My case studies in elucidating the global social problem film (the GSP) will be Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic (2000), with its three intersecting plot lines exploring the illegal Mexican-American drug trade from the perspective of user, enforcer, politician and trafficker, and Stephen Gaghan’s Syriana (2005), a geopolitical thriller that explores the political, military, economic, legal and social aspects of the global oil industry. Another recent example of the GSP is Fast Food Nation (Linklater, 2006), the fictional interpretation of Eric Schlosser’s expose of the same name detailing the economic, environmental and social consequences of the fast food industry, weaving stories from across the United States and Mexico. Babel (Iñárritu, 2006) is another: this multi-language, globe-spanning mediation on communication follows a chain of events linking an American tourist couple, a Japanese father and daughter, two Morrocan boys, and a Mexican nanny’s cross-border trip with two American children. Blood Diamond (Zwick, 2006) tackles conflict diamonds in war zones, The Constant Gardener (Meirelles, 2005) takes on the global pharmaceutical industry, Munich (Spielberg, 2005) explicates international terrorism, and Lord of War (Niccol, 2005) satirizes global arms distribution. The GSP is a result of postmodern genre hybridity, an integral characteristic of New Hollywood. As seminal genre theorist Steve Neale notes, “New Hollywood can be distinguished from the old by the hybridity of its genres and films… this hybridity is governed by the multi-media synergies characteristic of the New Hollywood, by the mixing and recycling of new and old and low art and high art media products in the modern (or post-modern) world” (248). The GSP’s hybridity is comprised of three main ingredients: the original social problem film of early Hollywood cinema, the distinct influence of documentary/docudrama, and the multilinear, web-of-life (or as will later be theorized by way of Deleuze: rhizomatic) plotline. There is usually a dash of thriller, a pinch of sardonic wit, and the whole bastardized recipe occurs in a global melting pot.