10 eco blockbusters that shaped how we see the planet

As a kid, I loved escaping to the cinema. Whether it was Indiana Jones or Luke Skywalker, Ghostbusters or Jurassic Park, the movies were there to make my imagination soar. But I’ve grown up now and put away childish things (sort of); and with every day bringing darker headlines about the state of the planet, it feels like in today’s world, escapism isn’t going to cut it. Looking away feels wrong, like Nero fiddling – or eating popcorn – while Rome burns.

And yet, movie-wise, here we still are. Indiana Jones has only just hung up his whip; another Ghostbusters movie has just been released; Jurassic Park is now Jurassic World. The highest-earning film last year starred a mass-produced plastic doll that was already popular when I was a kid. So where are the films confronting the climate and biodiversity crises? When researchers studied the movies nominated for Best Picture at the last Academy Awards (taking inspiration from the Bechdel Test, which assesses films based on representation of women), they found that only three of the 10 films made mention of climate change. So where are the environmental films? Where is the Citizen Kane of the environment, the Barbie of sustainability?

It’s easy to think eco messages have been shunned by cinema because people want escapism. If you want to send a message, a studio mogul once pronounced, use Western Union – and modern-day Hollywood still largely operates on that principle.

But wait, there’s a twist. Throughout the history of cinema, movies have, in fact, shaped our relationship with the environment; sometimes subtly, sometimes dramatically. Films have informed the conversation, educated children, planted seeds that grew into a life change. How many vegetarians can trace their choice back to seeing Babe as a child? How many botanists were inspired by Bruce Dern’s quiet gardener in the 70s sci-fi film Silent Running?

So here are 10 fantastic films that, in very different ways, have positively impacted the way we view the world around us, encouraged us to treat it better, and have warned us of the possible calamity if we don’t.

1. Bambi (1942)

Walt Disney cartoons might not be what spring to mind when we think of green issues. But this story of a young deer was hugely important to framing the debate. Bambi’s relationship with the forest and his friends taught a generation of children to value the natural environment and think of the forest as a habitat, a place to live in, rather than a scary place where wolves lurk. In fact, the real danger in the forest is presented by humans, and specifically the hunter who [SPOILER] kills Bambi’s mother in a scene that was seared into many a child’s memory. Bambi was so powerful that recreational hunting declined following the release of the film. To this day, pro-hunting lobby groups decry the ‘Bambi Effect’, the anthropomorphic empathizing with cute animals which causes us to object to people killing them for fun.

2. Planet of the Apes (1968)

This groundbreaking adaptation of Pierre Boulle’s novel came in a year of social unrest. Charlton Heston’s astronaut is the straightlaced establishment figure: he did play Moses after all. He now finds himself on a planet where the apes are in the ascendancy, and humans are brute animals and treated as such. The metaphor could obviously stand for race relations – “Get your hands off me, you dirty ape!” Heston cries – as well as increasing an awareness of animal rights. If we are repulsed by the segregated society of the apes and the way they treat the humans, shouldn’t we examine how we treat animals in our world and our own hierarchies? (The recent prequel trilogy explores these points more explicitly.) The famous final shot reveals that the whole film is also a warning about the destructiveness of humanity.

3. Erin Brockovich (2000)

Based on a true story, Erin Brockovich tells the tale of a single mother who, while working as a paralegal, takes on a gas and water utility company, accusing them of causing contamination of the water in the small town of Hinkley, California. Steven Soderbergh’s film feels like a return to the socially-engaged cinema of the 1970s, and Julia Roberts went on to win an Oscar for the role of an ordinary woman capable of bringing about extraordinary change. The real Brockovich remains a stalwart champion of clean water and air today and continues her advocacy and activism for communities nationwide.

4. The Day After Tomorrow (2004)

Roland Emmerich had already put the human race in danger of extinction with his blockbusting alien invasion movie Independence Day and then resurrected the Japanese atomic nightmare Godzilla to bite chunks out of New York, but with The Day After Tomorrow climate change itself for the first time became the baddie. The science was dubious – featuring a superstorm that brings about an almost instantaneous ice age – but the film was a resounding success and proved that issues could be raised in a way that reached a broad section of the public as well as making a substantial profit for the studio.

5. An Inconvenient Truth (2006)

Vice-President Al Gore could have finished his political career as the most famous loser of a presidential election when he was pipped to the White House by the thinnest of margins. But incredibly he managed to pull off a consequential second act to his political life with this Oscar-winning documentary. The film lays out an accessible, entertaining and persuasive argument for human-made climate change, and,  vitally, offers hope and solutions. It has been cited as an inspiration by Kenyan activist Wanjira Mathai, CNN political commentator Van Jones and climate scientist Michael Mann. A sequel was made in 2017, and there have been other high-profile factual films such as Leonardo DiCaprio’s Before the Flood, but this is still the most impactful documentary yet made about climate change.

6. Avatar (2009)

Filmmaker and conservationist James Cameron mixes his passions in one of the most commercially successful films ever made. Avatar also provides a stinging criticism of corporate greed and champions the status of Indigenous peoples and the exploitation of nature. On the planet Pandora, humans ruthlessly search for the valuable unobtanium with scant consideration for the destruction they cause to the environment or to the Na’avi people who live there. Some criticized Cameron’s lack of subtlety and took him to task for his use of the white savior trope, but with its stunning special effects and exciting action sequences Avatar became a worldwide hit and opened the eyes of new audiences to struggles of Indigenous people and the environment.

7. Don’t Look Up (2021)

Initially, Adam McKay honed his talents as the director of Will Ferrell comedies such as Anchor man, but he was increasingly horrified by the fact that climate change – which he perceived as an existential threat – was often reported as the fourth item on the news. So he came up with the idea of two astronomers, played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, who spot a comet heading on a direct course to impact with the Earth and attempt to warn everyone. However, instead of reacting to this apocalyptic news with some kind of plan, the media are more interested in their looks and the politicians in the rare elements that the comet is made of, despite the fact it is going to destroy the world. This was a Dr Strangelove for the climate crisis, the darkest of satires that became one of Netflix’s most streamed movies.

8. Oppenheimer (2023)

The more solemn half of 2023’s Barben heimer phenomenon may seem like a strange choice, but what would be more environmentally destructive than a nuclear war? Christopher Nolan’s Oscar-winning epic is a cautionary tale about the relationship between technology and the scientific community and its potentially negative consequences. The film portrays J. Robert Oppenheimer as brilliant but also driven by ambitions that blind him to the welfare of the world. Parallels between the development of the atom bomb and the damage done to the  environment by industrial development abound. This was a serious film about important issues which reached the widest possible audience and triumphed at the Oscars.

9. Dune, Parts 1 & 2 (2021, 2024)

Frank Herbert’s 1965 science fiction novel was inspired by his interest in ecology and specifically desertification. He combined this with the story of T.E. Lawrence in World War One and his knowledge of and empathy towards Native American culture. A substance called Spice – which is essential for intergalactic travel – is mined by various exploitative aristocratic families, without any mind to the native population of the planet of Dune. In Denis Villeneuve’s thrilling adaptation, issues of Indigenous rights and environmental exploitation go hand-in-hand with one of the most spectacular cinematic franchises of recent years.

10. The Wild Robot (2024)

An adaptation of Peter Brown’s children’s book series, The Wild Robot clanks along in the footsteps of such hallowed pictures as Wall-E and The Iron Giant, proving that we often learn the best way to treat the natural world from the most artificial of metal creations. In this case it’s shipwrecked robot Roz, voiced by Lupita Nyong’o. The island where filmmaker Chris Sanders sets the story has a look inspired by the classic animation of old school Disney and Hayao Miyazaki. The important lesson is that we are here to help, to look after and to share the world, rather than to exploit it.

Main photo: On the set of Planet of the Apes, APJAC Productions/20th Century Fox/RGR. Bambi still: Allstar Picture Library Ltd. Planet of the Apes still: Allstar Picture Library Ltd. Erin Brockovich, Photo 12. The Day After Tomorrow still: Moviestore Collection Ltd. An Inconvenient Truth still: RGR Collection. Avatar still: Cinematic. Don’t Look Up still: Pictorial Press Ltd. Oppenheimer still: Moviestore Collection Ltd. Dune still: Landmark Media. The Wild Robot still: United International Pictures. All licensed through Alamy except The Wild Robot.