MovieChat Forums > Rollerball (1975) Discussion > Are we going to see 'Death Sports' any t...

Are we going to see 'Death Sports' any time soon?

posted 19 years ago by graham-167
29 replies | jump to latest

Personally I don't think we're all that close to seeing a sport in which contestants die... but it could happen. We already have lots of people who like watching violence, even real violence - "if it bleeds it leads" governs the news, there have been pushes to televise executions...

I think maybe twenty or thirty years down the line you could see a sport like Rollerball in which people actually die on a regular basis. And though I think of myself as a "civilised" person, I think I'd probably watch it if they did, just to see. What do you think?

[–] DrSamba 19 years ago

Well, with the increasing popularity of "extreme sports", we certainly appear headed in that direction.

I can just see it now. They get an announcer who, every time someone gets killed, says, "OOOHHHH--that's GOTTA hurt!!"

[–] george_sano 19 years ago

I think boxing is pretty close to what you're talking about. They usually have the crap beat out of them so much they just keel over and die. But I think we may be heading towards a game where the idea is to destroy the opponent completely. Who knows?

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] ThePlayerhater 18 years ago

Actually as brutal as Ultimate fighting can look, there has been no official loss of life in the octogon.
They have improved upon the rules of that game to insure that there is no loss. In the end if the referee thinks youre getting your ass handed to you, he can stop the fight at any time he chooses.

[–] ternet-3 19 years ago

Soon it will go there or if not killed hurt badly…

[–] neil_cain_1 19 years ago

I THINK A GAME LIKE ROLLERBALL COULD BE INTRODUCED IN THE NEAR FUTURE, AFTER ALL LOOK AT FEAR FACTOR ON NBC IN THE USA. A TONED DOWN VERSION, WITH NO DEATHS WOULD BE A MAGNET FOR A LOT OF SOCCER LADS IN THE UK, PLAYING FOR THEIR TEAM IN A SUPPORTERS ROLLERBALL LEASGUE, IN FACT IT MIGHT TAKE SOME VIOLENCE OFF THE TERRACES AND WHEN YOU LOOK AT AMERICAN FOOTBALL, ICE HOCKEY, RUGBY AND BOXING IT ISN'T MUCH DIFFERENT. A TONED DOWN ROLLERBALL GAME WOULD UNFORTUNATELY ATTRACT A LARGE AUDIENCE IN EUROPE AND THE USA, MAYBE EVEN EXTENDING TO A WORLD CUP, ALONGSIDE SOCCER.

NEIL

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Sidrat2005 19 years ago

Why would you want to watch a real life televised event where the object of the "Game" was for the opponents to die?

There's a big difference between video games and movies, so watching the films along those lines are one thing but actually supporting the real life event? Totally not going to happen. Besides the American viewers got really wound up on a breast exposure on evening TV. Just how far down the line are we talking about? A Post apocalyptic future where there is only survival? Possibly but I doubt there would be television around (Reminds me of the film Death Chase).

If I really want to watch someone being executed there are still countries on this planet that performs beheadings and the like, I'm not going to mention them but with a little research you can find out and book your vacation to the ideal holiday hotspots :)

Either that go to Spain and watch some bull fighting, take part in a Bull run just have health insurance before you go okay.

---------------------------------------------------

Rollerball, the film is so not about the actual game itself, it's more about the society it's played to supplicate and control. Very much like the Running Man games the Corporations and Governments use Television as a way to control their inhabitants behaviour and ideas. Give the populace enough entertainment and they'll forget about their troubles. The Roman Empire in its hey day supported the Games although it was based in Rome people travelled to these events throughout the Roman world (if they were rich enough of course).

[–] chasingjb 18 years ago

It's not just about what's popular. If the government and other institutions consider it "bad", then it will get shut down. So there has to be a fundamental change in thinking all throughout society for a deathsport to exist ala Rollerball/The Running Man.

The closest in recent times is definitely UFC/mixed martial arts. It originated as a spectacle and it's main gimmick was a real-life bloodsport. This made it hugely popular, until government intervention shut it down (got it taken off PPV) which is the life-blood of these kinds of shows. Nowadays, it's more a sport than a spectacle.

[–] silver_noodle 18 years ago

with the combination of reality tv and our history of blood sports its just a matter of time.

[–] Cleon 18 years ago

Sorry to disappoint, but I think we're headed in the opposite direction. The number of deaths in sports seems to be dropping. Back when boxing was bare knuckles and had unlimited rounds and American football involved leather helmets with no face bar, many more people were killed. Probably the closest thing we have to modern death sports are rally races, because of the score of spectators who get killed now and then when someone spins off the track.

[–] cabal24 18 years ago

Agreed. Despite what people would have you believe, they are squeamish about death. Hell, people freak out when a QB gets hit really hard. They would walk away if things git too violent.

[–] sdorph 18 years ago

---"Agreed. Despite what people would have you believe, they are squeamish about death. Hell, people freak out when a QB gets hit really hard. They would walk away if things git too violent."

Ever seen the way people gather to gawk at a car smash, people love to see blood, you just have to look at the number of websites dedicated to gore.

If a true 'Death Sport' were ever televised it would outrate every other sport on television combined, the networks would be happy, the sponsors would be happy and the viewers would be happy, but the government would probably shut it down

Has history ever recorded a case where the majority were right

[–] jimpine2 18 years ago

It is very possible that there could be more violent sports. But it is unlikely that it will ever be like Rollerball. It is true, that a people like violence. Many people would like the sport. But not every single person in the world will like it. There will always be people who would try to stop the sport.

[–] tay-15 18 years ago

It's not going to happen in the near or even distant future. On a whole, we don't want to see death or serious injuries in sports. The one scenario I would see it possible (only a possibility, maybe remote) would actually be in the mythical scenario depicted in Rollerball ... where all future wars have been resolved, probably crime also greatly reduced so that there's a low death rate.

As long as we have modern horrors, which simply got worse through the past century (world wars, mass killings, genocides), sports is our idealized escape. We don't need any death to spice it up.

[–] profbrane 13 years ago

UFC is a step in that direction.

[–] gabby_bm 13 years ago

I think, like in "Rollerball", the public still has a connect to the players. They NEEDED Jonathan to quit because he had become synonymous with the game. They needed the nameless, faceless drones to play the game. And so I think that's what it will take in order to make death-sports a reality.

Fortunately, athletes have a solid ego and self-importance enough to demand a certain amount of recognition.

But done right, with a high recruitment rate, saturation of new anonymous talent and (like Rollerball) a frequent "upgrading" of the rules toward more violent exchanges, it would be almost too easy.

Speak louder, Mr. Hart! Fill the room with your intelligence!