Remember, “since Blade Runner”, which was… 1982? That’s from memory, let me check… fuckin’ nailed it!
Some commenters called out Gattaca as missing which I think is a legit omission here.
Mmm…
I would put in:
+Gattaca
+Strange Days
+Ex Machina
+Truman show
+Fifth element
And take out:
-Dune
-Snowpiercer
-Donnie Darko
-Videodrome
-They Live
I’d swap in Interstellar for Inception (which I heavily disliked).
Other than that the top 15 match my tastes pretty closely!
Oh and it seems a really need to watch The Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension
WTF is that???
Full list for reference, in order.
- Dune (1984)
- Battle Royale (2000)
- Moon (2009)
- The Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension (1984)
- The Host (2006)
- Looper (2012)
- Snowpiercer (2013)
- Ghost In The Shell (1995)
- Donnie Darko (2001)
- The Terminator (1984)
- They Live (1988)
- Inception (2010)
- Edge Of Tomorrow (2014)
- Upstream Color (2013)
- Jurassic Park (1993)
- RoboCop (1987)
- Videodrome (1983)
- Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
- Starship Troopers (1997)
- Minority Report (2002)
- Arrival (2016)
- The Fly (1986)
- Under The Skin (2013)
- Her (2013)
- 12 Monkeys (1995)
- A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
- Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
- Primer (2004)
- WALL-E (2008)
- Children Of Men (2006)
- Back To The Future (1985)
- Aliens (1986)
- Brazil (1985)
- The Matrix (1999)
- Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004)
Omissions that I enjoyed that I’d consider adding:
- Gattaca
- Akira
- Contact
- Oblivion
- Ex Machina
- Dredd
- The Martian
- The Fifth Element
- The Abyss
- District 9
- The Truman Show
Not sure what I’d take out. Some I haven’t seen, some I haven’t seen in ages.
It’s not a bad list (if very Hollywood oriented), assuming it’s not ordered. I’d take out Dune, Looper, Inception, AI and Minority Report for sure.Probably Snowpiercer too.
I would add in: Gattaca (seriously, WTF), Serenity, Cube, Dark City, Ex Machina.
I’d like to put in Dredd, but it’s basically The Raid reskinned so it doesn’t seem fair to squeeze out more original films.
Oh, hang on. Does The Lobster count as sci-fi? If so, it should totally be in the list.
Battle Royale is sci-fi? I realize it’s essentially the inspiration for The Hunger Games but if we’re putting dystopian movies in I’d replace it with THG.
Also I agree Gattica belongs in there. And I do like Dark City so sure; I’m not sure They Live deserves to be there (it’s campy and I love it but still…).
Also, @Juan_Raigada, Buckaroo Banzai is a unique snowflake. Do watch it!!
I haven’t seen The Host. Should I track it down?
That’s crazy talk.
Very strong items missing from their list:
- Gattaca
- District 9
- Contact
- Fifth Element
Mayyybe Ex Machina though I think it’s too early on that one.
Genre arguments:
- Is The Abyss really sci-fi?
- I’d argue Donnie Darko is more horror than Sci-Fi, ditto for Videodrome.
- Surely Truman Show isn’t sci-fi?
If Truman Show wasn’t sci-fi at release I don’t know what is. Not only setting wise (technology slightly ahead of what feasible) but thematically (it is about technology and its impact on society).
To see it in another light, just substitute the big dome with a neural implant creating a fake reality. It is like Flowers for Algernon (in that the science is not really far off but the way the technology impacts the plot and themes is meaningful by itself).
Wikipedia says “satirical science fiction film” so that’s good enough for me!
Some weird stuff in that list…
I’m amazed that they didn’t include Akira, given that it’s one of the most important Anime works in terms of introduction of Anime to American audiences, and was directly influenced by Bladerunner itself. The inclusion of GITS is legit though, as that’s a great movie.
Snowpiercer? Really? I watched that movie a while back, and it was nonsensical.
I’m also surprised about the Moon inclusion. It was an interesting movie I guess, but I think they’re reaching a bit to try to include obscure movies most folks haven’t seen.
I’d include The Running Man in any sci-fi list, along with a number of other movies with Schwartzenegger. Predator has to be on any sci-fi list. Same goes for Total recall.
District 9 also deserves to be on any list like this.
Yes. And it should totally be on this list.
Moon’s not particularly obscure. It’s also my favourite sci-fi movie of the last decade. It totally belongs on the list.
I saw this at one of the annual MIT scifi movie nights years ago and loved it. Worth your time for sure
Wow, really? Your favorite movie of the last decade?
It’s funny that as I type it, I realize that only goes back to 2007… because apparently I’m old. In my brain, it’s just some hiccup at the end of the stream of sci-fi movies.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good enough movie that I’ve seen it at least twice… it introduced some interesting ideas. But I don’t know if I put it into the same category as movies like Alien, the Abyss, The Running Man, etc.
Definitely better than freaking snowpiercer though, jesus.
Some other movies I’m thinking about, which are perhaps too main-stream to make a list like this, but which I think were more memorable to me…
Short Circuit
Innerspace
Part of this is surely that they’re just from my childhood… but they were cool movies.
I’d put it way above The Running Man and The Abyss, and below Alien. Though I think it’s a better sci-fi film than Alien…
I think you’re selling Dredd short here! Dredd’s the film I wanted The Raid to be. I appreciate and enjoy some well choreographed martial arts but… well, The Raid just felt like one long drawn out fight sequence between superhumans and I got so tired of it. Dredd had that Die Hard quality of having difficult situations that the (vulnerable) characters had to use their wits to get out of. The Raid just punched and kicked most difficult situations in the face until the credits rolled. Apart from that scene involving the door and fridge, that was cool.
Good call on Cube, haven’t thought about that one in a looong time.
@Timex, yeah, Moon is a favourite of mine too.
What’s interesting to me personally is that I probably haven’t seen nearly half the movies on the list. Somewhere along the way I got seriously behind on my movie watching and I may never catch up.
I think the only movie on the list I object to is The Host, that’s just a straight up creature feature and there’s no reason to choose it over Cloverfield or Godzilla or Monsters or something. Probably doesn’t help that I just don’t like The Host.
Agreed that Gattaca is a big miss on this list. If I had to choose my own relatively obscure movie to jam in, I’d probably go with Europa Report. Always felt like that one should have gotten more attention.
Yeah, I don’t remember much about it now but I do recall not enjoying it that much.
I keep hearing about this and was going to watch it a few weeks back on Netflix but they’d pulled it. Will keep an eye out for it.
Thanks for the list geggis. And out of that list, I haven’t seen these. It’s a good reference for me to catch up with these 11 movies before I start judging which should be on the list and which shouldn’t be.
I might have seen Ghost in the Shell, but I can’t remember if I saw the movie or some kind of pilot for a TV show. Probably worth seeing again anyway, since I don’t remember it either way.
I’d be curious for anyone who hasn’t seen Buckaroo Banzai to post some impressions after you watch it. It was my favorite movie once, like when I was twelve. It’s kind of nuts in a way that doesn’t necessarily hang together. But it’s still a good time, and you will have a ton of “hey, I know that guy!” moments. Plus John Lithgow absolutely devouring the scenery.