Imagining Alternate Society: How Sci-Fi Movies Presenting Resilience for Smart, Sustainable Living in Metaverse

This study aims to critique how Scifi movies represent the concept of resilience and smart society in the metaverse. The initiative to integrate people's lives with technology has become a trending discourse. This idea is wrapped in a smart society initiative that is immersive towards technology and integrated with various sectors in a forum called the metaverse. Criticism of society's integration with technology creates a polarization of diverse responses. In this study, the interpretation of the phenomenon is explored through cinemastudies. This study uses a picture theory approach (Picture Theory) which positions cinema a visual that has the power to create certain reactions and has the power to carry out social construction. Through a study of two science fiction movies, the Ready Player One and Free Guy, this study explores the discourse of resilience and smart sustainable living in the scenes contained in the cinema. The discourse shown in these movies is classified into three categories. First, the study identifies sci-fi movie as a form of envision / criticism of digital cities, through the concept of techno dystopia / utopia, Second, these movies offer human centric solutions that can be a reflection and criticism of smart city initiatives, and third, conflict resolution shown in movies, seeks to balance and provide awareness to stay connected to real life and carry Sustainable Future Living. This study concludes that the alternate society envisioned in sci-fi movies has the power to provide an insight on the priority of ethical considerations and consider elements of humanity that are not trapped in technological optimism.