2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

This landmark movie transformed and elevated the entire genre of science fiction films by realistically portraying space exploration, spacecraft and space itself, and doing so via beautiful cinematography...

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2081 (2009)

“Please be advised that Bergeron is a genius and an athlete…If you see this man please contact your local authorities immediately.” This is the warning a broadcaster from the National News Service in Washington, D.C., gives the public about a certain prison escapee in the year 2081...

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A Quiet Place (2018)

A Quiet Place is essentially a parable for raising a family in what oftentimes seems a broken world...the actions, expressions, and burdens of a family living in such dark and dire circumstances are given the opportunity to shine in the midst of near silence.

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A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)

A.I. is a dark fairy tale -- complex, full of literary allusions, stitching genres together in episodic fashion -- and Spielberg tackles an adventure of biblical proportions...

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After Yang (2021)

The lines between ethics, technology, and humanity become blurred in Kogonada’s 2021 film After Yang. Parents Jake and Kyra find themselves faced with a difficult decision regarding their daughter's artificially intelligent brother.

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Animal Farm (1954, 1999)

The two movie retellings of George Orwell’s 1945 novel Animal Farm – the animated version from 1954 and the live-action-and-animatronics one from 1999 – each follow the author’s allegory about Soviet Communism, the 1999 film a little more so.  Neither film is for children...

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Arrival (2016)

Put a linguist and a theoretical physicist together in a common task to save the world from space aliens, or more accurately from governments’ reaction to the aliens, and, you never know, love might blossom...

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Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

The story begins in deep space, where mega-villain Thanos (Josh Brolin) is busy at his usual pursuits: killing, torturing, robbing, and destroying.  He is all about death, as his name suggests...

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Black Panther (2018)

The beauty backing Black Panther and its fictional nation of Wakanda is that what appears impoverished is in fact home to great advancement and vibrant life. It is not simply a response to fill some void of history, but it is a celebration of life’s potential and history we can make as a part of it. 

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Blade Runner (1982)

Blade Runner is a bleak future worth revisiting, if not simply to warn us in the manner of bygone prophets then perhaps to show us that life in the hands of amoral science presents dark and dreary possibilities.

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Blade Runner: 2049 (2017)

In Blade Runner: 2049, the 2017 sequel to 1982’s sci-fi classic Blade Runner, the whole world, and (almost) everyone in it, is barren...internal and interpersonal drama arises from the realness or fakeness of each character...

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Children of Men (2006)

At one point in the film, Miriam describes the start of the infertility disaster to Theo: “As the sound of the playgrounds faded, the despair set in.  Very odd, what happens in a world without children’s voices”...

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Don’t Look Up (2021)

Adam McKay’s satirical comedy Don’t Look Up makes an attempt at combining the political, philosophical, and ethical threads that continue to dominate our society.

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Dune: Part One (2021)

It might seem odd trying to connect the world’s largest soccer event with a science fiction movie based on the seminal Frank Herbert novel, but the two have something in common: money and economic power at the expense of innocent life.

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Ender’s Game (2013)

It sparks much fantasy when you’re 12 or so, or maybe two or three or six times that, to watch a movie that puts a kid in charge of something – and not just as a mere hallway monitor or recess captain...

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Equilibrium (2002)

In a post-nuclear-war and not-too-distant future, the totalitarian regime that runs the metropolis of Libria and its environs has its enforcers shoot you on sight, or capture you for later execution by incineration, for having…feelings. 

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Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

Everything Everywhere All at Once tells the story of Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh), who must save all human existence by exploring hundreds of universes outside of her own.

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Fahrenheit 451 (1966)

A totalitarian government hates independent thinking so much that for decades or longer it has banned the printed word. 

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Frankenstein (1931)

“Now I know how it feels to be God.”  That line in this film, uttered by a raving Henry Frankenstein right after he brought his patched-together-from-cadavers man to life, sums up all the blasphemy, megalomania and sheer cruelty inherent...

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Gattaca (1997)

“No, we’ve got discrimination down to a science.” That great line is at the hub of this film, a narrative of a future absolutist society that classifies you and judges you from birth onward, based on your genes...

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I, Robot (2004)

“Those robots don’t do anyone any good.”  So says police homicide detective Del Spooner (Will Smith), and he has his reasons for thinking so...

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Interstellar (2014)

"Love is not something we invented...It has to mean something...Maybe it's...some artifact of a higher dimension that we can't consciously perceive."

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Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

“Something evil had taken possession of the town,” a disheveled, grimy and frantic Dr. Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) begins to narrate as the movie unfolds in flashback...

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Jurassic Park (1993)

In Jurassic Park as with Frankenstein and similar films, scientists’ attempts at playing God have unforeseen and catastrophic consequences.

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Minority Report (2002)

In a world where society is seduced by the total eradication of murder, questions are raised regarding rights, freedom, governance, privacy, human life, and ethics. In short, what becomes permissible by law quickly becomes permissible in the moral fabric of society.

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Moon (2009)

“Gerty, they’re not programs, they’re people.”  That’s what you would say, too.  That is, you would if you were stationed on a mining base on the Moon and the artificial intelligence robot – Gerty -- that runs the base and monitors your every move needed to hear it...

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Ready Player One (2018)

When virtual reality becomes easier and more interesting than real life, the world turns upside down.

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Silent Running (1972)

“Take good care of the forest, Dewey!” That is astronaut Freeman Lowell (Bruce Dern) talking to his robot Dewey on their giant spaceship Valley Forge way out past Saturn...

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Soylent Green (1973)

The year is 2022, and things are rotten. So bad are they, in fact, in this movie that the environment is wrecked, natural resources are depleted, the food supply has run out, the economy is in shambles, and cities are out of housing space for millions of desperate unemployed and homeless people who are left…

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The 6th Day (2000)

“Am I really human?  Do I have a soul?”  Vital questions, these, because they are asked by a cloned man at the end of this new millennium film...

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The Forgotten (2004)

Science fiction films often become an avenue through which we warn society to be careful, to be mindful of the harm that certain technologies could cause or that certain decisions could manifest. So, what exactly is a film like The Forgotten trying to say about our culture?

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The Giver (2014)

“If it’s against the rules, how can it be right?” That’s the pivotal question asked of the young hero of this dystopian film, and life and death are at stake in his response...

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The Hunger Games – Mockingjay, Part 1 (2014)

The Hunger Games – Mockingjay, Part 1 continues the series’ noble theme of individuals – in this case, teenagers – taking the responsibility of defending themselves, their families, their community and their countrymen against an all-powerful state that has zero respect for human life...

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The Hunger Games – Mockingjay, Part 2 (2015)

With this film, The Hunger Games series comes to a close. In a dystopian future North America renamed Panem, a particularly amoral dictatorship presides over a capital city whose denizens live in luxury off the backs of the beleaguered residents...

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The Hunger Games (2012)

What do you look for in a heroine? Do you want courage, integrity, self-sacrifice, mercy, love of liberty? You’ll find them all in this film’s heroine...

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The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)

A cinematic tribute to integrity of soul and conscience, to the value of human life, and to the raw courage it takes for anyone to stand up...

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The Island (2005)

“I want to live! I don’t want to die!” These frantic and forlorn cries, made by a desperate escapee to his pitiless captors, embody the essence and the thesis of this film...

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The Martian (2015)

“Improvise!  Adapt!  Overcome!”  On the surface, that sound advice from the U.S. Marines – and second-handedly from Clint Eastwood and Bear Grylls – seems the whole theme of this Ridley Scott film about an American astronaut...

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The Truman Show (1998)

In the film, “The Truman Show” is the ultimate soap opera, and audiences have been eating it up for decades, watching the entire life of a person unfold before them, day by day.

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Wall-E (2008)

“Wall-E” beautifully and memorably affirms love and life and portrays babies as the hope of humanity and the wonderful treasures they are. 

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Z.P.G. (Zero Population Growth) (1972)

“The penalty for birth…is death!”  That’s the tagline and the premise of this U.S.-Danish dystopian drama – and, sadly, such a notion is not entirely foreign to today’s (not to mention 1972’s) population controllers.

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