Lumen Wirltuti:Warltati 2025 - Flipbook - Page 39
Future films might function more like dynamic worlds than
linear scripts. You could watch a movie from different character
perspectives or explore side plots that enrich the main storyline.
This could usher in a new genre: cinematic gaming hybrids, where
the line between film and game disappears.
“VERY SOON, WE CAN EXPECT
HYPER-IMMERSIVE VIEWING
EXPERIENCES THROUGH
DEVELOPMENTS IN VIRTUAL
REALITY AND AUGMENTED
REALITY.”
Tony Scott’s Enemy of the State (1998) warned of a future where
personal data is monitored and weaponised. Today’s reality – where
tech companies track location, preferences and conversations for
targeted advertising and surveillance – is disturbingly close. If, like
me, you first encountered gimmicks such as facial recognition
and digital profiling in films, then these ‘futures’ now appear
alarmingly real.
But films can occasionally offer up too ambitious or dreadful
a future. Back to the Future Part II (1989) and The Fifth Element
(1997) imagined a world where flying cars were commonplace by
the 2000s. Add to that the hoverboards, jet packs and teleportation
devices we were promised, and the gap between cinematic vision
and engineering feasibility becomes even more pronounced.
We’re still a long way from thriving Moon colonies (Moon, 2009)
or terraformed Martian societies (Total Recall, 1990), while
interstellar travel and faster-than-light propulsion remain
frustratingly hypothetical.
This ‘choose your own adventure’ tactic might once have seemed
quite quaint. But as immersive headset technology becomes lighter
and more affordable, cinematic immersion could become the new
standard. And with AI and machine learning, future cinema could
personalise films in real time. Want a romantic ending instead of a
tragic one? Prefer a different actor or soundtrack? AI could remix a
film to your tastes, creating a tailored narrative experience for each
viewer. Suddenly, watching films is no longer a passive activity, but
one rich in immersive possibilities.
That’s not to say cinemas will vanish, but they will have to
evolve. Think of them less as static movie theatres and more as
multisensory entertainment spaces, similar to theme parks or
escape rooms. Some may offer 4D experiences: moving seats, wind,
smell, and temperature effects synchronised with on-screen action.
The future of film
And what of the future of film itself? In 1895, Louis Lumière,
one of the inventors of cinema, is supposed to have remarked that
cinema is “an invention without a future”, a prediction that has not
yet aged well. By 1927, and the arrival of sound, films could now
‘talk’ – then came colour, Smell-O-Vision, surround sound, 3-D,
IMAX screens, motion capture and digital streaming. What comes
next promises to be even more radical.
Anyone familiar with the Star Wars spin-off show The
Mandalorian will have heard of StageCraft, the on-set video wall
that instantly conjures up immersive virtual environments and
allows the world-building to move in sync with the camera. Not
everyone is happy about this. In 2023, swathes of Hollywood
creatives went on strike to protest generative AI being used to
create the first draft of TV and movie scripts. Their fears about
what AI means in terms of job security and compensation feeds
into similar debates about distribution platforms and streaming.
But there are potential downsides here. Despite the recent strikes
and the industry disquiet, it is inevitable that AI tools will assist with
scriptwriting, casting, editing and even directing. We’re entering an
era too where digital humans – hyper-realistic virtual actors – can
take on roles across multiple genres, languages, and decades.
These characters don’t age, don’t need breaks, and can be
endlessly reused. We’ve already seen real actors de-aged, in The
Irishman (2019) and Here (2024), so why not resurrect deceased
actors? The BBC reported back in 2019 that deepfake and digital
clones of long-dead actors like James Dean were being brought back
to life to make new films. Ethical questions around consent, likeness
rights and the role of human actors will become more urgent.
And if films do become more personalised, fears will rise that
data collection will grow more invasive. Those VR headsets might
look cool and chic, but what if studio executives use them to track
our biometric responses, our heart rate and facial expressions? And
then start to optimise their content to stop us from switching off?
Audience engagement is one thing; privacy and consent another.
Today’s moviegoing experience is diversifying. The rise of
streaming platforms like Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime
has shifted viewership habits from cinemas to homes, driven
by convenience, affordability and accessibility. Very soon, we
can expect hyper-immersive viewing experiences through
developments in virtual reality and augmented reality. Imagine
stepping inside a film; not just watching characters but standing
beside them, walking through their world, and making decisions
that shape the plot.
One of my favourite films is Multiplicity (1996) – a
Michael Keaton sci-fi comedy in which he plays an overworked
construction boss who clones himself three times to balance his job
and his family responsibilities. Multitasking never looked so fun.
The days of sitting quietly through a two-hour film may be
numbered. Interactive storytelling, where viewers influence
plot direction, has already seen early success in projects like
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (2018) and Netflix’s You vs.Wild
(2019). These experiments hint at a broader trend in film:
non-linear narratives.
Will that ever come to pass? I’ll be back in 50 years for an update.
Dr Ben McCann SFHEA is Associate Professor of French Studies –
and an avid film scholar and writer. He recently hosted (along with
students from the Adelaide University Film Society) our Lumen Live!
movie night in the Union House Cinema with a special screening of
Bladerunner.
LUMEN
