In 1982, The Movie Blade Runner captivated audiences by providing a grim vision of a future world. The disturbing images of Los Angeles in November, 2019 (a date set “way in the future”) were accompanied by a haunting, ethereal soundtrack, expertly crafted by Vangellis. So how does the real Los Angeles of November, 2019 stack up to the movie?
Here’s a quick side-by-side comparison:
One of the two cities is a dystopian nightmare – rife with nearly unsolvable problems, a heavily polluted, garbage-filled landscape, a nearly ever-present police force of flying vehicles in the sky, bombardments of larger-than-life advertisements, a clear-cut class structure and little hope of advancement, and an outlook so bleak that the only solution seems to be just to leave and try our luck on off-world colonies.
And the other, of course, was just a movie.