Time and time again, we see the future portrayed as a dark place: a place that has extreme levels of sterility and a lack of love and relationships. It is often a place ruled by some sort of technology. In case you don’t know what movies I’m talking about… Wall-E, City of Ember, Divergent, The Hunger Games, Fahrenheit 451, Mad Max and so many more exemplify this concept. Although I’ve noticed this in literature too, I’ve decided to focus on film because dystopian film is very popular in our culture. When reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, and then immediately rewatching my favorite movie The Maze Runner, I began to ask myself, “Why is the future seen as such a dark place?”

The actual idea of the future as a dark place contradicts many things we learn growing up. What about when Rudolph said, “There’s always tomorrow for dreams to come true.” Did Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer lie to me? Why did Annie sing about tomorrow? Is tomorrow not the same tomorrow as the ones in these films? There must be a reason why our current time period is packed with dystopian films. Enough with the questions. It’s time for answers.

According to Joe Queenan from The Guardian online, “It could be because we as a species honestly believe that the future looks bleak, that the only thing any of us has to look forward to is repression and robotic cops and obsolete computers and Siouxsie and the Banshees-era haberdashery. Which makes it easier to die, knowing that we may have got out while the getting was good.” Although I do not believe that these films are produced as a coping-mechanism to inevitable death, I do think that it is a general mentality that there is not much to look forward to. Another theory by MG Siegler at Tech Crunch online states that “The answer is that we already live in a technological utopia of sorts. No, the world isn’t perfect, but the recent advances in technology have given us so much. And people go to the movies to escape reality. It’s just too bad that science fiction films have essentially become horror movies.” With all of the technology in the world today and its influence on humans, dystopian films provide a sneak-peek at what could happen if we are not careful. I think that dystopian films entertain the idea that man is essentially evil. In the future, this belief is exposed and results in many world problems. 

In my opinion, dystopian films exaggerate the issues the world faces today. Why would technology take over in the future if we prioritized loved ones over iPhones in the past? If there was stability in nature, why would many dystopian films feature a barren landscape? Maybe these films are not made to scare us. Maybe a “bad tomorrow” is just a warning. Or maybe it is just simply entertainment, a good pairing with some popcorn and a coke.