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The best thing about the millennium is we can all stop talking about it. That’s the impression I get from people. Others are quick to point out that the real millennium doesn’t technically begin until January 1, 2001. So where does that leave us? In limbo. Out of the old, but not quite in the new. Our incident-free New Year may have been a false reprieve. Terrorists around the world could be laughing at America, savoring the moment when they can really lower the boom on us while we blindly walk into 2001 with a big smile. So, in the next 12 months we can look forward to the religious loonies re-emerging from their cages and our government trying to make us afraid of all things Islamic.
OK, so what if nothing will happen?
The anticipation is always better than the event, from the screaming tabloid headlines to the pre-Star Wars hype to any Mike Tyson boxing match. Anticipation also happens to be a great way for creative people to make a few bucks.
Courtesy of the rapid advancement of technology, science fiction is a genre that really came into its own in the 20th century, grabbing a foothold in every major artistic medium. Some of the predictions have been frilly, many of them bleak, and a few were pretty damn funny. We wouldn’t feel right if we didn’t offer an update. In the first month of 2000, it’s appropriate to see how some of those famous cinematic prognostications are doing. You’ll notice we’re concentrating only on films, ignoring books. Is that unfair? Maybe. But this is, after all, CityBeat‘s film section.
Metropolis The Prediction: Dehumanized workers toil anonymously underground at mammoth machines. The Reality: Dehumanized workers toil anonymously aboveground in tiny cubicles.
Blade Runner The Prediction: Harrison Ford is commissioned to knock off four synthetic humans, or replicants, in 2019 Los Angeles. The Reality: Blade Runner‘s unspoken question was whether Ford himself was a replicant. After his performance in Random Hearts, it is decidedly so.
Sleeper The Prediction: Woody Allen goes under for a routine operation and wakes up 200 years later in a totalitarian state. The Reality: Only a ’70s viewpoint could invent a clunky and aesthetically unappealing device like the Orgasmatron.
Strange Days The Prediction: Every urban archetype is brought to a head: racist cops, seedy nightclubs, crowded, cordoned off streets, cool drugs and pink hair, and a technology allowing you to experience the ecstasies or traumas of others. The Reality: We’re working on it.
2001: A Space Odyssey The Prediction: An artificially intelligent computer goes berserk, and one astronaut touches upon the meaning of existence. The Reality: By all non-classified accounts, we’re nowhere near making a HAL. The best we can do is have Hollywood imitate Kubrick’s sci-fi opera with the upcoming Mission to Mars. As anyone who’s seen the trailer can attest, it has the astronauts walking down the white hall, listening to the sound of someone’s deep breathing. Who would’ve thought Darth Vader was the Creator of the universe?
Demolition Man The Prediction: When Stallone isn’t beating people up, this film borrows from Huxley’s Brave New World, where people are kept happy through artificial means. On the flip side, there’s no violence, and you can count on the utmost kindnesses from the average stranger. The Reality: If you were drowning in a lake of urine, the average stranger wouldn’t offer you a rope.
1984 The Prediction: In 1984, people will walk under the sinister gaze of Big Brother. The Reality: In 1984, people walked under the sinister gaze of Boy George.
My Dinner with Andre Andre Gregory’s Prediction: “I think we’ve experienced the last hurrah of humanity. The future will be just a bunch of zombies walking around, not feeling much of anything. The Reality: Hello.
The Postman The Prediction: An unlikely hero in 2013 will inspire hope in scattered communities under the thumb of a genocidal maniac. The Reality: Adolf Hitler. Josef Stalin. Mao Zedong. Pol Pot. Slobodon Milosevic. If Kevin Costner was promising only one genocidal maniac in the 21st century, the future looks bright indeed.
This article appears in Jan 26 – Feb 1, 2000.
