What does the future hold? In our new series “Imagining the Next Future,” Polygon explores the new era of science fiction — in movies, books, TV

Apocalypse movies need to imagine climate solutions, too

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2021-05-24 21:30:10

What does the future hold? In our new series “Imagining the Next Future,” Polygon explores the new era of science fiction — in movies, books, TV, games, and beyond — to see how storytellers and innovators are imagining the next 10, 20, 50, or 100 years during a moment of extreme uncertainty. Follow along as we deep dive into the great unknown.

The Korean sci-fi adventure movie Space Sweepers, which made its debut on Netflix in February, offers a glimpse at a dark future: It’s 2092, and Earth is barely habitable anymore. The air is choked with smog, plant life has all but vanished, and urban skylines have taken on a perpetual orange glow eerily reminiscent of what San Francisco looked like during the peak of last year’s wildfire season.

“Hope,” a narrator intones gravely as the film’s protagonist sits on a public bus crowded with people wearing gas masks, “was extinct.”

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