have been wearing the sunglasses for years.

it's about time the entire country did the same.

And when they do, instead of laughing, they might instead hear the haunting sounds of an old song from The Smiths, and hear Morrissey's words, and be chilled to the bone in agreement.....

"That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore....."

IT IS TIME, AMERICA.

"PUT ON THE FUCKING GLASSES"

[Mixopterus]

17. Hey

At least we can get Robocop out of it, right? He's like the very essence of an iron-clad warrior of the proletariat.

Interesting note: I used to GM a game called Cyberpunk 2020 a while back. Can't wait to live the game!

Aha...ha... this is awful ._.

[TheWatcher]

18. Robocop was another very cautionary tale.

Verhoeven went over the top with it, but again, the underlying message is very chilling.

Cyberpunk 2020.

YOU, my friend, are OLD SCHOOL. :thumbsup:

I like that. A lot. :)

We may indeed get to live it.

And maybe a bit of Shadowrun and Deus Ex mixed in. :(

[Javaman]

24. "I'll buy that for a dollar!" nt

[Javaman]

25. How long till Soylent Green?

think I'm kidding?

[anarch]

26. and let's not rule out The Road Warrior

I mean, unless our corporate overlords decide that everyone should "go green" and that, you know, it's more important to secure some kind of chance for sustainable existence in the future rather than just raking in the cash/keeping us hooked on petroleum until it stops being profitable to them.

[jmowreader]

27. Which theme in Soylent Green are you referring to?

The problem with that movie: everyone's so up in arms about the involuntary-cannibalism theme (which also exists in Logan's Run--remember Box, the robot whose job it was to kill and freeze runners before they could get outside? What do you REALLY think they did with them?) they don't notice the rich/poor divide issue.

Right now I'll tell ya: I don't think the cannibalism theme will come to pass in our lifetimes--in part because the technology to turn human flesh green isn't there yet. (OTOH, the technology to turn meat into an edible dry meal is well established--look at the dog food industry. A "Soylent Red" made out of red-blooded Americans is easy enough to imagine, but when Jonathan Swift suggested eating all the Catholic babies I don't think he meant to turn them into kibble first.) But the rich/poor divide? That's here now, and it's only going to get worse. We've already got too many homeless. We've already got millions of people sleeping in the streets--remember watching Thorne have to weave his way past all the people sleeping on the steps to his apartment? And if you forget about Soylent Green being made out of people, we've kinda got that food divide going on now. Poor people eat a lot of processed foods; rich people can afford to hit Whole Paycheck for their organic fair-trade nutritious products.

So yeah, Soylent Green is here now but it isn't people, at least not today.

[brentspeak]

31. Ramen noodles, potted meat products, fast food -- soylent green for the masses is here already

[Javaman]

32. Very good point...

in the movie if you recall, Soylent Green was just the latest variety. There was Soylent Orange, brown, blue, etc...

Oldly, I think if we were made into food, we would be more of a Soylent Beige.

[suffragette]

29. He, She and It by Marge Piercy

Hasn't been made into a film yet, but it's very much in the zone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/He,_She_and_It

[Tommy_Carcetti]

30. Brawndo's got what plants crave.

It's got electrolytes!