Sci-Fi Films That Boldly and Daringly Explore Its Sci-Fi Ideas

I think CODE 46 is one of the most intriguing (and best looking) science fiction pictures
I have seen in a long time, and it very calmly looks at the ethical implications of its subject.
NEVER LET ME GO is similar in that respect. Not a lot of hardware is needed to
inform viewers of what a technological advance might morally entail.
I’m also a fan of MAN FACING SOUTHEAST, a sort of ET for smart people.

Don’t see La Jetee as being vague. Oblique, yes, indirect, subtle. As for philosophical I quote Masha: “it has something that you don’t have, Max. It has a philosophy. And that is what makes it dangerous.”

Philosophy properly used is very dangerous. La Jetee is as much about the treacherous nature of memory as it is a vivid vision of a dystopia.

“Never Let Me Go”

I do love SF where you don’t see the usual SF trappings. Alphaville is one, Hesus Rebolusyunaryo is another. Also the Argentinian film Moebius, which is that rarity of rarities, a mathematical SF film that also has a harrowing political subtext (basically, the addition of a new subway track turns one section of the subway into a giant Moebius strip where trains appear and disappear—recalling the Disappeared in recent Argentinian history. Interesting film.

Think Twelve Monkeys is moving, enjoyable, interesting, entertaining all around. But highly conventional compared to La Jetee.

I think Jazzaloha is getting at the kind of scifi people would call ‘Hard scifi’, like might be generated by Asimov or Dick.

Speaking of Dick, Minority Report kind of does, but it’s buried in the sort of morality that derives directly from knee-jerk emotional responses, and that keeps the issue from being that deeply explored. (I’d probably say the exact same thing about AI — damn Spielberg).

2001 does this mostly using cinematography instead of dialog, which is admirable. And I agree about Children of Men.

If other media than film are allowable, then Battlestar Galactica and Mass Effect (Though Mass Effect is more like 24 in space).

I disagree with the inclusion of The Matrix in this. It’s more on the level of Inception for me — a lot of complicated techno-magic exposition derived around the needs of the story they want to tell.

Tarkovsky’s Solaris, no question. It doesn’t have interest in explaining it’s future and showing it off, but it has interest in exploring it’s ideas with images rather than words.

I disagree with the inclusion of The Matrix in this. It’s more on the level of Inception for me — a lot of complicated techno-magic exposition derived around the needs of the story they want to tell.

Yep!

And I think Jazz is looking for “soft SF,” and I would definitely put Dick in that category. I feel like Dick is a lot more about the social ramifications of technological advances than he is about the technological advances themselves.

Noel – thanks for the Moebius recommendation! That sounds pretty cool!

Whether “hard” or “soft” SF, I’m intersted in a film fleshing out SF concepts in the film. The sense I’m getting is that books do this better than the films—perhaps because the films don’t have as much “time” as books.

Jirin said, I disagree with the inclusion of The Matrix in this. It’s more on the level of Inception for me — a lot of complicated techno-magic exposition derived around the needs of the story they want to tell.

Perhaps, The Matrix isn’t the best example of what I mean, but I do think it does recontexutalizes some of older philosophical questions about reality. Also, the matrix is a fairly robust metaphor for the internet-based times we live in.

" Also, the matrix is a fairly robust metaphor for the internet-based times we live in."
Yeah, and they did not pay William Gibson one penny for it.

Gattaca

@Balistik

My friend mentioned that film, but I didn’t think it really fleshed out its ideas. Then again, I haven’t seen the film in a long time. Basically, didn’t the film deal with a sense of free-will and fatalistic approach via genes?

This is not exactly what you had in mind by “fleshed out”, but watch what Gattaca does with color.

yellow

blue

@JAZZALO​HA
didn’t the film deal with a sense of free-will and fatalistic approach via genes?

It paints a realistic portrait of what society could be like once we master genetic engineering and shows all the social implications (elitism, discrimination, conformity, etc.)

@Jazz

I’m curious how you felt The Matrix was a metaphor for the internet. Besides the fact that the world is interconnected through machines, I don’t believe the social implications of the Matrix match the social implications of the internet. (Particularly I feel the ‘Dying in the Matrix means dying in real life’ thing was a contrived way to make the Matrix more dangerous).

@Balistik

My feeling about Gattaca is that it moves toward realism, then it moves further. Genetic scans being part of job interviews seems distantly possible, but even then people would have to prove their experience lives up to their genes. Just out of best interest, I think most employers would look at your proven experience more closely than your genetic scans, except that they will check the scans for specific red flags. (Which is a problem, it will blacklist people with genetic illnesses like Huntington’s).

The more short term implications of genetic scans is the impact on insurance costs. You apply to get health insurance, give me your genetic scans! Oh, you have a high risk of breast cancer? Okay, you pay more. Don’t want to hand over genetic scans? No health insurance for you!

dp

@Jirin

The Matrix was a virtual world, but people lived in that world thinking it was the real one. The internet also creates a kind of virtual world that people “live” in. It has changed our notions of community, reality and the nature of our identity. About a year ago, I had a discussion with a friend about whether one’s internet identity is more real than the one’s identity in the real world.

I agree Dick is more on soft science than technology—more on psychological, philosophical and spiritual consequences on human beings of events that are viewed as science-fictional.

Not a big fan of Matrix. Clever script, but direction is clunky. The Warchowskies should have handed the script over to Yuen Woo Ping.

I just watched Forbidden Planet, which was like a glorified Star Trek episode with really bad acting, but I suppose some of its sci-fi nonsense (or “concepts” if you prefer) were not the worst…

I used to like Gilliam quite a bit when I first got into film, 12 Monkeys and Brazil specifically, but lately his stuff just seems so childish (in the bad way), though I do still enjoy 12 Monkeys… The music, the performances, ect. I still have yet to check out La Jetee, been waiting for the BD.

Watching Forbidden Planet I was just thinking that most “sci-fi” universes are so obvious and follow such classic human-based structure and archetypes, androids, robots, aliens… what have you…When the whole point I thought was to be encountering things, you know, actually beyond humanity. Whereas something like Lynch’s Twin Peaks strikes at a chord more true to what any kind of “alternate” existence would actually seem like, imho. Not sure how strictly “sci-fi” Twin Peaks is, but… mise?