ItвЂ™s a bleak picture, one that leaves a far more urgent tone for action amongst the viewers than Wall-E could ever hope to deliver. In the end, Lowell makes the decision to send the last remaining dome into space, shortly before destroying the Valley Forge and preventing his corporate overlords from locating the last forest. The news is even cause for celebration amongst LowellвЂ™s crew members вЂ“ with the feeling that these forests are nothing more than a nuisance keeping them from the comforts of home. While the humans of Wall-E come to embrace nature once again, things go in the completely opposite direction throughout Silent RunningвЂ™s story as the decision is made to terminate the reforestation project and destroy the remaining wildlife domes before returning to Earth.

The real kicker however is the final response from John Wolf, the only vaguely sympathetic crewmate on the Valley Forge: вЂњThe fact is, Lowell, if people were interested, something would have been done a long time ago.вЂќ It's all very melodramatic but understandable given the situation that Lowell finds himself in. And there were plains of tall, green grass that you could lie down in.

The filmвЂ™s most famous scene features an impassioned plea from Lowell as he tries to explain to his fellow crewmates his preference for eating fresh fruit and the importance of nature itself: вЂњIt calls back a time when there were flowers all over the Earth. That sense of optimism is nowhere to be found in Silent Running. McCrea of the Axiom spaceship is found to be overjoyed about the prospect of returning to Earth вЂ“ once he latches on to the idea of life outside of the AxiomвЂ™s walls, heвЂ™s eager to know more about the world. Optimism versus cynicismД«eing a kids movie, Wall-E is a lot more optimistic in the end about humanityвЂ™s (post) post-apocalyptic future. And a lot darker than the message that we get from Wall-E. The idea that apathy - along with corporate greed - has led to irreversible climate change feels frustratingly true to life. You only need to spot the branded food supplies aboard the ship to see these hidden messages. The film also implies that the Valley Forge and its endeavor has been funded by corporations as nothing more than a publicity stunt to curb their part in natureвЂ™s downfall.

No-one, except Lowell, cares that the natural world is gone. See, in the world of Silent Running, itвЂ™s implied that after continued deforestation at the hands of corporate greed, society has found a way to live comfortably without nature, leading to a general sense of apathy. It all seems rather idyllic until you start to understand why these ships exist in the first place. The film centres around Freeman Lowell, a botanist living on the Valley Forge, which is just one of several spaceships that are equipped with multiple greenhouse structures containing plants, produce, wildlife and more. Just as with Wall-E, Silent Running positions space as a potential savior against climate change, but instead of shipping humanity off while robots are left to rummage through the mess, itвЂ™s the remaining wildlife thatвЂ™s sent away to be cultivated by small groups of robots and humans alike, under the promise of someday returning to Earth.

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