A future that's more apparent since 9-11-2001

Rating: 10/10 (15 September 2001)

A bleak Los Angeles skyline where advertising is omnipresent; can it be in 1982 this was viewed as the future of one of America's great cities? Times Square in New York City did resemble an OmniVision-like version of this but since Tuesday at 9 a.m. EDT the rubble of the leveled twin World Center Towers now lies massed in heaps. If the United States was conquered by some sort of dominant hybrid empire that had robotics and genetic cloning, then the urban anonymity and anarchy of this film's back-story might be possible. Given the rush toward world economic markets and the entry of the China populace/workforce into a 21st century non-natural environment, a transformed California is not that inconceivable. Will urban policing become as vigilante as BLADE RUNNER seems to imply? The "leap" from the National Defense/Local Law Enforcement/FBI/CIA that was necessitated by the anti-terrorist actions taken this week across the nation and internationally also make this scenario of 2019 look a bit closer rather than farther away. Will our technology pull us up as we hang "over the edge"? BLADE RUNNER may seem negative and ultra-violent but what will endure and what will threaten the future of humanity? Frankenstein? Frankenstein's monster? Maybe both? Watch this allegorical noir-ish message about the future to find out! 10 *'s rating.