Movie that you think most accurately predicts space future

[docm]

2010 <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[lsbd]

<font color="yellow"> It is rather dissappointing to us who grew up in the 60's and 70's that our progress with manned space flight has been so slow. </font><br /><br />Well, the money to provide all those welfare babies with free medical and govt cheese had to come from somewhere.

 

[kelvinzero]

Hmmm... How shall we pay for all these welfare babies... heads: Veitnam, enough atom bombs to destroy the world 47 times over, buying weapons for afganistan peaceloving freedom fighters or tails: colonising a second planet...<br /><br />Good choice <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" />

 

[dan_h]

I'm holding out for a Total Recall future. Get in touch with your inner mutant and then live on Mars in a spectacularly well hidden secret alien base that's a million years old and infeasable in just about every way. <br /><br />But I think we could be looking at a yet unmade film called "F£*ked" where the human race fails to secure an exit strategy from the planet and ends up nuking its self to death over something that no one will admit to being the the cause of.

 

[nyrath]

http://manconquersspace.com/<br />based on<br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_Will_Conquer_Space_Soon%21

 

[spacefire]

hehe...back then they thought Mars had much denser atmosphere. Von Braun proposed a lander that was a winged rocket craft with a sled for landing gear. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>http://asteroid-invasion.blogspot.com</p><p>http://www.solvengineer.com/asteroid-invasion.html </p><p> </p> </div>

 

[willpittenger]

Such a lander could still work. However, you need one or more of the following:<li>More wing<li>Higher landing speeds<li>Longer runout</li></li></li> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Will Pittenger<hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Add this user box to your Wikipedia User Page to show your support for the SDC forums: <div style="margin-left:1em">{{User:Will Pittenger/User Boxes/Space.com Account}}</div> </div>

 

[lsbd]

History shows us that one of the only good things to come from war is technological advances. After the wars are over, the tech developed to better kill our enemy is converted to peaceful civilian endeavors. (airplanes, rockets, radar, computers etc, etc, etc)<br /><br />What has any of that money spent on welfare babies ever produced....except more welfare babies?<br /><br />Stuck with a choice between the two, I say spend it on war, at least that way you get a little return on your investment.

 

[qso1]

Very well stated. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[kelvinzero]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>At any rate, space movies never accurately portray the reality of conventional exploration in and of itself as the framework for the plot.<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />Hi Anvel,<br />That would be a documentary. I like space documentaries but I'd never criticise a movie for not being one.<br /><br />Hi LSBD,<br />So you're the b*gger who ticked the first box <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /><br /><br />

 

[Anonymous]

Armageddon....According to myself <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font size="2"><p align="center"><br /><img id="a9529085-d63d-481e-9277-832ea5d58917" src="http://sitelife.space.com/ver1.0/Content/images/store/9/2/a9529085-d63d-481e-9277-832ea5d58917.Large.gif" alt="blog post photo" /><br /><font color="#339966">Oops! this is my alien friend.</font></p><p align="center"><font color="#ff6600">╬→Ť╠╣є ’ M€ ’<br />╬→ Ðôŵņ2Ëãřŧĥ ๑<br />╬→ ЙДm€ :Varsha<br /></font></p></font></strong> </div>

 

[kelvinzero]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>I'm not talking about documentaries. I'm talking about movies as entertainment. <p><hr /></p></p></blockquote> Yes but your requirements were too strict. Movies have to be about people, drama, obstacles etc. I really liked the movie Apollo 13 for example but note they had to choose an atypical mission where things did not work out as planned.<br /><br />Currently, we have to transport everything, not just people. Dont get me started on the possibilities if we ever achieve self sufficient colonisation! <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> <br /><br />There are a bunch of places we could find drama in space so long as we dont insist the movie is about the plan as it appears on paper. And no shame that these stories have appeared before. A 'titanic' in space is one possibility. Outland could have been rewritten for a lunar smelter generating components for a space solar power station. Apollo13 is a form of 'The Odyssey', the struggle to get home over a series of obstacles placed in your way by a caprious universe. <br /><br /><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>I could go on, but I stand by my assessment that no dramatic vehicle put out by Hollywood really reflects our space future other than bits and pieces of it. <p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br />I agree and it is a great pity, but in my point of view comes from a lack of imagination and vision by hollywood writers. In the short term plots may have to revolve around only a few people in mcmurdo-like settings but if we achieve selfsufficency we will also achieve incredible scale.

 

[etavaunt]

"That was how the lady was able to prevent liftoff -- by grabbing the landing strut"<br /><br />She was a Slavic lady, heavy bottom on her!.<br /><br /><img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" />

 

[johnfairplay]

I think an extraterrestrial mining operation is the most likely initial effort beyond just landing on/staying on the moon or mars. A mining operation in the asteroid belt, for example, has at least two positive outcomes: minerals and metals for use and reducing the number of asteroids that could become earth impacters/civilization destroyers. Hence something like "Outland" is probably likely in the next couple of hundred years.

 

[thebigcat]

Check out the 1972 Bruce Dern flick <i>Silent Running</i>.<br /><br />Here's the IMDb summary:<br /><br /><i>The loner crew member of a spaceship harbouring Earth's last nature reserves goes renegade when he is instructed to jettison his beloved forests and return home. Accompanied only by three robots, he ponders the fate of his last pocket of nature and the murders of his fellow crew members in this far-looking speculative film</i><br /><br />The film is basically an eco-fable rather than a sci-fi epic so the creators didn't go overboard for setting, instead creating just enough mythology to tell the story. Okay, not "creating" really. More like "borrowing". So if you ignore the plot the technology level is very believable. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[witgenestone]

Terminator II, Blade Runner and Mission to Mars.<br />Followed up by Independence Day, Sphere, Virus and War of the Worlds (original).

 

[hracctsold]

Was just passing thru when I came on this post. I'm back in school learning some more good things before tax season, but could not pass up this opportunity to post about something like this.<br /><br />I agree about seeing some future in the first three picks of WitGene's selection, but he stopped me cold with his choice of "SPHERE". You ARE NOT talking about the so-called movie I take it? Not to put you "no book is good enough to be cannon" people in a rage or anything, but the only thing that MAY have a possibility of being future is the book!!! And that book is really just for entertainment, with all the physics(sp? sorry about that), that is probably not there. There is a road side sign by me that says, "the only way to predict the future is to invent it." That said, that may be the only way to really tell the future, that or to really get to understand what the Bible really says. But enough of that.<br /><br />I'm sorry, but to say that the movie Sphere is a good way view possible future stopped my lurking for a moment. To say that is to compare the '53 WofW movie to the TC trashing of the same thing.<br /><br />That excuse of a show (Sphere) has stopped more people, (pardon me "cannon" people), from reading the great storyline of the book, because they already know how it turns out. As a book, it was a page turner, and would really deserve a second try at"the sphere" which WAS left at the bottom of the sea bed. I've thought of a few twists to start the storyline with. <br /><br />But back to the shadows now, and looking for more unsuspecting people to inflict a good book on, and not just a "cannon" line of events to watch and note as "real"!!

 

[ashish27]

Actually I don't think any movie can project a perfect picture of the future. I mean see Star Trek despite all the criticism remains the most watched science fiction. But its difficult to find a person like Zeffran Cochrane and warp drive may not be a scientific practicality. Where do you go then? Star Wars, thats too far fetched with light sabers and stuff like that.<br /><br />A lot of people have mentioned Mission to Mars, the movie starring Gary Sinise, i saw the movie about say 20-30 times but still I think you won't have artificial gravity by 2020. And a space station that has actually a floor to walk on <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br /><br />Something that cannot be predicted accurately is the future, and when it comes to future the best thing is to keep your fingers crossed.<br /><br />

 

[kelvinzero]

Thats true, we cannot know the future and even famous visionaries of the past only succeeded in predicting a point here and there. The actual worlds they described seem hopelessly outdated if only for the social changes.<br /><br />I have been considering the question to be which is the most reasonable hard SF movie, based on current understanding. It could be totally wrong but still we can imagine a path from here to there.

 

[hracctsold]

Your post reminds me of that old saying that goes, "Todays sci/fi is tomorrows science fact."<br /><br />I have also remembered some Bible college teachers from 35 years ago that published some of their works that today can be thought of as very dated in some parts of thinking, but seemed to be very current in their day. And I wonder what thoughts may some day be also attributed to some of my ways as well. <br /><br />Sphere, for example, had PanAm make a space plane in the year 2043,(or close to it), that could fly thru black holes or simular such things. Science aside, today they are bankrupt and probably not long for this world. Who would have "thunk" it.

 

[willpittenger]

Not only is PanAm history, but so is their old rival from the 30's: TWA. In fact, TWA bought PanAm. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Will Pittenger<hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Add this user box to your Wikipedia User Page to show your support for the SDC forums: <div style="margin-left:1em">{{User:Will Pittenger/User Boxes/Space.com Account}}</div> </div>

 

[silylene old]

I thought that <i>Minority Report</i> had the most likely vision of the future of any science fiction movie that I have seen.<br /><br />I think the most likely vision of a future dystopia is <i>Bladerunner</i>. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><em><font color="#0000ff">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</font></em> </div><div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><font color="#0000ff"><em>I really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function.</em></font> </div> </div>

 

[willpittenger]

Probably the biggest miss for me would be the maglev highways. Maglev technology will never allow a car to climb the side of a building. Besides, they have two completely separate and incompatible automotive systems.<br /><br />On the other hand, the computer user interfaces are here now. Just look at Microsoft Surface, Apple iPhone and iPod Touch. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Will Pittenger<hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Add this user box to your Wikipedia User Page to show your support for the SDC forums: <div style="margin-left:1em">{{User:Will Pittenger/User Boxes/Space.com Account}}</div> </div>

 

[chyten]

I have to agree that among all movies mentioned, "Outland" comes closest to our near term future in space... and is not very close at that.<br /><br />Antiseptic "Star Trek" style futures I find completely unbelievable. When large numbers of people live and work in space, their habitats will be cluttered, grimy, jury-rigged, "lived-in" -- much like in "Outland". I also find it entirely believable that, once something profitable enough to send large numbers of workers is found in space, work conditions will be dangerous, uncomfortable, likely with imbalance of men and women, and main attraction will be boatloads of money. Just like jobs on offshore oil rigs today. Again, "Outland" catches it perfectly.<br /><br />OTOH, the movie's main premise -- mining titanium in Io, -- is silly. Whatever may be the source of profits, that ain't it.<br /><br />BTW, future of "Outland" is not necessarily a dystopia, any more than a movie about drug trafficking and police corruption today implies <b>our</b> world is a dystopia. Bad things happen, it does not mean the entire world is a hellhole.

 

[yevaud]

I understand why you made the point about Titanium on the one hand, but you're forgetting that if we had mining colonies where <i>Outland</i> was set, those minerals would hardly be heading for Earth - far more likely the other outsystem colonies. Doubtful those rare materials would be sent from Earth. So it makes a bit more sense than you'd initially think. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>