Adam Curtis created the 1992 British television documentary series Pandora’s Box about political and economic ideas.
Pandora’s Box is a six-part BBC documentary series written and produced by Adam Curtis. It examines how political and economic systems attempt to manage society through rational planning, expert knowledge, and mathematical models. The episodes range across subjects including Soviet planning, nuclear strategy, and economic policy.
Curtis uses archival footage, interviews, and a strongly essayistic structure. The title refers to the potentially dangerous consequences of opening powerful systems or ideas, rather than to a dramatization of the ancient Greek myth.
The series is an early example of Curtis’s distinctive documentary style, which connects historical events through recurring themes and unexpected archival juxtapositions. It should not be confused with Pandora’s Box, the 1929 German film directed by G. W. Pabst, or with later entertainment works using the same title.