Zeitgeist: Kill The Tech Bro, Relieve The World: How Ceos Became Hollywood's Novel Supervillains

All the tropes too memes.
From The Guardian:

Jesse Eisenberg played Lex Luthor every bit an evil nerd inwards Batman vs Superman. Photograph: Clay Enos/Warner Bros 

Hollywood has a history of drawing on collective fears. The dawn of the atomic historic menstruum saw a blast inwards world-ending disasters, James Bond battled Russians all throughout the mutual depression temperature war, too the post-9/11 era saw a grimly predictable ascension inwards Arab too Muslim bad guys. And then it follows, that inwards the past times few years – every bit the likes of Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk too Jeff Bezos get got accrued to a greater extent than power, wealth too influence than virtually governments – the confront of villainy has changed again.

Since the plow of the decade, blockbusters get got increasingly cast Silicon Valley’s tech bros every bit supervillains. And it’s non difficult to come across why. Whether it’s the icon of a pallid Zuckerberg hauled upwardly inwards front end of Congress for disrupting democracy, or Jeff Bezos tweeting images of himself piloting giant robots, their populace icon has been less than gleaming. The meek get got inherited the earth, too instantly they appear hellbent on destroying it.

Until of late of course, blockbuster nerds were benevolent figures. From Jeff Goldblum’s satellite technician inwards Independence Day to Simon Pegg’s grapheme inwards the rebooted Mission Impossible series, the figurer genius of quondam was typically on mitt to get got out safety cameras or decode transmissions. They’ve been affable dweebs: physically inept but capable of saving the twenty-four threescore minutes menstruum amongst some last-minute, sweat-inducing hacking.

How things get got changed. Take Upgrade, currently inwards cinemas inwards the US, which tells the storey of Grey Trace (Logan Marshall-Green), a mechanic whose married adult woman is murdered inwards an prepare on that leaves him quadriplegic, (all afterwards his self-driving machine malfunctions too sends them to the bad component subdivision of town). Enter a tech-savvy CEO – the less-than-subtly named “Eron Keen” – who offers Grey the adventure to walk again, too avenge his wife’s death, amongst the aid of an implant inwards his spine. As yous tin dismiss likely surmise, the flake is equipped amongst lots of, shall nosotros say, additional features, too our gracious developer is inwards plow revealed to get got ulterior designs....MORE

See also:

The Tropes You'll Need To Know When Writing Your Dystopian Movie Script
Handy hints from a 2014 post:
If yous score nosotros would appreciate a producer credit too mayhap a betoken or 2 of participation.

From Vanity Fair:

Inventories
The Complete List: Everything You Will Find inwards a Dystopian Movie

The box office’s obsession amongst teen-centric dystopian films (all teens intend the world revolves merely about them, specially teens trapped inwards evil oppressive societies) rages steadily onward, thank yous to this week’s novel unloose The Giver. Like The Hunger Games too Divergent, the Phillip Noyce cinema features pulls from some well-read rootage material: this fourth dimension around, it’s Lois Lowry’s classic novel of the same name.

Lowry’s volume has got to a greater extent than years on it than either Divergent or The Hunger Games, which are nonetheless basically inwards literary infancy, making it far to a greater extent than similar to other standards of the genre, the sort liable to live taught inwards classrooms, non spawning light-headed sold-out crowds at the local multiplex. The hallmarks of the novel are to a greater extent than inwards trouble amongst other classics such every bit Fahrenheit 451 too Brave New World, books that all made the throttle to characteristic films long earlier the advert “Katniss Everdeen” was on anyone’s lips (and conceivably earlier the advert was fifty-fifty invented). The Giver is the sort of dystopian novel you’d honor on a reading listing decades ago, but it’s instantly been gussied upwardly to appeal to a volume audience, thank yous to casting choices that include Jeff Bridges, Brenton Thwaites, Meryl Streep, too fifty-fifty Taylor Swift.

Will audiences plow out to come across the storey of a man child saddled amongst all the memories too emotions of his hereafter society? Or volition they merely cobble the flick together based on what came earlier it? See, The Giver comes from a long trouble of big-screen dystopias that, over xl years or so, certain kickoff to hold off the same afterwards a while.

The Government Is Evil

If there’s i trait that holds together slap-up swathes of dystopian features, it’s a salubrious fearfulness of the government. And no, non merely a vague feel that your rights powerfulness live threatened past times your elected overlords, but the deep too unshakable truth that your entire life has been dictated past times whole groups of people who ostensibly get got your best interests at heart. Whether they’re telling yous what to arrive at too who to conjoin or forcing yous to battle to the decease every bit component subdivision of a televised effect or merely manifestly quondam killing yous off inwards your prime, dystopian governments are perennial large bads who don’t aid if you’re paying their salaries amongst your taxes.

Check out: A Clockwork Orange, Brave New World, Brazil, Divergent, the Hunger Games series, Fahrenheit 451, Gattaca, The Giver, The Handmaid’s Tale, In Time, Logan’s Run, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Soylent Green, V for Vendetta, THX 1138

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