Ask HN: Recommend a sci-fi movie I can watch on the new year's eve | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Recommend a sci-fi movie I can watch on the new year's eve

13 pointsmollywhite26 comments

Hi everyone, I'll be spending my New Year's Eve in a foreign tropical country with beers. Please recommend a movie to me. ：） Thanks!

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"Strange Days" is set in the days leading up to new year's eve of the Millennium. O:-) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txG9rOW8Jx0 -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_Days_(film) -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Beyond_the_Stars -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy_Quest -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_Men

Really appropriate choice for new year's eve.

Plus: it has MiniDisc, the coolest media format.

If you like the work of Denis Villeneuve and Chris Nolan like me I would really recommend Arrival, Inception, Interstellar and Tenet if you haven't seem them yet.

Without spoiling anything Arrival in particular is just mindblowing amazing IMO.

I always watch The Matrix on NYE. The ending just makes me feel like "Alright, bring it on New Year." It is the greatest movie of all time.

Don't watch Inception, if it hits you like it hit me it is emotionally debilitating and you'll be sad until February. Tenet is cool.

Ex Machina is unsettling but good.

"Devs" is a short series that is Ex Machina-esque in feel. Weird but good.

The 5th Element is best for beer drinking fun NYE.

If you're in a mood for a monty-python-esque dystopia: Brazil (1985) is somewhat sci-fi-ish, as seen from the 20. Century. And it is “Christmas-themed“.

Some perhaps off the beaten path, not all perfect but I enjoyed them:

Time Addicts (2023)

Midnight Special (2016)

The Signal (2014)

Timecrimes (2007)

The Thirteenth Floor (1999)

eXistenZ (1999)

Dark City (1998)

Dark Star (1974)

Forbidden Planet (1956)

If you enjoy something a bit more out there and/or bonkers:

After Blue (Dirty Paradise) (2021)

Strawberry Mansion (2021)

Aniara (2018)

Under The Skin (2013)

Senn (2013)

RoboCop (1987) - IMDb https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093870/

Total Recall (1990) - IMDb. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100802/

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (best of the grandiose classics imo)

Deep Impact (the only good asteroid movie?)

Jurassic Park + Independence Day (peak Goldblum)

Total Recall + A Scanner Darkly (best Philip K Dick adaptation)

Gravity (great visuals / perseverance story)

1. Idiocracy 2. 5th Element 3. Galaxy Quest 4. Edge of Tomorrow 4. District9

+1 for Galaxy Quest, though not conventional Sci-fi. Has Alan Rickman in it too.

Prometheus - A great prequel to the alien series, and it's light on the horror element.

Oddly enough, the next prequel Alien: Covenant, was over the top on the horror element.

Zardoz is definitely SF. The Dark Backward probably doesn't quite fit the category, but has some awsome world building going on and an A list cast.

Idiocracy. Classic.

It's becoming more predictive each year.

- Ghost in the Shell (1, then 2)

- Children of Men

- Stalker

- Solaris

- Blade Runner 2049

- Devs (a brief tv show, but just one shot the whole series)

- Contact

- Under the Skin

- Paprika

- Annihilation

- Arrival

- Ex Machina

- The 5th Element

- The Substance

- Primer

- Tenet

- Upstream Color

- 12 Monkeys

- Her

Any particular kind of sci-fi you're looking for? Action-heavy? Cerebral? About AI? Aliens? Space?

Any type will do, except scary ones. Thank you.

Some of my favorites (no particular order):

- The Martian

- Arrival

- Snowpiercer

- Annihilation (a bit scary in some parts, but not really horror overall)

- The Congress

- Ex Machina

- Her

- Children of Men

- Blade Runner & the new Blade Runner

- Gattaca

- District 9

- Edge of Tomorrow

- Elysium

- Terminator 1 & 2

- Upgrade

- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

- Mad Max (new one) and Fury Road

On the cheesier side:

- Demolition Man

- Judge Dredd (both the original and the new one)

- Terminator 3 and beyond

- Matrix movies

Grand vistas but slow and sometimes boring, and often haughty / overbearing:

- The new Dune movies

- 2001: A Space Odyssey and its sequel (some other number, like 2010 or something, can't remember)

- Interstellar

- Inception

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Of all of those, my top 3 would be the first three (Martian, Arrival, Snowpiercer).

Colossus: the Forbin Project (1970) - about AI systems going rogue

Predator. I watch it every Christmas!

District 9, super underrated

Looks great. I'm gonna watch it tonight.

Galaxy Quest

They Live

New Rose Hotel

Death Machine

Surrogates

Cyborg

Freejack

Nemesis

Hardware (M.A.R.K. 13)

Dark City

Cypher

Ex Machina

Hardcore Henry

Reminiscence

Zone 414

Synchronic

Moon

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