Most Bizarre Hollywood Dystopias

The Matrix 1999

1. In a world ruled by machines, peoples minds are trapped inside a virtual reality and their bodies are used as batteries by the robots. A group of humans has managed to escape, and they turn their efforts to defeating the robots both in and out of The Matrix.The most interesting element of this film is in the dynamic of the Matrix itself. Many of the captive people on the inside live normal lives, with the comforts and troubles of the average pers .....

Idiocracy 2006

2. In a future overwhelmed by corporate influence and the apathy of the masses, intelligence has plunged to startlingly low levels. Two of the most average people of modern times are put in suspended animation for 500 years, emerging into a world where crops are watered with Gatorade (and dont grow), and where people can barely speak and are terrified of anything approaching a coherent thought.Its a decent but way over the top comedy, but the po .....

The Hunger Games 2012

3. In the fictional Panem, two children from each of the 12 districts surrounding the Capital must enter The Hunger Games. The Games are a fight to the death, set in a large outdoor arena fraught with wild beasts and unnatural elements and all the contestants, of course.The Games, were told, are a reminder to the people of the districts of the consequences of disobedience. The Games began after the districts rebelled against the Capital, and are .....

Serenity 2005

4. In the distant future, with a galactic government spreading its influence further and further and bending unwilling human colonies to its iron will, a group of smugglers are caught in the sights of a special agent intent on capturing a member of their crew.The dystopian element enters later. We see that the origin of a marauding cannibal force called the Reavers is on a planet called Miranda .....

Children of Men 2006

5. What would happen if, one day, all women stopped getting pregnant?The film picks up 20 years after the last birth of a human child, with war and disease ravaging nearly all of the world. Suicide kits are sold in stores, and the hope of a future for our world is gone.Until a pregnant woman is discovered. With that, true ugliness is exposed a group intends to take the woman and her child and use them as tools to further a political agenda. This is .....

Elysium 2013

6. Elysium is a space station for the wealthy, and is off limits to the poor inhabitants of Earth. Earth has become a disgusting hive of corruption and abuse, made all the worse by the overhanging station above.The scary part for all the sick and dying on Earth, there is little hope but Elysium has these medical pods that can cure anything. From cancer to an exploded face, the pods take but a few minutes to cure. That means the rich of Elysium, fo .....

Minority Report 2002

7. A film that has been cited as a significant influence on modern technology, Minority Report has become ever more relevant in the years since its release. It tells the story of an agent of the PreCrime department in Washington DC, 2054, a man who captures criminals before they can commit crime. When he himself is predicted to become a murderer, he goes on the run and attempts to clear his name of the crime he has not yet committed.Theres a big pus .....

Wall E 2008

8. The world is overwhelmed with garbage, the human race fled long ago, and a single garbagecompacting robot remains to try to clean everything up for when the people return.The people are obese to the point of immobility, slaves to a consumer culture that ignores the perils of excess, and ignorant to all that their ancestors left behind so long ago.It takes little work to connect the corporation at the heart of the problem, Buy N Large, to the Wal .....

V for Vendetta 2005

9. V for Vendetta follows a man named V, a man who is orchestrating the downfall of the fascist government that has twisted British society into a nightmare state reminiscent of Nazi Germany.There are interesting parallels in this film to modern life. Londons CCTV cameras are held as an example of the kind of statesponsored monitoring found in the story come to life. Online group Anonymous, which adopted Vs Guy Fawkes mask as a symbol, has also been .....

Daybreakers 2009

10. Many zombie films deal with the apocalypse in motion, but Daybreakers instead looks at what happens when the vampires have won.Needless to say, taking over the planet leads to the sticky problem of finding enough blood to nourish an entire world with a very particular diet. A chance encounter with a group of humans leads the protagonist to a startling discovery vampirism is curable.The film tackles ideas like class exploitation and the influence .....

District 9 2009

11. Scary in that it mirrors things that have happened before, District 9 centers on the slums to which alien visitors are relegated after their arrival above Johannesburg. There, they live in poverty, subject to extreme prejudice and possessing few rights.The film was based on a previous short work done by director Neill Blomkamp, which in turn was inspired by interviews he had conducted asking South Africans how they felt about Nigerians and Zimbab .....

Fahrenheit 451 1966

12. Its a future that would seem unthinkable in todays informationdrenched society, one in which all books are illegal and subject to immolation by the government, but the threat of censorship is alive and well, making the theme of this film one that should last well through the years.A culture of apathy and antiintellectualism grows up in the void of information, leading those characters that prize knowledge and learning to find themselves isolated, .....

Metropolis 1927

13. Possibly the first science fiction film ever made, Metropolis is surprisingly watchable for a film thats 87 years old. It tells the story of an upper class man who discovers the terrors of life in the undercity, which is where the energy to run the upper world is created. It features an evil Android and an enormous clock machine, both of which would fit in well with the most bonkers of modern scifi.This isnt actually a Hollywood film, but its inf .....

Equilibrium 2002

14. Similar to 1984, Equilibrium takes place in a future controlled by government, this time through the use of chemicals that eliminate normal human emotion. The law is enforced by a group of gun wielding super soldiers who employ a martial art called Gunkata to get the greatest number of kills in the shortest amount of time.As in 1984, the world of Equilibrium begins as a utopia if you cant think for yourself, the system must seem rather nice. F .....

Nineteen Eighty Four 1984

15. The control exercised over the people of Sealand in 1984 is absolute. Every thought in the heads of the people is a result of government programming, with truth and language now fluid concepts that ultimately have no meaning.A classic of science fiction, 1984s story is frequently cited by those worried at the ongoing elimination of rights in the name of public safety, and the work has often been mentioned during conversation about the NSA spying .....

Soylent Green 1973

16. Itll take some creative solutions to figure out a way to feed the world going forward, and while modern science is all about genetic modifications, Soylent Green proposed something a little more radical.This hunt for a sustainable food source is a major source of strife in the film, and has led people to abandon traditional ideas of meals and instead focus on eating nutrientrich wafers made from plankton Or is it plankton?This is a film that tack .....

Total Recall 1990

17. The plot of Total Recall almost certainly doesnt actually happen within the film, but an imagined dystopia in an imagined story will work just fine. The problem is on Mars, where a corporation has a stranglehold on breathable air. Only Arnold Schwarzeneggers Douglas Quaid can save the day, thanks to his repressed secret agent memories.This film is ridiculous, but theres no way anybody would ever want to live in the Martian society depicted here. .....

RoboCop 1987

18. Its tough to find a good guy in the world of RoboCop, and maybe thats the point. The gangs are running amok, corporate influence is taking over and destroying a huge chunk of the city, and the only one who can clean anything up is a betrayed cop who has been turned into a robot super soldier.Even at its best in this film, Detroit never looks like a place that would be great to live in, and at its worst the city is a horrifying nightmare. At leas .....

Blade Runner 1982

19. Blade Runners dystopia isnt necessarily the main thrust of the film, serving more as a murky backdrop for the story being told, but theres no denying that the films world is not one that is appealing.The administering of emotional examinations to determine the replicants from the humans is the most troubling element of the film. None of the replicants are particularly robotic, and all display a desire to live, to find happiness. This exploration .....

The Road 2009

20. Theres a debate as to whether post apocalyptic works like The Road should be considered dystopias. There is no question, though, that this is one of the worst imagined futures ever.The world is in ruins, some horrible event having killed off almost all of life on Earth. The people who survive are reduced to scavenging, to preying on other survivors and living like feral animals. Supplies are scarce, hope is nonexistent, and even a minor injury ca .....

Planet of the Apes 1968

21. Rod Serling penned the screenplay for the film adaptation of Pierre Boulles novel about a planet ruled by a simian species. Charlton Heston plays the movies lead role, and provides a classic moment during the films famous twist ending. .....

Monkeys 1995

22. Terry Gilliams visionary prowess provides a bleak look into a future where most of the population has been wiped out by a deadly virus, driving the remaining survivors to live underground while animals regain control of the planet. Bruce Willis stars as a man from the future tasked to prevent the catastrophic event from happening. .....

A Clockwork Orange 1971

23. Ultraviolence, mayhem, and Alex rule the streets in Stanley Kubricks adaptation of Anthony Burgess novel. Malcolm McDowell stars as the movies antihero, who undergoes traumatic aversion therapy to cure him of his violent ways. .....