RIPPED: Films ripped from the past and foretelling the future

We all wonder what our future will be like. Where we will be in five years, where the world will be in ten. How advanced technology will be, and whether we will live to see it all. The prospects of the future is something we often dream about, but one thing that film creatives have been able to do is create their future fantasies on screen. They possess the ability to transport us via cinema into an unknown destiny, in the most exaggerative and creative ways. From the iconic 1927 science fiction film ‘Metropolis’, to the fun loving ‘Back to the Future’, film has always used various genres and styles to predict our fate.

Celebrating the power of futuristic cinema is The Horse Hospital, as they prepare to host a retrospective exhibition celebrating the uncompleted science fiction fantasy movie ‘Saturation 70’.  Inspired by a UFO convention at Giant Rock in the 60s, ‘Saturation 70’ was predicted to be a larger than life film, about a group of aliens (the Kosmic Kiddies) who land on earth to save it from ecological destruction, and in the process assist a lost child (Julian Jones) who has fallen through a wormhole to return to his own time and place. While the film was not released to audiences, it remains a cultural gem of the 1960’s science fiction film movement, and curator Linda Leitch is celebrating it as ‘The greatest cult movie you have never seen’.

The exhibition will feature all that remains of the project; from pages of the script, to never-before-seen production stills, and behind the scenes photos from the ‘Saturation 70’ shoot. As they celebrate ‘Saturation 70’, and the imaginative way film can portray the future, .Cent decided to look at three other movies which were ripped straight from the past, but foretold our possible future.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

2001: A Space Odyssey contained many accuracies to our world today, from personal televisions in aircrafts, to the archaic video sequence which bares similarities to our current phenomenon with video messaging program, Skype.

Blade Runner (1982)

While we are yet to have flying cars, or robot slaves, Blade Runner predicted that our relationship with technology would expire after a few years, and that we would continue to go back to get more of it. While this prediction in film was made 34 years ago, it couldn’t be more current, as our need for updated technology can be seen in a variety of gadgets, particularly our culture’s obsession with various iPhone models; such as the iPhone 4, iPhone 4s, iPhone 5 and now the iPhone 6.

The Truman Show (1998)

Nothing could have foretold the future quite so accurately than this Jim Carrey classic. Two years before Big Brother and years before our current culture would become obsssessed with the world of reality TV, director Peter Weir created this movie which uncovered a man’s discovery that his entire life was actually a television show.

Details for 'Saturation 70 exhibition:

Private view: Friday 5th September 7PM

Exhibition: Sat 6th September – Sat 27th September, Mon–Sat, 12–6PM