Summary
Luke Wilson’s 2006 cult sci-fi comedyIdiocracygets an intriguing sequel update from the star, complete with potential plot details. Set in a dystopian future where anti-intellectualism reigns,Mike Judge’s satirical sci-fi movie was a true cult film, grossing just $495,000 in its limited release, but going on to become a cultural touchstone. The movie starred Wilson as Joe, a man who is placed in hibernation for 500 years, awaking into a world where his average intelligence, frighteningly enough, makes him the smartest person in the room.
Over 20 years afterIdiocracymade some truly scary - and uncannily accurate - predictions about America’s future, Wilson addressed the possibility of a sequel, revealing that he does indeed talk to the original movie’s director about the prospect, while laying out his idea for a potential plot. Check out his remarks below (viaEsquire, around 8:12 of the video clip):
I’m always trying to get Mike [Judge] to do another Idiocracy where me and Terry Cruz and Dax Shepard, who played Frito, where we come back from the future to the present day and see what happens.
Why Wilson’s Idiocracy 2 Idea Likely Wouldn’t Work
The joke inIdiocracyis that, if America were to remain on the increasingly anti-intellectual course it seemed to be charting as of 2006, in 500 years the country would be so dumb that an average man of the early 21st Century would be smart enough to run the whole show. Judge and co-writer Etan Cohen’sIdiocracysatireis so pointed and clever that it’s seen to have anticipated real events that happened later in America, but the film’s predictive power is really beside the point, as its actual purpose was to make fun of its own present.
Idiocracyboasts a 71% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes
Idiocracyindeed depends upon its outrageous science fiction setting to make its wild satirical comedy work. Wilson’s idea thatIdiocracy 2should send the first film’s characters back in time to our present may sound funny on the surface, but to do so would take away much of what makes the first film amusing in the first place. Inverting the original movie’s satirical premise would likely not result in an effective sequel, but an unfunny, on-the-nose clunker of a follow-up. The best way to relive the first film’s savage take on American culture is to catchIdiocracyon streaming.
Idiocracy
Cast
Idiocracy is a satirical science fiction film directed by Mike Judge. Released in 2006, it follows an Army private and a prostitute who are part of a Pentagon experiment in human hibernation, awakening in the year 2505 to find society has significantly regressed intellectually.
