In 2010, a science fiction movie presented a dystopian society set in the year 2025. Once 2025 arrived, it was clear that the technology and ideas presented in the film were nowhere close to coming true. However, in a frightening twist, the concept of medical care in 2025 is almost as scary as the ideas this film presented. That is usually the best part of dystopian sci-fi stories. The ideas about how society deals with the new technology are what is most interesting, even if the technology never reaches that point.

This has happened numerous times over the years in Hollywood movie productions. Released in 1968, 2001: A Space Odyssey took place in 2001, but it remains a true classic even though space travel didn’t exist that year as it did in the movie. In 1985, Back to the Future 2 moved forward to 2015, and again, the technology in the film didn’t exist 30 years later. While Repo Men is nowhere near the level of those two movies, it tried to predict a future just 15 years later, and things didn’t quite happen as the film predicted.

Repo Men Is Set In 2025, But Predicted A Very Different Future

The Movie Saw A Horrific Dystopian Future

In 2010, Jude Law and Forest Whitaker starred in the science fiction action film Repo Men. The story takes place in the future year 2025 and sees a new technology where people can receive perfectly created biomechanical organs to replace failing organs, instantly improving the quality of life. However, as with all sci-fi films, there is a twist. The corporation developing these sells them on credit. When a person falls behind on payments, Repo Men are sent out to repossess the organs, killing the people in the process.

Jude Law is Remy, one of the Repo Men. When the movie starts, he and his partner Jake (Forest Whitaker) are killing a man to repossess his biomechanical organs, known as “artiforgs,” when he falls behind on payments. They seem good at their job and have no problem with this ghoulish task. However, when Remy is in an accident and needs an “artiforg” heart, he has to buy it on credit and then sees the other side.

The science behind Repo Men was iffy when the movie was released. Some things are true, such as artificial hearts. However, most technological advances Repo Men suggests are ludicrous and only exist as entertainment. There were also advances in things like artificial hips and joints, which existed even when the movie was made, but they also have not reached the level of the film.

Add in the more sci-fi gadgets like stun guns that shoot darts, which can knock a person out long enough to remove their organs. In the movie, the person will wake up after the surgery and extraction and be fine – other than the fact they are missing their replaced organ and will probably die soon anyway. This is realistically impossible. However, almost all the main plot devices of man-made artificial organs still do not exist in 2025 as they did in Repo Men.

Watching Repo Men’s “Futuristic” Setting Today Makes The Movie A Very Different Experience

The Idea Of Renting Medical Care Is Scary Today

The purpose of speculative science fiction in books and movies is not to predict what technology will exist in the future. The entire reason for creating these stories is to discuss what these technological advancements could mean for humankind. For Repo Men, the idea behind the story wasn’t imagining that biomechanical organs could exist. It was to see what the world would look like if a corporation controlled them.

That is where watching this 2010 movie in 2025 is an entirely different experience. Of course, nothing in the film is happening in society today regarding technology. However, what happened in the movie with corporations controlling health care and determining who lives and dies is a mᴀssive concern today. The horror part of this movie is too scarily real in 2025, and that is the one spot where Repo Men feels very relevant today, even if the tech in the film is ludicrous.