Akira (1988 Bienvenue à Gattaca (1997 Blade Runner (1982 Equilibrium (2002 Metropolis (1927 Matrix (1999 La mouche (1986 Alien - Le huitième passager (1979 District 9 (2009 Vertical Hustle Verticle Hustle depicts a future world whose aesthetics and material culture are centered around three main constraints: (1) The nomadic people in the scenario get around by climbing trees and scaffolding, and thus carry only necessities for survival. (2) Mass production no longer exists, thus everything is created and invented in a do-it-yourself (DIY) fashion from leftover materials. (3) It is no longer possible to live either by farming the land or hunting large animals. Small animals are few and difficult to trap. In a not so distant post-CyberPunk future, on the planet earth, the world as we know it has collapsed and Nature has regained strength and started to flourish once more. For many years, human ‘progress’ accelerated exponentially and nation states became less and less important as technology and resources were monopolized by huge industrial conglomerates. Sun no longer reaches the Dead Zone of ground level, where people originally lived. But technology is not forgotten.
Sunshine's Realistic, Biospheric Spaceship SExpand Just a few more weeks until January 8, the day Sunshine DVDs hit stateside. This flick is director Danny Boyle's space opera about a ship called the Icarus II whose destiny is to plunge into the heart of the sun and "relight" it. OK, dorky science premise aside, this is a seriously awesome show from the director of 28 Days Later, with gorgeous designs and a trippy FX-laced plot. One of the touches of realism Boyle insisted on was exploring how the spaceship would provide its own oxygen via an elaborate system of plant-lined ducts. Here is the oxygen room from above. And here's the oxygen room once Icarus starts getting super-heated from the sun. There's also a clip of Michelle Yeoh looking lovely and washing carrots in the oxygen room here.