Did anybody see The Running Man last Sunday evening? While it's aggressively 1980s cheese, a lot of interesting near future world building going into it that still convinces today and makes it more convincing than Freejack:
In the fictional world of 2017 featured in The Running Man the effects of a collapsed economy could be seen everywhere (with Peak Oil mentioned and enviromental/climate related destruction insinuated). The majority of people in what was once a First World country seem to be living in sprawling Third World slums, food scarcity seems to have gotten so bad in certain areas of the US that food riots seem to be a routine occurrence that occasionally has to be quashed by the authorities with battlefield weaponry (then covered up or distorted by the state media afterwards), and US prisons (already pretty bad in the real world) have become Nazi style concentration camps where enslaved inmates who are not expected to live long are wearing explosive collars.
And many urban areas have been outright abandoned and fallen into ruin (ala Detroit) after the economic implosion, with presumably civil unrest and natural disasters speeding up people vacating the cities (with not enough money to rebuild them). The production crew of the Running Man used 400 city blocks as their Game Zone after it got heavily damaged by a earthquake. The remaining urban areas that house the super wealthy and upper middle class are fenced off green zones that are patrolled by heavily armed police and military guards who constantly ride around in helicopter gunships and armoured vehicles. To get anywhere you need electronic ID to get past countless military/police checkpoints (if you rove the country without ID you increase the chances of getting captured or killed by the patrols without due process). And presumably only people with decent government/corporate privilages have ID passes that could get them on a passanger plane (it's flatbed trucks for the 99%).
And did anybody pick up on the mysterious and oppressive regime ruling over this dystopian, post economic collapse North America? They were called the Cadre and while not the main focus, many hints of them were dropped in the background or they were mentioned a few times (mainly by Killian). There's the Cadre Infonet, Cadre Credit, the Cadre Kids (Hitler Youth-esque youth movement), and even Cadre Cola ('It hits the spot!'). "ICS" may perhaps stand for the "International Cadre Station" or something. The Cadre regime appear to be a quasi-corporate totaltarian oligarchy, a one party state that may have been the result of America's behind the scenes military-industrial complex (military officers and corporate executives) becoming a new political movement that openly seized power after the decline of the First World, replacing the weakened Democrats and Republicans.
Like many other totalitarian one party regimes in realy life, the Cadre have their distinct regime colours and insignia: the Cadre's main emblem is an eagle bestriding the globe and pale blue seems to be their party colour. Some Cadre officials wear Cadre pin badges on their business suits (like that hapless court appointed theatrical agent who got stabbed in the back by Arnie). The Cadre's media suppression is so bad (ie. illegal movies, books, TV shows and music get destroyed by the state) and been enforced for so long that early middle-aged people in 2017 have not heard about Star Trek: TOS.
Or am I over analysing The Running Man?
In the fictional world of 2017 featured in The Running Man the effects of a collapsed economy could be seen everywhere (with Peak Oil mentioned and enviromental/climate related destruction insinuated). The majority of people in what was once a First World country seem to be living in sprawling Third World slums, food scarcity seems to have gotten so bad in certain areas of the US that food riots seem to be a routine occurrence that occasionally has to be quashed by the authorities with battlefield weaponry (then covered up or distorted by the state media afterwards), and US prisons (already pretty bad in the real world) have become Nazi style concentration camps where enslaved inmates who are not expected to live long are wearing explosive collars.
And many urban areas have been outright abandoned and fallen into ruin (ala Detroit) after the economic implosion, with presumably civil unrest and natural disasters speeding up people vacating the cities (with not enough money to rebuild them). The production crew of the Running Man used 400 city blocks as their Game Zone after it got heavily damaged by a earthquake. The remaining urban areas that house the super wealthy and upper middle class are fenced off green zones that are patrolled by heavily armed police and military guards who constantly ride around in helicopter gunships and armoured vehicles. To get anywhere you need electronic ID to get past countless military/police checkpoints (if you rove the country without ID you increase the chances of getting captured or killed by the patrols without due process). And presumably only people with decent government/corporate privilages have ID passes that could get them on a passanger plane (it's flatbed trucks for the 99%).
And did anybody pick up on the mysterious and oppressive regime ruling over this dystopian, post economic collapse North America? They were called the Cadre and while not the main focus, many hints of them were dropped in the background or they were mentioned a few times (mainly by Killian). There's the Cadre Infonet, Cadre Credit, the Cadre Kids (Hitler Youth-esque youth movement), and even Cadre Cola ('It hits the spot!'). "ICS" may perhaps stand for the "International Cadre Station" or something. The Cadre regime appear to be a quasi-corporate totaltarian oligarchy, a one party state that may have been the result of America's behind the scenes military-industrial complex (military officers and corporate executives) becoming a new political movement that openly seized power after the decline of the First World, replacing the weakened Democrats and Republicans.
Like many other totalitarian one party regimes in realy life, the Cadre have their distinct regime colours and insignia: the Cadre's main emblem is an eagle bestriding the globe and pale blue seems to be their party colour. Some Cadre officials wear Cadre pin badges on their business suits (like that hapless court appointed theatrical agent who got stabbed in the back by Arnie). The Cadre's media suppression is so bad (ie. illegal movies, books, TV shows and music get destroyed by the state) and been enforced for so long that early middle-aged people in 2017 have not heard about Star Trek: TOS.
Or am I over analysing The Running Man?
Has some great lines. As do They Live, Robocop and Starship Troopers.
