List of dystopian films
List
Table:
Title
Year
Comments
References

The 10th Victim
1965
In the near future, wars are avoided by giving people a chance to kill in the Big Hunt, which is also the most popular form of entertainment. Based on Robert Sheckley's short story, "Seventh Victim" (1953).
[4]

12 Monkeys
1995
A convict is sent back in time to gather information about a virus that wiped out most of the human population. Based on Chris Marker's short film La Jetée (1962).
[5][6][7]: 34

1984
1956
Loosely based on George Orwell's 1949 novel of the same name about a bureaucrat who falls in love in a futuristic totalitarian surveillance state.
[8]

2081
2009
Short film adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron (1961). "Everyone is finally equal".
[9]

A.I.
2001
Based on Brian Aldiss' short story "Super-Toys Last All Summer Long" (1969). A robot boy has emotions but is not understood by the rest of society.
[10][11]

Æon Flux
2005
Loosely based on Peter Chung's 1991 animated television series of the same name. Aeon Flux is a mysterious assassin working for the Monicans, a group of rebels trying to overthrow the government.
[12]

The Age of Stupid
2009
An unnamed archivist (Pete Postlethwaite) lives alone in the devastated world of 2055, looking back at “archive” footage from 2007 and asking: why didn't we stop climate change when we had the chance?
[13][14][15]

Akira
1988
Anime film directed by Katsuhiro Otomo based on his manga of the same name in which a secret military project endangers Neo-Tokyo when it turns a biker gang member into a rampaging psychic psychopath.
[6][12]

Alphaville
1965
A secret agent is sent to the distant space city of Alphaville where he must find a missing person and free the city from its tyrannical ruler.
[16]

The Animatrix
2003

[17]

Antiviral
2012
In a blackly satirical near future, a thriving industry sells celebrity illnesses to their obsessed fans. One employee's attempts to exploit the system backfire when they involve him in a potentially deadly mystery.
[18][19]

Atlas Shrugged: Part I
Atlas Shrugged: Part II
Atlas Shrugged Part III: Who Is John Galt?
2011
2012
2014
Based on Ayn Rand 1957 novel. An alliance forms to fight the increasingly authoritarian government of the United States.
[20]

Automata
2014
In a not-so-distant future, primitive humanoid robots, called Pilgrims, are built to operate in the harsh environment. Unable to stop the advance of desertification they are relegated to manual labor. An insurance agent of a robotics corporation who investigates cases of robots violating their primary protocols against altering themselves makes a discovery which will have profound consequences for the future of humanity.
[21][22][23]

Babylon A.D.
2008
Veteran-turned-mercenary Toorop takes the high-risk job of escorting a woman from Russia to America. Little does he know that she is host to an organism that a cult wants to harvest in order to produce a genetically modified Messiah.
[24][25]

Batman
1989
Based on the DC Comics character of the same name, directed by Tim Burton.
[26]

Battle Royale
2000
Based on the novel and manga of the same name.
[6]

Battlefield Earth
2000
film adaptation of L. Ron Hubbard's 1982 novel, starring John Travolta.
[10]

Blade Runner
1982
Loosely based on Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968).
[12][27][28][29][30]

Blade Runner 2049

2017

Sequel to Blade Runner directed by Denis Villeneuve

[31]

Blindness
2008
Adaptation of the 1995 novel of the same name by Portuguese author José Saramago about a society suffering an epidemic of blindness.
[32]

The Blood of Heroes
1989
"In a post apocalyptic world there is a violent game similar to football, that has become a way of life.
[33][34]

Book of Eli
2010
A post-apocalyptic tale, in which a lone man fights his way across America in order to protect a sacred book that holds the secrets to saving humankind.
[35]

The Bothersome Man
2006
In a strange city where every person seems content beyond reason a new man arrives in town and stirs up trouble by asking too many questions.
[36][37]

A Boy and His Dog
1974
Focus on the survival of a boy and an intelligent dog on post-apocalyptical wasteland in 2024. Based on the 1969 cycle of narratives by fantasy author Harlan Ellison titled "A Boy and His Dog".
[10]

Brave New World
1980
In a futuristic totalitarian society, people have no control of their roles in society or lives/destiny.
[10]

Brazil
1985
A bureaucrat in a retro-future world tries to correct an administrative error and himself becomes an enemy of the state.
[4][7]: 39 [12][27][38][39]

Cargo
2009
It is the year 2267. After the earth has become uninhabitable due to an ecological collapse, the remaining people live on overcrowded space stations in Earth's orbit. The story takes place on the derelict spaceship on its 8 year journey to a remote freight-station in deep space.
[40]

Casshern
2004
Film adaptation of the 1973 anime series of the same name.
[41]

CHAPPiE
2015
The film was directed by Neill Blomkamp (who also directed District 9) and based on his short film Tetra Vaal (2004).[42] In it the South African government purchases a squadron of high-tech, autonomous robots (AI) in response to a record high crime rate in Johannesburg and uses them as a mechanized police force. One of these police droids, "Chappie", is stolen and given new programming which causes him to be the first robot with the ability to think and feel for himself.
[23][43][44]

Cherry 2000
1987
When successful businessman finds that his android wife, Cherry model 2000 has blown a fuse, he hires a sexy renegade tracker to help him find her exact duplicate.
[45]

Children of Men
2006
Directed by Alfonso Cuarón, based on P.D. James' 1992 novel of the same name. In 2027, in a chaotic world in which women have become somehow infertile, a former activist agrees to help transport a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea.
[12][27][28][46]

City of Ember
2008
After a war on earth the remaining future generations are sent to an underground world to live until the earth surface can support life, an unfortunate set of circumstances keeps them underground for longer than planned but they eventually find the way out after 2 brave children discover the way.
[47]

City of Lost Children
1995
French film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet.
[6]

A Clockwork Orange
1971
Adapted from Anthony Burgess' 1962 novella of the same name. In a future England ruled by gangs, the government brainwashes one particular hoodlum into subservience.
[10][27][48]

Cloud Atlas
2012
Adapted from the 2004 novel of the same name by David Mitchell, the film has multiple plots set across six different eras.
[23][49][50]

Code 46
2003
A futuristic 'Brief Encounter', a love story in which the romance is doomed by genetic incompatibility.
[4]

Colossus: The Forbin Project
1970
The film which is based upon Dennis Feltham Jones' science fiction novel Colossus (1966), is about a massive American defense computer, named Colossus, after becoming sentient logically follows its original directives to the dismay of its programmers by assuming control of the world and all human affairs for the good of mankind[51] during the Cold War threat of nuclear war.[52]
[52][53][54][55]

The Congress
2013
The Congress is a late-capitalist dystopia in which a corporate media behemoth "Miramount" has effectively usurped control of all human consciousness.[56] In it an aging actress decides to scan her body to sign over to Miramount Studios which allows the company to digitize every trait that she possesses and use it in any movie they choose. The hallucinogenic live-action/animation film represents corporate interests taking advantage of the individual and was partly inspired by Stanisław Lem's novel The Futurological Congress.
[56][57][58][59]

The Cybernetic Grandma
1962
a 1962 Czechoslovakian stop motion puppet cartoon. It is a surreal science fiction-horror animation film, showing a dystopian situation where machines tend humans into a cybernetic lifestyle.

Dark City
1998
A man struggles with memories of his past, including a wife he cannot remember, in a nightmarish world with no sun and run by beings with telekinetic powers who seek the souls of humans.
[6][10]

Dark Metropolis
2010
Mankind has lost a 300-year war against a genetically enhanced race that man created, abused and finally tortured. Now the descendants of that race - known as the 'Ghen' control the planet Earth from advanced underground cities.
[60][61][62]

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

2014

Ten years after the pandemic of the deadly ALZ-113 virus, or Simian Flu, the worldwide human population has been drastically reduced, with only about one in five hundred genetically immune to the virus. Apes, with genetically enhanced intelligence caused by the same virus, have started to build a civilization of their own. Caesar is the chimpanzee leader of an ape colony in the Muir Woods near San Francisco. Caesar's son Blue Eyes and his friend Ash encounter a man named Carver in the woods, who panics and shoots Ash, wounding him. Carver's party, led by Malcolm, arrive while a number of apes join Blue Eyes and Ash. Caesar orders the humans to leave, and they flee to their community in San Francisco, centered around "the tower", a partially finished skyscraper. Prompted by Koba, a scarred bonobo who holds a grudge against humans for experimental mistreatment,

[63]

The Day the Earth Caught Fire
1961
One of the classic apocalyptic films of its era, this film depicts the US and Russia unwittingly testing atomic bombs at the same time, altering the Earth's axis of rotation.
[29]

Daybreakers
2009
In the year 2019, a plague has transformed almost every human into vampires. Faced with a dwindling blood supply, the fractured dominant race plots their survival.
[64][65]

Dead End Drive-In
1986
A teenage couple is trapped in a drive-in theater which is really a concentration camp for societal rejects. The inmates are fed a steady diet of junk food, new wave music, drugs, and violent films.
[66]

Death Race
2008
Remake of the film Death Race 2000 (1975). Ex-con Jensen Ames is forced by the warden of a notorious prison to compete in our post-industrial world's most popular sport: a car race in which inmates must brutalize and kill one another on the road to victory.
[67][unreliable source?]

Death Race 2000
1975
The film takes place in a dystopian American society in the year 2000, where the murderous Transcontinental Road Race has become a form of national entertainment.
[4][68][69][70]

Death Watch
1980
Based on the novel The Unsleeping Eye by David G. Compton, set in a future where death from illness has become extremely unusual. When the protagonist is diagnosed as having an incurable disease, she becomes a celebrity and is besieged by journalists.
[53]

Demolition Man
1993
A long imprisoned ultra-violent criminal is brought out of suspended animation by a new "perfect" future society's leader as an unsanctioned solution to its' unwanted dissidents. In response, a long imprisoned rogue cop is brought out of suspended animation by the new "perfect" future police department as their solution to the problem.
[29][71]

Le Dernier Combat (English title: The Last Battle)
1983
A dark vision of post-apocalyptic survival, the film was shot in black and white and contains only two words of dialogue. It depicts a world where people have been rendered mute by some unknown incident.
[72][73][74][75]

District 9
2009
An extraterrestrial race forced to live in slum-like conditions on Earth suddenly finds a kindred spirit in a government agent who is exposed to their biotechnology.
[11][23]

Divergent
2014
Based on the adaption of Veronica Roth's novels of the same names. In a world divided by factions based on virtues, Tris learns she's Divergent and won't fit in.
[4][23][76][77][78][79][80]

The Divergent Series: Insurgent
2015
After the series of events and death of her parents in Divergent, Tris Prior tries to figure out what the Abnegation were trying to protect and why the Erudite leaders will do anything to stop them.
[23][81][82]

Downstream
2010
Takes place in a near-future dystopia where gasoline is scarce and a drifter tries to reach a rumored utopian city, Plutopia, powered by clean energy.
[83]

Dr. Mabuse the Gambler
1922
An exaggerated portrayal of Weimar Germany which the titular villain can exploit for power and profit.
[84][85]

Dredd
2012
Adapted from the comic book of the same name.
[23][86][87]

Elysium
2013
In this film wealth inequality, the alienation of the super-rich and class conflict are taken to the extreme: in the year 2154, the very wealthy live on a man-made luxurious space station while the rest of the population resides on a ruined Earth. A man takes on a mission that could bring equality to the polarized worlds. It explores political and sociological themes such as immigration, overpopulation, health care, exploitation, the justice system, and social class issues.[88]
[23][89][90]

The End of Evangelion
1997
When the dawn of the new millennium brings destruction on Earth by means of the seemingly all-powerful angels, the only hope for the future of the human race lies in Evangelions—bio-engineered crafts created from the Angel's technology.
[28]

Ender's Game
2013
Based on the novel of the same name by Orson Scott Card.
[91]

Equals
2015
Two people infected with a disease regain their ability to feel compassion and emotion in a society where emotions no longer exist.

[92]

Equilibrium
2002
In a totalitarian future where all forms of feeling are illegal and citizens are required to take daily drug-injections to suppress emotion and encourage obedience, a man in charge of enforcing the law rises to overthrow the system.
[12]

Escape from L.A.
1996
Sequel to the 1981 film, Escape from New York.
[23][93]

Escape from New York
1981
In 1997, when the US President crashes into Manhattan, now a giant maximum security prison, a convicted bank robber is sent in for a rescue. It extrapolates the crime and decay of inner cities.[52]
[10][27]

eXistenZ
1999
Directed by David Cronenberg. As in Videodrome, Cronenberg gives his psychological statement about how humans react and interact with the technologies that surround them, in this case, the world of video games.
[78]

Fahrenheit 451
1966
Based on Ray Bradbury's novel of the same name. In an oppressive future, a fireman whose duty is to destroy all books begins to question his task.
[10][12][46]

Fantastic Planet
1973
The story of this stop-motion animation, about humans living on a strange planet dominated by giant humanoid aliens who consider them animals, is based on the 1957 novel Oms en série by French writer Stefan Wul.
[53]

FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions
2004
France, sometime in the near future. The Sisterhood of Metacontrol governs Europe.
[94]

The Fifth Element
1997
A big ball of evil, in collaboration with a corporate kingpin, plots Earth's destruction.
[95]

Forbidden Planet
1956
A manned mission looks for a scientist on a strange planet.
[29]

Fortress
1993
A futuristic prison movie. Protagonist and wife are nabbed at a future US emigration point with an illegal baby during population control.
[71]

Freejack
1992
In the future, the rich extend their lives by stealing other peoples' lives.
[29]

Futureworld
1976
Sequel to Westworld.
[96]

Gamer
2009
In a future mind-controlling game, death row convicts are forced to battle. A convict controlled by a skilled teenage gamer must survive 30 sessions in order to be set free.
[97]

Gattaca
1997
In this biopunk dystopia genetic engineering creates an underclass. One of these so-called genetically inferior "in-valids" assumes the identity of a superior one in order to pursue his lifelong dream of space travel.
[6][10][12][98]

Ghost in the Shell
1995
Based on the 1989 manga by Masamune Shirow of the same name, follows the hunt by the public-security agency Section 9 for a mysterious hacker known as the Puppet Master.

[99]

The Giver
2014
A dark, quiet, but powerful futuristic political tale in which a 16-year-old boy (12 in the book) must search for the truth in a world free of war, crime, disease, poverty, unfairness, and injustice.
[23][76][77][78][79]

The Handmaid's Tale
1990
Based on the 1985 novel of the same name by Margaret Atwood, in a dystopically polluted rightwing religious tyranny, a young woman is put in sexual slavery on account of her now rare fertility.
[10][12][79]

Hardware
1990
Inspired by the short story "Shok!" in 2000 AD (1980), the film depicts the rampage of a self-repairing robot in a post-apocalyptic slum.
[100]

Harrison Bergeron
1995
A cable television movie adapted from the short story of the same name by Kurt Vonnegut.
[9]

Hobo with a Shotgun
2011
Directed by Jason Eisener, starring Rutger Hauer in a despotic future where anarchy rules and one man with a shotgun aims to bring back some form of justice. Rated R.
[101]

The Hunger Games
2012
Directed by Gary Ross, based on Suzanne Collins' novel of the same name. Katniss Everdeen voluntarily takes her younger sister's place in the Hunger Games, a televised fight to the death in which two teenagers from each of the twelve Districts of Panem are chosen at random to compete.
[23][27][70][76][77][79]

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
2013
Directed by Francis Lawrence, based on Suzanne Collins' Catching Fire.
[10][23]

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1
2014
Directed by Francis Lawrence, based on Suzanne Collins' Mockingjay.
[23][76][78]

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2
2015
Directed by Francis Lawrence, based on Suzanne Collins' Mockingjay.

I Am Legend
2007
The third adaptation of Richard Matheson's 1954 novel I Am Legend.
[10][102]

I, Robot
2004
Adapted from the I, Robot series by Isaac Asimov. An A.I. creates a potential dystopian future by logically applying the Zeroth Law of Robotics but is stopped.
[10]

Idaho Transfer
1973
Directed by Peter Fonda in his directorial debut and starring Keith Carradine.
[103]

Idiocracy
2006
An average man is selected for a top-secret hibernation program. When he wakes up 500 years later to discover he's the smartest person in a radically dumbed-down society.
[71]

In Time
2011
In 2169, future people stop aging past 25 so time has become the universal currency traded between people. When the time "bank account" on an implanted clock reaches zero, that impoverished person "times out" and is euthanized.
[10][102]

The Inhabited Island
2009
Based on the 1969 book Prisoners of Power by Strugatskies. The most expensive Russian science fiction film to date (2015) is set on another planet, with a country that is ruled by a totalitarian regime that brainwashes its citizens by towers that send a special kind of radiation erected across the country.
[104][105]

Invasion of the Body Snatchers
1956
Based on the novel The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney, depicts an extraterrestrial invasion that begins in the fictional California town of Santa Mira.
[53]

Invasion of the Body Snatchers
1978
Remake of 1956 film, which is based on the novel The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney.
[53]

The Island
2005
A man goes on the run after he discovers that he is actually a "harvestable being", and is being kept as a source of replacement parts, along with others, in a facility.
[106][107]

La Jetée
1962
In the aftermath of World War III scientists in Paris research time travel, hoping to send test subjects to different time periods "to call past and future to the rescue of the present". The short film by Chris Marker was constructed almost entirely from still photos and inspired the 1995 film 12 Monkeys.
[108][109][110][111]

Johnny Mnemonic
1995
Based on the 1981 short story of the same name by William Gibson, in which a data courier, literally carrying a data package inside his head, must deliver it before he dies from the burden or is killed by the Yakuza.

[112][113]

Judge Dredd
1995
Based on the comic of the same name: in a dystopian future, Dredd, the most famous judge (a cop with instant field judiciary powers) is convicted for a crime he did not commit while his murderous counterpart escapes.
[114][115][116]

Kin-dza-dza!
1986
A 1986 Soviet sci-fi dystopian black comedy cult film.
[7]: 184 [117]

Land of the Blind
2006
A dark political satire, based on several incidents throughout history in which tyrannical rulers were overthrown by new leaders who proved to be just as bad, if not worse, and subtle references are made to several such cases.
[46]

The Last Man on Earth
1964
The first of three adaptations of Richard Matheson's 1954 novel I Am Legend.
[29]

The Lego Movie
2014
Animation based on the Lego line of construction toys, tells the story of an ordinary Lego minifigure as he ends up becoming involved in a resistance against a tyrannical businessman who plans to glue everything in the Lego worlds.
[70][118][119]

The Lobster
2015
Somewhere in the near future, single people face a choice: join a program to find a mate in forty-five days or be transformed into an animal.
[120]

Logan's Run
1976
Depicts a dystopian future society in which population and the consumption of resources are managed by the simple notion of killing everyone who reaches the age of thirty.
[10][12][96]

Looper
2012
In 2074, when the mob wants to get rid of someone, the target is sent into the past, where a hired gun awaits - someone like Joe - who one day learns the mob wants to 'close the loop' by sending back Joe's future self for assassination.
[23][121]

Mad Max
1979
A lone cop is the only law in a future society run amok.
[10][29][98][115]

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior
1981

[6][10][27][98]

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
1985

[10][78][98]

Mad Max: Fury Road
2015

[80][122]

The Man Who Fell to Earth
1976
Based on Walter Tevis' 1963 novel of the same name, about an extraterrestrial who crash lands on Earth seeking a way to ship water to his planet, which is suffering from a severe drought.
[123]

The Matrix
1999
A computer hacker learns from mysterious rebels about the true nature of his reality and his role in the war against its controllers.
[10][12][27][78]

The Matrix Reloaded
2003
The second installment of The Matrix trilogy.
[10]

The Matrix Revolutions
2003
The third installment of The Matrix trilogy.
[10]

Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future
1985
A television reporter trying to expose corruption and greed discovers that his employer, Network 23, has created a new form of subliminal advertising (called "blipverts") that can be fatal to certain viewers.
[124]

The Maze Runner
2014
Thomas is deposited in a community of boys after his memory is erased, soon learning they're all trapped in a maze that will require him to join forces with fellow "Runners" for a shot at escape. Based on the first book of The Maze Runner Trilogy written by James Dashner.
[23][76][91]

Metropia
2009
Animation set in a future Europe where the world is running out of oil. A gigantic underground network is created by joining all the undergrounds together beneath Europe.
[125]

Metropolis
1927
A German expressionist epic science-fiction film directed by Fritz Lang. A man living an ideal life in a big city discovers the truth about why his city seems so ideal.
[6][10][12][29][84]

Metropolis
2001
Animated film by Osamu Tezuka.
[53]

Millennium
1989
By Michael Anderson (director). Time travelers are visiting the present day and stealing passengers from doomed aircraft, due to the future being doomed by global pollution, and the human population is no longer able to reproduce.

Minority Report
2002
Based on Philip K. Dick's short story of the same name. A police officer oversees a department that prevents crime with the help of beings who can predict it, but then he becomes a target.
[46][78][98]

The Moon Is Down
1943
An unnamed country is overrun by an unnamed invader who establishes a dictatorship and proceeds to enslave the population. Despite their resistance, they fail to win their freedom and their community leaders are all executed in the end.
[126]

Natural City
2003
A colony world that integrates robots, androids and cyborgs amongst the population.
[127]

Never Let Me Go
2010
Based on Kazuo Ishiguro's 2005 novel of the same name.
[10][28]

Nineteen Eighty-Four
1984
Based on George Orwell's 1949 novel of the same name.
[10][12][27][29]

Nirvana
1997
A successful computer game designer finds that his latest product has been infected by a virus which has given consciousness to the main character of the game. He begins a search for people who can help him to discover what happened to his fled girlfriend and to delete his game before it is released.
[128]

No Blade of Grass
1970
The film is based on Samuel Youd's novel The Death of Grass (1956) and highlights the terrifying effects of environmental pollution.[129]
[52][129][130]

Oblivion
2013
Based on Joseph Kosinski's unpublished graphic novel of the same name.
[23][131][132]

The Omega Man
1971
The second of three adaptations of Richard Matheson's 1954 novel I Am Legend.
[10][29]

On the Beach
1959
Based on Nevil Shute's 1957 novel of the same name depicting the aftermath of a nuclear war.
[53]

Outland
1981
Set on Jupiter's moon Io, it has been described as a space Western, and bears thematic resemblances to the classic 1952 film High Noon.
[98]

Paranoia 1.0 (originally One Point O)
2004
The film is a Kafkaesque nightmare in which a young computer programmer is an unwitting guinea pig in a corporate experiment to test a new advertising scheme.
[133][134]

Planet of the Apes (original series)
1968—1973
Most of humanity is extinguished in a thermonuclear war. In the course of the two following millennia, intelligent apes (chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans) become the dominant kind and establish an organized society. During the 40th century, an ultra-powerful nuclear bomb is launched as a last resort in a conflict between mutant humans and gorillas, ultimately destroying the entire planet.
[4][10]

Planet of the Apes (reboot series)
2011—present
A colony of apes in a sanctuary is affected by a viral gas which enhances their intelligence. As a result, they flee the sanctuary and form an organized society apart from humans. Ten years later, that same virus causes a massive pandemic disease called the Simian flu, which ultimately wipes out all humans with the exception of those genetically immune to the virus. A group of immune human survivors form a colony and eventually engage in a war with the apes.
[23][135][136]

Pleasantville
1998
A brother and sister get zapped into an idealistic TV show from the 1950s, but they realize that it's a sexually repressed society.
[137]

The Postman
1997
After an unspecified "Doomwar", society has collapsed and technology is stagnant. People live in small communities, terrorized by a militia. Wearing an old postman's uniform he found on a corpse, a wanderer tells townspeople that the postal service and centralized government have been restored. The lie gives the people hope to stand up to the militia.
[23][138]

Le Prix du danger
1983
French movie very similar to The Running Man, made fours years later.

Punishment Park
1971
It is a pseudo documentary of a British and West German film crew following National Guard soldiers and police as they pursue members of a counterculture group across a desert.
[53]

The Purge
2013
In a futuristic America plagued by crime, the government sanctions a 12-hour period once a year in which all criminal activity is legal.
[139]

The Purge: Anarchy
2014

[23][23][139]

Radio Free Albemuth
2010
The film based on Philip K. Dick's novel of the same name (posthumously published in 1985) is set in an alternate reality America circa 1985 under authoritarian control. In it a record store clerk receives hallucinatory missives from the alien satellite VALIS.
[140][141]

Ready Player One

2018

In the year 2045, much of Earth's population centers have become slum-like cities due to overpopulation, pollution, corruption, and climate change. To escape their desolation, people engage in the virtual reality world of the OASIS (Ontologically Anthropocentric Sensory Immersive Simulation), where they can engage in numerous activities for work, education, and entertainment.

Wade Owen Watts is a teenager from Columbus, OH who frequents the OASIS and attempts to win "Anorak's Game", a game created by the recently deceased creator of the OASIS, James Halliday, in search of its Easter Egg. The winner is to be granted full ownership of the OASIS and Halliday's $240 billion fortune. While Wade works with several friends from the OASIS to discover Anorak's treasure, the corporate giant Innovative Online Industries (IOI) employs a number of players to try to discover the treasure first and seize control of OASIS for themselves.

[142]

Renaissance
2006
Also known as Paris 2054: Renaissance, is a 2006 animation which concerns a French policeman investigating the kidnapping of a scientist who may hold the key to eternal life in a futuristic and slightly dystopian Paris.
[143]

Repo! The Genetic Opera
2008
This rock opera musical horror film takes place in the year 2056 where an epidemic of organ failures has devastated the planet. The mega-corporation GeneCo provides organ transplants on a payment plan. Clients who default on payments are hunted down by Repo Men: skilled assassins contracted by GeneCo to repossess organs, usually killing the clients in the process.
[144][145]

Repo Man
1984
A young man gets given the task of repossessing cars.
[146]

Repo Men
2010
Based on Eric Garcia's novel The Repossession Mambo.
[147]

Resident Evil series
2002—2012
Science fiction horror franchise written and directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, based on the video game of the same name.
[148]

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

2011

Will Rodman, a scientist at the San Francisco biotech company Gen-Sys, is testing the viral-based drug ALZ-112 on chimpanzees to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease. ALZ-112 is given to a chimp named Bright Eyes, greatly increasing her intelligence. But then, during Will's presentation for the drug, Bright Eyes is forced from her cage, goes on a rampage, and is shot to death. Will's boss Steven Jacobs terminates the project and has the chimps slaughtered. However, Will's assistant Robert Franklin discovers that the reason for Bright Eyes' rampage was that she had recently given birth to an infant chimp. Will reluctantly agrees to take in the chimp, who is named Caesar. Will learns that Caesar has inherited his mother's intelligence and decides to raise him. Three years later, Will introduces Caesar to the redwood forest at Muir Woods National Monument. Meanwhile, Will treats his dementia-suffering father Charles with ALZ-112, which seems to restore his cognitive ability.

[149]

The Road
2009
Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning 2006 novel of the same name by Cormac McCarthy. A man and his young son struggle to survive after a global cataclysm has caused an extinction event. They scavenge for supplies and avoid roaming gangs as they travel on a road to the coast in the hope it will be warmer.
[10][27][102]

RoboCop
1987
Centers on a police officer who is brutally murdered and subsequently revived as a superhuman cyborg law enforcer.
[12][98]

RoboCop
2014
Remake of the 1987 film of the same name
[23][80][150][151]

Rollerball
1975
A future society uses an ultra-violent game as entertainment.
[23]

The Rover
2014
The contemporary western takes place in the Australian outback, ten years after a global economic collapse.[152]
[96][153][154]

The Running Man
1987
Loosely adapted from Stephen King's 1982 novel of the same name.
[10][70]

A Scanner Darkly
2006
Adapted from Philip K. Dick's 1977 novel of the same name. A dangerous new drug causes the users to begin to lose their own identity.
[155]

Seconds
1966
Based on a novel by David Ely of the same name, Seconds is a mystery dealing with the obsession with eternal youth and a mysterious organization which gives people a second chance in life.
[53]

Serenity
2005
A continuation of Joss Whedon's short-lived 2002 Fox television series Firefly. Starring the same cast, it take place after the events of the final episode.
[156]

Silent Running
1972
In the future, Earth has eliminated all disease by paving over the natural world.
[4][29][96]

Sleep Dealer
2008
A fortified wall has ended unauthorized Mexico-US immigration, but migrant workers are replaced by robots, remotely controlled by the same class of would-be emigrants. Their life force is inevitably used up, and they are discarded without medical compensation.
[157]

Sleeper
1973
Awakened 200 years after an experiment gone bad, a nebbish finds it hard to survive in the weird future.
[158]

Snowpiercer
2013
A plan to reverse global warming inadvertently freezes the entire planet. The survivors now live in a train that traverses the globe.
[10][23][78]

Southland Tales
2007
Set in the then-near future of 2008, as part of an alternate history, the film is a portrait of Los Angeles, and a satiric commentary on the military–industrial complex and the infotainment industry.
[28]

Soylent Green
1973
Based on Harry Harrison's novel Make Room! Make Room! (1966). It centers around the issue of overpopulation.[52]
[10][23][29][46]

The Stand
1994
Based on Stephen King's 1978 novel of the same name. A mega-virus wipes out most of humanity. The few people who are immune congregate to try and form a new society.
[102]

Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones
2002

[137]

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
2005

[137]

Strange Days
1995
Set in Los Angeles around New Years, 1999. Crime has run amok.
[159][160]

Surrogates
2009
Based on the 2005–2006 comic book series The Surrogates, follows an FBI agent who ventures out into the real world to investigate the murder of surrogates (humanoid remote controlled robots).
[161]

Tank Girl
1995
Based on the British comic series of the same name, a tank-riding anti-heroine fights a mega-corporation which controls the world's water supply.
[162]

Tekken
2010
Based on the fighting game series (started in 1994) of the same name. The film follows a man in his attempts to enter the Iron Fist Tournament in order to avenge the loss of his mother by confronting his father and grandfather, the latter of whom he believes to be responsible for his mother's death.
[163]

The Terminator
1984
A man gets sent back in time to prevent the murder of the mother of the future resistance leader.
[10]

Terminator 2: Judgment Day
1991
A cyborg gets sent back in time to prevent the murder of the future resistance leader.
[10]

Terminator 3
2003

[10]

Terminator Salvation
2009

[10]

They Live
1988
Adapted from Ray Nelson's play Eight O'Clock in the Morning.
[6][46]

Things To Come
1936
It is 30–40 years in the future, in the 1960s and 70s, and society has broken down after years of war. A contagious disease spreads throughout the globe. Brutal warlords rule with an iron fist. Technology stagnates. But a brotherhood of engineers and mechanics works to restore civilization.
[29]

The Thinning

2016

Set in a dystopian future in which population control is enforced through a school aptitude test. Those who fail it are executed. Two high school students learn, to their horror, that the tests are rigged. They face many challenges and eventually make the ultimate sacrifice. Directed by Michael Gallagher.

[164]

The Time Machine
1960
Film adoption of H. G. Wells' novel The Time Machine (1895). A scientist travels 700,000 years into the future and finds the world divided between humans and strange beings.
[165][166][167]

THX 1138
1971
Set in the 25th century, the story centers around a man and a woman who rebel against their rigidly controlled society. Also the first film by director George Lucas.
[10][46][71]

Total Recall
1990
Loosely based on Philip K. Dick's short story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" (1966).
[98]

Total Recall
2012
Remake of the 1990 film of the same name.
[23][168][169][170]

Transcendence
2014
A scientist's drive for artificial intelligence takes on dangerous implications when his own consciousness is uploaded into one such program.
[171]

The Trial
1962
Based on Franz Kafka's novel of the same name, which was published in 1925. A man gets put on trial but cannot obtain any information about the charge.
[53]

V for Vendetta
2006
Based on Alan Moore's graphic novel of the same name.
[10][12][26][46]

Videodrome
1983
Set in Toronto during the early 1980s, it follows the CEO of a small UHF television station who stumbles upon a broadcast signal featuring extreme violence and torture.
[70][78][172]

WALL-E
2008
Centuries in the future, Earth had become toxic due to the extreme amounts of waste produced by a megacorporation, which also endorsed consumerism and technological dependency.
[78][137]

Watchmen
2009
Based on the 1986–87 DC Comics limited series of the same name by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, the film is set in an alternate history in the year 1985 at the height of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, as a group of mostly retired American superheroes investigates the murder of one of their own before uncovering an elaborate and deadly conspiracy.
[12]

Waterworld
1995
Massive ice caps have melted, and all of Earth's land became submersed. The few surviving humans, who live in big ships and artificial atolls, are poor and ignorant, since they have lost most of their resources, as well as their technological and historical knowledge.
[23][115][173]

Westworld
1973
Written and directed by Michael Crichton. A theme park focusing on the Old West goes haywire when the robots turn against the humans.
[96]

What Happened to Monday
2017
Circa 2043 overpopulation has led to a strict one-child policy where all but a mother's eldest child are put into cryosleep.
[174]

When Worlds Collide
1951
An asteroid hurtles towards Earth, imperiling all life.
[29]

World on a Wire
1973
German television movie (original title Welt am Draht), directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
[53][175]

X-Men: Days of Future Past
2014
The plot toggles between the political tumult of 1973 and a not-so-distant dystopian future.
[176]

Z for Zachariah
2015
Based on the book of the same name by Robert C. O'Brien published posthumously in 1974. In the wake of a disaster that wipes out most of civilization, two men and a young woman find themselves in an emotionally charged love triangle as the last known survivors.
[177]

Z.P.G.
1972
Z.P.G. (short for "Zero Population Growth") is inspired by the non-fiction best-selling book The Population Bomb by Paul R. Ehrlich. The film concerns an overpopulated future Earth, whose world government executes those who violate a 30-year ban on having children.
[178]

Zardoz
1974
The post-apocalypse population is divided into the immortal, technologically advanced but depressive "Eternals" and mortal, food-suppling, often exterminated "Brutals".
[10][29][179]

The Zero Theorem
2013
Centres on a reclusive computer genius working on a formula to determine whether life holds any meaning.
[38]

Observing the data table for 'List of dystopian films' (see 'List'), write a one-sentence description of the highlighted cells and format it within the following JSON object {"answer": "YOUR ANSWER"}.