ZPG

ZPG may stand for:

Z.P.G.

Z.P.G. (short for "Zero Population Growth") is a 1972 Danish-American dystopian science fiction film starring Oliver Reed and Geraldine Chaplin and directed by Michael Campus. It is inspired by the non-fiction best-selling book The Population Bomb by Paul R. Ehrlich. The film concerns an overpopulated, very polluted future Earth, whose world government executes those who violate a 30-year ban on having children. Filmed in Denmark, the film is almost entirely set-bound featuring art direction designed to reflect a bleak, oppressive future.

Plot

Set in the future, the Earth has become severely polluted (people need to wear breathing masks when outside) with severe overpopulation affecting available resources. Because of the permanent thick smog that has settled over the dismal cities that now cover the Earth’s entire surface, all animals – even common household pets - are extinct; people eat tasteless bright-colored paste out of plastic containers. To reduce the world's population, the world's government decrees that no children may be conceived for the next 30 years. Breaking this law will result in a death penalty for both the parents as well as the newborn. Brainwashing and robot substitutes are used to end the yearning for children with the death penalty as the ultimate deterrent, by being placed under a plastic dome and suffocated to death. Couples of child-bearing age visit "Babyland" and are given life-size animatronic children instead.