# What movie had the first depiction of an anarchic, post-apocalyptic dystopia?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-had-the-first-depiction-of-an-anarchic-post-apocalyptic-dystopia/782679>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [March 21, 2017, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-had-the-first-depiction-of-an-anarchic-post-apocalyptic-dystopia/782679 "2017-03-21T06:56:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\
**Post date:** [March 22, 2017, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-had-the-first-depiction-of-an-anarchic-post-apocalyptic-dystopia/782679/21 "2017-03-22T20:46:29Z")

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> [@Quimby](#):
>
> I think one of the reasons it took so long for someone to create this genre is in the early days of Sci Fi there was still enough unexplored areas left that you could set your story in an newly discovered land to create adventure. You didn’t need to destroy civilization to create a savage land, you could just create a savage land in South America or something.

A good point!

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**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\
**Post date:** [March 22, 2017, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-had-the-first-depiction-of-an-anarchic-post-apocalyptic-dystopia/782679/22 "2017-03-22T20:51:58Z")

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Boy I thought of **Metropolis** (1927) immediately but maybe not post-apocalyptic dystopian enough?

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**Author:** ![JeffB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeffb/32/188_2.png) [@JeffB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JeffB)\
**Post date:** [March 22, 2017, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-had-the-first-depiction-of-an-anarchic-post-apocalyptic-dystopia/782679/23 "2017-03-22T21:41:19Z")

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> [@What\_Exit](#):
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> Boy I thought of **Metropolis** (1927) immediately but maybe not post-apocalyptic dystopian enough?

I say it doesn’t qualify as “post-apocalyptic” – just future dystopia.

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**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\
**Post date:** [March 22, 2017, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movie-had-the-first-depiction-of-an-anarchic-post-apocalyptic-dystopia/782679/24 "2017-03-22T22:14:13Z")

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> [@astro](#):
>
> Imagine you’re trying to describe Mad Max to a person in the 1920’s pr 1930’s . Plague or non-nuclear war was the most you could come up with for maximum devastation and even that did not bring social collapse down when it happened.

There is a contemporary variant, though it wasn’t adapted to film until after some of the examples already given. Karel Capek’s 1920 play _R.U.R._ described a robot takeover of Earth with subsequent elimination of humanity.

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