In the past, movie survivalists typically had to contend with some sort of unseen force: Mother Nature, cruel fate, whatever. But this year the culprits are politics and commerce—domestic, global, even interstellar. Shit isn’t just happening to Stone, Northup, Phillips, and Redford; it’s being made to happen by some larger, malevolent system. However subtly, their on-screen adversities mirror our real-world anxieties—about globalization, economic inequality, international affairs, technology, and so on—and pack a more precise punch as a result.