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Is Back to the Future Part II the only movie where the future isn't a dystopia?
- Thread starter DiipuSurotu
- Start date
I came here to post Quinton's Back to the Future review video that coincidentally just watched before this post went up...but the top results were alt-right content creators saying that he was exposed as a creep who preys on women's via Twitter DMs.
So I'm gonna look for some non-alt right sources real quick.
So I'm gonna look for some non-alt right sources real quick.
Funnily enough, the final book in the series (which takes place in 3001) has a couple of bits that deal with citizens then looking at the past millenium as pretty barbaric, with even the idea of eating non synthetic meat being viewed as disgusting. It was pretty interesting! Granted, 3001: The Final Odyssey never got adapted to be a movie as far as I know.
Wasn't earth's future ok in Avatar?
And from what I remember the future in Gattaca was also kind of ok. The genetically engineered people didn't outright enslave the naturally conceived ones.
So colonialism and discrimination (or caste system), but not outright dystopia.
And from what I remember the future in Gattaca was also kind of ok. The genetically engineered people didn't outright enslave the naturally conceived ones.
So colonialism and discrimination (or caste system), but not outright dystopia.
Yes too many sci-fi stories center around a dystopian future. You might be interested in Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.
It is absolutely everything wrong with 1980s America just with a futuristic coating.
My point is in that context it's not really that much of a downgrade. Aside from inflation and the lack of lawyers it's not really much worse than the time it was made. Most of the "dystopian" parts are how Marty screwed up his life because he's insecure and his son ended up in prison.
I have always wanted to see this movie and now I have to.
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It doesn't have to be paradise, but it could just show a regular progression of things, and incorporate drama using other stuff besides "a corporation has kidnapped society, are you a bad enough dude to rescue society?"
A deleted scene in Avatar depicted Earth as overpopulated and so polluted people need oxygen masks to breath.
Aside from the discrimination against non-engineered people in Gattaca, the movie showed life wasn't that great for engineered people either. The major genetically engineered characters in that movie all had a neurosis over their perceived genetic shortcomings. Other little hints throughout that movie suggest the entire society is just one big viper's nest of people trying to rank and measure each other.
It worked for Her. I think it can be done well if the setting complements the story. Dystopian settings work better for action movies so that's probably why you see them a lot more.
Not a movie, but that's exactly what The Culture series is. A utopian civilisation with a bit of anarchy thrown in for good measure and the resulting stories are some of the best in the science fiction genre.
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Indeed. You can have tragedy on a personal level for a character, you can have his life be hell, without having to make the ENTIRE society a living nightmare.
Her isn't really Dystopian or Utopian, it's just set in the future.
Is Interstellar a dystopia? Certainly by the end it isn't - it's more of a utopia than anything else.
They do mindwipe criminals though. Admittedly, that's like the only thing I can remember being distopian in that novel. I would quite happily live in that future.
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I've been wondering about Interstellar... Nature is obviously collapsing in that film, thus making Earth uninhabitable, but technically speaking it doesn't show a big "evil" government being responsible for that or anything. It's just a straightforward evolution of our present society.
Dammit, ok. Thank you for your input. I feel like rewatching Gattaca now.
I guess near-future sci-fi movies wouldn't qualify since there is no actual future depicted in them, but if they did, Arrival and Contact seem to fit the bill.
Especially since it's part of Yum! Brands, and yet Pizza Hut and KFC don't exist.
Yeah, as far as I'm concerned the "hero" of the film is a villain alongside Dennis Leary. You basically have a perfectly happy and safe society but assholes want to curse and eat meat and just generally be unpleasant assholes so they rebel.
There is a lot of political tension and secrecy. There is the iconic scene of the bone club cutting into a satellite carrying warheads during the time skip. In the sequel they are on the verge of apocalyptic nuclear conflict.
2001, Valerian and Tomorrowland come to mind.
Well Star Trek has made a whole franchise out of it. Conflicts can still exist in utopia.
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I didn't even ask for utopian future movies.
I only talked about dystopian future movies.
Meet the Robinsons, La Belle Verte, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Her
Depends on the point of the film. The future doesn't have to be utopian. It just has to be a better place for someone than where they're at right now, be it literally or figuratively. What I like about Her is that it's a very personal film that meditates upon a lot of things but is careful not to make grand statements about them.
Depends on the point of the film. The future doesn't have to be utopian. It just has to be a better place for someone than where they're at right now, be it literally or figuratively. What I like about Her is that it's a very personal film that meditates upon a lot of things but is careful not to make grand statements about them.
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We don't see it or know much about it (unless you're not talking about the anime?)
They managed to get rid of toilet paper. That's some far out futurism, man.
i mean "a corporation has kidnapped society" is pretty much the regular progression of things
the anime or the older one? because the anime implies that the dystopian future the other time-traveler hails from will happen within the protagonist's lifetime.
If remember correctly they also "educate" people out of religion which despite not being a fan of it myself, sounds a bit like brainwashing.
Interstellar is straight up apocalyptic. They are literally abandoning a dying Earth to start fresh on a barren planet.
Yeah they didn't touch on the Yum! Brands civil war for control of the company.
That's AC Clarke I guess. Brilliant futurist, but he had his blind spots when it comes to society.
Don't forget Pizza Hut was the sole survivor in Europe.
Aside from that, isn't it implied in the movie that only San Angeles is "utopian", and the general state of elsewhere is left ambiguous? My memory of the movie is hazy but IIRC that's a plot point with the villain wanting to expand his way of thinking/ruling to elsewhere.
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