In no particular order, these are my favorite dystopia movies: On The Beach, Logan’s Run, Soylent Green, Omega Man, The Stand, The Hunger Games, Silent Running, Planet of the Apes, Blade Runner, Fahrenheit 451. A dystopia is a society with little or no order or too much order-anarchy or fascism. Democracy as we know it has disappeared in some sort of horrific way and either the government controls everything or there is no government at all and it’s every person for themselves. All of these dystopias have suffered some sort of catastrophic occurrence which has wiped out the government as we know it today. Some arevery futuristic, such as Blade Runner or Logan’s Run, while others, such as The Hunger Games or Fahrenheit 451 are timeless. On the Beach is about the Earth after a nuclear war as is Planet of the Apes. The Stand is about the world after a bad case of the flu. I am fascinated as to why people (or myself) like to watch such films of disaster, depression, isolation, hopelessness, and tragedy. 1984 could just as well be on this list, but the fascism depicted inthe film is so depressing and horrific that I cannot bear to watch it a secondtime. Are these films warnings? I think that a film like Silent Running, an eco-dystopia, is indeed a warning against our unbridled use of the planet, but against what does Blade Runner warn us? Many of these films are tied to the out-of-control use of technology, which the inventors do not understand fully. There is always an element of nostalgia tied into each film, which harkens back to a legendary golden era of happiness in which all was perfect and correctly ordered. I would give the movie “V” an honorary mention for its cruel depiction of fascism. Curiously enough, though not a true dystopia, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” leaves the viewer with lots to think about as well.