Philip K Dick

Philip K Dick was a cult science fiction writer who lived in poverty his whole career but has since gone on to be one of the most popular writers in hollywood.  Between 1952 and 1982 he wrote over 150 short stories and 35 novels.  The question he asked were what makes us human? Is what we perceive to be reality real? His answers came in the form of stories where people build fully functioning Abraham Lincoln robots which run on a system of punchards, only countered by John Wilkes Booth robots of course, and people who take mind altering drugs that cause other unrelated people to dissapear from existence.

Although his 1967 novel The Man in the High Castle, about an alternate reality where the bad guys won WW2 and the US is divided between Nazi Germany and Japan, won the Hugo Award and Flow my Tears, The Policeman Said, about a world famous actor who finds himself erased from reality, won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, Dick never enjoyed mainstream success, and was living in penniless obscurity by the time of his death in 1982, which must have sucked.
 

Oh yeah, the time travelling alien messages, right. In February and March of 1974 Dick started receiving a series of communication from an entity which he called VALIS, for Vast Active Living Intelligent System. These were delivered via an 'information rich pink beam' which transmitted directly into his mind. At first the messages were in the form of laser beams and geometric patterns, eventually they involved him living a double live as a persecuted Christian in Rome during the First Century AD. Here's one of his diary entries on the subject.

 "March 20, 1974: It seized me entirely, lifting me from the limitations of the space-time matrix; it mastered me as, at the same time, I knew that the world around me was cardboard, a fake. Through its power of perception I saw what really existed, and through its power of no-thought decision, I acted to free myself. It took on in battle, as a champion of all human spirits in thrall, every evil, every Iron Imprisoning thing."

See this is what separates legendary science fiction authors from ordinary people. Whenever we get possesed by time travelling telapathic aliens they just ask if we can find some boobs to look at, and usually that's what we were planning on doing anyway.
 

Many of Dicks stories contain the same elements, questions about the nature of reality, schizophrenia, paranoia, drug use and hallucinagenic imagery. Whether any of these are related to the fact that all his pre 1970 stories were written while high on amphetamines we'll leave for you to decide, but they totally were. (if you want to see some other people who achieved a lot while under the influence check out: The 5 Greatest Things Ever Accomplished While High)

His heroes are ordinary joes trapped in an uncaring authoritarian machine, and other recurring characters include hard working all American small business owners, inspired by his first boss, and an 18 year old sociopathic girl who looks about 15 and sleeps with the main character before betraying him, possibly inspired  by some chick he knew who he may or may not have slept with and been betrayed by.

He was also a big fan of puns. In The Zap Gun, about a weapon designer in the future who hallucinates new weapons for the government to fight the filthy commie scum, the ordinary people are called Pursaps and in Martian Time Slip, the plot of which is slightly too complex to be quickly summed up here, the oppressed native Martians are called Bleekman, get it? Like Blackmen, Oh Philip K Dick, truly your subtlety is only matched by your insanity.

So far 10 of Dick's stories have been adapted into movies, his everyman characters being played by the likes of aryan wall of muscles Arnold Schwazanegger and the increasingly bizzare scientologist Tom Cruise as well as Hollywood's two most punchable actors, Nicholas Cage and Ben Affleck. Also Screamers starred Peter Weller, aka Robocop bitches.

Here's a rundown of the movies so far.

Blade Runner
The first of his adaptations, Dick died several months before it was released, however he did have a chance to see some of the early footage before his death and was reportedly very pleased by how close to his vision it was. Blade Runner was unsuccesful on it's release, mainly because the studio forced Ridley Scott to put in a terrible narration, (Harrison Ford intentionly read his lines terribly in the hopes they'd scrap the idea), and replace the ambigous ending with a happy ending, (using left over footage from The Shining) that completly ignored several key plot points,  But picked up a cult following on video, eventually being rereleased as a Directors cut in 1992. At the moment there are seven different versions of Bladerunner (workprint version. San Diego sneak preview,  U.S theatrical, international cut, U.S. broadcast version, directors cut and final cut) and Ridley Scott is currently working on another 16 cuts, most of which involve dialogue being switched around between different actors and experiments in splicing  split seconds of pornography into key scenes. 

Total Recall
Peoples eyes popping out, Johnny Cab, Quato, "Consider that a divorce", triple breasted hookers, there's a reason we have a room in the Cracked offices dedicated to playing this movie on a 24 hour loop 364 days a year (it's replaced by Jingle All The Way for Christmas) and it's not because we enjoy looking at Arnie's toned muscular body, although that is the reason we have the Commando room.

Made in 1990, directed by Paul Verhoven and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, this was based on the short story We Can Remember It For You Wholesale, and while the plot is changed, in the original they implant a memory into Quade's head of him showing kindness to some aliens who were going to destroy the planet as a child, the aliens agreed that they won't destroy the planet until he's dead, problem is he already has the memory!, the movie remains true to the spirit of Dicks writing. And again, Triple Breasted Hooker.

There's currently a sequel to this in the works, you better believe we've got a forum thread about it.

Screamers

Based on the short story Second Variety, about soldiers on a war ravaged planet fighting evil self replicating robots who disguise themselves as humans, this is suprisingly good for a low budget movie and stars Peter 'dead or alive you're coming with me' Weller. The plot sticks very closely to the original short story apart from some slight variations. There's currently a Screamers 2 in production.

Paycheck

Fuck Ben Affleck.

Next

Based on the short story The Golden Man this movie was released in 2007 and has an impressive 29% on Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer. Unfortunately the editor of this page is severely allergic to Nicholas Cage and so was unable to watch this movie. If you'd like to submit a review send him a message (check the top of the page).

Minority Report
Probably the highest profile of all the adaptations so far, this was directed by Steven Spielberg and starred Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell and the mute chick from Sweet and Lowdown. The plot was pretty close to the original with some changes in the final third to make it 'good' (Dick came up with great ideas but usually seemed to stop caring towards the end of his stories). Unfortunately this film in many ways doesn't make sense (see:8 Classic Movies That Got Away With Gaping Plot Holes)

A Scanner Darkly
Based on the book of the same title, this is probably the most faithful of all the adaptations, as well as being one of the most personal of Dicks stories. Director Richard Linklater Rotoscoped the shit out of this film, which helped emphasise the characters disconnect from reality and etc. The casting of this film is genius, what do Robert Downey Jr, Keanu Reeves, Woody Harrelson and Winona Ryder have in common? Well the fact that they are all excellent actors who give 110% commitment to their roles of course, and nothing else.