Soylent Green

Soylent Green is a classic 1973 science fiction movie starring Charlton Heston, Edward G. Robinson and Chuck Connors. It is based on the 1963 science fiction novella about overpopulation by Harry Harrison, Make Room! Make Room!

Movie

The movie, set in the year 2022, depicts a future dystopia of the Malthusian catastrophe that might be awaiting us if humanity does not pursue sustainable development. Charlton Heston plays Thorn, a New York City cop, investigating the suspicious murder of William R. Simonson (Joseph Cotten), a former member of the board of the Soylent corporation. Thorn's roommate is Sol Roth (Edward G. Robinson), who is also a police researcher.

Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.

In the movie, real food is too expensive, and the government dispenses rations of food substances made by the Soylent corporation: Soylent Yellow, Soylent Red, and the newest product, Soylent Green.

The latter apparently includes recycled bodies of people murdered by the government for food. It also shows bodies being delivered to the Soylent Plant from an assisted suicide facility. However, this was not in the original novel: Soylent, as the name suggests was derived from Soya and Lentils. Note also that the original book was set in the year 2000, suggesting that some of the projections may have been askew somewhere.

The world of Soylent Green

The world in Soylent Green is complex and detailed. It becomes clear that the culture of Earth is significantly different from the time in which it was filmed.

Slang

• book refers to people who work with books, such as researchers. Sol Roth is referred to by Thorn as a "book." Real books are rare, and no longer printed.
• d is the common vernacular for the currency, presumably the US dollar. Several outlandish prices are given, including 150 d's for a jar of jam and 270 d's for a few vegetables, but it is ultimately unclear if these prices are the result of the extreme famine, or inflation, as no other items' values are declared. Soylent Green costs 2 d's a kilo.
• furniture refers to women who are part an organized system of prostitution, in which attractive women are offered as escorts as an amenity included with an upscale apartment.

Trivia

• This is the last movie filmed by Edward G. Robinson, who died in 1973.
• A character is briefly seen operating a Computer Space arcade game, marking the movie as one of the first to show the emerging pop cultural phenomenon of video games.

Cultural references

• It was referenced in the animated TV show Rocko's Modern Life, Heffer and Rocko believe that Filburt is an alien, whose species uses Chokey Chicken as the center for their evil. After Heffer confronts Filburt about it, Rocko forces him out of the restaurant Heffer screams "It's people! Chokey Chicken is People!!!!" A family of chickens who is walking by turn to each other and say "Well that's a relief!"
• Most recently it was quoted in No 4th Wall To Break, the webcomic, by a borrowed character "Quote Guy" (taken from Repository of Dangerous Things)
• It has been mentioned on the animated TV series Harvey Birdman Attorney At Law, where the owner of the law firm "Phil" yells out in the cafeteria "It's people! The Mediterranean Wrap is people!! No... wait... maybe it's baba ganoush."
• Soylent Green has been mentioned on the animated TV series Futurama, along with the parodies Soylent Cola and Glagnar's Human Rinds. Also, human meat is available at a shop in Little Neptune in NYC.
• Soylent Green has been hinted at in the animated TV series Family Guy, as well. In the episode E Peterbus Unum, a cartoon Slobodan Milosevic jokes that the party guests eat the potato salad because "It's made out of people!"
• Soylent Green has been mentioned in several episodes of The Simpsons, including:
  • Bart to the Future, in which a future Ralph chastizes Homer for eating Soylent Green (Now with More Girls!)
  • Itchy and Scratchy: The Movie, in which Homer buys Soylent Green at a movie theater
  • The Old Man and the Lisa, in which Mr. Burns catches aquatic life and "recycles" them into an all-purpose slurry. Lisa runs up and down the streets and tells people not to recycle (It's murder! You're helping Mr. Burns!)
  • Treehouse of Horror V, in which Bart, Lisa and Milhouse discover that their cafeteria is killing students to make the food, as a solution to overcrowding in public schools
• An excerpt from Soylent Green was re-enacted in the 1999 film Drop Dead Gorgeous.
• Soilent Green is the name of a grindcore/progressive rock music band.
• Soylent Green is a song of industrial band Wumpscut. Song contains audio samples from the german dubbed version of the movie.
• Saturday Night Live has parodied Soylent Green in several sketches, including:
  • Lets Talk and Talk and Talk About Movies, a review of bad sequels, including several horrible sequels to Soylent Green, in each of which Charleton Heston (played by Phil Hartman) dramatically screams "It's People!".
  • MTV Future in which it's the year 2054, and Jessica Simpson is still confused about the contents of Chicken of the Sea brand