10 Off-Screen Moments That Change How You See Movies Forever

4. Soylent Green - Life Tragically Inspiring Art

Pretty Woman
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Soylent Green is a powerful film with an ecological message clearly at its core, but even more powerful is the reality behind one of the movie's big final act moments.

This 1973 picture sees the far-off future of 2022 one where the planet is on its knees. With pollution, poverty and a major lack of resources having decimated Earth, food is at a premium in Soylent Green - to the point where Soylent Industries' artificially produced wafers feed over half the world.

The major reveal of Soylent Green, is that the mystery protein being gobbled up is actually made out of people.

Before we get to that, though, Charlton Heston's Thorn has to watch his old friend Sol Roth (Edward G. Robinson) go through the euthanasia process - so disgusted is Roth at the world he finds himself living in.

In order to get a suitably emotional performance out of Heston, Robinson confided in his co-star that he was dying from terminal brain cancer. Nobody else in the cast was made aware of this tragic fact, and it was something that clearly influenced Heston as his Thorn character sees his long-time friend pass away.

Sadly, Edward G. Robinson died just 12 days after Soylent Green finished filming.

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Lifts rubber and metal. Watches people flip in spandex and pretends to be other individuals from time to time...

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.