Strange Days opens on December 29, 1999. Lenny Nero, a man who uses a new kind of recording technology to sell recorded experiences on the black market, comes into possession of a clip of the murder of a woman. The clip sucks him into a plot involving the murder, and subsequent cover- up, of a famous rap artist. As the New Year's eve approaches Lenny and his friends Lornette "Mace" Mason, and Max Peltier tries to unravel the plot and save Faith Justin, an old flame that Lenny never got over.
Strange Days was an idea that he had in the early 80s while working on The Terminator. He had been working on the story in his head ever since. One of the elements that he really liked was the setting being new year's eve of the new millennium. In the early 90s he realized that if he didn't hurry up and make this movie the millennium would have come and gone.
Several small licenses were taken while working on the script. The most notable is the SQUID technology. Even in 1993-94 Cameron knew that the "wire" technology being developed and going black-market in 6 years was a stretch. Basically it's a ghost-in-the-machine. (much like I don't believe in vampires but love vampire movies and don't believe that the force is real but love Star Wars) For those of you who are into little details, yes Cameron knew that January 01, 2000 will not really be the new millennium. (it will really be January 01, 2001) He also knew that it will not matter. January 01, 2000 will be when everybody thinks it is the next millennium and when everyone has the big millennial parties.
While working on the script Cameron realized that he would not be able to direct it himself. He was already committed to True Lies He didn't want to shelve it (it is supposed to be a futuristic movie; he didn't want it to come out in 1999) He decided to give it over to his third ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow. Bigelow is a defiant rarity in Hollywood. Not only is she a female director, but she is a female action director. She had previously directed Blue Steal(for executive producer Oliver Stone) and Point Break (which Cameron executive produced and served as an uncredited writer on) Since his script had some rough edges and Cameron had to start work on True Lies he handed the script off to screenwriter Jay Cocks.
The casting was one of the most important parts of the movie. Since above all this is a character driven thriller there were no larger than life special effects to draw an audience if the acting was weak. For our (?anti- ?) hero Bigelow chose an Irish actor named Ralph Fiennes (pronounced Rafe Fines). Angela Bassett was chosen to play Lornette "Mace" Mason. Jay Cocks developed the character more after meeting Bassett. Shady PI Max Peltier is played by Tom Sizemore, who had worked with Bigelow on both Blue Steal and Point Break. Faith Justin was the hardest to cast, Bigelow was torn between finding a singer who could act and an actor who could sing. In the end the part went to actress, who can sing, Juliette Lewis. The rest of the cast includes Michael Wincott (The Crow), Vincent D'Onofrio (Men in Black), Glenn Plummer (Speed), William Fichtner (Armageddon), Richard Edson (who was in 41 movies between 1984 and 1999), Josef Sommer (another prolific character actor), and Brigitte Bako (who aside from some voice work in Gargoyles has done little else of note, but I really like her)
Since they were making a futuristic movie they needed some futuristic looking technology. They got some High Definition TVs (those rectangular digital TVs that hit stores last year and cost around $5000). When the price comes down they will no doubt become the new standard in the real world. Lenny drives a 1997 Mercedes Benz (remember they shot this in 1994) it was a prototype that Mercedes loaned to them. The SQUID equipment, which records memories, and plays such a key role in the film had much thought behind it. The memories are recorded on what look like Sony Mini-discs. The Recording 'deck' was made to appear very 'functional' since it was designed for the military and police; and was manufactured on the black market. The headset had to look functional, portable, and in no way goofy.
Since the film did have James Cameron involved it was a prerequisite that there were going to be some very difficult scenes to film. The first one just happened to be the first scene on the film. In it we watch a robbery from the point of view of a robber in a moving several minutes long seemingly unbroken shot that ends with the robber dieing in a fall from a building. Since actually shooting in one shot for that length of time was impractical (not to mention impossible; cameras need diferent filers and lenses for inside than for outside) they had to figure out how to hide the cuts. The easiest way was to use a whip pan (quickly turn the camera in one direction or the other) when the image blurs a cut can be inserted without being seen. A special camera was build that an actor could wear on their heads. Similar effects are used throughout the movie, but the opening shot is the longest continuously running one.
Several key scenes take place in a club called "The Retinal Fetish". The Club was actually the basement printing room of the no longer published "Los Angeles Herald Examiner". Some of the crew and the 1000 extras got sick as a result of printing ink that was covering everything. In the Club Faith (Juliette Lewis) sings two songs by PJ Harvey. Lewis actually sang the songs and even appears on the soundtrack.
One of the most controversial scenes in the movie is the one where Lenny watches the Rape of Iris (Brigitte Bako) from the point of view of the rapist. Some even accused the movie of being misogynist (based on the belief that depicting misogyny in a movie is automatically supporting it) Cameron Expected that it would be a very hard scene; his original script even had a note in the action description of the rape scene reading R-rated please. Anybody who saw the movie and has even an ounce of common sense could see that the rape scene is a very ugly scene and in no way glamorizes sexual assault.
The final scenes of the movie take place in and around the millennial New Years eve party outside the Bonaventure Hotel in LA. The script called it the mother of all parties. To attract the 10,000 extras who would be needed to complete the illusion the film makers staged a concert with a band called "The Light". The event was promoted on local radio and TV. Some sports arena sized video monitors were brought in. Trips to Hawaii and other door prizes were raffled off to keep energy high. The TV monitors display footage of celebrations in other parts of the world. The footage was shot by some crew members of real New Years Eve celebrations. A few extras stood in the shots with Y2K signs and the like.
While not a huge hit Strange Days has become a cult classic like Blade Runner, and more recently Dark City. In my opinion it is the best script that Cameron ever written; yes even better than that one about the boat. What was it called again?