“Dystopia” is the second song off of Megadeth’s fifteenth studio album of the same name.

This song bears semblance to the album’s overall theme and cover, as the lyrics paint a clear picture of what is wrong with society and its inhabitants today– as well as what is wrong with future dystopias we read about and watch. Focused on the government and media, this song bluntly states Megadeth’s position on society in America, and around the world.

I don’t want you to think I sit around watching movies all day! But when you see a movie that clicks with you, not only do I remember the scenes, I can recite the lines. Certain movies make that impression. When I was a kid I watched Planet of the Apes, it was the scariest movie I’d ever seen. One of the only other scary movies I’d seen up to that point was Bambi. Who sends a little kid to watch a movie where the mom dies?! But I digress. I sent stuff to the artist doing the cover, explaining what the song was about. I said “Dystopia” is about this world that, if we don’t take it back, it’s like Total Recall. It’s gonna be a world that you’ll never recognize, a world so fucking unbelievable that you’ll hate yourself for not having done something when you had the chance.‘ So I kinda took that idea of an underground fighting movement from Total Recall, Twelve Monkeys, Terminator; there’s a theme running through those movies, an 'us and them’ kind of thing. In the beginning there was no chorus at all, I didn’t want to clutter it up with a bunch of words, so I just say “Dystopia”.

—Dave Mustaine