What's todays vision of the future ?

[Mikey]

Every decade had their own vision of the future - based on a few popular movies at the time.

Example

1950's Forbidden Planet

1960's Star Trek

1970's Logan's Run

1980's Mad Max

1990's (not sure)

2000's Matrix

2010's (not sure)

Note, Star Wars didn't make the 70's list because even though it's crazy popular it really didn't set a trend for Sci Fi future storytelling imo

Feel free to disagree and add your own picks

[pmwasson]

I'd say Blade Runner for the 1980s.

[ctc]

Hmmmm....

That's an interesting question. I don't think we currently have one.... unless you count a world overrun by zombies.... although I suspect we WILL, soon. Nobody's produced a setting that really gripped the audience; at least not one significantly different from today, but with flying cars and more ads.

....but we are due, and with fantasy winding down sci-fi should be coming back.

Don C.

[Mikey]

Yea, i'm really getting sick of zombies

Like everything else they overproduce it and ram it down our throats until we never wanna see it again

This time around it's zombies and superheroes

[megoat]

Note, Star Wars didn't make the 70's list because even though it's crazy popular it really didn't set a trend for Sci Fi future storytelling imo

I'd suppose it also may have to do with the fact that it was set "a LONG TIME AGO in a galaxy far far away"?

[thunderbolt]

the 90's are a tough era to nail down to a specific trend, maybe the media overload of future movies like Robocop2 The Fifth Element, Total Recall, and Starship Troopers is the one future vision that emerged in that decade. Of course they owe it all to Blade Runner.

[johnmiic]

Every decade had their own vision of the future - based on a few popular movies at the time.

Note, Star Wars didn't make the 70's list because even though it's crazy popular it really didn't set a trend for Sci Fi future storytelling imo

Well, Mike, I think Star Wars did set the tone for many years after because so many films copied its style, (Battle Beyond The Stars, Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, The Last Starfighter), but never matched its success.

I think it could run like this:

1950's Day the Earth Stood Still, Invasion of the Saucermen, The THING & Invasion of the Body Snatchers, (Caution, suspicion, paranoia, be prepared for an attack)

1960's Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Fantastic Voyage, Lost In Space, Twilight Zone, 2001, Planet of the Apes, (wild fantasy, disillusionment, apocalypse). Remember Star Trek wasn't even widely popular in the `60's. It inspired it's fans but wasn't main-stream then.

1970's More Planet of the Apes, Omega Man, Logan's Run to Star Wars, (disillusionment, post-apocalypse, new-found confidence in the future)

1980's Alien, Empire Strikes Back, Terminator, Aliens, Back to the Future, Star Trek resurgence, (horror, adventure, caution and optimism)

1990's Robocop, Star Trek on TV, Babylon 5, Total Recall, Terminator 2, Jurassic Park, (cynicism, realism, power over life)

2000's Matrix to be sure but SF was widely replaced by fantasy like Lord of the Rings and super-hero films like X-Men, Spider-Man & Batman. Tho Doctor Who returned and started reaching a wider audience.

2010's Too early to say

[Klosterheim]

90's Tek War

For me the 1990's were:

Highlander
Forever Knight
Deep Space 9
Babylon 5
Stargate
Kindred

[johnnystorm]

I think the future envisioned from the "golden age of scifi" in the 30s & up through the 1960s was one of high tech glory, machines & technology serving and making life better for mankind. Rocket cars, robots, etc....but starting in the late 60s and moving forward it's slowly gotten more. & more dystopian and bleak. I'd say we've. Gone from the PotA & Logan's Run to Blade Runner, but now the doomsday apocalypse seems to be the predominant theme. Not just zombies, but economic destruction. It's sad, but no one expects a Jetsons existence, it's more like Mad Max is coming.

[torgospizza]

I'd say Blade Runner for the 1980s.

I agree. I think the 90s would be crappier dystopian stuff featuring Kevin Costner, like Waterworld or The Postman. Now? Maybe Hunger Games-style stuff where society is essentially impoverished like modern North Korea mixed with the entertainment sensibilities of The Running Man.

Bleak stuff. I wonder why futuristic movies where society gets it together don't get made. I know in Star Trek, they act as if they've solved greed, racism, and nationalism, and yet there are examples of those issues or analogues (and even pettier ones that should be easier to solve) constantly. So when Kirk or Picard toot the Federation's horn about how advanced they are, it just sounds like a BS sales pitch for a pyramid scheme. Maybe it's too hard to write compelling stories for a utopian setting--no conflict, no plot.

[ctc]

>the 90's are a tough era to nail down to a specific trend

Pseudo-contemporary military with a heapin' helpin' of "GRRR! ANGRY!!!"

>I wonder why futuristic movies where society gets it together don't get made.

Well.... it's the 80's again; and remember how everything (almost) was post-apocalypse ruination in the first 80's? That's 'cos you had a mix of poor economy, lack of faith in our leaders, and people turning top all sorts of hooey and mumbo-jumbo. Hence the sci-fi of the time. But then by the mid to late 80's thiongs kinda looked up and we got the old new Trek. And a LOT of clones.... several perpetrated by Paramount themselves. Then by the mid 90's stuff got bleak again (it being the 70's and all....) and you got conspiracy shows, 'cos folks were losing faith in our leaders and "GRRR ANGRY! army stuff, 'cos that's what we saw on the news.... Then the internets came and everything was awesome.... or at least virtual, and there were heroes who'd save us with their special powers.... which segued into the fantasy boom, with sci-fi becoming zombies and a destroyed world 'cos we'd lost faith in our leaders, and things looked bleak, and folks were ascribing to all sorts of hooey in hopes of an answer.... But things have been taking a turn for the better again, so we have superheroes who can save us, and are due for another sci-fi utopia a-la old new Trek again.

It's all cyclical, and it's all related to society as a whole. Look how many utopian sci-fi stories came out in the 60's; only to be replaced by (really weird) apocalypses by the time the 70's rolled in. And before anyone starts the rightly obvious nitpicking.... remember that stuff like this follows the BIG trends, as seen by the folks living them. So yeah, there's still a lot of suck out there, and in the down periods there's still good; but the zeitgeist tends to be a tsunami of whatever tropes (and they're all ALWAYS there, somewhere) have come to the fore.

Don C.

[Klosterheim]

There was a post-apocalypse themed cartoon series as well, that had a toy line, but I forget it's name. Maybe Spiral Zone?

I remember all the books turning to dust in an episode.

Sci-Fi seemed to be turning into underwater movies for a year or so,
with Avatar 2, we will have a bunch of undersea adventure.

Funny thing about Watchmen, when super-heroes are real, people read Pirate comic books instead.

In a world of comic book films, PotC 5 will earn a billion dollars for something a little different.

I've noticed a trend on blu-rays that the covers look like comic books, even for non comic book films.

[Boshek]

I feel the Iron Man movies, especially with Tony's computers, is a good representation of the 2010s.