Inspired by lester1/2jr's thread about the movies that take place in the distant past, I'm wondering what movies you can think of that take place in the far future. I'm not talking about spaceships and such scenarios, but past that to a scenario where the earth is ancient and the sun's about to go out.
This sort of scenario is quite common in books, I'm thinking of Jack Vance's "Dying Earth", Brian Aldiss' "Hothouse", and of course the bit in HG Wells' "Time Traveller" where the hero goes to the end of time and finds drying up seas inhabited by crab-like creatures.
I haven't actually seen the first "Time Traveller" film so I don't know if it takes that bit from the book or not, I've just seen the second-rate remake with Guy Pearce which ends up with him going to a future where the Morlocks have taken over the world and they put up a random number of about 800 million years on the time machine year counter.
man how about Escape 2000, that movie predicted it! :P
nah but on a serious note Logan's Run is the only one that comes to my mind at the moment.
We had this discussion a month or three ago, I think Dune won it for being 30,000 years in the future. Though MAYBE the Time mAchine went that far as well, I don't recall.
-Ed
Babylon 5 ends 1 million years in the future.
"Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" (in radio, book, and TV) had The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe. The book, at least, also referenced The Big Bang Burger Bar
That probably trumps both ends of the timeline
I just saw "The Time Machine" the other day. It gets high marks because 1/3 to 1/2 of it takes place way in the future. With the morlocks and the elois.
Well, "The Ark", a William Hartnell-era Doctor Who, begins 10 million years in the future. The incredibly advanced human starship also contains a pretty bizarre British 1960's electric truck. Strange, that.
Morlocks! I love morlocks.
The blonde people should have killed HG Wells. they had it made
I think the "which movie was set furthest in the past" thread was inspired by a "what movie was set furtest in the future" thread awhile ago. I just thought of something I wanted to contribute to that one, but I didn't want to dig it up: In The Matrix, I don't think they ever specify a year, but someone mentions that Zion is near the Earth's core, "where it's still warm". That might imply that it's the far future.
Anyone here into Gene Woolfe? He wrote all those far future "New Sun" books where the Earth is called Urth. I can only ever find the second one "Claw Of The Concilliator".
http://www.badmovies.org/bbs/read.php?f=2&i=80207&t=80207
OK. Thanks for the replies. I had completely forgotten about last months thread but I remember it now. I must have had it in the back of my mind too, because I mentioned the high year count on the counter in 'The Time Machine' which was first mentioned in the other thread.
Dave Munger wrote:
>
> Anyone here into Gene Woolfe? He wrote all those far future
> "New Sun" books where the Earth is called Urth. I can only ever
> find the second one "Claw Of The Concilliator".
I've got the "Book of the New Sun" books on the bookshelf next to me right now. I read "Shadow of the Torturer" and "Claw of the Conciliator" last year, and I just finished reading "Sword of the Lictor" last month.
They are indeed excellent and I can heartily recommend them if anybody is interested in a far future fantasy.
Dave, if you enjoy the "Book of the New Sun", it's also worth checking out Jack Vance's "Dying Earth" books which are a heavy inspiration for Wolfe, and Clark Ashton Smith's short stories of Zothique, the last continent on Earth, which in turn were a heavy influence on Vance. They all use a similar style of archaic, decadent language and a melancholic atmosphere.