7. Soylent Green (1973)
Released in 1973, this is an example of a filmmakers view on a social problem that we may very well see overpopulation. The movie is about the devaluation of human life as the population grows and resources start to become exhausted, like an Al Gore disaster porn flick. In 2022, the oceans are dying and global warming has hit a new high; Earth is becoming almost unbearable to live in, especially the film's dirty, over-crowded version of New York City, where the population has swollen to 40 million people. The only food people can get is Soylent Green, which is a wafer apparently made from high-energy plankton. Robert Thorn (Charleton Heston) is a detective investigating the murder of a wealthy businessman who knows the horrific answer to the movie's tagline "what is Soylent Green?" So what's so bleak? Well, that answer is that Soylent Green is made from delicious human meat. Earth in Soylent Green is so bleak that the government even sets up assisted suicide clinics called Home, since dead is preferable to being alive.