Images of the Future in Cinema: Axiological, Symbolic, and Subject-Activity Dimensions (Based on a Content Analysis of Films)

Abstract

The article examines the ways in which images of the future are represented in cinematic productions. The relevance of this study is determined by the fact that Russian youth perceive the future of the country and the state in a fragmented manner, marked by uncertainty and anxiety, while popular cinematic content serves as one of the key channels of symbolic production of images of the future. The purpose of the research is to identify and analytically interpret the ideological value, symbolic, and agency related components of future images presented in films and television series of various genres. The theoretical framework combines identity based, sociocultural, and political psychological approaches, as well as the premises of social constructivism and cultural semiotics. The empirical basis of the study consists of the results of a qualitative content analysis of 20 futurist oriented cinematic works selected on the basis of an online survey of university students (N = 1116) and their ranking positions on the Kinopoisk platform. The findings demonstrate that films popular among young audiences do not construct a single coherent image of the future but rather a field of competing configurations in which technological expansion coexists with social and moral challenges. Dystopian and post apocalyptic models prevail in the corpus, where freedom appears as a scarce value, security is interpreted as the outcome of effort and high cost, and justice becomes an object of struggle. It is shown that the symbolic core of future images is structured around technologies, infrastructure, cities, corporations, and systems of control, as well as ecological and mythological motifs and color light semantics that establish a meaningful opposition between the artificial and the living. The study also reveals that agency in cinematic images of the future is most often constituted through resistance to the system or through ethical choice, with youth, the individual protagonist, state and corporate actors, and autonomous technological entities acting as the key agents of change.