Realistic Speculation

…about possible future events

Robert A. Heinlein defiened Science Fiction like that.
As in horror or comedy, Sci Fi has its language.
It’s possible but not impossible because everything can happen.
He along Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke are known as the "Big Three" of science fiction. Ever since I was a kid I remember looking down to the ground and seeing my roots. But also looking up to the sky at night, the unknown, dark and full of stars To dream of my future. To this day I see airplanes with amazement.

Ever since humanity has existed, future is uncertain and we cannot begin to understand it or be able to predict it.  There are facts and opinions. That’s why  filmmakers everywhere embrace this wide open guess of …what comes next? Tomorrow? A Distant future? What part is sustained by science? What creative process is fiction? Both earth and sky exist. One is tangible the other far. Artists, writers and concept designers have been expanding our minds. (Metropolis, Bicentennial Man, Aliens, A Clock Work Orange, War of the Worlds, I am Legend, Dark City, )

My dad told me the first time I saw “2001 A Space Odyssey” that the monolith was intelligence brought to apes. I agree but I also think that  the monolith could be curiosity or doubt. What is it ? what does it do? what will it change ? Its the perfect marriage of harmony and distortion. Of light and darkness. Earth and Space. Past and Future. Red, Blue, Yellow colors everywhere.
While Kubrick’s future was clean, no bad words, polite, white and almost hospital like, Ridley Scott´s vision (Alien or Blade Runner) was dark, filthy as an old truck. Full of betrayal and shadows everywhere.

Both of them gave a different approach to Science Fiction and what could happen once men had no boundaries that to me is the message behind Arthur C. Clarke´s brilliant screenplay.

George Lucas made Luke Skywalker not just a hero but an instant legend he gave him a path of learning thru Yoda and Obi Wan, not just answers. He took from Kurosawa Films and Flash Gordon and gave us: light sabers, Darth Vader, Carbonite freeze and Wookies.

As Spielberg .adds light as a sign of hope (E.T. & Close Encounters of the Third Kind)  Or James Cameron brings the human factor in play ( Terminator 2 Judgment Day). Every science fiction work has a reality base(Robocop)We can imaginea starship full of soldiers going to battle (Starship Troopers) Or an alien planet with human like creatures (Avatar or The Fifth Element) or going inside a computer game (Tron)Aliens desguised as Humans (Attack of the Body Snatchers or They Live) Machines ruling the earth (The Matrix or The Terminator) Thoughts of a scorched planet left to ruin by ourselves The dawn and dusk of men. The idea of a lonely, deserted  ghost planet. Science deals with a basic primordial human fear of change. We are told since we are very young Change is progress. When things change there are those who embrace it and others who will oppose it. There is so much to see and experience with in our own imagination

We imagine an apocalypse (The Planet of the Apes or 28 days ) or the idea that we can alter the path of time by our actions (The Butterfly Effect) We embark on journeys that take us to far far away galaxies to uncertain dangers or to discovered that danger has arrived at our neighborhood. (The Blob or The Thing)

We are …but… doubt and curiosity.(The Black Hole)

To me Sci Fi has to have depth, (as in PREDATOR 2,  it gave the Predator the depth of a true character by self healing  after he has lost an arm prooving the audience it is  intelligent rather than just using it´s animal instinct. Contrary to H.R. Geiger’s Alien) Sci Fi must have deep characters (Reign of Fire, Children of Men, Pitch Black, A Scanner Darkly or Event Horizon.)

Either it answers our questions Or it fades away …