SOYLENT GREEN. BtVS Intertext/Allusion.
Soylent
Green is the 1973 sci-fi/horror film set in New York City in the year 2022.
The world is overpopulated and has depleted all of its natural resources. People
survive by eating Soylent, a synthetic food substitute that comes in a variety
of colors, the most nutritious of which is Soylent Green. Charlton Heston plays
a police detective investigating the murder of the president of the Soylent
Green Company. What he discovers is the source of Soylent Green, old and sick
people no longer able to contribute anything to an overcrowded world.
Directed by Richard Fleischer, with a screenplay by Stanley Greenberg based on a novel by Harry Harrison, Soylent Green also stars Leigh Taylor-Young, Chuck Connors, and Joseph Cotton.
The Whedonverse includes two allusions to Soylent Green. In "Never Kill a Boy on the First Date," from Season One of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy is attracted to sensitive, Emily Dickinson reading Owen. In the school lunchroom, as the Scoobies debate whether or not to taste an unidentifiable green food on their trays, Buffy decides to join Owen at his table, just as Cordelia has the same idea. The two girls bump into each other, and Buffy spills her tray.
OWEN: Let me get that
BUFFY: Thanks! Boy! Cordelia’s hips are wider than I thought!
CORDELIA: Eh-heh!
OWEN: At least you don’t have to eat your Soylent Green.
In "Carpe Noctem", a Season Three episode of Angel, the other members of the Angel Investigations team are just "hanging out" in the lobby when Angel comes with a newspaper in hand.
ANGEL: Am I the only one who read this?
WESLEY: Read what?
ANGEL: Charlton Heston. Double Feature! At the Nu-art. Soylent Green and The Omega Man.
GUNN: (without enthusiasm) Wow.
ANGEL: It’s two for one. Did I mention Charton Heston? Who’s in?
Additional information on Soylent Green can be found at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070723/.