Futureworld
It has been three years since the incident at Delos resulted in the deaths of over ninety staff and technicians and fifty guests, but undeterred the corporation has absorbed the lawsuits and the costs and pushed forward, determined to learn the lessons and implement the next iteration of the fantastic playgrounds of the rich, the investigation having blamed human failings and moved further into automation and now needing to restore public confidence, perception of the deaths being a greater issue than corporate manslaughter.
“Our problem is the memory of the disaster at Westworld” says the board, and granted access to the $1200 a day facility newspaper reporter Chuck Browning and television news anchor Tracy Ballard are invited to report on what they witness in Futureworld, their visit tailored so they will only see the great positives, while Chuck is more interested in what happens behind the scenes, having been contacted by a whistleblower who was murdered before he could talk.
Released in 1976 and directed by Richard T Heffron from a script by Mayo Simon and George Schenk Futureworld builds upon rather than recreating Michael Crichton’s original action thriller of desert gunfights, with Nadja’s Peter Fonda and The X-Files‘ Blythe Danner sparring as the investigative team paired to go up against The Andromeda Strain’s Arthur Hill as Delos executive Doctor Duffy and It’s Alive‘s John Ryan as lead scientist Doctor Morton Schneider.
With Yul Brynner reprising his iconic role as Tracy’s dangerously unpredictable fantasy man in a drugged dream sequence, where Westworld placed robotics in a historical setting Futureworld has a greater challenge which is never addressed, patrons enjoying low gravity skiing on Mars and zero gravity in orbit but no mention of how this is simulated on Earth, nor despite the huge advances in microtechnology has anyone managed to invent a miniaturised camera or solve the problem of waterproofing the androids.
Part of a continuum running from What Are Little Girls Made Of? to Blade Runner and Battlestar Galactica, Futureworld is not as well regarded as its predecessor and thematic companions but has high production values, the vast complex of the Johnson Space Centre providing scope and scale, making the issues all the more irksome, the murder in the opening moments forgotten for an hour when it could have been a surprise reveal, and a finale which which would play with more drama if the lingering question were not answered until the final frame, Duffy, the viewer and Tracy’s global audience discovering the truth simultaneously.
Restored by Arrow, their new edition of Futureworld is supported by a new audio commentary by film historian Daniel Kremer, a new video interview with producer Paul N Lazarus III, a 1976 behind-the-scenes short film chronicling filming at the Johnson Space Center written by The Amityville Horror‘s Jay Anson, presented in high definition for the first time on home video though unfortunately with the source material significantly deteriorated, the theatrical trailer, television and radio spots and a gallery.
Futureworld will be available on 4K UHD and Blu-ray from Arrow from Monday 19th October
