MovieChat Forums > Soylent Green (1973) Discussion > Why do people choose to sleep in stairwa...

Why do people choose to sleep in stairways?


Thorn (Charleton Heston) is constantly having to walk over people sleeping on stairs. Yet once he reaches the bottom there are plenty of open spaces on the street. Wouldn't you rather crash out on the pavement?

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And get stepped on by everybody else who would be passing through out there? It's a tough call.

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they have to be in the buildings because of curfew - no one allowed on the street without a permit.

rich people get a nice apt.
Man with a job gets a small apt. with roommate.
20,000 unemployed sleep in stairwells, and may even have to pay some amount for that.

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20,000 unemployed sleep in stairwells, and may even have to pay some amount for that.

Don't mean to insult, you probably just forgot a couple zeroes, but he said 20 million people were out of work! Which is a tremendously large number! That fact shocked me, actually, the whole movie shocked me. But, was still an astonishing film, glad I stayed up till 5 am watching it.

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Wrong. There was the OUTDOOR staircase that Thorn climbed down during the DAYTIME and there were tons of people sleeping on that outdoor staircase too. Thorn even stepped on one of the men by accident.

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@Danimal_77 There was the OUTDOOR staircase that Thorn climbed down during the DAYTIME...
I thought that the curfew was for nighttime, so they could sleep outside during the day if they wanted to. At nighttime they would've gone indoors.

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Yah I know, that part made me laugh too ... Makes for a better movie I suppose, just trying to show how crowded the world has become I guess ... Seems kinda dumb though. They shoulda had just a few people on the stairs, instead of the giant crowd they had though, would have been a little more believable. Was almost comical.

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You have a good point, although as was pointed out in the movie, there is a night curfew in which everyone must be off the street. Nonetheless, this does bring up an inconsistency. If New York City's population is that overwhelming in 2040, then not everyone can go inside after nightfall. People would be forced to sleep outside.

Back to your original question. Yes, sleeping outside on the pavement would be more comfortable than on a stairwell.

In the most crowded cities of India, this is commonplace. I've never been to India but have seen this on television and in magazines. As evening starts to draw closer to nightfall, that is, right after dinner time and the sun is starting to set below the horizon, hundreds of thousands of homeless Indian people find a spot on the sidewalk, pavement, or alleyway. They unroll their sleeping mat and lay down on it. So just as night falls, you'll see tens of thousands of people, maybe hundreds of thousands, covering all the sidewalks, pavements, and any other open spot, all lying down to sleep on their straw mats. I'm not sure if they all fall asleep immediately. Probably not. It's rest, relaxation and social time while lying down. Then perhaps they start drifting off to sleep after 8 pm. But as soon as the sun rises to first light or very early morning, everyone is expected to get up, roll up your mat and be on your way. But there's always a few late-sleeping individuals seen still lying on their straw beach mats while shoulder-to-shoulder crowds walk around them on the sidewalk.

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Sleeping on pavement would not be a viable option to the people if you take into account the entire premise of the movie. This movie showcases what we would now call "Global Warming." Heston mentions in one scene, which is at night time, that it's still 90 degrees out.

Now, tell the truth, would you want to sleep on pavement that had been in the heat all day and not really had the chance to cool down even at night?



JOE TYRIA

http://www.youtube.com/user/SilverCreedWolf

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[deleted]

I think crime would be huge with that many unemployed... rape, mugging, violence for kicks due to boredom, desperation, starvation and hopelessness, people would probably kill someone for half of a potato... instead of sleeping in the gutter, guy with shotgun or m16 on stairwell might be a step up (pun not intended)...

the owner's may let the people stay for free (in stairwell) or charge a soylent cracker a night or something (more likely as the milk of human kindness appears to have gone sour at this point)...

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I thought it was a safety issue. You would probably get robbed if you stayed on the street. I thought the guy with the gun was the landlord and he was charging all those people for protection and a place to sleep.

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I wonder if the cities got that nasty if a lot of people would bolt for the country. In 2010 About 90% of American land was rural with only 16% of the population. "Soylent Green" took place in 2022. That future might happen but is probably more than ten years in the future. If the poop ever hits the fan I might move to rural areas if they still exist. I guess in the movie "Soylent Green" there were no more rural lands left to move to.

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rural lands were taken by TPTB according to the film. It was mentioned the intention was even worst: to raise people like cattle in the future beyond.

There's a thin gap between skepticism and cynicism

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oscarinca wrote:
"rural lands were taken by TPTB according to the film. It was mentioned the intention was even worst: to raise people like cattle in the future beyond."

Not feasible. Discussed on the board for "The Road." Costs more to feed them than they yield in the end. Makes more sense to encourage euthanasia or round them up in scoops.

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No, you're remembering wrong. The apartment building with the dude with the shotgun was NOT Thorn's building where all the people slept on the stairs (inside and outside). THAT building's stairs were empty and the dude with the shotgun said he kept a clean building and the stairs in that building were clearly empty.

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[deleted]

@Danimal_77 THAT building's stairs were empty and the dude with the shotgun said he kept a clean building and the stairs in that building were clearly empty.
That was during the daytime though, so the curfew wouldn't have been in effect. Maybe people slept there at night after curfew. It wasn't a luxury building like the one that Simonson lived in.

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"This movie showcases what we would now call "Global Warming.""

Yeah, a MOVIE has to showcase it, because we haven't still experienced it in reality (because it doesn't exist).

And the movie still calls it "The Greenhouse Effect". Remember that? They kept changing the name. I think now it's called "Climate Change". How generic! Doesn't climate change anyway all the time?

So it was first:

- The Greenhouse Effect. No real winters anymore, no snow! Every place on Earth would feel like a greenhouse, warm and moist and really uncomfortable! I remember this from the 80s. Well, the winters lately have brought even RECORD-amounts of snow, it has been VERY cold, (both winters AND summers), and nothing came of these predictions.

Then it was changed to:

- Global Warming. Icecaps would melt, sinking small islands, like Tuvalu, and we all have to give money to the cause, because money prevents natural disasters! If Tuvalu just has enough money, it won't sink! I was glad that finally perhaps the cold winters would become more tolerable, the spring could come earlier, and the summers would last longer. Ahh, how great. But.. NONE OF THAT HAPPENED! Winters got even colder, there was even more snow, summers were short as ever, and spring still takes an eternity to really manifest itself. Of course the informationally blind, indoctrinated morons claim that yes, it's Global WARMING that causes everything to become COLDER (and for some reason, it isn't called 'Global Cooling').

But uh, oh! Suddenly people started noticing that it's actually getting colder, not warmer - so we can't call it "Global Warming" anymore - we must find a new name for it.. what could be good?

Yeah.

- Climate Change. Well, SOMETHING will happen, and it'll be bad, and it might go to reverse, and things might change all the time, and .. uh.. well, it's bad for the environment, so you all must pay a lot of money, because that prevents these environmental disasters! That's right, if you just give enough money by paying taxes (which are, by the way, optional), then everything will be fine!

And so on.

How long until people will see all that crap for the scam that it is? Btw, Tuvalu is still just as high as it ever was, and its neighbourgh islands have actually INCREASED IN SIZE, which would be impossible, if they were sinking or if the water levels were dramatically rising.

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Idiot.

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oooh, cunty.

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Not a counter argument.

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They are homeless; they don't have much choice...

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[deleted]

They didn't choose to sleep in the stairway. Those people are homeless because the earth is severely over-populated, and they really have nowhere else to go.

The movie-makers had these people imitate what's [sadly] normal in places like Bangladesh, as well as other over-populated countries; too many people, not enough homes, so they sleep in the street.

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