Good and proper science fiction films

Ninja_scrotum

I know I probably should post this in the Film forum, but people there will only recommend stuff like Star Wars.

I could also ask this question in the "science" forum, but that place always seems a bit dull.

So I'm asking in this forum where there are bound to be scientifically minded people.

Can anyone recommend any decent science fiction films?

I saw "The Andromeda Strain" recently and I have to say it is the most scientific science fiction film I have ever seen.

Capricorn one is also pretty good, though it gets a bit outrageous towards the end.

5uspect

Ninja_scrotum wrote: »

I know I probably should post this in the Film forum, but people there will only recommend stuff like Star Wars.

I could also ask this question in the "science" forum, but that place always seems a bit dull.

So I'm asking in this forum where there are bound to be scientifically minded people.

Can anyone recommend any decent science fiction films?

I saw "The Andromeda Strain" recently and I have to say it is the most scientific science fiction film I have ever seen.

Capricorn one is also pretty good, though it gets a bit outrageous towards the end.

The Andromeda Strain is great!
2001 would be one of the obvious ones
I've yet to sit down and watch my DVD but Sunshine is supposed to be good.
Its not fiction but the Right Stuff is another must watch.
Contact is based on Carl Sagan's book and is another one worth considering.

I'll add more as I think of them...
Gattaca
Children of Men
Solyaris or Solaris (which is a remake)

mike65

I saw the Andromeda Strain on TCM a month ago and it was proberbly the most scientifically rigorous film I've seen. Sadly the Science bit is hard to achive so the fiction wins 99.9% of the time (for proof watch Silent Running which is so bad in terms of logic it could only be a hippy movie).

I think Blade Runner deserves a shout for its dysopian vision of the near future.

With regard to space travel - 2001 is still the biz.

Mike.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

Primer. it's a time travel movie that doesn't dumb down the science for the audience... one hell of a film.

it's on google video afaik, and it's done so well that the sheer confusing mass of terms and figures I didn't understand only added to my enjoyment because it just gives me a reason to watch it again and try to figure it out.

one awesome movie.

--edit

actually I'm gonna watch it again now

Ninja_scrotum

Ah yes I've been told to downlo... buy primer by many a person.

@5uspect, Sunshine isn't great. They try to re-ignite the sun with a nuclear bomb the size of manhattan. They obviously don't know how big the sun is. It starts off ok, kind of reminds me of the book Red Mars the way they have a multi-racial crew and a vegetable garden on board.... but it just gets too stupid towards the end!

Event Horizon is pretty good, I like the crazy idea of having a worm-hole generator on board to speed up travel.

slade_x

Ninja_scrotum wrote: »

Ah yes I've been told to downlo... buy primer by many a person.

@5uspect, Sunshine isn't great. They try to re-ignite the sun with a nuclear bomb the size of manhattan. They obviously don't know how big the sun is. It starts off ok, kind of reminds me of the book Red Mars the way they have a multi-racial crew and a vegetable garden on board.... but it just gets too stupid towards the end!

Event Horizon is pretty good, I like the crazy idea of having a worm-hole generator on board to speed up travel.

it was an extrememly massive infusion of dueterium. it wasn't a bomb

Captain Chaos

The Core is a similar BS film like Sunshine, this time using nukes to re-ignite the Earth's core and keep it tuning.:o

Kevster

What about They Live! ? I have it on DVD and it's quite cool but is not as 'sci-fi-ee' as other films.

Spear

slade_x wrote: »

it was an extrememly massive infusion of dueterium. it wasn't a bomb

They explicitly referred to it as being fissile material and that mining it had exhausted the Earths supply. I suspect this was more for dramatic reasons rather than science.

Redshift

Moved from A&S, link left behind but it's better here I think.

ztoical

Ninja_scrotum wrote: »

I know I probably should post this in the Film forum, but people there will only recommend stuff like Star Wars.

Cheek

Can you define a little better by what you mean as good and proper science fiction films? Do you mean ones that follow the rules of science? Like for example in Serenity features space scenes that did not feature any sound, implicitly observing the lack of sound transmission in the vacuum of space. Or when in most space movies character walk ways from the space ship even thou pro longed period in space should have crippled them?

Gattaca already mentioned I think is good. I also thought Minority report had elements that were very possible in the not to decent future.

Its hard for science fiction films to be to strict as things such as space travel would take decades rather then the minutes they take in films. I can't see anyone making a science fiction film in real time anytime soon. The Star Trek franchise has always tired to make the science on the show as real as they can by hiring science types as advisors. Other then the big scary alien running around the ship I thought the science side of Alien was thought out pretty well. The Day After Tomorrow is all about the [flawed] science.

If all else fails you can always watch Star Wars

ixoy

Okay the central plan for "Sunshine" is perhaps a little flawed, but it's certainly one of the best in the last decade. I haven't listened to it yet, but there's a commentary track on the DVD from their scientific advisor - which in itself is a testament to how they stand behind it.

"2001", "Primer", and "Gattaca" have been mentioned previously and already my mind struggles to remember beyond that. "Serenity" is not an example - as far as I recall the series had them visit multiple planets in the same solar system all with the same climate conditions...

I'd like to see a show look at the idea of relativity a bit more - think we could do something interesting there with having characters going off at .99c and dealing with the consequences when they return home.

Creature

Star Wars?.....:D



You might want to try this thread for reccomendations of sci-fi films to watch.

ztoical

ixoy wrote: »

"Serenity" is not an example - as far as I recall the series had them visit multiple planets in the same solar system all with the same climate conditions...

I wasn't putting Serenity up as an exmaple per say just pointing out that they did try to make at least one element in the series/film scientifically sound, along with the whole american/chinese culture combination, at least they put more thought into how society and culture developed then just saying "its the future anything goes". Alot of films get a few elements like some films don't try and event hyper drives or warp engines but have people go into suspended animation for the long space trips but its hard for these types of films to be very strict otherwise they'd box themselves into a point were they wouldn't be able to do anything. I like science fiction films that might go off on a mad tagent but they put the effort in and create whole worlds [like Bladerunner or the 5th element]

Deep Impact goes for the more realistic astroid hitting earth look then say Armageddon which goes for the Yewhaw flashy flashy product placement look.

User45701

Mc MordÜff with fries wrote: »

Primer. it's a time travel movie that doesn't dumb down the science for the audience... one hell of a film.

it's on google video afaik, and it's done so well that the sheer confusing mass of terms and figures I didn't understand only added to my enjoyment because it just gives me a reason to watch it again and try to figure it out.

one awesome movie.

--edit

actually I'm gonna watch it again now

Watched it last saturday, going to watch it tomorrow night, house is on tonight .

I would say that Serenity would be considered sci-fi in the fact that it is a fictional story based on science. Well actullay now that ithink of it the movie did have sound in space... *sigh* why couldent they have just stayed with firefly and its take a space scenes...

Morlar

+1 for andromeda, 2001 & sunshine, Solaris

I would throw event horizon up there too - its not sicence fact-ion but the violence and terror part put it above a lot of other fluff out there.

+ Bladerunner - more 'future vision' than scifi but in terms of a comprehensive well rounded look into a possible future (2019) its hard to match.

CiDeRmAn

Good Science Fiction movies, hmmm...

I guess they have mostly been covered,

BladeRunner, but which version?
2001,
5th Element,
Time Cop.... only kidding!
Alien,
Outland, a remake of High Noon set on a mining colony, starring Sean Connery,
Twelve Monkeys, for shame, how could none of you think of that one!
The Last Starfighter, sorry, this is my secret shame movie, we all have one, well that and Pretty in Pink.
Sunshine,
2010, a rather controversial choice, but a great picture, plenty of good science.
A Scanner Darkly,
Imposter, a PKD novel turned movie, and not at all bad, bugger all budget though.
Deja Vu, a very good movie, filled with clues that, perhaps, this isn't our heroes first trip back, nicely shot, very cool.

miles teg

Dune

ztoical

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Twelve Monkeys, for shame, how could none of you think of that one!.

was going to say Twelve monkeys as like Bladerunner it creates this interesting world but the time travel aspect I thought might count it out in the context of "science" Having said that black holes were once considered science fiction and alot of the tech you see in the first star trek series [the communicators, automatic doors etc] have become standard now.

constitutionus

not really a film but you coud do worse than "space odeyssey : journey to the planets"

its done by the same guys that did walking with dinosaurs and covers a 5 year mission (why does that sound familiar ) by a multinational crew of astronauts to visit most of the planets in the solar system. its got amazing effects for a made for TV job and all the science is hard science based on the guys from nasa and the esa and co on how they reckon they'd do it if they had the budget. theres a host of files on the DVD covering how the ship itself has its own electromagnetic field generator so it can protect the crew from solar radiation and various other specs and how the ships landing pods were specifically built for each planet on the mission.

i thought it was a bit of craic anyway

its got a fairly good story to it including one of the crew popping their clogs and not everything goes smoothly for em. some fairly dramatic scenes too.

as for films pretty much all the "reality" based ones have been mentioned.( though if your allowing for time travel ya'd have to put the terminator on the list and my guilty secret would be "my science project". seeing as its an alien engine they stick to the rules of what would happen if ya start mucking about with time warps )

RAIN

Blade runner.
Is the Abyss classed as sci fi??

They need to make a battle star galactica movie....the effects in the series are unreal so with a big budget and the same writers they could come up with something real special.

I liked sunshine even more then Event horizon it seems to be a movie that splits people rite down the middle.
Children of Men is another one that does the same.

User45701

RAIN wrote: »

They need to make a battle star galactica movie....the effects in the series are unreal so with a big budget and the same writers they could come up with something real special.
.

I have to say watching razor on a big screen is something special but i know what you mean, with only 13 episodes of the final seaosn finished there was a chance the show would end up not being finsihed if the strike went on too long, but i had always assumed if the show endeded up ****ed that it might end with a movie, like scrubsis being forced to do

spacecoyote

Don't know if it would be strictly classed as science-fiction, but Pi is an interesting watch

The Denouncer

Blade Runner of course.
Cypher
I, Robot is definitely possible, especially the Demolition Droid "BIG JOBS!"

Pepe LeFrits

Sounds like you're looking for hard SF films. There are a few decent mentions here although few films really fall into this category as scientific accuracy gets disregarded for storytelling purposes.

Star Trek - ah ha! Star Trek is basically fantasy dressed up as science fiction.

ixoy

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

Sounds like you're looking for hard SF films. There are a few decent mentions here although few films really fall into this category as scientific accuracy gets disregarded for storytelling purposes.

Indeed. That's why we're unlikely to see the work of Alastair Reynolds or Greg Bear adapted for the big screen - they've big concepts but they're often done in rigiorous (to a degree hypothetical) scientific detail.

There's lots of great sci-fi movies but very few good hard science ones.

Jazzy

Get Your Ass to Mars!