5. Armadyne Corp. Elysium
It's probably the easiest point on this list, but just because the Elysium's themes are so hammer-to-crack-a-walnut blatant, it doesn't mean I should feel bad about rising to take the easy bait. Alright then, here goes. Much like District 9, Neil Blomkamp's Elysium identifies a social problem by taking it to its nth degree with sci-fi plots. For 9, we had racism, apartheid and aliens. For Elysium, we've got illegal immigration and economic disparity. The whole thing is writ large by a constantly visible f**k-you-Earthlings spaceship, but it's not really Elysium's existence that concerns me here. What I am concerned about is when Max Da Costa gets himself trapped in a radioactive crate after being deducted a half-day's pay, all on his foreman's whims. Of course Max could refuse to go in the crate, but it's made clear that the employment situation is so goddamned dire on Earth that he would pretty much run through a wall to keep his job. All this asks the question where the hell are the unions? I know, it's easy enough to call me dense and remind me this is the dystopian future and the rules don't count. But really, I'm sure there had to come a time between the litigious society of the past and the robo-police-state where you can't even breathe on your space-dwelling overlord that the unions probably should've done something. After all, that's what they're there for checking the power of the employers and stopping things like forcing Max to walk into an obviously dangerous environment. Such a privilege doesn't go away lightly, even in desperate situations. In fact, keeping them probably would've become an even more passionate belief. Hell, maybe I'm being picky, but it bothered me a bit.