Young Ones is a dystopian 2014 neo-western set a few decades in the future, depicting a United States deep in a severe economic depression caused by an extreme drought.
Tropes include:
- Covers Always Lie: The movie is advertised as post apocalyptic, but there's little indication any apocalypse occurred. The US is in an extreme depression akin to the Great Depression and Dust Bowl.
- Crapsack Future: The United States has suffered an economic collapse due to a severe and prolonged drought. States have militarized borders. Fertility is so low in the cities that babies are for sale. Water is openly guarded with shotguns.
- 20 Minutes in the Future: The depicted technology appears to be a just a few decades more advanced than now.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- The "Sim", the robotic mule, repeatedly:
- The Sim is shown to be present and observing when Fleming murders Earnest... it's later revealed to have filmed the murder.
- The Sim is used by Fleming in killing Earnest.
- The damaged Sim returns to the dealer that sold it resulting in revealing Fleming's crime.
- When Fleming murders Earnest, he loudly mocks Earnest's cries for help, showing the area is so remote that he has no fear of being caught. Later, Jerome takes his revenge in a similarly remote area and has no fear of being caught, and Fleming's cries go unheard.
- The ads for Calvin Hooyman are seen and heard repeatedly throughout the film. The damaged Sim later returns to Calvin's store and Jerome heads there to retrieve it, ultimately uncovering Fleming's crime.
- Robbie and Suze use their baby as bait for handouts because babies are scarce and valuable. Fleming later sells the baby.
- The "Sim", the robotic mule, repeatedly:
- Pet the Dog: Earnest literally pets the stricken donkey to comfort it before putting it to sleep.
