10 Dystopian Movie Futures You Really Wouldn't Want To Live In

6. Harrison Bergeron

This one's an easy call. Harrison Bergeron originated as a short story by Kurt Vonnegut, and was adapted into a film starring Sean Astin in the mid 90s. In the near future, the government has decided to make everyone equal, through the use of handicaps that make gifted people just average. If you're strong and athletic, you have to wear weights attached to your body that will slow you down. If you're intelligent, you have to wear an earpiece that sends out loud, painful, high-frequency noises every so often to break up your train of thought. If you're beautiful, you have to wear an ugly mask, and so on and so forth. So not only are you in a far bit of pain most of the time unless you're perfectly average in every respect, but there are pretty harsh penalties for trying to circumvent these attempts to level the playing field. You'll spend a year in prison for each metal ball you take out from the weight that you're required to wear. And if you stand in outright rebellion, as Harrison Bergeron did, well...let's just say that you won't have to worry about the oppressive society for very much longer.