In Search of Tomorrow
Writer-director David Weiner takes his search to the stars with his longest doc to date.
Space, that final frontier where no one can hear you scream. With Dune in the running for a best picture Oscar, it’s a timely moment to reflect on the genre. Remarkably few science fiction films have entered the best picture race and none have ever taken the night’s biggest prize. Star Wars, Avatar, Gravity, Inception and Arrival are among the most notable non-winners, with 2001: A Space Odyssey perhaps the biggest nomination snub. Only E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial garnered a nom during the 1980s, though many consider the decade as the genre’s coming of age. In the late 1960s, Kubrick brought a serious lens back to science fiction and in 1977, George Lucas blasted the box-office into space. Emerging technologies and the success of Star Wars set the scene for the genre to hit warp speed in the decade to come. Writer-director David Weiner brings the same documentary format from his popular horror opus, In Search of Darkness, through the wormhole to this nostalgic 1980s sci-fi journey. Strap in sentient beings, this five hour starry-eyed ride explores the decade’s most luminous worlds (along with a few black holes) through interviews with the cinema scientists that helped build them.
Where do we come from, why are we here, and what’s our purpose? Science fiction asks deep, difficult questions about humanity and mortality. A look back at the futures created on film in the 1980s, In Search of Tomorrow is a cosmic enterprise covering over fifty films in five hours. Featurettes between each year cover more specific topics and discuss lasting impacts. ‘Marketing the Movies’ highlights the importance of the VHS cover and MTV. While ‘The Space Shuttle’ notes the shift between films before and after the Challenger catastrophe. An impressive line-up discusses films ranging from The Empire Strikes Back to Back to the Future Part II. Special effects master Dennis Muren, directors Joe Dante and the late Ivan Reitman, sound designer Mark Mangini and actors Sean Young, Billy Dee Williams and Dee Wallace provide some of the best commentary. Highlights include lesser-known gems such as Flight of the Navigator and Explorers.
Considering the hefty running time, it’s a shame there isn’t a deeper dive into each film. The attempt to encompass 1980s’ science fiction leads to a clip show, with the best behind-the-scenes stories and anecdotes buried by basic explanations of each film’s plot. The best moments are stories like the blunder that could have drowned director James Cameron while shooting The Abyss or Aliens’ actress Carrie Henn sharing that she imagined the creatures as dogs. Streaming series like Netflix’s The Movies That Made Us and the Disney+ show Prop Culture focus on a single film each episode, which allows for richer exploration. Unlike portions of the In Search of Darkness series, many of the titles here will be very well-known by casual fans, therefore rendering a significant chunk of running time redundant. Weiner knows his audience though and caters to them generously, namely the Kickstarter backers who pledged an average of £75 – raising nearly £500k to fund the project. Hopefully more space oddities will feature in probable future instalments. In the meantime, fans can look forward to the completion of the horror trilogy, the upcoming In Search of Darkness Part III.
CHAD KENNERK
Featuring Wil Wheaton, Clancy Brown, Sean Young, John Carpenter, Adrienne Barbeau, Bill Duke, Catherine Mary Stewart, Paul Verhoeven, Peter Weller, Ivan Reitman, Dee Wallace, Shane Black, Deep Roy, Nancy Allen, Sam J. Jones, Barry Bostwick, Gedde Watanabe, Melody Anderson, Vernon Wells, Kurtwood Smith, Jenette Goldstein, Carrie Henn, Bruce Boxleitner, Ronny Cox, Billy Dee Williams, Sarah Douglas, Alex Winter, Jesse Ventura, Julie Brown, Lance Guest, Joey Cramer, Walter Koenig, Nick Castle, Joe Dante, Peter Hyams, Nicholas Meyer, Randal Kleiser, Bob Gale, Stewart Raffill, Brad Fiedel, John Dykstra, Ian Nathan.
Dir David A. Weiner, Pro Brian Asman, James Charisma, Kyle Curry, Jessica Dwyer, Derek Frey, Malachy Fergus Godfrey, John Hanlin, Brenda Ellis Hollowell, Jason Kopecky, Derek Maki, Aaron Messelaar, Alexia Núñez, Kevin Proctor, Daniel G. Rego, P.E. Reynaldo Nogueras, Jeremy Snead, David A. Weiner, Heather Wixson and Nick Bosworth, Screenplay David A. Weiner, Ph Oktay Ortabasi and Christopher Stratton, Ed Samuel Way, Music Weary Pines.
Creator VC.
300 mins. USA. 2022. US Rel: 10 March 2022. No Cert.
