Unsettling scenes of future America and Orr's changed futures

Several scenes were deeply imprinted upon my mind when I first saw THE LATHE OF HEAVEN.

1) The future United States is probably in the early 21st century, circa, 2000 to 2010 A.D. The future U.S. appears to be a socialist country where the government keeps closer tabs on the citizens while preserving the semblance of democracy.

2) Before global warming was even discussed beyond paleontologists and climatologists, it appears Portland, Oregon was suffering the same fate as futuristic Los Angeles in, "Blade Runner" - constant rain or drizzle. In, "The Lathe of Heaven", global warming of some kind has caused monsoon-type rains in Portland. The real Portland is not truly a rainy place. It does have lots of rain but it has its dry periods and dry season. It doesn't rain there all the time. Nonetheless, George Orr's dream sticks another global warming extreme - heat and drought onto Portland, giving it Los Angeles-like weather, year-round sunshine and high temperatures. Technically this is just not possible according to geographers and climatologists, given the location of Portland on the planet. It's too far north and located permanent cold, North Pacific current waters.

3) This one is my MOST UNSETTLING memory. The future United States resembles a more benign overpopulated version depicted in SOYLENT GREEN. George Orr walks through crowds where ever he goes. But after he inadvertently dreams up a global pandemic that occurred five years ago retroactively, the results are scary. According to Dr. Haber, 75% of the world's population is gone. In the U.S., assuming a population of 310 million, the post-plague population is down to around 84 million, give or take. When George walks outside, he strolls through once crowded streets and parks that are eerily empty and silent. His own rental apartment building has lots of vacancies. Few tenants remain. The emptiness of post-plague, hot and sunny Portland is somewhat scary. The movie does portray a few people walking around here and there, but it doesn't alleviate the loneliness and emptiness that the scenery conveys. Besides the occasional human strolling around empty Portland there's the occasional alien immigrant selling hot dogs or running antique music collector stores.

4) Changing everyone to the same race. Everyone now has grey skin and hair. This one was wishful thinking because world history shows a violent record of devastating wars between peoples of the same skin color. Still it was a nice try.

5) Dr. Haber asks George to dream of world unity. Unfortunately Orr dreams of an alien invasion that unites mankind. An angry Dr. Haber induces George Orr to dream a solution to the aliens. Orr dreams that the invading aliens are actually pacifistic emigrants looking for another planet to settle peacefully on.