Humane is a 2024 horror film directed by Caitlin Cronenberg (daughter of David Cronenberg) and starring Jay Baruchel, Enrico Colantoni, Emily Hampshire, and Peter Gallagher.
In the near future, a global environmental collapse has resulted in the world's governments instituting a policy of voluntary euthanasia to control the population. Wealthy, famed news broadcaster Charles York (Gallagher) summons his adult children to announce he has chosen to be euthanized alongside his wife Dawn (Uni Park) the very same evening. When Dawn gets cold feet and leaves, the euthanasia program's representative, Bob (Colantoni), announces that the euthanization must still go through anyway. And since there were two scheduled, someone else in the family must volunteer to take Dawn's place.
Humane contains examples of:
- Affably Evil: Tony, one of Bob's men, is a friendly Punch-Clock Villain who takes no real joy in his job and is quite accommodating to Charles.
- Bald of Evil: Bob is bald and takes a disturbing amount of joy in his job.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: The York family is a collective mass of dysfunction and neuroses. Charles is self-righteous and sanctimonious, Jared is a Pompous Political Pundit and general jerk, Rachel is a pharmaceutical CEO with numerous scandals under her belt, and Noah is a Nervous Wreck.
- Dead Star Walking: Peter Gallagher is a well-known actor and Charles is set up as a major character, but his euthanasia goes through quite early on.
- Faux Affably Evil: Bob is friendly, witty, and jovial, but this masks his utter disregard for human life.
- Pompous Political Pundit: Jared is a pundit who makes numerous appearances on the news arguing in favor of the euthanasia program, and does so with social darwinistic and eugenicist sentiments.
- Recovered Addict: Noah is a recovering drug addict.
- Resignations Not Accepted: Exaggerated. The euthanasia program doesn't even accept rescheduling. When Charles tries to simply move it to a later date after Dawn leaves, Bob reveals the family's finances will be frozen and Charles will be charged with treason.