On Saturday I had my first Secret Cinema experience! Oh good grief people, you have to try this. It is a brilliant experience.
So I book a couple of tickets and the emails start coming through. Apparently I have got tickets to Utopia Airways, who will help me get "off world" to start a new life (there was the first clue to the film). I should dress futuristic or 1940s (guessed it yet?) and due to reports of acid rain, goggles and umbrellas are a must.
Well I don't do fancy dress, so foolishly ignored them. Problem is me and my mate stuck out like a sore thumb!
Anyway, we've arrived at the Utopia Airways departure area (Canary Wharf!
) and brightly coloured airline staff keep us organised, while armoured police stride around with mega-phones warning to be vigilant of Replicant activity (slow people at the back got it yet?
). Detectives soon appear and start asking random people in the crowd questions. Time to answer is a factor... Some of the people get taken away.
Soon we board shuttles (or "coaches"!) and the air-hostess explains the exits and how we must keep our goggles to hand due to solar flares, but oh, how wonderful our new lives will be! But then one of the detectives appears in the middle of the road and boards us. We've been diverted to a holding zone due to riots!
This zone is a den of depravity...
(see FaceBook for a mobile phone video I took of the walk in).
Actually what it is is the best tribute to Blade Runner (sorry, should I have spoilered that?) you can imagine. A industrial area taken over for all sorts of references to the film. After walking past all sorts of characters, we get into the building and the first thing I see is a snake charmer who drapes this huge gorgeous python around my neck (pics on FB!), then we go further and find noodle stands, pole dancers, a mini-club with a live band and DJ and lots more. Thing is, there's this guy looks a bit like replicant...
The place was full of actors, blending into the crowd. Some were Replicants and without warning a fight would break out with Blade Runners and police. A girl we saw earlier in a dressing room getting undressed (remember the scene?) suddenly appears, jumps over a car and gets shot by a Blade Runner! (Now you do...
) The atmosphere was just superb. When we finally sit down in a neighbouring building to watch the film, the actors haven't finished. They tell us Replicants were detected amongst us and will be revealed!
These were the people taken from the queue. They now have their photos up on the screen with a cool graphic that tells us "Replicant: Positive" and an alarm sounds for each one. The crowd love it when they see one of their friends gurning at them from the screen!
Even while the film is playing they haven't done. During the iconic end sequence, two actors have rappelled up the wall and are posing in setups from the scene. It looks fantastic and makes for a stunning homage to one of the greatest sci-fi films ever made. Seriously recommended.
The BBC did a report from this one too...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment_and_arts/10362662.stm
