History Film / TheThinning

* PopulationControl: To conserve resources, every country in the world must reduced their population by 5% every year. Some force a one-child policy, others kill the elderly, and the US kills the kids who fail a standardized test.

* OutlivingOnesOffspring: With failing students being [[spoiler:supposedly]] executed for the "crime" of failing a standardized test, this is an inevitability.

* AdultFear: ''First graders'' are subject to the Thinning. Imagine being a parent and learning your six year old child has been taken to killed for failing their test. [[spoiler:And no, the reveal at the end does ''not'' make it any better, unless you think six year olds being forced into manual labor is a good thing]].

* AbusiveParents: Blake's father is implied to have fixed things so Ellie was targeted for the Thinning (since she passed). And of course, when his options are give up power or let his son go to the Thinning, he lets his son go. (The movie is unclear on whether he knows about the [[spoiler: not actually killing them]] thing.)

* SequelHook: [[spoiler: Ellie's alive and working in a mysterious underground facility, and the Thinning doesn't kill people. So what's going on?]]

* KillThePoor: [[spoiler:It's not quite unsubtly implied (and in Blake's case it actually happens) that the kids of rich or well-connected parents are given a good score regardless of the children's actual performance so their family lines will keep going. Everybody else dies... or as the ending truly showcases, are given an equally horrible fate.]]

* PostPeakOil: The world's resources are dwindling, which is the stated reason for PopulationControl. The Governor of Texas is able to afford things like [[ProductPlacement Pop-Tarts]], while everyone else has to make do with the basics. [[spoiler:And yet precious resources are spent building hundreds of thousands of new tablets and feeding millions of manual laborers in underground factories]].

* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: The rich/talented kids have an uncanny ability to pass despite their seemingly lacking intelligence, which is suggested to be the result of their parents having enough money to buy their freedom. [[spoiler:This fails two of the students, when the Governor decides to throw them, and his son, under the bus to shift the blame and keep his presidential bid]].

''The Thinning'' is a 2016 film distributed by [[Website/YouTube YouTube Red]]. It is set in a {{dystopia}}n future in which a worldwide shortage of natural resources has led the UN to order all countries to reduce their population by 5% each year, and America has chosen to comply with this directive by administering a high-stakes test every year from 1st grade to 12th. The lowest percentile in each grade is then executed in the titular "Thinning." We follow two students, Laina and Blake, through their last two years with the Thinning: Laina is making and selling "study guides" -- contact lenses with embedded computers that provide test answers -- in order to pay for her mother's treatments. (For what is never specified, but it's implied to be cancer.) Blake is the governor's son. He attempts to procure one of Laina's study guides, but she has none left. Blake's girlfriend Ellie fails the test and is killed. Blake tries to get his father to spare Ellie, but the governor tells him the law applies to everyone.

* KillThePoor: [[spoiler:It's not quite unsubtly implied (and on Blake's case it actually happens) that the kids of rich or well-connected parents are given a good score regardless of the children's actual performance so their family lines will keep going. Everybody else dies... or as the ending truly showcases, are given an equally horrible fate.]]

* PopulationControl: To conserve resources, every country in the world must reduced their population by 5% every year. Some force a one-child policy, others kill the elderly, and the US kills the kids, who fail a standardized test.

* PostPeakOil: The world's resources are dwindling, which is the stated reason for PopulationControl. Yeah Governor of Texas is able to afford things like [[ProductPlacement Pop-Tarts]], while everyone else has to make do with the basics. [[spoiler:And yet precious resources are spent building hundreds of thousands of new tablets and feeding millions of manual laborers in underground factories]].

* HotScoop: The local reporter, so much so that Kellan sends her tips he hacks out of computers largely on the basis of how hot she is.

* YoungAdultDystopia: [[UpToEleven and HOW...]]

* CrapsackWorld: The 2036 Earth hasn't been faring well with overpopulation and ecological disasters. In order to alleviate the issue, many countries resorted to birth control and deliberate cullings of elderly in order to meet 5% population reduction quota set by UN. In the United States, the government created a testing system where the failed students were sent to the thinning as a way to focus the resources on the best and the brightest.