All language subtitles for James.Camerons.Story.of.Science.Fiction.S01E04.Dark.Futures.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD.2.0.H.264-AJP69

If you're looking at the future,

I think you kinda gotta look
at the dark future of it all.

This is the world
as it exists today.

And if you look
at all the things

that could take us out...
Overpopulation,

climate change,
the planet overheating,

maybe AI emerges
but is used a weapon.

Science fiction can be
a metaphor

for the human's darkest side.

I need you to know me.

To me, a dystopian story
is a warning.

They're coming to get you,
Barbara.

You realize that
that's absolutely terrible.

Let's not let that happen.

Your move, creep.

Not every advancement is going
to be used to better society.

It's human nature. There are
evil people in the world.

Where is she taking them?!

Some people's dystopia
can be someone else's utopia.

Surviving can be much more
of a burden than a blessing.

Damn you all to Hell!

Why are we so fascinated
with these dark futures?

It's who we are in our intimate rage...
Yeah.

-And our social rage.
-Yeah.

So the angst that we have
is really

the fear of the end
of humanity.

Yeah. You know,
with nuclear energy

and the potential for pathogens
and... and so on,

all the things that
we've been dealing with

for the last, you know,
50, 60 years...

are manifesting in these
post-apocalyptic fantasies.

-Yeah.
-And I would submit

that everybody that watches
these movies

believes that
they are gonna be

that 1 in 10 million people
that survives.

-100%.
-And has the... The apartment, you know...

-Yeah.
-In Manhattan with the steel door and all that.

Yeah.
Sure, you gotta shoot a few vampires,

but it's actually
a pretty good life.

It is. It simplifies the lifestyle.
Yeah.

And at the end of the day
is the fantasy

of having to hunt to survive.

I mean, the quintessential
fantasy in the 20th century

for post-apocalyptic is
you, your car, and your gun.

I had been aware
of "I Am Legend" for years.

Arnold Schwarzenegger had it
for about 10 years,

and he... he wasn't
letting it go.

And I was like, "Come on, man.
Come on, you the Governor, man.

You not gonna make it."

And eventually Arnold was like

"Okay, okay.
I'm not gonna make it."

Dr. Robert Neville,
he was a virologist,

and he was supposed to
save humanity, and he missed.

There has been
a worldwide epidemic

and it has turned the population

into these
vampire zombie-like things.

And Neville is
the last man on Earth.

What will the world look like,

after we have finally
found a way

to make sure it has
rid itself of us?

Is at the heart
of the narrative.

How does a guy survive

after losing all of that,

and make it day to day
to day to day?

Being the last person on Earth

speaks to the concept
of existential loneliness.

It speaks to a very terrifying
reality for human beings,

that we actually are born
and we die alone.

Morning, Hank.

Surviving can be
much more of a burden

than a blessing sometimes,
and part of the beauty

is that's how
a lot of us feel in life.

When Will and Akiva
and I kind of crafted the movie,

we wanted to keep elements
that made "I Am Legend,"

"I Am "... "I Am Legend."

one of my favorite ideas
in the novel is at the end,

Neville discovering,

"The things that
I thought were the monsters

aren't really the monsters.
I'm the monster."

This idea that this creature
that he has down in his lab

is the, you know, love
of the sort of alpha creature

that's, you know, stalking him.

And he discovers that
if he gives this creature back,

this guy may let him live,
and he does.

I'm sorry.

The same way
he saw them as monsters,

that's how they saw him.

Now conceptually,
that is a spectacular idea.

That is the truth
of all conflict.

But the audience
just short of booed.

Just, like,
right on the edge

of... of booing.

So we... we went back,
and the eventual ending,

he sacrificed himself
to save the cure.

There was something about
the difference

of science fiction in a novel

versus science fiction
in the cinema.

The genre actually shifts
when you add the images.

"I Am Legend" is a novel

which was published in 1954,

and is not only
one of the most important

disease apocalypse stories
of all time,

it is the most influential.

It's had many adaptations.

The first adaptation

was in the early '60s
with Vincent Price.

Another day to live through.

Better get started.

Then we had the really popular
'70s version

called "The Omega Man."

If you look at apocalyptic ideas
in science fiction,

they tend to come in waves...

-and the '70s was a very strong wave of apocalyptic thinking.
-Sure.

But you're coming out
of the '60s,

and... and a certain unleashing
of human consciousness.

-Yeah.
-So, you know, of course it was gonna manifest itself that way.

And after September 11th,

there was
a big resurgence of it...

-Sure.
-Almost immediately.

Things like "I Am Legend,"
things like...

-It was a big wave...
-Right, right.

And very, very concerned
back to that '70s idea of,

"You know what? We may well
screw this all up."

I'm fascinated by the way
that science fiction

is always, you know,
manifesting our... our angst,

our dreams and our...
And our nightmares.

Every generation has
its own version

of the apocalypse,

some horrible event
that basically annihilates

a bunch of people
all at the same time.

Apocalypses are
a big theme in science fiction

and always have been.

The reason they're interesting
is because we always feel like

the clock is at 5 minutes
to midnight,

that the apocalypse
is gonna come.

The science fiction authors
and filmmakers

may have given us the ammunition

by illuminating for us
the dark possibilities

which are now becoming
more and more real.

I think that
one of the most powerful,

dazzling, nasty ends
for... for humankind

is "Planet of the Apes."

The book on which
it's based, by Pierre Bool,

it's just a vision
of another world.

But at the end there's,
of course,

this famous big reveal

that makes... makes your heart
turn upside down for a moment

when you discover that they
didn't travel to another planet.

Unwittingly, they have traveled

to the future
of the Earth itself.

Damn you all to Hell!

So it turns out to be a story
about our own future,

about our destiny.

It's a far, far,
far future post-apocalypse

where humans have been
replaced by apes

and... and humans are now
kind of dumb animals.

Within the first series,

but especially
in the second series of films,

we discover that
humanity's demise,

it's not just caused by
a rain of nukes from the sky.

It's just caused
by a zombie pandemic.

It's actually a whole bunch
of different factors.

A hallmark of really good
science fiction

that stays with us
is this idea that

the apocalypse is complicated.

And the series is a great
example of a-an apocalypse

which also has
an element of hope in it.

We think of "Planet of the Apes"

as this cynical movie

where humans are going
to ruin everything.

But there's that lovely moment
at the beginning.

From the very first film,

Charlton Heston
is speaking aloud

to the humans of the future,
who he thinks are gonna

discover him in 700 years,
and he says...

You who are reading me now

are a different breed...

I hope a better one.

And the optimism of that
just breaks my heart,

especially when
you're rewatching the film

and you know what happens.

It's trying to warn us about
what's gonna happen

if we screw up today.

It's almost like you drop
a stone in a pool,

and he wakes up
at the 20th ripple,

where what's happened in 1972
has ruined the world.

It's frighteningly
a promissory note.

I think we all watch
those movies...

Kill them all!
And feel some truth,

some inevitability to the idea
of it all going away.

Us rendering us...

dispensable
and dispensed with.

If you look at all the things
that could take us out...

-Sure.
-Overpopulation,

climate change,
or nuclear war.

Maybe AI emerges
but is used as a weapon.

-It won't be one thing.
-That's right.

I think dark futures in what
we do, as entertainment,

the engine of that
is paranoia.

Yeah. Right.

Is it healthy paranoia
or unhealthy?

It's very healthy.

-It's healthy...
-It's very healthy.

-'cause you're constantly saying, "what if?"
-Yeah.

And if you're not saying,
"What if?" you're a fool.

There's so many
different kinds of stories

that are basically about
a really bad future.

So there's an apocalyptic story,
and then there's dystopia.

How did it come to this?

Soylent Green is people!

Dystopia is, "Something went
wrong along the way,

and things are not
working out right."

And it's about a future
looking at

a worst case scenario of society

where often this is something
humans are doing to humans.

Primrose Everdeen.

Prim!

No! No! I volunteer!

I volunteer as tribute.

The world of "The Hunger Games"

is a very brutal,
hard, dystopic world.

You have a tyrannical government

and they are just gonna,
at random,

once every four years,
grab one of your kids

and... and make them fight
to the death.

I think Peeta's
a great character.

I really connected with his idea
of even though

this insanity
is happening around him

and this is, like,
absolute dire circumstances,

he still doesn't change
who he is.

Katniss, go!

Get out of here! Go!
What are you doing?!

When entertainment turns into
this kind of dark spectacle,

it can become
an instrument of oppression.

The idea of violence
as political distraction

comes from
Octavian Caesar Augustus,

who literally said, "Give
the people bread and circuses.

"Make sure their bellies
are full

"and they've got something
to watch and distract them.

Then they're not gonna take
to the streets and protest."

One of
my favorite years.

And one of
my favorite arenas.

Suzanne Collins, in
the creation of the book series,

she was flipping channels
during one of the wars in Iraq.

You know,
embedded footage, live.

And then you'd flip
a few channels

and you'd be on MTV
watching one of these,

you know, reality game shows...

and starting to see these kids
battling one another,

and then she started to put
the two ideas together.

"The Hunger Games" really hits
right at the core of things

that we worry about today.

Reality TV being something
that's more cruel

than it is entertaining,
but us not even noticing.

And the idea of
surveillance culture for control

has its roots in
George Orwell's novel "1984."

"1984" is
a stunning book and film.

Its vision of the future

has been used to describe
the age we live in

since it was published.

With the rise of fascism,
the rise of war technologies,

suddenly, science fiction
shifted from optimistic futures

to futures that
nobody wanted to live in.

Spreading the rumor...

Orwell updated totalitarianism
for the media age.

Things like telescreens
and Big Brother show us

how surveillance would become
part of a technological network.

Now we can see you!

Clasp your hands
behind your heads!

What was frightening about it
is that he didn't insist

on a radically new world.

He said, "Look, we can do this

with the technology
we have now."

The house is surrounded!

Science fiction has never been
about predicting the future.

It's about choosing a future.

It's about the world
that we're in now

and what direction we take.

Dystopian science fiction

grows into a launching pad
for social dialogue.

And even then, it grows into
real world experience.

We turn to Thailand,

where protestors have
been inspired

by the "Hunger Games" movie.

A 3-fingered salute
is now a symbol of uprising.

Is "The Hunger Games" about
revolution? It absolutely is.

Suzanne created these
stories about war

and the consequence of war
for teenagers

and didn't hold back.

High school feels like
the worst kind of dystopia.

Someone else is controlling
what's possible for you

and telling you what to do
and where to go and who to be.

But in young adult literature
like the "Hunger Games"

and in "Divergent,"
I think, these are stories

in which young people,
especially young women,

have agency and the power
to do something

about the world around them.

Katniss is this great character
and fights in a plausible way

This is what they do,
and we must fight back!

She is given skills that allow
her to take down a monster

in the form of that society,
that's so much bigger than her.

"The Hunger Games" does not end
with a pretty little bow on top

where the world is just a better
place and everybody's happy.

Prim is gone!

She's dead and she's not
coming back! Get out!

It takes a lot of casualties
and typically a lot of death

and a lot of pain
to make any kind of change.

But the people that remain
will always be damaged

because those scars
definitely remain.

I don't think the human mind
is mean to exist

in two different...
dimensions?

It's very confusing. You don't
know what's real and what's not.

But you know what's real now.

Yes, sir, I do.

The darkest thing about

the science fiction
of the future is the idea

that you might be in the dark
future already and not know it.

Where do you draw the line

between reality
and memory and dreams?

And I think
the fundamental message

of every
dystopic sci-fi novel is,

you're living
in a dystopic world

and you either see it
or you don't.

Now this is gonna be
very difficult

for you to accept, Mr. Quaid.
I'm listening.

I'm afraid you're not really
standing here right now.

You know, Doc,
you could have fooled me.

"Total Recall"
was adapted from a short story

called "We Can
Remember It for You Wholesale"

by Philip K. Dick.

And he was
the most outstanding, surreal,

satirical science fiction
writer of the age.

People claim
to remember past lives.

I claim to remember a different,
very different present life.

And there were
subsequent Hollywood adaptations

of his stories.
I'm placing you under arrest

for the future murder
of Sarah Marks.

And again and again,
characters are thrust into

what they learn later
is a constructed universe,

fooling the people
who wander into it

into thinking
it's actually real.

When we're asleep, our mind
can do almost anything.

That's what
good science fiction does.

It makes you do
a double take on reality.

And the things you have taken
for granted your whole life,

it makes you look at them

in a new and sometimes
very paranoid way.

What the hell?

You can see that
Philip K. Dick's ideas

are popping up in something
like "The Matrix."

There is a sense of paranoia,

the sense that there's
no ground truth to hold on to.

You take the blue pill,
you wake up in your bed

and believe whatever
you want to believe.

You take the red pill,

and I show you how deep
the rabbit hole goes.

The Wachowskis
gave me the script.

I read it.

This idea of reality
not being reality...

This is the world
as it exists today.

What's really cool
about "The Matrix"

is you get to see
what's behind the curtain...

Enslavement of humans
to support machines.

How do you define real?

So you've got virtual reality

and agents and Morpheus
and...

And then kung fu.

Laurence Fishburne and I had
been training the dojo sequence

for about 7, 8 months.

So it was really exciting
to actually be there on the day

and start doing it.

Because you can train, but then
there's the game, right?

And then someone says, "Action,"
and it's...

It's on, right?

I know kung fu.

In the synthetic
world of the Matrix,

we're not limited by our bodies.

We're limited just by
what we can imagine,

which is how you can have these
innovations like bullet time...

I think
what's really interesting

about "The Matrix" is
that it employed special effects

in a way that was inherent
to the narrative.

The reason that bullet time
exists in the Matrix

is as an exemplar
that this is not reality.

When you're in the Matrix,
you're capable of doing things

which you cannot do
in the real world.

And the first time
we see Trinity

jump up into that crane pose,

we had never seen that before.

That was technology that was
effectively invented

for that film.

And then later on in the film,

when you see the bullet time
more and more,

it becomes
the distinguishing feature

that tells you
you're in the Matrix,

and you're not in
the dystopian apocalypse

where we actually exist.

No.

"The Matrix" certainly is
a very exciting film

if you're just interested
in seeing cool graphics

and kung fu.

But you can also have all sorts
of debates with friends

about its philosophical
underpinnings.

The Matrix predicted a society

where people could just
plug in and lose themselves,

where people see
what they want to see,

believe what they want
to believe

because it's comfortable
and safe even though it's a lie.

I know this steak
doesn't exist.

I know that when
I put it in my mouth,

the Matrix is telling my brain
that it is juicy and delicious.

You know, saying,
"I just wanna eat some steak"

and, you know,
"I wanna stay asleep,"

I mean, I think it's a really
seductive choice, right?

I don't wanna remember nothing.
Nothing.

"The Matrix"
is perfect science fiction

because it has the great moment
of personal choice.

Do we plug in

and do we just become
mindless cogs in a machine,

or do we unplug
and choose to live in a world

that is cold and dark

and complicated
and hard and real?

You flirt with science fiction
all over the place.

-Very much.
-I would submit that "The Dark Knight"

and "The Dark Knight Rises"
are actually

-dystopian science fiction.
-Right.

Because you're looking at

a hypertrophied
corrupt state.

Yeah, "Dark Knight Rises,"
it's...

It's an experience
of dystopian future,

and looking at
demagoguery.

You're looking at all these
things that could happen.

I think there's an aspect
of science fiction that...

That celebrates
human potential...

-Yeah.
-Where only a hero is your answer, is your salvation.

Yeah, very much.

You wanna play? Come on.

You're terminated,.

The role of the heroes
in most dark futures

is to defeat the forces

that help make
these dystopian futures happen.

Dystopian fiction often consider
just how much one person can do

to change the world around them,

fighting against a system

that has become
oppressive and corrupt.

Drop the gun.
You are under arrest.

Thank you for your cooperation.

RoboCop is a cop who is
ultimately turned

into a half-man, half-machine,

but he's a good cop who believes
that there are bad guys,

and he's there to stop them.

Guns, guns, guns!

I kept thinking about
a science fiction story

that was kind of set
in the business world.

You know, it was the 80's
and it was kind of

the beginning
of the greed generation.

So in "RoboCop," it was saying
that now we live in a world

that is really run by money
and corporations, and I thought,

"We should make a movie
about how this is inevitable,

but maybe you can stop it."

You are under arrest.

RoboCop thinks
he's catching one bad guy,

and then it turns out the bad
guy is even bigger than him.

It's a system.

That's the power of sci-fi,
it makes it possible

to sit there and kind of think
about these very big topics

while you're watching,
you know,

robots, shoot guys
in the penis.

Your move, creep.

The violence of "RoboCop"

is absolutely startling.

You know, it shows that
this is dystopia

and there is something
very terrible

that has happened to the world
to get us to this place.

I'm always a bit amazed
that people ask,

"Why there is so much violence
in your movies?"

Then I would answer,

"Why is there not violence
in your movies?"

Violence is built into
the universe.

And that was, for me,
something that I understood

from a, let's say,
religious point of view.

I felt that the death of Murphy
should be a crucifixion.

This has to be horrifying,

so it had to be
extremely violent.

I think it works very well.

Then slowly, you get
these electronic movements

and you start
to recognize things,

and that is the resurrection.

I can see the beauty
of that story

and I wanted to impose that
on the movie.

And basically it came
to me, the idea,

that he should
walk over the water.

And that's what I always
felt about RoboCop,

that he was the American Jesus.

"RoboCop" is a political satire,

and the realization that this is
an allegory for Jesus Christ

just shows that we really
attach cultural significance

to the idea of saviors who
sacrifice everything to help us.

Science fiction shows us

an absolutely dystopian
and horrific future,

but we find a beacon of hope
from the heroes of the story.

You wanna get out of here?

You talk to me.

Mad Max,
the reluctant antihero.

"Mad Max" was like,
you hear a piece of music,

and you're like, "My God.
Where has that been?!"

George Miller,

he was a kid who grew up
in Australia.

And when he was a teenager,

he saw a lot of his friends
die in car crashes.

And then when he was a doctor,
he saw lots of corpses

come in that had
been mangled from roads.

So when George Miller becomes
a filmmaker,

this idea of telling
life and death stories

set on roads feels
very natural to him.

In the very first movie,

society is kind of
on the verge of collapsing.

And Max, he was a cop,
goes sort of insane

over the course of the film,

trying to stop criminals...

and losing
his family.

And then the second movie,
"Road Warrior,"

there has been
this unexplained nuclear war

and that now gas supplies
are incredibly scarce,

and that has given way to this
post-apocalyptic wasteland

that Max is now
wandering through.

Mad Max might save
the situation,

but he world itself
just keep getting worse

and worse and worse.

There are certain films
that the culture pivots around,

and "Road Warrior" was
one of them.

As the science fiction writer
J.G. Ballard said,

"It's the Sistine Chapel
of punk."

You! You can run,
but you can't hide.

I'm a comic book artist.

I write and I draw,

and I'm used to words
and pictures all the time.

So when I got a call
from George saying,

"I've got some stuff on Mad Max

I'd like to talk to you about,"
I said, "Yeah."

In the fourth Mad Max,
"Fury Road,"

we had to plot every
single thing on that movie,

and we did it through
nearly 4,000 drawings.

We really changed
the hero myth as well.

In "Fury Road," Mad Max,
he's much more a product

of sort of a post-traumatic
stress disorder,

and there's nothing to live for
except to live.

20 years out in the Outback on
his own in his beat-up old car.

So this guy is like
a feral animal.

He's placed as a hood ornament
on a hot rod.

He's used as a blood bank.

That's my property!

Because in "Fury Road,"

the commodity is not oil.

It's actually
the human body itself.

You're more than welcome
to come with us.

I'll... I'll make my own way.

I feel like when you watch
the Mad Max films,

after the first one,
he doesn't even see himself

as somebody who could be a hero.

It's not his world.

So it's up to women like Furiosa

to do the work of actually
making it a better place.

They're looking for hope.

-What about you?
-Redemption.

Furiosa is George's character.

That was George saying,

"I'm gonna make
a female road warrior,

and then she's gonna be
an icon of the times."

Even though it was
a Mad Max movie,

it really allowed
this heroine character

to sort of rise up
and almost steal the hero role.

Furiosa is a much more
compelling hero

than we see with Max.

We understand her backstory
a lot better,

and her motivations.
No!

She has to protect these
women who are trying to escape

from a really cruel,
terrible slave owner.

Remember me?

There comes a time when
Furiosa, being very injured...

Stabbed in the side,
losing vast amounts of blood.

And then Max penetrates her
with a knife

and gives her his blood
and mingles it with her.

He's now getting invested
in spite of himself.

You see the male and the female
energy coming together,

it was very powerful.

And in a way,
this is their love scene.

And then he leaves.

When you see Furiosa
on that platform,

rise above this village,

you realize this might be
the first time

where's there's
a little bit of hope

at the end of a Mad Max film.

There's a chance now,
a real hope

that a new type of society
can be formed by these girls,

with the muscle of Furiosa.

These heroic women
will now bring forth

a new dispensation
to this world.

They're gonna remake the world
that exists in their ideology.

What will happen, we don't know,

but that's another story.

We as a society hunger
for our nightmares

-writ large on the big screen or the small screen.
-Right.

So it seems to me that's a big
part of what science fiction is.

-It is. Yeah.
-But as we got into the technological age

and the science age,
our fear and our angst

of where this was all going,

-this big human experiment.
-Right.

We're always worried about
where's the world going and...

-Yeah. Yeah.
-Is this world coming to an end.

-And a lot of science fiction capitalizes on those fears.
-Sure.

-Can we at least retard the apocalypse and delay it?
-Yeah. Yeah.

Sound a warning or think twice
about a policy.

-All of science fiction are cautionary tales.
-Yeah.

The best science fiction
are cautionary tales.

What you are about to watch
is a nightmare.

It is not meant to be prophetic.
It need not happen.

But in this place,
in this moment, it does happen.

This is the Twilight Zone.

"The Twilight Zone" was

the first great science fiction
show on television. Period.

I mean, we all think of
the 1950s as apple pie placid.

But "The Twilight Zone" offered
up the dark side of that.

Everybody's dead except... me.

There were always these great
twists, and I just loved that.

I loved the poignant irony of...

He's got all the time
in the world with his books,

and then he breaks his glasses!

It's not fair.

Before "The Twilight Zone,"

Rod Serling was
the great mainstream dramatist

of 1950s television.

But he was censored
at every turn

when he wanted to talk about
social issues,

racial issues, political issues.

I think it is criminal
that we're not permitted

to make dramatic note
of controversial themes

that are inherent
in our society.

This dissatisfaction,
this frustration

led Rod Serling to create a show

in which he could
talk about the issues,

but in a way that the censor and
the advertisers wouldn't object.

We are the minorities!

To me, a dystopian story
is a warning.

It is a way that it can try
to raise its hand and say,

"Hey, everybody, it seems like

"we might be going in
this direction,

"and look, it won't be good
if we go there.

So maybe we wanna do
something about it now."

You're all desperate
to point some kind of a finger

at a neighbor.

Believe me, friends, the only
thing that's gonna happen

is that we're gonna
eat each other up alive!

Anytime you read
or watch a dystopic story,

and you think, "Well, we're past
that now. That couldn't happen."

Look, I swear it isn't me!

Suddenly, we're handed
a curve ball with politics,

with issues of the day,

and we realize
we can always be blindsided.

My name is Offred.

I had another name,
but it's forbidden now.

So many things
are forbidden now.

In "The Handmaid's Tale," we are
plunged into this future world

where men are
the absolute rulers,

and women are the underclass.

This is a very old-fashioned,
religious regime.

They have special clothing
that they wear.

They go into supermarkets

where nothing is labeled
with letters.

It feels like an alien place.
It feels like another world.

And yet, we get these
constant reminders

that no, this is Boston.

But it's a very different world.

I think I fell in love
with "The Handmaid's Tale"

because of Offred,

really how she was able to
keep up her strength

and her belief and her hope
in this horrible situation.

God whipped up
a special plague.

There's been
an environmental disaster

and the fertility rate
has gone down precipitously.

No, please!
Please don't take her!

-Mommy!
-No!

She's ripped away
from her husband and her child.

And because Offred is one
of the few fertile women left...

This is the new one.

She's kept
as a reproductive slave

in the house of this commander.

The handmaid shall lie
between the legs

of the commander's wife.

The two of you will become
one flower,

waiting to be seeded.

We're flowers.

Lay down.

What? It's nice.

The one thing that I especially
love so much about Janine

is that everybody thinks
she's a lunatic.

But she's has taken the reality
that has been presented to her

that she cannot seem to fight

and fights it in her own way.

Bye.
Because the only thing

that is guaranteed
in your future as a handmaid

is that you will
be going to the market

and you will be raped.

I didn't put anything
into the book that human beings

had not already done
at some point in history

or that they're not doing now.

For instance, in Nazi Germany,

the S.S. men had
assigned biological wives.

She took directly from
horrible atrocities

that have been committed against
people and put them in her book,

and just formed them
into the world of Gilead.

Margaret Atwood was fascinated

with the Salem Witch Trials

and the ways in which women
who were considered

deviant from the norm
were punished.

It was about sending
a clear message to all women

that if you get out of line,
the wages of that are death.

The Iranian Revolution was

a very interesting analogue
for Margaret.

It was a religious revolution.

You know, one day, women were
wearing mini skirts,

and the next day, they were
kicked out of college,

all within 24 hours.

Ladies, you can't
work here anymore.

It's the law now.

Offred has her job
taken away from her

and realizes she has no more
control over money or property.

I think this would have
very much resonated

with readers in the 1980s

because women had just earned
the right to own credit cards

in their own name in 1974.

You realize that
we've been there before.

You realize that

there but for the grace of God
could go all of us.

It's not that difficult
for society

to shift just a little bit

in order to recreate
that dystopian future.

Science fiction pieces
often portray

the breakdown of society
as a warning.

You know, it's a lot easier
to look back on a TV show

and see where the important
things happened.

It's a lot harder in your life
to look back.

When they slaughtered
Congress, we didn't wake up.

When they suspended
the Constitution,

we didn't wake up then either.

In a gradually heating bathtub,

you'd be boiled to death
before you knew it.

The idea of the slow burn,
that's what makes

"The Handmaid's Tale"
so powerful.

It's about the evolution of
a very small batch of variables

that becomes kind of like
the butterfly's wings

that cause a huge storm.

Why'd they send the army?

I think
it's just a warning.

I don't think it's a prediction.

In the very subtle bits
of resistance,

that's how the fire stays alive,

because you can take everything
away from these women.

You take their families away.

You take their eyeballs away.

But you can't take away
their own very unique humanity.

That's why you have
to stay awake,

because otherwise,
you're left with Gilead.

This may not seem ordinary
to you right now,

but after a time, it will.

This will become ordinary.

I'm keeping this group
together, alive.

But get one thing straight...

If you're staying,
this isn't a democracy anymore.

Post-apocalyptic stories
are really about

just trying to restart

and maybe make
a better world if we can.

Can we rebuild society
after the apocalypse?

You know, you're not gonna get
color TV back very quickly,

but the answer
with "The Walking Dead" is,

"I hope I can."

But not everyone's
going to come up

with a peaceful way of existing.

I wrote the comic about
a group of normal,

average, everyday human beings

trying to survive
in the zombie apocalypse

and kind of build some semblance
of the life that they once knew.

God.

The real reason you
go back on "The Walking Dead"

is because those characters
fascinate you.

And they're all fighting to
find out who they are

in a world in which
society has been wiped out

and the rules have all changed.

Please don't.

Do it, Dad. Do it.

Post-apocalyptic
stories always talk about

what happens to people

and what these people,
become.

And I think that's a classic
science fiction theme.

And I think that is
something that exists

in the Romero zombie mythology,
in his movies.

They're coming to get you,
Barbara.

George Romero invented
the zombie.

I mean, the zombie did not exist
before George Romero...

Not in the way
we think of the zombie.

George Romero read
"I Am Legend"

and loved the concept
of being at war

with a mindless world.

Now what Romero did, which is
critical to modern zombie lore,

is Romero put in
social commentary.

All right, Vince,
hit him in the head.

Right between the eyes.

The great things
about zombie movies,

they get into
our fear of betrayal,

that paranoia that we all have
as human beings

that people that we love are
gonna turn on us.

They tap into our fear
of a predator.

We're afraid of them
because they're going to eat us.

It has the fear
of overpopulation.

And the fear of disease.

The chimps are infected!

The thing that really
bugged me about those movies

was that you have these
really great setups,

with these interesting
characters.

And then the time limit runs out
on the movie.

And as a writer,
I was like, "My God."

Like, you're really missing
an opportunity here.

You could follow these people
for years and years and years.

I would say,

after eight seasons of
"The Walking Dead,"

we have probably created
over 16,000 walker make-ups.

When I was younger,
I studied physiology

and anatomy quite a bit,
and I minored in art.

So for me, it's always been
important to elevate

the level of realism

and create something the audience
immediately saw as horrific...

I'm sorry
this happened to you.

And transform it into
something you felt sympathy for.

"The Walking Dead" shows
the various ways

we might rebuild society

after an apocalyptic event.

Rick Grimes and his group

encounter many different types
of civilizations

over the course
of "The Walking Dead."

You have a place like Woodbury,
that's led by the Governor.

We get to Alexandria,
which is a-a safe haven

that was built for people
in Washington D.C.

to kind of retreat to.
But the worst of the worst,

when it comes to the societies
that we've encountered,

is Negan and his group,
the Saviors.

I'm gonna beat the holy hell
out of one of you.

As a writer, you know,

sometimes I worry
that people think, like,

"That guy, he's just
having fun and he's callous.

I like killing these people,
I'll kill anybody."

It's really not
that easy for me.

I need you to know me.

When the characters die,
like, I get upset

the same way that
the audience gets upset.

I cry sometimes
while I'm writing,

that's a thing
that totally happens.

It does wear on me sometimes.

Back to it.

There have to be people

that keep things in balance
morally.

Otherwise, it's all chaos.

It's all about groups of people
that you can trust

in terms of making
a better future.

Everything that
they're fighting for

is about building a new society.

There will be something after.

We have to keep
our faith in each other.

If we can hold onto that
with everything we have,

the future is ours.

"The Walking Dead" captures
these amazing little...

Little snippets
of what human nature is

at its best and worst,
and when it's tested.

And the fact that you might
never be redeemed...

You may be beyond redemption.

But look
how many other characters

are redeemed in some way.

It is very much about
coming from the darkest point

and finding a way to
work together

to bring ourselves up
out of that darkness,

and the rebuilding of
civilization.

And so to me,
on a long enough timeline,

it's a very uplifting story
about people

who have lived through
the worst of the worst

and have become
the best of the best.

And so I've always looked at
is as an optimistic story.

Science fiction is talking
about the human condition.

It's ridiculous to say
good and evil,

but I think the idea of
competitive, aggressive

versus compassionate,
empathic.

-You know, and we have both...
-Yep.

And nature has selected
for both, in a way...

'cause we're social beings.

We didn't get to survive
without taking care of our kids

-and learning how to hunt together...
-Right.

And all the things that we give
and share with each other.

And... and we all have
empathy and we're mindful

and we have deep sympathy,

even if we don't
act that way in our lives,

or people don't see that in us,
everybody has that capacity.

-Right.
-And that is the capacity, I think,

that will always pull us
back from the brink.