Blade Runner: Off-World Colonies

leading from  
Blade Runner 





a) David L. Snyder's understanding
David Snyder understood that there was an idea that the environment is crumbling, and that the rain in the film was like acid rain.

That's why people were moving off-world — to get off this planet before it disintegrated.

He thought that they  were making a statement about the government, and the future, and the climate, and the disparaging rift between rich and poor. 


b) Hampton Fancher's view
Hampton Fancher thought that by 2020, the human race would be colonising, and were on the Lagrangian point of L4, between here and the moon.

He never saw anything positive about the world, although a great point of positivity would be that the human race does colonize, rid the world of them and indeed be replaced by a different version of human, but he was someone nostalgic.

He didn't want a new version of reality, he didn't want to live on a colony, he'd rather stay on Earth


c) Syd Mead's take
Syd Mead thought that colonization would happen much faster than the average person would think.

He engaged with the idea that since we went to the moon back in the 1960s, we couldn't have possibly stopped right there, and so he felt that it was likely that we kept going on black budgets, that we've been to Mars and back twice already.

With that, the technology to get somewhere fast is approaching.

In the world of Blade Runner, a lot of the elite people were going off-world


  1. Snyder: It was an idea that the environment is crumbling, and the idea was that the rain in the film was like acid rain. That's why people were moving off-world — to get off this planet before it disintegrated. I think we were making a statement about the government, and the future, and the climate, and the disparaging rift between rich and poor.(https://laist.com/2019/11/05/blade-runner-november-2019-los-angeles-future-is-here.php) 
  2. Fancher: I did think by 2020, we're colonizing — we're on L4, between here and the Moon or whatever. (https://laist.com/2019/11/05/blade-runner-november-2019-los-angeles-future-is-here.php)
  3. Mead: That's happening much faster than you think. It sounds like I have access to information I shouldn't have [laughing], but when you consider we went to the Moon back in the '60s — now, you can't possibly accept the fact that we just stopped everything right there. We kept on going, as black budgets, or whatever. So we've been to Mars and back — manned missions — already, two times.
    And the technology to get somewhere fast is approaching, because once we get much beyond the moon or Mars, you've got to go very, very, very fast to make it even marginally worthwhile, for humans.

    Note: We can't confirm Mead's comments about visitation and colonization of Mars. Here's a list of Mars missions, according to NASA, and these are the space agency's publicly available goals regarding human exploration. (https://laist.com/2019/11/05/blade-runner-november-2019-los-angeles-future-is-here.php)
  4. Fancher: I never thought anything positive about the world. I mean, the great positivity would be that we do colonize, and we do get rid of our selves, and we are replaced by a different version — but even that doesn't sound good to me, because I'm nostalgic. I don't want that new version, I don't want to live on a f—-ing colony — I'll stay here. (https://laist.com/2019/11/05/blade-runner-november-2019-los-angeles-future-is-here.php)
  5. Mead: Other than that, the only other solution is just to leave a huge portion of society behind and go on, and Blade Runner addressed that - because a lot of the elite people were going off-world.(https://laist.com/2019/11/05/blade-runner-november-2019-los-angeles-future-is-here.php)

1 comment:

  1. I posted "Blade Runner: Off-World Colonies" back in November 2019

    ReplyDelete