When it comes to bleak visions of the future and the Uncertainty between reality and illusory world goes, sci-fi fans probably think first of Matrix. A year before the Wachowskis’ revolutionary milestone, however, Dark City by Alex Proyas was released, which you can now stream with an Amazon Prime subscription.
Even if the gloomy vision of the future went down at the box office, the sci-fi film is cult today. It’s also known that blockbusters like The Matrix and Inception were somewhat inspired by Proyas’ work.
Sci-fi cult Dark City was a cinema flop at first
In the film’s story, main character John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) wakes up in a futuristic, nameless city with no memories. While being hunted by mysterious pursuers, he discovers the dark secret of the city and the so-called “strangers”.
With a budget of 27 million dollars, Dark City played exactly this budget again after its theatrical release in 1998 worldwide. Even by the financial standards of the time, that’s clearly not enough and the sci-fi film was classified as a box office flop. Over the years, however, Proyas’ work has been rediscovered and is now considered a cult film of the genre.
Dark City’s sci-fi vision inspired subsequent films
According to a Slash Film article, the Wachowskis watched an unreleased version of Dark City while they were still working on The Matrix. Since Peter Doyle was involved as a colorist on both Matrix and Dark City, the optical parallels also no coincidence.
Christopher Nolan also spoke about the fact that he was influenced by works such as Proyas’ sinister vision of the future for his acclaimed sci-fi blockbuster Inception.
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