The Most Underrated Sci-Fi Movies of the 1970s | Hacker News Reader

The Most Underrated Sci-Fi Movies of the 1970s

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100 pointsndsipa_pomu110 comments

My contribution to this discussion is Fantastic Planet.

1973, French, animated, batshit insane. It's a unique piece of art that's for sure. I watch it once a decade or so just to remind myself that it wasn't a half-remembered fever dream.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantastic_Planet

Not from the 70s, but it's worth checking out René Laloux's other work with Time Masters (1982) and Gandahar (1987). Isaac Asimov wrote the English translation for Gandahar.

To add to the list of 70's animated sci-fi, Galaxy Express 999 is worth checking out. It's a very French-inspired sci-fi anime that has a fair bit of charm.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy_Express_999_(film)

I recall watching that on PBS (KQED maybe? though maybe even before I moved to the SF area in the 90s).

https://youtu.be/GZg5OKA1Miw for any who have an hour to spare.

"Fantastic Planet (1973), a.k.a La planete sauvage. Κινούμενα σχέδια" - https://youtu.be/9PcqitDkOGc

Not sure all of these are underrated, films like Invasion of the Body Snatchers are (rightfully) well-known and respected.

Big fan of THX 1138, I believe it would’ve been much better known and respected if it wasn’t overshadowed by Star Wars. I actually prefer THX 1138, but I haven’t seen it in a long time as I don’t think there’s a high-quality transfer - without the CGI retouchings - widely available.

And Zardoz is a punchline for good reason, but I still find it an interesting film. It’s got bizarre, creative worldbuilding, and I love that final shot.

As much as I like THX-1138, it's a bit of a single note film and certainly doesn't have the depth of world building that Star Wars has.

I feel like it established some pretty common elements in sci-fi (eg, the violence channel) and was the first time I saw on film concepts from Huxley’s Brave New World.

It’s a low budget movie and I think it’s ok to be a single note film. But that note was really unique on 1971 and seems rote because it’s sort of baked into the “consumerist hedonist dystopia” that’s very common now.

Much of the world building of SW was done by the fans, Lucas really knew how to build a brand even back then.

Yes, but the world(s) looked "lived-in" with the beaten up droids etc.

Definitely agree, but I feel it's worth watching for the cinematography / set design alone.

Westworld is not underrated. It's a pretty bad movie as far as craft goes, but gets and deserves credit for being early in the genre. It had good ideas but they weren't developed well. Fortunately other movies, and the first season of the show, explored that much more effectively.

Rule 34 being what it is, there is an adult version of Westworld called Sexworld (1978) and it's not too shabby, they threw enough budget and production values at it to make it interesting. It explores the theme of what happens when you get to live out your fantasies in some surprising ways. The movie can be found online in the usual places.

Also, the list left off Futureworld (1976) which is much better than Westworld and featured some CGI that was ground-breaking for the time.

There is a so-called "35mm Grindhouse Edition" of 1138 discussed on originaltrilogy.com

https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/THX-1138-1st-Directors-Cut...

> Big fan of THX 1138, I believe it would’ve been much better known and respected if it wasn’t overshadowed by Star Wars.

Really? I think THX 1138 actually benefits from the halo effect of Star Wars; if it wasn't made by someone as (eventually) famous as George Lucas it would have remained an obscure flop, which would be a shame.

Zardoz is definitely worth watching once if you like strange films.

But I will not go to second level.

Zardoz is a great film for weeding out the posers from those who are truly into the weird. I've known more than one person to nope out as soon as Sean Connery shows up wearing the neon orange plastic banana hammock/bandolier and getting the long rambley speech about evil penises.

It's just as good a second time around. ahaha.

I watched it with my wife, who doesn't enjoy weird crap from the 70's. But she does enjoy making fun of films, and enjoys my Sean Connery impressions.

That movie made for amazing MST3K-style home viewing, because of Connery's reputation as a weirdo and womanizer and the fact that that movie was horny.

Will watch again with the wife I am sure before too long.

Also, the movie itself is horny. It's not like sean connery's character is horny. That is the best way to describe it I think.

Exactly what I was getting at. Just the horniness of the film itself makes it fertile ground for hilarious Sean Connery bits.

Was born in 1991 and really had to go out of my way to pirate digital versions of these when I was in college. I was trying to think about why I sought these films out. I think the answer is that they are actually science fiction, as opposed to most “sci-fi” films now that are just based in escapism rather than speculation. The thing is that it’s pretty inexplicable because I can clearly see the flaws of these movies, they look corny, a lot bad dialogue written by nerds. But I have a real emotional attachment with these movies. I cried during Soylent Green and even Rollerball. There’s something about the corniness of these movies that’s very claustrophobic and tense, they are exciting because the movies have a thesis that’s like reading a serial killer’s manifesto, dark. The casting was crazy back then to male lead actors like Charlton Heston look haggard and old, and talk a lot, they sometimes just flip out, actresses are on the other hand usually just sexy young starlets who can’t act. It’s just such a different situation then like Adam Driver, or Chris Pratt stumbling through being Mr.Likable with a female lead who’s can act but only there because it would be weird if the script didn’t have a romantic arc.

Honestly I just love all movies but I do think Star Wars ruined it. It’s a good movie, certainly it shaped my childhood, but aside from the more “meta” mythopoetic elements of deconstructing the hero’s journey, it’s pure escapism and obviously was a huge hit and set the tone for the future.

One thing that bugs me about too many modern scifi films is that they just end up being a big chase at the end with the good guys running away from the bad guys. "The Adjustment Bureau" is an example of that and as a Dickhead, I was disappointed though to be fair, most PKD film adaptations are poor.

Yeah well you’re REALLY not going to like Don’t Worry Darling.

My thing is when clearly a climax has started and there’s still 30-40 minutes left in the film, it really feels like the climax’s are drawn out these days, you have 2 hour plus movies with 30 minutes of no plot/character development instead of a under 2 hour movie which would just be over at that point.

Well, that's not on my radar, but now I know to skip it.

Interesting that Silent Running is list as "underrated", yet I think it's way overrated. I mean, on the topic of sci-fi, the movie has been mentioned in lists and otherwise for years. The theme is good, and I like the idea of watching the movie. But then I turn it on, and man, it's sure can be cringey. My shoulders go up around my ears when Dern's character is lecturing his shipmates on "real food". IRL, they would have thrown him out an airlock after one too many sanctimonious speeches. And that part with Joan Baez screeching on the soundtrack, ugh.

And to digress into nit-picking, Invasion of the Body Snatchers? Saw that in the theaters because...it got good reviews.

> My shoulders go up around my ears when Dern's character is lecturing his shipmates on "real food". IRL, they would have thrown him out an airlock after one too many sanctimonious speeches.

Virtually every HN discussion about nutrition is filled with those kinds of sanctimonious speeches (with everybody serving their own kind of "real food"). And it's hardly just HN or even the virtual world. I'd say the movie was ahead of its time in that regard, but I think it was always that way.

I watched this movie for an art history class and it’s considered an important movie politically due to environmentalist message. At the time environmentalism wasn’t basically movie short-hand for, “this is a black and white moral conflict obviously the environmentalists are the good guys” though obviously that’s how they are portrayed in the Silent Running. There’s was also a popular environmentalist book call Silent Spring, that was incorporated into the movie’s name.

Also shut up Joan Baez is the shit.

"Silent Spring" is also a key theme in The Three-Body Problem. There's a Netflix adaptation coming later this year, but if you search around, there's a recent Chinese version (subtitles are available) that follows the book very closely: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt20242042/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_...

As a Peter Schickele fan (soundtrack composer), I would say Silent Running is underrated.

https://www.schickele.com/wp/peter-schickele-bio/

On rewatch what threw me the most was American Airlines has a fleet of floating green houses in space to preserve the ecology of earth and one day decides nah, blow them up we don't need it anymore.

Hard to say if something was left off because it's not underrated, but Tarkovsky is one of those directors that's considered one of the best to have ever done it while also being someone a lot of (younger) people haven't seen. I'm partial to Stalker [1], but Solaris is also really beautiful [2].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalker_(1979_film)

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solaris_(1972_film)

Solaris is undoubtedly omitted due to not being underrated. It is one of the most critically acclaimed and influential science fiction films of all time.

That's what I would think as well, but I can't count how many people my age (40-ish) and younger that I've spoken to who haven't even heard of Tarkovsky, let alone seen his films. And I hang out with largely artists and musicians in NYC, where I've lived for 15+ years. I've even had actor friends who are successful in their field (Broadway, major film and television) say they've heard of but never seen Tarkovsky -- and of course they're all blown away when they see Stalker.

That's all to say I'd agree with you, that Solaris is one of the best sci-fi films of all time, but time and again I'm surprised that people just really haven't seen it, even in circles with people you'd expect would have a higher probability of encountering it.

I enjoy a lot currently watching Tales from the Loop - after the book of Simon Stalenhag (sorry can't type the a-round thing). There's some of the eerie not-much-happening world of Tarkovsky right there, and I'm quite sure whoever didn't like TftL wouldn't resist 10 minutes into Tarkovsky. Because for many - even from my local SF club - SF got to mean kaboom-whoosshhh-kill, nothing bad by itself but soooo limiting.

I definitely wouldn’t expect Solaris to be widely known among modern mainstream moviegoers. But when I hear “underrated sci-fi movies” I expect the context to include mainstream critical acclaim. Like if you had a list of “underrated professional table tennis players” you wouldn’t just include all the best players since most people are aware of few if any professional table tennis players.

Oh for sure, that's fair. I still want to tell everyone they should go see Solaris and Stalker though. Maybe the list I want to see isn't called "underrated", but more of "ones you probably haven't seen, but should".

Phase IV is clearly underrated and widely unknown, yes.

But Westworld, Omega Man, Logans Run, Silent Running, Soylent Green and Invasion of the Body Snatchers?

I think this is more of a listicle for those not familiar with how utterly bizarre 70's scifi movies could be. Underrated by non-genre movie fans specifically. One curiosity not listed was "Capricorn One", one of OJ Simpsons movies. Another is the first Mad Max which squeaks in at 1979.

Another genre that could use similar treatment is the 70's disaster movies like Towering Inferno, Airport and their ilk.

I wouldn't consider the first Mad Max as a scifi film though I love its awful acting and general cheesiness. It's far more of an action film than anything else as it doesn't really examine why society is breaking down from what I can remember.

Depending on which version of the film you've seen, some of the cheesiness and awful acting likely comes from the US dubbed version. That said, it still is somewhat mindless action.

See: https://jalopnik.com/the-aussie-mad-max-is-so-much-better-th...

They dubbed an Aussie film?

Luckily, the version I saw in the UK was the non-dubbed version.

I categorize "society breaking down" into other genres, not SciFi (unless fictional technology has an important place).

Soylent Green - not SciFi, distopian.

Brave New World, Logan's Run - maybe SciFi, also distopian.

The Time Machine, Bladerunner - definitely SciFi.

Aeon Flux - Science Fantasy (there's no even halfway plausible scientific mechanism for the key element).

Whilst Soylent Green is dystopian, I'd consider it scifi as it features food recycling technology and suicide booths. (Edward G Robinson was terminally ill when he shot Soylent Green and died just a few weeks after filming - makes his death scene quite poignant although his co-stars weren't aware of his bladder cancer).

The food recycling is a good point. I didn't see anything scientific or technologically special about the suicide booths.

Suicide booths are a common theme in scifi dystopias though. If they joke about it in Futurama, then that's good enough for me.

Mad Max was a breakdown in global trade and oil that may or may not have been caused by a nuclear war in the north.

I saw this as a young kid, randomly on a TV rerun late at night, not too long after it was released. The fact that it was widely unknown made it seem all the more like a fever dream or something since it was a while before I could even figure out what it was that I had seen. I remember it seeming very surreal and amazingly stylized.

Keep in mind that before video rentals, the internet and streaming, you would see something like this and you might never stumble across it again. For years I'm not sure if I could remember the title, just that it was very stark and about ants.

Now you can put "movie about ants" and Google autocompletes "...taking over the world" and all the top links are about "Phase IV".

Yeah, half that list was movies that I'd consider some of the most highly rated and still talked about sci-fi of the 70's.

As usual with these "underrated" lists, it feels more like "a list of movies you might want to watch if you haven't". Think I'll start replacing "underrated" with that from now on.

Personally I have "Tomorrow I'll Wake Up and Scald Myself with Tea"[1] and "Time after time"[2] from the 70s on my watch list. If we stretch the definition a bit, I'll include "The Lathe of Heaven"[3] (1980) and "Icarus XB 1"[4] (1963).

[1]: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0213322/

[2]: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080025/

[3]: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081036/

[4]: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0122111/

For anyone wanting to find Icarus XB 1, it's more commonly known as "Voyage to the End of the Universe"

I'm somewhat of a fan of 1970s sci-fi as it didn't rely on special effects as they weren't so good back then (apologies to Ray Harryhausen). I'd've put Rollerball on this list too and possibly The Stepford Wives.

Edit: Oops - I think the page only half loaded when I looked at it. Justifies my opinion though

Looks like the article heard you.

D'oh - I completely missed the bottom half of that article. I was double checking the quality of my downloads of those films and searching for 1080p versions, so maybe I got my browser tabs in a twist.

This is a really awesome list - I'm proud to have seen all but two of them.

But I would also note that the 70s gave us both Star Wars ('77) and Alien ('79). Of the two of them I actually think Alien is the most significant because it was the turning point where we lost the rubber suits, army guys, professors making long winded explanations, and hormonal teenagers and started getting the darker and more serious sci-fi.

Disney's The Black Hole also came out in '79 and it is an enjoyable movie if you don't know anything about physics. It is a serious attempt at sci-fi and kept me on the edge of my seat when I first saw it.

Star Wars had a very specific kind of influence, in two main ways: 1) The lesser of the two is that it inspired a wave of imitators of its aesthetic, kit-bash FX, and space-opera elements throughout the 80s—pretty much all firmly in "B-movie" territory, at best; and 2) More importantly, it proved the box office viability and entertainment potential of the genre-pastiche/mashup film, paving the way for Tarantino and others.

I saw that top screenshot of Zardoz and Oh yeah. Slam those VHS rental memories on me.

Anyhoo. I'd say half of those are divided between standards (Stepford Wives, Soylnet Green, Westworld) and well known cult favorites (Running Silent, THX1138, Dark Star, Rollerball). I recall a favorite bumper sticker that read "I support Little League Rollerball". Andromeda Strain is somewhere between.

It was good to see Omega Man get a nod since it spent years replaying in my 1970s brain. And they're dead on about Beneath the Planet of the Apes; absolute insanity.

Among the rest were some genuine finds for me.

I'm usually pretty grumpy about these lists of "underrated" movies, because they're almost always movies that any moderately well versed fan of a genre has seen.

Happily, there are actually some films on this list I haven't seen.

In particular, I recently watched Invasion of the Body Snatchers after putting it off for years. Think it was on Amazon Prime. Takes place in SF. It's really good.

The style of title is a bit schlocky compared to current tastes, but it's a thoroughly competent modern style of film.

I've seen at least half or more of the movies on that list and can recommend them. Maybe not Rollerball or the one with Woody Allen, but the others are worth a watch.

As a kid I was terrified by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tripods_(TV_series).

I didn‘t want to get an implanted cap, which suppresses my free will.

Nowadays instead kids all want to have smartphones, which achieve the same effect. Seems like the „masters“ won.

Lifeforce, also known as "Space Vampires":

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089489/

I was blown away by the basic concept - an alien ship (150 miles long!) with only 3 living(?) occupants in a wide elliptical orbit hidden in the coma of Halley's comet so it nears Earth every 75 years whereupon incredibly bad things happen. But also a gorgeous female space vampire (Mathilda May) appears unclothed! And Patrick Stewart is in the film:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uOhTRONUbY

The primary review on IMDB states:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089489/reviews?ref_=tt_urv

"...it is quite simply THE most audacious, spectacular, hilarious, absurd, insane, riotous, crazy, deliriously demented science fiction film of all time. I cannot fully articulate why it is deserving of being one spot ahead of Samuel Fuller's "Pickup on South Street" on my list of favorite films, but I do know that it is. "Lifeforce" elevates craziness to an art form. Quite possibly the most entertaining film known to man, and perhaps our greatest achievement as a species."

Lifeforce was pretty bonkers, especially for my teenage self who couldn’t get enough of the female lead. Hard to believe it’s the same director as Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Poltergeist - although Spielberg allegedly directed most of Poltergeist.

Yup, this film is VERY entertaining. And it harkens back to "Quatermass and the Pit", which was released in the US as "Five Million Years to Earth".

Not sure if it's underrated but Fassbinder's World on a Wire should probably be on this list.

And if you can't find this, the film "The Thirteenth Floor" with Craig Bierko is a pretty similar if more stylized remake.

But the series is worth the watch.

I think that was originally a tv show so it wouldn't count?

Yeah I forgot about that. I think it was a miniseries. When I saw it, it was presented as one viewing, and I remembered it as a long movie. But it was originally broadcast differently.

I hadn't heard of that series before - thanks for the heads up.

It's like Matrix, but from the 70s.

This is just a list of sci-fi movies. It’s not a list of underrated movies.

Logan’s Run is not underrated. It is my selection for the stupidest sci-fi movie of all time. No intelligent person can resist screaming at the TV while watching it.

“Why are you doing that?! Whoops, too late. I warned you.”

is a quote from everyone ever who has witnessed it

If you imagine it was written by a child, it does make some sense.

"The Forbin Project" is available for free on Archive.org. There are also a couple of deliciously cheesy soviet SF movies from the 70s that are worth watching, like Solaris by Tarkovsky :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-4KydP92ss

Tarkovsky's Solaris is a lot of things but not "cheesy"! Planeta Bur, on the other hand, definitely is. And my personal fave https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0213322/

You're right, actually I wanted to link to some other lesser known movies like "Moscow Cassiopea" ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRut4LfosD0 ) but I couldn't find them right away :)

That was discussed just a few days ago here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35957944

I re-watched a crisp 1080p version of it after commenting on that thread and was surprised how well paced it is, considering there's virtually no action.

"There is another system."

Demon Seed was one I hadn't heard of until earlier this year and I enjoyed it. It's an interesting 70s sci-fi/horror flick and I'm surprised it's so obscure.

Too much Charlton Heston in the author's list. He's a dreadful, wooden actor.

I love Silent Running.

Does The Stepford Wives count as sci-fi?

Logan's Run was a fabulous film, full of memorable moments and lines.

The Sutherland remake of Body Snatchers is brilliant; Sutherland's alien persona is genuinely scary, and despite his versatility I can't think of anything else he's done that's quite so out-there.

You can knock Heston but I've always felt that in a way he single-handedly rescued American sci-fi. He brought real star power to a then-maligned genre.

> The Sutherland remake of Body Snatchers is brilliant; Sutherland's alien persona is genuinely scary, and despite his versatility I can't think of anything else he's done that's quite so out-there.

How about his Wilhelm Reich in Kate Bush's Cloudbusting video?

There's also his performance in "Don't Look Now" to consider.

IIRC the Cloudbusting video was based on Peter Reich's "A Book of Dreams", written while he was in a Swiss hospital recovering from a dreadful motorcycle accident. A book of hallucinations, akin to Naked Lunch. And then there's the whole orgone thang of his father.

> He's a dreadful, wooden actor.

That's the meta-appeal for me. How did this guy get in so many movies? Back in the day, it was the pleasure of people seeing a favorite actor turn up in more things, I am sure.

> Does The Stepford Wives count as sci-fi?

Yes, for sure. What's your thinking on why it wouldn't?

Charlton Heston's peak was in the 1950's, which was a very different era for movies. Judging him by his performances in cheesy sci-fi movies isn't entirely fair if you haven't seen Ben-Hur or The Ten Commandments, and avoided the trap of thinking that our modern fashions are the last word in good art (be that acting or filmmaking more generally).

I mean, it's probably not underrated but it is relatively unknown - the Soviet version of Solaris, from 1972

Until you hit Zardoz or A Boy and His Dog, these are relatively tame. If you want the deeply weird, you should head for Cries of Ecstasy, Blows of Death or Invasion of the Bee Girls. For some reason, once the films got a little smutty, they also got rather experimental. I'm not saying they are good but they are unusual and you may find yourself mulling over what you saw more than you might expect. It's not dissimilar to a slightly earlier deal where some of the porn people were trying to move toward horror and some of the horror people were trying to have more of an exploitative feel (arguably the former group had less success than the latter). Again, the results weren't really good but they were sometimes interesting.

You could probably add Flesh Gordon

This one is from 65 but I bet very few people have viewed this great shlock of a sci-fi movie Planet of the Vampires. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzbEfsCNpis.

Watched this many years ago when I was just getting into Mario Bava. It was far from vintage Bava, but I remember the astronauts had some seriously spiffy space suits. When I start my space company, that’s the chic I’m going for.

I've downloaded it, but never got around to watching it.

If we're going back to the sixties, I'll nominate "Seconds" with Rock Hudson.

Some great movies on this list, I own most of them on physical media. Rollerball was just released in 4k and it looks glorious. I disagree with the commentary though, I think Rollerball still stands up and is quite prophetic in some ways esp with the sports celebrity worship and the AI. Yes, by modern standards it’s fairly slow but all of these films are.

Zardoz is gloriously weird and desperately needs a 4k restoration as well.

Someone should sent Sam Altman a copy of Colossus: The Forbin Project before too long.

Maybe I’m just getting old but I find I far prefer to sit down and enjoy a well restored classic movie from decades ago than the great majority of movies made in the last twenty years.

Part of that could be that writers tended to work harder to build the world rather than assume an audience familiar with the tropes.

Many of the tent-pole movies of the last twenty years are also sequels that rehash the original, rather than continue a story, or tell a new one. The Matrix is more than twenty years old, for example.

There are exceptions. But only a few. Sturgeon's Law, perhaps. But I tend to agree with you. (Urge to growl "Get off my lawn" rising.)

Everything Everywhere All At Once should be one of those exceptions and is arguably scifi. It's telling that such an original film didn't come from a Hollywood studio.

Agreed, that was one of the few recent SF films that didn’t seem formulaic.

Having been born in '71, my folks, who loved horror and sci-fi, dragged me along to a lot of these. There was an old drive-in in town that would show this stuff so, we'd pull in, get popcorn and I'd usually fall asleep part way in, but I still remember scenes from Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Incredible Melting Man, etc. Funny, though, many of those movies I never watched again when I was older.

I grew up about a 5 minute walk from Scarecrow video in Seattle.

Every time some "best [blank] movie list" comes out I'm always thrilled at how many I have seen thanks to the wonderful curation by their staff in the 90s.

Strongly suggest, if you go, to just ask the staff what they recommend.

* Welcome! | Scarecrow Video | https://www.scarecrow.com/index.html

A lot of commentors here saying these are not underrated movies... They might not be if you were alive in the 70's. If you were not then there is an incredibly high chance you don't know of many/most of these. I'm a big sci fi fan and movie fan and I've HEARD of most of these but have only actually SEEN Westworld, Logans Run, and Soylent Green.

I'm 31 for context.

Great list. I love Colossus:The Forbin Project so much (it used to play on repeat at the Alexis Park during DEF CON)

I named a company after it:

https://web.archive.org/web/20070118045822/http://www.thefor...

These are highly complicated

pieces of equipment...

...almost as complicated

as living organisms.

In some cases, they've been designed

by other computers.

We don't know exactly how they work.

- Westworld 1973

Fantastic movie and this quote seems so timely.

The Lathe of Heaven is worth a watch. Produced in ‘79 for public TV. Released in 1980 so maybe just outside the criterion.

At the time I was too young to make sense of its hallucinatory exposition. Would bear rewatching methinks.

And don't bother with the remake!

So... Saw all these a while ago.

Anyone have the next layer down, like: "Underrated gems that will be impossible to find but are worth it though you'll never see them" And "Top schlock for free on pluto or tubi that went past cult classic into 'oh yeah, I think I remember that one' territory "?

The strange verbiage is the only thing interesting about this piece.

Doesn't "most underrated FOO movies" just mean "cult classics?"

Why is that phrase used? SEO? Is "cult" offensive to some community?

It's great to check out the 1970s Invasion of the Body Snatchers to get a taste of 1970s culture and best of all see a little of what San Francisco used to look like.

Rollerball.

Football teams sponsored by Saudi oil sheikhs and mega corporations and people crying when the club anthem plays. It's become real.

Essential to mention that Soylent Green makes a key plot point out of Global Warming.

Underrated by whom? Most of these movies are well regarded classics.

Zardoz included a peek at a computer-run post-scarcity economic system.

Oh, I've never seen Phase IV! I love sci-fi from this era!

Possibly worth a watch just for the old style computer equipment the scientists interact with:

Spoiler warning: https://www.starringthecomputer.com/feature.html?f=70

I highly recommend it if you enjoy video of ants.

Well, for gigantic radioactively-mutated ants there's always the classic "Them!".

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