The Virtuality of Time: Memory in Science Fiction Films

Abstract

To say that memory has a privileged place in contemporary cinema requires little demonstration; it is as ubiquitous as it is banal. In contemporary science fiction films, however, memory — both as a theme and as a structural element — has become the site of a full-scale interrogation and re-evaluation of traditional accounts of human subjectivity. The cult film Blade Runner (1982) initiated this trend by making digital memory a prominent feature of the Sci-Fi genre. Recent Sci-Fi films such as Minority Report (2002), Final Cut (2004), The Butterfly Effect (2004 and its sequel in 2006), the manga film The Ghost in the Shell (1995), and the British television series Life on Mars (2006–7), represent fantasies about the possibilities and impossibilities of digital technology to register and delete individual memories. Films on memory that skirt the borders of the science fiction genre include The Bourne Trilogy (2002, 2004, 2007), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), and the Chinese film 2046 (2004).