# Soylent Green

Soylent Green is a 1973 science fiction film set in an overpopulated futuristic Earth, when a New York police detective finds himself marked for murder by government agents when he gets too close to a bizarre state secret involving the origins of a revolutionary and needed new foodstuff.
    Directed by Richard Fleischer. Written by Stanley R. Greenberg, based on the 1966 novel Make Room! Make Room!, by Harry Harrison.

## Det. Thorn

* You know, there are 20 million guys out of work in Manhattan alone just waiting for my job and yours too.
* [after smoking a cigarette at a party] You know if I had the money I would smoke two... three of these every day.

## Other

* Announcer: Governor Santini is brought to you today by Soylent Red, and Soylent Yellow. And, new, delicious, Soylent Green: The "miracle food" of high energy plankton, gathered from the oceans of the world. Due to its enormous popularity, Soylent Green is in short supply, so remember—Tuesday is Soylent Green day.

## Dialogue

    Sol: You know. When I was a kid food was food. Before our scientific magicians poisoned the water, polluted the soil. Decimated plant and animal life. Why, in my day you could buy meat anywhere. Eggs, they had. Real butter. Fresh lettuce in the–
    Det. Thorn: I know. Sol. You told me before. A heat wave all year long. A greenhouse effect. Everything is burning up.
    Simonson: What do you want?
    Gilbert: You. Mr. Simonson.
    Simonson: I knew soon.
    Gilbert: Uh... they told me to uh... to say that they were sorry, but that you had become... unreliable.
    Simonson: That's true.
    Gilbert: They can't risk, uh... catastrophe, they say.
    Simonson: They're right.
    Gilbert: Then, uh... this is right?
    Simonson: No, not right... Necessary.
    Gilbert: To who?
    Simonson: To... God.
    Hatcher: What's the story with the Simonson homicide?
    Det. Thorn: It was carefully set up to make it look like he was killed after he caught some punk burglarizing his apartment.
    Hatcher: What do you think it was?
    Det. Thorn: It was an assassination. A well-planned assassination.
    Hatcher: You know this for a fact?
    Det. Thorn: Four reasons. One: the alarm system in the building was out of order for the first time in two years. Two: the bodyguard who was supposed to be protecting him was conveniently out shopping. Three: the punk that broke into the apartment didn't take anything. And four: the punk who killed Simonson was no punk because he used a meat hook instead of a gun to make it look like a punk.
    Hatcher: Well, if the punk didn't take anything from the apartment, what did you take?
    Det. Thorn: Everything I could lay my hands on.
    Priest: Forgive me. It's destroying me.
    Det. Thorn: What is?
    Priest: The truth.
    Det. Thorn: The truth Simonson told you?
    Priest: All truth.
    Det. Thorn: Something stinks here.
    Hatcher: Look. You'll sign this. And I'll bury it.
    Det. Thorn: Like hell you will. A member of the board of the Soylent Corporation was torn apart with a meat hook! You can't sweep that carcass under the rug. Who bought you?
    Hatcher: You're bought as soon as they pay you a salary.
    Det. Thorn: Yeah, well, who is "they?"
    Hatcher: High and hot, and they want this case closed permanently, their way, now you sign this!
    Det. Thorn: You sign it! If my name closes this case and someone higher and hotter wants to know why, it's my job!
    Hatcher: Sign it, I'll cover for you!
    Det. Thorn: I won't put my job on the line for you, Hatcher...
    Hatcher: But...
    Det. Thorn: Not my damn job!!
    Sol: Son of a bitch. I haven't eaten like this in years.
    Det. Thorn: I never ate like this.
    Sol: And now you know what you've been missing. There was a world, once, you punk.
    Det. Thorn: Yes, so you keep telling me.
    Sol: I was there. I can prove it.
    Det. Thorn: I know, I know. When you were young, people were better.
    Sol: Aw, nuts. People were always rotten. But the world was beautiful.
    Det. Thorn: Hatcher, get to the Exchange. You gotta tell them they're right.
    Hatcher: But let's take care of you first.
    Det. Thorn: You don't understand. I've got proof. They need proof, I've seen it. I've seen it happening. They've gotta tell people.
    Hatcher: Tell them what?
    Det. Thorn: The ocean's dying. Plankton's dying. It's people. Soylent Green is made out of people. They're making our food out of people. Next thing, they'll be breeding us like cattle for food. You've gotta tell them. You've gotta tell them!
    Hatcher: I promise, Tiger. I promise, I'll tell the Exchange.
    Det. Thorn: You tell everybody. Listen to me Hatcher! You've gotta tell 'em! SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE! We gotta stop them! Somehow!
   * Note: the bolded line is ranked #77 in the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 movie quotations in American cinema.

## Taglines

* What is the secret of Soylent Green?
* It's the year 2022... People are still the same. They'll do anything to get what they need. And they need SOYLENT GREEN.

## Cast

* Charlton Heston - Detective Thorn
* Edward G. Robinson - Sol Roth
* Chuck Connors - Tab Fielding
* Leigh Taylor-Young - Shirl
* Brock Peters - Chief Hatcher
* Paula Kelly - Martha
* Joseph Cotten - Simonson
* Stephen Young - Gilbert

## External links

* Soylent Green quotes at the Internet Movie Database
* Soylent Green at Allmovie
* Soylent Green at Rotten Tomatoes