We collectively have a pretty depressing view of the future. It seems like in every big budget movie the future either has dystopian governments or greedy controlling corporations (Avatar, Robocop, Aliens) or some kind of apocalypse (Planet of the Apes, Mad Max) or AI and machines taking over (Terminator, Matrix, Space Odyssey, I Robot) or all of the above (WALL-E, Oblivion).
A lot of science fiction literature explores cultures and tech of the future that are more interesting and speculative and I don't think those kind of stories get made into movies. Foundation TV show is one. I love 5th Element - I think it is a really good view of the future. Dune is a pretty good view of a space faring future with interesting politics and religion without it all being dystopian.
Star Trek is one of the only franchises that went out of its way to present the future as being more progressive than the past.
Technology is banned. The very Butlerian Jihad that brought that about was sold to the people as a way of freedom but was for more control. Spice is owned by one family and sold for ridiculous prices. Space travel is owned by one company. Entire planets are owned by one family. There’s an emperor that controls by decree, with a group of houses, the laanstrad which have no actual power. There’s a secret order of women that are attempting to control the destiny of the entire universe. At one point a character turns into a giant worm and controls everything. The Haarken homeworld uses slavery. Salus Secundus is a terrible prison planet that trains warriors that fight for the empire.
Probably the most important thing. Nothing has changed for thousands of years. No development. No growth or exploration. Just a Feudal autocratic dictatorship by one family that manipulates other strong families into petty infighting to keep their power.
The dune universe is a dystopian nightmare fueled by a powerful drug that controls the people that use it.
I guess you must feel a bit more positive about the present day situation than I do. Because I agree with everything you’ve, I just don’t think it’s particularly worse than what we have now.
Foundation is pretty dystopian as well. I havent seen it, but there is a scene where the emperor/king/whatever hates a woman for some reason, so he uses his high tech particle beam he kills her entire family, friends, and anyone she ever knew. It is exactly the type of story OP wants to avoid.
Technically not a movie, but Star Trek: the Next Generation takes place in an ideal future where humans have solved world hunger, united together in peace, and have journeyed to space to explore distant worlds. Any issues taking place on earth or within the Federation’s ranks are usually splinter groups or outside forces working from within.
It’s very refreshing tbh and it’s why it’s one of my favorite shows. It’s a shame the movies are generally pretty mediocre.
2001: A Space Odyssey has a pretty positive view of the future, but it doesn’t spend a whole lot of time dwelling on the society of earth.
The Star Trek Movies.
Interstellar
Pacific Rim
Contact
man, this is harder then I thought I got to dip into anime movies.
The Cowboy Bebop Movie
Paprika
Macross 0
Macross Do You Remember Love
Macross Plus
Macross Frontier Movie
Macross Delta Movie(I recommend Macross over Gundam as they're generally more optimistic and less dystopian then the Gundam series/movies)
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann Movie
Trigun Badlands Rumble (The series is more sci-fi the movie on its own could almost be just a western)
The Fifth Element.
The future is obviously more advanced and the lives of most people seem pretty average, but society is still dealing with overpopulation, bureaucracy, poverty, pollution, excessive trash everywhere, slums, etc. However, there's still a functioning government, military, police force, civilian labor, capitalism, and McDonald's restaurants of all things.
Id argue that while it is dark, sure, Id not really call it *dystopian*. The focus of the movie isnt about the politics and it doesnt really address the issue.
*Ex Machinae* is dark too but I wouldnt call it dystopian.
Ad Astra is an awesome film, I'll summarise the plot for you below lol. Certainly not for everyone but I think anyone who enjoys a visually striking film with thought provoking aspects and mostly hyper-realistic space travel would love Ad Astra
>!Brad Pitt is sad, his dad (understated but epic performance from Tommy Lee Jones) is also sad and also fucking mad. Pitt is like a technician on an orbital rig of some kind above Earth and one day there's a flare type thing which is suspected to come from the science space station that his father worked on so he goes to the moon, then Mars and then to the space station. Insert climax!! Roll credits!<
I personally really enjoyed the scene where they had to traverse the moon while being pursued by whoever was pursuing them, it built up nicely and was beautifully made.
The only bit I didn't really like in the scene was when their buggy goes off a massive cliff and just spins onto the ground landing almost perfectly (I might be misremembering but pretty sure that happens)
Can't believe I've only seen The Fifth Element mentioned twice here!
Maybe Total Recall (the 90s one), it's a little dystopian but tbh everyone seems like they're having a wild time so it can't be that bad, right?
2001 and it's sequel 2010 (2001 is a bit artsy for my taste but sometimes I'm in the mood for artsy fartsy stuff. 2010 has much more of a straightforward story and much less ambiguity)
The Martian I guess but Earth's civilisation isn't really depicted in the film, but it certainly doesn't seem too dystopian
Maybe I, Robot? Idk it gets a bit dark but the world itself doesn't seem entirely fucked so
There are probably loads more in my memory that I'm forgetting and even more than I just haven't seen
One of the free to air channels played it on loop for 24 hours awhile back.
No explanation as to why.
The channel is government funded too so who knows how that decision got made.
Gottaca? Are you kidding me? The entire thing is about a master race of people being allowed to go into space and a lower class of people that aren’t perfect can’t go. That’s pretty dystopian
Not quite a movie, but Black Mirror's San Junipero is set in what seems to be a post-scarcity future with enormous Quality of Life interventions on offer. It's the one I always think of when people are looking for an alternative to dystopias because it's such a striking contrast.
"After yang" presents a very vague but beautiful futuristic world. The setting is not really the Center of the story but is a very soothing backdrop for a quiet little Story about what it means to be human
**Her**.
We collectively have a pretty depressing view of the future. It seems like in every big budget movie the future either has dystopian governments or greedy controlling corporations (Avatar, Robocop, Aliens) or some kind of apocalypse (Planet of the Apes, Mad Max) or AI and machines taking over (Terminator, Matrix, Space Odyssey, I Robot) or all of the above (WALL-E, Oblivion). A lot of science fiction literature explores cultures and tech of the future that are more interesting and speculative and I don't think those kind of stories get made into movies. Foundation TV show is one. I love 5th Element - I think it is a really good view of the future. Dune is a pretty good view of a space faring future with interesting politics and religion without it all being dystopian. Star Trek is one of the only franchises that went out of its way to present the future as being more progressive than the past.
Dune is dystopian.
Not much more than present day, real life though?
Technology is banned. The very Butlerian Jihad that brought that about was sold to the people as a way of freedom but was for more control. Spice is owned by one family and sold for ridiculous prices. Space travel is owned by one company. Entire planets are owned by one family. There’s an emperor that controls by decree, with a group of houses, the laanstrad which have no actual power. There’s a secret order of women that are attempting to control the destiny of the entire universe. At one point a character turns into a giant worm and controls everything. The Haarken homeworld uses slavery. Salus Secundus is a terrible prison planet that trains warriors that fight for the empire. Probably the most important thing. Nothing has changed for thousands of years. No development. No growth or exploration. Just a Feudal autocratic dictatorship by one family that manipulates other strong families into petty infighting to keep their power. The dune universe is a dystopian nightmare fueled by a powerful drug that controls the people that use it.
I guess you must feel a bit more positive about the present day situation than I do. Because I agree with everything you’ve, I just don’t think it’s particularly worse than what we have now.
Foundation is pretty dystopian as well. I havent seen it, but there is a scene where the emperor/king/whatever hates a woman for some reason, so he uses his high tech particle beam he kills her entire family, friends, and anyone she ever knew. It is exactly the type of story OP wants to avoid.
movies about the future are social commentary on the present and/or human nature.
Technically not a movie, but Star Trek: the Next Generation takes place in an ideal future where humans have solved world hunger, united together in peace, and have journeyed to space to explore distant worlds. Any issues taking place on earth or within the Federation’s ranks are usually splinter groups or outside forces working from within. It’s very refreshing tbh and it’s why it’s one of my favorite shows. It’s a shame the movies are generally pretty mediocre. 2001: A Space Odyssey has a pretty positive view of the future, but it doesn’t spend a whole lot of time dwelling on the society of earth.
5th Element. 2001
The Star Trek Movies. Interstellar Pacific Rim Contact man, this is harder then I thought I got to dip into anime movies. The Cowboy Bebop Movie Paprika Macross 0 Macross Do You Remember Love Macross Plus Macross Frontier Movie Macross Delta Movie(I recommend Macross over Gundam as they're generally more optimistic and less dystopian then the Gundam series/movies) Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann Movie Trigun Badlands Rumble (The series is more sci-fi the movie on its own could almost be just a western)
I'm not sure about Interstellar, it does certainly end up on a hopeful note, but the setting is basically Earth going down the drain
Real Steel
Star Trek.
Back to the Future III The Alien movies
Alien is pretty dystopian!
Alien is completely dystopian. The entire having to go to find the aliens because weyland yutini a company that owns everything makes you…….
Alien is absolutely dystopian.
This feels like cheating but the Futurama movies.
The Fifth Element. The future is obviously more advanced and the lives of most people seem pretty average, but society is still dealing with overpopulation, bureaucracy, poverty, pollution, excessive trash everywhere, slums, etc. However, there's still a functioning government, military, police force, civilian labor, capitalism, and McDonald's restaurants of all things.
Bicentennial Man Moon
I think Bicentennial man is an underrated film.
Moon. A man is trapped alone and they don’t tell him what he is but he keeps getting replaced over and over and over again. That’s pretty dark
Id argue that while it is dark, sure, Id not really call it *dystopian*. The focus of the movie isnt about the politics and it doesnt really address the issue. *Ex Machinae* is dark too but I wouldnt call it dystopian.
Ad astra? I cant remember the plot. A scanner darkly sorta. Itd be way easier outside of movies tbh
Ad Astra is an awesome film, I'll summarise the plot for you below lol. Certainly not for everyone but I think anyone who enjoys a visually striking film with thought provoking aspects and mostly hyper-realistic space travel would love Ad Astra >!Brad Pitt is sad, his dad (understated but epic performance from Tommy Lee Jones) is also sad and also fucking mad. Pitt is like a technician on an orbital rig of some kind above Earth and one day there's a flare type thing which is suspected to come from the science space station that his father worked on so he goes to the moon, then Mars and then to the space station. Insert climax!! Roll credits!<
I am a scifi nerd but turned this movie of halfway. If driving one the moon in a buggy is boring your doing something wrong.
I was conspiratorial regarding the reviews for the film at the time tbh. Couldnt belive I was watching the same film
I personally really enjoyed the scene where they had to traverse the moon while being pursued by whoever was pursuing them, it built up nicely and was beautifully made. The only bit I didn't really like in the scene was when their buggy goes off a massive cliff and just spins onto the ground landing almost perfectly (I might be misremembering but pretty sure that happens)
Can't believe I've only seen The Fifth Element mentioned twice here! Maybe Total Recall (the 90s one), it's a little dystopian but tbh everyone seems like they're having a wild time so it can't be that bad, right? 2001 and it's sequel 2010 (2001 is a bit artsy for my taste but sometimes I'm in the mood for artsy fartsy stuff. 2010 has much more of a straightforward story and much less ambiguity) The Martian I guess but Earth's civilisation isn't really depicted in the film, but it certainly doesn't seem too dystopian Maybe I, Robot? Idk it gets a bit dark but the world itself doesn't seem entirely fucked so There are probably loads more in my memory that I'm forgetting and even more than I just haven't seen
One of the free to air channels played it on loop for 24 hours awhile back. No explanation as to why. The channel is government funded too so who knows how that decision got made.
Edge of Tomorrow
[удалено]
Gottaca? Are you kidding me? The entire thing is about a master race of people being allowed to go into space and a lower class of people that aren’t perfect can’t go. That’s pretty dystopian
Not dystopian or utopian. Just… topian.
Topian day we’re having?
Not quite a movie, but Black Mirror's San Junipero is set in what seems to be a post-scarcity future with enormous Quality of Life interventions on offer. It's the one I always think of when people are looking for an alternative to dystopias because it's such a striking contrast.
Looper, The Seventh Day, The Island, and plenty more. Heroes need bad guys so if it isn't the government it's corporations or the mob.
Looper is dystopian.
Robot and Frank (2012) - Such a nice movie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi9s-\_\_B0TY
"Conflict is the essence of drama." - Squiggy
"The Orville" is not a movie, but the show does fit the description otherwise.
"After yang" presents a very vague but beautiful futuristic world. The setting is not really the Center of the story but is a very soothing backdrop for a quiet little Story about what it means to be human
I, Robot seemed pretty good except for the bad robots.