Movies / Features
This 15-year-old Sci-fi Film Thought 2025 Would Be Very Different, And Thankfully It Isn't
The sci-fi film 'Repo Men' from 2010 is set in the year 2025. The film raises important questions about future technologies and healthcare.
As the years progress, it becomes more common for a film set in the future to align with reality. Such was the case in 2010, when a sci-fi film depicted a dystopian society in the year 2025.
When 2025 eventually arrived, it was clear that the technologies and ideas presented in the film had not yet materialized. However, in a frightening twist, the state of healthcare in 2025 turned out to be almost as alarming as the concepts presented in the film.
This is often the strongest aspect of dystopian science fiction stories: the way society copes with new technologies is the most interesting part, even if those technologies never reach that stage.
Over the years, this has happened countless times in Hollywood productions. For example, 2001: A Space Odyssey was released in 1968 and depicted a story set in 2001. Despite the fact that space travel didn’t look like it does in the film back then, it is still regarded as a classic. In 1985, Back to the Future II jumped ahead to 2015, but again, the technological predictions did not come to fruition thirty years later.
Repo Men may not be on the same level as those two films, but it did attempt to predict a future that was only 15 years away, and it similarly failed to materialize as the film suggested.
In 2010, Jude Law and Forest Whitaker starred in the sci-fi action film Repo Men, alongside Liev Schreiber, Alice Braga, and Carice van Houten. The film was directed by Miguel Sapochnik and is based on the novel The Repossession Mambo by Eric Garcia.
The story takes place in the year 2025 and introduces a new technology allowing people to receive biomechanical organs to replace failing ones, which instantly improves their quality of life.
But, as with all sci-fi films, there’s a dark twist: the company that develops the organs sells them on credit. Once someone falls behind on payments, the "Repo Men" are dispatched to reclaim the organs, often resulting in the death of the patients.
Law plays Remy, one of the Repo Men. At the beginning of the film, we see him and his partner Jake (Whitaker) kill a man to reclaim his biomechanical organs, dubbed "artiforgs," because he failed to pay his bills.
They excel at their job and seem unfazed by this macabre task. However, when Remy gets into an accident and needs an artificial heart, he must buy it on credit, learning the other side of the story.
Repo Men was neither a commercial nor a critical success. It grossed only $18.4 million against a budget of $32 million. Criticism was directed at the storyline, plot logic, and unrealistic technical elements, while the performances of Law and Whitaker, along with the action, received praise.
The science behind Repo Men was already questionable when the film came out. Some things do exist, such as artificial hearts, but most of the technological advancements suggested in the film are absurd and purely for entertainment. While artificial hips and joints did exist at that time, they were (and still are) nowhere near as advanced as depicted in the film.
Additionally, the film features more sci-fi gimmicks, such as stun guns that fire darts capable of incapacitating someone long enough to remove their organs. In the film, the patient wakes up post-operation, but without an organ and with certain death as a result. In reality, that is entirely impossible.
In short, nearly all the central plot elements surrounding artificially created organs are still not realized in 2025 as Repo Men predicted, and thankfully so. Nevertheless, the film remains highly topical. The chilling aspect of Repo Men is not the fictional technology but how hauntingly recognizable the social and economic reality is. Hence, Repo Men feels more relevant today than ever, no matter how absurd the technological aspects of the story may be.
When 2025 eventually arrived, it was clear that the technologies and ideas presented in the film had not yet materialized. However, in a frightening twist, the state of healthcare in 2025 turned out to be almost as alarming as the concepts presented in the film.
Happened Countless Times
This is often the strongest aspect of dystopian science fiction stories: the way society copes with new technologies is the most interesting part, even if those technologies never reach that stage.
Over the years, this has happened countless times in Hollywood productions. For example, 2001: A Space Odyssey was released in 1968 and depicted a story set in 2001. Despite the fact that space travel didn’t look like it does in the film back then, it is still regarded as a classic. In 1985, Back to the Future II jumped ahead to 2015, but again, the technological predictions did not come to fruition thirty years later.
Predicting The Future
Repo Men may not be on the same level as those two films, but it did attempt to predict a future that was only 15 years away, and it similarly failed to materialize as the film suggested.
In 2010, Jude Law and Forest Whitaker starred in the sci-fi action film Repo Men, alongside Liev Schreiber, Alice Braga, and Carice van Houten. The film was directed by Miguel Sapochnik and is based on the novel The Repossession Mambo by Eric Garcia.
New Technology
The story takes place in the year 2025 and introduces a new technology allowing people to receive biomechanical organs to replace failing ones, which instantly improves their quality of life.
But, as with all sci-fi films, there’s a dark twist: the company that develops the organs sells them on credit. Once someone falls behind on payments, the "Repo Men" are dispatched to reclaim the organs, often resulting in the death of the patients.
The Other Side
Law plays Remy, one of the Repo Men. At the beginning of the film, we see him and his partner Jake (Whitaker) kill a man to reclaim his biomechanical organs, dubbed "artiforgs," because he failed to pay his bills.
They excel at their job and seem unfazed by this macabre task. However, when Remy gets into an accident and needs an artificial heart, he must buy it on credit, learning the other side of the story.
Not A Success
Repo Men was neither a commercial nor a critical success. It grossed only $18.4 million against a budget of $32 million. Criticism was directed at the storyline, plot logic, and unrealistic technical elements, while the performances of Law and Whitaker, along with the action, received praise.
The science behind Repo Men was already questionable when the film came out. Some things do exist, such as artificial hearts, but most of the technological advancements suggested in the film are absurd and purely for entertainment. While artificial hips and joints did exist at that time, they were (and still are) nowhere near as advanced as depicted in the film.
More Sci-fi Gimmicks
Additionally, the film features more sci-fi gimmicks, such as stun guns that fire darts capable of incapacitating someone long enough to remove their organs. In the film, the patient wakes up post-operation, but without an organ and with certain death as a result. In reality, that is entirely impossible.
In short, nearly all the central plot elements surrounding artificially created organs are still not realized in 2025 as Repo Men predicted, and thankfully so. Nevertheless, the film remains highly topical. The chilling aspect of Repo Men is not the fictional technology but how hauntingly recognizable the social and economic reality is. Hence, Repo Men feels more relevant today than ever, no matter how absurd the technological aspects of the story may be.
