"Why didn't we save ourselves when we had the chance?"
The Age of Stupid is a Speculative Documentary film released in 2009 which has a very strong Green Aesop based on Global Warming. The film is about one of the last humans alive (Pete Postlethwaite), who lives alone safekeeping humanity's last pieces of art and knowledge in a world where Global Warming has ravaged the Earth. During the film, he tries to find out when they could have saved themselves using real-life footage of six individuals around the year 2008.
This Documentary has the following tropes:
- 20 Minutes into the Future: Takes place about 46 years from the release of the film and focuses on what would happen to Earth in that time if Global Warming is not curbed.
- Apocalyptic Log: One written by the last man alive where he tries to find out what killed all the humans in the end.
Archivist Of The Future: I just find it surprising, that after so much effort the final act of our existence should be suicide. So why build this archive? It's a cautionary tale. Not for us. It's too late for us. But for, well, for whoever, whatever, eventually finds this recording.''
- Capitalism Is Bad: The documentary takes a dim view of capitalism, arguing that its ideals for ever-expanding growth are just not possible on a non-expanding Earth and pointing out that it thwarts alternative and healthier ways of living at every turn.
- Dying Race: Whilst our protagonist is not the last human out there, as others are seen in the opening, it's also made clear that humanity as a whole is on its way out thanks to Global Warming.
- Extinct in the Future: By around 2042, half of all species on planet Earth have gone extinct, with one of them being the Indonesian Tree, a change which is devastating the Earth's eco-systems.
- Global Warming: Quite important to this film, it depicts a future where global warming has ravaged the planet - London is flooded, Sydney is burning, the Amazon rainforest has burnt up, and humanity is facing extinction.
- Great Big Library of Everything: Our protagonist currently lives in the global archive, a massive storage place located 800 km north of Norway. It apparently contains the artwork of every museum, pickled animals stacked up two by two, and every book, film, and scientific report stored on banks of servers.
- No Name Given: We never find out the name of the archivist looking through old recordings from the future.
- Not In My Back Yard: One of the segments shows a group of residents objecting to the construction of wind turbines on a nearby hill, arguing they'll spoil the view.
- Outliving One's Offspring: The archivist mentions that his grandchildren would have been angry at him for breaking the covenant of improving the Earth through generations...if they had survived into adulthood.
- "Pan from the Sky" Beginning: The movie starts with the creation of the universe, zooming through it as it develops before eventually closing in on Earth, where we get to see the evolution (and destruction) of life there.
- Title Drop: Alvin DuVernay, discussing the misuse of natural resources by humans, considers renaming the period where this was at its worst as "The Age of Stupid".
