Previously, we shared some sci-fi movie picks for kids and adults, and now more of our team members have weighed in with their picks.
See what Seth Shostak, Senior Astronomer and Pamela Harman, Director of Education suggest!
Let’s face it: Most science fiction films are heavy on the fiction and dopey on the science. But for me, that’s not the point: Sure, the writers have never enrolled in a physics course, but they can take you places you’ll never be able to go, whether that’s a hallucinogenic trip through a black hole, a hot ride through molten magma to the center of the Earth, or just a pleasant weekend on a jungled exoplanet.
You’re never going to travel more than a century into the future, but your multiplex or streaming service can take you much farther. What’s not to like?
Here are a few that stick in my mind like chewing gum.
War of the Worlds (1953)
Rated: G
This film comes in two varieties, the original (1953) and the Steven Spielberg (2005) remake. The latter is boring, but the former – which is careful not to give the Martians too much screen time – is deeply threatening. For Northern Californians, it’s satisfying to see that job number one for extraterrestrials is to destroy SoCal. But the real appeal is in the irony that the invading Martians are destroyed by Earth’s microbes when in reality, most astrobiologists figure that any real Martians are likely to be microbes themselves!
IMDb • Youtube Trailer
The Andromeda Strain (1971)
Rated: G
This adaptation of Michael Crichton’s novel about a deadly pandemic from space has a disturbing resonance these days. But as a film, it’s nuttier than a boat-load of salted peanuts. The film follows formula, by spending most of its screen time with the drama of assembling a team of top scientists to battle a cruelly lethal outbreak, while simultaneously furnishing these academics with a government-financed dream laboratory deep underground. It’s science vs. the enemy. Sounds good, until every copy of the virus (!) opts to mutate to something as benign as pixie dust -- no fair changing the rules at the last minute.
IMDb • Youtube Trailer
Alien (1979)
Rated: R
The first of this successful franchise is basically a haunted house story. But the house is a spacecraft far, far away from any succor, and the ghost is an alien with multiple sets of cantilevered choppers. It’s mindless, it’s merciless, and it’s magnificently malevolent. Director Ridley Scott knows how to make you seriously afraid of being part of a future mining mission to the stars. The genius is that most people had never considered that as a career move in the first place.
IMDb • Youtube Trailer
The Mole People (1956)
Rated: Not Rated
Just one of an entire genre of B-films, cheaply shot on black-and-white film stock, which are now musty remnants of an extinct cinematic species. The mole people live underground in the grottos of a hollow Earth, an apparently happy existence. However, they occasionally need to grab a human or two to become slaves for their mushroom farms. Look, I like mushrooms well enough, but if that’s all I’m ever going to eat, I think I’d give up the cramped, troglodyte lifestyle. A truly underground film, and so bad you might even like it.
IMDb • Youtube Trailer
Arrival and Contact have made an appearance in Simon’s list, so I won’t repeat in my list, though both are in my Fav File. I bring you some great oldies.
Blade Runner (1982)
Rated: R
In the twenty-first century, a corporation develops androids to be used as slaves in colonies outside of the Earth, identified as "replicants". A former Police Officer is hired to hunt down a fugitive group of replicants living undercover in Los Angeles, California.
IMDb • Youtube Trailer
Spaceballs (1987)
Rated: PG
A hotshot pilot and his sidekick must come to the rescue of a Princess and save the galaxy (wink wink) from a ruthless race of beings known as Spaceballs. One of Mel Brooks’ funniest films with an illustrious cast. LOL!
IMDb • Youtube Trailer
Cocoon (1985)
Rated: PG-13
A group of elderly retirees discovers restorative powers of alien pods stored in a swimming pool. The aliens return to find the elderly in the way of their plan to retrieve the pods.
IMDb • Youtube Trailer
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Rated: PG
Don’t miss French director François Truffaut, as one of the scientists looking for evidence of UFOs. Following some strange events, locals and scientists alike arrive at aß site in the dessert for the encounter with aliens.
IMDb • Youtube Trailer
Alien (1979)
Rated: R
A crew of a commercial spaceship realizes they are not alone. Ellen Ripley is one tough woman that propelled the story across two sequels.
IMDb • Youtube Trailer
