Soylent Green
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- "Soylent" redirects here. For the creators of rotten.com, see Soylent Communications.
Soylent Green is a classic 1973 science fiction movie starring Charlton Heston, Edward G. Robinson, Joseph Cotten and Chuck Connors. It is loosely based on the 1966 science fiction novella about overpopulation by Harry Harrison, Make Room! Make Room!, but diverges into its own plot points and ideas.
The film's title refers to the fictional artificial food product at the center of its plot. Due to the cult popularity of the film, the term 'soylent green' has come into popular usage as a reference to this food product, or any food of dubious origins. It has also been referenced by numerous media sources and parodied in many television series.
Plot Synopsis
Set in New York City in the year 2022, the film depicts a dystopia, a Malthusian catastrophe that takes place because humanity has failed to pursue sustainable development and has not halted population growth. The city's population is 40,000,000, with over half unemployed. Global warming, air and water pollution have produced a year-round heatwave and a thin yellow smog in the daytime. Food and fuel resources are scarce, housing is dilapidated and overcrowded, and widespread government-sponsored euthanasia is encouraged as a means of reducing overpopulation.Meat, bread, cheese, fruit, vegetables and even alcoholic beverages are scarce and extremely expensive (example: a six-ounce jar of strawberry jam is 150 "D's", equivalent to $150 US dollars). Farms that produce these foods are heavily guarded and off-limits to civilians (in addition to the factories where soylent products are manufactured). To most people, natural foods are a rarely, if ever, enjoyed luxury. The government dispenses rations of synthetic food substances made by the Soylent Corporation: Soylent Yellow, Soylent Red, and the newest product, Soylent Green, the most popular version derived, according to the firm, from plankton.
Soylent's food products are mostly distributed as brightly-colored crackers which may be eaten with margarine, although they are also seen being sold as bread-like buns and in crumb form. The word "Soylent" is a portmanteau derived from soybeans and lentils (presumably, these are some of the ingredients of soylent's products, both being very high-yielding crops that are cheap to produce).
Specific soylent products are distributed on different days of the week to the populace. However, even the supplies of this are limited and there is much competition between people to get their rations early. Such is the competition that if the supply runs out, rioting is common. To deal with this problem, the distribution centers have a heavy police presence, and they deal with the rioting crowds in a very heavy-handed way using 'scoops' — special vehicles that scoop up people from the crowd and dump them into containers at the back.
Charlton Heston plays Robert Thorn, a New York City police detective who investigates the murder of William R. Simonson (Joseph Cotten), a former member of the board of the Soylent Corporation. Thorn's elderly roommate is Sol Roth (Edward G. Robinson), a onetime college professor, now employed as a police researcher. Unlike most people in the world of the film, including Thorn, Sol had a formal education and is literate; education of any sort is only available to the wealthy elite. Such people are referred to as 'books' (actual books being largely out of print due to lack of wood to make new paper).
During his investigation of the Simonson murder, Thorn slowly uncovers a strange conspiracy, which would be revealed if he can see what goes on behind closed doors at the euthanasia centers. When an elderly and dispirited Sol opts for euthanasia, Thorn forces his way in to the euthansia center and makes two shocking discoveries. First, he sees motion pictures of the unspoiled Earth of former times, which are shown only to those about to be euthanized. He is startled and brought to tears when he sees how beautiful the Earth was before it sank to its current state.
Second, when Thorn follows the disposal of Sol's corpse, he discovers that Soylent Green includes the recycled bodies of people who have used government-sponsored euthanasia centers, those killed by "scoop trucks," and those who have knowledge of this form of cannibalism (which Simonson did and Sol later discovered).
Thorn's anguished cry of "Soylent Green is people!" — his last line in the movie as he is being carried off in a stretcher, holding up a bloody hand — has become an iconic catch phrase and is frequently referenced/parodied in many other works. Reasons for this extensive use in popular entertainment are difficult to pin down to a single explanation. Some "blame" has been pointed to the film's trailer, which indirectly revealed Soylent Green's main ingredient by using quick cuts of body bags being carried across a conveyor belt over spoken narration: "What is the secret of Soylent Green?" The resulting spoiled surprise may have contributed to popular culture's tendency to refer to the movie (see Cultural impact below).
Trivia
- The original 1966 novella Make Room! Make Room! is set in the year 1999, with the theme of overpopulation and overuse of resources leading to increasing social disorder as the next millennium approaches. It mentions soylent steaks, but makes no reference to "Soylent Green" or to the ideas of euthanasia and cannibalism which form the basic theme of the movie. The concept of the "sleep centers" was lifted from the novella Logan's Run, which was in the early stage of pre-production at MGM at the time. The book's title was not used for the movie since it could have confused audiences into thinking it was a big-screen version of Make Room for Daddy.
- When Sol is "going home" the background score on the film is Beethoven's Symphony #6. The same musical piece was used in the Nazi propaganda film Der Führer schenkt den Juden eine Stadt (The Führer grants the Jews a city). The film was an attempt by the Nazi regime to portray the Jewish ghettos as happy suburban communities.
- This is the last movie by Edward G. Robinson, who died on January 26, 1973, two weeks after he had finished filming.
- A character is briefly seen operating a Computer Space arcade game (an Asteroids-like game), marking the movie as one of the first to show the emerging pop cultural phenomenon of video games.
- In the scene where Sol ‘goes home’, Charlton Heston's character is too late to stop it and we see him cry as Sol dies. His tears were real, as Heston was the only one who knew that Edward G. Robinson was dying of terminal cancer. Soylent Green was to be his last movie.
- This was the last feature film to have exteriors shot using the old MGM back lot.
- the German industrial rock band :Wumpscut: released a 1993 chart-topping song titled "Soylent Green", featuring several times the phrase "soylent green ist menschenfleisch", taken from the German dubbing of this movie.
- In Futurama they have a soda called Soylent Cola. The flavor varies from person to person.
Cultural impact
The film has since entered into the realm of popular culture for a variety of reasons, most notably Charlton Heston's melodramatic performance of the film's final line, "Soylent Green is people!" and Phil Hartman's Saturday Night Live reenactment of said performance. Many television series, movies, and video games have parodied the final scene of the film, especially when dealing with topics of cannibalism. Such use has become so extensive that it has become a staple of parody, used not in specific reference to the film but rather as a self-reflexive allusion to its wide use in popular entertainment. The "horrifying secret of Soylent Green", in itself, has become a popular example of a twist ending that is already known by the public at large, even those who have not seen the film (see also Planet of the Apes and ).
See also
External links
- [SciFlicks.com review]
- [SciFlicks.com "Soylent green is people" sound clip]
- [SCIFI.com review]
- [Soylent Green Fan Site]
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