Top 7 Environmental & Eco-Friendly Films
It seems that at least once a year a big budget blockbuster hits movie theaters featuring a leading man racing against time to save his friends and family from earth as it falls apart or a heroine must brave the conditions of a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by the effects of a natural disaster in order to be reunited with her loved ones.
These plot lines can be ascribed to most dystopian, natural disaster films with just a few tweaks here and there.
What many people miss about these films doesn't lie in the fast-paced action or special effects. Instead, many of these films draw attention to what our future could look like if we don't start making some major changes to how the earth is treated.
Take a look at a few films that have managed to be entertaining but, even more importantly, environmentally-conscious.
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An Inconvenient Truth
The quintessential documentary by Davis Guggenheim about climate change and global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth" followed former Vice President Al Gore's campaign to educate the U.S. about the phenomenon. The Academy Award-winning documentary has been credited with shedding light on climate change and raising national and international awareness on the issue.
Wall-E
A fun, family Pixar movie that also doubles as a message about the importance of composting, recycling, and finding renewable sources of energy, "Wall-E" is a smart movie for kids that tells the story of two futuristic robots who fall in love and must work together to keep the planet's last plant alive.
Waterworld
This epic blockbuster, that gives a glimpse of the future should global warming continue, stars Kevin Costner as one of many humans trying to survive on an Earth completely covered in water after the polar ice caps melt and raise the sea level several hundred feet.
The Day After Tomorrow
One of the most well-known disaster films, "The Day After Tomorrow" stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Dennis Quaid as a father-son duo trying to reunite after climate changes triggers a new Ice Age that impacts the world's major cities.
March Of The Penguins
This documentary takes a funny, friendly look at penguins as they live their lives in a part of the world that is rapidly melting due to climate change. Taking place in the Antarctic, "March Of The Penguins" shares the perilous quest that penguins take across a harsh landscape to find the perfect mate and start a family.
Idiocracy
"Idiocracy" is an adult comedy that pokes fun at the not-so-smart decisions government and its officials make that could lead to the planet's destruction. Created by Mike Judge, this comedy will make you think twice about the confidence you place in mankind.
The Happening
This is the M. Night Shymalan thriller that *spoiler alert* shows what the planet may start doing to humans if we don't change our ways. The movie has some wacky twists, but the message is still the same: don't mess with planet earth.
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