Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Pay Phones in 2019

Oh no, Harrison Ford as a reenlisted blade runner is running so he can tell the central police office the truth about certain replicants that need to be retired, and he's running out of time! If only he could fine a pay phone in 2019, especially because Phillip K. Dick's novel never dreamed of wireless communication.

Similarly there are a number of times a phone would have been helpful to Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) and the rest of the future world in Brazil, certainly could have used some wireless technology as some of societies largest ills in the movie Brazil is that there are ducts going everywhere that allow their plugged in society to be electronically energized and monitored. In addition there's so much paper work everyone has to fill out and send via tubes. Terry Gilliam got some of the social ills right in this film, but he never dreamed of e-mail or wireless computers.

It truly is amazing to think of how much technology has changed since these films came out, Ridley Scott's Blade Runner in 1982 and Gilliam's Brazil in 1985. Things like absence of cell phones (but the presence of pay phones) in the future especially can really change the dynamic and "realistic" nature of futuristic movies.

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6 comments:

jasdye said...

Loved those movies.

But also, think of how many sit-com mix-ups and scenarios would have been (sadly) averted due to cell phones.

Seinfeld would have never been Seinfeld.

Terence Towles Canote said...

It is amazing the things sci-fi films got wrong years ago. None of them anticipated cell phones or the World Wide Web, let alone home computers. And what is odd is what they did think we would have now. In 2001 space travel was routine and we had a base on the moon (but we still didn't have cell phones or PCs...).

Jeff Reed said...

EXCELLENT POST!

jasdye said...

well, the Jetsons had it right in terms of work. pushing buttons all day, the number one danger being that a crimpled finger.

Magnus said...

Maybe they were benned because of brain cancer fears or because of the highly toxic components that go into making them?

RC said...

magnus...i like how you're thinking! now that's creative sci-fi!