AboutBarbara L. Baker Expertise I am a professor of communication at a midwest university, with expertise in film. I can answer most questions on the original "Star Wars" trilogy, and some on the newer trilogy. I also have expertise in general science-fiction film (both history and theory), especially in the United States. I can probably answer questions related to genres, mythic implications of science-fiction films, as well as questions on hybrids (especially comic science fiction) and cult science fiction films (such as "Repo Man" and "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai," etc.). For movie titles, noting significant plot details and characters are better than minor plot events, and it is even better if you can recall the time period when the film was made, an actor or director's name, and if it is a film or TV movie. I am less able to answer the following, although I will do my best to track down an answer for you--recent SF films, episodes of TV shows, and horror/SF hybrids. I cannot answer questions about anime/manga or about film collectables. Nor will I answer obvious homework (although I will point you to resources to help answer the question, if asked). I also can't help you find movie stars, movie memorabilia, or tell you how to break into the business.
Experience
Past/Present clients My students at UCM, I suppose.
Question I am looking for a sci-fi movie maybe from the 80's early 90's. I saw it on a tv show that specialized in made for tv sci-fi movies. It starts off with a man who starts everyday by buying a new fancy/expensive car. He then drives to his high paying office job where his optimistic friends and co-workers have board meetings and talk about the next high paying job. One co-worker has the bad habit of scratching his shoulder all the time. If someone is missing from the staff meeting their absence is explained by either on vacation or promoted to corporate headquarters.
At home, his mother and father are good looking, healthy, happy, and live in an expensive home.
Then one day he has an accident. He starts to see his world differently. He's about to say something, but also notices that there are men in biohazard suits running around picking up dead bodies and putting them in white trucks. One man says to the other, I think he can see us should we take him too?" So the main character pretends he doesn't really see the men in biohazard suits and goes about his business. He decides he wants to find out what is going on and explores his world with his new vision.
The cars he has been buying every morning are really heaps. The city is trashy and dirty. His office and co-workers are people dressed in rags in a dirty run down building. His co-worker that always scratches is really scratching a huge fungus on his shoulder. His mother and father are really sick and bandaged. His father even has an artificial leg. The biohazard men are everywhere always watching and waiting for some one to die or get too sick.
The main character finds out that the people have been isolated from the rest of the population because they were exposed to some chemical or disease that is killing them and the biohazard men can only take them away as they die. The affected are living in an imaginary world induced by some means I can't remember, but the main character is now the only one who can see the truth. And no this is not the movie "They Live " with Rowdy Roddy Piper but similar theme.
Thank you
Answer Anthony, I've been looking for an answer with no luck. Despite the extensive plot information you've provided to me, I can't locate a title with this exact plot (or even close to it). There were several movies of the time period that dealt with simulated or alternative reality, along with diseases, but none of them had this description. I'm including a list of the most promising, in case one of them is the title you are searching for. However, if not, then I will need more specific information (especially any ideas of who might have starred in this film, or the exact name of the TV show that sponsored the film, or maybe the channel it was shown on).
Here is the list of possible titles:
The Lathe of Heaven (1980)--a man discovers he can alter the world through his dreams, which are put to evil use.
Daybreak (1983)--a group of AIDS-type disease sufferers are isolated in a run-down, decrepit NY city (this sounded most promising, except there was no discussion in the plot description I found of these people being fooled or suffering delusions).
Quarantine (1989)--another group of people being quarantined for a disease.
Tempting Fate (1988)--an illusionary parallel world filled with everything everyone might want, including free cars, etc., with one catch. This was that the people had to be part of a game where they were hunted down.
Again, if one of thsee isn't the title, then I will need more specific information that is not plot-related to have a chance to track it down.
