It’s always unfortunate when you find yourself sitting down, watching a classic favourite of yours, the hero fighting against the oppressive regime, and suddenly, you realize the world you’re watching on the screen is creeping ever closer to the real world. Dystopian films, surreal and far out as they are, are unfortunately becoming more and more a reality every year. Try to sit down and watch They Live and tell me it couldn’t have been written this year.

Dystopian cinema has always pushed the envelope and produced great films going back almost a full century. So, here’s This Guy’s top 10 Dystopian Films.

10. V For Vendetta

 

Now, This Guy doesn’t like looking at this face anymore than you do. The Guy Fawkes mask, already hijacked by wannabe anarchists, has since been hijacked again by lonely idiot “hackers” who insist they’re humanity’s last hope. That aside, V For Vendetta is still an awesome dystopian flick. Set in the near future, the film finds Britain a virtual police state, run by an uber-Conservative government with a overseen by an evil Chancellor (John Hurt). The country’s oppressive regime is combatted by V (Hugo Weaving), an insane revolutionary with superhuman abilities. It’s a cult classic tale based on Alan Moore’s awesome graphic novel. Weaving and Hurt are amazing in their contrasting roles. The action is slick, and the dialogue timeless.

9. Nineteen Eighty-Four

Hey, it’s John Hurt again. This time on the other end of the regime’s stick. 1984 is of course probably the most widely known and beloved dystopian novel in history. That said, the movie doesn’t quite live up to its source material, but it is still terrific in its own right. The country, Oceania. The language, New Speak. The war, constant. The enemy, always changing. But don’t get caught saying that out loud, or even thinking it. Winston Smith finds himself questioning how far he’s willing to go to be free in a world stripped of almost all rights and individuality. But Big Brother is always watching, listening, and waiting for the right moment to break you. It’s an amazing story, and one that will be looked back on fondly for generations to come.

8. A Scanner Darkly

Not all dystopian worlds have to feature government oppression and loss of the self. Sometimes the oppression and imprisonment comes from within our own minds. A Scanner Darkly, adapted from Philip K Dick’s drug laced classic, shows us an America where the War On Drugs has been lost. This America is full of prisoners. These people walk around free, but are prisoners to their own addictions, as a deadly new drug, Substance D, is everywhere on the streets. The story centers on an undercover narc, codenamed “Fred,” who lives a double life as junkie Bob Arctor. His own addiction to Substance D causes an increasing disconnect between his personas, endangering himself and his friends. It’s a deeply personal story, inspired by Dick’s own struggles with addiction, and is a sobering reminder of the power our vices can hold over us, and the amount of punishment awaiting those who “play too much.”

7. The Running Man

Now here’s a fun one. Loosely based on an old Stephen King story, The Running Man sees a world obsessed with constant TV stimulation of sex and violence. Nothing like today. The most popular program is a game show where prison inmates, “Runners,” are pitted against sadistic “Stalkers” in a battle to the death. The Runners can win their freedom, or be slaughtered on national TV. Ben Richards (Schwarzenegger) finds himself on the show after being wrongly convicted of a mass murder. I turns into a pretty classic adventure tale, “rise up and smash the system” sort of stuff. It has a pretty awesome performance from Richard Dawson of Family Feud, and comes complete with ridiculous Arnie one-liners: “Here is Sub-Zero! Now. . . PLAIN Zero!”

6. Equilibrium

If you mix 1984, Brave New World, and a dash of Fahrenheit 451, you’d get a pretty awesome dystopian story. Now, if you toss in some gun kung-fu, you get a pretty kickass action flick, with a bit of heart as well. Equilibrium shows us a future devoid of emotion. All citizens partake in a numbing drug that keeps all emotions in check, and the Clerics, highly trained police, are tasked with tracking down “sense-offenders,” those who’ve ceased their dose and are feeling freely. It’s not an original tale, and the “gun kata,” while cool looking, is a bit silly. But the movie is a ton of fun, with a solid performance by Bale (between American Psycho and Batman), a bunch of quotable lines, and some great fight scenes.

5. Soylent Green

This one’s tasty. 50 years into the future (or 4 years from the writing of this article) New York is an overcrowded cesspool full of whores and soup lines. So, pretty accurate really. Now, the soup lines have been replaced by the Soylent Corporation’s food rations. And of course, Soylent Green is everyone’s favourite. It’s made from delicious plankton, and other sea proteins. Of course the ocean is dying, and the plankton all but extinct, so what the hell is in this shit? Put Charlton Heston on the case and you have a pretty solid 70s sci-fi trip. It may not be in the same company as Planet Of The Apes, but it’s a terrific look at a society that has truly begun to eat itself.

4. Escape From New York

Now if there was one king of cool 80s cinema, it’s John Carpenter, hands down. The Thing, They Live, Big Trouble In Little China (objectively one of the most enjoyable flicks of all time); he’s knocked it out of the park countless times. In this great “near future” actioner, New York City has been turned into a giant prison for undesirables. When the President’s plane goes down behind the walls, legendary criminal Snake Plissken is recruited to go in and retrieve the man and his world-saving briefcase. Snake is the ultimate badass hero, sporting awesome hair, a sweet jacket, and an eye patch (he basically inspired the entire Metal Gear series). He’s your classic one man army pitted against the system, and it’s glorious.

3. Children Of Men

Grounded much more in reality, this dystopian drama finds a world where women have lost the ability to reproduce. The last baby was born over 18 years ago, and the world is slowly descending into chaos. In all this madness, a young woman is taken in by a group of revolutionaries, fighting the police state of England. And this young woman appears to be pregnant, a true miracle, and one that each side will seek to exploit. This film is an absolute masterwork. Great performances, thought-provoking themes an questions, and incredible directing (there is a long shot during a war zone scene that will blow your mind, and it’s not even the best scene in the movie).

2. Gattaca

Eugenics seem to come up in all kinds of moral arguments, whether it be euthanasia, abortion, or vaccinations. Regardless of the hyperbole and strawman debates that arise, the potential for horror in a world gone mad with genetic perfection is truly terrifying. In the world of Gattaca, your genes deterimine everything about your life. Your career, your status, and your limits. But a young “invalid” named Vincent dreams of rising above his station and becoming an astronaut. When a disabled “valid” ofers Vincent a chance to use his genetic makeup to impersonate him and gain higher employment and a chance to fulfill his dreams, he enters a dangerous game that could end with imprisonment or death. It’s a terrific story about fighting society’s expectations, and overcoming your pre-determined nature to achieve your dreams.

1. Brazil

 

And this is just the granddaddy of them all. Terry Gilliam’s trippy, surreal, off the wall ode to 1984, Brazil, manages to make you laugh out loud at its bureaucratic lunacy, and make you terrified of paperwork and plastic surgeons. low level records employee Sam Lowry dreams of saving a damsel in distress, and thinks he’s found his chance when he sees the woman of his dreams investigating the wrongful arrest of Archibald Buttle. Unfortunately, as he chases the woman he wants to love, he delves deeper into the Buttle case, and becomes entwined in a chaotic whirlwind of receipts, badges, personnel transports, and air conditioners. It’s gone on to inspire everything from steampunk fiction to dystopian video games. So when it comes to a dark, satirical look at our world, Brazil DOES NOT MAKE MISTAKES. . . and if they do, it’s not their department.