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death race
Posts Tagged “
future dystopias
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death race
dystopian science fiction
Dystopian Science Fiction Can Save The World, According To You
If you want to save the world, you should study worst-case scenarios for the future, according to 20,000 science fiction fans. The Sci Fi Channel did an online poll, through its Visions For Tomorrow initiative, to find out the top "things to read, watch and do to save the world." And the winners were dark tales of a world gone to hell, including Blade Runner, 1984, Firefly, the new Battlestar Galactica and The Matrix. An exclusive first look at all the winners, below the fold. More »
2015
Make Your Own Cloverfield, For ABC's Fucked-Future Documentary
We're freaking doomed, according to a new documentary coming in September from ABC News. 2100 will look at the next century, which could be "the last century of our civilization," thanks to global warming, food and fuel shortages, population explosion and general apocalyptic mania. But ABC's super-depressing documentary also has a fun side — you get to create your own dystopian home movies, which may be featured as part of the show. The sample they showed on Good Morning America today looks incredibly Cloverfield-esque, which is a Good Thing. I'm almost ready for New York to vanish under the ocean if it means more teenagers will make their own dystopian home movies. [ABC News]
the prisoner
The Prisoner May Be The One Scifi Show Worth Remaking
Before there was Lost's Dharma Initiative there was The Village from the trippy/paranoid 1960s TV series The Prisoner. And now a six-part miniseries is in the works remaking this spy-trapped-in-paradise show, starring Jim "Jesus" Caviezel as Number 6 and Ian McKellen as his main adversary, Number 2. More details about the future fantasy Prisoner after the jump. More »
AutoFish
First Prototype Of A People-Sorting Machine?
A new machine can sort 100,000 fish per hour, using imaging technology, and then tag them. NMT's AutoFish system is designed to distinguish between natural salmon (which are protected) and hatchery salmon, which can be harvested, in the fisheries of the Pacific Northwest. More than 200 million fish need to be marked, via a tag on their adipose fin, every year. With the AutoFish, the fish enter the sorting device single file (how do they know to do that?) and get sorted with accuracy of up to 1 mm., with only 0.1 percent mortality and no anesthetic required. This sort of technology could revolutionize other repetitive tasks that involve rapid sorting — but it could also be a prototype for a machine that sorts and tags humans. Instructional video after the jump. More »
found footage
Snake PlisskenParsifal busts the world's last fertile woman out of a maximum security facility staffed by knights in armor armed with laser crossbows (pew! pew!) in this awesome sequence from Italian post-apocalyptic masterpiece 2019: After The Fall Of New York.
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Can The Children Of Men Escape From New York?
Our hero
wall-e
In WALL-E's World, We're All Shopaholics In Spandex
A new commercial for the future super-store Buy N' Large shows how the humans of tomorrow will live in WALL-E's world: we all get matching tight singlets. Draped head to toe in red and white spandex our future is looking pretty constricting, yet leisurely. BNL's robots serve our every need, so their human masters can find the time for the important things like drinking, getting massaged by robotic arms or being overly excited about a robot-run Benihana. The clip also introduces some new robot friends for WALL-E, PR-T (who does your hair makeup and nails) and VAQ-M (who sweeps the floor.)
city of ember
First Look At Saoirse Ronan's Postapocalyptic Detective In City Of Ember
Here's the first trailer from October's City Of Ember, a kids' movie set in a postapocalyptic underground city whose power generator is running out of juice. Our first glimpse includes the corrupt mayor (Bill Murray) trying to rally the town. Everything depends on two crafty kids, who follow a path of clues down ancient tunnels and passages. Learn more about the challenges that meet the kids below (including minor spoilers). More »
poll
What's The Greatest Post-Apocalyptic Movie For Kids?
Will City Of Ember be the first post-apocalyptic movie aimed at kids? Based on Jeanne DuPrau's young adult novel, Ember features two kids discovering there's a world outside the dying underground city that they've lived in for the past 250 years. And director Gil Kenan (Monster House) sees it as a visual, epic teen adventure movie. But is it really the first ruined-world movie aimed at kids, as post-apocalyptic blog Quiet Earth claims? The Boston Globe's Josh Glenn says no, there have been plenty of others. Click through to vote for the greatest. More »
babylon a.d.
Finally, A Dystopia Grim Enough For Vin Diesel
Here's the first teaser trailer for August's Babylon A.D., the troubled Vin Diesel future dystopia movie based on a French graphic novel. It looks as pretty as you'd expect from director Matthieu Kassovitz (Gothika), and the scenes of Russia and China sliding into chaos look alarmingly lifelike. Plus, Vin Diesel is still mostly bald and charmingly thuggish, and we finally get to see Michelle Yeoh. I'm still cautiously optimistic. Click through for a gallery of new stills. More »
junot diaz
Trapped On A Post-Apocalyptic Highway, In A Robot Truck
All of a sudden, I'm desperate to read Junot Diaz's new science fiction novel — just as soon as he can finish it. Diaz, who just won the Pulitzer Prize for The Brief And Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao, a book littered with nerdy references to Star Wars and comics, shared a brief excerpt from his new novel-in-progress, Dark America, during an Amazon.com interview. And's a dazzling passage, set aboard a robot truck in a desolate future world. More »
dollhouse
Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Joss Whedon's Dollhouse
Dollhouse will be about "identity, self-determination" and the fact that "free will is both a blessing and a pain in the ass, " says creator Joss Whedon, who helped revolutionize science fiction with his space western Firefly. Also important strands in the show: Joss' view that Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation "is a great TV character," and the hotness of star Eliza Dushku. Joss spilled tons of details on the Dollhouse pilot, plus the first script review just popped up online. Spoilers, as they say, ahead. More »
war, inc.
Corporate Takeovers Swallow A Whole Country In War, Inc.
War, Inc. is best known as "the movie where Hilary Duff puts a live scorpion down her pants," but it's also one of the wildest stabs at future dystopian satire in ages. The John Cusack vehicle, coming out in May after two years on ice, will probably be a brave failure rather than a sleeper hit, but that doesn't make the attempt any less admirable. This trailer makes it look look like a mashup of Cusack's Grosse Point Blank and a Max Barry novel. Click through for details, and more of the aforementioned scorpion-pants scene. More »
advertising
Admiral Adama's Death Race With A Rocket Bike
Battlestar Galactica's post-apocalyptic leader, Edward James Olmos, races his sportscar through a world of flying cars, elevated trains and missile-firing rocket bikes, in this commercial for Farmers Insurance. Olmos has been appearing in Spanish/English Farmers ads for a while now, but this one features CGI world-building by Zach Mandt, who just finished working on Speed Racer. Also, that exploding building Olmos drives up to at the end? According to reader cde, it's the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers' Command Center, where Zordon and his cylon-esque robot Alpha-5 hung out. Click through for a side-by-side comparison. More »
mad max reenactments
You've just seen Doomsday, and you're pumped to strap a bolt-gun to your car and go on a mohawked demolition-derby frenzy. Luckily for you, there's a whole society (cult?) devoted to reenacting Mad Max: The Road Warrior on the highways of America... and they've only gotten thrown in jail once. Details and a gallery below the fold.
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Vent Your Atomic Road Rage With Mad Max Reenactments
You've just seen Doomsday, and you're pumped to strap a bolt-gun to your car and go on a mohawked demolition-derby frenzy. Luckily for you, there's a whole society (cult?) devoted to reenacting Mad Max: The Road Warrior on the highways of America... and they've only gotten thrown in jail once. Details and a gallery below the fold.
More »
Wall-E, Social Critic
The most controversial movie of the summer... Wall-E? That's what one writer is claiming. The G-rated animated movie presents a dire image of a morbidly obese human race, crammed into giant spaceships and exhorted to ever greater depths of over-consumption by signs saying "DO YOUR PART, FILL YOUR CART." (Remember those shopping carts in the trailer?) Meanwhile, the reason Wall-E has been left as the only custodian of Earth is because the human race has rendered it uninhabitable with pollution and heedless consumer culture. Somehow, I doubt the inevitable toy tie-in ads will mention these aspects of the film. [Jim Hill Media]
The most controversial movie of the summer... Wall-E? That's what one writer is claiming. The G-rated animated movie presents a dire image of a morbidly obese human race, crammed into giant spaceships and exhorted to ever greater depths of over-consumption by signs saying "DO YOUR PART, FILL YOUR CART." (Remember those shopping carts in the trailer?) Meanwhile, the reason Wall-E has been left as the only custodian of Earth is because the human race has rendered it uninhabitable with pollution and heedless consumer culture. Somehow, I doubt the inevitable toy tie-in ads will mention these aspects of the film. [Jim Hill Media]
sci fashion
When society implodes, women need to make themselves easy zombie targets, so the boys can run to the hills and get weaponized. That seems to be the point of a lot of self-proclaimed post-apocalyptic fashion, at least. From floor-length hobble skirts with a million straps to straitjackets to kinky boots, the clothes in SludgeFaktory's post-apocalyptic collection would be worst thing to wear while trying to escape from cannibal bikers. Weirdly, mainstream fashion designers are creating more appropriate dystopian future-wear. Click through for images.
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Worst Possible Outfits for the Apocalypse
When society implodes, women need to make themselves easy zombie targets, so the boys can run to the hills and get weaponized. That seems to be the point of a lot of self-proclaimed post-apocalyptic fashion, at least. From floor-length hobble skirts with a million straps to straitjackets to kinky boots, the clothes in SludgeFaktory's post-apocalyptic collection would be worst thing to wear while trying to escape from cannibal bikers. Weirdly, mainstream fashion designers are creating more appropriate dystopian future-wear. Click through for images.
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found footage
