Screenwriters: Harry Harrison, Stanley R. Greenberg

Producers: Walter Seltzer, Russell Thacher

We’re going back to the future with one of cinema’s bleakest dystopias – Richard Fleischer’s grim sci-fi murder mystery Soylent Green. If you somehow avoided learning about the infamous ending to Richard Fleischer’s doomsday scenario, Soylent Green, we encourage you to stop reading and buy a ticket right now. For the rest of you, Charlton Heston stars NYPD Detective Robert Thorn, living in the burned-out wasteland of… 2022. Between avoiding mountains of trash and tasting a real strawberry for once, Detective Thorn pours through the wreckage of post-apocalyptic New York, hoping to find the secret ingredient found in the trendy new food items, Soylent Green. Though a few years off in its predictions, Fleicher’s sci-fi classic packs a big punch (did we mention something about an ending) and a few too-close-for-comfort parallels to our own timeline. The best sci-fi holds a mirror up to society. Soylent Green might be one of the starkest and most fun reflections the early ’70s has to offer.