An Exploration of Predictive Programming in Film
Since 2020, I’ve found myself revisiting several dystopian films, enjoying the guilty pleasure of high-octane sci-fi-action, yet also noticing scenes and spoken lines that now jump out at me, as, well…pertinent? Prescient? Predictive?
Please do not confuse this piece of writing with an everything is a conspiracy notion, as if it is some kind of Da Vinci code-esque riddle to solve, or something resembling Matt Damon scrawling out his equation solving on a blackboard in Good Will Hunting…
That is not the intent.
Merely, I find it interesting to explore how popular culture within media - specifically in movies, shapes our pre-conceived notions of societal norms, and perhaps forewarns or foreshadows an array of unimaginable futures (and therefore what would be considered abnormal).
Hence why dystopian films can capture the imagination and provide a cathartic release, whereby the viewer thinks to themselves:
“Wow, what an insane & dystopian world they’ve built; I’m sure glad that I live in a normal world.”
The Running Man (1987)
Set in the United States of America in the year 2017, where the social fabric of society appears to have broken down with widespread unrest, Arnold Schwarzenegger plays the protagonist character, a helicopter pilot named Ben Richards.
In the opening scene of the film, Richards refuses to obey an order to fire upon civilians taking part in a food riot. Richards is subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment, and is made a scapegoat for the massacre of the aforementioned rioting citizens (killed by his colleagues), with video footage edited out to make him appear culpable:
Richards (R): “Food riot in progress. Approximately 1,500 civilians. No weapons evident.”
Commanding Officer (CO): “Proceed with plan Alpha. Eliminate anything moving.”
R: “I said the crowd is unarmed. There are lots of women and children down there. All they want is food for god’s sake!”
CO: “As you were Richards. Proceed with plan Alpha. All rioters must be eliminated.”
R: “The hell with you. I will not fire on helpless people.”
In our world in 2022, we are seeing the beginnings of food riots starting to play out on the international stage:
…with 2023 looking set to be even more dire.
*We must digress briefly to acknowledge how far Arnie the former action-hero movie star has fallen from grace, with his cringeworthy (now infamous) “screw your freedom” rant. It is all the more ironically disappointing, knowing that he starred in The Running Man as the leader of the resistance against government overreach and tyranny!
Back to the movie. There is an interesting dialogue exchange in the first ten minutes, with the prisoners forming the underground resistance discussing the state of the world, with regards to the role of the media, in brainwashing children via network propaganda:
The prisoners go on, conspiring to jam the TV network signal and find an uplink to the satellite, so that they can “broadcast the truth.”
Richards quips:
“Truth? Hasn’t been very popular lately.”
Indeed, in our current real-world dystopic nightmare, we are all too aware of cancel culture, and how speaking truth to power is now viewed as a revolutionary act.
As for TV networks’ propaganda aimed at brainwashing the kids, we’ll have to once more wheel out this clip from sesame street, with Elmo’s Dad explaining how he reached the decision to have little, excitable Elmo receive the Covid injectable products:
Prison planet
The previous scene described in the movie, is followed up by a member of the resistance taking issue with Richards:
“You're one of the cops who locked up all my friends, burned my songs.
People like you took this country and turned it into a jail.”
Yup, things sure seem to be heading in that direction in the USA of today…
Also from August 2021:
"The purpose of the Aug. 11 test is to ensure that the EAS and WEA systems continue to be effective means of warning the public about emergencies, particularly those on the national level," a FEMA press release said. "Periodic testing of public alert and warning systems helps to assess the operational readiness of alerting infrastructure and to identify any needed technological and administrative improvements."
Media guidance on life
In closing our rundown of The Running Man, there’s a reap-what-you-sow moment at the end of the movie. The gameshow host, Killian, of a gladiatorial combat-to-the-death show, for which the movie is predicated on, gets his comeuppance. Although not before he frantically makes a plea for mercy and understanding, whilst opining the necessity of legacy media…
Killian: “For Christ’s sake, Ben, don’t you understand? Americans love television. They wean their kids on it. Listen, they love game shows, they love wrestling, they love sports and violence. So what do we do? We give them what they want. We’re number one, Ben. That’s all that counts. Believe me, I’ve been in the business 30 years.”
Richards: “Well, I haven’t been in show business as long as you have, Killian, but I’m a quick learner. So, I’m going to give the audience what I think they want.”
The only appropriate real world comparison I am compelled to draw upon here is MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' Mika Brzezinski, who said the following words about Elon Musk...
"The dangerous edges here are that he is trying to undermine the media, trying to make up his own facts, and it could be that while unemployment and the economy worsen, he could have undermined the messaging so much that he can actually control exactly what people think...and that is our job."
Okay, I know we’re missing the part where the news anchors are sent into gladiatorial combat to get their just desserts, but who knows what the 2030s will hold eh?
Ultraviolet (2006)
Ultraviolet is a lesser known dystopian film, yet fascinating to look back on today. Let’s dive straight into the opening monologue from Milla Jovovich’s protagonist character, Violet…
“Yes, I was born into a world you may find hard to understand. The trouble began when an American weapons lab discovered an obscure virus that had been around for centuries.
They tried to modify it, to create faster and stronger soldiers. But instead, they created a more contagious form of the disease. A strain called HGV. Hema Gophagic virus. And that’s when the disease got out. Everything changed. As previous ages were defined by terrorism, this one was defined by fear of disease.”
Straight off the bat (pun intended), we’ve got gain of function research being carried out, and, oops-a-daisy, it went wrong and made the virus in question more contagious. We have the segue from the previous age of terrorism (think real world war on terror) to the biosecurity state, check. There is a quiet nod to transhumanism with the attempt to “create faster and stronger soldiers.”
Violet continues her monologue:
“The medical establishment took it upon itself to protect the public. At first, requiring victims to wear identifying armbands and rounding them up in special camps and facilities. Until finally people just stopped hearing from them.”
Othering
These are such uncanny parallels to our present day. The rise of safetyism culture to “protect” the public at the behest of the medical industrial complex (trust the science™). We’ve already mentioned the FEMA camps. Let’s juxtapose the bit about the “identifying armbands” with what we’ve witnessed during the scamdemic:
Then there’s the more recent clip of Aaron Rodgers telling Joe Rogan how he was made to wear a wristband (and a mask) to indicate to other sports players that he was unclean (timestamped at this part of the podcast):
Mass formation and conformity over ostracisation
These two visuals are quite striking and resonant:
Alright, the poetic license of the film’s narrative in this scene, eludes to Violet suggesting that the child, named “six”, should mask up to conceal his identity as they’re fugitives, but the messaging is still on point. The fear level is prevalently high, and this is a faceless society. The characters are surrounded by what we have come to refer to in the real world, as new normals.
There’s such a treasure trove of mask-Karen clips to choose from, to slot in at this point, but let’s go for a particularly standoffish showdown between a passenger being harassed, and then assaulted by a train conductor in 2022’s New Normal Germany:
At the risk of the readers deciding this is TLDR, Part 2 will be published shortly. There we shall look at more dystopian films with cultish iconic status, as well as lesser known gems: Brazil (1985), Starship Troopers (1997), Immortal (2004), V For Vendetta (2005), and The Island (2005).
Nicholas Creed is a Bangkok-based journalistic infidel impervious to propaganda. If you liked this content and wish to support the work, buy him a coffee or consider a crypto donation:
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