Idiocracy (2006) | Sci-Fi Saturdays

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Gawd bless Uh-merica!

If you’ve never seen Idiocracy, then you might be surprised to realize the dystopia that the filmmakers create has more than an air of truth to it. This biting black comedy about the dumbing down of the American people feels both ludicrous and accurate at the same time.

First Impressions

An average man in the military is put in suspended animation and wakes up 500 years later to discover he’s now the smartest person in the world. The future shown in this comedic trailer looks absurd, and yet also feels somewhat familiar. Luke Wilson now exists in a world where he can outwit the greatest minds of his time—a world where the President is a television personality looking to get advice from this average Joe. Sit down and prepare yourself for the world of Idiocracy.

Presented below is the trailer for the film.

The Fiction of The Film

Army librarian Joe Bauers (Luke Wilson) is selected for a top-secret experiment as the most average person currently enlisted. No suitable female could be found so Rita (Maya Rudolph), a prostitute, was chosen. Together they would be put into suspended animation for one year to test the process. Unfortunately, shortly after they entered hibernation, the project director was arrested, and the base was closed and demolished. As Joe and Rita slept, the population increased exponentially, the people got stupider, and consumerism grew unfettered. On March 3, 2505, a garbage avalanche unearths the hibernation capsules, sending Joe’s pod into the apartment of Frito Pendejo (Dax Shepard).

Frito seems more concerned with eating his processed food and watching “reality television” where the main character is struck repeatedly in the crotch. Joe wanders into a nearby hospital, believing that he may have been gassed with a hallucinogen by the Army. He is chased by the police and arrested for being unable to pay his hospital bill due to the lack of a UPC barcode on his wrist. Receiving a UPC tattoo under the name “Not Sure” due to the computer’s failure to understand him, he stands trial in a court that resembles a game show, with his lawyer, Frito.

Joe is given an aptitude test and sent to prison, but using his superior intelligence (compared to everybody else) he manages to escape by telling the guards he is due to be released. He tracks down Frito and finds out that there’s a time machine in existence. Joe finds Rita, who has returned to her chosen profession, and they have Frito attempt to take them to the time machine which is somewhere in a Costco store the size of a small city. Joe’s tag is scanned by a nearby device and the police grab him again. But this time he is taken to the White House due to his intelligence test being off the charts.

President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho (Terry Crews) makes Joe Secretary of the Interior and promises the public that he will fix everything wrong with the economy and the dust storms within the next week. Joe takes a road trip to a nearby farm with the rest of the Cabinet and discovers the reason crops aren’t growing is because they are being watered with a Sports Drink called Brawndo. The corporation that manufactures the drink bought the FDA and FCC in 2330 and has replaced water in every usage, except in toilets.

Joe thinks he can actually solve this problem and after much circular talking, convinces the rest of the cabinet that all they have to do is apply water to the crops. Unbeknownst to Joe, this change causes the Brawndo stock to plummet, sending 50% of Americans into unemployment. Joe is once again arrested and sentenced to rehabilitation in an arena, placed up against two monster trucks with weaponry, and the reigning Rehabilitation Officer Beef Supreme (Andrew Wilson).

Rita, who has taken a liking to Joe notices that some plants are growing outside the stadium and bribes a cameraman to go outside and get video of them, which she broadcasts onto the jumbotron screen. President Camacho provides a pardon for Joe. Rita decides to stay in this time, becoming a CEO for Starbucks–now an adult-themed massage parlor. Joe discovers that “The Time Masheen” is an inaccurate historical amusement park ride. He is made Vice President and then President, eventually marrying and having the three smartest kids in the world. Unfortunately, Frito–now the VP–takes four wives and has 32 of the dumbest kids ever.

“You know, there was a time in this country when smart people were considered cool.” – Joe Bauers

History in the Making

Idiocracy is a scathing satire about consumerism and the dumbing down of America. It was the third feature film by writer/director Mike Judge and his follow-up to his popular 1999 film Office Space. Primarily known for his creation of the animated characters Beavis and Butthead, Office Space opened up Judge’s biting satire and dark comedy to a whole new world of filmgoers. It was a film that poked fun at the office culture of a modern tech firm but had elements that anybody working in an office environment could identify with. With Idiocracy, he attempted to take on the entire culture of America. Or is that Uh-merica?

Like any good satire, Idiocracy takes things to extremes. It makes fun of multiple demographics of people and social conventions while turning the country into an absurdist parody of the modern world. If anything, Judge may have gone too far. The plot of the film is not as nuanced as Office Space, having Joe avoid jail, just to be recaptured by police, and then get arrested and sentenced to “rehabilitation.” While Joe shows some character growth, the story continues to drive in circles, not finding anything new to do with the characters. But that’s a minor complaint, as the film really shines with its acerbic wit and turning the satirical content up to ten.

Genre-fication

One question I get asked often when I share the current movie I’m working on is, “Is that really science-fiction?” In the case of Idiocracy, absolutely. The film starts in present-day with the Army’s suspended animation project which succeeds admirably, extending Joe’s hibernation from one year to five hundred. He’s a modern-day Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. Once awakened in 2505 Joe literally climbs out of a pile of garbage. The first thing audiences learn about the future is that there are piles of garbage as tall as some skyscrapers. The system is broken, the population stagnated, and society is barely operating. Joe has found the textbook definition of a dystopian world.

The reason many viewers may not see Idiocracy as a sci-fi film is due to the comedic nature of the story. But it’s a man trapped in a dystopian society who is trying to locate a time machine to take him home. The Time Machine (either version) is a perfect example of another film featuring a similar search. While the comedy pokes absurd fun at the new America of the 26th century, the dystopia that Joe finds himself in is as scary or creepy as many other films, including Alphaville, Fahrenheit 451, ZPG, or even Demolition Man. Idiocracy may owe quite a bit more to this last film than others. Demolition Man has quite a streak of satire concerning the commercialization and consumerism of the future. Idiocracy just takes that to further extremes.

Societal Commentary

Unlike other sci-fi films which may have one or two elements of social commentary, that’s all this film is. The commentary falls into two main categories: dysgenics and consumerism. Idiocracy never comes straight out and uses the term dysgenics, which is the inheritance of undesirable traits and the opposite of eugenics, but that’s what the opening “documentary” portion does by comparing the well-off couple, Trevor and Carol, to Clevon and his philandering. Couples with desirable traits are unable to or unwilling to procreate while a man who might be referred to today as “Florida man” creates a prodigious family tree with as many partners as possible. The film imagines this scenario compounded with millions of families over hundreds of years which creates a future where crudeness, valley-speak, and the popularity of mullets win out over hygiene and passable diction.

Judge also goes to extremes to showcase his fears of the growing pressure from corporations in American life. All the clothing in the future is branded with multiple logos from multiple corporations, as is wallpaper, vehicles, and any place else that can take a graphic. Costco, a bulk discount warehouse store, now exceeds unimaginable capacity (dozens of square miles for a store, at least) and being as large as a city contains people wandering inside for days looking for things to buy. The mega-corporation Brawndo, which manufactures a drink of the same name (with electrolytes), has enough control and influence with the government that it is able to purchase the FDA and the FCC in order to do, and say, whatever it wants. This eventually led to the Dust Bowl of the USA due to the use of Brawndo in watering the crops. The electrolytes killed off any crops that would try to grow, and the corporation traded the country’s future for profits.

Idiocracy does try to present a message of hope, before making one final joke that the country is screwed. Joe is depicted as a middle-of-the-road character. When told to lead, follow, or get out of the way, he would always choose the third option. By not taking part in his community’s future, Joe and millions of other Americans created the collapse of a once great nation. But by taking even just a slight amount of interest in trying to make the country better, Joe realizes he can become President and make some serious changes. Of course, this aspect of the film is just as ludicrous as other parts, but hopefully provides an iota of a message to the viewing public that there’s still time to change.

The Science in The Fiction

Scientifically Idiocracy does have something to say about the future of the human race when stupid people breed. Judge doesn’t make it a class struggle, though some may view it that way. Trevor and Carol seem more well off while Clevon has traits indicative of lower socio-economic groups. But the future depicts a world where the smarter people choose not to breed, leaving only the dumb ones to carry on their lineage. From this, people have names based on products (though that may be a trait of consumerism just as much as being dumb), and lawyers, judges, and presidents which seem like the kind of entertainers that you would not want running your country.

Analyze the future too deeply and the artifice breaks down. Doctor Lexus (Justin Long) mentions that his wife is a pilot. If the normally skilled people, like doctors, lawyers, and judges are as stupid as they seem, what of the technically trained people, like pilots? At one point a jumbo jet is shown crashing in the background, so maybe that’s the answer there. Who fixes the tech in the future? The answer may be no one, as there are several automated machines (a robot vacuum, the Carl’s Jr drive-thru, and the Identity Processing Program kiosk) that malfunction. But there are also a lot of other machines that would need to be maintained. Just the infrastructure to get Brawndo into every drinking fountain and sink must have some skilled tradesperson. That is not the point of the film of course, and any further analysis would be futile.

The Final Frontier

Mike Judge creates an extremely ridiculous story that takes the decline of American society to catastrophic heights. Or does he? During the run-up to the 2016 Presidential election, many people were seen carrying signs complaining that Idiocracy was supposed to be a movie and not a documentary. The perceived parallels between the wrestler-turned-President Camacho with his all-sizzle and no-steak style of governing and Donald Trump hit too close to home for many. The circular logic used by his supporters and the President himself sounds too much like the discussion in the Cabinet meeting regarding Brawndo.

“What are electrolytes? Do you even know?”

“It’s what they use to make Brawndo.”

“Yeah, but why do they use them to make Brawndo?”

“’Cause Brawndo’s got electrolytes.”

Like some of the best satirical and parody programs including The Simpsons and Futurama, Judge was predicting things about society and culture years before it happened. Unfortunately, he was only off by 490 years.

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