Z.P.G.

Z.P.G. is a 1972 Danish-American dystopian science fiction film directed by Michael Campus and starring Oliver Reed and Geraldine Chaplin. It was inspired by the best-selling 1968 non-fiction book The Population Bomb, by Paul R. Ehrlich.

The Earth has become severely polluted (people need to wear breathing masks when outside) with severe overpopulation affecting available resources. Because of the permanent thick smog that has settled over the dismal cities that now cover the Earth's entire surface, all animals – even common household pets – are extinct; people eat tasteless bright-coloured paste out of plastic containers.

To reduce the world's population, the world's government decrees that no children may be conceived for the next 30 years. Breaking this law will result in a death penalty for both the parents as well as the newborn. Brainwashing and robot substitutes are used to end the yearning for children, with the death penalty as the ultimate deterrent, by being placed under a plastic dome and suffocated to death. Couples of child-bearing age visit “Babyland” and are given life-size animatronic children instead.

A very smoggy and overpopulated Earth government makes it illegal to have children for a generation. One couple, unsatisfied with their substitute robot baby, breaks the rules and gets in a lot of trouble. (Z.P.G. stands for Zero Population Growth.) Written by Matt Carlin.

These types of movies were once considered dystopian fantasies, then we arrived at 2020.

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