Dystopia: 7 Imaginings that Test Human Limits

If you look at what’s happening around you, in your country, the world, what do you feel?

2020 was seen as a bad apple year, this egregious curse on our calendar, #cancelled. Everything about the way we must think and live is markedly different, nothing in 2020 went as planned, or thus far in 2021. Hate was rampant. Weary people, sick of injustice, took to the streets (Some of which were set on fire). The foundations of capitalism were momentarily rocked, to the point where in the U.S. we all were freely given money to keep the whole system afloat. We faced Climate change, fake news, nuclear weaponization, technological surveillance. COVID-19. People are angry and scared, the world is heating up, and the weather is going crazy. The ocean is creeping unto our coastal cities, and won’t be stopping any time soon. A quickly mutating, highly transmissible virus is killing, quickly.

Unprecedented.

“These unprecedented times”-- a phrase that I have heard again and again, that I have caught coming out of my own mouth often-- aren’t as anomalous as one may think. The United States alone has endured economic crashes, mass injustice, droughts, diseases, political upheaval-- I will say that what we call “unprecedented times” have occurred time and time again in history like clockwork. Cyclically and consistently disease and disorder, devastation and chaos, and war and injustice have polluted the minds and lives of people. Century after century, decade after decade we have experienced record breaking natural disasters, treacherous "social movements", unhinged rulers, and disease. When you think about ways in which the world in its entirety is constantly swindled, partitioned and manipulated, it is hard to honestly take note of media that has been generated in the past century-- books, movies, short stories, songs -- and say that what has happened isn’t expected. In the past century, artists, poets, musicians, and filmmakers have "called it", imagining the future in terrifyingly accurate and articulate ways, futures and worlds afflicted by climate change, socio-political upheaval, and weaponized technology with vivid precision. 1984, Children of Men, and The Matrix are just a few examples of classic dystopian narratives that people go back to and relate to again and again. and So what are the shows and movies that are creating works that reflect our potential futures? In what ways do creators imagine the future, and what aspects of human life are challenged in it?

The Handmaid's Tale (Streaming on Hulu)

One of the most harrowingly pertinent shows to catch my attention is The Handmaid’s Tale. This dystopian series, based on Margaret Atwood’s book of the same name published in 1985, tells the story of a United States that has been taken over by a fanatic religious movement. Gilead, the government that has risen to rule over this dystopian U.S., emerged in the midst of mass infertility and a civil war. During this series I watched, rapt and engrossed, as a world that looks very similar to ours turned into something ugly and merciless and brutal. For me, it was almost painful to see how the role of women is slowly subjugated and asphyxiated until they have absolutely no control over their lives. As the show progresses, women are more and more censored and controlled-- the caste system that has taken over society gives women three potential roles: Prostitution to the end of baby production, prostitution to satisfy men’s sexual needs, and matrimony. Women are enslaved within these circumstances with few exceptions, and are banned from reading and writing. My mind kept going to the battles that we have in our country over women’s fertility and ability to choose if they are ready for children or not, and the control that could be potentially asserted over a woman’s body.

If you like The Handmaid’s Tale, then you will be humored and fascinated by The Lobster.

The Lobster (Streaming on Netflix)

The way that this film delivers with a cool acceptance of the circumstances almost sucks the viewer in to view the abominable acts committed with a passive eye, acquiescing as the event of the plot unfold. That is until you think "Shouldn't I be horrified right now? Isn't this awful?"Aching with a wry and crisp humor, The Lobster is direct and shows more than it tells. Like The Handmaid’s Tale, it gives us a glimpse into a dystopian world, where gender and societal roles are suffocated by a presiding power, in this case a much more ominous and misunderstood power, for we never get a reason that the society functions as it does. The Lobster follows a single man at his visit to what at first seems like a hotel or singles convention, but as the plot develops we learn that the entanglements of these “guests” are mandated by the presiding “City”-- each guest is given a short amount of time to find a opposite-gendered mate, or something terrible is done to them. What exactly is done, you ask? You’ll just have to find out.

If The Lobster suits your fancy, then Equals will move you.

Equals (Streaming on Hulu, Amazon Prime and Youtube)

Unlike in The Lobster, Equals are prohibited from pairing up. In another oppressive, system dominated world, the individuals in Equals regard emotion as a sickness that must be reported and dealt with. “members” of the “Collective” are expected to work various jobs to ensure the upkeep of their society, or work towards the obsessed-over objective of space exploration. Living a life of peers and co-workers hyper-vigilant in their search for any sign of such ailment, some people are able to mask hidden feelings and survive. For consequences, termination or life imprisonment sound pretty bad, let alone the prospect of never feeling again but remembering having once done so. One day our main protagonist Silas, looks at his co-worker Nia and experiences something a little strange. Once again seemingly tough and cold at first, slowly the viewer is drawn into the lives of the characters. Heart wrenching and uninhibited, Equals sprints to the ends of the universe of that is human spirit, pulls out its hair in agony-- and drowns in its own tears.

If Equals made you feel something, then you will be moved and intrigued by Aniara.

Aniara (Streaming on Hulu)

Aniara is another love story, but against the back drop of turmoil and desperation. Taking place during the time of a post habitable earth (ravaged by global climate change), a final ship to Mars takes the last of surviving earthlings on what should be a comfortable and quick journey-- until it swerves of course in a failed attempt to avoid an asteroid collision. Everything unravels as the guests find their luxury spacecraft to be a slowly-failing mechanized prison. With an eerily similar setting to modern cruise ships, Aniara is dystopian in that it captures what happens when first-world people are suddenly thrown into a life of deprivation and hopelessness. It reflects our inner mechanisms for survival and reveals what people depend on and turn to in order to maintain hope and cope with inevitabilities-- which in some ways feel very familiar. Ultimately, we are all just cosmic dust, defenseless against entropy-- even the technology we create.

If you were disturbed by Aniara, then you probably find a sick satisfaction in The Platform.

The Platform (Streaming on Netflix)

In our society, a single individual gorging themselves in a gluttonous fervor won’t positively or negatively affect the food that an impoverished someone in a remote region of the world eats (No matter what your parents or guardians told you to make you finish your plate.) If you knew that taking just a little bit of something would mean that no one goes hungry, you would right? Well… The Platform tackles that question head-on, in a social experiment that emulates that exact scenario. In a seemingly bottomless prison, a single dinner-table decked out with the most lavish gourmet foods simply is lowered from one floor to the next, allowing each subject to eat their fill… or not. This movie explores human empathy just as much as it does selfishness and greed, and truly delivers in the visceral depictions of gluttony and primal desperation.

If you were engrossed by The Platform, then you will be captivated by 3%.

3% (Streaming on Netflix)

Vibrant, intriguing, and wondrously gritty, 3% gives Hunger Games a run for its money. At age 20, every citizen of "Inland"-- a futuristic version of Sao Paulo, impoverished and decrepit -- must enter into a series of games, testing their wit and morale, in order to be eligible for a life on "Offshore" a tech-savvy, utopian haven where no one goes hungry or wants for anything. Oh, and I forgot to mention, only 3 percent of the young entrants do well enough to earn a spot. Fast paced and thorough, there is a sort of intrinsic rhythm to the plot and cinematography that is embraced with remarkable results. Faith, loyalty, and loss are only some of the themes explored in the plot. Every character is likeable, and the story arcs that tell of how each person got to where they are is important to their performance in"The Process". I recommend 3%, if you love ensemble casts, layered story arcs, and plot twists.

If any of these pique your interest, then you've gotta check out Black Mirror.

Black Mirror (Streaming on Netflix)

Heartwarming and thought provoking, terrifying and absorbing, Black Mirror has something for everyone. Imagining dystopian and futuristic worlds-- some of which seem a stone’s throw from our reality, you will find yourself beguiled by that one thing (a hoard of robot bee assassins, prison time via virtual consciousness, a video game that gets a little too real) that sticks to your mind (like micro-neuro receptors) and stays there (like an implanted conscious). There are a plethora of different dystopian scenarios to challenge your mind. Black Mirror allows dystopia to exist within light-hearted as well as dark contexts. Each episode focuses on a different set of characters, in a different reality, but there are certain tropes that follow throughout the different episodes and seasons.

Maybe you will be comforted by watching the systems and people of other realities unraveling that aren't exactly ours, or maybe watching characters persevere in the wake of obstacles presented by their dystopian life will give you some hope. Maybe you will laugh hysterically at the madness of everything, or experience a cathartic release. Maybe, you will decide to take notes for when sh*t hits the fan. Perhaps, just maybe, you'll see more of our society in these films than you'd like. Regardless of what these films and series do for you in context of reconciling with our own dystopias, you will be invested, fascinated, and entertained.