“Children of Men”'s vision of the future is now disturbingly familiar • Hacker News Board

Re: “Children of Men”'s vision of the future is now disturbingly familiar

#41

Post by xor1 » Sat, Dec 24, 2016, 4:10 AM UTC

lobster_johnson wrote: post #23

Laforet wrote: post #20

On a lighter note, I had a good chuckle when the article mentioned that the director deliberately avoided depiction of cellphones to avoid creating an unintentional period piece[0]. The last movie I watched in the treatre is Clint Eastwood's "Sully" and I distinctly remember the main character using a chronologically appropoaite Samsung flip phone and that single prop instantly dates the movie to the first decade of…

Conversely, in William Gibson's Neuromancer, there are no cell phones, despite being set decades into the future. Gibson knows a thing or two about seeing their scifi becoming dated, of course. The famous opening line, "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel" no longer resonates with anyone born the last 20 years or so (although for a number of years, many digital TVs would displa…

>There's also some fun stuff about people physically carrying information (this also happens in short story "Johnny Mnemonic"). For a world where there's a highly connected, super fast worldwide computer network available, people sure travel around a lot.

Sneakernet isn't an irrelevant concept in any sort of context where data transferred through a computer network can be intercepted.

Re: “Children of Men”'s vision of the future is now disturbingly familiar

#42

Post by numbsafari » Sat, Dec 24, 2016, 4:10 AM UTC

Laforet wrote: post #20

On a lighter note, I had a good chuckle when the article mentioned that the director deliberately avoided depiction of cellphones to avoid creating an unintentional period piece[0]. The last movie I watched in the treatre is Clint Eastwood's "Sully" and I distinctly remember the main character using a chronologically appropoaite Samsung flip phone and that single prop instantly dates the movie to the first decade of…

The first season of Law & Order is delightfully full of these sorts of anachronisms. My favorite is when they bum quarters off passerersby to make a call on a pay phone. This horrible plot device, the phone call, is so entrenched in their writing, they've brought it fully up to date in SVU with everyone carrying iPhones.

Re: “Children of Men”'s vision of the future is now disturbingly familiar

#43

Post by snowwrestler » Sat, Dec 24, 2016, 4:11 AM UTC

moron4hire wrote: post #35

It's an old movie. If he spoiled it for you, it's your fault. Vader is Lukes father. The Titanic sinks at the end. Lost was all a communal dream while everyone on the flight died together.

Wrong about Lost... In fact the whole point of the final was that the stuff on The Island was real, and it was the most important time in all of their lives. Which is why they all end up together in a sort of timeless purgatory, even though they died many years apart.

Re: “Children of Men”'s vision of the future is now disturbingly familiar

#44

Post by snowwrestler » Sat, Dec 24, 2016, 4:11 AM UTC

user837387 wrote: post #38

moron4hire wrote: post #35

It's an old movie. If he spoiled it for you, it's your fault. Vader is Lukes father. The Titanic sinks at the end. Lost was all a communal dream while everyone on the flight died together.

>>Lost was all a communal dream while everyone on the flight died together. Noooooooo!!!. You've just spoiled it for me. No I'll never work up the courage to watch the series. I've tried watching the first episode several times but I just find it so boring. It looked like a good TV series and really wanted to like it but I just could not get through the first one. I found some of the characters obnoxious. Now you've…

Don't worry, the spoiler is wrong. Just don't read my other post...

Re: “Children of Men”'s vision of the future is now disturbingly familiar

#45

Post by scott_karana » Sat, Dec 24, 2016, 4:12 AM UTC

Laforet wrote: post #20

On a lighter note, I had a good chuckle when the article mentioned that the director deliberately avoided depiction of cellphones to avoid creating an unintentional period piece[0]. The last movie I watched in the treatre is Clint Eastwood's "Sully" and I distinctly remember the main character using a chronologically appropoaite Samsung flip phone and that single prop instantly dates the movie to the first decade of…

FYI, you mean 21st century: the 20th century is the 1900s :)

Re: “Children of Men”'s vision of the future is now disturbingly familiar

#46

Post by lobster_johnson » Sat, Dec 24, 2016, 4:12 AM UTC

ronilan wrote: post #36

lobster_johnson wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Conversely, in William Gibson's Neuromancer, there are no cell phones, despite being set decades into the future. Gibson knows a thing or two about seeing their scifi becoming dated, of course. The famous opening line, "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel" no longer resonates with anyone born the last 20 years or so (although for a number of years, many digital TVs would displa…

> although for a number of years, many digital TVs would display blue for missing input I'm sure you are aware that "the color of television, tuned to a dead channel" is not blue - right? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=I3ZAMjpjYfQ

Of course. My point was that for a brief period of time, you could give Gibson the benefit of an accidental retcon; "ah, so the sky was a dark shade of blue, that works". As opposed to "uh, NO INPUT?".

Re: “Children of Men”'s vision of the future is now disturbingly familiar

#47

Post by duskwuff » Sat, Dec 24, 2016, 4:13 AM UTC

h4nkoslo wrote: post #12

The little touches were the best part of the movie - the nihilist industrial scream-metal music, the Islamic militia in the streets, the plausibly crappy vehicles... Incredible movie.

Fun fact: the "Zen music" from Children of Men is a track by Aphex Twin [1] with a Creative Commons-licensed sound effect [2] dubbed over it. This got quite a bit of attention at the time (e.g, [3]), as it was one of the first documented instances of a major film using CC assets.

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltLOrgnfW9w

[2]: https://www.freesound.org/people/thanvannispen/sounds/9432/

[3]: https://creativecommons.org/2007/01/17/freesound-sample-in-c...

Re: “Children of Men”'s vision of the future is now disturbingly familiar

#48

Post by RandomOpinion » Sat, Dec 24, 2016, 4:14 AM UTC

ronilan wrote: post #36

lobster_johnson wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Conversely, in William Gibson's Neuromancer, there are no cell phones, despite being set decades into the future. Gibson knows a thing or two about seeing their scifi becoming dated, of course. The famous opening line, "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel" no longer resonates with anyone born the last 20 years or so (although for a number of years, many digital TVs would displa…

> although for a number of years, many digital TVs would display blue for missing input I'm sure you are aware that "the color of television, tuned to a dead channel" is not blue - right? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=I3ZAMjpjYfQ

Given that he spent the entire paragraph talking about how younger people wouldn't know what that passage refers to, presumably yes, he does.

Re: “Children of Men”'s vision of the future is now disturbingly familiar

#49

Post by pasquinelli » Sat, Dec 24, 2016, 4:15 AM UTC

mcphage wrote: post #4

There's one scene in it—and I think people who have seen the movie know the one I'm talking about—that's possibly the most powerful, intense scene I've ever seen on screen. Absolutely worth watching.

It's moving moment, but what I remember about it is how the rug is immediately yanked out from under it.

Re: “Children of Men”'s vision of the future is now disturbingly familiar

#50

Post by nindalf » Sat, Dec 24, 2016, 4:15 AM UTC

moron4hire wrote: post #35

It's an old movie. If he spoiled it for you, it's your fault. Vader is Lukes father. The Titanic sinks at the end. Lost was all a communal dream while everyone on the flight died together.

This is unacceptable. There's no reason to ruin all of these movies and shows, especially since this thread is about something else entirely. In any online community centred around works of fiction, this would be a bannable offense. I'm flagging your comment for this reason.

And no, not everyone knows about Vader. I have a friend who watched Star Wars for the first time last week just before we dragged him to Rogue One.