Dreamers Turn to Tomorrowland Post-Election

"Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life."

In light of the recent presidential election, many Tomorrowland fans have turned to the film for a much-needed dose of optimism:

Just watched Tomorrowland a second time, and it still made be cry. Such a great sentiment—all I needed to pick me up from this election.

— Goodman Jensen (@BrentDJensen) November 4, 2016

Best response to the wake of the election: making rainbow (inside) cakes with sprinkles for people and watching Tomorrowland with friends. pic.twitter.com/6G6cFTgUMW

— Zachary Yaro (@ZMYaro) November 12, 2016

Election got you down? Wanna give your children hope & inspire them to see the beauty of science? May I suggest Tomorrowland. Great movie. 🚀

— KoralMae (@KoralMae) November 11, 2016

A few Dreamers were surprised by the parallels they found:

Wow probably should have watched Tomorrowland before the election.

— Gregory Adams (@iagbegtexreg) November 20, 2016

Alguém pode, por favor, desligar a máquina de Tomorrowland? Trump eleito, Temer presidente... não tem outra explicação pra tudo isso.

— Ciaci (@LCiaci) November 18, 2016

This election makes me think of the Hugh Laurie villain in #Tomorrowland. I agreed with him then but now I think he was right.

— Catherine Young (@battymamzelle) November 11, 2016

Fans weren't the first to draw a connection between Hugh Laurie's Nix character and Donald Trump. When we sat down to talk with Tomorrowland co-writer and producer Damon Lindelof this past May, he had this to say:

Nix considers himself a member of Plus Ultra in the same way that Donald Trump considers himself a member of the Republican Party. That's what he signed up for. He was recruited by Plus Ultra, so by definition he is Plus Ultra, but his own ideology started to split so significantly that he almost started a new political party in his thinking and has probably banished most of the people. Plus Ultra was founded on an ideal of optimism. We can accomplish anything if we set our minds to it. And yes, pessimism is out there. There is danger. There is violence. There is evil in the hearts of men. 

That said, we can overcome all of that. 

As the introductory film states, wars happen. So you have to acknowledge that, but you can say "we can learn from this and we can be better," or you can have the Nix philosophy, which is, "mankind is always inclined towards these things," and based on his speech at the end, he feels like certain individuals are not worthy of utopia. 

But then when you've seen the utopia that he's created for himself, it's very isolationist. It's not really the kind of place that Casey sees in her vision of Tomorrowland at its peak. I think Nix lacks the fundamental self-awareness to understand that his own negative thinking has created the very scenario that he wanted to avoid.

Listen to a piece of Damon's interview in this excerpt from our perpetually upcoming audio commentary track: