Will we all soon be in one of those movies about a grim future?

[Philosoraptor]

Blade Runner? Logan's Run? Children of Men? Mad Max? 1984? The Day After Tomorrow? V for Vendetta? THX1138? Fahrenheit 451? All of these books and movies forsee a bleak future, some are warnings, some are just scary stories, thousands of writers have stared into our future and they don't always see rosy scenarios.

I swear to God I never thought that I personally would live to see the beginnings of such a scenario laid out so boldly and successfully. From 2000 on we've been characters in act one of a really scary movie, and after viewing the first six years of this movie, I wish I could leave the theater before the really bad stuff starts that I don't want my kids to see.

People blast around all day in cars, texting and talking, dining out, playing video games, watching the machine like this is all normal, like this will all be this way forever, but nothing is forever, not even the great America, things change, shit happens, the future is there, and the great science fiction riddle comes back: Can the future be changed? Or is it already laid out and unchangeable?

Only in books and movies can you travel BACK in time, to correct your mistakes, but in real life, you live with your mistakes, and the future is what we make of it. Look what they've done to America in only 7 short years, and use your imagination to visualize what they might do in the next 7. It ain't pretty.

I want to be in THIS futuritsic film.

[acmavm]

1. We're already there.

[ixion]

5. indeed.

I think we started on the Hayride to Hell in the 80's...

While it's possible to change the future, it's not probable. It would require a unified collective effort from the species, which is highly unlikely, IMO.

[datasuspect]

2. you forgot soylent green

[Philosoraptor]

12. I feel like the old men in 'Soylent' & 'Logan's Run'

Last of their kind, seen as oddities, old dogs who remember what it was like, and who understand how it all happened. Old men looked to by the survivors for wisdom.

[cassiepriam]

3. Yes. Some day people will look back at this time as the golden years,

We had clean food, water and air.
Rain, grass, flowers.

[conspirator]

4. Don't forget the masterpiece: The Matrix. "It is the world that has been put over your...

eyes to blind you from the truth."
"What truth?"
"That you are a slave Neo"

[Javaman]

40. not hardly a masterpiece. Frankly, I never understood what was so bad about the

existance of the people in the matrix.

So your a human battery and you imagine a regular life. Is that bad?

The alternative is: you are freed from being a battery to dance in caves with sweaty people.

I'll take the battery life thank you. LOL

[lazer47]

6. You forgot to add in "The Keystone Cops"

[Philosoraptor]

8. Keystone Cops meet the Terminator.

Starring California Governor Ah Nold Svarza Negger.

[Bridget Burke]

7. "Max Headroom"--20 minutes into the future

I wanna be a Blank!

[Rydz777]

9. Well said. I remember how "A Clockwork Orange" caused a stir

for being outrageous. Now it reads like current events.

People are increasingly living in a two-dimensional virtual reality, but creeping up behind them is the three-dimensional reality that is getting ready to bite.

[Lerkfish]

10. we're on the cusp of Fahrenheit 451, 1984 and V for Vendetta mixed.

the population is intentionally moronified by television and told what they want to hear to placate them (Fahrenheit 451). The truth is selectively manipulated and "memory holes" are used extensively, and perpetual war is the device used to keep the masses compliant "we have always been at war against Eurasia (terror) (1984)
The govt. used or perhaps even perpetrated a terrorist event to amass untold power (V for Vendetta)

[Philosoraptor]

16. Coming Soon: "Waterworld"

[shadowknows69]

17. Kevin Costner will be able to give everyone a hearty FUCK YOU

someday for the shit he took on that one. Which I thought was pretty good. Give me a crazed Dennis Hopper as a pirate on speed boats any day of the week.

[porphyrian]

38. Waterworld was almost scene for scene a ripoff of The Road Warrior...

...just in water instead of a desert. If I hadn't seen the Mad Max series when Waterworld came out, I may not have hated it so much.

[Javaman]

41. I just want the gills. nt

[Virginia Dare]

24. Yep, you nailed it with that one...n/t

[Philosoraptor]

11. The Grand Daddy of them all, "Metropolis"

[NewJeffCT]

13. Probably like one of those bad Sci-Fi channel movies

that attempts to rip-off a bit from Blade Runner, a bit from The Matrix, a bit from Road Warrior/Mad Max, etc, etc.

Is there any movie where most functions of goverment are privatized, where the military & police/security work is privatized? (Robo-Cop?)

There will be a few very wealthy elites, a few well-to-do types, but the rest will be similar to peasants and serfs from medieval times?

[mondo obscurius]

29. deleted - reposted below

[CrispyQ]

14. I never laughed so hard as I did when I first watched "Sleeper."

Another movie, "The Running Man." The book was good too, but in this rare case, I like the movie was better. (Although it has been years & years since I read the book.) We aren't that far away from a game show judicial system.

[shadowknows69]

18. Sleeper is one of the few films that gets me "crying" laughing

where my gut hurts and I can't even see. The scene where they're trying to kidnap the nose has damaged me for life.

[havocmom]

33. Pass the celery. Got any salt?

:rofl:

Last time we were at Lowes, Havocdad saw one of those small enclosed shower stalls, with the intergrated door, for tight spaces. He asked what it was. Told him: "Orgasmatron". Six people in the immediate area burst out laughing.

[baldguy]

15. Soylent Green

Rollerball

America as a third-world country where only the privileged few lead any sort of civilized life.

[Philosoraptor]

19. Zardoz had a similar plot line.

A tiny priviledged group that could extend their lives, locked away from the rest of humanity.

[SammyWinstonJack]

20. You forgot Waterworld.

[Philosoraptor]

22. thread #16

[The2ndWheel]

21. Well cameras will certainly be everywhere

Britain is leading the way.

[dkofos]

23. It's more like "Idiocracy"

[datasuspect]

30. fox options "ow! my balls!" for fall lineup

a show whose time has come.

[dkofos]

34. Only if bush is the first one to get kicked in the balls!!

[Javaman]

42. Loved that movie!!

I liked how everyone ate with their fingers out of a tub of goo. LOL

[Virginia Dare]

25. Does anybody remember the movie "Brazil"?

it's a really good movie, and I think pretty close to how we will be living in the near future.

[Philosoraptor]

26. Oh yes. Very bleak.

[Virginia Dare]

27. The depiction of terrorist violence in this movie still chills me..

but, I fear that is where our society is heading, an overall surrendering to violence, and an acceptance of totalitarianism as a result.

[Javaman]

43. hit the nail on the head.

I think that bureaucratic nightmare that Jonathan Pryce worked at is what homeland security will become.

[Strelnikov_]

28. 'Children of Men' -> 'The Postman'

Captures the societal trajectory fairly well.

Resource depletion -> declining western living standards -> resource wars -> feudalism

Look at what is happening in other 'failed states' (Iraq, Afghanistan)

Not a prediction, but a probable time line based on our response to resource depletion to date.


And how could I forget Nigeria . .

[mondo obscurius]

31. Dont' forget Rollerball

The original Rollerball with James Cahn. America inc. vs. Japan inc. We don't have Rollerball now, but we do have UFC and WFF Smackdown which serve the same purpose of channeling our feelings of powerlessness in the face of the iron boot of global corporatism. :-) Hey! Bread and Circus as always. But the price of bread is climbing...

Here's the thing though. Maybe in many ways it's already too late to save the patient, but the forward-looking among us may already be envisioning the phoenix that will rise from the ashes of these terrible years. What color is your Phoenix? What does it look like? How will we build a new enlightened culture out of the chaos of today? To mix metaphors a bit, it's as if the soil is being turned for a new season of planting. I believe now is the time to start planting the seeds of new community and ways of living that are sustainable and enlightened. It begins with a choice. It can begin even now right in the middle of all this craziness. Personally, I think this is the real revolution that wants to happen now. But I'm just one person.

Like most everyone i know I have a lot more questions than answers right now, but I think it starts by openly asking the questions and being unafraid to discuss positive alternative futures. That's how it begins.

m

[Javaman]

44. If someone could just combine sumo wrestling and roller derby...nt

[havocmom]

32. Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood seems erily close at hand too.

My daughter has made a pact with a male friend that, should all us women suddenly find our bank accounts frozen, they will enter into a marriage of convience. Some of us really fear the future Atwood set up in that book - Christo-Fascist Regime in America and laws suddenly limiting women's rights to move about freely, sign contracts, hold property/leases and basically live as adults.

The fear is real.

[triguy46]

35. Ozone. Brave New World. 1984. n/t

[blues90]

36. I feel like we are already 7 years into a bleak future

Everything has been torn apart down to the smallest detail , everything had a brick wall waiting to be run into , it's only a matter of time now .

These movies were scary enough but I never thought we would be living in one of them and I don't which one it will be .

[shadowknows69]

37. A little from column A and a little from column B I suspect EOM

[Javaman]

39. Soylent Green is ground up old movies!!!! nt