> Urban Visions in Star Trek Into Darkness

J. J. Abrams is an american director who decided to develop a story showing the events before the old Star Trek franchise. Into Darkness is the last Star Trek, and part of its plot takes place on earth, where San Francisco and London suffer terrorist attacks. In the 24th century these cities may look like these astonishing images.

"'Our philosophy about doing cities, and respecting the canon of how the work is described by Gene Roddenberry, is that you’re only a few 100 years in the future. You’re not that far away. If you look historically at the way somewhere like London has changed in the last 100 years, there are many buildings that would potentially still exist. We go through this process of, ‘What would have happened? What buildings would they have hung on to? How would it have changed the nature of some of the design choices they made?'"

"We like to take things that are real and try to make the architecture scalable. In other words, a scale that is not just totally ridiculous and massive. At the same time, you want a few landmarks in those shots to get the sense of what city you are in. In that case, there’s St. Paul’s Cathedral and the River Thames. We even went to London and took a lot of pictures from different angles, to try to maintain the real geography of it. But, at the same time, we want to elaborate on that and use our imagination on how that might have changed."

(Star Trek Into Darkness trailer)
(citation taken from here)

> Urban Visions in Metropolis

Fritz Lang's masterpiece was produced in 1927, and it is considered the first science-fiction movie, and one of the best dystopian movies of all time. Even with limited visual effects, the silent Metropolis represents very well a creepy vision of the future, which was enough to influence so many artists and to be inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register. Metropolis uses the architecture to express deep social inequalities. These futurist urbanscapes are a result of the Art Deco movement mixed with Lang's first impressions of New York. "The buildings seemed to be a vertical sail, scintillating and very light, a luxurious backdrop, suspended in the dark sky to dazzle, distract and hypnotize." (Lang)

"Metropolis takes place in 2026, where people are divided into two groups: poor workers living beneath the ground and the rich who enjoy a futuristic city of luxury. The tense balance of these two societies is realized through images that are among the most famous of the 20th century, many of which pre-empt such science fiction classics as Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and Ridley Scott's Blade Runner. Lavish and spectacular, with elaborate sets and jawdropping production values, Metropolis stands today as a testament to Lang's ambitious vision of what cinema could be."

 

(citations taken from here and here)

(Metropolis trailer)

> Urban Visions in Total Recall

These pictures are taken from the recent remake of "Total Recall" directed in 1990 by Paul Verhoeven. The first "Total Recall" was about the adventure of Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger), who searches for his true identity while travels between Earth and Mars. In 2084 Mars has human colonies who are fighting for independence, and Quaid becomes the hero of the revolution. The remake (directed by Len Wiseman) keeps the storyline but changes the context, which is much more political, dystopian and urban. Beyond the criticism to its soft approach and predictability, the visual effects and landscapes of the remake are a fantastic representation of Phillip K. Dick's futurist visions. 

Instead of Mars, the 2012 movie uses Australia as a colony subordinated to the power of Britain. Both regions are connected by a gravity elevator, which travels through the Earth. Furthermore, their landscapes are very different. The colony portrays an oriental soul, which flows around a deconstructivist architecture, very similar to the concept of Habitat 67 in Montreal. This suspended city constructed on water is a possible model of the chaotic third-world of tomorrow. In contrast, the United Federation of Britain is well developed in infrastructures, namely by aerial highways where great action scenes happen. These highways connect different urban layers that form a suspended city as well. Every scene is a delight for the eyes.

"I think one of the great things that Len [Wiseman] brought to it is, as the world changes, there's still a baseline of our reality today. There are still cobblestone streets in every city you go into, only now we have freeways. Just like if you go to an old city, you see buildings that have been there for hundreds and hundreds of years next to a modern skyscraper. So the idea that you can see the 20th century world on one level, and the 23rd century world or the 24th century world above it, and you can see history as you travel down in a city that's built upon a city upon a city, is a cool concept."

 

 

(citation taken from here)

(video about "Total Recall" visual effects)

> Urban Visions in Blade Runner

The masterpiece produced by Ridley Scott in the early eighties, show us impressive landscapes that were made to increase the dark ambiance of the plot. Inspired by "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" (1968) by Philip K. Dick, Blade Runner is a movie about a dystopian future, where androids are confused about their 'humanity'.

In 2018 Los Angeles is a city characterized by overpopulation, an immense Chinatown, flying cars, and acid rains that shape the monumental skyline. However this is represented in a very subtle way. Behind the silence, an endless night and contrasted neon lights, there is an enchanting urban decadence. About the visual effects created by Douglas Trumbull, Philip Dick said: "I recognized it immediately. It was my own interior world. They caught it perfectly".

(documentary about Douglas Trumbull's special effects)

(movie trailer)

> Urban Visions in Appleseed Ex-Machina

Applesseed Ex-Machina is a Japanese animated CG movie, released in 2007. Directed by Shinji Aramaki, this movie is full of utopian considerations. In fact he envisions the world in 2133, where there is a network of perfect cities managed by perfect humans. Despite the fact that this harmony is mainly due to bio-engineered citizens without dangerous feelings, every city is also well-designed to perform perfectly its specific function in the network. To represent Olympus, the capital city where action takes place, the Digital Frontier Studios produced amazing urban landscapes...

 

(Appleseed Ex-Machina in IMDb)

(movie trailer)