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By David Young · May 20, 2024
The world is your oyster in storytelling, but sometimes an oyster goes bad. Real bad. In those cases, you’ve got a world where things have changed so much that some societies are not just recognizable—they’re downright dangerous or disturbing. But there are so many ways to see dystopias, to watch it evolve, fall, or thrive in its prime. All you have to do is read some of the stories below!
Screenplay by: George Miller, Brendan McCarthy, and Nick Lathouris
It might be Mars if you didn’t know any better, but it’s just about as deadly: the Australian Outback has become more of a wasteland after the end of the world. Those in the wasteland are chaotic cutthroats who will now do anything to survive.
A warrior named Furiosa (Charlize Theron) must now do the same—going to great lengths to escape a ruthless tyrant (Hugh Keays-Byrne) in the hopes of finding a better place… if it still exists at all.
Download the script!Read More: Mad Max: Fury Road is a Surprise Modern Spectacle that Demands to be Seen
Screenplay by: Lilly Wachowski and Lana Wachowski
Civilization is but fiction—and the Matrix is that fictional weave, a medium for the lie fed to people by machines who have taken over the world. Humans are farmed as batteries and kept alive with a fake reality—meaning that only those awakened to the truth can battle against these machinations and hope to free humanity.
But first, this revolution needs a chosen one….
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Screenplay by: David Zelag Goodman, William F. Nolan, and George Clayton Johnson
Many dystopias look like utopian societies at first glance. With the lifestyles afforded to citizens of the year 2274, Logan’s city seems like a good candidate—full of bliss and allowing people to be born again at the age of 30. It sounds nice, but his undercover mission gives Logan 5 (Michael York) the darker truth of it all as he pursues people who have escaped their so-called reincarnations.
Screenplay by: Billy Ray
If you’re born in the right district of Panem, you get wealth and comfort—but there’s a small window for others to make the cut. Every year, the Hunger Games puts on a gladiatorial spectacle with 24 children, and the winner in this days-long fight to the death gets lifelong financial support for themselves and their family.
If that’s any indicator of the problems with Panem, you might already get why Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) starts to challenge the system when she enters the Games by choice.
Screenplay by: Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthimis Filippou
Not so far from now, single people are forced to use a very strange ritualistic visit to The Hotel to find a life partner. As if romance today isn’t scary enough these days, this stilted dystopia enforces a time limit and The Law’s looming threat of turning you into an animal if you fail to find love.
Download the script!Read More: Awkwardness and Absurdity in Yorgos Lanthimos Movies
Screenplay by: Alfonso Cuarón, David Arata, Timothy J. Sexton, Hawk Ostby, and Mark Fergus
The end of humanity could be a sure thing this time: In the year 2027, rampant infertility has plagued every living woman left in the world. Only by luck or a miracle does a cynical man (Clive Owen) meet a pregnant woman (Clare-Hope Ashitey) just in time to become her last line of defense on her way to an island research station—where her unborn child might give humans one last chance at survival.
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Screenplay by: Hampton Fancher and Michael Green
Dystopias raise plenty of questions, and the dark, wet Los Angeles of 2049 is no different. With replicants come the question, “What is humanity, really?” and this mystery-laden sequel to the original Blade Runner dives deeper into that question as K (Ryan Gosling) discovers proof of an even greater blur between humans and replicants like himself—a blur that would send the public into frenzy if that secret came out.
Download the script!Read More: From Mad Max to Blade Runner: How to Make a Long-Awaited Sequel Work
Screenplay by: Andrew Niccol
A world where the “fit” and “unfit” are decided based on genetic makeup is not new to us. But in the futuristic landscape of Gattaca, it’s genetically modified that gets to be considered “valid.” In such a case where the opposite is true, you might feel like seizing someone else’s genes for yourself, all to get what you want. At least, that’s what Vincent Freeman (Ethan Hawke) does.
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Screenplay by: Bong Joon-ho and Kelly Masterson
Class systems rise and fall due to the conditions they form under, and the end of the world is the kind of condition that shakes things up. Aboard the Snowpiercer, a train where the class systems developed car by car, it becomes clear to some people that an uprising might be in order. After all, dystopias needs a little fixing—and what else are revolts for at the end of the world?
Download the script!Read More: The Hard Truths and Dismantled Constructs of Bong Joon-ho Movies
Screenplay by: Stanley Kubrick and Anthony Burgess
Based on the 1962 novel, this adaptation by Stanley Kubrick portrays a bleak future through the lens of an actual villain: Alex DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell).
As this devil runs a routine of physical and sexual violence against others, British law enforcement uses his psychology against him, making him lose all pleasure from violent fantasies and urges. But the problem is deeper, of course. Both Alex and this forceful condition are products of the same twisted world.
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Screenplay by: Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig
Usually a monster of the past, vampires are the future we all meet in the world of Daybreakers. Where almost every human transforms into a bloodsucking creature, that means there isn’t much human cattle to continue surviving—and it’s under these conditions that two groups of vampires seek different answers to the problem at hand.
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Screenplay by: Larry Wachowski and Andy Wachowski
This version of Britain has been plunged into political darkness, with totalitarian rule and fascist propaganda—resembling the Nazi regime enough to spark violent protest. Where some say “terrorist,” V (Hugo Weaving) would call himself a freedom fighter and soon conditions Evey Hammond (Natalie Portman) to take up his crusade against this regime, fighting fire with fire.
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Screenplay by: Chris Marker, David Webb Peoples, and Janet Peoples
Sometimes, when the world is in trouble, you need someone to go back and fix it. In 12 Monkeys, they sent Cole (Bruce Willis), a prisoner on a mission to investigate the 1996 virus outbreak responsible for the state of the world in 2035.
For Cole, though, the information he gets regarding the virus development is piecemeal and often misleading—with only a few nuggets of discovery each time he goes back in time.
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Screenplay by: Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan
If we push this world to its limits, what world do we have left? That’s one question Interstellar tries to answer as NASA works to investigate habitable planets elsewhere using wormholes.
Now, they can send a crew through the hole to check it out—only to find that this search may force them to experience unforeseen challenges in crossing space and time.
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Screenplay by: Michael Wilson and Rod Serling
Severe spoilers ahead, but this one has been out for a while. With one of the most mind-blowing twists in Hollywood history, Planet of the Apes depicts a world where astronauts get stuck on a planet where apes have evolved to speak and develop civilizations as we understand them—with humans on a significantly lower rung of the ladder.
The big reveal? This is the end state of humanity on Earth, where simian rule is now supreme and surviving humans fled long ago.
Download the script!—
As a worldbuilder, a movie-lover, or even an avid reader, you might be interested in how worlds get to become bad places. Often, it’s because something else got in the way: personal agendas, disregard for the planet, or even vampires. Whatever the case, there’s a story there, and we’ve put together some of the best ones for you to read!
Alyssa Miller · May 15, 2024
David Young · May 27, 2024
Britton Perelman · May 22, 2024
Alyssa Miller · May 15, 2024
Steven Hartman · May 13, 2024