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Screamers 2 will begin shooting in Toronto next month, and that news made us haul out the first film to take another look at it. While the original version of Screamers from 1995 isn't a bad film by any means, it does have a storyline that plenty of people would find pretty frakkin' familiar these days: Humans invent a sentient robot killing machine to eradicate their enemies with, and soon enough it turns on mankind and even learns how to mimic human appearance. Battlestar Galactica, anyone?
Let's do the math: humans invent sentient robots, they begin evolving on their own, then they rebel against mankind, and then they learn to disguise themselves as humans. Someone needs to check out Ronald D. Moore's Netflix account and see when the last time he rented Screamers was. However, anything that comes out now that features robots disguised as humans will "scream" BSG, so this ill-conceived sequel is too little, too late. Sorry Screamers 2, but you're destined for bargain bins and cable tv.
'Screamers 2' Finds A Director, Shoots Next Month [Bloody Disgusting]
Comments
And when I saw Screamers back in '95, it "scream"ed "The Second Variety" (and "Autofac") from Philip K. Dick. What goes around comes around...
@Bidstrup: That might be because screamers was based off of "The Second Variety"
These are all just variations of the Golem myth.
See also: Frankenstein.
The concept of machines passing for human is far from unique to the great story "Second Variety" (lots of PKD's stories and their related movies, Asimov's robot novels, Terminator, Aliens, etc) - but some of the touches present in Battlestar Galactica are far from coincidence. A crucial part of BSG's plot, the revelation of Cylons by sequential version number arrives directly lifted from "Second Variety". It brings the same puzzles and themes from the short story to the show (losing a war to humanity's own creation, watching the invention imitate and surpass the best and worst of the creator, etc). How about those sleeper agent Cylons wondering how much of their life is real and how much is implanted fictional memory? Well, just pop in Blade Runner to see how Sean Young and Harrison Ford struggled with that one almost thirty years ago.
Whether it's an homage or theft, BSG is still an incredible show because it executes so well: sfx, great writing, authentic military culture, and strong acting for starters... but would anybody else agree that the BSG service pistols look a *lot* like the famous prop gun from Blade Runner?
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