4. Blade Runner
Released: 1982
Director: Ridley Scott
Starring: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Edward James Olmos
Los Angeles isn’t the nicest place on Earth to live now, let alone when some jumped up millionaire decides to build artificial people and construct a whacking great pyramid in the middle of Compton. It’s also one of the more beautifully realised dystopias on screen, beautiful being a relative term.
3. Gattaca
Released: 1997
Director: Andrew Niccol
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Jude Law
It’s a little bit scary how close we potentially are to this situation, where social class is determined by genetic traits and upward mobility is limited by the strata that you were born into. Alright, so we’re not quite there yet, and all this tinkering with genetics is well and good, but all it takes is some far-right maniac to get into power and each one of us will end up looking like Ethan Hawke.
