List your favorite sci-fi or privacy focused movies or tv shows. I think we can get Ex Machina and Black Mirror out of the way (diehards are going to add them anyway).
In no particular order:
Has this been asked? I can’t find anything.
1 Like
The Matrix series.
2 Likes
Personally I think the more clever critiques of surveillance were less 1984 style of an omnipotent police state and more in the style of A Scanner Darkly where mass surveillance becomes a means of self oppression as it slowly rots away our sanity. Great sci-fi follows the Alex Gibson approach of being less concerned about technology and more about how we are shaped by that technology, which is something Philip K Dick was incredibly proficient at. It also had this very bizarre Alex Jones cameo which makes it a great time capsule for the often ideologically muddled 00s era libertarianism.
Also an honourable mention to Metal Gear Solid 2 for exploring how mass information instead of mass censorship being a mode of control, with a deep state that has totally become fully automated and untethered from its original purpose.
Josie and the Pussycats (2001) - Subliminal messaging to sell you crap? It’s literally Google’s advertising model at this point.
Enemy of the State (1998) was peak paranoia at the time. At this point it almost seems quaint.
Sneakers (1992) more about cryptography, but it’s a great movie all the same about data layers.
Snowden (2016) and Das Leben der Anderen (2006).
From non-scifi side, a Good American (2015) and Citizenfour (2014).
They live (1988)
If you want to see the relation between how a hive mind brainwashed propagandized society and the dangers of turning a blind eye to McCarthyism like subject matters - all of which can be seen even today with how apathetic people are to important topics like privacy, surveillance, cybersecurity, and our digital rights online (for one reason or another), the best movie to watch is Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956).
Another great one is The Conversation (1974) that focuses on surveillance.