Let the Games Begin: Scarcity, Competition, and Solidarity in Neoliberal Dystopian Cinema

Abstract

This paper analyzes three recent dystopian films--The Hunger Games (2012, Gary Ross), Snowpiercer (2013, Bong Joon-ho), and Cloud Atlas (2013, the Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer)--as texts informed by and responding to the systems and ideology of neoliberalism. These films embody the fantasy of the destruction of neoliberalism (and ideally, capitalism in its entirety), manifesting in three stages representing scarcity, competition, and solidarity. "Let the Games Begin" draws on connections between these films and their historical context of neoliberalism to determine how they mediate current cultural anxieties, and what their presence and popularity might say about growing dissatisfaction with life under capitalism.