If you were born in the early 2000s, you’ve probably heard of the film “Monsters, Inc.” You might’ve seen it back then and thought fondly of it, but nothing more. Last week, I rewatched the movie, and in my illness-induced haze, decided that “Monsters, Inc.” is not just a fun take on the whole “monster hiding under your bed” trope.
It’s about fossil fuels.
“Monsters, Inc.” takes place in a world fueled by the screams of human children. The titular Monsters, Inc. is a company that provides these screams by sending monsters into the bedrooms of human childrenat night. The monsters do their best to scare the kids and make them scream.
Scream energy is an analogy for fossil fuels. Scream energy is an incredibly widespread power source, used to do everything from heating, lighting and fueling cars, as stated by a commercial for Monsters, Inc. at the start of the movie. In our world, as of 2024, over 80% of global energy consumption comes from fossil fuels, with the three components of energy consumption being heating, electricity and transport.Fossil fuels are equally as pervasive in our world as scream energy is in “Monsters, Inc.”
The similarities don’t stop there. Right off the bat, we’re shown that scream energy is not a sustainable energy source long-term. In the same commercial from the beginning, we find out that human children are getting harder to scare, making it more difficult to source scream energy. The monster world is already feeling the effects of this. A newspaper headline declares: “ROLLING BLACKOUTS EXPECTED.”Protagonist Sulley even makes his friend Mike walk to work instead of taking his car to save energy, paralleling how we are encouraged to drive less to cut down on carbon emissions.
Now, living in New England in 2026, the idea of us running out of energy doesn’t seem likely to happen. But “Monsters, Inc.” started development in 1996 and was made by a bunch of people born in the ’60s. And from the ’70s to the early 2000s, Hubbert’s peak oil theory, (in very simple terms, it’s the idea that we are eventually going to run out of oil), appeared to be true. Although peak oil theory seems to have been debunked as of 2008, it doesn’t mean we’re in the clear. Global electricity demand is projected to grow, (especially with all these AI data centers), and it’s not totally clear that we can meet it.
Aside from its lack of long-term potential, collecting scream energy is also shown to actively cause harm. In the movie, this is because in order to obtain energy, you have to purposely instill fear in a child (which hopefully, you agree is unethical).
In real life, obtaining fossil fuels also causes harm, though on a much different scale. Fossil fuel production drives global warming, causes earthquakes and pollutes water and air, overall damaging both the environment and human health.
So if these particular methods of energy sourcing are so bad, why aren’t they causing outrage?
In “Monsters, Inc.,” this is because of widespread anti-children, pro-scream energy propaganda. In the monster world, children are widely believed to be extremely toxic and dangerous. The CEO of Monsters, Inc., Henry J. Waternoose, declares at the beginning of the movie that “a single touch from a child could kill you!” Later in the movie, we see that this is a lie, as various monsters come into physical contact with a human child and don’t die (unfortunately including Waternoose). It’s through this misinformation that the corporation gets away with the unethical aspect of scaring children.
In real life, misinformation is also (at least partly) the reason behind why sourcing fossil fuels doesn’t lead to as much public outcry as it should. Major fossil fuel companies (colloquially known as “Big Oil”)have worked for decades to stop the public from thinking unfavorably of fossil fuels, including spreading misinformation about the true impacts of using fossil fuels and denying climate change.
So far, everything I’ve discussed is pretty grim, but not all of the movie is doom and gloom. Although the scream factory gets shut down, it’s replaced by a more ethical, more effective energy alternative: children’s laughter.
We’re not trapped in using unethical fossil fuel energy in our world, either. Although they have their issues, solar and wind energy are less harmful to the environment and more efficient in the long run than fossil fuels.
“Monsters, Inc.” is a children’s movie that came out a quarter-century ago, but it’s still relevant today. A good story mirrors and inspires deeper reflection on our world. “Monsters, Inc.” is the story of dismantling an existing unethical, unsustainable energy production system in favor of a more effective one that prioritizes minimizing damage. We should strive to do the same.