Futureworld

Did You Know?

• The film was released on Blu-ray in Germany on December 2, 2011.
• Shout! Factory released Futureworld on Blu-ray on March 26, 2013.

Plot

In 1985, the Delos Corporation reopened its park, two years after the Westworld disaster. Westworld itself was shut down, and the company spent $1.5 billion on safety upgrades. To generate good press, they invited newspaper reporter Chuck Browning and TV reporter Tracy Ballard for a review. Before the trip was announced, Browning met a Delos employee who claimed to have damaging information. The tipster was shot in the back and died, but not before handing Browning an envelope. At the resort, guests could pick from four worlds: Spaworld, Medievalworld, Romanworld, and Futureworld. Browning and Ballard chose Futureworld, a simulation of an orbiting space station. There, robots provided sex and boxing matches. Dr. Duffy guided them, showing off the park's improvements. The reporters were shocked to discover the Control Center was run entirely by robots. That night, their food was drugged, and while they slept, Delos ran medical tests to create clones of them. A Russian general and a Japanese politician were also cloned. Ballard woke up terrified, thinking it was a nightmare. Later, she and Browning snuck into the underground areas and accidentally triggered a cloning machine, which produced three samurai from an Eastworld park. A mechanic named Harry rescued them and brought them to his quarters, where he lived with a robot he called Clark. They interviewed Harry, but Dr. Schneider and two security officers interrupted and escorted them back to their rooms, where they kissed.

Production

Getting a sequel to Westworld off the ground wasn't easy. Michael Crichton wanted nothing to do with it, so MGM turned to original producer Paul Lazarus III. He came up with a story about a new park where robots clone world leaders. But MGM chose to make only one sci-fi film that year, Logan's Run, and shelved Futureworld. Other studios were wary after MGM passed, even though Westworld had been a hit. Former MGM president James T. Aubrey stepped in and got Samuel Z. Arkoff's American International Pictures to finance it. The film made history as the first major feature to use 3D computer-generated imagery, for an animated hand and face. The hand was a digitized version of Edwin Catmull's left hand from his 1972 short A Computer Animated Hand, and the face came from Fred Parke's 1974 short Faces & Body Parts. It also used 2D digital compositing to make characters appear over backgrounds. The bar set was recycled from Logan's Run's apartment. Much of the filming happened around Houston, including Intercontinental Airport, Jones Hall, and the Johnson Space Center, with a chase through the city's underground tunnel system.

Release

Lazarus admitted the film was not a very good picture but attributed its poor commercial performance to AIP focusing on its prestige film A Matter of Time. In 1979, Futureworld became the first modern American film to achieve general theatrical release in China. Richard Eder panned the film in The New York Times, quoting Ballard's line about it being as exciting as a visit to the water works, and wrote that it is as much fun as running barefoot on Astroturf. He said it is ordinary hardware science fiction full of computers and empty of thought, and that Danner and Fonda have absolutely nothing to do. Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave two stars out of four, criticizing the dumb story but praising some of the best gadgets since early James Bond pictures. Arthur D. Murphy of Variety called it a strong sequel that keeps personal drama moving smartly through gadgetry montages. Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called it a rare sequel that is a decided improvement over the original. Gary Arnold of The Washington Post wrote that unlike Westworld there is nothing shrewd or compelling behind the events, and the big mystery is an old wheeze about power-hungry scientists cloning influential guests. John Pym of The Monthly Film Bulletin expressed disappointment that the scriptwriters neglected interesting implications of self-programming robots and instead led players through standard diversions of a caper movie. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 31% based on 13 reviews, with an average grade of 4.7 out of 10. For its initial television broadcast, an alternative version of the scene where Browning gives the finger to Dr. Schneider was shot, replacing it with a bras d'honneur.