Corporal Joe Bauers, a decidedly average American, is selected for a top-secret hibernation program but is forgotten and left to awaken to a future so incredibly moronic that he's easily the... Read allCorporal Joe Bauers, a decidedly average American, is selected for a top-secret hibernation program but is forgotten and left to awaken to a future so incredibly moronic that he's easily the most intelligent person alive.Corporal Joe Bauers, a decidedly average American, is selected for a top-secret hibernation program but is forgotten and left to awaken to a future so incredibly moronic that he's easily the most intelligent person alive.
- Awards
- 1 nomination
- President Camacho
- (as Terry Alan Crews)
- Bailiff
- (as Kevin S. McAfee)
- Officer Collins
- (as Mike McCafferty)
- Hospital Technician
- (as Ryan Melton)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaIn addition to concerns about how to market the film, Twentieth Century Fox also grew weary of the film's frequent, harsh critiques of recognizable corporations. Studio executives wished to shuffle the movie to DVD shelves as quickly and quietly as possible. The film's contract stipulated that it had to receive a theatrical release. The studio met the terms of the contract, but provided no marketing for the film, released it in an unusually small number of cinemas in select cities, and pulled the film in all markets after only one week. So little effort was put into showing the film in theaters, that some of the few cinemas that screened the film were forced to promote it as "Untitled Mike Judge Project" in their lists of coming attractions.
- GoofsIn the montage following his initiative to irrigate the crops with water rather than Gatorade, the crowd chant "Joe, Joe". But they all know him by the name "Not Sure".
- Quotes
[first lines]
Narrator: As the twenty-first century began, human evolution was at a turning point. Natural selection, the process by which the strongest, the smartest, the fastest reproduced in greater numbers than the rest, a process which had once favored the noblest traits of man, now began to favor different traits. Most science fiction of the day predicted a future that was more civilized and more intelligent. But, as time went on, things seemed to be heading in the opposite direction. A dumbing down. How did this happen? Evolution does not necessarily reward intelligence. With no natural predators to thin the herd, it began to simply reward those who reproduced the most, and left the intelligent to become an endangered species.
- Crazy creditsAfter the credits there is a scene in which Upgrayedd arrives into the future to look for Rita.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Chibi Project: Sailor Soldiers vs Fresnel Lens (2007)
- SoundtracksTrio Sonata No. 1 in G
Written by Domenico Gallo
Performed by The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Courtesy of Extreme Production Music
Early in the film, a narrator explains the quick degradation of humanity over five hundred years, but does not fill in the gaps of where all the futuristic technology came from in the meanwhile. Most of the criticism of this very fun (and funny) film seems to surround this omission, and the resulting complaint that the world isn't "realistic". As if "realism" has ever been a necessary quality of satire. Is "Brazil" realistic? How about "Futurama" or "Transmetropolitan"? Hell, how about "Gulliver's Travels"? I thought not. "Idiocracy", while maybe not as pointed as the best of the genre, hits the same notes and generally does so successfully.
Besides, I didn't find the futuristic technology to be a problem. It is pretty easy to figure out that Mike Judge is satirizing the current trend toward automation and simple product interfaces, so that even total idiots can use them. As in "Brave New World", the society in the film seems to have reached a point of automated self-sufficiency at some point in the past (apparently created by the now-extinct 'smart people' in order to placate an increasingly stupid populace), leaving the remainder of humanity free to indulge all the worst, most selfish impulses they can come up with, and grow even stupider. The film just happens to take place during the last gasp of humanity, as everything begins to fall apart for good. It may still be "unrealistic", but if so, it's a remarkably well-presented brand of unrealism.
The stupid people take up most of the screen time, of course, but they're just the victims -- they don't know any better. Mike Judge saves his real hate for the intelligent people in power who are dead by the time the film begins, but who are very much alive right now, in the 21st century. People like scientists who chase "hair growth and prolonged erections" for no other reason than the possibility that they'll turn a profit on their snake-oil treatments. People like politicians who let corporations simply purchase the FDA and FCC. People like media executives and their yuppie stooges who promote stupidity -- who enable the destruction of all culture, morality and health to make a quick buck.
After all, who is really to blame, the Morlocks or the Eloi? The Paris Hiltons of the world, or the brilliant executives and advertisers that put her on TV and lowered our cultural standards enough to leave her there? This is all implicit in "Idiocracy", though. A line here, a hint there (witness the hilarious auto-doctor which literally does all the work in the health care system). It's one of the few aspects of the movie that's NOT pounded into the ground by the unnecessary narrator. It's just there for the viewer to pick up, or not, but it is one of the most interesting themes in a movie that's much smarter than any other comedy of the year.
Pity that so many people will leave the film thinking it's just an excuse to show rear ends farting and people being hit in the groin. Not that that stuff isn't funny too, and maybe it IS a little pandering. But in "Idiocracy", it's just not as simple as it seems.
- subcreature
- Jun 20, 2007
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Idiocracia
- Filming locations
- Austin Convention Center - 500 E. Cesar Chavez Street, Austin, Texas, USA(Escalator/Tattoo/IQ Test)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $2,400,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $444,093
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $124,367
- Sep 3, 2006
- Gross worldwide
- $495,652
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