We love positive-thinking movies about the future, like Star Trek, Avatar, and Serenity. (The Star Wars series is very optimIstic, but remember that it's set "a long time ago.") More often, however, the future doesn't look terribly bright in science-fiction movies, as these video samples make abundantly clear. .
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Surely the most terrifying scenes in the movies are those of a future in which "intelligent" machines rule the planet. Before that happens, a horrifying "nuclear fire" wipes out three billion lives, a never-ending nightmare of fire and near-total destruction. So, yes, call this an action blockbuster all you want, but at its heart, this is a horror movie about a terrible future that awaits, unless a few brave souls can change it.
Blade Runner (1982)
With a sequel on its way, it's a good time to revisit Ridley Scott's classic, inspired by a short story by Philip K. Dick. Los Angeles looks both neon cool and darkly desperate as Harrison Ford hunts down a gang of murderous "replicants," artificial humans with extraordinary strength. In this future, the greatest horror is the idea of living another day in such miserable conditions.
28 Weeks Later (2007)
The sequel is, perhaps, even more corrosively pessimistic about the future than the original, suggesting that mankind will always find a way to mess things up. Rose Byrne, Idris Elba, Robert Carlyle, and Jeremy Renner star.
Children of Men (2006)
Based on a novel by P.D. James, director Alfonso Cuarón establishes a very bleak, horrifying world that has no future because women have become infertile. A sliver of light appears, in the form of a pregnant young woman, prompting Clive Owen to risk everything to preserve the possibility of future life on Earth.
Brazil (1985)
A wild, wild -- and very oppressive -- future awaits in Terry Gilliam's classic. Jonathan Pryce is a brow-beaten everyman, a bureaucrat in a government office in a country constantly under attack by terrorists. Eventually he becomes so caught up in a horrible, byzantine plot that his future comes into serious doubt.
A Boy and His Dog (1975)
The trailer for this "R-rated, rather kinky tale of survival" emphasizes the comic side of the movie, drawn from a novella by Harlan Ellison. Don Johnson stars as a young man surviving in a desolate wasteland, largely through the efforts of his very intelligent dog. The humor is hard-bitten, a defense mechanism against a future that holds little hope of ever getting better.
Soylent Green (1973)
The marketing for the big-screen adaptation of Harry Harrison's Make Room! Make Room! puts the emphasis on solving a mystery, but the novel itself is more concerned with the devastating effects of overpopulation, and the movie, directed by Richard Fleischer, does a great job of depicting the everyday horrors involved in a bleak future.
