Some movie scripts contain unforgettable one-liners, like “Here’s looking at you, Kid” from Casablanca (1942) and “Leave the gun, take the cannoli” from The Godfather (1972). As predictions, these one-liners—though memorable—are limited contextually to the films in which they appear. That is, Bogart was bidding farewell to Bergman in Casablanca, and the cannoli in The Godfather were presumably consumed long ago. But how about “The future is plastics” from The Graduate (1967)?
To refresh your memory, the film’s about a recent college graduate (Dustin Hoffman) who’s anxious about his future. When he asks a successful businessman for advice, he gets the well-meaning answer “The future is plastics.” It was a prophetic answer, because plastic rules our 21st century world. Yet the ironic prescience of this seemingly throwaway one-liner haunts the future of Planet Earth, if not the future of the human race itself.
For tragic proof, fast-forward to the present and watch a film that updates The Graduate’s 1967 prediction: Albatross the Film (2017). This movie, described as a “love story,” tells a tale of birds on Midway Island in the Pacific whose bodies are filled with indigestible plastic that they forage from their instinctual feeding ground: the oceans of Planet Earth.
Here’s the link: https://albatrossthefilm.com/watch-albatross
