THX 1138 (35mm)

Presented in 35mm in its original theatrical version, George Lucas’s THX 1138 imagines a sterile underground future where citizens are drugged into compliance, emotion is suppressed, and individuality itself is treated as a threat. Robert Duvall stars as THX, a worker who stops taking his state-mandated medication and begins to awaken to desire, fear, and the possibility of escape. Shot throughout the Bay Area, including San Francisco, Oakland, the still-under-construction BART tunnels, and the Caldecott Tunnel, Lucas’s stark debut turns familiar local architecture into an eerily convincing future.

Part of The Future According to Syd Mead, presented in conjunction with Syd Mead: Future Pastime, on view October 8 through December 17, 2026 at San Francisco’s Transamerica Pyramid Annex Gallery.