A Boy and His Dog is a short story by Harlan Ellison which was also the basis of a 1974 post-apocalyptic science fiction film of the same name directed by L. Q. Jones. The story was first published in 1969. A revised and expanded version was printed in Ellison’s 1976 story collection The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the World, and Ellison continued the story in the graphic novel Vic and Blood which was illustrated by Richard Corben. The film version is often cited as an inspiration for George Miller’s Mad Max though Miller said he had not seen Jones’ film until after he had completed his own. The film was also distributed after the initial run under the name, Psycho Boy and His Killer Dog, among other titles.
Plot
This is a post-apocalyptic tale in which the earth’s surface has been devastated by nuclear war, and the few survivors who remain above ground must forage and fight for food, ammunition, and women. Of these necessities, women are the rarest; most survivors are male because while the males were off fighting the war, their leaders bombed their enemies’ cities and destroyed their homes.
The main character, Vic (Don Johnson), is an 18-year-old boy focused on stealing food and fulfilling his sexual needs. He is accompanied by a well-read and wise-cracking telepathic dog named Blood, an “experienced female provider”. Blood was voiced by Tim McIntire.
In addition to locating women for Vic to rape, Blood also has the unenviable task of trying to educate Vic and keep him safe from harm. Blood is the result of human genetic experimentation, which resulted in an intelligent canine mutation with telepathic abilities. However, the only human Blood can communicate with is Vic, whom Blood refers to as “Albert” as a “term of endearment”. In the graphic novel “Vic and Blood”, Blood explains: “I get such a kick out of calling him Albert – after Albert Payson Terhune, who wrote all those stupid dog books in which we noble creatures were pets, always being saved by some sappy human – it is my best gambit to make him scream.” Blood’s opinion of the human race is not generally a positive one. As Blood notes, “human sex is an ugly thing”.
Most of civilization has gone into the “downunder”, a subsurface setting. One underground city, Topeka, fashioned in a mockery of 1950s rural innocence and brave-new-worldian madness, solves its need for exogamous reproduction by forcibly extracting fluids from sperm donors. But the city is running low on viable donors. Quilla June (Susanne Benton), the daughter of one of Topeka’s committee leaders, is sent to the surface to bait Vic into “service”. Vic takes leave of his lifelong friend Blood and pursues the young lady into the downunder. He soon learns the harsh reality of the authoritarian committee and of its need for his semen.
Quilla June, along with a few other rebellious teenagers, have other plans for Vic. They free him from captivity and beg him to kill the committee members and their android enforcer Michael, thus leaving Quilla June in power. Vic, however, has interest in neither politics nor in remaining underground. The rebellious teenagers are all sentenced to death. Quilla June and Vic manage to disable the pursuing Michael and then escape to the surface. Above ground, they find that Blood is near death. Vic faces a difficult situation, and in a surprise ending, it is assumed he kills his new love and cooks her to save Blood. She only disappears and the dialog implies her fate.
