88 Years Later, Ridley Scott Still Remembers the WWII Images That Shaped His Sci-Fi

There aren't too many filmmakers working right now who can claim to have witnessed World War II and the advent of artificial intelligence, but Ridley Scott certainly can. The 88-year-old director recently returned to the sci-fi genre with the post-apocalyptic movie The Dog Stars, and in an interview leading up to it, he spoke about the influences behind his vision for the future. Scott said that he grew up as a "war baby" in the 1940s and 1950s, witnessing closely the devastation caused by World War II. He specifically remembered the sight of German submarines bobbing in the sea and the towns he crossed that had been decimated by war. The war also taught him what visceral fear felt like and the extent to which humans can turn on one another.