'Hard' science fiction films

clever user name · 08-10-2015 8:33am #1

Anybody recommend some 'hard' sci-fi movies? I've seen pretty much all the bigger budget ones, and a few of the lesser known one's. Have an itching to watch some more.

Some of the lesser known one's I've seen:

Europa report
Moon
Primer
2001: A Space Odyssey (and the sequel)
Andromeda Strain
Etc. Etc.

Basically a sci-fi movie where the science is somewhat realistic and not over the top. I know there is a science-fiction forum but doesn't seem to be very active.

On another note, what's your favourite hard sci-fi movie?

Chemical Byrne · 08-10-2015 8:38am

I always thought The Abyss was very good.

darkdubh · 08-10-2015 11:18am

Silent Running.

THX 1138 (pre Star Wars film by George Lucas)

Dark Star (kind of a spoof but an intelligent one).

Harry Palmr · 08-10-2015 2:58pm

clever user name wrote: »

Anybody recommend some 'hard' sci-fi movies? I've seen pretty much all the bigger budget ones, and a few of the lesser known one's. Have an itching to watch some more.

Some of the lesser known one's I've seen:

Europa report
Moon
Primer
2001: A Space Odyssey (and the sequel)
Andromeda Strain
Etc. Etc.

Basically a sci-fi movie where the science is somewhat realistic and not over the top. I know there is a science-fiction forum but doesn't seem to be very active.

On another note, what's your favourite hard sci-fi movie?

erm........:D

Harry Palmr · 08-10-2015 3:02pm

darkdubh wrote: »

Silent Running.

THX 1138 (pre Star Wars film by George Lucas)

Dark Star (kind of a spoof but an intelligent one).

Has some of the worst science known to man, the whole basis of the film is daft hippy nonsense - three greenhouse ships to house everything sent off to go round Saturn a billion miles from the only source of light worth a damn, meanwhile on planet Earth its 75f everywhere, and so on.

Chemical Byrne · 08-10-2015 3:05pm

I liked Oblivion too.
The Alien movies are good, even if they're a bit on the far fetched side.
Ex Machina,
Gravity

Technocentral · 08-10-2015 3:27pm

Unfortunetly there are very few. "Contact" is considered one of the finest, it got some pure science award a few years ago, op covered most of rest.

Mizu_Ger · 08-10-2015 4:53pm

Cargo was decent. It's not particularly original, but it's well made. It's a German-language Swiss film.

Dark City

Runaway (a Michael Crichton film)

loyatemu · 08-10-2015 4:58pm

Solaris (both the russian original and the George Clooney remake)
Sunshine (Danny Boyle)

ThisRegard · 08-10-2015 7:29pm

Mizu_Ger wrote: »

[
Runaway (a Michael Crichton film)

Is that the 80s film with Tom Selleck working for the group that tracks down automated stuff in houses and stuff that goes crazy? I loved that film.

Mizu_Ger · 09-10-2015 8:50am

ThisRegard wrote: »

Is that the 80s film with Tom Selleck working for the group that tracks down automated stuff in houses and stuff that goes crazy? I loved that film.

Yeah. I haven't seen it for a long time, but remember enjoying it.

FortuneChip · 09-10-2015 9:00am

Lads, Gattaca.

loyatemu · 09-10-2015 10:24am

The Man Who Fell to Earth - more of an allegorical movie than sci-fi, but it's still great.

Vinculus · 09-10-2015 10:35am

As the weather here was so bad last Saturday, I spent it watching hard or at the least very puzzling sci-fi movies.
I watched:
I-origen: It's all about the eyes.
Ex machina: No description needed.
Coherence: A Multi Universe dinner party goes pearshaped or spherical depending on your point of view.
Upstream colour: I'm still scratching my head about this one but it was a pleasure to watch.

As a life long fan of science fiction movies, it great to see that less importance is giving to ray-guns and nasty creatures and more emphases on science and it's possibilities.

Duggy747 · 09-10-2015 12:04pm

loyatemu wrote: »

Solaris (both the russian original and the George Clooney remake)
Sunshine (Danny Boyle)

Sunshine is disappointing for me, most of the film is great and very enjoyable until it gets to that part where it turns into Event Horizon.

riffmongous · 09-10-2015 12:19pm

The original Solaris is well worth a fast-forward watch (that driving scene goes on for ever)

Dr. Mantis Toboggan · 09-10-2015 12:52pm

Event Horizon, if you're looking for something 'hard,' not all that realistic though.

Technocentral · 09-10-2015 12:52pm

Mizu_Ger wrote: »

Dark City

:eek:

Not sure you understand what the term means (Wiki):
"Hard science fiction is a category of science fiction characterized by an emphasis on scientific accuracy or technical detail or both."

clever user name · 09-10-2015 12:53pm

Harry Palmr wrote: »

erm........:D

Haha touche :pac: Although in my defense I know so many people who haven't seen it!

clever user name · 09-10-2015 12:55pm

Duggy747 wrote: »

Sunshine is disappointing for me, most of the film is great and very enjoyable until it gets to that part where it turns into Event Horizon.

Agreed! It was great up until the point they tried to turn it into a horror.

Jawgap · 09-10-2015 1:02pm

Blade Runner
Minority Report
Capricorn One
Countdown
Contact
Interstellar
Space Cowboys (the science is pretty well done!)
Europa Report

Lemming · 09-10-2015 1:05pm

Threads.

If you want 'hard' science fact, it'll top your list. It'll also disturb the fvck out of you and make you feel like sh1t for weeks. Nothing good happens in this film.

imitation · 09-10-2015 1:08pm

Interstellar had good science, although it doesn't rate highly on my science fiction list. Gravity is good as well, but stretches the science a lot in the regard that travelling from space station to space station is possible with the different orbits (on the other hand it has no premise without this).
Blade runner is one of my favorites, probably not the best with the zoom and enhance scene and flying cars etc but it's a good show. Personally though as long as a movie isn't slapping bad science in my face blatantly (think the core) and it fits in fine with the world it's OK by me.

Jawgap · 09-10-2015 1:13pm

Lemming wrote: »

Threads.

If you want 'hard' science fact, it'll top your list. It'll also disturb the fvck out of you and make you feel like sh1t for weeks. Nothing good happens in this film.

Gave me fuppin' nightmares as a kid!!!

I always laugh when I hear people complain about life today - feck it, if you grew up in the 1980s it was recession, the threat of nuclear annihilation and stuff like this on the telly!

Now, it's a bit of a recession (boohoo, interest rates are zero!), IS and 'there's no free wifi!'

The 'Day After' is another one like this - the US version of Threads!

Lemming · 09-10-2015 1:17pm

Jawgap wrote: »

Gave me fuppin' nightmares as a kid!!!

...

The 'Day After' is another one like this - the US version of Threads!

Gave me nightmares as an adult!! :pac:

The Day after is very sanitised by comparison to Threads. It's overly dramatised and focuses too heavily on the specific characters which makes lessens the impact of the story.

Threads by comparison is simply brutal. Very matter of fact. And whilst yes it 'focuses' on two families, it uses them as a means to show the bigger picture rather than on whether or not little joey misses little mary. The characters are almost distilled to just another few in a sea of faceless millions dead, dying, or unfortunate enough to have survived.

Sad Professor · 09-10-2015 4:30pm

I feel I have to defend Sunshine’s ending. There’s a horror/slasher element to the third act, certainly, but mostly I think Boyle/Gardland were going for Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now. The Beach and 28 Days Later have similar third acts about people venturing beyond civilisation and encountering madness while teetering on the edge of madness themselves. Event Horizon, while similar, always seemed more Lovecraftian to me.

Harry Palmr · 09-10-2015 4:33pm

Jawgap wrote: »

Blade Runner
Minority Report
Capricorn One
Countdown
Contact
Interstellar
Space Cowboys (the science is pretty well done!)
Europa Report

Ah now - Ground Control speaks to the Mars lander in real time (you'd think someone would have realised it was a conspiracy when that happened!

)

Antar Bolaeisk · 09-10-2015 8:07pm

Armageddon

**runs**

Interstellar was probably the best recent hard science film (even if it went a bit weird at the end)

Contact was an under-rated film and worth taking a look.

Jawgap · 09-10-2015 8:26pm

Antar Bolaeisk wrote: »

Armageddon

**runs**

Interstellar was probably the best recent hard science film (even if it went a bit weird at the end)

Contact was an under-rated film and worth taking a look.

Deep Impact was probably closer to the mark in terms of science! But not by much!

Goldstein · 09-10-2015 11:06pm

Stop what you're doing and go watch Timecrimes :eek::):D

Also, be sure and catch The Martian soon on a giant cinema screen in 2D. It's a sci-fi triumph and one of the hardest science fiction films for a Hollywood tentpole movie you could hope for. It more than made up for the disappointment of Interstellar.

One classic oldie I'd recommend if you're up for it wold be Colossus - The Forbin Project. In three words: Skynet from 1970.

And an obvious great which you've probably seen: Children of Men.

Akrasia · 10-10-2015 12:41am

Is everyone not mentioning The Martian on purpose?

Fysh · 10-10-2015 9:37am

IMO Interstellar failed as hard scifi when it decided to use gravity as time distortion, but just handwaved away the fact that a gravitational field strong enough to do that is also a gravitational field that a) would crush humans almost instantaneously, and b) have a ridiculously high escape velocity.

Personally I always liked Demon Seed, because its take on AI was a bit different from what you normally get. I saw Uncanny at a film festival recently and it was pretty good in this regard too.

Jawgap · 10-10-2015 10:01am

Fysh wrote: »

IMO Interstellar failed as hard scifi when it decided to use gravity as time distortion, but just handwaved away the fact that a gravitational field strong enough to do that is also a gravitational field that a) would crush humans almost instantaneously, and b) have a ridiculously high escape velocity.

Personally I always liked Demon Seed, because its take on AI was a bit different from what you normally get. I saw Uncanny at a film festival recently and it was pretty good in this regard too.

Thorne's book 'The Science of Interstellar' discusses gravity/time at length and explains how it might be possible.

......and just because he explains it doesn't mean I understand it enough to summarise it here

Wedwood · 10-10-2015 12:45pm

Some of the early sci fi movies were worth a look:

Forbidden Planet
Robinson Crusoe on Mars
When Worlds Collide
Silent Running

ThisRegard · 10-10-2015 3:40pm

Akrasia wrote: »

Is everyone not mentioning The Martian on purpose?

I wouldn't say a whole lot of people have seen it at this point.

Skerries · 10-10-2015 5:12pm

Goldstein wrote: »

One classic oldie I'd recommend if you're up for it wold be Colossus - The Forbin Project. In three words: Skynet from 1970.
.

I went back and watched this recently, a lot darker than I remembered

Apogee · 18-10-2015 3:28pm

Contagion is worth a look.

flatty · 18-10-2015 3:48pm

Pitch black and chronicles of riddick are a good ride.
Really enjoyed the recent blockbuster with your man with the tape.
Tremors is outstanding &#55357;&#56397;&#55356;&#57341;

flatty · 18-10-2015 3:48pm

Pitch black and chronicles of riddick are a good ride.
Really enjoyed the recent blockbuster with your man with the tape.
Tremors is outstanding 👍🏽

'Hard' science fiction films

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