Blade Runner — Deleted and Alternate Scenes

I recently received a two dvd Blade Runner set. I have watched both on several occasions and had to add these two classics to my collection. Blade Runner number 1 was, at the time, one of my favorite movies. Imagine a whole new world in the future with people, vehicles, and structures. Blade Runner reminds me of the Sprawl series by William Gibson, namely Mona Lisa Overdrive, Neromancer, and Count Zero.

Inspiration for Future Construction

This structure looks more like a small boat or perhaps a small spaceship. I believe the screenshot is from Alien: Romulus. If so than it would be a small space craft. If I would build this craft I would need more shots of the craft. It might be fun to attempt.

The image is from "The Book of Ell" one of the many small structures people find themeselves living in, in this dystopic tale. This would be an easy one.

This is where I got the idea for the Stuko Structure with a Rubber Roof. Although I don't believe this structure is clad in Stuko, it looks more like a metal build.

The Green Brain

Cover art by Gerald McConnell

"In an overpopulated world seeking living room in the jungles, the International Ecological Organization was systematically exterminating the voracious insects which made these areas uninhabitable. Using deadly foamal bombs and newly developed vibration weapons, men like Joao Martinho and his co-workers fought to clear the green hell on the Mato Grosso.

But somehow those areas which had been completely cleared were becoming reinfested. Tales were coming out from the jungles... of mutated insects that have grown to incredible sizes and able to produce deadly toxins... of insects who seem to be men, but whose eyes gleamed with chitinous sheen of insects."

The Green Brain, Frank Herbert, Ace Books © 1966

The Santaroga Barrier

Santaroga

"Dasein pictured the Santaroga Valley as a swarming place behind a facade like pyramid: solid, faceless, enduring. In there, behind the facade, Santaroga did something to its people...

He sensed a one-pointedness here such that every Santarogan became an extension of every other Santarogan. They were like rays spreading out from a pinhole in a black curtain.

What lay behind the balck curtain?"

The Santaroga Barrier, Frank Herbert, Copyright 1968, Berkley Medallion Books

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"No one bought cigarettes in Santaroga. No cheese, wine, beer, or produce from outside the valley could be sold there. The list went on and on and grew stranger and stranger. Maybe Santaroga was the last outpost of American individualism. Maybe they were just a bunch of religious kooks..."

Neuromancer: The Origin of Cyberpunk | A Horrifying Dystopia

Happy New Year. May it be happy and prosperous.

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Quinn's Ideas

Journey Beyond Tomorrow

First Signet edition. Cover art by Paul Lehr.

The
Journey of Joenes

"He was an innocent South Sea islander with a wanderlust, a seeker after Truth, a young man with a vision that took him on a voyage of discovery to a strange land."

America
In the 21st Century

"Where he encountered fantastic marvels and terrifying ordeals"

His Name was Joenes

"His misfortune was sanity, for he was adrift in a world gone mad..."

Journey Beyond Tomorrow, Roberet Sheckley, A Signet Book, 1962.

Colorized Fritz Lang's Metropolis Dance Scene

Metropolis a Glimpse into the Future

Metropolis is a 1927 German expressionist science-fiction film about Metropolis a futuristic themed city. The city and its society is dystopian where the workers serve the rich by keeping the city and its industries running. The elites live above gound and in luxury, while the working class live in drudgery under ground and are not able to enjoy the luxury goods they toil to produce.

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Edits: Links added and grammar corrected on 4/6/23 @ 11:30 am.

The Dystopian Cyberpunk Slums of Warhammer 40k!

Junktown Scrapyard Crew

There are loads of images of the authors "Junktown Scrapyard" and although I cannot say for sure, I believe the figures are 28mm and are well painted and detailed. There are multiple scenes featured here representing cargo containers that have been converted into homes, storage or for businesses.

Sumptown Chronicles

The author chronicles his endeavors in creating a base, which he has named Sumptown, for his war-gaming activities. There are loads of images of his modules, which are highly detailed.The author mentions Sumptown 2.0 and all the things that went undone in the current version, but to my eye he has already created a masterpiece. I cann't imagine anything he could do to improve his gaming board.

Technology Featured in the Minority Report

Parking in the city can still be found at a preminum. Vehicles are brought into the building parking area by a conveyor.

Data stacks allows the user to visualize the accumulated data on the whole population.

Data is collected and is indexed by using iris scans. Scans are done routinely when entering buildings of all sorts. In stores, personalized holograms are created with merchandise suggestions matching personal profiles.

This is a depiction of a newspaper that features other media content types. Here a short video clip is embedded in the body of the paper.

Vehicles are slick and totally aerodynamic. They seat two and truly "smart" cars.

Screenshots are from the Minority Report, staring Tom Cruise.

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MINORITY REPORT (2002) | Vehicles of the Future Featurette

The End of Eternity

“Due to circumstances within our control…Tomorrow will be canceled.

The Eternals, the ruling class of the Future, had the power of life and death not only over every human being but over the very centuries in which they were born. Past, Present, and Future could be created or destroyed at will.

Eternals weren’t supposed to have feelings. But Andrew Harlan could not deny the sensations that were struggling within him. Andrew knew he could not keep this secret forever. And so, he began to plan his escape…a plan that changed his own past…and threatened Eternity itself.”

The End of Eternity, Isaac Asimov, Fawcett Crest Publications © 1955

Three for Tomorrow

Front cover art. 2019 edition can be found on Amazon

“Take a fast trip to three far-out worlds of the imagination. A world in which the credit card is king, and dept has enslaved all humanity. I world where a giant data bank controls the lives of every man and woman. And a world where land, air, and water have reached the final level of pollution.”

These scenarios seem to be written today. However, the following three authors: Silverberg, Zelazny, and Bush have proven to be quick prophetic. Their three short stories: “How Was it When the Past Went Away”, “The Eve of RUMOKO”, and “We All Die Naked” were written in 1969.

12 Monkeys and 1 Swine

The movie staring rolls were: Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe, and Brad Pitt.. 12 Monkey's is tale of a futuristic dystopian society who hope to reverse a plague that has driven their generation under-ground. The push their best candidate-Bruce Willis into the future to find the orgianl cause of the epidemtic in hopes, they can somehow change the past and thus change the future. All sorts of set-backs accure because of mis-calculations. Willis is shot dead, however one of his colleague gets on the same plane with the one who had stolen the infectious cultures and presumingly saves the day.

Willis walking down to the time machine apparatus area.

This sign triggers some sort of recognition from Willis and he stops to investigate the location.

Ghost in the Shell 1995 (animated version)

The story in the animated version 1995 of Ghost in the Shell may not have been intense as the theatrical version 2017.

The animated version did have its highlights and more than a few philosophical questions were asked. Whether they were answered is not the point. The point is that they were asked at all.

Whereas most of the scenes in the theatrical version were dark and I don’t mean just being shot in the dark, although there were more than a few of these scenes, there was a lot wisps’ of color in the animated version.

For instance take note of the group of yellow umbrellas off to the right

Or the Ghost in the Shell Assassin

All screenshots are from the Ghost in the Shell, 1995

Who Stole the Children's Dreams?

"Who stole the child's dreams? Krank, in his evil schemes. But the happy tale had a sting in it's tail. The genius has a fit of pique, hear the genius shriek, the "genius" is up a creek."

L'oncle Irvin (Irvin's brain is in the fish tank)

Krank

Screenshots and quote from the City of Lost Children

The City of Lost Children

The City of Lost Children is full with quirky and eccentric characters. A mad doctor, a geniuses brain in a fish tank, a circus strong man, a troop of wayward children, a sect of blindmen, 7 clones, little-people, a junky with his flies that go around with micro-sized hypodermics hyperdermics, and a set of indentical twin witches that are cojoined at the foot.

I am not sure there is a plot, but the film is a madcap romp through the lens of the camera. The film is a videographer playground with so many rich shots that exude color and texture. The vidographers approuch reminds me of my days shooting with a lomo camera..

“- Krank: Irvin, you know all about feelings. Won't you try to help me? Won't you explain why all those children only have nightmares?

- L'oncle Irvin: Because you are their nightmare. You could persecute all the children in the world, but there's one thing you'll never have.

- Krank: What?

- L'oncle Irvin: A soul.”.

Screenshots and quotes are from The City of Lost Children.

Neverwhere

"Crimson the cuts in the carcass,
Fast falls the foe,
Dauntless devout defender.
Bravest of boys."

Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman

Neverwhere is a dystopian novel that takes place under the streets of London. With its host of intense, melodramatic characters it will keep transfixed.

The Trilogies of William Gipson

I don’t know where I was first introduced to Gipson’s work, but somehow I came across a copy of William Gipson’s Neuromancer. It was all so long ago. What I do remember that I had just went back to school to update my technology skills. We were in the age of the personal computers and C++. Mainframes, Minicomputers, and machine language weren’t going to cut it anymore or at least not for me.

I went on to read all three of Gipson’s Sprawl series and at the time these text really had an effect on me. They changed my whole philosophy and take on the Internet that had just a few years earlier had made its debut into society. The whole idea of being one with the Internet or as Gibson likes to refer to it Cyberspace perked my imagination.

I have since read a few additional novels by William Gibson, but did not know that he had written two other trilogies. Here are all three of Gibson’s trilogies:

The Sprawl

Neuromancer, 1984
Count Zero, 1986
Mona Lisa Overdrive, 1988

The Bridge

Virtual Light, 1993
Idoru, 1996
All Tomorrow's Parties, 1999

The Blue Ant

Pattern Recognition, 2003
Spook Country, 2007
Zero History, 2010

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1. William Gibson's Sprawl Trilogy - Worlds of Speculative Fiction (lecture 20)
2. A Look at Neuromancer (Part 1 of 5)