Sci-fi is a broad category that covers anything from aliens to advanced technology to cyberpunk and extraterrestrial space travel. Many of the most well-known franchises in the world, including Star Trek and Star Wars, have their roots in science fiction. However, there are also renowned standalone movies that captivate and astound viewers, such as the groundbreaking masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The fact that several of these movies served as inspiration for video games isn’t surprising. Some video games draw inspiration from a single film or a special mashup of several. Although they are unlikely to be exact replicas of the plots in these movies, they do make use of future settings, technology, and aesthetics to match their own stories and characters and even turn the attention of bettors from traditional sports that are popular for betting on in-play betting sites to eSports. Interconnectivity lies at the core of this fusion of the two media, which is exactly how science fiction is meant to be employed.
2001: A Space Odyssey (Inspired Control and Much More)
The science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey, which Stanley Kubrick directed, is a classic. The story follows a team of scientists and astronauts as they travel to Jupiter to look into a mysterious extraterrestrial monolith. It’s set on a spacecraft named the Discovery One. Numerous movies, TV shows, and video games that came after Kubrick’s masterpiece were influenced by it.
Control is one video game that was greatly influenced by the movie. When creating Control, game director Mikael Kasurinen revealed to GamingBolt that both he and the team were motivated by Kubrick’s distinctive approach to storytelling.
“He doesn’t put everything in front of you and say ‘This is exactly what’s happening.’ There’s a lot of room for interpretation,” Kasurinen explained and added it was a really interesting interpretation of what happens when something beyond human comprehension comes into contact with it.
The Fifth Element (Inspired Mile High Taxi)
The Fifth Element was released two years prior to The Matrix. Despite appearances to the contrary, the cyberpunk subgenre was greatly influenced by the sci-fi classic. Its artistic inspirations may be seen in video games like Cloudpunk and Cyberpunk 2077, which seem to be particularly noticeable in the cityscapes and skylines of both.
But Mile High Taxi is a video game that directly references The Fifth Element. Gamers assume the role of a taxi driver racing across a dystopian cityscape against the time in this game that has been compared to “The Fifth Element Meets Crazy Taxi”. In addition to Crazy Taxi’s arcade-style action, Mile High Taxi has players pick up and drop off passengers like Korben Dallas (played by Bruce Willis) in The Fifth Element while trying to avoid colliding with other flying cars, tall skyscrapers, and road signs.
Star Wars (Inspired Mass Effect)
With fresh ideas for plots, characters, and substance, the Star Wars series never fails to enthrall viewers. Inadvertently sparking a flurry of space shooter games and other adventures, the Star Wars universe has left its mark on the generations that were born and raised with it. Mass Effect is without a doubt one of the most well-known video game series to draw inspiration from Star Wars.
Players take full control of Commander Shepard in the first Mass Effect game, a human soldier charged with stopping a machine race from seizing control of the galaxy. It’s a space-based game with lots of exploration and combat set to an engaging, interactive plot. Both series share a direct relationship thanks to BioWare, which also created the 2003 game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, a fan favorite. Trent Oster, the company’s co-founder, told TechRadar that BioWare was forced to build Mass Effect due to the limitations of making that game.
The Matrix (Inspired Fallout 4)
The Matrix had a clear influence on the gaming industry, especially in the cyberpunk subgenre. The Matrix had a profound effect on creators and players, so much so that games not generally recognized to be part of the franchise were influenced by the first Matrix movie.
The Matrix has a big part in Fallout 4, which players might or might not have noticed. Gamers can clearly sense The Matrix overtones in the Memory Den, even though the movie doesn’t have the same impact on the Fallout series as the Mad Max realm did. Located in Goodneighbor, this is where the Lone Wanderer spends a significant amount of time in Fallout 4’s tale using a Memory Lounger to experience virtual reality and simulate other people's lives. The phrase “plugging in” is used once more in reference to the Memory Loungers, which resembles the chair Morpheus is sitting in when Neo first encounters him in The Matrix. They allow users to explore VR simulations, much as the Visiontrons from Fallout 3.
Logan’s Run (Inspired BioShock)
Logan’s Run, based on the 1967 novella by George Clayton and Johnson William F. Nolan, is set in a dystopian future where people are only allowed to live until the age of 30 in order to reduce population. Those who attain this age are slaughtered by Sandmen the same as Logan (played by Michael York) during the “Carrousel” ritual.
Many science fiction fans, including Ken Levine, creator of BioShock, were greatly inspired by Logan’s Run. Levine told GameSpot, “It was the first dystopia story I ever saw and if you know my games, obviously it had a huge impact on me.” The setting of BioShock is Rapture, an underwater metropolis that combines dystopian and utopian ideals with retro-futuristic design. In other words, BioShock wouldn’t exist without Logan's Run. That influenced practically Levine’s career, as he stressed.
Blade Runner (Inspired Cyberpunk 2077)
With its 1982 premiere, Blade Runner continues to have an impact on media today. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick, which was adapted into the film Blade Runner, is regarded as the foundation of the cyberpunk subgenre of science fiction. In his book Burning Chrome, author William Gibson called cyberpunk a mix of scum and high-tech, but it was another of his books, Neuromancer, that embraced these cliches and rendered cyberpunk what it has become today.
All mediums of art, including movies, television, and cyberpunk science fiction games, have been influenced by Blade Runner. Yet in Cyberpunk 2077, players will undoubtedly have sensed its influence. The futuristic setting of Night City is populated by hackers and artificial intelligence, with neon-lit artificial landscapes and humans who have been enhanced with cutting-edge technology.
In Cyberpunk 2077, there are several Easter eggs that pay homage to Blade Runner. The “tears in the rain” moment has been recreated for players on the roofs, and the avatar Misty shares Pris’s appearance in terms of hair and makeup. On the skill tree, there’s also a skill by the name of Bladerunner that’s usable. Two other skills feature in-game symbols like an origami crane and a picture of Rick Deckard (played by Harrison Ford).
