Idiocracy (2006)

Private Joe Bauers, the definition of "average American", is selected by the Pentagon to be the guinea pig for a top-secret hibernation program. Forgotten, he awakes five centuries in the future. He discovers a society so incredibly dumbed down that he's easily the most intelligent person alive.

Director:

Mike Judge

Writers:

Mike Judge (story), Mike Judge (screenplay),

Stars:

Luke Wilson, Maya Rudolph, Dax Shepard

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Luke Wilson	...	Joe Bauers
Maya Rudolph	...	Rita
Dax Shepard	...	Frito
Terry Crews	...	President Camacho (as Terry Alan Crews)
Anthony 'Citric' Campos	...	Secretary of Defense
David Herman	...	Secretary of State
Sonny Castillo	...	Prosecutor
Kevin McAfee	...	Bailiff (as Kevin S. McAfee)
Robert Musgrave	...	Sgt. Keller
Michael McCafferty	...	Officer Collins (as Mike McCafferty)
Christopher Ryan	...	Hospital Technician (as Ryan Melton)
Justin Long	...	Doctor
Heath Jones	...	Cop #1
Eli Muñoz	...	Horny Guy
Patrick Fischler	...	Yuppie Husband

Storyline

Officer Collins has been spearheading one of the US Army's most secretive experiments to date: the Human Hibernation Project. If successful, the project would store its subjects indefinitely until they are needed most. Their first test subject - Joe Bowers - was not chosen for his superiority. Instead, he's chosen because he's the most average guy in the armed services. But scandal erupts after the experiment takes place, the base is closed, and the president disavows any knowledge of the project. Unfortunately Joe doesn't wake up in a year, he wakes up in 500 years! But during that time human evolution has taken a dramatic down turn. After waking up, Joe takes a prison-assigned IQ test and finds that he's the smartest guy alive! Awaiting a full presidential pardon if he can solve one of the country's biggest problems - the dwindling plant population, Joe races against time to solve this problem. But in doing so he alienates half the country in the process! Can he make things right ...

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Plot Keywords:

hibernation | experiment | top secret | future | president | 

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Taglines:

The Future Is A No Brainer

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Genres:

Adventure | Comedy | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and sex-related humor

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 January 2007 (Germany)

Also Known As:

Idiocracia

Filming Locations:

Austin Convention Center - 500 E. Cesar Chavez Street, Austin, Texas, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$177,559 (USA) (1 September 2006)

Gross:

$438,653 (USA) (29 September 2006)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Ternion Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

84 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby DTS (as dts)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The main character's name is "Joe Bauers", who is made the Secretary of the Interior, charged with trying to solve the issue of crops not growing in the future. "Bauer" is the German word for "farmer".

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Goofs

At the cut to the close shot during the motorcade down Pennsylvania Avenue, the buildings along the street vanish, leaving Pres. Camacho's bike and the bus against an empty sky. They reappear at the cut back to the long shot.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Narrator: As the 21st century began, human evolution was at a turning point. Natural selection, the process by which the strongest, the smartest, the fastest, reproduced in greater numbers than the rest, a process which had once favored the noblest traits of man, now began to favor different traits. Most science fiction of the day predicted a future that was more civilized and more intelligent. But as time went on, things seemed to be heading in the opposite direction. A dumbing down. How ...

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Crazy Credits

A note near the end of the credits says "This film was also cut entirely on a computer".

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Connections

References Superman (1941)

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Soundtracks

Buckaroo
(1965)
Written by Bob Morris
Performed by Buck Owens' Buckaroos
Courtesy of Buck Owens Enterprises

User Reviews

This is the beginning of a marketing mystery

There's no other word for it...Fox dumped this out, with NO marketing of any kind. Nobody in the country, other than those who have been looking forward to this film, know anything about it. All the red flags have flown. It has to be a mess, it can't be anywhere near as good as Office Space, right? Wrong. Though Office Space it ain't, this film definitely has satirical bite and wit. It's a misfire on certain levels, but who's to blame is left to mystery.

Based on what is currently showing in theatres, I can say IDIOCRACY is a good movie. It's funny, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny. It's effective, sometimes ingenious. What it isn't as far as I can tell, is finished. We will see something come of this film again, whether it's an extended cut or reshoots. Alone it can be hilarious. It's ballsy at times.

Leaving the theatre, looking around at the mall, I was surrounded by advertisements and billboards, commercialism and stupidity. It's not quite as damning a dystopia as 1984, but this movie paints an ugly future for our culture. And there doesn't seem to be much anybody can do about it. Anyway, go see this if you can and try to find out what happened that it was so specifically buried.