Richard Crouse

Will and Jaden Smith are not only the stars of After Earth, the upcoming sci fi adventure film, they’re also Metro’s special Earth Day guests. On Monday April 22 the father and son will sit for an exclusive Q&A with Metro to discuss the earth’s future, the impact on the environment and advances in technology, transport and the media.

In the meantime, here’s a look at our future, as seen through the movie camera lens.

1.) Idiocracy takes place in a world ruled by advertising and commercialism where the average IQ has dropped into the low twenties. Private Joe Bauers (Luke Wilson), an average American frozen for 500 years as part of an experiment, is thawed and released into the year 2505. The world has changed, and now he’s the smartest man in earth.

Best future earth line?: “I’m Secretary of State, brought to you by Carl’s Jr.”

2.) John Ritter and Meatloaf star in Americathon, a 1979 film set twenty years in the future. The USA is bankrupt and everyone gets around on bikes and roller skates because there’s no gas. To pay off a $400 million debt the president tries many things, including filling the Statue of Liberty with jellybeans for a “Guess How Many” contest before staging a wild telethon.

Best future earth line?: “Everyone all across the country was watching the telethon. From what was left of New York, to the first all-gay state, North Dakota. All eyes were glued to their sets…”

3.) In WALL-E, set in the year 2700, Earth is now a dystopian world rendered uninhabitable by wasteful and excessive humans who exited the planet centuries ago. A waste removal robot named WALL-E loves alone, until a search robot named EVE changes his life.

Best future earth line?: “Too much garbage in your face? There’s plenty of space out in space!”

4.) Silent Running is the story of the man (Bruce Dern) who tends all that is left of earth’s plant life in large interplanetary greenhouses. When he is ordered to destroy the foliage and return to earth, he takes another, deadly but more eco-friendly path.

Best future earth line?: “On Earth, everywhere you go, the temperature is 75 degrees. Everything is the same; all the people are exactly the same. Now what kind of life is that?”

5.) Children of Men takes place in 2027 after twenty years of human infertility has left society on the brink of collapse. Clive Owen plays a civil servant who helps a pregnant West African refugee (Clare-Hope Ashitey) escape the chaos and possibly save the world.

Best future earth line?: “Your baby is the miracle the whole world has been waiting for.”