It is the speculative nature of science fiction that separates it from fantasy. Where fantasy can be imagination run wild, science fiction is more steeped in reality and expands or speculates about technology and the places current technology can go. Science fiction, in this regard, very much intends to give the reader or viewer a change in perspective. By speculating on current technologies or social problems science fiction can sometimes become quite prophetic. One classic example is the short story The Pedestrian written by Ray Bradbury in 1951.
Blade Runner, based on the Philip K. Dick novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, is a futuristic story about a detective who has to locate and kill human-like robots because they are illegal on Earth. Released in 1982 it was panned by critics and flopped at the box office but in the years since has achieved acclaim as one of the best science fiction films that has ever been made. The world created by Ridley Scott, futurist Syd Mead as well as others in the art department is so detailed and so organic it is as if the viewer has been there, in 2019 Los Angeles. I don’t think this is a testament to the realism of the special effects, although they are magnificent and one could argue that they have still not been surpassed in the 25 years since it’s first release.
It takes place in a future where people just watch television and the roads and sidewalks are falling apart because no one walks on them. Comparing this with today, Bradbury’s speculation does ring true, although the situation is not as severe as in the story. However in a world where televisions are built into refrigerators and cars (and ironically the Pedestrian was turned into an episode of The Ray Bradbury Theater) it wouldn’t be out of line to say Bradbury was on the right track. Susan Sontag noted of science fiction “the fables about the future are at the same time essays about today.” The film Blade Runner is a great example of Science Fiction that provides the viewer with a change in perspective on their current times(by change in perspective I mean how things can change so much and yet be the same).
I think what makes Blade Runner so real is that perhaps that world already does exist and the viewer sees it around him everyday or at least elements of it. The idea of retrofitting technology is a very important one to Blade Runner and is part of what makes it so real. The concept of retrofitting came out of necessity because Ridley Scott was forced to shoot the film on a Warner Bros. back lot, which was a set of New York that had already been the back drop of noirs set in the 1940’s and 1950’s. When new technology emerges, everything isn’t updated and modernized. It’s a slow process; state of the art buildings are built next to crumbling decrepit ones. By retrofitting the old buildings of the New York set, it gives an authentic feeling, like the city was lived in and evolved with the technology. In this way, the viewer does live in that world. Old cars share the road with new ones; a modern skyscraper dwarfs a stone church build in the 1800’s.
