The future is not so bright, no need shades!

Soylent Green (1973)

Unlike Star Trek, where the human race seems to have attained a level of understanding of life and its purpose, most futuristic movies paint a very bleak future for us as a race.

Just like Einstein's quotation, he does not know how the 3rd World War would be fought, but the 4th will be with sticks and stones!
The opening credits start with a photo montage of events important in the 20th-century Industrial landscape. It shows how man rapes his environment and depletes it of its resources. It ends with the setting of this movie, a 2022 New York with 40 million citizens, a dilapidated city worse than any third world slump with unemployment, poverty, homelessness, food rationing, water shortage, curfews with perpetual summer due to greenhouse gas effects seem to be the order of the day. People have not seen fresh food, greenery, wines and luxury in their life. Food is Soylent, Red, Yellow and latest Green, a highly nutritious palatable plankton-rich wafer!

Detective Thorn (Charlton Heston) is an officer of the law who complains about the hard life but at the same time is glad that he has a job. He lives with a retired Professor, Sol,  who constantly laments the good old days. Sol is acted by veteran Edward G Robinson in his 101st and last movie. Unknown to the cast, he was suffering from terminal cancer and died 12 days after completing the film.

One day, Thorn is assigned to investigate the murder of an industrialist who lives in an enviable luxury apartment with running water, air conditioning, authentic furniture, security and the comfort of a comfort woman (in that era is referred to as 'furniture')! The Industrialist is played by Joseph Cotton in many classics (Hitchcock's and Orson Welles').

 
Thorn's investigation opens a can of worms involving unholy unions of politicians, lawyers and businessmen. What the public had rationed as a source of protein in Soylent Green was nothing but process meat of cadavers! There was simply no food to go around, and people were dying like nobody's business.

Chuck Connors, whom we used to know as the square-faced rifle-wielding 'The Rifle Man', plays the role of a villain here. The Industrialist confesses to his priest that he was guilty of his business dealing with the Soylent Green project. Somehow his rivals suspected him of having squealed to outsiders; hence he was killed.
Again, unlike Star Trek, where some of the technologies showcased on Starship Enterprise have actually made their presence in the 21st century, e.g. handheld video and communication devices. Here, so such devices. Even the telephones are the rotatory dials, and research means scrolling through volumes of books in 2022! By the way, paper and books are scarce.