I watched two movies this weekend, Blade Runner and The Running Man, which were both made in the 1980s and both set in the year 2019.
Neither 2019 reality appears entirely likely to happen, but I’ve made this helpful chart to sort the two out. Hat tip to Eric Simon at Amazin’ Avenue for the HTML tablemaker gadget.
Here is what the end of this decade will look like, according to Blade Runner and The Running Man:
| Blade Runner | The Running Man | |
|---|---|---|
| What we should fear | The government, corporate greed | The government, sensationalist reality television |
| Thing it seems like we should fear but that doesn’t turn out so bad after all | Replicants (“more human than human” automatons) | Jesse Ventura |
| Flying cars | Yes | No |
| Cell phones | No | No |
| Jet packs | No | Yes (on Fireball) |
| Edward James Olmos | Yes | No |
| Manipulative, untrustworthy media | Not specified | Yes |
| Video pay phones | Yes | No |
| Computers | No | Yes |
| Advanced digital enhancement technology | Yes, on a hilariously crappy TV | Yes |
| Rebel leader | Roy (a replicant) | Mick Fleetwood |
I’ve made no secrets of my dissatisfaction with the future here, but it’s probably best that things don’t appear to be going down either of these paths.
Still, nine years is a long time, and I wouldn’t put anything past sensationalist reality TV producers.
I said I wish I could go back; put some money on the Cubbies.
I’m still waiting for you to take down Bob Klapisch for his latest crap article on foxsports.
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/klapisch-mets-are-confident-or-deluded-021910
Are you certain that wasn’t ghost-written by Mike Francesca? The clowns masquerading as sports journalists in NY are so damn transparent.
Those two movies make for an excellent weekend.
We watched it in my film studies class, and I hated Blade Runner. Running Man, though, is great.
It is really funny to look back at some of these movies now that the ‘future is now’. Like you said in your earlier post, Back to the Future II is set in 2015, that means we should be 5 years away from a readily available hover board?
Who cares about a hoverboards when there’s dehydrated pizzas ready in the blink of an eye & holographic 3-dimensional sharks. I wouldnt even want a hoverboard. And let’s not forget the awesome clothes…..the silver glasses to drive thingys…….other…..stuff……ok i forgot
McFLY!! Hoverboard’sDon’tWorkOnWater. Unless you got…. POWER!!!
I watched some of Back to the Future II last weekend on cable. In the 80′s Cafe in 2015, there appears to be a Daryl Strawberry picture hanging on the wall.