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Netflix Just Quietly Added the Best Anti-Capitalist Sci-Fi Movie of the Century (www.inverse.com)

submitted 3 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Elysium depicts a near-future Earth in which the majority of rich and privileged humans have migrated to an orbiting space station which gives the film its title. The city-state hogs the advanced medical resources of Earth, leaving the people on the planet below in a perpetual state of lawlessness and impoverishment. Matt Damon stars as Max Da Costa, a former criminal who, while doing dangerous work, is exposed to a lethal dose of radiation, giving him just five days to live. He soon obtains an exo-suit to augment his failing body. It’s then discovered that Max has data hidden in a chip in his brain that can, in theory, alter the computer systems running Elysium, which will benefit all the people who don’t live there.

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[–] maniacalmanicmania 7 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Are there that many anti-capitalist science fiction films in the past 25 years?

[–] [email protected] 30 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (4 children)

Snowpiercer, Wall-E, Transcendence, Blade Runner 2049, The Hunger Games, Children of Men, District 9, Sorry To Bother You, City of Ember, Spaceman

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Wall-E always annoys me because it promotes the absurd assumption that without having to work people become fat and lazy. I am of the firm belief that people want meaning in their lives and that, freed from worries about subsistence, they fill their time with meaningful (to them at least) activities. Though, gravity did play a role in the immobility part if I remember right.

Love the environmental stuff though.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

I think it's not the absence of work alone, but the steady feed of pleasure via their chair data feeds, and chair feeders lol

They are all just terminally online, and it just so happens their gamer nest is a moving chair on a sterilized spaceship

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I didn't think it was the absence of work that made people fat and lazy, but blind consumerism. Those people could have used their time pursuing knowledge, creating art, or even just building a community with their crew mates, but instead, they engaged in the same type of mindless consumption that killed their planet. They lived in a post-needs society, but they had been so conditioned by capitalism (or more accurately, an AI that had no framework for human happiness beyond capitalism) that they couldn't think of anything to do but consume.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

It’s been awhile since I watched it, I’ll watch with your more charitable reading next time and see if I can accept it!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The author must not have seen Children of Men right?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Nor District 9.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago

District 9 is mentioned as one of the director’s other films

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Moon !

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

Good one! My personal fan theory is that Moon is set in the Blade Runner universe.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago

Yeah, that's some Cunningham's Law amount of clickbait BS. 🙄

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Andor isn't explicitly anti-capitalist, but it is revolutionary, so I'd throw that in there. Very well made to boot.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Anti-fascist you might say

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

Very much so :)