The content on this page is part of an academic project intended to help students explore how visions of the future have been presented in art. The links are mostly articles about various mainstream works of science-fiction literature and films as well as introductions to specific sub-genres. The list is not intended to be exhaustive.
This project combines research and creativity to encourage students to think about the future and to construct their own vision of the future. This project is divided into 5 stages. Each stage builds on the one before.
Introduction
First, it is probably useful to know that visions of the future are not new. Nowadays, we tend to think of a future of high technology, computers, robots, spaceships or perhaps a zombie apocalypse. However, in the past people told and believed in prophecies. Probably the most famous prophecies in the culture of English speakers are those in the Bible. This is more of a spiritual future than a vision of the future of the physical world (see, for example, images of heaven & hell in art). Nevertheless, even today many people, most notably in the USA, believe in something called ‘end of times’. We won’t explore this here but it might be worth briefly doing an image search for ‘The end is nigh’ as this particular prophecy remains influential in contemporary visions of an apocalyptic future.
A relatively short history of the birth of sci-fi provides a useful introduction to the main themes that are common in modern visions of the future. Another article that is quite long and difficult is Visions of the future: Five dark warnings from the world of classic science fiction. As the title suggests, it is focused specifically on visions of the future so is a very useful article for this project. If you manage to read these articles, you have earned the right to feel more confident about your reading skills 😉
The list below provides links to famous movies and novels that present a vision of the future. You do not need to research all of these. Nor do you need to read all of the material when you follow the links – look for sections titled ‘introduction‘, ‘background‘ or ‘summary‘.
Visions of the Future in Mainstream Popular Works of Fiction
Remember, you don’t need to read everything. Read the introduction, background and summary sections in the links. If you have access, searching for the titles on Wikipedia might be easier than the links provided.
Political Visions
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells (1895) presents a vision of the future where the division of social classes has evolved into the division of the human species.
Metropolis by Fritz Lang (1927) presents a similar class divide but without the species divide.
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1932) presents a vision of the future as “an unequal, technologically-advanced future where humans are genetically bred, socially indoctrinated, and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively uphold an authoritarian ruling order” (Amazon).
1984 by George Orwell (1949) presents a vision of the future where government surveillance watches every individual’s every move with the famous phrase “Big Brother is watching you!”
Star Trek by Gene Roddenberry (1966 – present) presents a hopeful, optimistic vision of the future where the world is unified, prosperous and free of conflict. Note that such optimistic visions are rare! Video clip.
Judge Dredd is the most famous character from the 2000AD comic (since 1977) in which the judges are the law and they battle with criminals and mutants in the overcrowded Mega-city One.
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (2008) presents a horrible vision of the future where every year every district must send teenagers to compete in a televised fight to the death as both entertainment and a system of political control.
Futurama created by Matt Groening in 1999 is an American animated science fiction sitcom that follows the adventures of Philip J. Fry, who is cryogenically preserved for 1000 years and is revived in the 31st century. Themes explored in the series include technology, global warming, inflexible bureaucracy, religion, and substance abuse. These themes are exaggerated in a world where the problems have become both more extreme and more common.
Robots & AI
2001: A Space Odyssey directed by Stanley Kubrick (1968) explores the theme of evolution and the relationship between humans and robots.
Blade Runner directed by Ridley Scott (1982) based on the novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” by Philip K. Dick (1968) also explores the relationship between humans and robots.
Terminator by James Cameron (1984) presents a future where computers and robots have taken over the earth and are at war with humans.
WALL-E is an animated movie by Pixar (2008) in which the earth has become a giant rubbish dump and humans have become fantastically obese living in consumerist luxury on a spaceship.
Post-Apocalypse
Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham (1951) presents a vision of the future where most people have been struck blind and carnivorous plants take over the world.
28 Days Later directed by Danny Boyle (2002) presents a vision of the future where human civilisation has been wiped out by a virus. This is very similar to the ‘zombie apocalypse’ genre.
The Walking Dead TV show (2010 – ) is based on the comics of the same name that were started by by Robert Kirkman with artist Tony Moore (2003). A classic ‘zombie apocalypse’ vision of the future is presented.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy (2006) presents a vision of the future where the world has been made almost uninhabitable for humans by some unknown catastrophe.
Environment
Billenium by J. G. Ballard (1962) is a short story that presents a future where overpopulation is so bad that people’s tiny living space is rationed by their local government. Brave students might like to attempt the whole short story.
The Day after Tomorrow directed by Roland Emmerich (2004) presents a near future vision of the earth suddenly plunged into ice age conditions.
Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth directed by Davis Guggenheim (2006) is more documentary than sci-fi but is certainly very influential and presents several visions of the possible future effects of climate change.
Snowpiercer directed by Bong Joon Ho (2013) presents a vision of the future where the world has frozen and killed all life except for the lucky few who are on a train that travels continuously around the globe. This also follows the tradition of a political vision of the future with a new strict social class system emerging on the train.
Altered Reality
Ghost in the Shell by Masamune Shirow (1989) presents a cyber-punk vision of the future that includes cyborgs, politics, transcendence of the mind and a bit of spiritual science.
Total Recall directed by Paul Verhoeven (1990) presents a vision of the future where people’s minds can be altered through virtual reality. It also shows people living in off-world colonies.
The Matrix by the Wachowskis (1999) presents a vision of the future where people live in a virtual reality that is controlled by AI. The whole movie is available on Youku.
Minority Report directed by Steven Spielberg (2002) is based on a story by Philip K. Dick and it presents a vision of the future where the police stop crimes before they occur.
Dark is a 2017 German netflix series which introduces a puzzling mystery including supernatural and time-travelling elements.
Do you need a challenge?
For a longer and much more detailed introduction that will provide a challenge for strong students, you could try the Encyclopaedia Britannica’s Science Fiction page, but be warned, this is a very long article and it isn’t all focused on visions of the future so you must be selective with your reading!