Downsizing 🎥 2017 Movie Info

Plot Summary

Searching for a way to address overpopulation and global warming, Norwegian scientist Dr. Jørgen Asbjørnsen develops “downsizing”, an irreversible process that shrinks organic material. He becomes part of the first group of human test subjects and is encouraged that the process reduces people to a height of approximately 5 inches, drastically decreasing their consumption and waste. When the findings are revealed at a conference five years later, there is a global sensation.

Ten years later, Paul and Audrey Safranek, a financially struggling married couple in Omaha, see Dave and Carol Johnson, who have downsized, at Paul’s high school reunion. Rather than the touted environmental benefits, Dave argues the real reason to downsize is that one’s money goes much further when one is small. Paul and Audrey decide to undergo the procedure and move to Leisureland, New Mexico, one of the fancier communities for small individuals. In a Leisureland recovery room after the procedure, Paul receives a call from Audrey, who says she backed out at the last minute and, because they are now different sizes, is leaving him.

Because of his reduced size Paul has no choice but to take up solitary occupancy of a sprawling and luxurious mansion, previously selected by the couple using their greatly enhanced capital. Leisureland is presented as an attractive but bland consumerist enclave for the newly rich and downsized, protected by high walls and a dome. A year later, Paul signs his divorce papers. Unable to afford the mansion Audrey chose, he relocates to an apartment and takes a job as a customer service representative at Lands’ End. He had let his occupational therapy license lapse, not anticipating the need to work after being shrunk. He has started dating someone, but they break up, and Paul finds himself at a wild party thrown by his shady yet charming neighbor, Dusan.

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