What Sci-Fi movie do you think comes closest to our future?

[ibegurpard]

Not necessarily for technological reasons...it could be political, economic, environmental, whatever. Myself, I choose Alien because, the way I see things going, I see us ending up as cogs in the machinations of a big, inhuman corporate conglomerate.

[lazarus]

1. Technically

Blade Runner and Alien are the same future. At least, Ridley Scott (who directed both) said he felt Alien took place off-world in the Blade Runner universe.

[Terran]

19. Really? Interesting, I never heard that.

But it makes sense. The only inconsistency I can see is that in BR they were called replicants and in Alien they were called androids (though there could easily be quite a time lapse between the two).

I'm thinking, given climate change and peak oil, that the cheesey Road Warrior is probably and unfortunately closest to our future: collapse of society. But I'll keep hoping for a Star Trek-like future.

[ibegurpard]

24. I hadn't heard that either.

It's kind of hard to reconcile the two for me. You get very little from the Alien movies as to what society, culture, art, etc. was like whereas Blade Runner was masterful at evoking all of that. I agree about some of the themes being similar: individuals spinning their wheels in a game being played by forces far beyond their control.

[enigmatic]

2. I hate to sound pessimistic...

But I think it'll be 1984-esque..

[JSJ]

3. 'water world' nt

[UdoKier]

4. Soylent Green.

Hideous poverty and environmental degradation for most, unconscionable luxury for the wealthy few. That is assuming we keep electing Republicans.

[trogdor]

18. Except Soylent Green was about New York City

The REAL poverty, pollution, corruption, etc., has been offshored.

[Gothic Sponge]

5. I'd love to say Star Trek, but it will never happen.

[onebigbadwulf]

9. I diasgree. I think aliens exist

and if we met them, it would unify the planet and end all dogmatic religions within 2 generations.

Then we'd share technology and develop colonies elsewhere and so forth.

[ibegurpard]

25. When the new Star Trek series came out

I watched the first episode and sobbed. Not because it was good but because I thought that what I always considered the most hopeful vision of our future had been dashed (It came out not longer after 9/11).

[Dogmudgeon]

6. GATTACA

Possibly Brasil.

Lots of high technology, cheap implementation, and near-universal high-tech poverty.

Add that to a lack of cheap energy.

--bkl

[Guy_Montag]

7. Brazil is almost here,

worked in one of the more productive British civil service departments. After a few days I e-mailed one of my friends say it was scarily similar to Brazil.

On edit: Not a movie, but Brave New World. Kids looked after by the state, hedonistic youths, people kept young looking until they pop their clogs.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/3635572.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/3527476.stm

[Dogmudgeon]

8. Brave New World

It was made into a movie at least twice -- each time, a made-for-TV flick, and each one got decent reviews.

The last one starred Leonard Nimoy as Mustapha Mond. Soma came in capsules identical to those the Prozac comes in. I thought it captured the basic idea of Huxley's novel very well; BNW is usually thought to be a sterile future, but Huxley's idea was (AFAIK) that the future would be a hyper-trivialized consumer hive.

Anyway, in Brave New World, kids were named for political figures ("Lenina Trotsky", "Bernard Marx"). Today, we have a bumper crop of Britneys, Madonnas, Ashleys and Mary-Kates. I'm waiting for the first little boy to be named "Fifty Cent".

--bkl

[Guy_Montag]

10. I would agree with you about Huxley's idea,

it struck me that in BNW everything was available. The whole system was designed to make you consume for the sake of consuming & not have any emotions.

btw. I've heard ecstacy described as soma.

The first time I heard about kids named after celebs it was Kylies & Jasons in the 80s.

[tigereye]

22. did it look like the 40s?

and was the technology from the 40s as well? Actually I think Kafka nailed that one a long time ago in The Castle. (I don't think it was made into a moviie.)

[hunter]

32. Brazil, for sure.

In many places we are almost there.

[terrya]

11. Blade Runner, without a doubt.

Phillip K. Dick (and Ridley Scott, who directed the film) had it exactly right.

[EstimatedProphet]

12. 1984

Oh wait, you said FUTURE...

[louis c]

13. 1984

Is to America, circa 2004,

What Mein Kampf was to Germany, circa 1931.

[arwalden]

14. The Day The Earth Stood Still ... or ... When Worlds Collide ... or ...

It Came From Outer Space.

[soothsayer]

15. Maybe the Fifth Element, too. n/t

[chenGOD]

16. Planet of the Apes.

I mean there's already a chimp in charge of the White House right?

[jukes]

17. Handmaid's Tale

the fundies intend to rule...

[LisaLynne]

20. I was just about to post ...

... Handmaid's Tale. I think the book is brilliant and the movie isn't bad, either.

Also, the consumerism/constant advertising of Minority Report seemed all too possible and real to me. Forget the rest of the plot, but I think that aspect was pretty dead-on.

[Ramsey]

21. The Handmaid's Tale

A theocratic cabal takes over the country by freezing everyone's electronic bank accounts, stifles all dissent and enslaves fertile women to the ruling leadership.

[C_eh_N_eh_D_eh]

23. Starship Troopers

Only with more fascism and less debauchery.

[ibegurpard]

26. Both Starship Troopers and Robocop had

very interesting and, in my opinion, spot-on depictions of the direction the media and the news are going.

[Tom Kitten]

27. A Clockwork Orange

mainly because it hasn't been mentioned yet, in a lot of ways some of it has already happened.

[Eternal_Vigilance]

28. FUTURAMA!

With the Smell-O-Scope and Slurm!

[Deja Q]

29. BLAKE'S 7

Minus the space travel, of course.

A fascist government that uses drugs and other means to subdue thought and dissent and makes criminals out of the innocent.

[Tabasco_Dave]

30. Barbarellia

One day we will all travel in spaceships with shag carpet and gay computers.

[Huckebein the Raven]

31. I voted other because I see a mixture of the following:

1984
Minority Report
Handmaid's Tale
Metropolis
Equilibrium

On edit:

I'm adding also Equilibrium to my list (I recommend this movie) in light of the Mental Health Plan that's being put forward and the power of the drug companies