Why do the dystopian futures get all the cool cars?

I just picked up a copy of Snow Crash this weekend, and now I want a copy of the Cosa Nostra Pizza delivery car. It's in my mental garage of cars I'd like to have, parked right next to Mad Max's Black Interceptor. But it got me to thinking: In science fiction, why do the dark, dystopian futures get nearly all the cool cars, and the bright, utopian versions of the future tend to get stuck with boring old public transportation? About the only utopian future I can recall from science fiction with a ton of cars I'd look forward to is Back to the Future, Part II.

Is this a hidden sign that all is not well in utopia? Do utopians have some sort of bias against cars? Or is this similar to the comments about how adversity produces character in people, that it also produces character in cars, and that the cars in a dystopia are built that way so as to help their owners overcome the challenges of living in a broken world?

I know right!? The deliverator is freaking awesome.

Dystopias have badasses who could use cool cars. Utopias have tea-sipping diplomats who just want to get from A to B with no danger to their perfect lives.

Dystopian futures involve individuals struggling and relying on indpendence and ingenuity to survive. You need a personal accent like a badass vehicle to be able to maintain your independence.

Utopian stories are boring. Because if everything is pretty and neat, where is the tension? If it is a strained, megalithic utopia, it makes sense for the tension to have everyone taking some form of mass, public transport. It gives an element of them not being in control.

Does 5th element count as a utopian or distopian future? Because those vehicles were all pretty badass.

Beer Baron wrote: Utopian stories are boring.

Disagree. See: works of Gene Roddenberry, Isaac Asimov, Iain M. Banks.

Beer Baron wrote: Does 5th element count as a utopian or distopian future? Because those vehicles were all pretty badass.

Who knew the Ford Taurus was a cool car..

Counterpoints:

Kirk had some cool vehicles in the first JJ Trek.

Future GPX Cyber Formula isn't exactly dystopian or utopian, but it's about a very affluent society (mid-'80s Japanese vision of the future), and the cars are definitely cool (the regular street-driven cars I mean, of course the near-unlimited AI-equipped multi-role race cars are cool!)

Trans_Maro wrote: Who knew the Ford Taurus was a cool car..

Thats what I was thinking. I have a one word disagreement with the headline: Robocop. Granted, there was some pretty funny social commentary on how ridiculous our cars were becoming (6000 SUX), but the Taurus was a terrible car in the present, so it was especially terrible for the future.

Another counterpoint: Idiocracy. Dystopian, and the cars were boring and silly, at best. Unless you count the monster trucks as cool cars.

I am not sure about the philosophy behind it all, but I always really wanted the Mustang from Cherry 2000.

Because film makers are public-transport guys apparently. The TRUE utopian future has 700 HP Mustangs that run on water and emit fresh laundry scent and have tires that never wear out but can do massive burnouts!

Are you guys talking about the Miata in Looper?

Duke wrote:

Poor TVR didn't deserve to be in that movie

Those bullet holes also look astonishingly fake.

16vCorey wrote: Thats what I was thinking. I have a one word disagreement with the headline: Robocop. Granted, there was some pretty funny social commentary on how ridiculous our cars were becoming (6000 SUX), but the Taurus was a terrible car in the present, so it was especially terrible for the future.

While the dystopian movies got (almost) all the cool cars, I didn't say they got only the cool cars. Although in the original script, Robocop's patrol car was powered by twin gas turbines.

The Fifth Element universe definitely isn't a utopia, with its high levels of street crime, dangerously powerful mega-corporations, and the like, although I'm not sure it's a full on dystopia either.

MadScientistMatt wrote: The Fifth Element universe definitely isn't a utopia, with its high levels of street crime, dangerously powerful mega-corporations, and the like, although I'm not sure it's a full on dystopia either.

I've always regarded The Fifth Element as being a slightly exaggerated 'realistic' future and neither utopia or dystopia (as well as one of my favorite 'popcorn fluff' sci-fi movies). Never really thought much about the cars in it though.

i want the Spinner from Blade Runner

mad_machine wrote: i want the Spinner from Blade Runner

The "'rollin coal" crowd is halfway there:

I want Kenny's Trans Am.

Curmudgeon wrote: I want Kenny's Trans Am.

Is a word with megahot chicks that want to constantly show you their jubblies dystopian?

I'm willing to go and find out.

mndsm wrote: Is a word with megahot chicks that want to constantly show you their jubblies dystopian?

I would call that Boobtopia.