scifi movie

The best science fiction movies from every decade.

Classic Sci-Fi Horror Films
Little mutant killer children scare us. A group of women that kill men after being intimate with them also instills fear in us. Regardless of your fear tolerance, sci-fi horror films are one of the most terrifying horror film genres in existence. Alien deals with a violent extraterrestrial life form that is out to kill others, while Demon Seed depicts a super smart AI that wants to pass on its intelligence through a human child by means of his creator's wife. No matter what gets you covering your eyes on a scary movie night, the mixture of horror and sci-fi movies has been a recipe for both terror and success for decades. The potential of these scenarios actually occurring combined with the gore and horror of the events makes for movies that will have fans for years to come.
By Futurism Staff10 years ago in Futurism
New Generation of Star Wars
When George Lucas unleashed Star Wars in 1977, he created a whole new generation of sci-fi fanatics from the Baby Boomers who’d been weaned on sci-fi serials. In many respects, George Lucas had managed to synthesize everything he’d loved from the old pulpy serial shorts from the 1940s, like Flash Gordon, while combining it with elements from the samurai films of Akira Kurosawa and World War II fighter pilot movies like The Dam Busters and 633 Squadron.
By Isaac Shapiro10 years ago in Futurism
Making The Terminator
Time travel as a device has been used quite extensively in science-fiction since H.G. Wells wrote The Time Machine late in the 19th Century. Also the time travel device has been used in Time After Time, Somewhere in Time, The Final Countdown, and The Time Traveler's Wife. Time travel was used to good effect on television science fiction also; On The Twilight Zone, in particular "A Stop at Willoughby." On Star Trek, in "City at the Edge of Forever" (written by Harlan Ellison) and "Assignment: Earth" and in three of the best Outer Limits episodes, "The Man Who Was Never Born," "Soldier," and "Demon with a Glass Hand," the latter two written by Harlan Ellison.
By Futurism Staff10 years ago in Futurism
David Cronenberg’s Prophetic Videodrome
Videodrome is the best movie ever made about Facebook. What felt “vaguely futuristic” about it in 1983 is prescient today: technology and media are ever more intimate, personal, embodied, an interpenetration that David Cronenberg’s film graphically explores.
By Nathan Jurgenson10 years ago in Futurism
How to Analyze a Science Fiction Film
I like to time travel, so I love science fiction. Unlike other genres of film, science fiction warrants its own criteria to be effectively evaluated. First, like any film, we measure a movie for its entertainment value: cinematography, acting, and plot (the basics). Science fiction cinema has an extra step. Audiences have to ask, is this good science fiction? The most important thing to realize when learning how to analyze a science fiction film is that qualifying as sci-fi takes more than putting actors on a stage set in space. Plenty of films purport to be science fiction but fall flat under analysis, because they fall back on fantasy or rely on absurd logic.
By Futurism Staff10 years ago in Futurism
Best Clone Movies
One day we will clone a woolly mammoth. A discovered gene that kept mammoths warm in their arctic habitat could be the answer to cloning the animal today. Although there have been other clones such as Dolly the Sheep, the clone of a woolly mammoth is especially spectacular because it is an extinct animal that no human has ever come in contact with before. While it is unsure when the cloning will take place, it is inevitable. As with a great deal of science, it is derived by the pursuit of science fiction. Perhaps geneticists will one day turn to Hollywood to inspire them in their pursuit of genetic cloning in the best clone movies.
By Futurism Staff10 years ago in Futurism
Planet of the Apes is the Best Reboot Ever
Tim Burton’s reimagining of Planet Of The Apes in 2001 will always serve as a ready example of why Hollywood reboots are often as forgettable as they are unnecessary. It failed to capture any of the social commentary intended by the originals. Filmed during the civil rights movement, Planet Of The Apes was a warning of sorts, as relevant today as it was then. This, in spite of all the love and artistry that went into making the film, is the extent of its legacy. Chalk it up to Mark Wahlberg’s wide-eyed performance, which in the larger context of his filmography makes The Happening look like a masterwork of cinema by comparison—or to the offensively absurd ending. Either way, you are unlikely to find anything redeeming whatsoever within the film’s tedious runtime.
By Alex Kane10 years ago in Futurism
Adam Grabarnick Interview
Up-and-coming science fiction director Adam Grabarnick sat down with OMNI to discuss his successful film, NORTH BAY. NORTH BAY, written and directed by Grabarnick, stars Jamie Harris, Reid Scott, and Corsica Wilson. Over the course of one day, NORTH BAY follows discredited scientist Sachin Fayez, who has been conducting a radical – and previously thought to be unsuccessful – experiment deep in the remote woods for the last seventeen years; until, one day, he unexpectedly collides with the proof he’s sought after.
By Natasha Sydor10 years ago in Futurism
Sci-Fi Movie Women of the 80s
While auditioning for the role of Ripley in Ridley Scott's Alien, Sigourney Weaver wore thigh-high boots. She wanted to look tall, strong, and imposing. It worked. From this, one of the most hardcore female characters in sci-fi was born. Too often, when we think “women in sci-fi” we think of what used to be called “scream queens,” or actresses who appeared in scores of latter-day B pictures, running from extraterrestrials on Earth or grappling with tentacled creatures on spaceships. In the 1980s the women of science fiction films broke this stereotype. From Star Wars' Carrie Fisher to Re-Animator's Barbara Crampton, these women held their own. Strong, smart, and funny, these women's characters played key roles in the films they were featured in and in shaping the women in the genre for generations to come.
By Glenn Kenny10 years ago in Futurism
Space Disaster Movies
"Astronomy compels the soul to look upward, and leads us from this world to another." Plato's quote from The Republic is certainly becoming a reality. The Martian, a film released on October 2nd, 2015, looked at the possibility of a manned mission to Mars more extensively than moviegoers had ever seen. Based on Andy Weir's The Martian, a novel by the same name, the film is about astronaut Mark Watney who gets left behind on Mars after his team presumes him dead following an intense storm. All alone, he must create his own food and find water in order to survive while constantly trying to contact Earth to tell them he's alive. However, this isn’t the first space disaster movie and it will not be the last. The reason space disaster movies are so popular is that a majority of space is still unexplored territory for humans. With so much that is unknown, there are major fears about what happens if someone gets stranded out there. Some of the best space disaster movies involve the simple idea of getting disconnected from the space station while others involve hostile alien life forms attacking those in deep space.
By Emily McCay10 years ago in Futurism
Best Netflix Sci-Fi
Move over Syfy channel, Netflix is moving at light speed. For science fiction fans, Netflix is a destination point for great content. Whether you are watching your favorite film for the 100th time or looking for something new to binge watch, Netflix has an enormous pool of sci-fi movies and TV shows to choose from. Netflix is incredibly popular with the demanding sci-fi fanbase. Boasting a wide selection of science fiction oldies, cult favorites, and new picks, Netflix takes you down a deep rabbit hole. After the introduction of original content, Netflix firmly established itself both as studio and distributor. Sense8 took original science fiction programming to a new level, and the BBC's Black Mirror gave the millennials their own version of The Twilight Zone. The list is sure to generate debate amongst die hard sci-fi fans.
By Frank White10 years ago in Futurism
They're Made Out of Meat
"They're Made Out of Meat," by Terry Bisson, is one of the most influential stories in science fiction, and is regularly discussed in college classes about cognitive science, cosmology, and philosophy. The story consists entirely of two extraterrestrials having a conversation at a dinner. Their mission is to discover sentient beings capable of traveling faster than light, and offering them "first contact." Human-beings, as carbon-based life, befuddle the aliens. They cannot fathom how "sacks of meat" can be sentient. Disturbed by their discovery, the aliens mark the solar system has uninhabited, cutting off humanity from the galactic community. "They're Made Out of Meat" is regularly cited as an explanation to the Fermi paradox, the contradiction asking why we cannot see other intelligent life in the universe.
By Futurism Staff10 years ago in Futurism