12/5/2023 0 Comments Science fiction windowblinds skinsThe setting may be futuristic, but it is typical noir: the city at night. But the style of Blade Runner was itself strongly informed by the classic film noirs of the 1940s. More than anything, the setting and visual style of Blade Runner influenced cyberpunk-a genre which culminated on film recently with The Matrix. The only people left on Earth are the wretches who can't afford to leave and those who profit by exploiting them. ![]() Sebastian (William Sanderson) is the only resident of his apartment building. Earth is an environmentally degraded mess that people can't wait to abandon in favor of off-world colonies. In the year 2019, corporations seem to have replaced governments. Cyberpunk, a sub-genre of science fiction whose stories usually feature computers and/or cybernetics, came into its own with William Gibson's 1984 novel, Neuromancer, in which Gibson writes about things called "the net" and "cyberspace." Although William Gibson himself admits that he knew nothing about computers, he is credited by many with inspiring the development of the internet into what it is today.īlade Runner doesn't feature computers, but it does have cybernetic organisms (androids, or "replicants"), and it shares with Neuromancer and most cyberpunk a grim vision-a future world ruined by capitalism run amok. It's important in the development of cinema, too, because it is the first identifiable "cyberpunk" movie. What matters is whether the story yields answers that resonate as universal truths.īlade Runner may contain discrepancies, but it is a sophisticated and complex film, memorable both in style and substance. Though there are those who would disagree, science fiction should not be ultimately about the science, but about the thematic explorations permitted by whatever imaginary setting the author has chosen. Such small discrepancies exist in most science fiction, and they don't really matter, as long as the science fiction world remains true to itself once the parameters have been established. One could argue that the androids are completely organic machines (the film suggests this, in fact), but that is inconsistent with their immunity to boiling water or extreme cold. ![]() For example, why must androids be subjected to a complicated emotion test to determine whether they are human? Why isn't a skin sample or an x-ray enough? A single scale and a microscope is enough to determine that a snake is artificial. Certainly in Blade Runner there are a few problematic questions. If you look closely, all science-fiction premises are flawed in some way. It's inescapable-even the most scientific science-fiction must ultimately resort to the imagination to conjure up possible futures and technological marvels. (Star Trek also does this.)īecause science fiction is inherently speculative, sometimes one must forgive small holes in a premise. ![]() The best science fiction investigates the essence of life using conflicts out of the bounds of our contemporary world as a catalyst. Despite the presence of aliens, alternate realities, or fantastical futures, the best science fiction asks, what does it mean to be human? What is the nature of consciousness? Of life? In exploring these issues, a science fiction universe can have an advantage over a "standard" fiction setting, because it gives writers greater freedom and a larger milieu in which to pose their questions. Like most of the best science fiction, Blade Runner is not really concerned with pseudo-scientific gobbledy-gook.
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