Blade Runner - What Did Scott Get Wrong?

[PHArchivist]

Fun to watch as we're nearing the time era of the film. In watching the Blu-Ray, can't help to notice some things good ole' Ridly was a bit off about (talking about smaller details here; not the obvious such as the absence of flying cars and artificial life forms):
--TVs are still CRT boxes
--Pan Am still exists
--Pay phones (Vid Phones) still take precedence over hand-held devices
--Pollution in Los Angeles has actually seemed to get better

What else?

 

[Laspector]

Flying cars?

 

[Curmudgeon]

Using polaroids instead digital photos (although he did use the photo analysis device)

No internet!

 

[AFFoD]

The Bradbury isn't an abandoned apartment building.
Real pets aren't THAT expensive.
ATARI

 

[PHArchivist]

Good point - told my wife when watch that now we'd just point and click to zoom in on the hi-res image. Though I suppose some may say the voice-interface and degree of analsis exceeds what we have today (?)...

 

[dascoyne]

well this isn't a new discussion.
For me it's just consistent with the retro-future noir aesthetic that is Blade Runner.
Even in 1985 the film was distinctly retro with the fur coats, 1950's cars in the background etc.

part of the lore of BR is the "curse" on companies: Atarti, Pan-Am, Koss, etc.

 

[PHArchivist]

ATARI

Ah yeah - Atari! Remember noting that last night too!

Good to know that Budweiser powers on though!

 

[NeoRutty]

I kinda took the polaroids as being almost like floppy disks with an image on the front, and if you load it onto the reader, it has CRAZY amounts of 3D rendering capabilities (don't they actually change the angle within the picture?)

 

[CessnaDriver]

I doubt the Blade Runner "curse" would hold up to scrutiny. Probabably it's just reflective of normal changes in business.
Take a snapshot today of companys advertising and half will probably be bye bye in twenty years, bought out, bankrupt, reinvented or whatever.


The horror is I will not have my own Rachael Nexus 6 by 2019. Guess I keep the wife.

 

[PHArchivist]

I doubt the Blade Runner "curse" would hold up to scrutiny. Probabably it's just reflective of normal changes in business.
Take a snapshot today of companys advertising and half will probably be bye bye in twenty years, bought out, bankrupt, reinvented or whatever.


The horror is I will not have my own Rachael Nexus 6 by 2019. Guess I keep the wife.

Maybe by 2119...?

 

[dascoyne]

I doubt the Blade Runner "curse" would hold up to scrutiny. Probabably it's just reflective of normal changes in business.
Take a snapshot today of companys advertising and half will probably be bye bye in twenty years, bought out, bankrupt, reinvented or whatever.

I don't buy into the "curse" either. I was only referring to it.

The horror is I will not have my own Rachael Nexus 6 by 2019. Guess I keep the wife.

Is Rachel really Nexus 6? I don't recall that being stated explicitly - she's experimental, no? I'd wait until they work the bugs out before I get me a Rachel. I don't want to wake up with her thumbs in my eye sockets.

 

[AFFoD]

Yes she is. Bryant tells Deckard ''There's a Nexus 6 over at the Tyrell Corporation. I want you to go over there and put the machine on it." To which Deckard replies, "And if the machine doesn't work?"

 

[CessnaDriver]

...

Is Rachel really Nexus 6? I don't recall that being stated explicitly - she's experimental, no? I'd wait until they work the bugs out before I get me a Rachel. I don't want to wake up with her thumbs in my eye sockets.

Isn't that part of the fun?
She seemed very reluctant to kill, getting shakes and all though.
Agreed though, not Nexus 6, I guess 6.X would apply.

 

[dascoyne]

Yes she is. Bryant tells Deckard ''There's a Nexus 6 over at the Tyrell Corporation. I want you to go over there and put the machine on it." To which Deckard replies, "And if the machine doesn't work?"

You see, I always interpreted that as Tyrell substituting Rachel for the promised Nexus 6 just to show off the new tech that might fool the VK ("more human than human").

 

[AFFoD]

You see, I always interpreted that as Tyrell substituting Rachel for the promised Nexus 6 just to show off the new tech that might fool the VK ("more human than human").

Okay, I can buy that.

 

[0neiros]

No Apple or Microsoft logos on anything.

 

[androidandy]

As far as the VidPhon pay phones, I doubt cell phones if considered wouldn't still work after a world war that made the atmosphere radioactive (a big part of the book) and might have destroyed most satellites, making them obsolete anyway. Plus the use of the VidPhon may also be a way of getting cameras inside peoples houses as well as all over the street that the government or private agencies could use to spy on people. I can still see them being used someday if we continue to head in this direction.

As far as the TVs, they were an attempt to make flat screens using fresnel lenses in front of them, but the practical effect was not working so convincingly, and they really didn't have budget to make more complex effects.

The future in Blade Runner can be considered to be very much a parallel reality similar to what Phillip K. Dick did in the Man in the High Castle. Also, one of the reason that so many people have to use old technology, is that the market for new technology is pretty much profitable only to be made only for the rich, and many of them are leaving for off world. When they do they often have to leave behind many of their collections of antiques, and old cars because they can not bring it with them. The only thing the rest can get are the leftovers and left behind stuff, and make do by constant retrofitting.

anyway

Andy

 

[CessnaDriver]

I've always considered the film post WWIII (WW Terminus in the book) so maybe consumer electronics isn't exactly what it is today with a new
toy every ten minutes and other priorities like spaceflight and obviously replicants accelerated.

 

[Nth]

I've always considered the film post WWIII (WW Terminus in the book) so maybe consumer electronics isn't exactly what it is today with a new
toy every ten minutes and other priorities like spaceflight and obviously replicants accelerated.

Yeah, with all the animals dying off from the 'Dust', artificial animals and even black market real animals seem to have replaced having the latest gadget. The Penfield Mood Organ and the Mercerism doodad thing is probably all you really need as far as latest gadgetry go.

 

[bothanspy]

Umbrella with lights