Ask HN: Great science fiction movies? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Great science fiction movies?

56 pointsgalfarragem95 comments

What sci-fy movies do you recommend and why?

Beyond the mainstream classics "Terminator I & II", "Blade runner" and "2001: A Space Odyssey" I don't know many more.

Gattaca - a beautiful moving film with wonderful music (by Michael Nyman) about genetic engineering, discrimination and sheer determination.

A great movie, and come to think of it, I haven’t watched it in a few years. Thanks for the reminder!

It really holds up. The visual design, the subject matter... the mix of "future" and "past" make it really timeless. Well worth the rewatch.

'Contact (1997)' is good. One of the best alien movies. Since we are on the topic of fiction, let me add one more, Man From Earth (2007).

I really like the Man From Earth. Terrible acting but good story

The story was written by a famous screenwriter and the film was produced by his family and friends once he passed away.

I actually liked the acting as well. It's more exaggerated than usual american acting, closer to the theatrical acting.

The movie has an awesome premise, and I enjoyed most of it.

But those two twists near the end made me really dislike the movie.

Wonderful film that stands up to repeated viewings. I love the scene where Ellie gets the first hint of a signal and blasts across the desert in her T-bird shouting to her crew through the CB. An early Matthew McConaghy appearance where he hasn't yet succumbed to the inaudible muttering of later work. Contact is based on a Carl Sagan novel, which is also excellent.

Some random categories:

- Classics: Forbidden Planet, Solaris, Stalker

- Dystopia: Brazil, Gattaca, Children of Men

- Action: Verhoeven's trilogy of Robocop, Total Recall and Starship Troopers

- Space: Gravity, Sunshine, The Martian

- Robots/AI: Ex Machina, Her

- Time travel: Looper, Primer, 12 Monkeys

Random, but an excellent list. Worth specifying that Solaris should be the Tarkovsky one, not the dreadful remake.

Yep, the Clooney version was a bit hit and miss IMHO. I really am not a fan of Natascha McElhone's style of acting, but I thought Jeremy Davies was brilliant as Snow.

For me it was 10/10.

Oh I love Forbidden Planet! Great choice!

‘Strange Days’ is a great movie that I feel captures some of the Sci-Fi zeitgeist around the millennium, the burgeoning internet, and a bit of cyberpunk. The subject matter is rather dark and disturbing, which I believe has led it to be rather obscure. But it makes a powerful and prescient statement about how tech empowers and dehumanizes us, porn, addiction, exploitation, and fandom. It’s an incredibly powerful statement that is quite relevant.

Black Mirror should do a modern take on this one day.

Akira is one of the greats. It’s essentially the story of post-WWII Japan retold as a sci-fi story.

Idiocracy (2005?) was a cult film for years and has recently become less obscure.

Anything with Sharlto Copley in it is going to be good. Or at least his role in it will be good. What a great and under appreciated actor.

My personal opinion is that Akira is something any fan of cyberpunk or anime has to watch.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primer_(film) with a budget of $7000.

I suggest watching "timecrimes" or "predestination" for those who like their temporal paradoxes done right.

Take my vote for Timecrimes.

Another little movie that I liked very much is "Frequently Asked Question About Time Travels", and the two "Hot Tub Time Machine". OK, the second was really weak, but the leads are hilariously funny...

Last one, I promise, "Time Lapse".

Add Project Almanac

Danny Boyle's "Sunshine" is excellent. It strays away from scifi in to horror a bit occasionally, but the premise is great and the science is accurate. Dr Brian Cox was scientific advisor to the film.

I second that! The music, the special effects, the actors and actresses, and the atmosphere are superb.

I know it's pointless to discuss about personal taste, and movies are a great example and reminder of that. But to me Sunshine characters looked like a bunch of Big Brother contestants, spending their time in petty arguments, making trivial mistakes, and dealing with mostly imaginary physics, until Freddy Krueger shows up. And how do you solve an existential threat like the sun shutting down? But with a huge bomb, of course. As usual.

There's no "sci" in Sunshine's sci-fi. That was massively distracting and not something that could've been saved by the pretty visuals.

I'm not 100% sure it was intended, but to me it's in the category of "films that contain dizzying genre shifts". Other examples would be From Dusk Till Dawn or Kill List. I actually really enjoy this trope, I think the fact it starts off looking like "conventional" sci-fi and then goes somewhere unexpected is a plus-point (although maybe not for people who really like sci-fi).

It didn't seem to be intended or self-conscious in any way, instead it seemed to take itself very seriously: there wasn't an ounce of sense of humour in it. While "From dusk till dawn" is obviously a humorous genre cross-over. I haven't seen Kill list but Ben Wheatley is an interesting director with a passion for the grotesque- his Sightseers and Down Terrace are pretty funny.

Here are my recommendations:

* Sunshine: I'll second this one, about a crew on a mission in space, turns into a different kind of film in the second half, which many people didn't like; has breathtaking visuals and a strong soundtrack.

* Her: A guy falls in love with an AI; has a wonderful atmosphere

* Gattaca: Set in a future of genetic engineering and how the protagonist fights against class discrimination

* Ex Machina, this was pretty hyped I'd say, but takes the opposite approach of Her and shows us the dangers of AI

* The Day the Earth Stood Still: a representative of aliens arrives on earth to tell humans to knock off their douchebaggery; still highly relevant today

* Metropolis: a silent film with a powerful score, set in a future with a large class disparity where the workers rebel

Honorable mentions that I'm not sure are really sci-fi: Brazil, The Prestige, Watchmen

12 Monkeys - Travelling back in time to try and track the outbreak of a virus that wipes out most of humanity.

The Abyss - Survival and discovery on a deep water mining platform.

Apollo 13 - Look at the rescue efforts of this historical NASA moon mission. (Does it count as sci-fi?)

The Dish - Also not quite sci-fi, but a comedy about Australia's involvement in the first moon landing.

Battle for Terra - Surprisingly good animated movie about invading aliens.

District 9 - Alien refugee camp in Johannesburg.

Gravity - Astronaut stranded in orbit, trying to get back to Earth.

The Martian - Survival and rescue of a lone astronaut stranded on Mars.

Moon - After a serious accident, a solitary worker on the Moon discovers a conspiracy.

Oblivion - A veteran assigned to extract Earth's remaining resources begins to question what he knows about his mission and himself.

Predator - The classic that launched the franchise.

Predestination - Faithful adaptation of Heinlein's short story, "All You Zombies."

The Prestige - Some minor sci-fi elements. At the end of the Nineteenth Century in London, two stage magicians engage in a battle to create the ultimate illusion whilst sacrificing everything they have to outwit the other.

Source Code - Using limited time-travel to try and get information to stop a second, larger terrorist attack.

WALL E - In the distant future, a small waste-collecting robot inadvertently embarks on a space journey that will ultimately decide the fate of mankind.

Arrival.

Great, thoughtful, science fiction. Based on an excellent short story.

> Based on an excellent short story.

The short story "The Story of Your Life" almost brought me to tears I loved it so much. I highly, highly recommend it to everyone.

It's a dreadful abuse of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, but you should watch it anyway. Agreed.

Kinda pointless though

There are a couple TV shows that every sci-fi fan should see: Firefly and more recently The Expanse.

There is a German sci-fi series on Netflix called "Dark" [1] that I would also grab the chance to recommend while it is online. I figured that it would have to be above average for Netflix to broadcast it internationally and it turned out to be quite superb (even if it is perhaps only tangentially science fiction).

[1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5753856/

Inception (2010) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1375666/ is an epic mind-bender

If you like Inception, check out Interstellar. They're both directed by Christopher Nolan.

World on a Wire (Welt am Draht) - German movie from 1972 similar to the Matrix. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_on_a_Wire

Stalker - Andrei Tarkovsky film from 1979 on the indifference of aliens and humans' inability to comprehend alien intelligence. Somewhat like Solaris.

The Incident (El Incidente) - a nightmare time-loop movie and possibly the most disturbing movie I've ever seen written and directed by Mexican director Isaac Ezban. You can watch it on Netflix. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3528756/

Speaking of Ezban, Cosas Feas / Nasty Stuff is a disturbing sci-fi short he did in 2009 available on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/65601847

One more: They're Made of Meat is available on YouTube and only 7 minutes long: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfPdhsP8XjI starring the guy from Cash Cab.

I added my own sci-fi ranking (159 movies) in a spreadsheet here [1]. You can sort it based on IMDB or my score. Many movies include the ranking from the first time I have watched the movie (e.g. Star Wars).

[1] https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FDg-yMsHjIHRmZy60v-N...

The Black Mirror series is worth watching, although they seem to focus mostly on 'digital consciousness'. The USS Callister episode is not only gripping but very funny too. So many great episodes though - hard to pick a real standout although I would have to say if I had to San Junipero is one of the best things I have ever watched.

Then there's the really cheesy old "so bad it's good" stuff, for example: - When Worlds Collide (1951) - The People That Time Forgot (1977) - Swamp Thing (1982)

Have you seen the original War of the Worlds?

Then there is the Alien franchise, Aliens (Alien 2) being my personal favourite - Bill Paxton is sooo funny in that and of course it's directed by James Cameron. Some other great actors like Michael Biehn too.

Have you watched the series Firefly? Also the (related) movie Serenity.

There is soooo much great stuff out there!

- Clockwork Orange - Dr. Strangelove (brilliant!) - Strange Days - The Day the Earth Stood Still (version from 1951!) - Edge of Tomorrow - Equilibrium - Arrival - District 9 - Chappie - Predestination (i recommend to read Heinleins novel first)

Interstellar

C'mon I didn't like this movie at all but downvoting it is rather unfair.

Not necessarily sure it's the sort of thing HNers will like, but I have a bit of an obsession with Hardware (1990). It's strange, trippy, violent and lots of fun.

Coherence (2013) is very enjoyable.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2866360/

Surprised to see no one mentioning The Matrix. Definitely a classic that can be enjoyed by anyone. Your mileage may vary with the other two sequels however...

Silent Running - brilliant (for its time) special effects

I think the ending of Silent Running was the first part of a movie to make me cry (I was 15 or so).

  - You've seen Titanic?
  - Sure.
  - Did you cry at the end?
  - Of course!
  - Why?
  - She threw the diamond away!

I wondered if Laura Dern's role in The Last Jedi was a bit of a nod to her dad's role in Silent Running.

The Timecrimes, brilliant piece of art.

Moon

Alien

The Thing

Dune Directors Cut

Gattaca

Loved Moon!

Timecrimes (Los Cronicriménes) — a mind bending Spanish movie with time travel and paradoxes

AI (Artificial Intelligence) — about a little android boy who develops feelings and emotions

Gattaca

Summer Time Machine Blues (Japanese) — a hilarious movie with time travel (and all its paradoxes)

Moon

Europa Report

[I've avoided mentioning the more recent mainstream movies.]

The Anomaly (2014) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2962726/ is a surprisingly good mind-bender

Event Horizon - a wonderful blend of sci-fi and horror.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_Horizon_(film)

I second that motion picture! After the first time I saw it, it took me hours to fall asleep.

Colossus: The Forbin Project

Before Skynet ...

I enjoyed this but its ending really let it down.

I thought that was the best part. Chilling.

Predestination

I'd second this, and would recommend looking up the Heinlein short story "All You Zombies," that the movie was based on. The film was a very accurate adaptation.

Seconded. The end is quite mind-bending.

Can I recommend a tv series? Travelers http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5651844

And Timeless: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5511582/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

THX 1138 : George Lucas's first film as a director, just before Star Wars. I wish the guy had a little less dazzling success so we could have seen more of his personnality

Believe you missed American Graffiti. (1973)

THX1138 is pretty special. I'm still trying to find a version without the typical Lucas retroactive CGI spliced in.

Fun fact: there's a scene in the movie (no spoilers) that was filmed, sideways, in the then-unfinished BART transbay tube. If you've seen the movie I bet you'll know which scene.

Yep I always forget that Lucas made American Grafiti. And didn't knew that this post-apocalypse tube was indeed BART. Indeed I was remembering this part when I recommended the movie.

And along the same lines, Logan’s run which spawned a TV series.

And while we’re on 70’s TV sci-fi also; The Fantastic Journey, Battlestar Galactica.

I thought the recent film "Arrival" was really good.

I found Arrival great, until the second part, where things stopped making sense. That part felt badly written. The ending was a let down because of that.

Arrival is a great movie that I didn't enjoy. I think it's because it's a drama with a bit of sci-fi. And the movie explains "the thing" way too much. I felt it thought I was stupid.

> I felt it thought I was stupid.

It probably did. I suspect contemporary blockbusters are intentionally dumbed down to make them meet the bulk of the bell curve. And think of all those emerging markets with their hundreds of million of poorly educated youth, those can pay their tickets too.

You might say that it's always been like that. Well, it might just be that I'm getting older but I think it's become worse. Either the world is more global today and therefore the expectations about the viewers are more generic, or the equation "more people = more money" has become more compelling, or the producers have found more convincing and subtle ways to get from directors what they want. Villeneuve is a great director, yet Arrival felt shallow and formulaic.

I'll add Transcendence and Lucy. Despite having relatively bad rating, they have unique plots, that in my opinion are a bit closer to what could actually happen.

>they have unique plots, that in my opinion are a bit closer to what could actually happen

But the entire premise behind Lucy (that humans only use 10% of their brains) is a myth[0]. And the consequence that somehow one would get supernatural powers by "using the other 90 percent" is silly.

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_percent_of_the_brain_myth

Will not deny that. But there are not many plots involving superhuman intelligence at all.

Primer, if you want a bit of a mind-bender.

Possibly the only movie I have seen where diagrams help!

I really liked "Passengers". I never understood why it rated so poorly on Rotten Tomatoes.

Late to this game...

Galaxy Quest

V, but the original miniseries from the 80's

Close Encounters

Dune, this is controversial I'm sure!

Starship Troopers

The Day After Tomorrow

The Fifth Element

Terminator I

Alien

Aliens

Tron, oh god I nearly forgot this one from the 80's!

Dark Star. Same writer as Alien I think. You can see some proto Alien ideas in there.

Yes! Excellent SciFi comedy.

The first Planet of the Apes

The leftovers，though it is TV，but is better than many movies.

Logan's Run - Ever more relevant in our current times.

No one mentioned eXistenZ yet. Really loved that movie.

Metropolis, the Thing, Starship Troopers,Dark City

Another really good one is Animatrix.

The Thirteenth Floor (1999)

Enemy Mine

What happened to Monday ?

Also Westworld.

fahrenheit451

None mentioned "The man from Earth" yet. It is unusual, but exceptionally well made.

And now there's a sequel! :D

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5770864/

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