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Soylent Green

Soylent Green is a 1973 American ecological dystopian thriller film directed by Richard Fleischer, and starring Charlton Heston, Leigh Taylor-Young, and Edward G. Robinson in his final film role. It is loosely based on the 1966 science-fiction novel Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison, with a plot that combines elements of science fiction and a police procedural. The story follows a murder investigation in a dystopian future of dying oceans and year-round humidity caused by the greenhouse effect, with the resulting pollution, depleted resources, poverty, and overpopulation.[2][3] In 1973, it won the Nebula Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and the Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film.

Not to be confused with Soilent Green.

Soylent Green

  • April 19, 1973 (1973-04-19) (US)

97 minutes

United States

English

$3.6 million (rentals)[1]

Plot[edit]

By 2022,[4] the cumulative effects of overpopulation, global warming, and pollution have caused ecocide, leading to severe worldwide shortages of food, water, and housing, bringing human civilization to the brink of collapse.[5] New York City has a population of 40 million, and only the elite can afford spacious apartments, clean water, and natural food in walled-off communities patrolled by armed guards. The homes of the elite are fortified, with moats, security systems, and bodyguards for their tenants. Usually, they include concubines (who are referred to as "furniture" and have no human rights, and are passed from one apartment owner to the next). The majority poor live in squalor, haul water from communal spigots, and eat highly processed food wafers made by a single large food processing firm, the Soylent Corporation. Their mainstay products, Soylent Red and Soylent Yellow are a staple food, and the latest product, a new, more nutritious and flavorful wafer derived from plankton, Soylent Green, is introduced to the populace.


NYPD detective Robert Thorn lives in a cramped apartment with his aged co-worker and friend Sol Roth, a brilliant former college professor and police researcher (referred to as a "Book"), who helps him with his cases. Thorn is called to investigate the murder of the wealthy and influential William R. Simonson, a board member of the Soylent Corporation, which he suspects was an assassination. With the help of Simonson's concubine Shirl, his investigation leads to a priest whom Simonson had visited shortly before his death. Because of the sanctity of the confessional, the visibly exhausted priest can only hint to Thorn at the contents of the confession. Soon after, the priest is murdered in the confessional by Fielding, Simonson's former bodyguard. Under direction from Governor Henry C. Santini, Thorn's superiors order him to end the investigation, but he continues, fearing that he will lose his job if he files a false report. He soon becomes aware that an unknown stalker is following him. As Thorn tries to control a violent throng during a Soylent Green shortage riot, he is attacked by the assassin who killed Simonson. The killer shoots three times at Thorn, but misses, his shots accidentally striking several innocent bystanders in the crowd. Thorn manages to locate the killer and throw him to the ground. Then, the killer shoots Thorn in the leg before being crushed by the hydraulic shovel of a police riot-control vehicle.


In researching the case for Thorn, Roth brings two volumes of the Soylent Oceanographic Survey Report, 2015–2019, taken by Thorn from Simonson's apartment, to the team of other "Books" (former professors and judges turned researchers) at the "Supreme Exchange." The "Books" quickly conclude from the oceanographic reports that the oceans are dying, and can not actually produce the plankton from which Soylent Green is allegedly made, thus revealing that the ingredients in Soylent Green are, in fact, human bodies. This information confirms to Sol Roth that Simonson's murder was ordered by his fellow Soylent Corporation board members, who knew Simonson was increasingly troubled by this truth, and feared he might disclose it to the public.


Roth is so shaken by the truth that he decides to "return to the home of God" and seeks assisted suicide at a government clinic. Thorn discovers this, and rushes to stop him, but arrives too late. Before dying, Roth whispers his discovery to Thorn, who is horrified. Thorn moves to uncover proof of crimes against humanity, and to bring it to the attention of the Supreme Exchange, so the case can be brought to the Council of Nations to take action.


Thorn secretly boards a waste truck transporting human bodies from the euthanasia center to a waste-disposal plant, where he witnesses human corpses instead being processed and turned into Soylent Green. Thorn is discovered, but he escapes. As he returns to the Supreme Exchange, he is ambushed by Fielding and his men. Finding refuge in the church where Simonson confessed, Thorn kills his attackers, but is seriously wounded in a gunfight. As paramedics tend to Thorn, he urges his commanding officer, Chief Hatcher, to spread the truth. Thorn shouts to the surrounding crowd, "Soylent Green is people!"

Winner Best Science Fiction Film of Year – , Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films (Richard Fleischer, Walter Seltzer, Russell Thacher)

Saturn Award

Winner Grand Prize – (Richard Fleischer)

Avoriaz International Fantastic Film Festival

Nominee Best Film of Year (Best Dramatic Presentation) – (Richard Fleischer, Stanley Greenberg, Harry Harrison)

Hugo Award

Winner Best Film Script of Year (Best Dramatic Presentation) – , Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (Stanley Greenberg, Harry Harrison)

Nebula Award

"Soylent Green is people!" is ranked 77th on the 's list AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes.

American Film Institute

Home media[edit]

Soylent Green was released on Capacitance Electronic Disc by MGM/CBS Home Video and later on LaserDisc by MGM/UA in 1992 (ISBN 0-7928-1399-5, OCLC 31684584).[19] In November 2007, Warner Home Video released the film on DVD concurrent with the DVD releases of two other science fiction films: Logan's Run (1976), a film that covers similar themes of dystopia and overpopulation, and Outland (1981).[20] A Blu-ray Disc release followed on March 29, 2011.

a brand of meal replacement products whose creator was inspired by the book and film

Soylent (meal replacement)

a 2012 film, based on David Mitchell's 2004 novel Cloud Atlas, both depicting a future society in which workers are fed with human remains

Cloud Atlas

– in Mega City One, the deceased are recycled into food after they have had the funeral.

Judge Dredd

, a 2020 dystopian novel by Agustina Bazterrica in which humans are farmed for their meat

Tender Is the Flesh

, a 2017 dystopian novel by Maggie Shen King that critics compared to Soylent Green due to similar speculations on human overpopulation

An Excess Male

, a 1976 dystopian movie where the population and the consumption of resources are maintained in equilibrium by killing everyone who reaches the age of 30. Those who try to escape are captured, and frozen for food.

Logan's Run

"Soup Is Good Food", a 1985 opening song on the album by hardcore punk rock band the Dead Kennedys, references Soylent Green and draws parallels between it and modern America.

Frankenchrist

Smith, Wesley J. (January 16, 2022). . National Review. Retrieved January 17, 2022.

"What 1973's Soylent Green Accurately Predicted about 2022"

Sokol, Tony (January 7, 2022). . Den of Geek. Retrieved January 17, 2022.

"Soylent Green Predicted 2022, Including Impossible Meat Substitutes"

Osteried, Peter (January 15, 2022). . Golem.de (in German). Retrieved January 17, 2022.

"Bedingt prophetisch"

Küveler, Jan (January 3, 2022). . Die Welt (in German). Retrieved January 17, 2022.

"Soylent Green: Die Gegenwart holt die Ökodystopie ein"

Eckner, Constantin (January 12, 2022). . Deutschlandfunk Kultur (in German). Retrieved January 17, 2022.

"Ökodystopie "Soylent Green" – Prognosen fürs Katastrophenjahr 2022"

. archive.org. Internet Archive Digital Library. March 10, 2021. Retrieved October 16, 2023. Topic Soylent Green, Richard Fleisher, 1973, Charlton Heston, Edward G. Robinson, Harry Harrison, Stanley R. Greenberg. Full film free download. 1h 36m 48s.

"Soylent Green ( 1973)"

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