Iconic Directors Famous For Their Work In Dystopian Films

WARNING: This blog contains spoilers from films that these directors have produced

[Wes Ball on set of 'The Scorch Trials' with cast]

Wes Ball
Wes Ball is an American film director who also specializes as a visual effects artist and graphic artist. He directed the adaptation of James Dashner's series of books called 'The Maze Runner' and 'The Scorch Trials. He will also be directing the third and final film to 'The Maze Runner' trilogy called 'The Death Cure' in 2017. 

'The Maze Runner', 'The Scorch Trials' and 'The Death Cure' are all set way in the future and are dystopian novels as they have many typical dystopian conventions e.g. totalitarian government, new disease, world is in ruin, use of hospitals and experimentation along with madness etc. 

[Wally Pfister and Johnny Depp on the set of 'Transcendence']

Wally Pfister
Wally Pfister is an American cinematographer and film director - best known for his work with Christopher Nolan. Pfister made his directing debut in 2014 after he filmed the dystopian thriller 'Transcendence'. Some of his other works include: 'Batman Begins', 'The Dark Knight', 'Inception' and 'The Dark Knight Rises'. He was also the visual consultant for the animated film 'Turbo'.

Technically, the 'Batman Trilogy' are actually considered as dystopian films due to the fact that Gotham is a modern day dystopia. However my main focus was on 'Transcendence' which is a typical dystopian film with its true science-fiction themes such as artificial intelligence which are blended with true dystopian elements such as terrorist groups (such as R.I.F.T aka 'Revolutionary Independence From Technology' in the film 'Transcendence') or uprisings. It also contains a unique way of showing a dystopia: all technology in the world dying.

[Duncan Jones with his father, David Bowie]

Duncan Jones
Duncan Jones - son of David Bowie - is an English film director, film producer and screenwriter. He is best known for the award-winning science-fiction films called 'Moon' and 'Source Code'. 

'Moon' is a typical science-fiction film due to the fact it is set in space on the moon - such an imaginative title for a film that is set on the moon. 'Moon' is a dystopian film due to the use of limiting the clones of Sam Bell's lifespan to only 3 years - which is the length of their shift mining on the moon. This is because the clones are being use by a totalitarian state that makes the world believe that they are doing the right thing but have no idea about what actually goes on during the shifts on the moon...

Another film by Duncan Jones is called 'Source Code'. I decided to briefly look at 'Source Code' because even though it might not be classified as a dystopian film it is part of the overall genre of science-fiction. 'Source Code' is all about an experimental device that lets you experience the last eight minutes of a persons life. This is another commonly used science-fiction them which runs close to artificial intelligence.