1
Science Fiction in the Reagan Era
The Second World War saw the collapse of fascism, leaving two opposing ideologies
fighting for dominance.
1
This post 1945 world was gripped in Cold War hysteria as the
communist states of Soviet Union and China, and the capitalist West, led by America, tried
to impose their respective principles on strategically placed satellite nations. Whilst
military force was at times used to defend cultural philosophies within the western sphere
of influence, at home in America, different techniques were used to indoctrinate the public.
Mass media was employed to spread capitalist ideals to the people, and not just in the
form of news and advertising. Hollywood, as it had during the thirties red scare, released
films that had the underlying message that communism was evil. However, the message
coming out of eighties Hollywood, on the surface, was no longer restricted to the
promotion of capitalism and subdual of communism. Through science fiction, a genre that
looks ahead to the future, Hollywood deviated from this directive and began to question
what a capitalist future might hold.
The ideology of capitalism was developed in eighteenth-century Britain and was
transported to Northwest Europe and North America. (Ebenstein, 1994, p.g 40) In the
capitalist system the means of production is not held by the state but by individuals, or as
is more common, corporations. The basic assumption is that economic progress is best
attained when people are free to advance their own interests and have the personal
incentive to do so, a view shared by U.S. President, Ronald Reagan.
2
(Ibid) During the
recession-hit America of the eighties, it was his firm belief that the key to restoring the
nations economic health was to run government like a business and make individuals
accountable for their own economic destinies. (Jordan, 2003, p.g 4) Reagans tax reforms
and industry deregulation put the onus on private business, not government, to create
new wealth, new jobs, and individual upward mobility which was a fundamental premise
of his campaign to downsize government. (Ibid, p.g 65) One of the major criticisms of the
Reagan era is that the relative emphasis on capitalism modes of thought during these
periods resulted in situations where the rich became richer while the poor became poorer.
(Ebenstein, 1994, p.g 44)
1
The Cold War, predominately a war of ideologies, ended in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
2
Ronald Reagan served two terms as President between 1981 and 1989.
2
Fig. 1: Scotts twin towers of light resemble the twin towers that dominated the Manhattan skyline and were
symbolic of America's economic power.
Ridley Scotts, Blade Runner, was one of a cycle of films that offered a sustained critique
of Reagans economic policies, which rewarded the wealthy and the corporate sector while
cutting the safety net from the poor and the inner cities. (Prince, 2007, p.g 15) In the
opening images from Blade Runner, Scott illustrates 2019 Los Angeles as a bleak
industrialised metropolis, with large chimneys towering over the surrounding urban sprawl,
spitting out fireballs of the waste gases of production gone mad. (Leaver, 1997) There are
two golden pyramids that preside over the city; they emit beams of light that shoot up into
the clouds resembling a futuristic version of the World Trade Centre (WTC) Twin Towers.
(Fig 1) It is from within these buildings that, as with the WTC, the corporations maintain
their economic strength.
3
This dominance is evident through Tyrell Corp. the
manufacturers of replicants, and its head, Dr. Eldon Tyrell. Tyrell, the king of the urban
nightmare is the one person with sufficient wealth to live above the smog that prevents
the sunlight reaching ground level. (Ibid) His amassed wealth comes from the
development of replicants that have become a futuristic equivalent of slaves; an exploited
work force that have no control of the purposes or products of their labour. (Hodkinson,
2001, p.g 106). His replicants have a four year life-span which could be seen as a security
protocol to prevent Karl Marxs theory that the proletariat would overcome their false
consciousness and overthrow the capitalist system. (Ibid, p.g 107)
The film probes the social class structure, as it is through the privileged discourse of
Deckard, the jaded voice of the middle-class that the viewer is encouraged to look up
3
The World Trade Centre housed 430 companies prior to the terrorist attacks in 2001.
3
angrily at the powerful corporate giant, and look down disdainfully at the uncomplaining,
seething masses below, whilst also questioning what it means to be human. (Thurlow,
2003) All those that remain in Los Angles 2019 are weak and impaired, Gaff, the trainee
blade runner has a limp, J.F. Sebastian is suffering from accelerated decrepitude, and
even the overlord of Los Angeles, Dr. Eldon Tyrell, is forced to wear ridiculously over-sized
glasses. (Leaver, 1997) Even Deckard is flawed, as he is, in Marxist terms, alienated: he
is forced to hunt replicants and gets no pleasure from his work. (Brooker, 2005, p.g 191)
This is true of the majority of the characters, with the exception of Tyrell, as they have
been crushed by a relentless all-encompassing capitalist machine. (Hodkinson, 2001, p.g
108) Blade Runner mirrors the view of the Frankfurt theorists in that people in a capitalist
society are reified, or, reduced to objects - cogs and pulleys in the system. (Ibid, p.g 108)
However, there is a moment where Scott implies that Deckard may not actually be human;
Rachel asks him did you ever take that test yourself? If Deckard is indeed a replicant this
would drag him down into the lower societal class of proletariat, thus reducing him to
nothing more than a commodity of the Tyrell Corp.
4
Fig. 2: The Shimago Dominguez Corporations mechanical blimp offering the chance to begin again in a golden
land of opportunity and adventure
Tyrell also represents a capitalistic hunger for technological advance as he strives to make
these replicants more human than human. This desire for advancement has, seemingly,
almost destroyed the planet prompting mankind to seek out alternatives to Earth and make
4
The 1982 cut of Blade Runner, Scott stops short in his implication that Deckard is a replicant. However, in
the 1992 Directors Cut, he leads the viewer to conclude that Deckard is indeed a replicant.
4
a new home on an off-world colony; in cities built by the replicants.
5
These colonies, as
advertised by a mechanical blimp that floats around the city, offer opportunities to begin
again but they are run by another large faceless company; the Shimago Dominguez
Corporation, implying that history could repeat itself. (Fig. 2) As has become apparent in
Los Angeles 2019, the excesses of corporate hegemony will eventually lay waste to the
next world. Despite this, Blade Runner does not actually support Marxs view of the
inevitable self destruction of western society. Instead, Scotts futuristic vision shows
capitalism hanging on, by the maintenance of power and oppression, in the midst of an
essentially disintegrated civilization. (Wood, 2002, 162)
Scotts film, despite this bleakness, has a surprisingly optimistic ending, concluding with
Deckard... and Rachel... driving through a forest into the sunset.
6
(Galagher, 2002) In
1982, Scott had accepted the producers demand for an upbeat ending, one that offers
hope to audiences. (Ibid) This ending, apparently tacked on in desperation at the last
minute discredits the critique and may have contributed to the relatively poor box office
figures, although it was released the same week as E.T.
7
(Wood, 2003, p.g 166) However,
the film did in time find its audience in other media forms such as cable television and
video cassettes, eventually becoming a cultural icon of the 1980s. (Prince, 2007, p.g 74)
Blade Runner was not alone in offering a foresight to the excesses of capitalism and
portraying the dangers of corporate hegemony in America and in the west. Paul
Verhoevens, Robocop, released in 1987 also illustrates Hollywoods apparent fears
surrounding the future of a free-market economy. Verhoevens film, the sleeper hit of
1987, goes a step further in its representation of a potential future by relating it with an
actual event that had become headline news only months earlier. (Best, 1989)
In Robocop, Reagans well known emphasis on business deregulation, privatisation,
union-busting, and extensive military build-up appears to have met its dark cinematic
double. (Prince, 2007, p.g 172) The economic structure of society depicted in Robocop
has echoes of the domestic reforms of the Reagan period, the private sector has been
deregulated, allowing Omni Consumer Products to establish control over all social services
5
In Philip K. Dicks novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the dystopian future is the result of a
nuclear war. Ridley Scotts adaptation for the screen has no mention of nuclear war, instead, placing
capitalist economic exorbitance as the defining factor behind a civilization on the brink of collapse.
6
The Directors Cut offers a darker conclusion with the elevator doors closing and Gaffs voice warning of
Rachels impending death.
7
E.T. became the highest grossing film in the U.S. in 1982, taking more than $350 million, whilst Blade
Runner grossed $27,580,111.
5
and making them profitable commodities. (Prince, 1995, p.g 177) As had become a
feature of capitist America, the OCP corporation managers wield far-reaching power over
stockholders and employees, and they constantly make decisions that affect the public
interest without clearly defined responsibility to the public. (Ebenstein, 1994, p.g 50)
Robocop also offers a pessimistic vision of a dog-eat-dog, free market America with the
Omni Consumer Products hierarchy battling to outdo each other with their own
enterprises. (Smith, 2012) There are no limits to the despicable actions Bob Morton, and in
particular Dick Jones, will stoop to in order to impress the old man and position
themselves as his heir. Not unlike Reagan, this benign corporate president is a visionary
capitalist but his apparent lack of awareness regarding his subordinates are where the
greatest similarities can be found.
8
(Best, 1989) In 1986, whilst Robocop was being viewed
by audiences in local theatres in America, the Iran/Contra scandal was being broadcast to
homes around the country.
Fig. 3: Nukem, a game in which the family can act out their destructive fantasies by annihilating opponents if
their imagined political differences prove unresolved.
Robocop draws parallels to the Cold War conflict, not only through the television advert of
Nukem(Fig. 4), but also the 1986 scandal, both in its focus on secret internal
government/corporate crimes, and in the failed effort to cover them up. (Prince, 2007, p.g
169) Reagans cabinet level National Security Council (NSC) had secretly sold missiles to
Iran and used the profits to support a right-wing insurgency against the legally elected
Sandinsta government in Nicaragua and its President, Daniel Ortega.
9
(Ibid, p.g 168)
Reagans administration gave the contra paramilitary forces the objective of destabilising
8
Ronald Reagan claimed to have a lack of knowledge of his National Security Councils actions during the
Iran/Contra Affair.
9
Admiral John Poindexter resigned from the role of National Security Advisor whilst Lieutenant Colonel
Oliver North was fired. An eight-year investigation followed and ended with fourteen people being charged.
6
Ortega and his communist government. Jones, as the NSC had with the Contras, recruits
mercenarys in the form of Clarence Boddicker and his hired guns to snuff out the non-
conformists from Old Detroit in order to pave the way for Delta City, a corporate managed
metropolis.
10
(Best, 1989) Even these criminals epitomise the Reagans capitalist ethos
through lines of dialogue like good business is where you find it and theres no better
way to steel money than free enterprise.
Fig. 4: Delta City, the future is a corporate controlled utopia.
Officer Murphy is part of a disillusioned police force, oppressed by the lack of OCP funding
and on the brink of rising up against their new paymasters by striking. Profit is OCPs
primary concern and has left the police ineffective against Boddicker and his gang leaving
them unable to maintain any semblance of law and order. Murphys regeneration as a
cyborg further subjugates him as his body has become a product owned and operated by
OCP (Prince, 1995, p.g 178) The extent of Murphys slavery is exacerbated by directive 4,
Youre our product and we cant very well have our product turning against us, now can
we? when he tries to arrest Jones. Although Murphy, in rising up against his masters is in
keeping with the theory of Marx, all indications suggest that in the world after the movie
OCP remains what it was, Murphy remains a servant in its employ, and the social
disintegration the film has described will continue unchecked. (Prince, 1995, p.g 180)
Robocop builds one of the strongest cases against monopoly capitalism... delivered by
Hollywood however, it does fall short of condemnation. (Best, 1989) The film with its
timely reintroduction of the old man suggests that it is the actions of Jones and not OCP
that are at fault. In many ways the end of the film legitimises and exonerates the corporate
system by reducing the structural problems of late capitalism to issues of individual
psychology. (Best, 1989)
10
The advertising board for Delta City has the tagline The Future has a Silver Lining (see Fig. 4)
7
Blade Runner challenges capitalism to some extent by offering, at times, a damning
critique of greed and power. The same can be said of Robocop, as it not only brings into
question the reforms introduced by Reagan but uses the Iran/Contra Affair to highlight the
underhand tactics used to maintain this corporate monopoly. Neither film contradicts
contemporary beliefs that the gulf between the rich and poor was becoming wider, they in
fact emphasise the Marxist view as to the extent that this will gap will grow. However,
Blade Runner shows capitalism surviving against the odds and starting again, not an
uprising of the proletariat as predicted by Marx. Robocop, despite its apparent negative
assessment of Reagans capitalist regime, lays the blame at the feet of one corrupt
individual and not the tenet. Both films, despite alluding to flaws of western principles, lack
the conviction to condemn them and remain consistent to Hollywoods positive portrayal of
capitalist values whilst quashing communist beliefs.
(2106 Words)
8
Filmography
Blade Runner 1982 [film]. Directed by Ridley Scott. USA: Warner Brothers.
Blade Runner: The Directors Cut [film]. Directed by Ridley Scott. USA: Warner Brothers.
Robocop 1987 [film]. Directed by Paul Verhoeven. USA: Orion Home Video.
Bibliography
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EBENSTEIN, A., W. Ebenstein & E. Fogelman, 1994. Todays Isms. 10th ed. New Jersey:
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HODKINSON, P., 2001. Media, Culture and Society: An Introduction. London: Sage
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JORDAN, C., 2003. Movies and the Reagan Presidency: Success and Ethics. Westport:
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WOOD, R., 2003. Hollywood: From Vietnam to Reagan... And Beyond. New York:
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9
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