3 Terrifying Fictional Dystopian Futures That One Day Could Be Our Own

3 Terrifying Fictional Dystopian Futures That One Day Could Be Our Own

The media has no shortage of possible dystopian futures.

Whether this means a world overrun by robots, or the shortcomings of mankind, or even corporate greed, it seems the films and novels we see everyday are incredibly creative with the ways that the world might die. All these potential futures are terrifying possibilities, sure, but in the end they are wholly fictional. And what’s fictional has no bearing on the real world – or does it?

The discomforting truth about dystopian media is that it often sprouts from an inkling of truth. Ideas for dystopian futures do not just pop up on a whim – they arise from preexisting paranoias and burgeoning issues of our current world, and beneath it all lies the terrifying realization that our reality might one day turn up just the same. The Matrix reflects the increasing technological distrust and paranoia as technology evolves, while WALL-E expresses concern over mankind’s rampant environmental destruction and consumerism – in all these movies, however fictional, we will always see a bud of truth.

So for those curious as to how our future may potentially go, here are 3 terrifying fictional dystopian futures that one day could be our own.

1. Panem (The Hunger Games)

The Hunger Games trilogy was a widely popular novel and movie franchise that housed many dark and horrific themes.

Set in the dystopian country of Panem, a world who awoke from the ashes of North America, the world of The Hunger Games is one besieged by tyranny, cruelty, and a capital gone mad with power and an eerily familiar human consumerism. The Capitol, the aptly named capital of Panem, is a rich and wealthy district that enacts regular cruelty on it’s much poorer surrounding districts; forcing them to work for the luxuries of the Capitol under threat of punishment and violence, turning a blind eye to their suffering and starvation, and most horrific of all, making their children fight in a yearly, fatal Battle Royale for the entertainment of Capitol citizens.


The Hunger Games were written to have disquieting similarities with our own world – challenging our current glamorization of tragedy, hyperfocus on the media, and the potential burgeoning tyranny of our own corrupt governments.

2. The Matrix (The Matrix)

One of the most popular sci-fi franchises up to date, The Matrix tells the story of a world enslaved by machines. The titular ‘Matrix’ describes an incredibly complex computer simulation that humanity is made to believe is ‘real’ – meanwhile, the machines who have orchestrated this charade work outside the simulation, and use human bodies as glorified batteries to fuel their own ends. mlm softwares of human rebels – some who escaped the Matrix, and some who were never in it – recruit ‘Neo’, an alleged ‘chosen one’ to bring the fall of the machines, and try desperately to free their race from a tyrannical mechanical power.

First released in 1999, The Matrix reflects the increasing paranoia of machines in an era that is slowly dominated by them; and asks the uncomfortable question of what happens when they one day, inevitably, grow to be smarter than us.

3. The Future World (The Maze Runner)

In the dystopian future of The Maze Runner, the world has become overrun by a mysterious, fatal illness known only as The Flare. Those afflicted with it slowly go mad, and those who are not live in constant fear of contagion. Drug use by those who have contracted the illness is rampant, and the recreational drug The Bliss is used constantly to alleviate symptoms in those abandoned by everyone else.

However, there are those – mostly children – who show an unexplained immunity to the illness. In a mad attempt to uncover the secrets of their immunity and find a cure, the corporation WICKED is formed, takes a band of immune children, and forces them through various cruel ‘trials’ to determine their hardiness. The Maze Runner tells the tale of how cruel humanity can be when driven to the brink of desperation – to the extent where we take out our cruelties on our own children.

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The world of fictional dystopias often have very disconcerting similarities with our present; asking uncomfortable questions and challenging the deep-seated norms of greed, human psyches, and the cruel capitalism of businesses and mlm softwares corporations. So the next time you read or watch a dystopian story, don’t wave off it’s concerns – as the horrors it spells always finds its roots in our current life.