Exploring the Resurgence and Appeal of Teen-Centric Dystopian Films (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: Over the past decade, dystopian movies have been making a resurgence with teen-centric films like The Hunger Games, Divergent, and The Maze Runner. However, the concept of a dystopia is far from new. It has literary origins going back to the 18th century. The term dystopia was first introduced as an antonym for utopia, which refers to an imagined place where everything about human life is perfect. A dystopia is exactly the opposite of this, a society where the systems put in place contribute to a worse quality of life for its inhabitants, instead of a better one. As a genre, dystopian films are inherently speculative and, more often than not, science fiction. They are typically set in the future and depict a brutal societal order that, while not totally plausible in the present, is close enough to our own reality that it feels familiar and therefore uncomfortable. These films often feature totalitarian or authoritarian governments, environmental and social degradation, dehumanization, and the loss of individual freedom. Epic technological advances are often shown as tools for surveillance, subjugation, and pacification. In these films, power structures are set up to be feared rather than trusted. Humans live in societies of control because often the conventional family unit is dead, education is limited, propaganda is rampant, and resources are scarce. The rights of everyday citizens are eroded, as is their political agency. The price paid for disobedience is often so harsh that most resign themselves to following the letter of the law. But this brutal environment is consistently a motivator for the protagonists of dystopian films. The bleak, authoritarian conditions give the defiant hero something to fight for as well as against. If he or she is not simply trying to survive and escape, then they are trying to dismantle the repressive power structure, working to break the system and free its prisoners. Beyond the common narrative themes seen in dystopian movies, there are also repeated visual elements throughout the genre. Dystopian worlds are typically visualized in one of two ways. They can be hypersanitized and immaculate, like in THX 1138 and Gattaca, where the rigidity of the social order is echoed in the art direction. These environments are excessively sterile and minimalistic. Decorations, colors, and forms of creative expression are almost never seen. Instead, the aesthetic is clean, crisp, monochromatic, and stiflingly sleek. Or they can be shown as dark, grimy, and chaotic, like the urban jungles of Blade Runner and Dark City. This future is overpopulated and dirty, unpredictable, and dangerous. So why do we love dystopian movies so much? Maybe it's morbid fascination at the potential for our world to change in so many terrible ways. Or maybe it's relief that things aren't quite so bad for us just yet. More likely, it's a mixture of the two.