6. Soylent Green (1973)
Director: Richard Fleisher Cast: Charlton Heston, Edward G. Robinson As a matter of full disclosure, we intend to reveal the end of this movie, so consider this your spoiler alert. Soylent Green. Okay, maybe this one, for many of you, is not necessarily worth checking out. Its the weakest movie on this list. It feels rather dated, and it features some nice overacting by its star, Charlton Heston. But it received decent reviews when it was released, earns 71% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Viewed within the context of the time of its release, Soylent Green manages to comment on the direction the Conservationists of the 1970s feared mankind was headed. Soylent Green maintains something of a cult following, reaffirming its relevance. Soylent Green also marks the final screen performance by Edward G. Robinson, so this film is important for that if for no other reason. As part of our popular culture, the films famous final lines of dialogue, spoken by Heston, have become not merely oft quoted but often lampooned as well. You may recall that it was Heston who uttered another of filmdom's most famous lines of movie dialogue as he pounded his fists in the sand during the final moments of the original Planet of the Apes. The film is set in a bleak future beset with global warming, gross overpopulation, poverty and starvation. Heston plays a police detective named Thorn who is investigating the murder of the president of the Soylent Corporation. They make the carefully rationed food for the grim populace. People eat Soylent Green, made from kelp. Or seaweed. Something like that. We wont bore you with the particulars of the case, except that it leads Thorn to a remarkable discovery. Thorn figures out what soylent green really is. At the end of the film he cries, Its people! Soylent Green is people! Its a classic movie line. Now you know where it came from.