

Before dying, Roth tells his discovery to Thorn.

Thorn rushes to stop him, but arrives too late. Roth is so shaken by the truth that he decides to "return to the home of God" and seeks assisted suicide at a government clinic. This information confirms to Sol Roth that Simonson's murder was ordered by his fellow Soylent Corporation board members, who knew Simonson was increasingly troubled by the truth and feared he might disclose it to the public. The "Books" conclude from the oceanographic reports that the oceans are dying and can no longer produce the plankton from which Soylent Green is made. In researching the case for Thorn, Roth brings two volumes of the Soylent Oceanographic Survey Report, 2015–2019, taken by Thorn from Simonson's apartment, to the team of other "Books" (former librarians turned personal researchers) at the Supreme Exchange. Then the killer shoots Thorn in the leg before being crushed by the hydraulic shovel of a police riot-control vehicle. Thorn manages to locate the killer and throw him to the floor. The killer shoots three times at Thorn, but misses, his shots striking bystanders in the crowd. As Thorn tries to control a violent throng during a Soylent Green shortage riot, he is attacked by the assassin who killed Simonson. He soon becomes aware that an unknown stalker is following him. Under direction from Governor Santini, Thorn's superiors order him to end the investigation, but he continues, fearing that he will lose his job if he files a false report.

Soon after, the priest is murdered in the confessional by Fielding, Simonson's former bodyguard. Because of the sanctity of the confessional, the visibly exhausted priest can only hint to Thorn at the contents of the confession. With the help of Simonson's concubine Shirl, his investigation leads to a priest whom Simonson had visited shortly before his death. Simonson, a board member of the Soylent Corporation, which he suspects was an assassination. Thorn is investigating the murder of the wealthy and influential William R.

NYPD detective Robert Thorn lives with his aged friend Sol Roth, a brilliant former college professor and police analyst (referred to as a "Book"). The poor live in squalor, haul water from communal spigots, and eat highly processed wafers: Soylent Red, Soylent Yellow, and the latest product, far more flavorful and nutritious, Soylent Green. Usually, they include concubines (who are referred to-and used as-"furniture"). The homes of the elite are fortified, with security systems and bodyguards for their tenants. New York City has a population of 40 million, and only the elite can afford spacious apartments, clean water, and natural food. In 1973, it won the Nebula Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and the Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film.īy 2022, the cumulative effects of overpopulation and pollution have caused severe worldwide shortages of food, water, and housing. The story follows a murder investigation in a dystopian future of dying oceans and year-round humidity caused by the greenhouse effect, with the resulting pollution, depleted resources, poverty, and overpopulation. It is loosely based on the 1966 science-fiction novel Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison, with a plot that combines elements of science fiction and a police procedural. Soylent Green is a 1973 American ecological dystopian thriller film directed by Richard Fleischer, and starring Charlton Heston, Leigh Taylor-Young, and Edward G.
