Strange Days (1995) | Sci-Fi Saturdays

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Strange days have found us. Strange days have tracked us down.

Kathryn Bigelow’s Strange Days presents a unique look at the present by setting the film in the near future. Its epic cast creates a world weary view of America in 1995 through the use of science-fiction tropes and societal norms of the year 1999.

First Impressions

The action appears to take place on and around New Years Eve 1999, where a number of people are looking for a specific “tape.” There’s a technology that allows people to experience others’ lives, not just virtual reality, but really feel what they feel. It has the vibes of the film Brainstorm mixed with a political thriller. Explosions, gunfights, parties, loud rock music. These are definitely Strange Days.

Presented below is the trailer for the film.

The Fiction of The Film

The film opens two days before New Year’s 2000 in Los Angeles, on December 30, 1999. The city is a police state dealing with people rioting prior to the New Year festivities and a backlash of outrage at the gangland killing of noted rapper and political activist Jeriko One (Glenn Plummer). Lenny Nero (Ralph Fiennes) is a peddler of SQUID recordings, who buys a new clip from duplicator Tick (Richard Edson) that features a robber’s untimely demise at the end: a black-jack clip. These recordings are not just video of the event, but the pure experience recorded from the cerebral cortex, raw and uncut. You see it, hear it, and most importantly feel it, including the dive into the “big black”.

A prostitute, Iris (Brigitte Bako), is being chased by two police officers, Engleman (William Fichtner) & Steckler (Vincent D’Onofrio). She manages to escape on a subway train, but not before Steckler pulls off her wig, which contains a SQUID recording device inside, frustrating the officers. Iris slips the recorded disc into Lenny’s car with a note for help. But his car is soon towed away. Lenny calls his friend, Mace (Angela Bassett), who is a security expert and private limo driver to provide him a ride to Retinal Fetish, a club where his old girlfriend Faith (Juliette Lewis) is performing. She is now dating her manager Philo Gant (Michael Wincott), who does too much playback and has gotten paranoid. He was also Jeiko One’s manager and is hurting from that loss.

Lenny, who is an ex-police officer, speaks with his friend Max (Tom Sizemore), also an ex-officer and now a private investigator, about Iris trying to contact him. Max tells Lenny that he’s been hired by Philo to follow Faith. While visiting with Tex Arcana (Todd Graff) at the Club, Lenny is given an envelope with an unmarked SQUID clip inside. Playing it, he witnesses an unknown assailant attack Iris in a local Hotel, before raping and killing her. Arriving at the Hotel a short time later, Lenny confirms that it was a real clip he experienced. Lenny goes to Faith’s residence to warn her that Iris is dead and that he thinks she’s in danger. Philo dismisses Lenny, saying Faith doesn’t want anything to do with him anymore, before sicking his bodyguards on Lenny. Luckily Mace comes looking for him and kicks the guards asses, dragging Lenny out.

A second clip appears at Lenny’s apartment which contains playback of the assailant threatening Lenny while he sleeps. He realizes that Iris might have put something in his car, so he and Mace travel to the impound lot and retrieve the disc. Engleman and Steckler intercept them, demanding the clip. When Lenny hands over the disc, the two out-of-uniform officers attempt to kill them, but he and Mace escape–revealing that he did not give up the real disc. Playing the clip, Lenny sees Jeriko One pulled over by the two officers, ostensibly for being black. Steckler gets fed up with the mouth on Jeriko and shoots him execution style. Lenny now realizes that the killer is whomever Iris was wearing the SQUID for, believing it to be Philo.

Mace tries to convince Lenny to go to the police and leave Faith alone, but he still feels she’s in trouble and at risk within Philo’s circle. On New Year’s Eve, Lenny attempts to sneak into the party at the Bonaventure Hotel and rescue Faith. He finds her suite empty and another clip, that follows the same MO–Faith is tied up, threatened, and raped. However at the end of the clip, the individual wearing the SQUID looks into a mirror. It is Max, and he unties Faith and makes sure she’s okay. Max shows up shooting at Lenny, having set him up for the murder of Iris, and the brain death of Tick and Philo (whose brains were fried by an amplified clip). Meanwhile, Mace has taken the clip implicating Engleman and Steckler in the murder of Jeriko One to Police Commissioner Strickland, the last honest cop–according to Lenny.

Strickland doesn’t believe Mace, a black woman. As she leaves, she is followed by the two officers who attempt to kill her. She manages to subdue them, handcuffing them to a stage. Lenny manages to wrestle the gun from Max, who stabs him in the back–literally. Max goes over a balcony and Lenny uses the knife to slice the tie he clutches, allowing him to fall to his death. The police show up in riot gear to free the officers and arrest Mace when Strickland arrives, telling the police to arrest Engleman and Steckler instead. Seeing no way out, Englemen grabs a gun and kills himself, while Steckler rushes the other officers forcing them to shoot him. The clock counts down, and the citizens welcome in the New Year while Lenny embraces and kisses Mace.

“One man’s mundane and desperate existence is another man’s Technicolor.” – Tick, quoting Lenny

History in the Making

Strange Days was the first sci-fi film for director Kathryn Bigelow, but not her first exposure to filmgoers. She became known for her 1987 cult horror film Near Dark, which featured a number of actors from James Cameron’s Aliens, including Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, and Jenette Goldstein. From there she got further exposure with the Jamie Lee Curtis drama Blue Steel, and the ever popular 1991 action film Point Break, with Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze. Through this time, Bigelow was married to director/producer James Cameron, who also served as an Executive Producer on Point Break. They ended up divorcing in 1991 with Strange Days being their final collaboration together. Cameron contributed the story, screenplay and acted as a Producer, which is probably why it has the vibe of being a James Cameron film, without actually being one. Bigelow would continue to make a name for herself in Hollywood, with her 2008 Academy Award winning film The Hurt Locker and her 2012 follow-up, the Oscar nominated Zero Dark Thirty.

While the film was initially conceived by Cameron in the mid-eighties, it wasn’t finished as a screenplay until the early 90s. Bigelow was inspired by the societal and civil incidents revolving around the 1991 video-taped beating of Rodney King and the 1992 riots that followed. It set similar incidents against the turn of the Millennium using a science-fiction premise with cyberpunk and neo-noir themes. And while it is often cited as one of the strongest sci-fi films of its time that is under-viewed by audiences, elements of the film reappear in other projects from the following decades.

Genre-fication

With many science-fiction films, removal of the sci-fi elements often leave the film with very little meat on its bones. But with Strange Days, that is untrue. It has additional thematic elements which make for a much stronger film. At its simplest, the film is a noir thriller pulling many of the themes and tropes of that genre. Lenny, while not a detective, was a former police officer that works with the seediest part of society, to whom he sells his wire trips. He is haunted by his past, and the love of the woman he can no longer have–Faith, who acts as a femme fatale character. As Lenny continues to dig into the mystery surrounding the death of his friend Iris, the twists and turns of the complex whodunnit begin to emerge, taking the audience down a rabbit hole of thriller elements. In this way, Strange Days is very similar to Blade Runner, in that the protagonist uncovers more information, or potentially a different mystery, than the one he thought he was trying to solve.

The film is also a major contributor to the genre of cyberpunk. The similarities to Blade Runner notwithstanding, Strange Days make further inroads for a filmic depiction of the cyberpunk stylings. Other, recent films also had cyberpunk elements that might seem particularly stronger (Johnny Mnemonic and Ghost in the Shell), but Strange Days creates a near-future world where these elements are ingrained into the story of the 1999 Los Angeles in which the film exists. The SQUID device (which stands for superconductive quantum interference device, and looks somewhat like the aquatic mollusk) is really the only sci-fi, and cyberpunk element that exists in the film. But the setting, the characters, and the themes surrounding the use of this technology, all culminate in an overall cohesive movie that helps define the genre more than other films.

Societal Commentary

The film has two major themes at its heart. The first is the philosophical and emotional theme of memory and love. The use of the SQUID devices allow users to fully experience the moments from their, or anyone else’s, life. These are not just photographs or video tape, as the film states. But real, complex experiences complete with sight, touch, taste, smell and feeling. Imagine having the ability to re-experience fully any moment from your past. It would be no different from being there. This technology, as with almost any other things, can be perverted by humans. While there are a number of strong reasons in support of the technology (thrilling experiences, empathy with others), there are just as many negative reasons, including overdosing. Wire-tripping, as it’s referred to, is compared to drug use by the filmmakers. It can be a good thing to start, but it is also addictive–and with improper usage, it can literally fry the user’s brain. Lenny uses it as an escape, and to reconnect to the happier times in his life. He re-experiences his best moments with Faith, even though they are no longer together. Mace reminds him several times that “memories were meant to fade,” and that it’s “time to get real, not playback.” Philo is another example. His overuse of “using” creates a paranoia in him, forcing him to have his employees followed. The depression and detachment that the device can lead to is a strong pull, and it’s easy to get hooked into a vicious cycle of use and abuse.

The second is the more socially political theme of racism as embodied within the city of Los Angeles. The film was inspired by, and follows, the beating of Rodney King. As mentioned in the Terminator 2: Judgment Day article, the video footage of the incident was filmed by George Holliday, who had just the night before recorded footage of the Terminator sequel filming near his home (another link to James Cameron). This tragic event led to an extended riot in Los Angeles following the acquittal of three of the four officers. The pain and anguish that the city felt in the early 90s is very much evident in the background elements of Strange Days. The inciting incident that kicks off the chain of events in the film is the execution of an unarmed black man by a Los Angeles police officer. From there the officers will do anything to prevent the evidence of their crime from surfacing. The “gangland execution” of Jeriko One (as labeled by the LAPD) in conjunction with the angst and tension of the turn of the Millennia, leads the city to be turned into a police state to protect from the violence brewing on the streets. There’s no evidence, in the film at least, that the increased police presence does anything except lead to more issues.

Twenty-seven years later, the racial themes of this film are still extremely poignant and topical. While Rodney King may have been the first major public portrayal of police violence in the country, unfortunately he was not the last. He managed to walk away from the incident with his life. The film portrays a more dire and terminal ending for Jeriko One. It’s a scene that may have seemed overly sensitive and dramatic in 1995, but it has been proven all too real in recent years. Numerous, unarmed black people have died while in the custody of, or at the hands of police officers ostensibly just “doing their jobs.” Black citizens such as Breona Taylor, Philando Castile, and Freddie Gray. Black citizens such as Eric Garner and George Floyd, both of whom were also filmed as the life was snuffed out of them. But life is not like the movies, where justice comes swiftly. Sometimes, it doesn’t come at all. Sometimes the reality that exists is numbed by the constant exposure to realer-than-life cinematic moments. Much like Lenny living in the golden past of his love for Faith, rather than seeing the dirty present and moving on with his life.

The Science in The Fiction

Strange Days creates a realistic near-future technology with the SQUID devices. The backstory of this recording technology is that it was developed by the Feds as a replacement for the body wire and then swiftly fell into the black market, where dealers like Lenny sell clips of various events to their clientele. As with any technology like this, porn is one of the major uses. This was not the first film to predict the use of POV adult entertainment. That credit goes to 1983s Brainstorm which had a similar device that allowed users to experience, fully, the emotional and physical impact of the wearer. Brainstorm unfortunately had a huge piece of headgear, nothing like the subtle, nearly invisible SQUID interface here. Strange Days‘ technology also corrects the largest flaw in the Brainstorm technology, which is that if a user experiences a death, the playback also kills the person viewing. Here, death is called “jacking into the big black” also called black-jack clips (aka snuff films), which are also a commodity to be bought and traded, naturally.

One other element that needs to be addressed, and was prevalent at the time: Dec 31, 1999 was not the turn of the Millennium. This was a big deal at the end of the 90s. Prince has the famous song “1999” from his 1982 album stating that he was going to “party like it’s 1999.” Everyone was talking about Y2k (leet-speak for the year 2000) in those days, because no one knew what was going to happen to the computer systems come the year 2000 and the rollover of the 1900s to the 2000s. You may have heard about some systems getting retrofitted for a “Y2k bug,” which was the inability for some computer programs to track the year as 4-digits, instead relying on the final two digits only. While all that was a real issue and concern for the year 2000, it did not signal the new Millennia. Jan 1, 2011 was the real date of the 21st Century, and was the reason why Arthur C Clarke called his novel cum film, 2001: A Space Odyssey. It can be confusing since the decade of the 90s officially does end with 1999. But with the Gregorian calendar (introduced in 1582 AD), which separates dates into BC (before Christ) and AD (Anno Domini, or after Christ’s birth), there was no Year 0. So the day that follows Dec 31, 1 BC, is in fact Jan 1, 1 AD. Thereby making 1 AD through 10 AD the first decade, 1 AD through 100 AD the first Century, and 1 AD through 1,000 AD the first Millennium. Thus, the year 2000 AD becomes the final year of the second Millennium and the end of the 20th Century.

The Final Frontier

Fans of the 60s rock band The Doors may recognize the name Strange Days. It was a song off their 1967 album, also called Strange Days, and Cameron and Bigelow have gone on record saying the song was the inspiration for the film’s title. As such, music seems like an important aspect to the film. The killing of a major rap star ignites the tensions in the film. Juliette Lewis plays Faith, an aspiring singer working for (and sleeping with) a sleazy manager. The soundtrack contains snippets of songs from both these acts, along with a cover of The Doors Strange Days by heavy metal band Prong featuring Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek. Both the film soundtrack and its compact disc release, feature an eclectic mix of world music and heavy metal/acid punk tracks reflecting the angst and anger in the film. It is reminiscent of the Wim Wenders 1991 film Until The End of the World, also a near future 1999-set film that features a soundtrack by alternative artists like Depeche Mode and Talking Heads composing new tracks that they imagine would have been written by them in 1999.

Strange Days creates a near-future, almost-dystopia, almost-post-apocalyptic world that would resonate through other films, TV shows, and stories for the decades to come. Films like Dark City (1998), Minority Report (2002), Southland Tales (2006), and next week’s film, Twelve Monkeys all share a similar world weary view of the present and a noir style mystery to be unwrapped. The epic cast of the film, which includes many actors on the way to their zenith or right at it, including Ralph Fiennes (Schindler’s List, Harry Potter films), Angela Bassett (What’s Love Got To Do With It), Vincent D’Onofrio (Full Metal Jacket, JFK), along with tried and true character actors like Michael Wincott (Talk Radio, The Doors), Tom Sizemore (Reservoir Dogs), and Richard Edson (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) create a believable and dour portrait of Los Angeles in the 90s. Elements of Bigelow’s Academy Award winning films were also present in the documentary style cinematography and frenetic pace of events. Fans of any of the other films mentioned in this article would do well to check out Strange Days, which is still as fresh and relevant now as it was then.

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