Over the decades, numerous successful sci-fi satire movies have adapted one iconic ‘70s novel’s prescient premise. The sci-fi genre encompasses a wide range of movies. From small-scale character dramas to massive blockbusters, sci-fi stories come in all shapes and sizes. Sci-fi movies can also feature a variety of tones. Sci-fi horror movies can be the bleakest and scariest entries into the genre and dystopian sci-fi movies often offer a grim view of the future, while space operas and sci-fi adventure movies can be much more optimistic about the genre’s potential for fun.
However, while sci-fi genre trends are constantly changing and transforming, one sub-genre tends to stay relatively consistent. Since its inception, sci-fi satire has used elements of the far-fetched genre to imagine a version of reality that is a little different from what viewers recognize. However, since satire itself often takes a dim view of society, culture, and politics, sci-fi satire tends to offer a cynical view of scientific advancements. Even the softest sci-fi satire mocks at least some elements of contemporary society, while darker sci-fi satires envision nightmarish versions of the future.
Why The Stepford Wives Inspired So Many Sci-fi Movies
Since sci-fi and satire can both be used to comment on existing social ills, it is no surprise that some themes recur throughout the sci-fi satire sub-genre. That said, the similarity between Don’t Worry Darling and The Stepford Wives is striking enough to warrant comment, especially when the famous ‘70s sci-fi satire also influenced earlier sci-fi satires such as Disturbing Behaviour, The World’s End, and Get Out. These hits all owe their central conceit to the same classic sci-fi story, and there is a reason that author Ira Levin’s prescient The Stepford Wives has proven such a popular source of inspiration.
The premise of The Stepford Wives sees a group of husbands secretly turn their wives into robots to create more subservient, unthinking partners. This idea, wherein a minority is secretly transformed into more docile, compliant versions of themselves by shady scientists, can be applied to an interrogation of gender, race, generational warfare, and social class, as a range of sci-fi movies have proven over the years. Each new iteration of The Stepford Wives changes the story’s plot enough to expand Levin’s original idea, while still borrowing liberally from the original novel.
Every Stepford Wives Retelling Transforms The Premise
In Disturbing Behavior, high school kids lose control of their brains to tamp down juvenile delinquency. In Jordan Peele’s ingenious Get Out, rich white people transplant themselves into the bodies of black people to live forever. In Don’t Worry Darling, the women of a small community retain control of their faculties but this time, it is the world they live in—their reality itself—that is replaced by a simulation. These changes reflect the changing cultural fears and preoccupations, from a feminist interrogation of toxic masculinity to a racially-charged message about prison labor to a story of generational warfare.
The underrated teen movie Disturbing Behavior sees a new kid in town notice that the school’s ever-growing list of over-achievers all have a creepy superiority complex, unexplained super-strength, and an unnerving seal for conformity. This plot allows the movie to take the gender-centric feminist commentary of The Stepford Wives and apply it to a ‘90s-set story of teenage disaffection. Similarly, Get Out takes the already stressful idea of meeting in-laws and adds a darker undercurrent to this universal struggle. Are Get Out’s villains actually dangerous, or are they just clueless? By the time the hero discovers that the former is true, the viewer has no time left to guess the twist.
Why Stepford Wives Has Aged So Well
Get Out borrows from Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner to throw viewers off its real inspiration much like Disturbing Behavior copies The Village of the Damned so that few viewers can realize it is a stealth remake of Levin’s story until the final act. The same approach works for Don’t Worry Darling, which takes so many cues from The Truman Show and Peele’s movies that its easy to imagine it being a direct sequel to either. Fortunately for these successful sci-fi filmmakers, these misdirects are achievable because the central premise of The Stepford Wives has near-universal applicability.
This is amply evidenced by Into the Dark’s “Culture Shock,” Goosebumps‘ “The Perfect School,” and ‘00s Twilight Zone’s “Evergreen.” Not only that, but the plot’s anti-conformity ethos remains as relevant and radical as ever decades later. The ending of Don’t Worry Darling sees the heroine opt to escape the comforts of her simulated life, much like the ending of The Stepford Wives proves the heroine would rather die than conform. Similarly, the lead characters of Get Out and Disturbing Behaviour reject the expectations hoisted on them even though this risks their lives, proving that these heroes are as hard to kill as Levin’s enduringly popular sci-fi premise is.
