MuscaDomestica wrote in message news:382fa22c$0$[email]...
Everyone is mentioning the Willy Wonka, but what about "Soylent Green"? That was the other major reference of the episode. "Soylent Green" is a 1973 sci-fi classic staring Charlton Heston.
Coincidentally "Soylent Green" was running on another channel here (Space) while the Futurama was on. I was able to catch the last half after the show :-). All throughout the episode, while they were trying to find out the "secret" ingredient of Slurm I was waiting for the famous ending line from "Soylent Green".
For those of you who have not seen the movie I whipped up a description of the movies' plot. There are of course spoilers so beware.
S P O I L E R S
S P O I L E R S
S P O I L E R S
Soylent Green is set in a world in the future, the earth is overcrowded, the environment destroyed... people are starving... its almost to the point of chaos....the only thing that is keeping the vast masses in line and fed is "Soylent green". Fruit, vegetables and meat are only for the super rich. Soylent Green looks like small green wafers or crackers... The Soylent corporation says Soylent Green comes from the oceans... but does it?
A man is murdered and a police investigator (Charleton Heston) is assigned to investigate. In the course of the investigation he discovers that the man was killed because he discovered something about Soylent green.
In the course of his investigation he finds out that the oceans... like the land before it.. is dead... so the Soylent green cant be coming from the oceans like the government is claiming
Things are done to try and stop the investigation.... pressure is being put on him.. but he keeps up with the investigation in private
well eventually he discovered it has something to do with the this embalming place... and when an old friend (he is very old.. he can still remember when the earth had trees and grass).. goes to this funeral place to die.. he follows him... I wont go into the details there.. its pretty amazing stuff and you need to see the movie.. he follows the shrouded bodies from the funeral home. the are all put in one of a steady stream of garbage truck like trucks
anyway he sneaks on one of the trucks and follows it to its destination.. a large plant... they follows the bodies in..... and sees them being processed.... yes.. he finds out the big secret.... and in a really famous scene cries "Soylent green is people!.... SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!"