History Main / SoylentGreen

[[redirect:Film/SoylentGreen]]

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/soylent-green-poster_401.jpg]]

->''SOYLENT GREEN IS [[spoiler: PEOPLE]]!!!''
-->-'''Detective Thorn''' (Charlton Heston)

''Soylent Green'' is a ScienceFiction film from 1973 starring Charlton Heston, [[AdaptationDecay loosely based on]] a 1966 Harry Harrison novel called ''Make Room! Make Room!''. [[ItWasHisSled Everyone knows the big plot twist]].

[[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture The year is 2022]]. Overpopulation has brought environmental and economic collapse. In [[BigApplesauce New York City]] (pop. 40,000,000), Detective Thorn is investigating the burglary-turned-murder of a wealthy businessman, William Simonson of the food rations manufacturer [[PeaceAndLoveIncorporated Soylent Corporation]]. Based on the fact that there was [[KleptomaniacHero valuable food and books left for him to steal]], and that his bodyguard Fielding and [[HookerWithAHeartOfGold furniture]] Shirl were conveniently away at the time, Thorn believes it to be an assassination. He gives Simonson's oceanographic survey (which he himself stole) to his roommate, Sol Roth, a book collector, and they have a memorable scene cooking up the food he also stole from the late Mr. Simonson.

In his investigation, he discovers that Fielding has more money than his job would provide, thus placing him under suspicion. Thorn is then called off the investigation and put on riot control duty, where an attempt is made on his life. He manages to get the assassin crushed under a people-scooping bulldozer.

Roth, having uncovered a terrible secret in the oceanographic survey, has lost the will to live and decides to take government-sponsored euthanasia. Thorn finds him at the suicide clinic, only in time to hear his last words. He follows Roth's corpse along to a factory that [[ImAHumanitarian processes the dead into soylent green biscuits]]. He makes a call to [[DaChief his chief]], Hatcher, and is ambushed by Fielding. Mortally wounded, he urges Hatcher to tell people the truth about Soylent Green, thus providing the famous quote.

For the trope previously known as the titular food, see PoweredByAForsakenChild, HumanResources.

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!!The film contains the following examples:
* AllThereIsToKnowAboutTheCryingGame: That Soylent Green is people is generally known -- and that knowledge brings some folk to the film. The big reveal ain't gonna work for them.
* AlterKocker: Sol Roth, a grumpy but charming N.Y. Jew who's seen better days.
* BeamMeUpScotty: An unusual instance. While Heston does actually yell "Soylent Green is people!" during the film's climax, most people get the context wrong and believe that he screams it while running down the street and fleeing from the police. In actual fact he says it ''to'' the police, in the middle of a cathedral that has been converted into a homeless shelter, while being carried away on a stretcher. The "running down the street" scenario was actually from a ''SaturdayNightLive'' parody of the film.
* BigAppleSauce
* CoolOldGuy: Sol Roth.
* CrapsackWorld: You have people sleeping on every inch of the street, and even on the staircases of apartments, real food is expensive, there is a year long heat wave going on, not to mention the secret of SoylentGreen...
* DownerEnding
* {{Dystopia}}
* EnemyEatsYourLunch: As a logical extension of KleptomaniacHero, Thorn never passes a chance to help himself to the food he finds in the flats he visits.
* EnforcedMethodActing - Heston during Sol's "going home".
* FascistsBedTime
* FoodPorn: In this CrapsackWorld, some salad, beef stew and bourbon is enough to classify the "Sol and Thron dining" scene as this.
* GaiasLament: Prime example. Earth in Soylent Green is dying, with a year-round heat wave and limited food supplies.
* GreenAesop
* GoMadFromTheRevelation: Sol Roth loses his sanity and will to live when he discovers that Soylent Green is [[spoiler: people]].
* HumanResources
* IAmAHumanitarian: Technically, everyone who eats soylent green is this.
* MayContainEvil
* MegaCorp
* {{Newspeak}}:
** Live-in prostitutes are called "furniture".
** Assisted suicide is referred to as "going home."
*** At least Sol refers to it as such; whether this is a common term or just his own euphemism is somewhat unclear.
* NoNewFashionsInTheFuture
* OnlyElectricSheepAreCheap: A jar of strawberry jam will set you back $150, and not in the RidiculousFutureInflation sense.
* PhotoMontage: The opening credits show a stream of photos depicting the industrialization of America.
* RealitySubtext: Edward G. Robinson was really dying from cancer during filming. Thorn's tears are Charlton Heston's real tears during the assisted suicide scene.
* SceneryGorn
* SenselessPhagia
* SoundtrackDissonance: Beethoven's 6th (Pastoral).
* SoylentSoy: [[TropeNamer Soylent red and yellow.]]
* SuicideByCop
* TechnologyMarchesOn: Shirl is shown playing an early-70's arcade machine.
** It was "Computer Space," one of the first computer arcade games ''ever''.
* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: "What is the secret of Soylent Green?" [[EpicFail just as they're showing body bags on a conveyor belt]].
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The film was made in 1973 and is set in 2022. Thorn looks to be in his forties and has no memories of when there was green vegetation or proper food. Apparently, the filmmakers expected their dystopia to materialize in less than ten years after the movie's release.
** This would be in keeping with other then-current predictions. For instance global overpopulation was going to cause starvation on a massive scale in the ''1970s'', oil and other vital resources run out in the 1980s and early 1990s, etc.
* UsedFuture
* WeWillHaveEuthanasiaInTheFuture
* YiddishAsASecondLanguage: Sol spouts "schmuck" and "lehaim" all the time.
* YouFailEconomicsForever: Raising people like cattle really wouldn't be much more cost-efficient than just raising cattle instead. You may be able shuck the laws of human decency, but there's no fighting the law of thermodynamics.
* YouHaveToBelieveMe



!!The book contains the following examples:
* CrapsackWorld: In addition to the everything crapsack-y about the movie, the transportation system has ''completely'' broken down. In other words, everyone is trapped in the city; The only vehicles mentioned are old buses taken from a history museum, used by the police, running on extremely low grade fuel.
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The book was written in 1966 and set in 1999.
* UsedFuture: The book is somehow ''more'' used than the movie.
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** This would be in keeping with other then-current predictions. For instance global overpopulation was going to cause starvation on a mass starvation in the ''1970s'', oil and other vital resources run out in the 1980s and early 1990s, etc.

* BeamMeUpScotty: An unusual instance. While Heston does actually yell "Soylent Green is people!" during the film's climax, most people get the context wrong and believe that he screams it while running down the street and fleeing from the police. In actual fact he says it ''to'' the police, in the middle of a cathedral that has been converted into a homeless shelter. The "running down the street" scenario was actually from a ''SaturdayNightLive'' parody of the film.

* StrawmanHasAPoint: Considering the state of the world, it makes ''perfect sense'' to recycle human matter into food. Many critics have noted that Thorn's rant was silly.

* RealitySubtext: Edward G. Robinson was really dying during filming. Thorn's tears are Charlton Heston's real tears during the assisted suicide scene.

* ItWasHisSled: Soylent Green is people. It's now possibly the world's most poorly guarded secret, and has been parodied almost universally in Sci-Fi comedies.
** Hell, it's been parodied in nearly everything else too. The Simpsons worked it into an episode about Homer and Marge's sexual relations. [[spoiler:"It's people! People have soiled our greens!"]]
** ''{{Futurama}}'' has Soylent Cola. [[DoubleEntendre It varies from person to person.]]
** In ''{{Paranoia}}'' low clearance citizens have to make do with Soylent Red, they only get the Green stuff when they advance up the ranks.

* ''{{Futurama}}'' has Soylent Cola. [[DoubleEntendre It varies from person to person.]]

* GoMadFromTheRevelation: Sol Roth loses his sanity and will to live when he discovers that Soylent Green is people.

-->-'''Detective Thorn (Charlton Heston)'''

-->-'''Detective Thorn(Charlton Heston)'''

-->''SOYLENT GREEN IS [[spoiler: PEOPLE]]!!!''
->-'''Detective Thorn(Charlton Heston)'''

->''SOYLENT GREEN IS [[spoiler: PEOPLE]]!!!''\\
-'''Detective Thorn(Charlton Heston)'''

-->'''Detective Thorn(Charlton Heston)'''

-->''SOYLENT GREEN IS [[spoiler: PEOPLE]]!!!''

-->'''SOYLENT GREEN IS [[spoiler: PEOPLE]]!!!'''

-->'''SOYLENT GREEN IS [[spoiler: PEOPLE]]!!!''"

[[quoteright:345:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Soylent_Green.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:345: "[[ItWasHisSled Soylent green is people!"]] And now you know.]]

* RealLifeSubtext: Edward G. Robinson was really dying during filming. Thorn's tears are Charlton Heston's real tears during the assisted suicide scene.

* {{Zeerust}}: Shirl is shown playing an early-70's arcade machine.
** It was "Computer Space," one of the first computer arcade games ''ever''.

* SchizoTech: Items are delivered in New York by men dragging boxes on wheels via rope. The only transportation is by foot, bicycle taxi, or if you're a cop and there's a riot going on, a 40 year old bus.

* FridgeLogic: [[JustBugsMe/SoylentGreen Lots of it]].

* HeyItsThatGuy
** [[StarTrekTheOriginalSeries T'Pau]] as the Exchange Leader
** Dick Van Patten of ''Eight Is Enough'' as an [[spoiler:assisted suicide attendant]]
* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Shirl.
* HoYay: Thorn and Roth. The neckerchief does not help.
** Not to mention the spoon-feeding. And the "I love you".

* {{Newspeak}}: Live-in prostitutes are called "furniture".

''Soylent Green'' is a {{science fiction}} film from 1973 starring Charlton Heston, [[AdaptationDecay loosely based on]] a 1966 Harry Harrison novel called ''Make Room! Make Room!''. [[ItWasHisSled Everyone knows the big plot twist]].

* {{Adaptation Displacement}}: Nobody has heard of the book, but most people have heard about the movie, or at least [[{{ItWasHisSled}} Soylent green is people!]]. Which, incidentally, isn't in the book -- it's just a straight-up CrapsackWorld.
* {{All There Is To Know About The Crying Game}}: See MemeticMutation

* {{Anvilicious}}: If we don't do something about the overpopulation we're all going to be turned into green biscuits!
** Keep in mind that the movie was made in the 70's. [[ValuesDissonance Birth control had only been legal for a few years and nobody took enviromental protection serously.]] You could argue that this movie was a well-needed [[SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped slap in the face.]]

* CultClassic

* {{Downer Ending}}

* EnforcedMethodActing - Heston during Sol's "going home". See HarsherInHindsight below.
* {{Fascists Bed Time}}

* {{Green Aesop}}
* {{Go Mad From The Revelation}}: Sol Roth loses his sanity and will to live when he discovers that Soylent Green is people.
* HarsherInHindsight: Roth's suicide. The actor playing him, Edward G. Robinson, was dying of cancer. Only Heston knew. And because of this, Heston's tears were ''real''.

* {{High Octane Nightmare Fuel}}: "Soylent green is made from people!"

* {{Ho Yay}}: Thorn and Roth. The neckerchief does not help.

* {{Human Resources}}

* {{May Contain Evil}}
* {{Mega Corp}}
* MemeticMutation: Perhaps the most extreme case ever - the line "Soylent green is people!" is pretty much the only thing this film is remembered for.

* {{No New Fashions In The Future}}
* OnlyElectricSheepAreCheap: A jar of strawberry jam will set you back $150, and not in the {{Ridiculous Future Inflation}} sense.
* {{Photo Montage}}: The opening credits show a stream of photos depicting the industrialization of America.
* {{Scenery Gorn}}

* {{Soundtrack Dissonance}}: Beethoven's 6th (Pastoral).
* {{Soylent Soy}}: [[TropeNamer Soylent red and yellow.]]
* {{Squick}}
* {{Suicide By Cop}}
* {{Tear Jerker}}: Sol Roth's suicide.
* {{Trailers Always Spoil}}: "What is the secret of Soylent Green?" [[EpicFail just as they're showing body bags on a conveyor belt]].

* {{Used Future}}

* {{You Have To Believe Me}}

* {{Crapsack World}}: In addition to the everything crapsack-y about the movie, the transportation system has ''completely'' broken down. In other words, everyone is trapped in the city; The only vehicles mentioned are old buses taken from a history museum, used by the police, running on extremely low grade fuel.
* {{Schizo Tech}}: Items are delivered in New York by men dragging boxes on wheels via rope. The only transportation is by foot, bicycle taxi, or if you're a cop and there's a riot going on, a 40 year old bus.
* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: The {{Aesop}} of the novel is that ''birth control should be legalised''. It's easy to forget how controversial a statement this once was.

* {{Used Future}}: The book is somehow ''more'' used than the movie.

* OnlyElectricSheepAreCheap: A jar will set you back $150, and not in the {{Ridiculous Future Inflation}} sense.