Futureworld (1976)

Upon uncovering the dirty secret of futuristic theme-park Futureworld, an ex-employee is killed after he tips off two other reporters who decide to do an undercover investigation.

Director:

Richard T. Heffron

Writers:

Mayo Simon, George Schenck

Stars:

Peter Fonda, Blythe Danner, Arthur Hill

1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Peter Fonda	...	Chuck Browning
Blythe Danner	...	Tracy Ballard
Arthur Hill	...	Duffy
Yul Brynner	...	The Gunslinger
John P. Ryan	...	Dr. Schneider (as John Ryan)
Stuart Margolin	...	Harry
Allen Ludden	...	Game Show Host
Robert Cornthwaite	...	Mr. Reed
Angela Greene	...	Mrs. Reed
Darrell Larson	...	Eric
Nancy Bell	...	Erica
Burt Conroy	...	Mr. Karnovski
Dorothy Konrad	...	Mrs. Karnovski
John Fujioka	...	Mr. Takaguchi
Dana Lee	...	Mr. Takaguchi's Aide

Storyline

Two reporters, Tracy and Chuck, get a message from a third one who discovered something about "Futureworld" and was killed before he could tell anyone about it. They visit Futureworld to find out what he knew.

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Plot Keywords:

conspiracy | robot | sequel | theme park | laboratory | 

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Taglines:

Futureworld - where you can't tell the robots from the machines - even when you look in the mirror!

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Genres:

Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 August 1976 (USA)

Also Known As:

Futureworld - Das Land von Übermorgen

Filming Locations:

16410 Larkfield Drive, Clear Lake, Texas, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$2,500,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

American International Pictures (AIP), The Aubrey Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

108 min (original)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The tram to Futureworld is the tunnel train at George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), then Houston Intercontinental Airport, in Houston, TX.

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Goofs

When Harry types in the key code to open the big blue doors, he does not type in the right numbers on the keypad. No button layout that makes any sense matches his input.

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Quotes

Arthur Holcombe: While you are a glamorous, and highly paid television personality, you are still an employee. In fact, you're my employee. So, unless you'd like to spend the next 3 years doing weather and fashion in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, you will now shut up and do as you're told.
Tracy Ballard: Oh, yes? Yes, Arthur? we'll see about that!

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Alternate Versions

For its initial television broadcast, an alternate version of the scene towards the end where Chuck Browning extends his middle finger to Dr. Schneider was shot. Instead of extending his middle finger, Browning performs a sanitized "Italian elbow gesture", where the right hand is placed in the elbow crook of the left arm, then the left arm is raised (fist clenched) in a smooth and continuous motion.

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Connections

References Adventures of Superman (1952)

User Reviews

Good Sequel to Westworld

Futureworld (1976)

*** (out of 4)

Sequel to WESTWORLD picks up a couple years after the events in that film as Delos plans on opening Futureworld. A pair of reporters (Peter Fonda, Blythe Danner) are invited into the new theme park but soon they discover that the owners have plans to replace various government officials with lookalikes. FUTUREWORLD doesn't quite reach the levels of the first film but I really give the filmmakers credit for doing something different with the story instead of just delivering a rehash of the first film. With that said, I think the film takes way too long for this story to take place as it really doesn't start to happen until around the 70-minute mark or so and so much of that early running time has us sitting there just waiting for something to eventually take off. It seems that the first half of the film spends a bit too much time with the reporters looking at how good everything in the place is and it just takes too long to get going. I will say that many of the early scenes in the picture are extremely good and especially the stuff dealing with people using the theme park. The jokes about robots that can handle sex were good and I thought there was some other nice humor as well. The performances were also really good with both Fonda and Danner turning in nice work and having some good chemistry together. Yul Brynner is basically here as a cameo but it was still nice seeing the gunslinger again. FUTUREWORLD runs a tad bit too long but the special effects are good and there are several good ideas throughout it.