Westworld is a science fiction western thriller television series based on the feature film of the same name.
Looking for a place to live out your cowboy fantasies? Dine like a medieval lord? Or perhaps take in the sights and sounds of ancient Pompeii? Whatever adventure you seek, you’re sure to find it in one of the three-themed worlds of Delos. While the android population ensures that Delos delivers on its promise of “Boy, have we got a vacation for you!”
You can’t help but get the feeling that Michael Crichton was the sort of person who when playing Rollercoaster Tycoon reveled in as much delight in finding ways for things to go wrong as he did in their creation, and while he might best be known for the rampaging dinos of Jurassic Park, only twenty years earlier he’d staged another theme park disaster with Westworld, which also marked his feature debut as a director.
Set in an alternative near future vision of 1983, located 500 miles from the edge of the Sahara Desert, inside a climate controlled dome, the experience is completely immersive for the guests as here they dress in period appropriate clothing with Delos using artifacts from the period to ensure they maintain a sense of realism. Guests pay $1,000 per day to play out their historical fantasies in one of three themed worlds. They interact with lifelike androids who are indistinguishable from the human guests. They help to create believable scenarios for the visitors to take part in while also programmed to be unable to hurt the guest. Well, that is until they start to malfunction start turning on the the very people they are meant to entertain.
So what can you do in Delos? Well the answer is pretty much anything you want as the worlds are created without rules, no doubt reflected by the high entry cost enabling guests to engage in their fantasies, whatever they might be. As long as they don’t cause any harm to their fellow guests, which is hardly an issue when you have numerous android characters to interact with, guests can choose to be either good guys with white hats or bad guys with black hats and engage in more taboo behaviour such as rape, robbery and murder without having to suffer the consequences their actions would have in the real world.
To maintain the illusion of this being the wild west, the staff of Delos go to great lengths to avoid being seen by the guests, usually operating at night to clean up the streets of fallen gunslingers and generally reset the park to keep the fantasy alive. At the same time, the park is constantly monitored from the control centre inspired by the DACS (Digital Audio Control System) room located beneath the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Florida, which had opened two years prior to the release of the film in 1971. Crichton also emulates the tunnels which run under the worlds which in turn mirror the Utilidor system Disney have in place. Crichton’s film, while certainly working to create a believable theme park setting, even with these imitations of established setups, is equally noteworthy for its futuristic touches, especially with it being one of the earliest examples of a computer virus before that was even a thing. He also introduced the concept of intelligent machines creating their own life, in this case the rogue androids who perhaps are the systems way of punishing humanity for acting without consequence for so long. Crichton long established in his work a powerful theme of humanity having to deal with the consequences of playing god.
The androids themselves, especially in the original, are seemingly simplistic though effective in their ability to enhance the fantasy for the guests. We can see in the HBO series that they are also programmed to run on loops, appearing at set locations and providing adventures and experiences when interacted with as certainly seen in characters like the prospector asking guests to join them on his latest quest for gold. But at the same time it’s not just these stock characters who are robotic, as we see that Delos – perhaps in an attempt to ensure they maintain complete control over all aspects of the park – also created robot wildlife from snakes and birds to buffalo and horses, which like their human counterparts, add to the fantasy and perhaps cut down on the costs of keeping livestock alive. At the same time such cost-cutting measure can also be seen in the series when we see park expansion being carried out by a team of androids currently not assigned a role in the park.
What makes Westworld such a unique location – when it comes to the series – is HBOs reimagining where series creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy have taken the mechanics of the world and built further upon the foundations of Crichton’s original film. His vision was limited by his very small budget. HBO offers $8 – $10 million to each episode, which naturally has vastly increased the size of the world where guests can explore, something that is somewhat lost in the original. That’s especially obvious during the finale were park guest Peter (Richard Benjamin) is trying to escape from a rogue gunslinger (Yul Brynner), who demonstrates the sort of single-minded dedication to killing Peter that would almost put The Terminator to shame. It’s also a pursuit that sees Peter attempting to escape to the other two worlds on offer: Medievalworld and Romanworld, which ended up only making these worlds seem more like sound stages than the expansive worlds we had been lead to believe they were. HBO series has been keen to correct that with its numerous overview shots of the park showcasing an expansive landscape for guests to lose themselves in. While it currently seems like one world, the fake Delos website setup to promote the series hints at another five worlds – including a samurai world, no doubt tied to the popularity of the samurai fantasy and Asian culture compared to when the original film was released.
Despite the efforts taken to immerse guests in this fantasy, the HBO series also features stripped down versions of modern songs such as Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun” and The Rolling Stones “Paint It Black,” which certainly provide a highlight throughout the show, especially when they are subtly inserted into the background. But what purpose do these selections serve? Well according to Nolan, it’s to remind the guests and the audience that they aren’t actually in the Wild West and to ensure that they keep one foot in the present.
While the original film might have only featured the aforementioned Medievalworld and Romanworld as alternatives, the sequel Futureworld released three years after the original gave guests the option of choosing the titular Futureworld, designed to represent a floating space station. There would also be an attempt to adapt the world for TV with Beyond Westworld which ignored Futureworld and instead choose to focus on the killer androids as Jim McMullan stared as the Security Chief of the Delos Corporation who had to stop evil scientist Quaid (James Wainwright) from using the androids to take over the world. The series though would fail to find its feet quickly being axed after three episodes. For those wanting the more smutty take there was also Sexworld directed by Anthony Spinelli one of the major porn directors of what most porn historians consider to be the golden era (1970-1984) and predictably lives up to its name while today remaining an interesting curiosity.
Westworld though is much more than an interesting setting as its a world built on multiple narratives running at one time. That make the series more than an attempt to cash in on an established property, yet when viewed just for the base mechanics, remains one of the more complete visions of a futuristic destination and one not too far removed from reality. That’s especially true when you consider that we already have vacations on dude ranches where guests play out their cowboy fantasies. Westworld is just the next evolution of such, and a fascinating look at how we choose to behave when we can live without consequence.