Right before watching What Happened to Monday, we were all asked to consider how the power structures in the movie – along with the measures used to enforce them – could potentially connect to things we see in today’s world. As someone who had a limited conception of what the movie was about, I was curious what this discussion question implied in terms of the plot, and expected some sort of Hunger Games-esque system of political control.

My prediction wasn’t totally far off – there’s a villainous, despotic political leader with vaguely well-intentioned but absurdly twisted morals; a crew of underlings, named and unnamed, who follow the leader’s orders unwaveringly and with unclear motive; and a small band of “heroines” (plus an unlikely ally from the enemy side) forced to fight and somehow bring change to their entire society.

But of course, the question was about any parallels this movie draws to real life – which are numerous. The checkpoints were practically identical to TSA security checkpoints in airplanes, all the way down to the random selection for questioning. Likewise, the level of police brutality displayed in apprehending the siblings in the film was startlingly similar to videos from riots and protests across the nation in just the past few years (read: Ferguson, MO or Charlottesville, VA). And of course, the CBA’s use of ruthless, unrestricted, no-matter-the-cost force in covering up a blemish on their record is an image which, while more of a suspicion than an actuality in the United States, is perhaps still pertinent to many other nations.

Ultimately, these tropes are common in all kinds of dystopian fiction, and obviously don’t mean that the United States is going to start incinerating non-firstborn children anytime in the future. However, it’s a bit unsettling to note just how many commonalities there are between the society in What Happened to Monday and our own – are we about to reach our own dystopia?