The growth of the human population has had some major effects on the way the world has changed. From the foundation of agriculture to the infrastructure we built to create villages, towns, and full-blown cities, our species has changed the shape of the planet. There have been some very bad side effects, however. With the growth of industry and the rise of major cities, there has been an accumulation of pollution. Garbage and smog run rampant throughout the world. The worst of it all has been the ultimate result, global warming.
Global warming has been a topic of contention for a long time. Some people swear by it while other people believe it doesn’t exist. This post isn’t about global warming as a concept. I’m not going to be digging into carbon footprints and the methane given off by the extremely large cattle population being used to provide meat for the fast-food market. This post is instead going to focus on movies that utilized global warming and other environmental elements in their stories. Not weather itself, but the bigger idea of the way people have changed the environment, causing disastrous results.
Solarbabies was a movie that greatly utilized environmental concerns to tell a futuristic story. Set nearly one thousand years in the future, children were sent to live in orphanages where they were trained to one day become members in the E-Police. Daniel (Lukas Haas) was one of the kids at the orphanage. One day, he found a glowing orb that he called Bodhi. It had special powers. When it was stolen by Darstar (Adrian Pasdar) so that he could find his birth family, Daniel chased after them. Jason (Jason Patric), Terra (Jami Gertz), Metron (James Le Gros), Rabbit (Claude Brooks), and Tug (Peter DeLuise) soon followed, when they discovered that Daniel had left the orphanage.
An environmental message was intertwined with that story to give Solarbabies something deeper to chew on. Though the main storyline was the group of kids from the orphanage trying to get Bodhi back, there was a whole world built on an environmental story. One thousand years in the future, the world was a vast desert. Water had become scarce. There were no storms, no lakes, no rivers. There weren’t even little trickles coming out of cracks in the ground. Everything was as dry as could be. People would do anything for the smallest amount of water. Humans had destroyed the planet.
Capitalism also played a part in the environmental issues the world was going through. It wasn’t simply that humans had destroyed the Earth through their dangerous pollutants and lack of care about nature. Money also talked. The E-Police were controlling what water the world had by means of a giant dam. It was containing all the water in one location that the E-Police could dole out whenever they wanted. For a fee, of course. They controlled the water and could make people do anything for the smallest amount of it. That meant that there were water shortages everywhere else. People were dying for lack of water. Vegetation was scarce because of the lack of water. All because of the capitalism and power that the E-Police desired.
It's easy to see how that sort of thing can relate to the real world. The current world we live in is one primarily based on capitalism. Rainforests are being clear cut for building materials, housing land, and paper. Lakes and rivers are being polluted by the waste from industrial centres. The increasing demand of the fast-food industry is leading to more animals being farm-raised, leading to more methane and animal waste in the ecosystem. All of these are the result of rich people wanting to make even more money. Supply more because people are demanding it. But it comes at the cost of the environment. The ice caps are melting. Water levels are rising. The weather is becoming more extreme. Much like capitalism destroyed the Solarbabies world, capitalism is leading to the destruction of the real world.
The Ice Pirates picked up on a similar capitalist story. A group known as The Templars of Mithra controlled all the water in the galaxy. They were so caught up with controlling water that they would destroy any worlds that had natural water. The only water that would be available would be the water that they oversaw. It meant the price of water went way up, with liquid water being a commodity, while ice was a currency. The situation was like that of Solarbabies. The big difference was that in The Ice Pirates, there were pirates that stole the water to make their own livings.
The story of The Ice Pirates was a story of capitalism to the extreme. The Templars of Mithra were trying to control water and set whatever price they wanted, like any company making a product with a copyright. They were destroying planets to eliminate any possible competition, like mergers, acquisitions, and monopolies in our world. But they were destroying planets. That was the ultimate environmental message there. Capitalism was destroying planets and fresh water sources to make the most profit.
Another movie with an environmental message was Birdemic: Shock and Terror. It followed two characters going through a standard romantic storyline, only for it to be interrupted by a bunch of angry birds hellbent on attacking people and destroying their things. The birds mutated so that they could explode and shoot acid on people. They followed the main characters through a road trip, only leaving them alone when some peaceful doves came along.
The environmental elements of Birdemic: Shock and Terror were even more apparent than those of the other movies. Solarbabies may have made it obvious near the end that the E-Police’s hoarding of water was what caused the desert environment and the downfall of nature, but Birdemic was much more in-your-face with the environmental issues. There was a character who appeared about two thirds of the way through the movie to explain the danger of global warming to the main characters. The birds were attacking people because global warming was changing the ecosystem. People were the cause. The birds were out to stop that.
The Happening told a similar story, only with plants taking the place of the birds. A group of characters travelled from Philadelphia to the middle of nowhere outrunning the wind. If the wind caught up to anyone, those people would kill themselves. The groups got smaller and smaller as people were picked off by the wind. Along the way, they discovered that it wasn’t the wind. It was a chemical produced by plants that triggered something in the minds of people, making them commit self-harm.
Plants were the culprit behind the terror inflicted upon people in The Happening. It was for good reason. The way that people were acting, with their pollution and lack of care for the environment, was killing plant life. The plants had to fight back and lower the human population to have a chance of survival. They had to use chemical warfare so the humans would kill themselves and leave more room on Earth for plant life to thrive. It was the same motivation as in Birdemic: Shock and Terror, except the trees were saving the environment instead of the birds.
Solarbabies and The Ice Pirates may have tied the environmental, anti-capitalist material into the story in a much different way than Birdemic: Shock and Terror or The Happening, but all four stories shared that outlook. They highlighted the follies of the current system, showcasing the extremes of where the world could go if humanity continues down their current trajectory. Could birds or plants fight back against the human population in an attempt to restore some sort of balance? Probably not. There’s a pandemic going on right now, though, so who really knows? Will the world turn into a desert wasteland with orphanages to train people to join the E-Police all because someone took control of all the water? Again, probably not. Water could become an important commodity, however. Someone could try to control water because fresh water will become tougher to find once pollution has its say. But the orphanages, future hockey/lacrosse, and glowing orb? Probably not.
Global warming has had a drastic effect upon the weather and landscape of the planet. The climate is changing, partly due to humans have mismanaging the environment and damaging many parts of it beyond recognition. Ice caps are melting. Water levels are rising. Hurricanes are getting more frequent with higher intensities. Movies have picked up on these environmental problems and tied them into the stories. Maybe not the weather itself, though that sometimes happens in movies like The Day After Tomorrow and Geostorm, but frequently through the end results. They serve as lessons to viewers about the extreme places where continuing down this path can take us. The movies point toward change as the true solution. Isn’t it?
Aaaaand, now it’s time for some notes:
- Birdemic: Shock and Terror (week 100), The Ice Pirates (week 128), and The Happening (week 185) were mentioned in this post.
- Peter DeLuise was one of the titular Solarbabies in Solarbabies. He was also in The Unauthorized Saved by the Bell Story (week 337).
- Finally, Bruce Payne showed up in Solarbabies. He could previously be seen in Getaway (week 135).
- Have you seen Solarbabies? What did you think? Are there any other movies (Quantum of Solace, maybe) that deal with capitalism, water, and strain on the environment that I didn’t mention and you want to? Let me know on Twitter or in the comments.
- If you find me on Twitter or in the comments, you can also suggest movies that I should be checking out for future Sunday “Bad” Movies weeks. I’m always open to suggestions, and I frequently put the suggestions I have into the schedule.
- Another place you can find me is on Instagram, where I’m usually putting up Sunday “Bad” Movies related stuff.
- The tournament to determine which movie will be rewatched for the anniversary post in two weeks is well under way. Go to my Twitter to vote on the third round, which is happening right now!
- And, to finish things off, it’s time to discuss what movie will be coming up next week. It’s time to get religious again, but not in the usual religious movie way. It’s more in the Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter (week 87) sort of way. No, it’s not that movie again. It’s not a sequel, either. Next week will be The VelociPastor. I hope you join me for that one. It should be bonkers.
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