Tear Jerker / Momo (1973)

• The bad future and the process of creating it while Momo is asleep. Especially poor Beppo and Gigi. To elaborate:
  • The Grey Men lie to Beppo that they have kidnapped Momo and will only let her go if he saves up enough time for them. So he starts to work like mad, not at all the way he used to, and it's making him miserable even as he keeps thinking of Momo, though he has no idea he isn't really saving anyone.
  • Gigi was made famous by them, and when he notices what happened, it's too late: when he tries to expose them with the new audience he has, the Grey Men call him and tell him in no unclear terms that if he dares to even think of exposing them again, they will take away his dream come true, and that without them, Gigi is nothing. Gigi breaks down crying after the call and feels trapped living the dream he used to have.
  • When Momo comes back, her builder friend is working long hours and has started drinking because he is so appalled at the rush jobs they are always told to do, lamenting the fact that these new houses will barely last 5 years.
  • The once- bar and restaurant owner now has a self service fast food joint where the only contact he has with his customers is them showing him what they picked and him telling them how much it costs. To even try to have a conversation, Momo has to stand in line three times because she is always ushered on by the other customers.
  • The children are all dropped off in daycare by their parents, where they only play boring logic games full of numbers, and when Momo comes back and tries to play with them, they've lost the imagination they once had. Before that, they had tried to organize a demonstration against the Gray Men, but nobody paid them any mind, because the Grey Men had found out well in advance.

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