Terminator Blade Runner
Science fiction films are concerned with the dangers rather than the benefits of science and technology. Discuss both The Terminator and Blade runner films and how they both explore this theme and its implications. Make reference to camera shots, iconography, imagery, mise en scene and hidden messages within the film to emphasize your argument.
What is Science Fiction:
Science Fiction; a broad genre of fiction, more often than not speculates about what we expect the future to hold in terms of science and technology. It's spectrum falls across the board encompassing all media , be it books , art , television , movies , games or theater.
In a much broader sense Science Fiction is thought to be synonymous with Speculative Fiction, which integrates elements of imaginative whimsy that have no grounds in contemporary reality , this includes Fantasy , Horror and related genres. The difference between the two however is that in Science Fiction, given the premise of the story the whimsical elements are plausible.
Elements of Science Fiction:
According to Wikipedia Science Fiction involves one or more of the following elements:
- A setting in the future or in an alternative time line.
- A setting in outer apace or involving aliens or unknown civilizations.
- The discovery or application of new scientific principles, such as time travel or psionics, or new technology, such as nanotechnology, faster-than-light travel or robots.
- Political or social systems different from those of the known present or past.
Exploring the consequences of such differences is the traditional purpose of science fiction, making it a "literature of ideas”
It is difficult to nail an apt definition of Science Fiction, since it consists of so many genres and sub genres. According to Author Damon Knight
‘Science Fiction is what we point to when we say it'
Valdimir Nabokov argued that were we rigorous with our definitions Shakespeare's play ‘The Tempest' would have to be termed as Science fiction.
According to SF writer Robert A. Heinlein,
‘A handy short definition of almost all science fiction might read: realistic speculation about possible future events, based solidly on adequate knowledge of the real world, past and present, and on a thorough understanding of the nature and significance of the scientific method.'
Rod Serling stated definition is
‘Fantasy is the impossible made probable. Science Fiction is the improbable made possible.'
Dawn of the Sci-Fi era:
In the early 60's, as Science Fiction became a part of popular culture, writers and those related to the field came to associate Science Fiction with low budget ‘B-movies' and with low quality pulp science fiction. By the 1970s, critics within the field such as Terry Carr and Damon Knight were using "sci-fi" to distinguish hack-work from serious science fiction, it wasn't until the late 70's when Star Wars was released and fast became a cult phenomenon, that ‘sci-fi' became the buzz word for must-see movies.
Sci-fi movie plots can broadly be divided into 12 categories, which can be further subdivided into several. Typical plot lines revolve around Aliens, Anti gravity, Antimatter, Biotechnology, Computers, Energy Weapons, Force fields, telepathy, robots, cyborgs and androids, space travel, superhumans, time travel and parallel universes. Certain movies integrate more than one plot at a time.
The release of Star Wars in 1977 saw a sudden boon in sic-fi films, aiming for higher artistic standards and exploring more serious issues and making political statements, Stanley Kubrick's influential 2001: A Space Odyssey and A Clockwork Orange, as well as Ridley Scott's Blade Runner in 1982.
Contemporary film makers have found science fiction to be a useful genre through which political, moral and social issues riddling the world in the present, or likely to in the near future, can be explored, for example Gattaca on the question of genetic engineering, Starship Troopers as a satire of militarism and fascism and Minority Report on the questions of civil liberties and free will.
They say Science Fiction is a portrayal of what we expect the future to hold and
from what we've seen theatres dish out in recent times , the future is expected to be pretty dismal and bleak. Hollywood moguls and the movers and shakers of this multi million dollar industry tend to use this genre as an outlet to express their collective moral disdain at the worldly state of affairs, movies such as ‘War Of The Worlds', ‘The Matrix' and ‘Planet Of The Apes' etc. seem to be the harbingers of impending doom. These movies prophesize a world ravaged by war , depleted of all natural resources , a world where we've given up the power to run our own lives to highly evolved beings , which in most cases are either machines and computers that have taken over or aliens from another dimension.
Blade runner:
Blade Runner is a 1982 cyberpunk, neo-noir American film, based loosely on a screenplay written by Philip K Dick, called ‘Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?'. The cast includes Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Edward James Olmos, Darryl Hannah and Johanna Cassidy.
Plot:
The film opens to reveal that advances in biotechnology and genetic engineering have allowed scientists to create ultra sophisticated humanoid beings called replicants. November 2019 opens to a dystopian Los Angeles where genetically manufactured beings called Replicants are engineered, and forced to live in the Earth's ‘off-colonies' and work doing all the dangerous and degrading jobs that humans find beneath them. There came a time when fed up of the injustice a small army of the replicants mutinied against the powers that be, following the uprising, the replicants' guerilla army was crushed, they were declared illegal and specialist police units, blade runners, were trained to hunt down and ‘retire'(read kill) any escaped replicants on earth.
Deckard (Harrison Ford) is called out of retirement when one of his compatriots is shot and killed by a replicant. His former boss informs him that he is to eliminate four escaped replicants, a process referred to as ‘retirement'. Deckard gets his assignment, he is supposed to do away with four replicants; a commando, manual laborer, an assassin built for martial arts and a basic pleasure model, as an additional precaution the Nexus-6 models have a four year life span at which point they start to rapidly deteriorate and die. Deckard is partnered with Gaff and sent to the Tyrell Corporation to endure that the Voight-Kampff test works on the Nexus-6 models.
According to the Blade Runner press kit the Voight-Kampff test is:
"A very advanced form of lie detector that measures contractions of the iris muscle and the presence of invisible airborne particles emitted from the body. The bellows were designed for the latter function and give the machine the menacing air of a sinister insect. The VK is used primarily by Blade Runners to determine if a suspect is truly human by measuring the degree of his empathic response through carefully worded questions and statements."
- Description from the original 1982 Blade Runner press kit
Deckard discovers that Tyrell's assistant is an experimental replicant as well though she believes herself to be human due to the fact that her consciousness has been enhanced due to memory implants from Tyrell's niece.
One after another Deckard is able to retire all the replicants, the film reaches its climax when after killing Roy's girlfriend, Pris, Deckard finds himself trapped with Roy in a building, eventually they both reach the roof, as Deckard attempts to escape he falls and ends up hanging from a beam. As a final act of ‘humanity' Roy saves Deckard's life but Roy himself is deteriorating at an alarming rate as his four years are almost up. Roy dies on the roof top. Deckard returns to his open apartment and finds Rachael alive. As they leave, Deckard finds an origami unicorn calling card left by Gaff and they depart towards an uncertain future together.
Theme and implications:
This film originally flopped when it came out in 1982 but has since become a widely acclaimed cult classic with a director's cut to boot. A large part of the success that this movie has received can be attributed to its ability to operate on many different levels.
Its haunting plausibility is part of what makes this film do brilliant, Ridley Scott's depiction of what might become of Los Angeles down the line cuts painfully close to the bone. It captures elements of Noir with its urban atmosphere of decadence, lighting, and characters neither clearly defined as good nor evil. Corruption is everywhere. The garbage-littered streets and permanence of dark and rain give us the sense that we've seriously screwed up the atmosphere, and the impression that all respectable human beings have fled to the off-world colonies, leaving only the scum of the earth behind.
The ambiance seems to be set in the 40's, from the cars to the music to the costumes, especially Rachael seems like she's stepped right out of the 40's era.
The soundtrack by Vangelis (Oscar winner for the superb Chariots of Fire score) was mainly classical Jazz and Blues; this functioned to present a dark moody world of doubt and cynicism.
According to musicoutfitter.com the score is
"Both emotional and unsettling, the Blade Runner score plays off conflict (discord versus harmony, light against dark) for a rich, textured tapestry of sound." — musicoutfitter.com
Blade runner explores conventions such as the Femme Fatale, the Chandleresque first person narration and the questionable moral outlook of the hero— extended here to include even the humanity of the hero, as well as the usual dark and shadowy cinematography.
It is one of the most literate science fiction films, both thematically — enfolding the philosophy of religion and moral implications of the increasing human mastery of genetic engineering, within the context of classical Greek drama and its notions of hubris — and linguistically, drawing on the poetry of William Blake and the bible. A theme illustrated through the chess game between Roy and Tyrell based on the famous Immortal Game of 1851, symbolizing the struggle against mortality imposed by God.
Blade runner aims to help dawn the realization of what the future is to be based on the breakthroughs in science and technology and its impact on the environment using references from the past and religious symbolism. This tension between past and present is apparent through the retro fitted future of blade runner, where some parts are gleaming and high tech while others are decayed and old. The grayness of tone suggests that all is not hunky dory with the future.
A high level of paranoia and unquestioned obedience of a higher power, a lack of initiative amongst the humans, the probing lights, the constant presence of police and corruption, control over the environment, the absence of natural life, vegetation or wild life, the creation of robotic animals due to the extinction of the real ones, the general decadence, this oppressive backdrop clarifies why many people are going to the off-world colonies, which clearly parallels the migration to the Americas. The popular belief of the 80's that America will be economically be surpassed by Japan is evident through all the Japanese advertisements. The film also makes extensive use of eyes and manipulated images to call into question reality and our ability to perceive it.
The underlying theme is examining humanity. What is it that makes us human? The empathy test, Voight-Kampff test, is conducted asking a series of questions the responses of which indicate whether or not someone is human. For example Questions regarding the treatment of animals. The replicants are juxtaposed with human characters that are unempathetic, while the replicants appear to show passion and concern for one another at the same time as the mass of humanity on the streets is cold and impersonal. The film goes so far as to put in doubt whether Deckard is a replicant and forces the audience to reevaluate what it means to be human. Roy's final act while living is to spare the life of a human who had set out to destroy him while our hero is hell bent on killing replicants just because a higher authority tells him to? Which one is more human? You decide!
Terminator:
The Terminator is part of a trilogy. The first installment of which was released in 1984. It is a sci-fi film directed by James Cameron, who went on to direct the block buster ‘Titanic'. The cast includes Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton and Michael Biehn.
The premise of the film is set in 1984. a seemingly unstoppable cyborg assassin has been created by a race of artificially intelligent computer controlled machines and has been sent back in time from the year 2029 to kill one Sarah Connor before she gives birth to her son who will grow up to be the leader of the resistance against the machines. A human, Kyle Reese is also sent back from the future to protect her.
Plot:
In 2029 machines control the ravaged remains of the planet. They have sent back a muscle bound cyborg assassin whose job is to kill Sarah Connor before she gives birth to her son, John Connor who will found the resistance against the machines. But the plot gets complicated here, the future grown up John, and leader of said resistance sends back a man to protect his mother and thus ensure his existence, the man he send to protect himself is his father. Which means the movie is in perpetual loop.
The mysterious muscle bound hooligan begins killing all the Sarah Connors in the phone book, successfully killing two of the three listed. When he attempts to kill the last and final one he is stopped by another time traveler, Kyle Reese, who is the man sent back to protect her. Hiding in a parking garage her explains to her that the man after her is an assassin, a terminator, sent from the future. These Terminators were invented by Skynet, an artificially intelligent computer that, in the near future, takes over all military hardware and launches a nuclear war against humanity. John Connor, Sarah's son, leads the military resistance against these machines, in a last ditch effort the machines send back a terminator to nip things in the bud, so to speak, and allow the machines to win by default. John sends Reese back in time to protect her, allowing him to be born.
The problem with this is that being a machine the terminator is incapable of feeling pain and will stop at nothing to accomplish what he's been sent back to do. Time travel only allows living tissue to be transported in time which disables Reese to bring back any advanced machinery from the future and 20th century machinery is not enough to penetrate, let alone destroy the terminator's metal skin. And since the terminator is covered with living tissue over his metal interior he is able to be transported through time travel and since he looks very human it also means that no one believes Reese when he tells them that he's the terminator.
They are attacked by the terminator again and they end up at the police station, under arrest. A psychologist listens to Reese's story he concludes that Reese is suffering from dementia and his story is based on nothing that can be refuted.
The Terminator arrives at the police station, uttering his catch phrase "I'll be back", before going on a rampage through the building, killing everyone it sees. Reese manages to escape and rescue Sarah; they eventually seek refuge in a hotel room where Reese teaches Sarah to make explosives from household items. Sarah asks Reese if she measures up to the stories about her and if he's ever been in love. While replying no to both questions, he confesses that he is in love with her. At first, Reese thinks he has made a fool of himself, but Sarah feels the same way, and they make love, which leads to the birth of John, someone who will come to be very important in the sequels.
But the terminator is not designed to give up, later that night it tracks them down to the motel room and shoots Reese, wounding him. Sarah manages to knock the terminator off its motorcycle. The terminator commandeers a tanker truck and drives it at them, they throw the last of their bombs at him and the truck explodes burning him.
But it's not the end of him yet, all the skin and living tissue burned off but the metal endoskeleton remains, it follows them into a factory and in the ensuing battle, Reese jams a pipe bomb into the Terminator's abdomen, blowing its legs off, but also killing himself. The terminator, still partially functional pursues Sarah on its hands and knees, until she crushes it in a hydraulic press.
The end of the film shows Sarah traveling in Mexico, several months pregnant. She records audio tapes which she intends to play to the child, John, at some point in his life. She reveals that Reese is the father, conceiving him in their one night at the motel. While Sarah's gas tank is being filled, a young Mexican boy takes a picture of her, the same picture John will give to Reese in the future.
Theme and implications:
The film contains an example of predestination paradox. According to Wikipedia, a predestination paradox is defined as:
A predestination paradox, also called either a causal loop, or a causality loop and (less frequently) either a closed loop or closed time loop, is a paradox of time travel that is often used as a convention in science fiction. It exists when a time traveler is caught in a loop of events that "predestines" him or her to travel back in time. This paradox is in some ways the opposite of the grandfather paradox, the famous example of the traveler killing his own grandfather before his parent is conceived, thereby precluding his own travel to the past by canceling his own existence.
Because of the possibility of influencing the past while time traveling, one way of explaining why history does not change is by saying that whatever has happened was meant to happen. A time traveler attempting to alter the past in this model, intentionally or not, would only be fulfilling his role in creating history as we know it, not changing it.
In physics, the Novikov self-consistency principle proposes that contradictory causal loops cannot form, but that consistent ones can. In a physical sense, a self-consistent causal loop of this kind is not actually a paradox because it produces a logically consistent result rather than a contradictory one. It is only perceived as a paradox because it goes against conventional expectations and assumptions about causality.
For example:
A man travels back in time to discover the cause of a famous fire. While in the building where the fire started, he accidentally knocks over a kerosene lantern and causes a fire, the same fire that would inspire him, years later, to travel back in time.
The mission of the terminator id to go back in time to kill Sarah Connor, to prevent her from giving birth to John, the leader of the resistance. However if he had not been sent to destroy Sarah, Reese would not have been sent back in time, which would mean Sarah would not have gotten pregnant, ere go John would not have been born. The Terminator is also reverse engineered and used to create Skynet. By sending the Terminator and Kyle Reese back in time, Skynet and Connor ensure their own existence.
All three movies have a common underlying theme which revolves around the protection of the female and the child for the existence of the race. Traditionally woman and children are seen as weak and in need of protection, in this story however, John's mother, Sarah in the first and second episode and his partner in the last installment, are both strong independent females, who know their mind and have wills of steel, I feel the underlying message is not that women are frail and weak but that they are the guarantors of the perpetuity of the human race.
The colors and background is decidedly dismal. Showing that the future does not hold a lot of hope. A final showdown between man and machine could be an indication that man made artificialities are what will ultimately be the undoing of man kind.
In T1Granted, there is the horror movie plot. But one of the underlying themes is survivalism. We see Sarah being a typical valley girl at the beginning. Because of the situation, because of Reese and most especially because of the Terminator, we see Sarah becoming a stronger, more resilient person.
There's a mountain with a storm brewing ahead of her. Is she driving away from it? No, and there are two reasons I believe Cameron was hinting at: Sarah is going to meet whoever is going to train her and John, and it's a metaphor for facing the upcoming crisis. In T2 the other underlying theme is the importance of human life? Like when John Connor is trying to explain it to the Terminator early in the movie, and he can't? But then, at the end, when the Terminator sacrifices himself, you see that he finally gets it. A machine learned the value of human life. The entire main theme of Terminator 2 was that every life is important because you never know what someone is meant for in the future. This is never explicitly said, but the theme is there. Also, how about the self-destructive natures of all of the human characters in the movies? Sarah's going crazier every day as she realizes the end of the world is drawing near. John is a rebel without any direction, bouncing from foster home to foster home, on his way to becoming another victim of The System. Miles Dyson is so consumed by his desire to revolutionize robotics that he doesn't realize that what he's doing will mean the end of the world as we know it. Every flesh-and-blood character in the movie is their own worst enemy which, of course, is analogous to mankind itself. Quote John and the Terminator: "We're not gonna make it . . . are we? People I mean." "It's in your nature to destroy yourselves."
Bibliography:
1) N. E. Lilly (2002-03). What is Speculative Fiction?. Retrieved on 2007-01-16.
2) Marg Gilks, Paula Fleming and Moira Allen (2003). Science Fiction: The Literature of Ideas. WritingWorld.com.
3) Knight, Damon Francis (1967). In Search of Wonder: Essays on Modern Science Fiction. Advent Publishing, Inc., pg xiii. ISBN 0911682317.
4) Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich (1973). Strong opinions. McGraw-Hill, pg. 3 et seq. ISBN 007045737
5) a b c d Sammon, Paul M. (1996). Future Noir: the Making of Blade Runner. London: Orion Media. ISBN 0-06-105314-7.
6) a b Barber, Lynn (2002-01-02). "Scott's Corner". The Observer. Retrieved on 2007-02-22.
7) Jenkins, Mary. (1997) The Dystopian World of Blade Runner: An Ecofeminist Perspective
8) http://www.faqs.org/faqs/movies/bladerunner-faq/ Blade Runner - FAQ
9) Strick, Philip (1992-12). "Blade Runner: Telling the Difference". Sight and Sound 2 (8): 9. Retrieved on 2007-02-25.
10)Amit Sharma (1/14/2007) Terminator 1, 2, 3 — Movie Review, Buzzle.com
11) 50 Most Influential Visual Effects Film of All Time. Visual Effects Society. Retrieved on 2007-07-15.
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13) Terminator 2 Judgment Day. British Film Institute. Retrieved on 2007-07-15.
14) Academy Awards Database. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (2006-07-15). Retrieved on 2007-07-15.
15) a b Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). Box Office Mojo. Retrieved on 2007-07-15.
16) 'T2 and Technology', an essay by chief technical consultant Larry Yeager
References:
- Barron, Neil, ed., Anatomy of Wonder: A Critical Guide to Science Fiction, 5th ed. (Libraries Unlimited, 2004) ISBN 1-59158-171-0.
- Clute, John, Peter Nicholls, eds., The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (St. Martin's Press, 1995) ISBN 0-312-13486-X.
- Disch, Thomas M., The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of (Touchstone, 1998).
- Weldes, Jutta, ed., To Seek Out New Worlds: Exploring Links between Science Fiction and World Politics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003) ISBN 0-312-29557-X.
- Westfahl, Gary, ed., The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Themes, Works, and Wonders (three volumes) (Greenwood Press, 2005).
- Wolfe, Gary K., Critical Terms for Science Fiction and Fantasy: A Glossary and Guide to Scholarship (Greenwood Press, 1986) ISBN 0-313-22981-3.
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