TOP 3 CLASSIC FILMS ADDRESSING THE CLIMATE CRISIS

Sometimes films are a welcome distraction from the problems affecting the world, and sometimes they are big, juicy metaphors for what we should be paying attention to. From a giant science fiction adventure to a post-apocalyptic wasteland these films address the climate crisis (in one way or another!)

By Thomas Mansbridge

THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW (2004)

Dennis Quaid (playing Jack Hall, a name strangely similar to Jake Gyllenhaal who plays his son) must make a dangerous and daring journey to find Jakey G in the midst of a new Ice Age. The environmental catastrophe makes for a dazzling disaster movie with some impressive set pieces. It’s a climate change film that shows us how bad things can get. The freezing icecaps and giant waves are certainly not something we’d want to experience, however much fun it looks! It’s a real thrill, though perhaps it’s an Ice Age film that is not for children.

“My name is Max, my world is fire and blood.” Opening with a desolate wasteland, the fourth film in the Mad Max franchise looks at a world that has torn itself apart. Plants no longer grow, trees are referred to as “that thing” and water is a privilege (dropped from the top of a waterfall in the least efficient way possible). The film is a demonstration of what happens when you let the world burn, an allegory for what we are currently doing to this planet. If we don’t all make some changes we’ll be destined to a life on the Fury Road.

Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi epic looks at a world that has been so affected by climate change that it is now uninhabitable. The world is recognisable to us with a few notable changes; a layer of dust covers everything and sandstorms are as normal as snow. Children are raised to be farmers instead of scientists as space travel is no longer important (spoiler alert: it is). Set in a potential future that seems like a step back in time, the dying planet means there is no need for digital jobs: presumably all the influencers are now growing crops. NASA, now in hiding, recruits Cooper (Matthew McConaughay) to go out and find a new planet. They have lost all hope of saving our world, so we must find a better place. As Cooper says, “Mankind was born on Earth. It was never meant to die here.” Let’s hope we don’t get to that point.