11. Children of Men (2006)
Alfonso Cuaron’s sci-fi thriller, based on the P.D. James novel of the same name, takes place in 2027 and depicts a world rocked by 18 years of human infertility. Despite the solid cast and fantastic one-shot action sequences, the infertility angle (the origin of which is never really explained in the film) doesn’t hold up under scrutiny. “The science behind it is a little hard to believe, evolutionarily speaking,” Martin says. “If you look at the history of the Earth, all living things, including humans, always seem to take on traits most beneficial to reproduction cycles. Basically, whatever helps spawn the healthiest and strongest offspring possible. So for us to evolve into something that is counter-intuitive to that is not very likely. That said, it’s also been documented that women in high-stress environments — like battlezones in WW2 or starving Africa — tend to become pregnant and reproduce much less frequently. Now, if it was a man-made cause, if the film showed that fertility is dropping because of something we did, that’s very doable. All these hormones and chemicals that are going into chickens and cows to make them more reproductive, we ingest all that. Who knows what it’s doing to our bodies? We’ll find out in 50 years.”
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