2067, directed by Seth Larney, is a timely movie about a future Earth ravaged by climate change and ecological collapse. In this darkly dystopian world, humans face the same questions we face now- what can individuals do, if anything, to save the human race. We endure some shaky plotting and dialogue early on, but ultimately 2067 works well to raise questions about the future of humanity and the role each of us chooses to play in the real life unfolding destruction of the world about us.

The movie opens with a voiceover describing this bleak future brought about after disastrous heat waves, floods and ongoing deforestation. We watch the cities of the world go dark as humanity enters a new kind of dark age. As a result of the devastations of the natural world. all plant life has died, and the supply of oxygen is quickly dwindling. Most humans (the workers, really) live on synthetic oxygen, which of course has brought a new and unique health crisis, known simply as “The Sickness”.

We are introduced to the main characters, Ethan Whyte (Kodi Smit-McPhee) and Jude (Ryan Kwanten), as they casually work to fix some clearly near catastrophic nuclear power issue. They are unworried about the obviously looming crisis (great metaphor for climate change) and the issue is fixed at the last minute (a fool’s fantasy if we are extending the metaphor). After their shift ends they ascend into the city. This is our first glimpse into a truly dismal reality. Humans are living in dirty, polluted cities, where oxygen is dispensed from O2TMs (clever!).

One of my favorite elements of this movie was the sets and visual effects that showed us the larger world. From this first glance, to later views of the wider city as it transforms to different realities set the scene and helped the world building.

We meet Ethan’s wife, Xanthe (Sana’a Shaik), who is one of the unlucky ones afflicted with “The Sickness”. This conflict is one of the primary drivers for Ethan: he would do anything to save his wife.

Later, Ethan is summoned to the headquarters of Chronicorp, the main manufacturer of synthetic oxygen. This slick and ultra modern office building is the perfect juxtaposition with the gritty world seen earlier, and a great use of setting to further world building by showing us the wildly divergent lives of the rich and the poor.

Ethan meets Regina Jackson (Deborah Mailman), the CTO of Chronicorp’s research division. Out her window, we glimpse a city skyline, polluted with choking air and dingy light. Regina makes a dizzying offer: “The O2 epidemic will wipe out the human race, what would you say if I told you you could save everyone?” We learn Ethan’s dead father, Richard Whyte (Aaron Glenane) had been working on a time machine, hoping to learn a cure for the sickness from their descendants. Ethan eventually agrees, only after securing the first dose of cure for his ailing wife.

At this point, I struggled with several bits of anachronistic tech. I don’t believe that a society that has advanced enough technologically to build a time machine can’t figure out how to avoid their current dire situation. Most of the tech appears to serve as plot devices rather than a way to present a technologically cohesive vision of the future. It is possible this is an intentional division between the rich and the poor, but it was never made explicitly clear.

The future reveals a series of revelations to Ethan as he explores the transformed world. Ultimately it is in the future that the past is revealed, and Ethan begins to understand his own agency, not as choices and responsibilities forced on him, but by deciding which path to take, and ultimately deciding who he wants to be.

Most of the dialogue early in the movie was disappointing and awkward. In the middle and towards the end I was drawn to the philosophical discussions around time travel as analogies of the issues we face today with climate change.

Conversation between scientist father and his adoring son:

Ethan: Stars? How are we like stars?

Richard: Try this. Imagine we are all physically connected by the fabric of the universe, an invisible field that binds us together with everything in the universe: you, me, the stars. We are all connected through time. So you see even when I am not with you, we are always together.

The CTO, as the embodiment of the privileged elite:

“Humans are a virus. The earth needs time without us. We’ll jump ahead to when it is healed. People are going to have to die, it’s not an easy decision but it’s the right one. It’s not what we want, it’s what we need.”

The movie mirrors reality, as the elite bide their time in luxury and safety while the majority are left in unhealthy and dangerous living conditions. What are the elite waiting for? Deus Ex Machina: some brilliant billionaire (one of their own, natch) to come up with an idea that will save the world without the need to sacrifice their ultra-luxury. In this case the answer is TIME TRAVEL! While this feels like a weak plot move, it is an accurate depiction of reality.

What is not an accurate depiction of reality is that the elite are almost exclusively people of color. I can’t imagine the world so completely reversed from the current racial hierarchy without the complete twin reversal of issues around climate change and public health.

Time travel is often used to help us explore the question of whether human beings have agency or if we are bound to fates and futures already written. 2067 incorporates this theme into the plot, and asks our protagonist what he believes.

Jude (to Ethan)- “The future is written, we are just turning the pages.”

Richard (to Ethan)- “Make a choice to believe in something bigger, believe in people.”

By the year 2067, Earth has been ravaged by climate change and humanity is forced to live on artificial oxygen. An illness caused by the synthetic O2 is killing the worlds’ population and the only hope for a cure comes in the form of a message from the future: “Send Ethan Whyte”. Ethan, an underground tunnel worker, is suddenly thrust into a terrifying new world full of unknown danger as he must fight to save the human race.

Starring: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Ryan Kwanten, Aaron Glenane, Sana’a Shaik, Deborah Mailman
Written and Directed: Seth Larney