1. The "advertisement" that starts the film gives us a range of information about visitors of the Delos resort, and what kinds of experience they are looking for there. What fantasies are these? Are they gender, race, class, or age specific?

2. What type of spaces are the three different Delos worlds? What types of experience do they enable for the guests? How are they designed visually? How are they designed in terms of the programming of the robots in each place?

3. If we imagine that each guest is looking for a type of "package holiday," what do you think is in each "package?" In Westworld for example, the bar fight is absolutely essential to a successful experience of the place. What other such experiences have been programmed into these holidays?

4. Even though Delos uses the most advanced technologies in order to deliver this unique experience, the technological requirements of the place are hidden under a nostalgic approach towards history and towards experience. Surely, there was a lot more to ancient Rome than parties in beautiful villas! And what period of Roman history are we even talking about here? How is the past recycled in Delos? How is history represented? Why did the designers choose these historical periods for Delos and not others?

Production Information

The film was nominated for a Hugo Award in the 1974 for Best Dramatic Presentation. The Hugo Awards are usually awarded for science fiction literature, but the Best Dramatic Presentation award is for TV and film texts. There were great film contenders that year: along with Westworld, the nominees were Soylent Green (Richard Fleischer, 1973), Sleeper (Woody Allen, 1973), and the TV series Genesis II (1973), and The Six Million Dollar Man(1973). The Hugo was awarded to Sleeper.

Cast Information

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