Is it just me, or are they trying to kill us?
Why it is hard sci-fi
Soft. A young-adult dystopia organised around five personality factions in post-collapse Chicago. The aptitude test that sorts citizens uses a serum-induced simulation, which the film treats as a working diagnostic. What it does carefully is the social engineering. The faction system is presented as a stable equilibrium whose only failure mode is a person who fits more than one category.
Science inside it
Pharmacological behaviour modification, immersive simulation as a diagnostic tool, and a city-scale social experiment with controlled in-group identity. The science behind the simulation serums is fictional but the design follows the structure of a contained psychological study with a known endpoint.