Plot Summary: An army experiment goes awry and Joe Bauers (Luke Wilson) awakes five-hundred years into the future. He soon learns that Darwinian processes have been put in reverse, and the stupid have inherited the Earth. He is now the smartest man in the world.
*Recognition: It has a significant cult following like Mike Judge's previous film, Office Space, and was often cited during the Trump era of politics as a somewhat prophetic film of the modern political climate.
Did You Know:
Writer and Director Mike Judge came up with the idea for the film while he was visiting Disneyland with his family and saw two mothers, with kids in strollers, fighting and cursing at each other. He thought it would be horrible if humanity was like this in the future.
Unsure of how to market the film after disastrous test screenings, Twentieth Century Fox sat on the nearly completed film for over a year, before finally giving it an unusually small release in only six markets (skipping over major markets such as New York City). The release was done with little to no marketing.
In addition to the Fuddrucker's gag, early drafts of the script had another scene showing the devolution of sports, with a stadium's marquee sign changing from "Championship Baseball" to "Extreme Baseball" (essentially just a bat fight), to finally just "Fire".
Frito's last name, "Pendejo", is a Spanish insult which means pubic hair but conveys the same sentiment as "dumbass". His full name "frito pendejo", means fried pubic hair or "fried dumbass". It might also be a reference to Fritos corn chips' ill-conceived and Mexicanphobic "Frito Bandito" advertising character.
What is this movie is about?/Elevator Pitch: Are we devolving? - Man wakes up 500 years in the future where everyone is stupid.
Best Performance: Mike Judge
Best Secondary Performance: Dax Shepard
Most Charismatic Award: Luke Wilson
Best Scene:
Opening Birth Rate Scene
Ow, My Balls
Trial
Prison Escape
Fox News
The Cabinet
Rehabilitation
Epilogue
Favorite Scene: Ow, My Balls/Opening Birth Rate Scene
Most Indelible Moment: Opening Birth Rate Scene
In Memorium: Houston Tumlin; Jessica Walter; George Segal; Beverly Clearly; Larry McMurtry
Best 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 did this happen? Evolution does not necessarily reward intelligence. With no natural predators to thin the herd, it began to simply reward those who reproduced the most, and left the intelligent to become an endangered species.
Machine Register: Carl's Jr.: Your kids are starving. Carl's Jr. believes no child should go hungry. You are an unfit mother. Your children will be placed in the custody of Carl's Jr. Carl's Jr., fuck you, I'm eating.
Narrator: The years passed, mankind became stupider at a frightening rate. Some had high hopes the genetic engineering would correct this trend in evolution, but sadly the greatest minds and resources where focused on conquering hair loss and prolonging erections.
Pvt. Joe Bauers: Man, I could really go for a Starbucks, y'know?
Frito: I don't really think we have time for a handjob, Joe.
Funniest Line:
Narrator: The number one movie was called: Ass. And that's all it was for 90 mins. It won eight oscars that year including best screenplay.
Doctor: Don't worry, scrote. There are plenty of 'tards out there living really kick-ass lives. My first wife was 'tarded. She's a pilot now.
Doctor: ...Well, don't want to sound like a dick or nothin', but, ah... it says on your chart that you're fucked up. Ah, you talk like a fag, and your shit's all retarded. What I'd do, is just like... like... you know, like, you know what I mean, like...
The Stanley Rubric:
Legacy: 7
Impact/Significance: 2.25
Novelty: 8.75
Classic-ness: 7.5
Rewatchability: 5.25
Audience Score: 7.35 (87% Google, 60% RT)
Total: 38.1
Remaining Questions:
Is intelligence a genetic quality?
Wouldn't the human race have died out long before they became that stupid?