Episode 359: ZPG (1972) & Children of Men (2006)

Special Guest: Mei Fong
Guest Co-Hosts: Keith Gordon, Christine Makepeace


While we often talk about a few movies on every episode -- one main film and some supporting works, sequels, and so on -- we're spotlighting two movies on this episode: Michael Campus's Z.P.G. (1972) and Alfonso Cuaron's Children of Men (2006). Z.P.G. (Zero Population Growth) stars Oliver Reed as Russ McNeil and and Geraldine Chaplan as his wife Carol. The film is set the near future where global resources have been strained and the environment has paid the price for the blight of human beings which have polluted the air so much that they live under a shroud of smog. The film was inspired by Paul Ehrlich's 1968 clarion call, The Population Bomb which warned of overpopulation.


Alfonso Cuaron's Children of Men is a very loose adaptation of P.D. James's 1992 novel. The film stars Clive Owen as Theo Faron who's biding his time on planet earth as the population is dying -- or killing itself off. No babies have been born in over 18 years which has exacerbated social strife, leading to terrorism, mass suicide, and refugee crises.