Ever think “This couldn’t be any worse”? A good dystopian movie will put that question to rest! Be it plot or the acting, these movies will be a (un)pleasant diversion for your day. Things go wrong. They can go wrong in so many different ways. Let’s explore the ways! Conspiracy behind every dinner, a tyranny of popularity, government experiments gone wrong, and when empiricism falls apart. Is it all in your head if you are out of your head? Or is it from out of your head?
- Snowpiercer: 2031 AD – after a failed experiment to stop global warming, an ice age kills off all life on the planet except for the inhabitants of the Snowpiercer, a train that travels around the globe and is powered by a sacred perpetual-motion engine.
- Sleeper: Miles Monroe enters the hospital in 1973 for a minor ulcer operation only to wake up 200 years later after being defrosted. As Miles tries to adjust to his new environment, he is re-programmed, de-programmed, chased by Big Brother-like police, and falls for Luna, an underground poet.
- Idiocracy: Joe Bowers becomes part of a government experiment to go into hibernation. The experiment goes awry and Bowers awakens in the year 2505 to find a society so dumbed-down by mass commercialism and mindless TV programming that he’s become the smartest guy on the planet.
- Blade Runner: Starring – Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Edward James Olmos, M. Emmet Walsh, and Daryl Hannah.
- City of Lost Children: This fantastically-twisted fairy tale is chock-full of curious characters and special effects. A sad and heartbroken madman, Krank, is aging prematurely because he can’t dream. He kidnaps little children, hoping that eventually he will find a way to steal their sleeping thoughts.
- World on a Wire: Fred Stiller, a cybernetics engineer who uncovers a massive corporate conspiracy. At risk? Virtual reality. Originally made for German television, the recently rediscovered, three-and-a-half-hour labyrinth is a satiric and surreal look at the weird world of tomorrow from one of cinema’s kinkiest geniuses.
- Akira: Clandestine army activities threaten the war-torn city of Neo-Tokyo when a mysterious being with powerful psychic abilities escapes his prison and inadvertently draws a violent motorcycle gang into a heinous web of experimentation. As a result, a biker with a twisted mind embarks on a path of war, seeking revenge against a society that once called him weak.
- Brazil: In this surrealistic nightmare vision of a “perfect” future where technology reigns supreme, a daydreaming bureaucrat who is involved with an underground superhero and a beautiful mysterious woman becomes the tragic victim of his own romantic illusions.
- The Matrix: In an anti-utopian future, the “real” world as we know it is nothing more than a computer construct, created by an all-powerful artificial intelligence. A small group of humans as found a way out of the construct, and are now fighting for the future of the human race.
- The Zero Theorem: The story about a computer hacker in a dystopian sci-fi world. Living under constant surveillance by ‘Management,’ he strives to solve The Zero Theorem, a mathematical formula that may hold the key to the meaning of life.
- Soylent Green: Charlton Heston plays a cop in 21st century New York, teeming with 40 million citizens, most of whom are out of work. Environmental erosion is almost complete and voluntary death is encouraged by government-sponsored clinics. For their food, the people have grown to rely almost totally on a greenish, wafer-like substance called soylent. As Heston investigates the murder of a magnate in the dictatorial Soylent Company, he comes face to face with the hideous truth about the secret ingredient of “Soylent Green.”
- The Stepford Wives: Joanna reluctantly moves with her husband and children from New York City to the suburban community of Stepford, Connecticut. But when life in Stepford begins to seem too perfect, Joanna and her new friend Bobby investigate a mysterious conspiracy among the town’s husbands.