Science Fiction films can be the funnest films anyone can watch. To ponder about the future and the fate of humanity is always bound to intrigue the mind. Unfortunately, like many bad comedies or empty action flicks, they can easily be handled with crassness and flooded with superficial externalities. In this case, this means seemingly justifiable pyrotechnics and senseless use of VFX — eye candy that exists for its own purpose rather than serving the film — because producers and audiences alike think that that’s what this genre is all about. Of course, they’re wrong; the real beauty of science fiction lies in its ability to move our minds and then surprise us with its visual strangeness and beauty.
Here’s a small selection of the films, both old (and slightly newer), that I watch periodically that bring out the best reasons to watch science fiction spectacles.
2001: A Space Odyssey (directed by Stanley Kubrick)
Stanley Kubrick’s groundbreaking original film based on Arthur C. Clarke’s novel practically defines the genre. The best modern sci-fi movies (such as Gravity, Interstellar etc) all pay tribute to its grand scale, epic cinematography and moments of solitary repose.
But here in Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey we go deep into the biggest questions about our existence — where we come from and where we’re ultimately heading. Beginning with the sudden appearance of the monolith during the age of the primordial apeman to the arrival of the star-child, the film covers the largest existential scope imaginable. The slow measured pace of the filmmaking gives the movie weight, balancing the ethereal with real physical tension. We can feel the scale of things — time, space, life — all the while observing the unknown yet somehow feeling a part of it. The film travels through four major segments in time and location; the discovery of tools in earthbound pre-human history, man’s journey into space, the arrival of self-aware artificial intelligence, and lastly, the death/rebirth of man. Each of the phases becomes more intellectually challenging than the previous, a fact that drove both audiences and critics alike to lose their minds in their analysis and criticism of the movie upon its initial release. Even today, there’s still no agreeable consensus as to the film’s exact happenings and their meanings, the philosophical and the allegorical seemingly open-ended.
Despite such convoluted confusion — done on purpose according to Kubrick — the film draws you in deeply. The strong single-point perspective camera provides not just clear focal beauty but a mood that complements the movie’s grandness. This feeling of scale is furthermore complemented by arguably the most powerful opening score in film history, all helping to make 2001: A Space Odyssey the ultimate science fiction experience.
Alien (directed by Ridley Scott)
Another film I watch annually is Ridley Scott’s sensational and terrifying masterpiece Alien. Promoted as a typical “monster in the house” sci-fi/horror flick, Alien is so much more. It’s a film the begins in sleep and ends in sleep, noting perhaps that humans have been comatose the whole time, not knowing the reasons for anything. We begin with a bunch of rocket scientists onboard a spacecraft set on a routine interstellar mission. But before long this crew finds itself deviating from its plans, and on its way, picks up an unsuspecting hijacker. We don’t know where it comes from or what it is, but it comes to terrify and ultimately destroy the entire crew save for one pilot, Ripley, played with strength and sensitivity by Sigourney Weaver.
I saw Alien by myself when I was quite young, in a foreign city (which is probably why I was even let into the theatre). It scared the heck out of me. And some of the scenes still throttle me today because the suspense is so brilliant, that even when you’ve seen the film, it still gets you. Aliens (the sequel by James Cameron) is also entertaining, but in a different sort of way. Weaver again, is brilliant in it, in what I would truly call a strong woman’s role (as opposed to what’s being proffered today — sexy actresses who fight fearlessly with their superpowers.) Here in Alien, Weaver’s Ripley is scared, vulnerable and resourceful. You feel her plight and admire her courage. Supplemented by H.R. Giger’s legendary designs and a quiet yet ominous score, Alien is a great film, perhaps even Ridley Scott’s finest.
Total Recall (directed by Paul Verhoeven)
I love Paul Verhoeven. His films aren’t afraid to be a little silly and fun (check out another sci-fi gem, the original Robocop). Yet, at the same time, his filmmaking skills are formidable. With astute camera work, brilliant pacing and prescient imagery, you really get into his adventures. Total Recall, starring the one and only Arnold Schwarzeneggar, is Verhoeven at his best. Set in a modern yet industrial future, it features a perplexed construction worker who’s obsessed with a series of dreams about Mars. In his search to alleviate these tensions, he goes to Rekall, a vacation company that sells virtual tours — dreams “so real you’re mind won’t know the difference.” When things go wrong, the protagonist Quaid, played by Arnold, ends up on a dangerous adventure on route to finding out his true identity.
Loaded with memorable sets and action sequences, Total Recall, is bursting with brilliant twists and turns and is just loads of visual fun. The casting is perfect — both Arnold and Sharon Stone are fabulous here — and despite the unbelievability of it all, you willingly fall right into the chase. (The same cannot be said about its remake, starring Colin Farrell despite Farrell being a superior-trained actor.) It’s a film I just want to see every once in a while, like going for a great double cheese burger with all the works.
The Day the Earth Stood Still (directed by Robert Wise)
This is an old time gem. Despite it’s dated (1951) visual effects and simple black and white film stock, Robert Wise’s The Day The Earth Stood Still continues to carry with it real drama and feeling. The story begins with the arrival of a stranger from outer space, played by Michael Rennie, who comes to warn our species of its insensitive and harmful ways of doing things — supposedly our proclivity for war and the recent development of nuclear weapons.
Arriving in humanoid form, Rennie’s Klaatu, is calm, wise and patient despite being surrounded and later captured by the US Military upon his arrival in a “flying saucer” (yes, this is very mid-century). He later escapes, and upon befriending a widow and her young son, makes known his real reasons for being here and who he really is. With orders to destroy the earth’s inhabitants should we not comply, Klaatu’s robot Gort (which represents a fleet of the same such powerful technology that patrols interplanetary peace) sustains a menacing presence despite his low-tech appearance by today’s standards. But in Robert Wise’s film, it’s the ideas that resonate, and the care and attention to the plot and its characters. Despite its age, I still love this film. There’s a sincerity in the delivery and in the message that it conveys — that is, the preciousness of life and peace here on this tiny planet.
Brazil (directed by Terry Gilliam)
One of the strangest dystopian movies of our time, Terry Gilliam’s Brazil is a delectable visual treat. Unique in its character development and loaded with the kind of bizarre antics that are to be expected from one of the geniuses of the Monty Python crew, Brazil nonetheless makes a strong and cohesive statement about conformity and tyrannical government power. In fact, the film is all about control and the battle for physical freedom and intellectual sanity.
The wonderful set pieces alone are iconic and the characters — from Jonathan Pryce’s befuddled Sam Lowry to Robert DeNiro’s terrorist spy Harry Tuttle — bring flavor to the scenes. Gilliam’s frequent use of wide lenses and cantered upshots, give an already strange world a buffoon-like quality, filled with ludicrous scenarios and absurdly loud human behaviour that makes this all the more surreal. It’s as if the director threw in everything that he found obnoxious in our current human civilization, amped it up a couple of notches and filled the entire world that way, everywhere, all the time.
Brazil is a powerful warning about consumer driven distraction, industrial dominance and totalitarian bureaucracy. It tantalizes with its visuals and its break-neck pacing and finishes up with a perfectly convoluted dream-like climax. It’s a film that makes you wonder what’s true and what’s not from beginning to end.
Gattaca (directed by Andrew Niccol)
This is a true thinking person’s film. Without any dependence on special effects or fancy set pieces, Andrew Niccol’s Gattaca gravitates ours concerns about mortality and the impact of one of our most prominent technologies, genetic engineering. Starring Ethan Hawke, the film features a young man who finds a job passing himself off as another person, a genetically superior human, a champion swimmer played by a very charming Jude Law, who due to a night of drunkenness is now a paraplegic. Hawke’s character Vincent aspires to travel to outer space, where life is better and free from genetic discrimination. But being born outside the world of eugenics he has no hope of achieving his dreams, at least not until he signs up to fake an identity of Law’s character, Jerome, who needs the money and the illusion that his life still has some sort of meaning.
In his pretending to be Jerome, Vincent encounters all the troubles associated with faking it in a world where everything is tracked: height, fitness levels, eye scans, and even hair and skin follicles — basically anything and everything that could identify and locate an individual in a fully-monitored society. Yet here’s the catch; because everything’s computer tracked, no one doubts the most obvious — namely that Vincent looks nothing like Jerome but since no one looks or doubts when the machines say “match,” it all works. And it all does for Vincent as he gets a job at the space launch academy Gattaca (set tastefully inside a Frank Lloyd Wright building my wife used to work at it) until a murder happens. Then things get messy.
The art direction, acting and atmosphere are subdued and appropriate. And, unlike most other science fiction movies, it’s one that portrays a future that could very well become true in the not too distant future. This makes Gattaca one of the smartest and most provocative films of its genre.
Blade Runner (directed by Ridley Scott)
Ridley Scott’s other masterpiece Blade Runner, starring Harrison Ford, is the ultimate dystopian set piece. In a world of flying cars, a vanquished sun, and androids, the big existential questions dominate this beautifully produced film. Set in Los Angeles during the year 2019 (as usual, science fiction is always wrong on the dates when it comes to technology), Blade Runner feels a bit like a futuristic cops and criminals mystery thriller, but it isn’t. Ford, who plays a “Blade Runner,” is a special agent out to spot and “retire” (kill) replicants, androids who are no longer licensed to live. In this case, the escapees are Nexus ex-military units that have come back to earth after abandoning their assignments as warrior/worker slaves. The idea of self-aware robots that look human challenges the very existence of our species and the reasons for our survival, especially given that AI robots would be superior to real humans in almost every way; beauty, strength and intelligence. But here’s the catch; these Nexus androids were programmed with an expiry date. This makes for an excellent premise.
Much has been made of the recent sequel, Blade Runner 2049 starring Ryan Gosling. It’s carries with it the same existential questions and makes a valiant attempt to provide more answers. But because it does, or tries to, it weakens the mystery. What makes science fiction like Scott’s original film so great is it takes pleasure, and gives you that same pleasure, in not knowing the truth. We live for this mystery because questions hungrily drives us forward. Complemented by Harrison Ford’s bewildered presence and Rutger Hauer’s chilling performance as Roy Batty, as well as its distinctive production design, Blade Runner will always remain a landmark film and a true favorite.
To see other Favorite Films go here.