Soylent Green is a 1973 American ecological dystopian thriller film directed by Richard Fleischer, and starring Charlton Heston, Leigh Taylor-Young, and Edward G. Robinson in his final film role. It is loosely based on the 1966 science-fiction novel Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison, with a plot that combines elements of science fiction and a police procedural. The story follows a murder investigation in a dystopian future of dying oceans and year-round humidity caused by the greenhouse effect, with the resulting pollution, depleted resources, poverty, and overpopulation. In 1973, it won the Nebula Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and the Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film.
Theatrical release poster by John Solie
Harry Harrison, whose 1966 novel Make Room! Make Room! was adapted into Soylent Green, had no creative control over the film and was of mixed opinion on the final product.
Edward G. Robinson was praised by critics for his performance in Soylent Green, which he completed filming 84 days before his death.
A dystopia, also called a cacotopia or anti-utopia, is a community or society that is extremely bad or frightening. It is often treated as an antonym of utopia, a term that was coined by Sir Thomas More and figures as the title of his best known work, published in 1516, which created a blueprint for an ideal society with minimal crime, violence, and poverty. The relationship between utopia and dystopia is in actuality, not one simple opposition, as many utopian elements and components are found in dystopias as well, and vice versa.
Life in Kowloon Walled City has often inspired the dystopian identity in modern media works.
People Leaving the Cities, photo art by Zbigniew Libera, which imagines a dystopian future in which people have to leave dying metropolises
