Big Brother Is Watching: Movies About the Future

By John W. Whitehead
May 26, 2006

“You had to live—did live, from habit that became instinct—in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.”—George Orwell, 1984

In times of crisis, there is always concern about the future. However, this has become a modern obsession. From the rabid apocalyptic overtones of fundamentalist religion to modern entertainment, the future looks grim. And by the increasing references to George Orwell and 1984, you would think that Big Brother sits snugly somewhere right behind our TV screens watching our every move.

Are the prophetic warnings of Orwell becoming a reality? “Granted,” former Washington political correspondent Daniel Kurtzman writes, “we’re a long way from resembling the kind of authoritarian state Orwell depicted, but some of the similarities are starting to get a bit eerie.”

Indeed, permanent war, government propaganda, centralized government, the thought police—all components of Orwell’s futuristic regime—are present with us today. We are definitely being watched. This was brought to the forefront with the recent revelation that U.S. government agents listen in on domestic phone calls and that the mega-giant telecommunications corporations actually cooperate with and help them spy on us. And surveillance cameras are appearing in virtually every city across the country. We are being catalogued. Some even believe that eventually we will all be equipped with digital implants. Thus, the future, in some respects, is with us now.

Besides the utterances of various pundits and novelists, movies have been a constant reminder of what our society may become. All good art acts as antennae, so to speak, tuning into cultural trends and projecting the future. Painting at one time served in this capacity. Now that function has been assumed by films.

The lessons in fiction and art are profound. Can we or are we willing to see—to listen—to learn? We are constantly asked to put blind faith in the government, which many have done in the name of patriotism. But increasingly the government is watching us and censoring our freedom to dissent, which is the hallmark of democratic society. Was Orwell right? Will there come a point when there is no turning back?

There are many good movies about the future. The following are ten of my favorite films that speak to what we have or may become.

The Day the World Ended

(1956)

The 1950s were concerned with nuclear paranoia. Here a group of nuclear holocaust survivors hide away in a mountain retreat. Due to radiation poisoning, the human race and the animals have mutated into hideous creatures. Quite unsettling. The lesson for us today is that the nuclear threat is increasing as nuclear arms spread around the world—especially with countries such as Iran.

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Fahrenheit 451

(1966).

Adapted from the Ray Bradbury novel, this is a story of a futuristic totalitarian society that has banned all books. Firemen exist to burn any contraband books found in the possession of dissidents, with 451 degrees being the temperature at which paper burns. This film is an adept metaphor for our obsessively politically correct society where virtually everyone now pre-censors their speech and certain words and books, including the classics, are taboo and forbidden.

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THX 1138

(1970).

The directorial debut of George Lucas serves up a dehumanized world of the future where human beings live in underground cities run by computers. The people are force-fed drugs to keep them passive, and they no longer have names but only letter/number combinations such as THX 1138. The real story is the subplot—two humans seek to feel their humanity and recover their sense of identity.

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A Clockwork Orange

(1971).

This masterpiece from director Stanley Kubrick was rated X—essentially for violence—when it debuted. Now it would be a soft R. The future is ruled by sadistic punk gangs and a chaotic government that cracks down on its citizens sporadically. The main character, Alex (masterfully played by Malcolm McDowell), is a violent punk who finds himself in the grinding, crushing wheels of injustice. Essentially a story of man’s struggle for free will, this film may accurately portray the future of western society that grinds to a halt as oil supplies diminish, environmental crises increase, traditional morality is destroyed and the only thing left is brute force.

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Soylent Green

(1973).

The film takes place in 2022 in an overpopulated New York City. A policeman investigating a murder discovers the grisly truth about what soylent green—the principal food for people—is really made of. Again the theme is chaos where the world is run by ruthless corporations whose only goal is profit. Sounds a lot like the present.

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Escape from New York

(1981).

An urban nightmare by director John Carpenter where Manhattan is an anarchic prison for America’s worst criminals. Convicts hold the U.S. president hostage within the city’s walls and a war hero-turned-felon is offered a chance of freedom if he can rescue the chief executive. This is a world ruled by government officials and criminals. Except for the uniforms, however, it’s difficult to tell them apart. Remade in 1996 as the inferior Escape from L.A.

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Blade Runner

(1982).

A world-weary cop tracks down replicants (synthetically produced human slaves) who have escaped into 21st century Los Angeles. Genetic engineering and synthetic robotic life have become the fortunes upon which the mega-corporations have built their ruling empires, making it difficult to distinguish humans from synthetic beings. The film questions what it means to be human in an inhuman world. This may be director Ridley Scott’s best film.

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Nineteen Eighty-Four

(1984).

First made as a British teleplay in 1954 and later a 1956 film, this version by director Michael Radford is by far the superior effort. No film could do George Orwell’s masterpiece justice, but this movie comes the closest. The illegal love affair of a minor government official becomes his attempt to defy the crushing inhumanity of an omniscient state. Fine performance by John Hurt.

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eXistenZ

(1999).

This film by master sci-fi director David Cronenberg sucks us into a world where all reality is a computer game. A security guard attempts to save the life of a computer game designer, but they are both drawn into the designer’s weird creations. Surreal but not all that unlikely as technology increases to the point where it is the only reference point—displacing the position formerly held by God.

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The Matrix

(1999).

Everything around us is a computer-generated illusion to disguise the fact that the powers-to-be have decimated the beauty of the natural world. Once a computer programmer, with the help of his new guru, realizes what has happened, the government sends its agents to destroy him. Adept glance at what might be in store for us right around the corner.

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