Blade Runner (1982)

A significant sci-fi film that holds a mirror up to humanity and forces us to ask some uncomfortable questions about ourselves

Directed by Ridley Scott
Screenplay by Hampton Fancher, David Peoples
Based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
Produced by: Michael Deeley
Cinematography: Jordan Cronenweth
Edited by Terry Rawlings
Marsha Nakashima
Music byVangelis
Production companies: The Ladd Company, Shaw Brothers Blade Runner Partnership
Distributed by Warner Bros. (Worldwide), Shaw Brothers (Hong Kong)
Running time: 117 minutes
Language: English
Budget: $30 million
Box office: $41.8 million

Cast

Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard
Rutger Hauer as Roy Batty
Sean Young as Rachael
Edward James Olmos as Gaff
M. Emmet Walsh as Bryant
Daryl Hannah as Pris
William Sanderson as J.F. Sebastian
Brion James as Leon Kowalski
Joe Turkel as Eldon Tyrell
Joanna Cassidy as Zhora Salome
James Hong as Hannibal Chew
Morgan Paull as Dave Holden
Hy Pyke as Taffey Lewis

Trailer

What is set down here does not involve a future in which machines have risen up to take over and subjugate humanity. Nor is it a future in which governments have specifically conspired to use technology to achieve world domination. Neither are there cyborgs being sent back into the past in order to effect change in the future.

The events that are about to unfold here are set in a dystopian future in Los Angeles in the year 2019. You might think of it as one possible future outcome out of an infinite number of possible future outcomes within a string theory multiverse. This particular future is the result of a certain set of decisions that had been made resulting in the creation of synthetic humans known as ‘replicants’ that were bio-engineered by the all-powerful Tyrell Corporation to work on space colonies. Unexpectedly, a group of advanced replicants committed the unthinkable before escaping back to Earth. It was then up to a jaded and burnt-out former cop – a blade runner - Rick Deckard to hunt them down and ‘retire’ them.

Now let’s begin this tale of a possible future by providing a bit of context which should be scrolling on the screens of your devices…...now:

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Cyborg 2087 (1966)

An undemanding over-padded but enjoyable low-budget sci-fi film

Directed by Franklin Adreon
Written by Arthur C. Pierce
Produced by Earle Lyon
Edited by Frank P. Keller
Music by Paul Dunlap
Production company: Harold Goldman Associates
Distributed by United Pictures Corporation
Running time: 86 minutes

Cat

Michael Rennie as Garth
Karen Steele as Dr. Sharon Mason
Wendell Corey as the sheriff
Warren Stevens as Dr. Zeller
Eduard Franz as Professor Sigmund Marx
Harry Carey, Jr. as Jay C
Dale Van Sickel as Tracer #1
Troy Melton as Tracer #2
John Beck as Skinny

Trailer

We have already witnessed a possible future in which humanity in the year 2029 faced the possibility of extinction in a war with machines. In order to prevent human beings from triumphing in that war, a cyborg - the T-800 TERMINATOR - was sent back to the year 1984 to kill the mother of the human resistance leader, John Connor.

Now, we discover that in the future year of 2087, freedom of thought is illegal and the world’s population is controlled by governments that employ technology as a means of control. A small resistance group of free thinkers send a cyborg, ‘Garth A7’ back in time to the year 1966 to prevent a scientist, Professor Sigmund Marx from making a discovery he will term as "Radio-Telepathy" that will eventually result in mind and thought control becoming a reality and as a consequence will lead to the establishment of tyranny in Garth's time. Hot on Garth’s heals are government agents called ‘Tracers’ who have also been sent back from the future to prevent him from carrying out his mission and changing that future.

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The Terminator (1984)

A tense sci-fi tech-noir thriller with cracking and relentless momentum, solid performances and a compelling story.

Directed by James Cameron
Written by James Cameron, Gale Anne Hurd
Produced by Gale Anne Hurd
Cinematography: Adam Greenberg
Edited by Mark Goldblatt
Music by Brad Fiedel
Production companies: Hemdale Pacific Western Productions, Euro Film Funding, Cinema '84
Distributed by Orion Pictures
Running time: 107 minutes
Budget” $6.4 million
Box office: $78.3 million

Cast

Arnold Schwarzenegger as The Terminator
Michael Biehn as Kyle Reese
Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor
Paul Winfield as Ed Traxler, a police lieutenant
Lance Henriksen as Hal Vukovich, a member of the LAPD
Bess Motta as Ginger
Rick Rossovich as Matt, Ginger's boyfriend
Earl Boen as Doctor Peter Silberman, a criminal psychologist
Shawn Schepps as Nancy, Sarah's co-worker at the diner;
Dick Miller as a gun shop clerk
Franco Columbu as a Terminator in the future
Bill Paxton and Brian Thompson as young punks
Marianne Muellerleile as one of the other women with the name "Sarah Connor" 

Rick Aiello as the bouncer of the local nightclub
Bill Wisher as the police officer who reports a hit-and-run felony on Reese

Trailer

An apocalyptic future world of 2029 where machines under the guidance and control of the ‘Skynet’ computer system have conquered the entire world.

What remains of humanity conducts a brave resistance against the machines.

An indestructible cyborg-assassin known as the "Terminator" is sent back to 1984 Los Angeles programmed to seek and kill humanity’s most important woman - Sarah Connor.

Why? Sarah’s unborn son is the key to humanity's future salvation

Also sent back is a battle-scarred Kyle Reese, a brave soldier of the human Resistance Army tasked with stopping the cybernetic killer from eliminating humanity’s last hope. But first he must find Sarah before the Terminator does, otherwise humanity is doomed.

Is there any way to stop the seemingly indestructible cyborg ?


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Matango (マタンゴ) (1963) / Attack Of The Mushroom People (1965)

A little known atypical and interesting tokusatsu classic sci-fi / horror film, that is atmospheric and well-crafted, but somewhat slow-paced at times

Directed by Ishirō Honda
Screenplay by Takeshi Kimura
Story by Shinichi Hoshi, Masami Fukushima
Based on "The Voice in the Night"by William Hope Hodgson
Produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka
Cinematography: Hajime Koizumi
Edited by Reiko Kaneko
Music by Sadao Bekku
Production company: Toho Co., Ltd
Distributed by Toho
Running time 89 minutes
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese

Cast

Akira Kubo as Professor Kenji Murai
Kumi Mizuno as Mami Sekiguchi
Kenji Sahara as Senzō Koyama
Hiroshi Tachikawa as Etsurō Yoshida
Yoshio Tsuchiya as Masafumi Kasai
Hiroshi Koizumi as Naoyuki Sakuda
Miki Yashiro as Akiko Sōma
Jiro Kumagai as Doctor at Tokyo Medical Center
Yutaka Oka as Doctor at Tokyo Medical Center
Keisuke Yamada as Doctor at Tokyo Medical Center
Hideyo Amamoto as Matango
Haruo Nakajima as Matango
Masaki Shinohara as Matango
Kōji Uruki as Matango
Toku Ihara as Matango
Kuniyoshi Kashima as Matango
Tokio Ōkawa as Matango

In Summary…..

Matango  / Attack of the Mushroom People (1963) is a Japanese sci-fi / horror film directed by Ishirō Honda. It is partially based on William Hope Hodgson's short story "The Voice in the Night." The story involves five pleasure-seeking young people and two crewmen who become stranded on a tropical island. They soon stumble upon a deserted, fungus-covered ship wreck which they discover had been a research vessel examining the effects of radiation on plant and animal life. The crew had eaten some of the fungus and as a result were driven mad. With little edible food on the island, the group of castaways struggle to find a way to survive only to realize that they have each other to contend with along with a mysterious presence in the form of…...deadly mushrooms!


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Mutiny in Outer Space (1965)

A well-paced and entertaining sci-fi film hampered by its low budget

Directed by Hugo Grimaldi, Arthur C. Pierce (uncredited)
Written by Hugo Grimaldi, Arthur C. Pierce
Produced by Hugo Grimaldi, Arthur C. Pierce, Bernard Woolner, David Woolner, Lawrence Woolner
Cinematography: Archie R. Dalzell
Edited by George White
Music by Harry Eisen (Stock music editor)
Production company: Hugo Grimaldi Productions
Distributed by Woolner Brothers Pictures
Running time: 82 minutes
Budget: $90,000 (estimate)

Cast

William Leslie as Maj. Gordon Towers
Dolores Faith as Dr. Faith Montaine
Pamela Curran as Lt. Connie Engstrom
Richard Garland as Col. Frank Cromwell
Harold Lloyd Jr. as Sgt. Andrews
James Dobson as Dr. Hoffman
Ron Stokes as Sgt. Sloan
Boyd Holister as Maj. Olsen (in credits as Robert Palmer)
Gabriel Curtiz as Dr. Stoddard
Glenn Langan as Gen. Knowland
H. Kay Stevens as Sgt. Engstrom
Francine York as Capt. Stevens
Joel Smith (unnamed character)
Carl Crow as Capt. Dan Webber
Robert Nash (unnamed character)

Astronauts on a trip back from the lunar ice caves contract a deadly fungus.

They unwittingly contaminate a space station with the fungus.

Space Station X-7 is soon overrun by the unknown deadly alien fungus.

What’s more, not all is right with the X-7’s commander.

What must the crew do in order to save the space station, along with Earth itself from destruction?

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First Spaceship on Venus (1960) Milcząca Gwiazda (Polish) Der schweigende Stern (German) (The Silent Star)

A good-looking sci-fi film with a naively optimistic view of the future and with characters that are difficult to care too much about.

Directed by Kurt Maetzig
Screenplay by Kurt Maetzig, J. Barkhauer (uncredited)
Story by J. Fethke, W. Kohlhasse, G. Reisch, G. Rücker, A. Stenbock-Fermor
Based on The Astronauts by Stanisław Lem
Cinematography: Joachim Hasler
Edited by Lena Neumann
Music by Andrzej Markowski
Production companies: Roter Kreis group of DEFA, Filmowe Iluzjon film studio
Distributed by Progress Film (East Germany), Crown International Pictures (US)
Running time: 93 minutes / 79 minutes (English dub)
Box office: 4,375,094 tickets

Cast

• Günther Simon as Raimund Brinkmann (Robert Brinkman in the US release), the Kosmokrator's German pilot
• Julius Ongewe as Talua, the African communications officer
• Yoko Tani as Dr. Sumiko Ogimura, the Japanese medical officer
• Oldřich Lukeš as Professor Hawling, a US nuclear physicist (Orloff in the US release)
• Ignacy Machowski as Professor Sołtyk (Durand, a French engineer, in the US release), the Polish chief engineer
• Mikhail Postnikov as Professor Arsenjew, Soviet astrophysicist and commander of the mission (Harringway in the US Release)
• Kurt Rackelmann as Professor Sikarna, an Indian mathematician
• Tang Hua-Ta as Dr. Tschen Yü (Chen Yu in the US Release), a Chinese linguist.
• Lucyna Winnicka as Joan Moran, television reporter
• Eduard von Winterstein as a nuclear physicist
• Ruth Maria Kubitschek as Professor Arsenjew's wife

The World of 1960: A Taste of the Times

• OPEC ( Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries ) is formed and will eventually comprise twelve member countries: six in the Middle East( Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates ), four in Africa ( Algeria, Angola, Libya and Nigeria ), and two in South America ( Ecuador and Venezuela ), Collectively they will end up by the 21st century holding most of the world’s crude oil reserves and a significant proportion of its crude oil production.
• As the Cold War intensifies, a Soviet SA-2 guided surface-to-air missile shoots down the US Lockheed U2 spy plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers.
• In the wake of the French withdrawal from Vietnam, the United States announces that 3,500 American soldiers are going to be sent to Vietnam. The Domino Theory involves the belief that if one country was to fall to communism each nearby country would also likely fall, especially with the financial and military support of North Vietnam by the Soviet Union and China. Thus begins America's involvement in a long and many would argue futile war against communist North Vietnam.
• Following major food shortages in East Germany 160,000 refugees cross to West Germany, Nikita Khrushchev orders the construction of the Berlin Wall
• The Irish Republican Army (IRA) starts it's fight against the British
• President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Civil Rights Act of 1960 into law. The purpose of the law is to close loopholes from the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and mainly dealt with voter disenfranchisement.
• The United States Supreme Court decides the Boynton v. Virginia case which arose from an incident in which Bruce Boynton, an African-American law student,being arrested for trying to order at a “whites only” restaurant in a bus terminal. The court ruled in a 7-2 decision that racial segregation in public transportation was unconstitutional as it violated the Interstate Commerce Act.
• In South Africa Afrikaner police open fire with sub machine guns on demonstrators in the black township of Sharpeville.
• The first televised U.S. Presidential debate takes place between Kennedy and Nixon
• John F Kennedy wins the presidential Election with one of the smallest margins in history.
• The sexual revolution begins with the use of birth control pills and the opening of the first Playboy clubs in Chicago.
• Technical achievements include the invention of the Laser and a heart pacemaker.
• With its testing of its first atomic bomb, France joins ‘nuclear bomb club.’
• 100,000 people Join the"Ban The Bomb" Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament rally on April 18th in London.
• In the USA the yearly inflation rate sits at 1.46%. The average cost of a new house is $12,700.00 while the average monthly rent is $98.00. A gallon of gas will set you back 25 cents to fuel your $2,600.00 new car. When you get home you can put your feet up, relax and watch your 23 inch television.
• In the new frontier of space exploration, (in which the Soviet Union seems to be forging ahead of the US) NASA launches the Pioneer 5 space probe that will travel between the orbits of Earth and Venus to gather information about deep space between the two planets. Pioneer 5 is able to establish communications with Earth at a record 22.5 million miles away, but contact with the craft is lost after that point.
• NASA also launches TIROS-1 (Television Infra-Red Observation Satellite), one of the world’s first successful weather satellites. TIROS-1 weighs about 270 pounds and measures 19 inches in height and 42 inches in diameter. The satellite can only function during daylight hours but manages to transmit thousands of photos of cloud patterns and document the formation of cloud systems. It will continue to function for about 78 days.
• The Summer Olympics are held in Rome, Italy and were the first games to be fully covered on television. The geo-political rival superpowers, the Soviet Union and the United States, along with host country, Italy win the most medals.

Popular Culture includes:

• To Kill A Mockingbird novel
• Alfred Hitchcock’s Pscho
• Coronation Street - UK TV series ( I spent many a night in the ‘60s watching that British soapy with my parents)
• The Flintstones cartoon series
• Rawhide western TV series
• Chubby Chequer and The twist dance craze.

• The Etch A Sketch art toy/gadget (It really seemed like magic!)

Trailer

From that dawn of a new decade that was the year1960, emerged an ideological illusion and hubrisric hallucination in the form of the film, First Space Ship on Venus with its Utopian vision of a future world of 1985…….when;

An alien artefact is discovered on Earth originating from from Venus

A rocket expedition to Venus is launched to discover the origin of the artefact and the beings that created it.

Read on for more…

Planet of the Vampires (1965) (Terrore nello spazio)

A stylish, innovative, well-paced and entertaining mid-1960s sci-fi film with strong tone and atmosphere along with earnest performances.

Directed by Mario Bava
Screenplay by Alberto Bevilacqua, Callisto Cosulich, Mario Bava, Antonio Román, Rafael J. Salvia
English version: Ib Melchior, Louis M. Heyward
Based on "One Night of 21 Hours" by Renato Pestriniero
Produced by,Fulvio Lucisano
Cinematography: Antonio Rinaldi
Edited by Antonio Gimeno, Romana Fortini
Music by Gino Marinuzzi Jr.
Production companies: Italian International Film, Castilla Cooperativa Cinematográfica, American International Pictures
Distributed by Società Italiana di Distribuzione (SIDIS) (Italy), C.B. Films (Spain)
Running time: 88 minutes
Budget: $200,000
Box office: £90 million (Italy), 38.2 million ESP (Spain), $251,000 (United States)

Cast

Barry Sullivan as Captain Mark Markary
Norma Bengell as Sanya
Ángel Aranda as Wess Wescant
Evi Marandi as Tiona
Franco Andrei as Bert
Federico Boido as Harry Gash
Stelio Candelli as Brad )
Alberto Cevenini as Toby Markary
Mario Morales as Eldon
Ivan Rassimov as Carter
Massimo Righi as Captain Sallis
Fernando Villeña as Dr. Karan

A strange transmission of a distress signal is received.

The spaceships Argos and Galliot travel to the mysterious planet Aura to investigate.

Automatic controls malfunction and the Galliot crashes on the surface of Aura.

Upon landing, crew-members in Argos briefly lose control and attack each other.

Why?

Casualties are soon found but the Argos’ Captain and his surviving crew discover that the dead do not stay dead.

How can this be?

Did they respond to a distress signal or have they fallen into a trap?

If the latter, then who set the trap and for what purpose?

Trailer

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