While researching the film, genius Adam Curtis interviewed conspiracy theorists in Birmingham, people who believed in “one of the great dream worlds of our time,” the idea that the CIA, Walt Disney and the Illuminati brainwash and control all the major stars. He soon learned that, when pressed, these people didn’t really believe the story. They just loved its epic magical dimensions – an alternative to this “dull, desiccated, grim, utilitarian world.” Their imaginations had taken them somewhere.
“Isn’t it about time the left started recognising that imagination is central to this, that somehow, if you’re going to take people with you, you’ve got to imagine something,” he says. “Sitting in those conspiracy theories, however mad they are, is a sort of truth for a lot of radicals in that you've just got to imagine an epic world. And, if you do, people are fascinated, really.”