The Wonderful Future

I'm currently reading The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. I'm about 2/3s of the way through it and it paints a very depressing vision of the future. It got me thinking about the depiction of the future in sci-fi movies and films and how it almost always is terrible.

In The Forever War it's over population and pollution that have spoiled the earth. Everything is garbage in the streets, smog covered cityscapes, and rampant crime and murder.

These are the sorts of things you find in tons of sci-fi from The Running Man to Terminator to Strange Days to The Hunger Games to even WALL-E. Most films that take place in the future make the future look really crappy.

So, what films (or books/TV shows) paint a vision of the future that actually looks good? What future fiction land would you want to live in?

The only one I could think of was Her. Except for the high waisted pants, I would love, love, love to live in that version of the future. It's clean and high tech without being in your face high tech.

Are there any others that aren't terrible looking?

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Star Trek would be the obvious answer.

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

I'm a dope for forgetting Star Trek. It's great except for all those alien races constantly trying to kill humanity...

Back To The Future Part 2.


In fact, there's only a couple months to go before we're all wearing neon plastic outfits, buzzing around in flying cars, power laces and riding hoverboards.

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The Fifth Element... maybe?


Has a decent outlook at how we'll be in the future without getting all cynical and depressing.

What about Blade Runner?
Or even Total Recall?


Both pretty cool without being all totalitarian when it comes to mankind in general.

Dammit... sorry for the multiposting, Surrogates?


Bought that on DVD the other day and tbh, it may even make my new top 100.

I do like The Fifth Element. Have you noticed that all the women in that film are models? Even the one that works at McDonalds. I always thought that was a nice touch because eventually, we'll all just be beautiful.

Blade Runner and Total Recall still have a bit of that depressing, dystopian edge to them. The technology is cool, but they're both dark and dreary and not very hopeful. I'd love to have me a hot Sean Young replicant lady, though.

Yeah Fifth Element is proper fun. That's another I bought on DVD recently. Hadn't seen it for ages, but on watching again I realised I forgot how much I like it.


In the future, we'll all be perfect. Plastic surgery will alter our DNA eventually.


I did like the fact that underneath it all, we're all pretty filthy... the scene when the scientist walks under the blacklight and he lights up like a bedsheet from a cheap motel... is really funny.

Star Trek is the only example I can think of where human society in the future is genuinely an improvement. There are still cracks in the utopia but not to the extent of other stories.