Synopsis
Starred by Charlton HESTON, the hottest action actor in the 1960~70s, the film's background is futurstic society in despair struggling with explosive population growth and depletion of natural resources. It is based on SF novelist Harry HARRISON's Make Room! Make Room! released in 1966. It is New York in 2022. The city is overpopulated with 40 million people and a huge forklift is mobilized to deal with a crowd on the day of manufactured food rations. People rarely eat fruits and meat. But the rich live in the luxury apartments with women as part of the rented furniture.
ne day, there is a homicide in the apartment. The leading character is a cop, and he probes into the murder case. In the middle of the investigation, he follows his colleague on the way to the murder center. In that place, he uncovers the horrible secret of "Soylent Green," the newly manufactured food product.
The film begins with a documentary-like prologue and it seems the film is strongly inspired by Limits to Growth, a report released by Club of Rome. Indeed, overpopulation and depletion of natural resources were the most powerful elements to argue about a threat to the future of human society throughout the 1970s. Against this backdrop, the film offers a perspective that humans will have no way but to make a choice which has been taboo. "Computer Space," a computer game released in 1971, appears in the film. (PARK Sang Joon)