--- title: The Movies, Philip K. Dick and You | TIME description: 'The Adjustment Bureau' is just the latest film to be based on a short story or novel by Philip K. Dick. Science Comedian Brian Malow is a Dick aficionado canonical: https://time.com/video/1GJUGwP6/ og:title: The Movies, Philip K. Dick and You og:description: 'The Adjustment Bureau' is just the latest film to be based on a short story or novel by Philip K. Dick. Science Comedian Brian Malow is a Dick aficionado og:url: https://time.com/video/1GJUGwP6/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/1GJUGwP6/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Movies, Philip K. Dick and You twitter:description: 'The Adjustment Bureau' is just the latest film to be based on a short story or novel by Philip K. Dick. Science Comedian Brian Malow is a Dick aficionado twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/1GJUGwP6/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # The Movies, Philip K. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: The Movies, Philip K. Dick and You [Watch (HLS stream): The Movies, Philip K. Dick and You](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/1GJUGwP6.m3u8) (6:39)  _Published 2011-03-14. 'The Adjustment Bureau' is just the latest film to be based on a short story or novel by Philip K. Dick. Science Comedian Brian Malow is a Dick aficionado_ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:11 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Dick Wolf by the Numbers](/video/LivDnbu9/) ### Dick Wolf by the Numbers [Science Comedian Brian Malow on the Moon and Beyond](/video/O4ZlahLz/) ### Science Comedian Brian Malow on the Moon and Beyond [The Dick Van Dyke Show](/video/Gc9yaYKG/) ### The Dick Van Dyke Show --- ## Transcript >> You've been living in a dream world Neo. >> Long before the Matrix. >> As it exists today. >> The Terminator, Infection, Battlestar Galactica and the Truman Show, Philip K. Dick explored the same themes in a body of work regarded as one of the most important in science fiction. The Library of America even released a collection of 13 of his novels. Pretty legit for a writer and a genre that's long been marginalized. Of course Dick is best known as the author of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? The book Ridley Scott made into Blade Runner, which many of us consider to be the best science fiction film of all time. But you might not realize that that was only the first of 10 of his books that have already been made in the films. Some of the best include Total Recall, Schwarzenegger is either an interplanetary secret agent or a construction worker with implanted memories. >> I don't want to spoil it for you Doug, but you rest assure by the time the trip is over you get the girl, kill the bad guys and save the entire planet. >> Minority Report features clairvoyant mutants who can see murders before they happen; and A Scanner Darkly, a fan favorite wherein drug- induced schizophrenia leads to an undercover cop narcing on himself. >> If we're ever gonna get to the bottom of this, I have a hunch it will be through this guy. >> So will that mean full time viewer recording? >> We've got no choice. >> The newest adaptation of a PKD story is the Adjustment Bureau. >> All I have are the choices that I make. And I choose her. >> Starring Matt Damon as a politician who pits his freewill against the sinister group of men with hats, who can apparently edit and re- write reality. >> You've just seen behind the curtain that you weren't even supposed to know existence. >> I haven't seen it yet but I have read the story which was written in 1953. You see, in the spirit of full disclosure, I should tell you, I'm a bit of a fan myself. So, this is my Philip K. Dick collection; some of it, there's more in the other room but this is what my friends refer to as my Dick books. I'm just taking these books out of their plastic wrappers which it, when I bought them, they came this way. Okay, I did not buy the special wrappers. He wrote 44 novels and over 100 short stories. I actually have more than 100 Philip K. Dick books. You might wonder how that's possible. There was a period where I got a little obsessive. The thing is they were published with these really crazy pulpy covers, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, it's one of my favorite books, favorite titles, too. Then you had this one and then you found this one. You understand right? >> They made it all worth it. >> It takes more than vivid book covers to make an obsessive fan, or to attract directors like Richard Linklater, Paul Verhoeven, Ridley Scott and Steven Spielberg. Dick's stories are paranoid and surreal but he cared about his characters. They are regular people. >> Still working as nowhere handy brake and tire job. >> Michael Jennings is not a super agent, he's an engineer. >> Underdogs. >> Yet somehow he managed to escape from a double- locked room. >> Struggling against ominous forces. >> Don't trust anyone. >> And just barely squeaking the root. These are human stories with a quirky sense of humor. >> How did that get in this taxi? >> The door opened, you got in. >> Set against greedy landscapes ideal for film. This is one of my favorite buildings in San Francisco, it's the De Young Museum and come on, have you ever seen a more feel Dicky- in building. It's right out of Blade Runner. I'm pretty sure the Tyrell Corporation is in there. Whereas the core of the science fiction story is often a cool scientific idea or extrapolation, Dick used the classic tropes of science fiction, space travel, time travel, aliens, androids but that's not what the stories are about. He used these devices to explore philosophical and metaphysical ideas, and there are two themes that run through all of his work. In story after story, Dick questions the nature of reality. >> You're not here? >> We find ourselves in worlds that aren't what they seem. >> Where are we? >> At recall. >> Facing futures that may or may not come to pass. There are aliens and androids convinced they are humans. >> I'm a scientist. >> You're a scientist. You know, you things are really something. >> And this is perhaps the most important thing, what is human? For Dick in a word, it's empathy. That's what Deckard is testing Rachel for in this scene from Blade Runner. Humans have empathy and androids don't. >> I've killed it. >> In theory. But what about leprechauns that cry for lost friends or humans that have no compassion? >> Come on Deckard, show me what you're made of. >> When machines and aliens are more humane than humans, then it doesn't matter what we're made of, or what planet we're born of. It just comes down to how we treat each other. >> You are what you do. >> What are you doing? >> And maybe this is what makes Philip K. Dick's work so endearing and so enduring. Don't judge the books by their movies. They tend to get Hollywood makeovers. But it's not the heat of the chase scenes or the intensity of the action. No. It's not the heat, it's the humanity. >> What if this is a dream? >> Well then kiss me quick before you wake up. >> For TIME video, I'm Brian Malow. >> I have kicked this habit to a great degree. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The Movies, Philip K. Dick and You","description":"'The Adjustment Bureau' is just the latest film to be based on a short story or novel by Philip K. Dick. Science Comedian Brian Malow is a Dick aficionado","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/1GJUGwP6/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2011-03-14T17:43:55.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/1GJUGwP6.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/1GJUGwP6/","duration":"PT6M39S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/1GJUGwP6/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```