10 Dystopian Sci-Fi Films Where The State Wins

Orwell inspired a great many artists with his work, and the decades following the publication of 1984 saw a number of adaptations both literal and spiritual. Terry Gilliam's Brazil is the latter: the final word in post-Orwell dystopian fiction, which pairs the writer's cold, cluttered totalitarianism with the absurdism and impossible bureaucracy of Franz Kafka, and the late 20th century's hyper-consumer societal model.

Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) is the poor sod at the centre of this surreal tale, doing his best to stay afloat in a meaningless job, score a marginal promotion, and make it through Christmas without succumbing to one of the terrorist events plaguing England. After an administrative error causes the torture and death of an innocent man, Sam is sucked into a plot involving freelance heating engineer Archibald Tuttle (a nigh-unrecognisable Robert De Niro), literal woman of his dreams Jill Layton (Kim Greist) and an impenetrable trail of government overreaches.

Despite not being revolutionary in the slightest, Sam is charged with treason for attempting to use his position to falsify Jill's records and help her evade capture. And while Tuttle breaks into the Ministry, saves Sam and makes sure he gets away with the girl, it all turns out to be a hallucination, suffered under duress in the government torture facility. Jill is dead, Sam descends into insanity, and the state wins once again.