In honor of the coming New Year, I thought I’d share one of my weird little obsessions: movies about the future. As usual, it comes back to my historical training. People 1000+ years ago actually weren’t that different from you and me — did you know Seneca hated apartment living, and bitched about his noisy neighbors? — so you should never imagine the future will be completely removed from what we know now. That’s like Jerry Seinfeld’s insistence that everything is the opposite in Bizarro World, which Elaine quickly dispatches using a classic Socratic method: ‘Is Superman black? Does he live underwater?’
And the future can’t be too depressing or I don’t want to live there; totally dystopian is totally boring. My favorites treat even the worst dystopias with some sense of humor. Warning: this list will surely irritate real film geeks with its mainstream-ness and disregard for canonical greatness. Check out the Snarkerati list or Pop Crunch list if you want a pretentious sophisticated take on dystopian movies.
5. Star Wars
Why yes, that is the Cantina band made out of legos. Courtesy of The Brothers Brick Lego blog.
What? Star Wars, the movie that defined my generation, at the bottom of the list? Well, yes, in terms of its portrayal of the future. At least it didn’t think everything would be shiny and clean. And its recognition that dive bars are universal has become a cultural touchstone in its own right.
4. Escape From L.A.
Welcome to the human race. It now wears leather all the time.
Purists would want the beautiful and deadly Blade Runner in this slot, but no, it’s too thoroughly dystopian for this list. Plus it’s only nine years away. Can you believe that???
They might also argue that John Carpenter’s America is too a dystopia and that it’s only three years away. True. Good thing this is my list and John Carpenter maintains a distinct sense of humor about dystopias. Plus Kurt Russell is there. (Gratuitous link to a funny EW blurb that agrees with me on this count.)
3. Futurama
Nixon with charisma! We're doomed!
Eddie Izzard once called Scooby-Doo ‘Faustian’ in its humanity and I’d say the same about Futurama: Frye’s endearing but low-level human consciousness serves as a foil for the 1000 years of satirical ‘progress’ we see in elsewhere the show. Mostly, though, I love that the future has the technology to preserve Nixon jokes.
2. The Fifth Element
Oh, this is so beautifully geeky. I found it and some other great visuals at SciFun.net.
I saw this movie in the theater and didn’t think much of it, but multiple viewings have brainwashed me into loving it. Luc Besson’s colorful future incorporated English villains, Gaultier couture, and rai music — wait, you mean the future isn’t just American? Don’t tell that to Star Trek! And Besson was dead on with that Multipass. Plus, Bruce Willis is there.
1. Firefly and/or Serenity
No, really, where's the sign-up sheet?
Of course I love the aesthetic of this universe — space cowboys, hell yeah! And Joss Whedon nailed it when he made Chinese a major player in his poetic future argot. Finally, Captain Mal is there. The strong, silent, smartass archetype made stronger with a dash of post-modern, pre-Colbertian irony about his own masculinity? Women fixing spaceships better than men?! Where’s the sign-up sheet?
Oh, I was with you on #1 before I even scrolled down there. Yay! Here’s something interesting: Clockwork Orange thought that that we would all be speaking hybrid English/Russian; the book Blade Runner (or was that some other dystopian sci-fi?) was based on made references to Spanglish; Serentity/Firefly has Chinese. Whatever the future holds, apparently it will feature a hybrid language (including distinct linguistic subcultures).
Has there ever been a dystopian future that includes Latin, I wonder?
I bet there has….I bet that somewhere, some author threw in Latin along with the other trappings of their elite British villains. I guess that’s what I find interesting: the difference between using language/aliens as a parallel for division (Romulans = Russians) and using them to envision something more believably global, as in, there’s still racism but Chinese has made its way into the universal culture the way English once did…
I love Futurama and The Fifth Element is a really good one. I probably would have found a way to sneak Back to the Future II in there just because I’m so me.
Also love the point about how we change over time. I always say that people really haven’t changed that much since our beginnings. I bet in a 30 minute conversation with you I would come up with 2 dozen references to steal. Good stuff.
Thanks, I agree we’d have an interesting, pop-culture laced discussion of history! Maybe someday…
I’m definitely down for Whedon’s dystopia– I’m not smart enough to be in any real danger. (Also, I just <3 the series.) The idea of Chinese being a major language in the future seems to make sense, you know, since there are so many people who speak it right now…
Also, Dystopian futures are both more likely and more interesting than Utopian or false-Utopian futures. Who wants perfection? Not this girl.
Yeah, that’s why I think he’s a genius, he effectively foresaw the next movement in empire — but didn’t wig out about it a la standard American scifi for the last fifty years or so. I too just ♥ the series so I’m definitely biased.
Was it you that posted that list of the best swear words from Firefly? Because if it wasn’t, you should read it.
I did not, but I now shall!
Well, it’s not so much “semi-dystopian” as it is “dystopian, with Semi’s”, but there was a pretty good chunk of adolescence where I would have been all over a “Road Warrior” future – minus the superfluous homophobia. The car, the clothes, the dog, the grim, macho stoicism… what’s not to love?
I deem that joke worthy of a snicker, not a groan, but just by a hair. I did consider Road Warrior but being a chick the macho stoicism is much less appealing…I don’t want to have to wear Tina Turner’s Thunderdome outfit, you know?
I lurrrv Captain Reynolds, and Nathan Fillion in general. He is definitely on my Top 5 list. And I completely agree with you on the awesomeness and profundity of Whedon’s use of Chinese/Asian language and culture.
Yes, this is why I admit my reasoning is not objective, I think Nathan Fillion is just super-dishy! Even in Castle.
Glad I’m not the only one with a sort of weird Nathan Fillion crush.
I don’t think it’s weird, every woman I know has a thing for him. My friend and I saw Waitress just to see if he’d take his shirt off, which he didn’t, boooooo!
Star Wars as a future semi-dystopia? But it starts with, “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…”
Just because they’re advanced doesn’t mean its in the future. Humans just somehow colonized other planets.. maybe it goes back to that panspermia thing.. and exist in other parts of our universe. Rather like Battlestar Galactica, which would’ve been my pick here (you kinda look like Starbuck!), but then we’re back at the same problem, because that too, was in the past on a collective universal timeline.
Love your blog!
Total nerd alert! Now that I’m not teaching Latin, I’ve left relative tenses in the past (hahahaha). But glad you’re enjoying it.