It’s a brand new year, and with every step we take deeper into the 21st century comes more amusement as the “future” dates of our pop culture lexicon become reality…
Remember when the 2010’s seemed like the distant future as you were a rookie geek, watching TV and movies “back then” that are set “nowadays”? Heck, maybe you weren’t even born “back then,” which probably means you find them even funnier; look, in 1989, when Back to the Future II came out, 2015 was so far awaaay. Now, four years after Marty McFly visited his kids, a whole ‘nuther batch of films set in “the future” are about to see their settings become reality – though how close to those realities we get in the next 12 months is definitely up for debate. Enjoy today’s Friday Five: The 2019’s of film, then and (semi-) recently…
Blade Runner (1982)
Chances are this is going to be the fictional 2019 you’re going to hear the most about this year, if only because that bold declaration of LOS ANGELES, NOVEMBER 2019 set over the blazing cityscape of Ridley Scott’s seminal futurist-noir is so iconic. Back in 1982, the production design of Scott’s adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? certainly seemed kinda plausible? When you consider how retro styles seem to recirculate every 30, 40, 50 years; suuure, maybe dames like Sean Young would be wearing 40’s hairdos in the 21st century. The prescience of how it depicts Asian cultures coming to prominence in L.A. is interesting, too. (Now in real-2019, the Korean-American population in L.A. is more than the next three highest counties in the U.S. combined.)
The Running Man (1987)
Attention, those of you who watch the trailers before you read the rest of the article – no, we didn’t cheat on this one. 😉 Indeed, in the trailer for The Running Man you’ll hear a direct shout-out to 2017; in fact, in the film this is when Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Ben Richards is arrested and framed. It is only after two years’ incarceration, in 2019, that he escapes with two buddies and promptly gets hauled in front of the perfectly-cast Richard (Family Feud) Dawson to battle for his life against larger-than-life gladiators on live television. The Running Man is one of those texts that absolutely predicted how insatiable we would become for reality TV by this point in our history; thank goodness we haven’t gotten to the point where the rules of the game are lethal yet.
Akira (1988)
Hey, if you’re going to single these out in terms of the most earth-shattering entries in sci-fi cinema, then Akira certainly gives even Blade Runner a run for its money in terms of the most landmark fictional-2019 ever depicted. It is impossible to overstate what Katsuhiro Otomo’s dystopian classic did not only for the cyberpunk genre, but for adult animation and particuarly Japanese anime in Western cinema circles; its influence has expanded past anime and manga into comics, television, music, video games and more in cultures worldwide. If you are a sci-fi nerd who hasn’t dabbled much in anime and has yet to discover Akira, now is the perfect time to embrace the 2019 of Neo-Tokyo. Just be ready to parrot certain lines over and over again to your heart’s content. (“TETSUOOOOO!”…. “KANEDAAAA!”)
The Island (2005)
Alright, so not every time-machine trip from the past to today (or at least, now it’s “today”) is going to come up smelling like roses. It’s been 14 years since Michael Bay decided to give us his take on 2019 with The Island and… well, it wasn’t very good then and it has aged even worse. Taking into account how far both Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson have come in their careers, watching them dash, dive and dodge their way through all that Bay-sian noise is pretty cringey. Not to mention the fact that the film steals left, right and center from more superior dystopian tales like Fahrenheit 451, THX-1138 and Logan’s Run, none of which it does much justice to in its “homage”-ery. And they definitely dressed better in Blade Runner, sooooo…
Daybreakers (2010)
At first glance, Michael and Peter Spierig’s horror/action/thriller probably visually resembles actual-2019 the most out of our list (though it’s a hell of a lot more monochromatic). There’s that whole thing, mind you, where society is overrun by vampires. That’s a stretch. Not an entirely unwelcome one though; Daybreakers is by no means a futurist classic, but as a slice of pulp it’s not half bad, with an excellent cast that includes Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, and Aussie stars Claudia Karvan and Vince Colosimo. If you mostly know Sam Neill from his heroic parts like Jurassic Park, just ask any Final Conflict or Event Horizon fans what a good baddie he can be; he’s deliciously evil in this. Anyway, bloodsuckers, you’ve got until December to make this one a reality if you’re reading this. Chop, chop! [Or is that chomp, chomp? I’ll get my coat… -Ed.]
