Crimes of the Future (1970 film)

Adrian Tripod, occasional director of a dermatological clinic called the House of Skin, searches for his mentor, insane dermatologist Antoine Rouge, who has disappeared following a catastrophic plague, resulting from cosmetic products, which has killed the entire population of sexually mature women. It has allegedly claimed the life of Rouge himself after the virus mutated to affect men.

Tripod joins a succession of organisations, including Metaphysical Import-Export and the Oceanic Podiatry Group, and meets various individuals and groups of men trying to adjust themselves to a defeminized world. When a House of Skin patient that Tripod had grown close to dies from the plague, Tripod checks into a mental health clinic, and engages in foot fetishism and showing off his collection of female underwear to other men.

Tripod aligns with a group of pedophiles who kidnap a five-year-old girl who has been exposed to chemicals intended to force her into puberty in order to impregnate her. However, one of the group is ultimately unable to bring himself to rape the young girl, and leaves her untouched. Tripod enters the room where the girl is kept and removes his shirt, before suddenly seeing the girl emit a cream-like white foam from her mouth. Sensing the presence of Rouge in the girl, in the form of the same virus that killed him, Tripod finds his own nipples are producing the same substance. This brings him to the realization that, by artificially inducing puberty in the young child, she has become infected with the plague, and that both the girl and Tripod are now going to die.

• Ronald Mlodzik as Adrian Tripod
• Jon Lidolt
• Tania Zolty
• Paul Mulholland
• Jack Messinger
• Iain Ewing
• William Haslam
• Brian Linehan
• Raymond Woodley (credited as Ray Woodley)

Kim Newman, in his 1988 book Nightmare Movies, has described Crimes of the Future as being "more fun to read about in synopsis than to watch", and as proving, along with Stereo, that "it's possible to be boring and interesting at the same time".

The film has a score of 60% from five reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 5.8/10.[2]

The film has been included as a special feature in multiple releases of other Cronenberg films, including in standard definition on Blue Underground's Blu-ray release of Fast Company,[3] in high definition on Criterion's release of The Brood[4] and also in high definition on a bonus disc in Arrow Video's UK Blu-ray release of Videodrome.[5] The bonus disc from Videodrome was later released on its own as David Cronenberg's Early Works.[6]

In August 2021, it was announced that production had begun on a film of the same name, but it is not a remake.[7] Cronenberg will be making the film with a cast that includes Viggo Mortensen, Léa Seydoux and Kristen Stewart.[7]

• Crimes of the Future at IMDb
• Crimes of the Future at AllMovie