Set in the year 2030, The Humanity Bureau is a low budget dystopian sci-fi movie from screenwriter Dave Schultz and directed by Rob W. King is set in the U.S. and opens with the a very poignant warning, “In the near future, after economic catastrophe and climate change came famine, the great migration and the civil war.” This has all lead to a total infrastructure breakdown and social unrest.
The government is left with no alternative but to enforce a regime of “you must now be a productive citizen,” and are subject to a visit from an officer from the Humanity Bureau who decide if they are a burden to the system. If they are, they’re forcibly deported to a new life in a place called “New Eden”, where once there, citizens are never heard from again; leading to rumours that all is not as it would seem.
Nicolas Cage plays Noah Kross one of the Humanity Bureau’s many agents, whose job it is to evaluate citizens and then decide if they are to be given their deportation orders. His suspicions are raised as to whether New Eden is real after telling an elderly man he has to leave, his resistance leads to a shootout leaving two dead. He discusses his concerns with his Bureau boss and friend Adam Westinghouse (Hugh Dillon) who tells him that all it is is rumours and lies and tries to elevate his fears with the news that Kross is about to be awarded a promotion.
His next assessment is with a woman called Rachel Weller (Sarah Lind) a single mother to her 11-year-old son Lucas (Jakob Davies), who are desperately trying to avoid being send to New Eden. Meeting them triggers something in him that makes him want to save them from deportation, and the reason why does become evident later in the film. In doing so, his actions alerts Adam to his intentions, who already suspects that Noah is making arrangements with the underground resistance, and is now getting way too close to the truth, making him very dangerous and expendable in the government’s eyes.
When Noah returns to Rachel and Lucas, to tell them they have to evacuate taking only the bear minimum, he finds Adam is already there threatening to shoot Rachel if he doesn’t comply with his orders. After an altercation at the farmhouse, all three manage to evade capture but only to have the Bureau now hot on their heels.
Managing to get their hands on the rare commodity petrol along the way, they only just manage to avoid Adam and his officers. They then put Noah’s plan into action by heading to Canada, a place he used to visit as a child. According to the government, the official word is that all that’s up there is wasteland which is still radioactive and uninhabitable. Having engaged the help of a bunch of off the grid rebels; Noah, Rachel, and Lucas push on with their risky journey.
There are twist and turns which run all the way to the end of the film and keeps the suspense ticking along nicely, together with car crashes and all guns blazing action scenes. They all help move the storyline along at a good pace, and humanitarian aspect of this movie also leaves you with a far bigger statement that is well worth waiting for, seeing this movie is highly recommend.
Although this is a low budget movie, Cage, Lind, and Davies keep this movie together; add to that, Dillon is absolutely outstanding as Adam Westinghouse playing him exceptionally well, a major high point in this movie. He makes Westinghouse the villain in every sense of the word, he truly has absolutely no moral compass or conscience, something that has been lacking in villains recently. He will do anything in his power to keep New Eden’s secrets without a second thought. He certainly isn’t afraid to get blood on his hands. Dillon also contributes, along with his rock band the Headstones, an awesome song (‘Done The Math’) for the film’s closing credits, which is from their recent album Little Army.