Future Fictional Cities on Film With or Without Nature

Representations of future cities in fictional films usually emphasize spectacle, power, and divisions rather than interdependent relationships with the natural world and each other. Fictional films released after 2010, six years after Day After Tomorrow (2004) and ten years after the Age of the Anthropocene was popularized primarily highlight dystopic visions of the future. What struck us, however, is how little these films addressed environmental issues, including climate change. Although we explored cli-fi (climate fiction) films in our Monstrous Nature: Film, Environment, Horror (2016), few films addressing the future ramifications of climate change are set in future cites, and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) moves beyond dystopic views of the city of the future without referencing environmental issues at all.

In many fictional films, the utopian city is available only for the affluent and powerful few. In The Hunger Games (2012) and its sequels (2013, 2014, 2015), the twelve districts outside of the Capitol of Panem struggle to meet their own survival needs after providing resources for the greedy citizens of the Capitol. The brief CGI-enhanced establishing shots of the Capitol reveal a technologically advanced utopia for the chosen few. District Twelve, home of the films’ protagonist Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), however, gives so much coal to the Capitol that it can’t adequately heat its homes. Food is so scarce that Katniss and her family can only survive by illegally hunting outside the district’s fence. District Thirteen fares even worse, since after they rebelled, their village was destroyed, forcing survivors into an underground bunker where they must ration food and share living space.

Like The Hunger Games, Elysium (2013) separates rich and powerful from the poor providing their resources, but in Elysium a population explosion has created a global slum on Earth, forcing the privileged to build their utopian city above ground in a sky city. The Congress (2013) offers utopian urban visions only in an animated world that drug-addicted residents create for themselves. In the non-animated “real” world, animated heroes are revealed to be homeless and despairing victims. Only those living in large airships above the slums below provide hope in this dystopic future. The Neo-Seoul segment of Cloud Atlas (2012) highlights technology and genetic engineering in a Vice City. The Zero Theorem (2013) offers a dystopian Terry Gilliam vision like that of Brazil (1985).

Divergent (2014) also stresses divisions established to resolve conflicts that nearly destroyed humanity. After a great war, society was divided into five separate areas called factions to maintain order in a future Chicago: Erudite, Amity, Candor, Dauntless, and Abnegation. Those who do not fit any of the five categories are labeled divergent and may be exiled from the community. Although the factions seem balanced at the beginning of the film, the Erudite faction seeks the same power and privilege of the Capitol citizens of The Hunger Games. These series of films also illustrate evolutionary myths under the city and urban eco-trauma. The underworld of District Thirteen in Hunger Games and The Pit, home of the Dauntless faction, in Divergent highlight how the underground city evolves in post-apocalyptic film. Eco-traumas are played out in the Hunger Games themselves, as well as in the Districts outside of the Capitol in The Hunger Games films. In Divergent, the Erudite faction forces Dauntless soldiers to attack Abnegation and slaughter divergent citizens who can’t be as easily controlled.

While Divergent shows us a post-apocalyptic Chicago where overhead shots reveal paved streets and parking lots broken by weeds, Star Trek Into Darkness offers more utopian views of London and San Francisco. According to Visual Effects Supervisor Roger Guyett, “Our philosophy about doing cities, and respecting the canon of how the work is described by Gene Roddenberry, is that you’re only a few 100 years in the future.” Instead of depicting a post-apocalyptic future, Guyett highlights how technological advancements may enhance the landmarks and architecture of San Francisco and London, including landmarks such as St. Paul’s Cathedral and the River Thames. According to Guyett, "We even went to London and took a lot of pictures from different angles, to try to maintain the real geography of it. But, at the same time, we want to elaborate on that and use our imagination on how that might have changed."

Star Trek Into Darkness promotes a more utopian vision of the city that suggests humanity can adapt and live more sustainably 100 years from now. Although the film does not explicitly address environmental issues, it demonstrates how technology might allow humanity to live interdependently with the natural world. Big Hero 6 (2014) also suggests technology can address racial, economic, and, perhaps, environmental conflicts in a Disneyfied fictional and animated San Fransokyo. None of these films go as far as Zootopia or Tomorrowland or the documentaries Under the Dome and The Absent House. 

Tomorrowland (2015) and Zootopia (2017) and the Ecocity

Tomorrowland (2015) explicitly addresses both more utopian urban visions and sustainable views of the city that promote interdependent relationships between humanity and the natural world. Offering a futuristic city constructed for the New York City 1964 Worlds Fair as an alternative to dystopic predictions of environmental and nuclear disasters that may end life on Earth, Tomorrowland does suggest humans are responsible for their possible dire future. Images of environmental destruction highlight the possible consequences of the Anthropocentric Age.

But the film also suggests the probability of an eco-apocalyptic end has been exacerbated by media images streaming from a device in the utopian city meant to encourage humanity to change the future on display. Instead of galvanizing viewers, the terrifying visions of destruction have paralyzed them. To facilitate activism, Tomorrowland replaces apathy with optimism by eliminating negative media and promoting innovations that improve the world. Although the solution is rather pat, Tomorrowland does interrogate environmental degradation and does propose a future city with sustainable principles.

The Disney animated wonder Zootopia (2016) offers a more utopian urban vision where anthropomorphized animals interact interdependently and sustainably with the natural world. To create a city where predator and prey gain equal status, Zootopia confronts its own prejudices, but it must also eliminate humans. As a future animal city, Zootopia highlights its connections with nature by including artificial climate zones to accommodate the environmental needs of its various species.

Several zones featured in the film highlight the conflicts bunny police officer Judy (Ginnifer Goodwin) and fox con artist Nick (Jason Bateman) must overcome to transform Zootopia into a sustainable and interdependent paradise, including downtown, Tundratown, Little Rodentia, and the Rainforest District. In Zootopia, the move to a more sustainable and interdependent city requires accommodating difference, recognizing similarities, and changing ourselves. As Judy explains during a Police Academy speech,

"No matter what type of animal you are, from the biggest elephant to our first fox, I implore you: Try. Try to make a difference. Try to make the world better. Try to look inside yourself and recognize that change starts with you. It starts with me. It starts with all of us."

In a world without humans, foxes and bunnies can be friends, and predator and prey become allies.

Tomorrowland and Zootopia provide more optimistic visions of urban nature than most films depicting future cities, but they both also base their solutions on fantastic premises rather than the reality of the places we live.

The Absent House and the Sustainable City

The documentary The Absent House (2013) offers one way to mitigate our possible dire future and move toward a sustainable ecocity. The Absent House highlights how urban architecture can strive for “absence” by building structures whose ecological footprint moves toward a zero output. This view of the ecocity strives to integrate sustainable architecture with biophilic urbanism. As Timothy Beatley suggests, a biophilic city is more than simply a biodiverse city. It is a place that learns from nature and emulates natural systems, incorporates natural forms and images into its buildings and cityscapes, and designs and plans in conjunction with nature. A biophilic city cherishes the natural features that already exist but also works to restore and repair what has been lost or degraded. Such an idealized vision of future cities underpins the architecture showcased in The Absent House.

The Absent House documents the efforts of architect Fernando Abruna Charneco to build a sustainable home in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Charneco names his design the Absent House not only because it is close to 100 percent sustainable, but also because much of the house is roofless. The environmental architect works to make Earth habitable without threatening its survival. Sustainable development is possible when simplicity is the goal and helps rather than destroys the Earth. The home’s six pavilions allow the architect to eliminate many of the internal walls and provide natural ventilation. Solar panels provide energy. Rainfall is harvested through a green roof and collected in cisterns. Once filtered, the water is used for bathing, watering plants, and cleaning. A solar distiller filters water for human consumption. The location of the house was analyzed to take advantage of the tropical breezes and sunlight. The house gets plenty of power from nature without being connected to the grid, so hurricanes do not affect electricity or access to water.

Charneco also teaches green architectural design courses, so the documentary showcases student projects that also apply sustainable development practices that are minimal, ecological, and as affordable as possible. Their projects include small homes, compostable toilets, and even schools. In conjunction with Charneco’s philosophy, the goal is to work with the natural environment, making it integral, so that nature is protected. Intelligent architectural design practices lead to sustainable buildings. The Absent House illustrates such design. Walls that are tall enough to block out streetlights surround the house’s patio. The Absent House is a sustainable house and a livable house. Other homes can do similar things at more reasonable prices, the documentary asserts. If all building takes this green approach, our cities will be “absent” too.

The Absent House makes sustainable architecture and ecocities built on green principles seem attainable, while also offering images of what a future city might look like. The UK Government’s Foresight Future of Cities Project outlines and illustrates multiple and (sometimes) contradictory visions of future cities from literature, film, and other media, as well as architects and urban planners (Dunn et al.). One of these visions is the “Garden City.” An ecocity in some ways grows out of this “Garden City” postulated by urban planner Ebenezer Howard in the 1898 monograph To-Morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform and its 1902 revision Garden Cities of To-Morrow. According to the UK’s Project authors, Professor Nick Dunn and his colleagues, Howard’s Garden City “contained various zones of activity intersected with green routes” (16).

But an ecocity aligns best with a biocity “that is thoroughly hybrid, a product of nature and humanity, and a habitat for such hybrids and their odd, evolving, and adapting assemblages” (Christensen and Heise 459). The Absent House also suggests other urban visions cited in the Future of Cities Project, including a Waste City that functions through recycling and waste energy capture and a Desert City adapted for an arid desert climate.

Amaryllis and Strangers on a Train

Amaryllis

My amaryllis grew three feet

toward window and ceiling, blooming

with a quatrain of pink trumpets

under a fluorescent light bulb

on my kitchen table

an overhead shot revealing a merry go round

of greens and pinks from barely there to fuchsia

a carousel from the “June is bursting out all over” musical

or Strangers on a Train

its mad racing horses

a circling pony cart ride where I

caught my foot and spun around

hanging on reins like stems on a flower bulb

a bell lit up like a chandelier

propped up with plastic spatulas

and wooden spoons

it slid to one side

leaving a clean surface

so ordinary as to go unnoticed

and fell flaccidly on the hidden chair

beside the door.