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The Scariest Yet Most Realistic Films About The Future Ever Made

Reddit user beefgulash asked: 'What is the scariest yet most realistic future film ever made?'

gray conveyor between glass frames at nighttime
Tomasz Frankowski on Unsplash

I've always enjoyed a good scare on film and my Mother indulged my preferences as she also loved a good horror film.

While we thoroughly enjoyed a good Disney movie together, I was also allowed to watch Jaws, The Exorcist and The Omen before I was 10 years old.

Slashers and sci-fi frights were good, but to me the most effective scares involved nightmarish scenarios that might easily happen in the not so distant future.

For me, growing up Roman Catholic meant demonic possession and the AntiChrist were on the list of plausible fears.

But what films offered possible Hellscapes for others?

Reddit user beefgulash asked:

"What is the scariest—yet most realistic—future film ever made?"

Threads

"I thought that BBC’s nuclear holocaust Threads was much more terrifying and depressing than United States TV movie The Day After."

~No-Distance425

"Threads might genuinely be the most terrifying thing I’ve ever seen."

~ ThorCoolguy

Her

"Her. Everyone is so online that they lost the ability to make human connections, to the point where it's a business for the main character to write personal letters on behalf of others."

"So lonely, he easily falls in love with an AI and the only one who still feels real emotions, his ex wife (Rooney Mara), is treated like a crazy person."

"With everyone too online and severely lonely, we are practically living in that emotional dystopia now."

~ grandmofftalkin

Children of Men

"Children of Men. You want to know what makes it so scarily realistic?"

"Alfonso Cuaron deliberately shot scenes in East London and asked the production designers to make it 'more Mexican'—in other words, make it look even more run-down than it already was."

"Cuaron leaned in on his own experiences in growing up in Mexico and seeing everyday poverty to bring that to look and feel to a futuristic London. The future-London isn't a gleaming metropolis—it's a metropolis on the verge of collapse and giving up."

"The battle scenes weren't fantastical as so many sci-fi dystopian films often are: they're based on real, real conflicts. Cuaron was smart to include imagery from the then-current Iraq invasion and the atrocities committed in Abu Ghraib to jar the viewer's thoughts and attentions just long enough to make them feel queasy."

"The shots of illegal immigrants in cages were disturbing then—well, they should be f*cking frightening now. Cuaron and the production designers saturated that film with little visual snippets of then-current events and fictional future atrocities to make it a highly believable—and scary—world."

~ PureDeidBrilliant

Contagion

"Contagion—a movie about a coronavirus outbreak, that pre-dated COVID-19."

~ glrd1

"When I saw that movie in theaters, there was someone coughing a few rows behind. Like, big, wet, juicy coughs..."

"I hated that immersive movie experience."

~ only_bubble_sort

"The fast killing virus that spreads around the world was a bit unrealistic but man was it a trip watching this during lockdowns."

"I'd never heard of 'social distancing' until the pandemic and it and other pandemic facts of life coming out in the movie hit home."

~ Dmzm

A Scanner Darkly

"A Scanner Darkly. A large amount of the population have become drug addicts, the government enacts a total police state, and the addicts slowly descend into insanity, and eventually are put into rehab once their brains are fried.

"Once they are 'rehabed' (they are basically lobotomized, or brainwashed) they are sent to work on large corporate farms."

"The same corporations that own the rehabs, also own the farms, and they are also the ones growing the illicit drugs that cause the whole problem."

~ CmTrumpet

The Road

"The Road. I remember seeing the premiere of it at a film festival and the director and cast were there and all smiles and jokes and so happy to be there…and then the movie plunged all of us into pure despair for 2 hours."

~ Other-Marketing-6167

"I read the book multiple times before the movie came out."

"The movie makes your heart break, but the book destroys your soul and will to live for like a week after reading."

~ Some-Philly-Dude

WALL-E

"WALL-E. The fact that Pixar showed everyone a very real future Earth if we continue down the path we're on and nobody did anything about it speaks volumes. Everyone knows sh*t's f*cked."

"I'm rooting for the roomba with solar panels who gets outside after we've annihilated ourselves, enjoy fulfilling your set purpose lil' dude."

~ Shes_dead_Jim

Gattaca

"Gattaca. If you ever watch it again listen to how they talk about him and his 'condition'."

"It’s all 'could” and 'might' and 'possibly' and similar caveats."

"His only 'condition' was being a natural birth and not a designer baby."

~ pocket-friends

RoboCop

"RoboCop. Dude dies at work. Gets resurrected to continue working."

"Also the whole bit about corporations privatizing public services."

"Feels like we're gonna be there in a few years."

~ Gentleman_Jack90

Elysium

"Elysium strikes me as the most realistic, as far as the social structure."

"You have an ultra rich class, a mercenary type 'middle' class, and everyone else is fighting for the scraps."

~ Maliluma

"Sure seems like the logic extension of the widening global gap between a few ultra-wealthy and the rest of the population."

"The ultra-wealthy already are invested in space travel, colonizing Mars, island compounds and extreme longevity."

~ RichardBonham

Logan's Run

"Logan's Run, it's a bit of a cult classic."

"In the future, there are limited places for humans to live, so everyone has an 'expiration date' regardless of how healthy they are."

"Everyone has to die before a certain age. I won't spoil it in case anyone wants to see it."

"It's an old school sci-fi movie that I have loved since I was a kid."

~ macmac360

12 Monkeys

"No one mentioned 12 Monkeys yet?"

"Found it super realistic and scary."

~ mrs_anouk

Soylent Green

"Soylent Green solves both problems of overpopulation and food scarcity.... so, maybe it will happen."

"I just hope they think of 3rd Degree Burn Scorchin' Habanero Soylent Green when they do it."

~ ketchuptheclown

Metropolis

"Metropolis. Complete masterpiece in my opinion."

~ CaptianOfCows

Idiocracy

"Idiocracy."

~ BrilliantlyClueless

"I like to believe that somewhere in that world a pocket of smart people retreated to someplace isolated like New Zealand and persisted."

~ notapunk

Zombies! 🧟♂️🧟♀️🧟

Personally, I love zombie movies based on the concept from George A. Romero's classic Night Of The Living Dead.

Zombies existed in myths and legends before Romero's film, but not in the way they do now in popular culture.

Romero's movies also always included social commentary on economic inequality, racism and the ills of unbridled capitalism.

To me zombie films show how people would react in a viral health crisis and our recent pandemic made them all the more real.

So what movies do you think are scary because they're too real?

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Katy Perry, P!nk, Paul McCartney And More Sign Letter Threatening To Boycott SiriusXM Radio

Katy Perry, P!nk, Paul McCartney And More Sign Letter Threatening To Boycott SiriusXM Radio
Photos by John Shearer-Direct Management-Christopher Polk-Gary Gershoff-WireImage

Hundreds of artists have signed a letter threatening a boycott if SiriusXM's parent company, Liberty Media, doesn't back down from opposing the Music Modernization Act.

The act, which was expected to pass through Congress, streamlines royalty payments in the new age of digital technology, but it seems SiriusXM is objecting to a small section that would have the satellite radio company paying royalties on recordings dating before 1972.

That's a whole lot of songs and a whole lot of money the company is hoping to skip out on paying, but not if stars like Paul McCartney, P!nk, Stevie Nicks, Sia, Carly Simon, Gloria Estefan, Mick Fleetwood, Don Henley, Max Martin, and Katy Perry can help it.

The letter read, in part:

I'm writing you with grave concern about SiriusXM's opposition to the Music Modernization Act (Classics Act included).

We are all aware of your company's objections and trepidation but let me say that this is an opportunity for SiriusXM to take a leadership position. As you are aware, 415 Representatives and 76 Senators have already cosponsored the MMA along with industry consensus. It's SiriusXM vs all of us. We can either fight to the bitter end or celebrate this victory together. Rather than watch bad press and ill will pile up against SiriusXM, why not come out supporting the most consequential music legislation in 109 years? We do not want to fight and boycott your company but we will as we have other opponents. Stand with us! Be brave and take credit for being the heroes who helped the MMA become historic law! Momentum is building against SiriusXM and you still have an opportunity to come out on the right side of history. We look forward to your endorsement but the fire is burning and only you can put this out.

SiriusXM resoponded with a letter of their own:

Over the past several weeks, we have been the subject of some stinging attacks from the music community and artists regarding our views on the Music Modernization Act. Contrary to new reports and letters, this is really not about a SiriusXM victory, but implementing some simple, reasonable and straightforward amendments to MMA. There is nothing in our "asks" that gut the MMA or kills the Act. So let's talk about the substance of the amendments we propose, because we truly do not understand the objections or why these concepts have incited such a holy war.ontrary to the accusations, SiriusXM has proposed three simple amendments to the MMA.

First, SiriusXM has asked that the CLASSICS Act recognize that it has already licensed all of the pre-1972 works it uses. This amendment would ensure that artists – the people who are supposed to be at the heart of the MMA – receive 50% of the monies under those existing licenses. Is that unfair? Just today, Neil Diamond wrote in the LA Times that: "I receive a small amount of songwriting royalties, but no royalties as the recording artist." How can that happen? To date, SiriusXM has paid nearly $250 million dollars in pre-'72 royalties to the record labels. We want to make sure that a fair share of the monies we have paid, and will pay, under these licenses gets to performers. Without this provision, artists may never see any of the money SiriusXM paid, and will pay, for the use of pre-1972 works. Artists not getting paid hurts our business!

Second, Sirius XM thinks that the fair standard to use in rate setting proceedings is the standard that Congress chose in 1995 and confirmed again in 1998 – which is called the 801(b) standard. However, we are willing to move the "willing buyer/willing seller" standard contained in the MMA. In exchange, we have asked for the same concession that the MMA grants to other digital music services, but we were left out of — simply that the rates that were set last year for five years now apply for ten years. We thought this was a fair compromise when we read the "new" MMA that was released this weekend by the Senate, and are willing to live by that compromise.

Third, SiriusXM is asking the simple question: "Why are we changing the rate court evidence standard for musical compositions in this legislation so that it gives another advantage to broadcasters over satellite radio and streaming services?" There is no policy rationale for this change to tilt the playing field further in their favor, and frankly no one has been able to explain it to us. It is only fair that we debate why the change to Section 114(i) is in the MMA.

Did you all catch that? It sounds like lawyer speak for "we don't really want to say where we stand."

media.giphy.com

It seems all the letters were for naught. The Music Modernization Act passed in the U.S. Senate.




It was time to celebrate and dance in the streets.









As the saying goes, honest pay for honest work.

media.giphy.com


H/T: Variety, Spin

Some Residents Of Uranus, Missouri Are Not Happy About The Name Of Their New Local Newspaper 😆

Some Residents Of Uranus, Missouri Are Not Happy About The Name Of Their New Local Newspaper 😆
CBS Philly/YouTube, @ShirtlessKirk/Twitter

There's nothing like a good pun about human anatomy. Really gets the juices flowing!


Owners of the new Uranus Examiner must have been snickering as they announced the paper's name. Apparently, it's caused quite the controversy in the small town of Uranus, Missouri, over the last few days.

Residents are divided over whether the pun is an embarrassment or perfectly snarky:


Folks on the internet responded with maturity and composure after learning about the Uranus Examiner.

Oh, wait. No they didn't.





If you think about it... there might actually be a method to the madness here. The brand new paper's name has received widespread media coverage over this past week. Simply put... everyone's talking about Uranus.

In terms of publicizing their new venture, the owners of the Uranus Examiner have actually done a pretty sweet job!


In the video above, a woman suggests the paper should have been called "The Pulaski County Examiner."

If you ask me, that's TOTALLY BORING, and wouldn't have generated as much interest and publicity for the paper. So while the name might be cringeworthy to some, you can bet Uranus that it'll stick around. Who knows, Uranus might even grow as a result!

H/T: Indy100, The Kansas City Star

Woman Was Fired For Refusing To Wear A Bra At Work—And Now She's Suing

Woman Was Fired For Refusing To Wear A Bra At Work—And Now She's Suing
(GettyImages)

Christina Schell, from Alberta, Canada, stopped wearing bras three years ago citing health reasons.

While Schell did not specify the health reasons, she did state she finds them to be "horrible."

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