Utopia is the adoption of the same-named British series. However, the story has many changes than the older one. The sci-fi teen drama was released on 25th September 2020 and contains 8 episodes of 1 hour each. The adoption was done by Gillian Flynn. Gillian Flynn is one of the bestselling authors. She has written Gone Girl, Sharp Objects, and Dark Places. All of the three have been adopted for the movie. Apart from that, she is also an adoption writer and has written for Gone Girl, Sharp Objects, and heist thriller film Widows. It was exclusively released on Amazon Prime.
Plot:
It is the story of a group of teens, who are fans of the original book Dystopia and they have now come to know that the book has a sequel named ‘Utopia’. It is not just a common book as it shows a graphic representation of the future and the problems that are going to occur. A search of the book brings them a sequel of problems mostly life-threatening and a duty of saving the world.
Cast:
· John Cusack (Kevin Christie)
· Ashleigh LaThrop (Becky Todd)
· Dan Byrd (Ian Ackerman)
· Desmin Borges (Wilson Wilson)
· Jessica Rothe (Samantha)
· Christopher Denham (Arby / John Hyde)
· Javon Walton (Grant Bishop)
· Farrah Mackenzie (Alice)
· Cory Michael Smith (Thomas Christie)
· Jeanine Serralles (Colleen Stearns)
· Rainn Wilson (Michael Stearns)
· Sasha Lane (Jessica Hyde)
Episodes:
1. “Life Begins”
2. “Just A Fanboy”
3. “Tuesday’s Child”
4. “not slow, not bad”
5. “Order 2472”
6. “Respect Your Purpose”
7. “Talking Hurts”
8. “Stay Alive, Jessica Hyde”
Story-line:
The show starts with 5 characters named Wilson, Becky, Ian, Samantha, and Grant. All of the five reaches Chicago where the sequel named ‘Utopia’ is just made available for purchase. They are meet very first-time face to face as before that they were only online friends. They were fans of the book Dystopia, and Utopia is the sequel of the same. Books are not just comic books but are books with graphic representation. According to the group, the book contains information about the future pandemic, the reasons behind and the solutions. Not only they are chased down by several people but also now have the responsibility to save the world from upcoming threats.
The horror for them begins when two men named Arby and Rod are behind everyone who has managed to grab even a single page of the book. Not only chasing them, but they are also murdering. Grant somehow manages to run away with the script. Jessica, the lead of the two graphic novels arrives when Rod and Arby are torturing Wilson and killing Rod right away. Not only that, she kills Samantha too because of the thought of being powerless over the group because of her.
Now you must be curious about who was Rod and Arby? Well, they work for Dr. Kevin Christie who is a powerful pharmaceutical businessman and the head of ‘Harvest’ – a shadowy organization.
Jessica grew up at that place, calling it her ‘home’ and she seems to be experimented on by drugs by her own father Who once worked for Harvest. The organization brings chosen children from the world and gets them together for various purposes. Some of them turned into la rats like Jessica, some became employees like Rod and Arby and some became like Charlotte the martyrs.
Michael Stearns finds out that hundreds of children in the UK are dead due to the virus that was initially found in Peru. Now the virus is spreading in the UK. Michael is a virologist. A virologist does the job of researching viruses. He readily joins the group of conspiracy theorists after he finds out that his wife works for the Harvest as a sleeper agent. The group initially thinks that Christie and the organization are planning a massacre and destroying the whole zoo thinking the organization was using it to spread the virus. Later after the test run by Stearns, they realize that it’s not the same virus or which they were making the vaccine, This way vaccine process ends up being a failure.
Luckily Arby’s mind changes for good when he realizes that he and Jessica are siblings as per Utopia book and to alter the wrongdoings, he captures and presents Christie in front of the group. They interrogate him thoroughly and come to know that he was planning to make the 3 upcoming generations totally infertile. According to him, the whole world is suffering only because of overpopulation.
Alice, Grant, Ian, Becky, and Stearns go to Christine’s bio while Wilson keeps watching on Christie. At the same time, Jessica goes home, with John (Arby’s new identity). Initially, the group is shocked by the endless crats of vaccines but somehow manages to destroy them all. However, they leave Bio with the mother egg!
The police are after Grant and still believe that he is the one, to kill Ideal of Christie Cara and her family. Becky smartly escapes from the sight of the police and goes into a car with Wilson. There she shockingly sees Christine and his son, making it evident that Wilson cheated on the group.
Alice and Ian are the only two free from capture as the ending comes nearer. They continue hiding from Harvest and their workers.
Catching up the story, when Jessica reaches home with Arby, she falls down as the virus has now started working on her. She was infected since the rabbit bite her. At the same time, agent Katherine Milner appears and tries to convince her that she is here to help. Though the book initially describes her as Jessica’s guardian angel, she is actually the main villain of the story. She is Mr rabbit! Jessica tries to attack her, she falls and gets fainted. Katherine now starts speaking about how she worked with the father of Jessica.
In the end, it is revealed that the writer of both the book who was assumed to be dead is actually alive!!
What happens next? Who will save the world? Will Christine and his agents be captured?
All the answers remain unanswered and are expected to get solved in season two. Nothing is yet confirmed about season two but it is expected to release later in 2022.
In a time when the world is going through a huge pandemic, and so many predictions are being made behind the cause of the same, the audience shows pretty much interest in the drama.
This sci-fi mystery drama is so exciting with naturally intelligent children trying to understand the clues behind the graphic book and the drama is definitely worth watching. Just go ahead with season 1 and wait for season 2 to release.