Idiocracy is a 2006 American satirical science fiction comedy film directed by Mike Judge
and starring Luke Wilson, Maya Rudolph, Dax Shepard, and Terry Crews. The film tells the
story of two ordinary people from the present who take part in a top-secret military hibernation
experiment, only to awaken 500 years in the future in a dystopian society full of extremely
stupid people. Advertising, commercialism, and cultural anti-intellectualism have run
rampant and dysgenic pressure has resulted in a uniformly unthinking society devoid of
intellectual curiosity, social responsibility, and coherent notions of justice and human
rights. Despite its lack of a major theatrical release,
the film has achieved a cult following.
Plot A U.S. Army librarian, Corporal Joe Bauers,
and a prostitute, Rita, are selected for a suspended animation experiment which is supposed
to last one year. Joe is average in every way, hence his selection, and Rita's pimp,
"Upgrayedd", has been bribed to allow her to take part. The experiment is forgotten
when the officer in charge is arrested. Five hundred years later, when the average
IQ has dropped drastically, Joe and Rita's suspension chambers are unearthed by the collapse
of a mountain-sized garbage pile. Joe's suspension chamber smashes through the wall of Frito
Pendejo's apartment. Frito throws him out. Joe, thinking all the unfamiliar sights are
the result of a suspended animation hangover, makes his way to a hospital. The former Washington,
D.C. has lost most of its infrastructure, with people living in plastic huts called
"domistile". The human population has become morbidly stupid, speak only low registers
of English competently and are profoundly anti-intellectual. Joe is arrested for not
having a bar code tattoo to pay for his doctor's appointment, only then realizing the current
year and society's state. At Joe's trial, Frito, still angry about his ruined apartment,
turns out to be his lawyer, and his inept representation causes Joe to be sent to prison.
Rita returns to her former profession and realizes that in the future, her job is much
easier. Joe is renamed "Not Sure" by a faulty identity
tattooing machine, and takes an IQ test before outsmarting the prison guards and escaping.
Joe returns to Frito's apartment to ask him if a time machine exists to help him return
to 2005. Frito claims to know of one, but agrees to help only after Joe promises to
open a bank account under Frito's name in Joe's time, which will be worth billions by
2505. On the way to find the time machine, Joe and Frito find Rita.
They arrive at a gigantic Costco store, where Frito thinks the time machine can be found.
A tattoo scanner in the store identifies Joe as a fugitive. He is arrested again and taken
to the White House, where he is appointed Secretary of the Interior, on the grounds
that his IQ test identified him as the smartest man alive. In a speech, President Camacho
gives Joe the job of fixing the nation's food shortages, dust bowls, and crippled economy
within a week. Joe discovers that the nation's crops are irrigated with a sports drink named
"Brawndo", whose eponymous parent corporation had purchased the FDA and FCC, virtually replacing
water in every respect. When Joe has it replaced with water without visibly improving the crops,
Brawndo's stock drops to zero and computers lay off half the population, causing mass
riots. Joe is sentenced to die in a monster truck
demolition derby featuring undefeated "Rehabilitation Officer" Beef Supreme. Rita discovers that
Joe's reintroduction of water to the soil has prompted vegetation in the fields. Frito
shows the crops on the stadium's display screen, and Camacho gives Joe a full pardon, appointing
him to Vice President. Joe and Rita find that the time machine Frito spoke of is an inaccurate,
history-themed amusement ride. Following Camacho's retirement, Joe is elected President. Joe
and Rita marry and conceive the world's three smartest children, while Frito, now Vice President,
takes eight wives and fathers 32 of the world's most stupid children.
A post-credits scene shows a third suspension chamber releasing Upgrayedd, intent on tracking
Rita down. Cast
Production Early working titles included The United States
of Uhh-merica and 3001. Filming took place in 2004 on several stages at Austin Studios
and in the cities of Austin, San Marcos, Pflugerville, and Round Rock, Texas.
Test screenings around March 2005 produced unofficial reports of poor audience reactions.
After some re-shooting in the summer of 2005, a UK test screening in August produced a report
of a positive impression. Release
Idiocracy's original release date was August 5, 2005, according to Mike Judge. In April
2006, a release date was set for September 1, 2006. In August, numerous articles revealed
that release was to be put on hold indefinitely. Idiocracy was released as scheduled but only
in seven cities, and expanded to only 130 theaters, not the usual wide release of 600
or more theaters. According to the Austin American-Statesman, 20th Century Fox, the
film's distributor, did nothing to promote the movie; while posters were released to
theatres, "no movie trailers, no ads, and only two stills," and no press kits were released.
The film was not screened for critics. Lack of concrete information from Fox led to speculation
that the distributor may have actively tried to keep the film from being seen by a large
audience, while fulfilling a contractual obligation for theatrical release ahead of a DVD release,
according to Ryan Pearson of the AP. That speculation was followed by open criticism
of the studio's lack of support from Ain't It Cool News, Time, and Esquire. Time's Joel
Stein wrote "the film's ads and trailers tested atrociously", but, "still, abandoning Idiocracy
seems particularly unjust, since Judge has made a lot of money for Fox."
In The New York Times, Dan Mitchell argued that Fox might be shying away from the cautionary
tale about low-intelligence dysgenics, because the company did not want to offend either
its viewers or potential advertisers portrayed negatively in the film noting that in the
film, Starbucks delivers handjobs, and the motto of Carl's Jr. has degenerated from "Don't
Bother Me. I'm Eating." to "Fuck You! I'm Eating!"
Box office performance
Box office receipts totaled $444,093 in 135 theaters in the U.S.
Critical reception Idiocracy was not screened for critics, but
the film received generally favorable reviews. Praise focused on concept, casting, and humor;
the bulk of the criticism was directed at the film's release issues or at special effects
and plot problems. Los Angeles Times reviewer Carina Chocano described it as "spot on" satire
and a "pitch-black, bleakly hilarious vision of an American future", although the "plot,
naturally, is silly and not exactly bound by logic. But it's Judge's gimlet-eyed knack
for nightmarish extrapolation that makes Idiocracy a cathartic delight." In a review only 87
words long in Entertainment Weekly, Joshua Rich gave the film an "EW Grade" of "D" stating
that "Mike Judge implores us to reflect on a future in which Britney and K-Fed are like
the new Adam and Eve." The AV Club's Nathan Rabin found Luke Wilson "perfectly cast [...] as
a quintessential everyman"; and wrote of the film: "Like so much superior science fiction,
Idiocracy uses a fantastical future to comment on a present. [...] There's a good chance
that Judge's smartly lowbrow Idiocracy will be mistaken for what it's satirizing."
In other countries the film was reviewed positively. John Patterson, critic for The Guardian, wrote,
"Idiocracy isn't a masterpiece—Fox seems to have stiffed Judge on money at every stage—but
it's endlessly funny", and of the film's popularity, described seeing the film "in a half-empty
house. Two days later, same place, same show—packed-out." Brazilian news magazine Veja called the film
"politically incorrect", recommended that readers see the DVD, and wrote "the film went
flying through [American] theaters and did not open in Brazil. Proof that the future
contemplated by Judge is not that far away." Critic Alexandre Koball of CinePlayers.com,
while giving the movie a score of 5/5 along with another staff reviewer, wrote, "Idiocracy
is not exactly [...] funny nor [...] innovative but it's a movie to make you think, even if
for five minutes. And for that it manages to stay one level above the terrible average
of comedy movies released in the last years in the United States."
Rotten Tomatoes returned a 73% "fresh" rating based on 41 reviews by critics, and Metacritic
gave a score of 64% based on 8 critics. Home media
Idiocracy was released on DVD on January 9, 2007 with cropped and widescreen aspect ratios,
deleted scenes, English and Spanish spoken language tracks, and subtitles in English,
Spanish, and French. As of February 2007, it had earned $9 million on DVD rentals, over
20 times its gross domestic box office revenue of under $450,000.
In the United Kingdom, uncut versions of the film have been shown on satellite channel
Sky Comedy on February 26, 2009 with the Freeview premiere shown on Film4 on April 26, 2009.
Spin-off In August 2012, Crews said he was in talks
with director Judge and Fox over a possible Idiocracy spin-off featuring his President
Camacho character, initially conceived as a web series. A week before the 2012 elections
he reprised the character in a series of shorts for website Funny or Die.
Analysis The idea of a dystopian society based on dysgenics
is not new. H. G. Wells' The Time Machine postulates a devolved society of humans, as
does the short story "The Marching Morons" by Cyril M. Kornbluth, akin to the "Epsilon-minus
Semi-Morons" of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.
See also Demographic-economic paradox
Fertility and intelligence Flynn effect
Infinite Jest Sexmission
William Shockley Sleeper
"The Marching Morons" References
External links Idiocracy at the Internet Movie Database
Idiocracy at Box Office Mojo Idiocracy at Rotten Tomatoes
Idiocracy at Metacritic Scenes from the film at the Fox Home Entertainment
YouTube channel.