Blue-collar / working-class Sci-fi flicks: List them here

Primer

eh, it has a gritty vibe but they is educated white-collar engineers.

They're working out of a garage. It's about as blue-collar as technology startups get.

They're wearing white shirts so they have white collars CASE CLOSED

I think we're waltzing right into a big grey area here.

It's humorous the way they wear their whit collared shirts everywhere and always. It's not just their clothes, it becomes like a costume. There's a definite commentary about class intended there, I think.

They're blue-collar and in deep denial.

I wouldn't put this on the list, but it makes me think of the way that Goldblum in The Fly has several sets of identical clothes. He does it do save the time he would spend deciding what to wear; they do it because it's what guys like them wear.

xp Do they work their glistening, taut muscles almost daily in practical application? No? Then they're white collar. (See unusual details wikipedia thread.)

Grey area. Grey collar. (ew.)

OK now you guys are just being nerdy pedants.

and?

touche my dear.

He does it do save the time he would spend deciding what to wear; they do it because it's what guys like them wear.

I hope I'm not the only guy on ILX this describes perfectly. I'm pretty sure it covers a pretty high % of guys irl anyway.

Brazil has a clerical worker hooking up with a truck driver

Terminator. Sarah Connor just a hard workin' waitress, Kyle just a hard workin' resistance fighter, T-101 just a hard-workin' killer robot.

Gordon Gocko's pretty hard workin, is he blue collar?

Gordon Gocko, whatta guy huh

http://oakey.net/decals/images/Elvis%20TCB%20Band.jpg

"A Clockwork Orange"

No.

Eh?

Poshos

Yarbles

Tom D., I'd be interested to hear your case for that. But it seems clear to me that Alex is supposed to be an over-privileged little snot.

Repo Man

In fact, the whole movie takes place in this vaguely futuristic place where almost everyone is over-privileged, and if you're not, you're living in a tunnel waiting to get the shit kicked out of you by snots like Alex. It's kind of part of the plot. At any rate, it ain't blue collar.

Repo Man is excellent, yes.

Tom D., I'd be interested to hear your case for that. But it seems clear to me that Alex is supposed to be an over-privileged little snot.

Lives in a tower block. Parents seem fairly w/c. Northern accent. One of his friends is Warren Clarke!

There are British-specific overtones that I do not understand, clearly.

In fact, the whole movie takes place in this vaguely futuristic place where almost everyone is over-privileged

Writers, intellectuals, politicians still more privileged though.

There are British-specific overtones that I do not understand, clearly.

Probably. The accent is quite important... though only Alex and his family have Northern accents, Dim + Georgie are Cockney.

But Alex also speaks a made-up language that's half Russian.

argh beat me to Brazil

At any rate, I do not believe that the intention was to portray Alex as economically put-upon.

I agree. You're probably right that he is relatively pampered and privileged but then that's what crusty social conservatives (like Anthony Burgess?) invariably said about juvenile delinquents in the 50s/ 60s

Ok are you defending Alex? This ain't Rebel Without A Cause, dude's a dangerous sociopath.

LOL. He is the hero of the book after all!

Yeah I never saw the droogs in CW as working class, tho tbh class wasnt really relevant in that film, but they did have a spot of educated cruelty about their persons.

Dim? Educated?

they did have a spot of educated cruelty about their persons.

Prep school rapists, yeah.

alex always felt like a bit of an aspirational dandy to me, pretensions that went beyond whatever small ambitions were harbored by his droogs - i.e. he was working class through and through

Alex = classic Mod taken to its logical conclusion, tbh.

xp Yeah, I can see that, actually. It's the perfect makings of a bully, really.

Indeed, written before mods even existed!

Well there just weren't as many zings back in those days, you didn't need mods

x-post Yeah just about every John Carpenter joint.

"Gattaca" is about class, isn't it?

Almost more about eugenics, really?

Eugenics is about class.

But isn't Ethan Hawke a janitor or something who aspires to more?

I can understand the confusion there, certainly.

Isn't it Lobot? As in lobotomy?

You're right! Poor lobot! Why they gave you a lobotomy? Maybe you wanted too much freedom.

I heard they almost got him to star in death of a salesman

― real eyes realize real truffle fries (dyao), Friday, June 4, 2010 1:52 PM

more like Death Star of a Salesman

Yeah, but C3PO is a "protocol droid", i.e. built for a white collar job. Can you imagine him doing manual work?

"My last job was programming binary load-lifters, very similar to your vaporators!"

the original trilogy doesn't really show any of the Empire's supposed oppression.

http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/1/14/OwenBeru_dead.jpg

"My last job was programming binary load-lifters, very similar to your vaporators!"

c3po just bragging how l33t his coding skills are, but whenever they need to hack empire security, notice it's always R2 who steps up.

3po would have sold his droid bros out -- total class traitor -- did you see how quickly he maneuvered himself into exploiting ewok religion to make himself queen of the ewoks? don't weep for 3po.

― Philip Nunez, Friday, June 4, 2010 1:40 PM Bookmark

But 3PO initially demurs, claiming it would be against his programming to impersonate a deity. He gets browbeat into this idea by, if I recall correctly, the princess.

Thread probably needs some distinction between "has blue collar character in it" and "blue collar sensibility." Like, it's hard to find ANY Hollywood picture where every character is a rich snot who only occasionally tips at restaurants.... whereas Alien is really interested in imagining what the bold new future really looks like to the delivery people and Marine draftees.

"My last job was programming binary load-lifters, very similar to your vaporators!"

Me at every job interview ever.

which one is Aunt Beru and and which one is Uncle Owen?

xxxp

Posted this thread as a response to Star Wars, as a sense, which is space opera only in a scruffier universe. Ridley Scott took that look and mixed it with the 70s bits of trucker films, Dark Star, Silent Running, et al, and did his own.

"My last job was programming binary load-lifters, very similar to your vaporators!"

Me at every job interview ever.

― Eighteen straight. I think that's a record. (kenan), Friday, June 4, 2010 3:28 PM Bookmark

LOL

"They Live" is the ultimate blue collar scifi film.

'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' - i.e. Richard Dreyfuss' character.

Non blue collar sci-fi = Wyndham

I haven't seen it since it aired in 1993, but I remember Space Rangers as going for an Alien inspired blue collar atmosphere

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/dd/Space_Rangers_cast.JPG

Does 12 Monkeys ever tell you what Cole's job was before he was put in prison?

I think Starcraft 2 fits in this category. Interesting mix of backgrounds, too, as you have the hero with his southern/hick/redneck drawl vs the lambchopped mechanic with a strong NY accent

You can't have a white collar/blue collar distinction in slavery

In the pre-Civil War U.S. south, there were house slaves and field slaves.

I suppose someone should mention the Planet Express delivery team.

Hmm, true, tho the vibe I always got from them is more white collar/90's corporate/kinko's/fed-ex like

but I guess Scruffy would have harsh words for that

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Scruffy_2_9337.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5cAwTEEGNE

this was a solid thread, well done everyone

"the island", while indefensibly shitty, was ultimately pretty working class

"indefensibly shitty, was ultimately pretty working class"
haha that's all of michael bay's movies.

Playing Borderlands 2 this weekend and realized that both this game and Guardians of the Galaxy(much like Starcraft I & II) had great depictions of sci-fi rednecks/hillbillies. Yet again, I posit that Michael Rooker will probably never get the full credit for what he contributes to GotG.

Ha, and I completely forgot this thread had this exchange:

Yeah, but C3PO is a "protocol droid", i.e. built for a white collar job. Can you imagine him doing manual work?

"My last job was programming binary load-lifters, very similar to your vaporators!"

I guess we can add Elysium / Total Recall(remake) to this list, and also Edge of Tomorrow, which pointedly highlights the contrast between grunt & pretty-boy officer

I'm watching Snowpiercer right now. Definitely counts.

that repo men flick from a few years back. terrible, but working class, even trying to say something abt it.