This was going to be a post for my old Movie blog but, let’s face it, I’m never going to have that up and running again so I may as well post it here…
A couple of months back I went to a movie gathering and it got me to thinking about movies in a more social sense again, so I wanted to do a little blurb about Science Fiction movies… Specifically, my Top 20ish Science Fiction films.
What is science fiction? Technically, it is a sub-category of speculative fiction that deals with characters in an environment that is affected by advances in science or technology, natural laws… Advances that, generally, are realistic or at least plausible. There are nice ideas of science fiction being used to explore ideas, of philosophy, of human nature, etc. But, while those are nice, they are not requirements.
In terms of what someone else has to say. While I tend to disagree with much of what she wrote in this post, I do this that Jo Walton hit the nail on the head when she said:
“The thing that I think science fiction readers get from reading lots of SF is the deep conviction that this world is not the only world there could be, that the way the world is is not the only way it can be, that the world can change and will change and is contingent. You don’t get that from reading any one book, or any one subgenre, you get it from reading half a ton of random science fiction.”
For my blatherings on what is Spec Fiction, see the end of this post.
Anyway, here’s my list, in chronological order:
- The Day the Earth Stood Still 1951
- Forbidden Planet 1956
- Logans Run 1976
- Star Wars 1977
- Alien 1979
- The Empire Strikes Back 1980
- Outland 1981
- Blade Runner 1982
- The Thing 1982
- Brazil 1985
- The Quiet Earth 1985
- Aliens 1986
- Alien 3 1992
- Stargate 1994
- 12 Monkeys 1995
- Event Horizon 1997
- Dark City 1998
- The Matrix 1999
- Minority Report 2002
- Moon 2009
- Monsters 2010
- Prometheus 2012
- Interstellar 2014
- Rogue One 2016
- The Last Jedi 2017
- The Cloverfield Paradox 2018
- Ready Player One 2018
- Solo 2018
What is speculative fiction? Fiction not based on our current understanding or reality, whether science fiction, superhero fiction, horror, ghost stories, fantasy, alternate history.
What isn’t Speculative Fiction? Natural disaster movies, post apocalyptic movies, plague movies, dystopian, outer space movies… Those easily can be spec fiction, but they aren’t inherently so. Just because fictional movies involve science doesn’t make them science fiction, unless they involve some difference in science or technology… The science itself has to have a fictional element. Alien movies, technically are all Science Fiction because, by their very nature, involve technology beyond anything that we have,
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