11 Astonishing Facts About SOYLENT GREEN You Never Knew

The movie Soylent Green (1973) opened in US theaters 50 years ago. It was a landmark in cinema.

SOYLENT GREEN’s warning message caught the attention of moviegoers in 1973 and was a hit despite mixed reviews. It won the first Nebula Award for Best Screenplay by American Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers in 1974. It also won the Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film of the Year.

The movie starts as a murder mystery and ends in a shocking twist. Soylent Green has a surprising history of its own and there are fascinating stories to learn.

You can watch the trailer here.

From improv scenes to production quirks, here are eleven captivating bits of movie trivia.

1. Soylent Green is the First Movie to Talk About Greenhouse Gas

What was the point of Soylent Green? The movie is based on the cautionary 1966 science fiction novel “Make Room! Make Room!” by Harry Harrison. It was one of the first artistic works talking about unchecked population growth and resource hoarding that lead to social problems.

Scientists had already started warning of the dangers of climate change. By the 1960s, aerosol pollution had become a serious local problem and scientists began to consider the cooling effect of particulate pollution on global temperatures. Paul R. Ehrlich wrote that the greenhouse effect is being enhanced by carbon dioxide and is being countered by low-level clouds generated by contrails, dust, and other contaminants. In 1963, J. Murray Mitchell presented one of the first up-to-date temperature reconstructions, which showed that global temperatures increased steadily until 1940. In 1965, the Science Advisory Committee warned of the harmful effects of fossil fuel emissions.

It was now being talked about but most of the general population didn’t really think about it. The Soylent Green film opened the door to disaster movies about climate change. Charlton Heston’s character, Detective Thorn, says that the “greenhouse effect” caused a year-long heatwave that polluted the water, soil, and killed all the plant and animal life.

That led to blockbuster movies about greenhouse gases and climate change. Movies like Interstellar (2014), Avatar (2009) and The Day After Tomorrow (2004). All of them started with this classic from 1973.

2. Charlton Heston Was Really Crying in Robinson’s Death Scene

Edward G. Robinson was a masterful actor and well respected. But his death scene in the movie hid a terrible secret.

Robinson was filming his 101st film. By this time he was an old friend of Heston. The two had worked together on The Ten Commandments in 1956. Robinson was considered for the role of Doctor Zaius in Planet of the Apes and did makeup tests in 1968.

While working on the Soylent Green movie the veteran actor told Heston a shocking secret. In the book The Actor’s Life: Journal 1956–1976 he revealed that Edward G. Robinson told him he was dying of bladder cancer.

In the film due to massive overpopulation the government not only allows suicide but encourages it. They provide “Thanatoriums” where people can volunteer to die. Roth learns the truth about the world and decides to end his life rather than die of starvation or worse. Heston’s character Robert Thorn tries to stop him but is too late.

Roth is escorted to a large room surrounded by screens. He lies on a gurney and takes a lethal does of medication. The soundtrack plays an assortment of classic songs like Beethoven and Tchaikovsky. The screens show the old man the breathtaking beauty of a world he remembers but is now gone. Lovely sunsets, birds, oceans, plains, and flowers are shown on the screens.

The director Richard Fleischer gives the actor moving close-ups to allow Robinson to act only with his eyes. The 79-year old man’s acting skills are on full display as he wordlessly conveys the characters pain and relief as he dies. It’s the most poetic and powerful death scene in film history. Thorn watches helplessly through a window and starts to sob.

The Little Caesar actor knew this would be his final film. But he stayed professional. “He knew while we were shooting, though we did not, that he was terminally ill,” Heston wrote. “He never missed an hour of work, nor was late to a call. He never was less than the consummate professional he had been all his life. I’m still haunted, though, by the knowledge that the very last scene he played in the picture, which he knew was the last day’s acting he would ever do, was his death scene. I know why I was so overwhelmingly moved playing it with him.”

Robinson would never live to see the release of the film. He died of cancer on January 26, 1973. It was the day after he filmed his death scene.

3. Robinson Couldn’t Hear the Other Actors

By the time they started shooting Soylent Green Edward G. Robinson was almost completely deaf. He could only hear people when they spoke directly into his ear. His dialogue scenes with others had to be practiced several times before he could get into the rhythm of the dialogue and respond to them as if he could hear them.

He didn’t hear director Richard Fleischer shout “cut”; When a scene went wrong, Robinson would often continue acting out the scene, unaware that filming had halted.

4. Soylent Green is Based on a Book

Soylent Green was based on Make Room! Make Room!, a cautionary 1966 science fiction novel written by Harry Harrison. The book is set in 1999 which was 33 years in the future. The world is overpopulated and reached a peak of 344 million people.  It focuses on 30-year-old Detective Andy Rusch and a 18-year-old Taiwanese-American  named Billy Chung. Billly accidentally kills a rich man over food and Rusch is investigating the murder. 

Harrison said the idea for the novel was inspired by an Indian man during WWII. He told him the biggest problem facing the world was overpopulation, specifically in India.

However, very little of the book’s plot is reflected in the film. His novel contained no cannibalism, no suicide parlors or chase scenes. 

5. The Author Hated the Movie

When the film rights were bought, the author of the book was contractually denied control of the script. He says he didn’t even know which studio bought the rights to the film.

He discussed the adaptation in “Omnis Screen Flights/Screen Fantasies ” back in 1984. Harrison noted that the “murder-and-chase sequences”, cannibalism, and the women aren’t the subject of the film. In his words “they’re completely irrelevant”.

Harrison complained that the script “transmogrified, denigrated, and degutted the novel from which it had been taken”. However he did praise the acting, cinematography and skills of the director.

He added, “Am I pleased with this film? I would say fifty percent. The message of the book has been delivered.”.

“I promise never to let anyone screw me or one of my books again,” he said. “I look forward to the day when, sink or swim, I can translate one of my other novels into an interesting and successful film.”

To date, none of his other books were ever adapted into a theatrical movie.

6. Cans of Soylent Green Were Made

The movie said that Soylent Green is a green-colored biscuit made out of plankton. But as a promotional item the studio produced props that looked like cans of “Soylent Green”. Obviously they were empty.

Charlton Heston is shown holding one in a promotional poster. The cans are still around and a sought after collectors item.

7. Soylent Green Has the First Video Game in Film

In the movie Soylent Green there’s a scene of someone playing an arcade game. It was a landmark moment for the film.

In the early 1970s computer games were a novelty. They were only played by people with access to very expensive and complicated computers. But two people saw a potential to expand the audience.

Nutting Associates released the world’s first mass-produced and commercially sold video game. Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney designed and built “Computer Space!” It’s a space combat arcade video game created in 1971. It features a rocket controlled by the player engaged in a missile battle with a pair of hardware-controlled flying saucers.

The movie wanted to show entertainment of the future. So the movie mocked up a custom white cabinet with the game playing on the screen. A young woman in an apartment can be seen playing it.

Bushnell and Dabney went on to co-found the video game company Atari.

8. Fascists Deny Women’s Rights

One of the hallmarks of an oppressive or fascist society is the oppression of women.

Mussolini promoted the idea that in fascist Italy women were useless. They’re only role was to be the wife and mother of many children. The same was true in Nazi Germany when females were excluded from all positions of responsibility like politics and academia.

In the book there’s little mention of women’s rights. The movie makes the topic a major theme. Young women are enslaved to rich men. They’re so devalued that they’re treated like and even named “furniture”.

Leigh Taylor-Young and Paula Kelly play “Furniture Girls” owned by William R. Simonson, a board member of the Soylent Corporation.

The author of the book sees the Furniture women as irrelevant. But the characters show that slavery is alive and well in this alternate future. Today many people talk about the rights of women. The movie predicted that their rights would be trampled in the future.

9. Dick Van Patton Was So Star-Struck He Flubbed His Lines

Dick Van Patton has a small role as one of the ushers who takes Edward G. Robinson’s character Sol to his death. Van Patton later admitted he was so in awe of the veteran actor that he had trouble with his only line.

Van Patton was supposed to say “this way Mr. Roth”. But instead he said “this way Mr. Robinson”. The director yelled “Cut! Cut! Don’t call him Mr. Robinson!” They set up and did the scene again. He said “Mr. Robinson” again. Finally, after the third try he got the line right.

10. Dinner Scene Improvised

After visiting the murdered man’s home Detective Thorn takes some items to help his investigation into Simonson’s assassination. He also steals some fresh food from the home.

Thorn’s over 40 years old and has never tasted this food before. But he’s too shocked by the opulence to resist it. Thorn takes the onion, apple and beef to the apartment he shares with Sol. The food is worth a small fortune. When Sol sees the food Thorn brought home, he almost cries as he remembers the old days.

Later, Thorn discovers that Sol has prepared a “gourmet” meal using the stolen food that Thorn had brought home. A modest “real food” dinner is something of a revelation for Thorn. Sol treats the occasion with great respect, bringing real cutlery and spreading a linen tablecloth. The main course is beef stew served with wine and apples. Thorn has never eaten most of this before.

The scene where Thorn and Roth share a meal of fresh food was not originally in the script. Director Richard Fleischer asked them to improvise the scene.

When the two begin drinking the whiskey Robinson says the Hebrew toast “L’Chaim” before drinking. It’s a special Jewish toast that means “to life.” It’s a nod to his heritage as a Romanian Jew.

Watch the scene below:

11. The Title Had to Be Changed Because of a Sitcom

Speaking of comedy. Did you ever wonder why the movie isn’t named after the book? The title was changed because of a popular family sitcom. The Danny Thomas Show was titled Make Room for Daddy for the first three seasons. It aired on ABC from 1953 to 1957 and on CBS from 1957 to 1964. It starred Thomas as a successful nightclub entertainer hilariously trying to balance his home life with the needs of his career.

While the original show was decades old a sequel “Make Room for Granddaddy” aired in 1970. It only aired one season but it was made a year before Soylent Green went into production.

The studio thought it might confuse people into thinking the movie was a comedy starring Danny Thomas. With cannibals. So they changed it to the key item in the film: Soylent Green. The author hated that too.

12. Heston Never Tells the Crowds “Soylent Green is Made Out of People”

When thinking about this film most people quote the most famous line that never happened. Kind of like “Play it again Sam”. A lot of people think there’s a scene in Soylent Green when Detective Thorn runs down the street screaming “Soylent Green is made out of people! It’s people!” But that never happens.

What does happen is in the climax of the film. After Thorn visits the Soylent Green processing plant he flees to a cathedral. He’s arrested by the police and strapped to a stretcher. “It’s people,” he tells the detective. “Soylent Green is made out of people. They’re making our food out of people. Next thing. They’ll be breeding us like cattle for food. You’ve gotta tell them. You’ve gotta tell them.”

Then he screams to a policeman “Soylent Green is people!”

Here’s the original scene.

So where do people get the idea that the “running down the street” scene happens? It’s may be from a Saturday Night Live parody of the film. In 1993 SNL had a parody movie talk show where they show a clip from director Jeremy Hoffman’s upcoming sequel “Soylent Green 2”. The late Phil Hartman does a masterful impression of Charlton Heston against a green screen of a city street. “Soylent Green is still made out of people!” he screams. “They didn’t change the recipe like they said they were going to! It’s still people!!”

Hartman was such a powerful impressionist that people forget he wasn’t in the film.

About Soylent Green (1973)

Official synopsis: “In a densely overpopulated, starving New York City of the future, NYPD detective Robert Thorn (Charlton Heston) investigates the murder of an executive at rations manufacturer Soylent Corporation. With the help of elderly academic Solomon “Sol” Roth (Edward G. Robinson), Thorn begins to make real progress — until the governor mysteriously pulls the plug. Obsessed with the mystery, Thorn steps out from behind the badge and launches his own investigation into the murder.”
Directed by Richard Fleischer
Cinematography by Richard H. Kline
Production Design by Lloyd Anderson
“Soylent Green” stars Charlton Heston, Leigh Taylor-Young, Chuck Connors, Joseph Cotten, Brock Peters, Paula Kelly, Edward G. Robinson, Stephen Young, Mike Henry, Lincoln Kilpatrick, Roy Jenson, Leonard Stone, Whit Bissell,
“Soylent Green” was released on May 09, 1973 (United States).
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