Sci-fi stories that are still relevant

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Friday, July 22nd. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: classic science fiction.

Arts and media editor Collin Garbarino looks at two films celebrating their 40th anniversaries. He says they still have something worthwhile to say today.

COLLIN GARBARINO: Sometimes we think about science fiction predicting the future. But often, science-fiction stories have more to do with our fears in the present than they do with our hopes for what’s to come. This struck me anew as I recently revisited some classics from the summer of 1982. These movies are celebrating their 40th anniversaries, but they still seem strangely relevant.

MUSIC: [Blade Runner - End Titles]

Blade Runner didn’t break any records at the box office, but it frequently shows up on “best sci-fi” lists. Ridley Scott directed this dystopian movie set in the Los Angeles of 2019. Harrison Ford plays Rick Deckard—a reluctant cop known as a “Blade Runner.” His job is to track down and kill escaped “replicants.”

Bryant: I need you, Deck. Now, this is a bad one, the worst yet. I need the old Blade Runner. I need your magic.

Deckard: I was quit when I come in here, Bryant. I’m twice as quit now.

Bryant: Stop right where you are. You know the score, pal? If you’re not cop, you’re little people.

Deckard: No choice, huh?

Bryant: No choice, pal.

Replicants are artificially created humans who serve as slaves. They don’t have rights. They don’t have access to due process. And when they become inconvenient, they get “retired” which really just means executed.

Deckard: She’s a replicant, isn’t she?

Tyrell: I’m impressed. How many questions does it usually take to spot one?

Deckard: I don’t get it, Tyrell.

Tyrell: How many questions?

Deckard: 20, 30, cross-referenced.

Tyrell: It took more than a hundred for Rachael, didn’t it?

Deckard: She doesn’t know.

Tyrell: She’s beginning to suspect, I think.

Deckard: Suspect? How can it not know what it is?

Tyrell: Commerce is our goal here at Tyrell. “More human than human” is our motto. Rachael is an experiment, nothing more.

It’s a thought-provoking movie, and it leaves viewers feeling unsettled and unsure of what they know. Not even the filmmakers agreed on whether Deckard himself was a replicant.

But this old surreal movie set in a future that’s now past feels like it’s speaking directly to America’s abortion debate. Blade Runner’s pro-life subtext reminds us that even if the government refuses to acknowledge someone’s humanity they’re still human.

This dark, violent, R-rated film isn’t for everyone. It’s certainly not a family movie. The director and final cuts are racier than the theatrical release, so do your homework before queueing it up.

MUSIC: [Theme from Tron]

Tron is a more family-oriented sci-fi movie from 1982. The movie is set in cyberspace, and it was one of the first feature-length films to extensively use computer generated imagery. Remember those iconic neon heroes throwing glowing frisbees and riding lightcycles?

AUDIO: [Lightcycle sounds]

Tron has obvious parallels to the story of Jesus. Jeff Bridges plays a computer programer who leaves the real world and enters into the created world of cyberspace where he saves faithful computer programs and restores that which was broken.

Ram: Do you believe in the users?

Crom: Yeah, sure. If I don’t have a user, then who wrote me?

There’s imagery from the days of the Roman gladiators, but this Cold War–era film is really about the individual’s fight against collectivism. The enemy is a huge scary red computer program called Master Control Program. It brands programs that still believe in “users” as religious fanatics, and it seeks to stamp out freedom.

Sark: Greetings. The Master Control Program has chosen you to serve your system on the game grid. Those of you who continue to profess a belief in the users will receive the standard substandard training, which will result in your eventual elimination. Those of you who renounce this superstitious and hysterical belief will be eligible to join the warrior elite of the MCP.

The Soviet Union might be gone, but on Tron’s 40th anniversary, its warnings against totalitarianism are still all too relevant. Sure, Putin wants to absorb Ukraine. But America’s own thought police seek to stifle dissent. They brand free speech as violence, and they scoff at those of us who think about the designs of a creator.

MCP: All programs have a desire to be useful. But in moments, you will no longer seek communication with each other or your superfluous users. You will each be part of me, and together we will be complete.

Tron warns us that humans need freedom, not a centralized state, to bring about flourishing.

I’m not necessarily recommending you watch these movies. Forty-year-old sci-fi doesn’t appeal to everyone. I just think it’s interesting to look back and see we’re still wrestling with the same questions. What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to be free? How do we promote human flourishing? The more things change. The more things stay the same.

Movies are really good at asking life’s big questions, but they’re pretty crummy at providing answers. For the answers, we must turn to the Bible and seek the one who came to save this sinful, broken world.

MUSIC: [Blade Runner - End Titles]

I’m Collin Garbarino.

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