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Awhile ago, I was corresponding with someone who mentioned that they were looking forward to the next Star Wars movie, and that the reboot would be good for science fiction. I replied that it wasn't even science fiction; it was space opera.
He then asked me for an example of what I consider to be science fiction. I named a few books, and he asked what about movies? Naming one from the recent past had me stumped. Prometheus was certainly science fiction. Unfortunately, it wasn't very good science fiction.
Space opera is simply an adventure story told with ray guns and starships, instead of guns and horses. Science fiction is supposed to ask questions. Very often, it takes us to our future and shows us how things might turn out. Generally speaking, it encourages us to ask a question. The question is, “Where are we going?”
The best science fiction I ever saw on the big screen was “Blade Runner.”
Blade Runner envisions a future where the environment has been devastated, and massive cities stretch for miles. Many people are shown living in terrible poverty on the streets below, while a few rich men live in decadence in a pyramid built high above the city.
However, even that inequity is not enough. For truly dangerous or objectionable work, they make artificial men. These replicants can do everything we can, even feel emotion. But since they were created, they are property, not servants. They fear that their property will become too dangerous with great experience, so they simply program the replicants to drop dead after four short years of life. If they escape before that time, a blade runner is sent to hunt them down and kill them.
A number of my favorite visuals of all time come from this movie, but the things that makes it a classic is that virtually everything about this movie is done well. There were no lectures or exposition, and it had heart.
If you haven't seen it, give it a look. In this clip, the replicant is dying because he is nearing his programmed time of death, and he shows the man who has been hunting him his humanity.
The version of this scene that is elsewhere on youtube was cut badly, so I made this version and uploaded. Its far enough beyond the production date that this video will likely not be taken down, but if it is I'll post another version with a fresh link.