soylent green 1973 dystopian science fiction movie this article is about the film for other uses see soylent disambiguation soylent green is a 1973 american postapocalyptic science fiction thriller film directed by richard fleischer and starring charlton heston and leigh tayloryoung edward g robinson appears in his final film loosely based on the 1966 science fiction novel make room make room by harry harrison it combines both police procedural and science fiction genres the investigation into the murder of a wealthy businessman and a dystopian future of dying oceans and yearround humidity due to the greenhouse effect resulting in suffering from pollution poverty overpopulation euthanasia and depleted resources in 1973 it won the nebula award for best dramatic presentation and the saturn award for best science fiction film plot the 20th centurys industrialization led to overcrowding pollution and global warming due to the greenhouse effect in 2022 40 million people live in new york city housing is dilapidated homeless people fill the streets many are unemployed those few with jobs are only barely scraping by and food and working technology are scarce with most of the population surviving on rations produced by the soylent corporation their latest product is soylent green a green wafer advertised to contain highenergy plankton from the world ocean more nutritious and palatable than its predecessors red and yellow but in short supply new york city police department detective frank thorn lives with his aged friend and police analyst solomon sol roth roth remembers life before its current state and often talks nostalgically he is welleducated and has a small library of reference materials to assist thorn while investigating the murder of william r simonson a member of the wealthy elite thorn questions a concubine shirl and simonsons bodyguard tab fielding who was escorting shirl when the murder took place thorn searches simonsons apartment for clues and helps himself to simonsons whisky fresh produce and beef thorn gives roth the classified soylent oceanographic survey report he found in simonsons apartment roths research reveals simonson was a member of the board of soylent thorn tells his lieutenant hatcher that he suspects an assassination nothing had been stolen from the apartment security was absent and the perpetrator used a meat hook instead of a gun to make it look like simonson was killed in a burglary thorn suspecting fielding as one of simonsons murderers visits fieldings apartment and interrogates fieldings concubine martha helping himself to a teaspoon of strawberry jam later identified by roth as too great a luxury for the concubine of a bodyguard to afford shirl reveals that simonson became troubled in the days before his death thorn questions a catholic priest that simonson visited the priest first fails to remember simonson and is then unable to describe the confession fielding later murders the priest governor santini closes the investigation but thorn ignores this and the soylent corporation dispatches simonsons murderer to kill thorn he tracks thorn to a ration distribution center where police officers are providing security when the soylent green there is exhausted the crowd riots the assassin attempts to kill thorn in the confusion but is crushed by a scoop crowddispersion vehicle in retaliation thorn assaults and threatens both fielding and martha warning fielding and his accomplices not to follow him and returning to shirl with whom he has established a sexual relationship roth takes soylents oceanographic reports to a group of researchers who agree that the oceans no longer produce the plankton from which soylent green is reputedly made and infer that it is produced from human remains the only conceivable supply of protein matching the known production they also deduce that simonson was murdered by the corporation because he had found this out from the reports and his influence inside the corporation roth is so disgusted with his degraded life in a degraded world that he decides to return to the home of the god and seeks assisted suicide at a government clinic thorn rushes to stop him but arrives too late roth is mesmerized by the euthanasia process visual and musical montage extinct forests wild animals rivers and ocean life before dying he tells thorn his discovery and begs him to expose the truth thorn boards a human disposal truck to the disposal center where he sees the human corpses converted into soylent green but is spotted and has to flee returning to make his report he is ambushed by fielding and others in the ensuing firefight thorn kills his attackers but is himself wounded when hatcher arrives he tells him what he has discovered and urges him to tell the researchers so that they can make a case against soylent and to spread the truth about soylent green hatcher promises that he will thorn is taken away by paramedics shouting out soylent green is people cast charlton heston as detective frank thorn leigh tayloryoung as shirl chuck connors as tab fielding joseph cotten as william r simonson brock peters as chief hatcher paula kelly as martha edward g robinson as sol roth stephen young as gilbert mike henry as kulozik lincoln kilpatrick as the priest roy jenson as donovan leonard stone as charles whit bissell as gov santini celia lovsky as the exchange leader dick van patten as usher 1 production the screenplay was based on harry harrisons novel make room make room 1966 which is set in the year 1999 with the theme of overpopulation and overuse of resources leading to increasing poverty food shortages and social disorder harrison was contractually forbidden control over the screenplay and was not told during negotiations that metrogoldwynmayer was buying the film rights while the book refers to soylent steaks it makes no reference to soylent green the processed food rations depicted in the film the books title was not used for the movie on grounds that it might have confused audiences into thinking it a bigscreen version of make room for daddy this was the 101st and last movie in which edward g robinson appeared he died of bladder cancer twelve days after the completion of filming on january 26 1973 robinson had previously worked with heston in the ten commandments 1956 and the makeup tests for planet of the apes 1968 in his book the actors life journal 19561976 heston wrote he knew while we were shooting though we did not that he was terminally ill he never missed an hour of work nor was late to a call he never was less than the consummate professional he had been all his life im still haunted though by the knowledge that the very last scene he played in the picture which he knew was the last days acting he would ever do was his death scene i know why i was so overwhelmingly moved playing it with him the films opening sequence depicting america becoming more crowded with a series of archive photographs set to music was created by filmmaker charles braverman the going home score in roths death scene was conducted by gerald fried and consists of the main themes from symphony no6 pathtique by tchaikovsky symphony no6 pastoral by beethoven and the peer gynt suite morning mood and ses death by edvard grieg a custom cabinet unit of the early arcade game computer space was used in soylent green and is considered to be the first video game appearance in a movie critical response the film was released april 19 1973 as of june 2017 soylent green has a 71 rating on rotten tomatoes based on 35 reviews awards and honors winner best science fiction film of year saturn award academy of science fiction fantasy and horror films richard fleischer walter seltzer russell thacher winner grand prize avoriaz fantastic film festival richard fleischer nominee best film of year best dramatic presentation hugo awards richard fleischer stanley greenberg harry harrison winner best film of year best dramatic presentation nebula award science fiction and fantasy writers of america stanley greenberg harry harrison american film institute lists afis 100 years100 movie quotes soylent green is people 77 home video soylent green was released on capacitance electronic disc by mgmcbs home video and later on laserdisc by mgmua in 1992 a bluray disc release followed on march 29 2011 list of american films of 1973 survival film about the film genre with a list of related films soylent a brand of meal replacement products whose creator was inspired by the book and film to use that name wikiquote has quotations related to soylent green soylent green on imdb soylent green at the tcm movie database soylent green at allmovie soylent green at the american film institute catalog soylent green at rotten tomatoes vtefilms directed by richard fleischer child of divorce 1946 banjo 1947 so this is new york 1948 bodyguard 1948 the clay pigeon 1949 follow me quietly 1949 make mine laughs 1949 trapped 1949 armored car robbery 1950 the narrow margin 1952 the happy time 1952 arena 1953 20000 leagues under the sea 1954 violent saturday 1955 the girl in the red velvet swing 1955 bandido 1956 between heaven and hell 1956 the vikings 1958 compulsion 1959 these thousand hills 1959 crack in the mirror 1960 the big gamble 1961 barabbas 1961 fantastic voyage 1966 doctor dolittle 1967 the boston strangler 1968 che 1969 tora tora tora 1970 10 rillington place 1971 the last run 1971 see no evil 1971 the new centurions 1972 soylent green 1973 the don is dead 1973 the spikes gang 1974 mr majestyk 1974 mandingo 1975 the incredible sarah 1976 the prince and the pauper 1977 ashanti 1979 the jazz singer 1980 tough enough 1983 amityville 3d 1983 conan the destroyer 1984 red sonja 1985 million dollar mystery 1987 vtenebula award for best scriptray bradbury awardnebula awardfor best script soylent green stanley r greenberg 1973 sleeper woody allen 1974 young frankenstein mel brooks and gene wilder 1975 star wars george lucas 1977 the sixth sense m night shyamalan 1999 galaxy quest david howard and robert gordon 2000 crouching tiger hidden dragon james schamus kuo jung tsai and huiling wang 2001 the lord of the rings the fellowship of the ring fran walsh philippa boyens and peter jackson 2002 the lord of the rings the two towers fran walsh philippa boyens stephen sinclair and peter jackson 2003 the lord of the rings the return of the king fran walsh philippa boyens and peter jackson 2004 serenity joss whedon 2005 howls moving castle hayao miyazaki cindy davis hewitt and donald h hewitt 2006 pans labyrinth guillermo del toro 2007 walle andrew stanton jim reardon and pete docter 2008 ray bradbury awardfor outstandingdramatic presentation terminator 2 judgment day james cameron 1992 babylon 5 j michael straczynski 1999 2000x tales of the next millennia yuri rasovsky and harlan ellison 2001 joss whedon 2008 district 9 neill blomkamp and terri tatchell 2009 inception christopher nolan 2010 doctor who the doctors wife richard clark and neil gaiman 2011 beasts of the southern wild benh zeitlin lucy alibar 2012 gravity alfonso cuarn and jons cuarn 2013 guardians of the galaxy james gunn and nicole perlman 2014 mad max fury road george miller brendan mccarthy and nico lathouris 2015 arrival eric heisserer 2016 get out jordan peele 2017 vtesaturn award for best science fiction film slaughterhousefive 1972 soylent green 1973 rollerball 19741975 logans run 1976 star wars 1977 superman 1978 alien 1979 the empire strikes back 1980 superman ii 1981 et the extraterrestrial 1982 return of the jedi 1983 the terminator 1984 back to the future 1985 aliens 1986 robocop 1987 alien nation 1988 total recall 19891990 terminator 2 judgment day 1991 star trek vi the undiscovered country 1992 jurassic park 1993 stargate 1994 12 monkeys 1995 independence day 1996 men in black 1997 armageddondark city 1998 the matrix 1999 xmen 2000 ai artificial intelligence 2001 minority report 2002 x2 xmen united 2003 eternal sunshine of the spotless mind 2004 star wars episode iii revenge of the sith 2005 children of men 2006 cloverfield 2007 iron man 2008 avatar 2009 inception 2010 rise of the planet of the apes 2011 the avengers 2012 gravity 2013 interstellar 2014 star wars the force awakens 2015 rogue one a star wars story 2016 blade runner 2049 2017 