The History of the Future

Nothing ages as fast as the future does. That is just one of many conclusions one comes to after watching Reynold Reynolds‘ epic exploration of the depiction of the future in science fiction movies. Another observation is how many scifi tropes start leading lives of their own, developing more in relation to their past iterations (in previous movies) than in anticipation of an imagined future.

 

Reynolds uses the supercut strategy but not in the monotonously repetitive way that is often the case. Simple supercuts are content to gather as many examples as possible of any given trope, resulting in an exhaustive collection (in more ways than one). This effort however is more than a percussion track composed of film footage: it finds rhymes and melodies that echo throughout several films and that illustrate the shared consciousness that runs through the science fiction genre.