THE 50 GREATEST SCIENCE-FICTION MOVIES: Part 2

As a five-part feature, I'll be counting down the best science-fiction through the history of cinema. From dinosaurs to aliens, from Star Wars to Star Trek, from the depths of the ocean to the far reaches of outer space, these are The 50 Greatest Science-Fiction Movies.

THE 50 GREATEST SCIENCE-FICTION MOVIES

Part 2

By Chris Luckett

(Curious about why certain movies were chosen or ranked as they were? Click here.)

40. Forbidden Planet (1956)

A loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” Forbidden Planet contributed a number of firsts to the sci-fi genre. It was the first movie to show people flying in a spaceship of their own design, the first to be set entirely on another world, and the first to have an entirely electronic score. It also influenced everything from “Lost in Space” (especially its robot) to “Star Trek.” (Gene Roddenberry often talked about how his vision for “Star Trek” was shaped by watching Forbidden Planet.) The story involves a rescue attempt on an alien planet after communications are lost with the on-planet colony. When the rescue team arrives, they find all but two of the people have been killed by a monster. Not everything is as it seems, though, with one of the two survivors especially unhappy about their rescuers’ arrival. Forbidden Planet is also notable for featuring one of Leslie Nielson’s biggest roles, before he shifted from dramatic acting to comedy.

39. Seconds (1966)

Long before 1997’s Face/Off, a trio of movies in the ‘60s dealt with the idea of face transplantation, including Eyes Without a Face and The Face of Another. Seconds proved to be the best of the bunch. Directed by John Frankenheimer (who’d also crafted the masterful paranoia thriller The Manchurian Candidate), Seconds tells the gripping tale of Arthur (John Randolph), who is blackmailed into undergoing a radical surgery and starting a new life as a completely different person. (The premise sounds ridiculous at first, but as details are slowly revealed over the course of the film as to why he was chosen, everything makes a twisted kind of sense.) Post-surgery, Arthur is given a new identity as Tony (Rock Hudson), but has trouble acclimating himself to his new life. He begins acting out in worse and worse ways, finding himself unable to live as Tony and unable to return to being Arthur. From start to finish, Seconds is a disturbing thriller that grips you and refuses to let you go, right up until the fittingly creepy ending.

38. Them! (1954)

In the midst of the world’s fears over nuclear testing, a bevy of cautionary tales came out in the ‘50s involving irradiated creatures, from Gojira to Tarantula. Them! is another of the same scenario, but is also one of the best action movies of its time. When an atomic bomb is dropped in the New Mexico desert, an anthill in the vicinity is caught in the radiation, causing the ants to grow to the size of buses and attack the nearby town of Alamogordo. Much like Jaws, the ants aren’t explicitly shown until nearly halfway through the movie. In fact, Them!’s plot structure, character types, and pacing influenced countless action movies, like Aliens, Men in Black, Super 8, and especially Jurassic Park. The movie’s effects may seem hokey by today’s standards, but they were very clever for its day and it’s not hard to admire how creative the makers of the movie were with blending different visual effects techniques to achieve one of the genre’s best monster movies.

37. Spider-Man 2 (2004)

Superhero movies aren’t generally thought of as science-fiction (and, to be fair, many of them aren’t), but the story of Peter Parker and the aftermath of his being bitten by a radioactive spider is just as classically “sci-fi” as Them! or The Fly. While 2002’s Spider-Man was a perfectly good movie, it wasn’t until the first sequel that the character was used to its fullest potential. Forced to put aside his personal happiness for his obligation to help others, Spider-Man 2 finds Peter (Tobey Maguire) dealing with sacrifices and tragedy on every front, including a mentor gone crazy. Dr. Otto Octavius (a very sympathetic Alfred Molina) has invented a set of four robotic arms that attach to his spinal cord, but when the computer chip in them gets fried, he loses the ability to control both them and himself. Every stake from the first Spider-Man is raised and the action reaches its perfect pitch. Short of The Dark Knight, Spider-Man 2 remains the best modern superhero movie and one of the best sci-fi actioners of the last decade.

36. Soylent Green (1973)

Many science-fiction movies with twist endings, like Planet of the Apes or Vanilla Sky, are more remembered for the twists than the movies themselves. Soylent Green is one of those movies. (Don’t worry; no spoilers ahead.) The crime is that often, these movies are much better than just the endings, which is also true of Soylent Green. A story about a future where overpopulation runs rampant and everyone is addicted to rations of a food substance marketed as Soylent Green, the film is the type of paranoid conspiracy thriller that was everywhere in the ‘70s. With just a clever story, the movie would be entertaining enough, but what helps make it classic is its gritty visual style, moving combinations of picture and music, and a desperate performance by Charlton Heston that is less campy than many people remember. Best of all, much like already knowing the truth about Darth Vader before watching The Empire Strikes Back, Soylent Green still works well if you know how it all ends.

35. Total Recall (1990)

Much of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s output in the ‘80s wasn’t quality cinema. Besides The Terminator, Schwarzenegger hadn’t made a really great movie as of 1990. Adapted from author Philip K. Dick’s short story “We Can Remember it For You Wholesale,” Total Recall was his first masterpiece. Taking place in a future when memories can be purchased and implanted directly into one’s brain, Douglas Quaid (Schwarzenegger) decides to escape his boring life by getting memories of a secret agent’s mission on Mars implanted in his head. The procedure goes wrong and Quaid changes his mind, but he suddenly finds himself attacked and chased by shady figures who seem to be trying to kill him. How much of it is actually real, though? The questions Total Recall raises, both existential and narrative, are skilfully handled by director Paul Verhoeven (RoboCop, Starship Troopers) and the twists in the plot never fail to surprise. With revolutionary visual effects and a fascinatingly original story, Total Recall remains one of Schwarzenegger’s best movies and one of the best sci-fi guessing games.

34. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers is one of the rare movies that was trumped by a superior remake but it remains a classic in its own right. One of the quintessential body-possession movies, the 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers focuses on Miles (Kevin McCarthy), a small-town doctor who keeps hearing from patients who feel their friends and family members are being replaced by impostors. (Pointless spoiler alert: They are.) Much of what became staples of sci-fi thrillers originated here, from “pod people” to characters needing to stay awake to avoid falling prey to attack. The 1978 remake had more of a disturbing, nightmarish tone, but the original is more of a conspiracy thriller, as one man slowly comes to horrifying revelations and desperately tries to get people to believe him. It may not have the lasting images or scares of the remake, but 1956’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a nearly perfect sci-fi thriller that stands apart from much of what filmmakers dared to do in the ‘50s.

33. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

Not to be confused with the terrible 2008 remake starring Keanu Reeves, the original The Day the Earth Stood Still was one of the first movies to use the genre to address serious contemporary issues – in this case, nuclear weapons and mutually assured destruction – and it remains one of the most important. When a flying saucer lands in Washington, D.C. and alien Klaatu (Michael Rennie) emerges, he reveals that he is on a mission of galactic goodwill. Any planet that develops atomic power is visited by a representative of more advanced planets and warned about the power being used for violence and destruction. If, once space travel is achieved, humans decide to take the power of atomic bombs off the planet, Earth will be destroyed in an pre-emptive act of preserving life on other worlds. The moral message in The Day the Earth Stood Still walks just the right balance between subtlety and overtness, leaving a lasting philosophical impression on anyone who watched it at the time or who watches it today.

32. 12 Monkeys (1995)

Terry Gilliam, the animator for anything Monty Python-related and the director of bizarre gems like Brazil, Time Bandits, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, has always had a twisted look at filmmaking. Much like Tim Burton, Gilliam’s eye for the beauty in weirdness and his penchant for whimsy often hold him back from greatness. 12 Monkeys is his opus, not to mention one of the greatest time-travel movies. When a man from the diseased and dying future is sent back in time to prevent a viral outbreak, he is arrested and thrown into a mental institution when he starts screaming about the future. Jumping around in time, James Cole is one of the best roles Bruce Willis has had. Brad Pitt’s Oscar-nominated performance as a fellow patient at the hospital where Willis is committed is also proof that Pitt can act with the best of them. Gilliam’s peculiar dystopian vision, Pitt’s bonkers performance, and the ingeniously labyrinthine screenplay all fold into an incredibly memorable movie.

31. Chronicle (2012)

Much like lens flares and 3D post-conversion, the trend of handheld filmmaking is maligned by many people. Even movies that critics have applauded, like The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield, or Paranormal Activity, are disliked by many simply for the format. Chronicle is likely not going to change anyone’s minds about the technique. Unlike a lot of movies that strain to shoehorn the handheld format into them, though, it makes perfect sense here, as it documents three high school students who discover a meteor and slowly begin to find they’ve gained the power of telekinesis. What begins with using the skill just for dumb pranks takes a dark turn when one of the three begins giving into his vengeful side and using his powers to vent his frustrations. The escalation in the movie’s plot is remarkable and the sheer scale of the climax when compared with the humble opening scenes is staggering. The special effects are insanely good, considering the movie’s small budget. Chronicle is handheld filmmaking at its finest and a great way to tell a modern sci-fi story well.

THE 50 GREATEST SCIENCE-FICTION MOVIES: Part 1

As a five-part feature, I'll be counting down the best science-fiction through the history of cinema. From dinosaurs to aliens, from Star Wars to Star Trek, from the depths of the ocean to the far reaches of outer space, these are The 50 Greatest Science-Fiction Movies.

THE 50 GREATEST SCIENCE-FICTION MOVIES

Part 1

By Chris Luckett

(Curious about why certain movies were chosen or ranked as they were? Click here.)

50. Solaris (1972)

Forgotten somewhat in the wake of Steven Soderbergh’s 2002 remake with George Clooney, the original Solaris was Russia’s answer to 2001: A Space Odyssey. Much like Kubrick’s, Andrei Tarkovsky’s contemplative film uses science-fiction and space to examine the nuances of being human. Psychologist Kris Kelvin (Donatas Banionis) visits a space station orbiting the planet of Solaris, only to find the planet is having strange effects on the station’s crew. When Kelvin wakes up one morning to find his late wife beside him (who has no memories of anything after her death and doesn’t know she’s died), he begins a long journey that not only examines a wholly original idea of alien contact but also makes you question whether your actions would be the same as the protagonist’s.

49. Things to Come (1936)

Written by H.G. Wells, Things to Come is a prediction of the hundred years that lied ahead of 1930s audiences. Like any movie that galls to guess the shape of things to come, it has its moments of laughable erroneousness. (A giant cannon to shoot people to the moon? A zombie plague?) What’s especially impressive, though, is how many things it gets spot-on, from predicting cell phones and space travel to poison gas warfare and even World War II (the start of which Wells was only off by a year). The special effects are still impressive all these decades later and a middle third involving post-war wastelands was influential to everything from Mad Max to The Walking Dead. The acting is stiff at times, but the bold vision of Things to Come helped create the sci-fi genre and still impresses today.

48. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004)

In the recent, early days of movies being completely filmed on green-screen soundstages, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow served as both a testament to the technique’s possibilities and a lightning rod for those who felt the format looked too fake. To be fair, the movie certainly doesn’t look realistic, but that’s completely intentional. Taking place in essentially a different timeline than ours, where zeppelins are still used for mass travel and floating aircraft carriers hang in the sky (nearly a decade before The Avengers used the same idea), Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is filmed in a hazy, sepia-tinged style that befits its steampunk film-noir aesthetic beautifully. The movie is lined with action sequence after action sequence as Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow, exes who reluctantly team up to solve a mystery, banter fantastically with each other. In quality, spectacle, and pacing, it’s the Raiders of the Lost Ark of science-fiction movies.

47. Gojira (1954)

For a long time, the original Gojira wasn’t seen in North America. Most people’s exposure to the film outside Asia was the rather bad re-edit titled Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, in which the American actor Raymond Burr was inserted into scenes of the movie to make it appeal to Western audiences and the dialogue was dubbed over in English. The original Gojira, though, is a fantastic monster movie wonderfully inspired by ‘50s fears of nuclear testing. Fewer shots look like a man in a rubber suit than you’d expect, and the occasional ones that are in the movie have an old-school charm to them. Countless sequels, simplistic parodies, and the horrible 1998 Godzilla have tarnished the reputation of the series, but 1954’s Gojira helped create the modern sci-fi action movie.

46. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

Overshadowed somewhat by another 1977 sci-fi movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind was Steven Spielberg’s first foray into the genre. Not only did it prove that Jaws was no fluke, it bravely was one of the first movies of its kind to depict the possibility of benign aliens coming to Earth. When electrical lineman Roy (Richard Dreyfuss) has a close encounter with a UFO, he becomes obsessed with the idea of visitors, much to the growing concern of his wife (Teri Garr) and children. The five-note piece of music used by scientists to communicate with aliens at the end of the movie is one of the most iconic musical motifs in modern cinema, as are such scenes as Roy recreating images of a mysterious mountain out of everything from scrap metal to mashed potatoes. Spielberg would go on to make over a half-dozen sci-fi movies after it, but Close Encounters of the Third Kind remains one of his best.

45. Moon (2009)

Many who saw Oblivion earlier this year thought it was an incredibly clever premise. It was, but unknown to some people is that the premise was already done before, and better, in 2009’s Moon. Sam Rockwell, essentially the only actor on screen for the film, plays Sam Bell, the lone worker at a lunar mining base. Nearing the end of his three-year contract, Sam is beginning to experience cabin fever and hallucinations – his only companionship comes from a HAL 9000-like computer (voiced by Kevin Spacey) and videos transmitted from his wife back on Earth – when he crashes his rover on the Moon’s surface. He awakes at his base, unaware of how he got back, only to find himself face-to-face with another version of himself. Watching the movie, you don’t know whether Sam is slowly going crazy or if something conspiratorially sinister is afoot, and that’s part of what makes the film so gripping. (Writer-director Duncan Jones – David Bowie’s son, incidentally – would next go on the make the also-excellent Source Code.) Oblivion may have been more visually dazzling, but Moon used the same premise to deliver one of the most intellectually stimulating science-fiction films since 2001: A Space Odyssey.

44. Contact (1997)

By 1997, Robert Zemeckis had directed Romancing the Stone, the Back to the Future trilogy, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Death Becomes Her, and the Best Picture-winning Forrest Gump. When trailers revealed his next movie to be a dramatic science-fiction film about first contact with aliens starring the two-time Oscar-winner Jodie Foster, expectations were high. Because of such high expectations – and the unfortunate marketing that misled some into thinking it was more alien-heavy than it ended up being – many were disappointed by the ultimate result, but Contact stands up remarkably well and is much better than audience gave it credit for 16 years ago. Featuring a captivating performance by James Woods and one of Matthew McConaughey’s best early performances, Contact explores the reality of what first contact would be like in a way few films achieve as realistically.

43. Blade Runner (1982) (Final Cut)

Following on the heels of the landmark sci-fi thriller Alien, director Ridley Scott returned to the genre in his futuristic film noir Blade Runner. Harrison Ford, having just given the world their introduction to Indiana Jones a year earlier, here plays Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter of androids (or a “blade runner”) in 2019 Los Angeles. The movie was much darker in style and tone than audiences were used to from Ford, and Blade Runner didn't connect with audiences or critics in 1982. (It didn’t help that nervous studio heads had added voiceover and a happy ending to the film, nor that Blade Runner came out in the same summer as Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, The Thing, and E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial.) Now considered one of the greats of science-fiction, Blade Runner has since been returned to Scott’s original vision. If possible, try to watch the “final cut” of the film – the “director’s cut” also returns the film to its original vision – because the original theatrical version with Warner Bros.’ tinkering is a much weaker film than Scott intended.

42. The Terminator (1984)

James Cameron had only made one other movie, his since-disowned Piranha II: The Spawning, before he wrote and directed The Terminator. Arnold Schwarzenegger became a household name for his portrayal of the unstoppable killing machine known as a “terminator.” In the future, a war wages between humans and self-aware machines. The leader of the humans’ side is a man named John Connor. When time travel is invented, the machines send a terminator back in time to assassinate John’s mother (Linda Hamilton) before she can give birth to him, in a effort to win the war by ensuring it never starts. The humans send a man back in time as well: Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn), whose mission is to protect Sarah Connor at all costs. Cameron had already perfected his tightly bombastic style by the time he made The Terminator, which resulted in a number of excellent action scenes. The sequel, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, is one of the rare sequels even better than the original, but The Terminator is still one of the best sci-fi action movies of the ‘80s.

41. A Trip to the Moon (1902)

Released in 1902, George Méliès’s A Trip to the Moon (or Le Voyage dans la Lune in its native France) was the very first science-fiction film. Ever. Clocking in at between 10 and 17 minutes (depending on the speed at which it's projected), it was a short film, but in that brief amount of time it managed to tell a complete story, leave several memorable images, and create an entire genre. The plot, such as it is, involves a group of astronomers who travel to the Moon (in a giant bullet), crash on its surface, fight a horde of aliens, and return to Earth. It’s not a complicated movie, but in 1902, it transported people to another world in a way nobody had ever experienced. A Trip to the Moon’s influence on virtually every science-fiction movie to follow, either directly or indirectly, can’t be overstated. (The image of the Moon’s face – played by Méliès himself – with the ship sticking in its eye is one of the most recognizable in cinema.) It may not be able to visually compete with the high-def, 3-D, CGI spectacles that fill multiplexes nowadays, but its simple story, innovative effects, and classic charm are just as fun to watch now as they were over a century ago.

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REVIEW: Ender's Game

By Chris Luckett

4½ stars out of 5

Photo: Summit Entertainment

Ender’s Game shouldn’t work as a movie. The Orson Scott Card book has a repetitive plot with overly complicated character arcs. The space battle sequences are unfathomably mammoth. And it has an ending that overshadows the rest of the story. Yet somehow, Ender’s Game works as a movie in all the ways it struggled as a book.

In 2136, the International Fleet operates in space and trains young children to be warriors. Fifty years earlier, an alien species called Formics attacked the Earth but were fought off. The International Fleet is relying on the quick reflexes and ingenuity of children to fight the second war against the Formics that they’re sure is coming.

Photo: Summit Entertainment

Ender Wiggin (Hugo’s Asa Butterfield) is the most promising student in the school and the focus of the attention of Col. Hyrum Graff (Harrison Ford) and Maj. Gwen Anderson (Viola Davis). Ender has the perfect mix of empathy and violence to lead a war against the Formics and Graff makes it his mission to do whatever it takes to shape Ender to fit his prophetic role, no matter the personal cost to Ender himself.

Ender is recruited to Battle School, where he is isolated and bullied, but stands out with his creative solutions and calculated thinking. Ender is later promoted to Command School, where he and a select few of his former school squadron train on evolving simulations while the Formic threat grows more palpable by the day.

Photo: Summit Entertainment

It’s impossible to write about the ending without ruining it and its power is strongest if those unfamiliar with Ender’s Game go in blind. Fans of the book who worried about how the ending would be handled cause rest assured, though, the emotional climax is done well.

Many of the extraneous plot threads of the book, especially involving Ender’s brother and sister, are wisely excised completely, which tightens the script considerably. Directed with a brisk pace by director Gavin Hood, the repetitiveness of the book is streamlined into a fast plot that never has time to wear out its welcome.

The Ender’s Game book series heavily influenced J.K. Rowling when she was writing the Harry Potter books, but now the boy wizard looks to have returned the favour in its reciprocal influence. Ender’s Game is compelling and entertaining, not just as a standalone movie but also as the beginning to a film series that just could be the next Harry Potter.

REVIEW: Last Vegas

By Chris Luckett

4 stars out of 5

When the trailers for Last Vegas first came out, many people had the same thought: Oh look, they’re made The Hangover for seniors. Thankfully, it’s not. Some of the jokes won’t humour many under the age of 60, but by the end of its fitting and warm-hearted resolution, Last Vegas wins over all ages.

Photo: CBS Films

Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Kevin Kline, and Morgan Freeman play four friends in their late sixties who have been friends for 58 years. When the playboy Billy (Douglas) gets engaged, the pacified Archie (Freeman), the restless Sam (Kline), and the grumpy Paddy (De Niro) throw him a bachelor party in Vegas.

Much of the comedy in the first third of Last Vegas comes from the foursome’s ages. There are some good jokes made from the subject, but also some that feebly fall flat. It’s these moments when the movie gets by purely on the charm of the four leads (or five, if you include Mary Steenburgen as a lounge singer who befriends the clique).

Photo: CBS Films

Other times, the jokes are just plain stale. Such scenes expose how much the movie starts off by aiming itself squarely at those over retirement age. The movie seems to assume that elderly people wouldn’t have seen The Hangover, Superbad, or the Austin Powers trilogy, so it recycles jokes and scenes with the confidence that they’ll be funny if it’s the first time certain audiences have heard them.

If Last Vegas remained that way the whole time, it would only warrant three or three-and-a-half stars, but something very interesting happens after the first third of the movie. Like a camera that can’t quite seem to find its focus, the first act works in sporadic spurts. Forty minutes in, though, the movie snaps in focus and from that point on, the movie is so sharp that it nearly negates its initial flaws.

Photo: CBS Films

Freeman feels more alive onscreen than he has in years and Kline steals every scene he’s in, proving himself just as adept a comedian as he was in A Fish Called Wanda. Douglas and De Niro are both at the top of their games, and when their plots tangle in the final act and their emotional history is ultimately revealed, they grip the screen.

Too much time is wasted in the beginning of Last Vegas on jokes about Lipitor and not knowing who 50 Cent or LMFAO are, but once the movie gets going, it’s pretty irresistible. The four leads are so entertaining together, you want to keep watching them after the movie’s done. If there’s any luck, this won’t be the last Last Vegas.

THE 50 GREATEST SCIENCE-FICTION MOVIES: Intro

By Chris Luckett

Photo: 20th Century Fox

After the success of my 7 Days of 007 series of articles last year, I decided to start thinking of a new feature series of articles I could write for 2013. Being as fond of lists as I am, I decided to do a best-of list. Since the writer’s adage is to write what you know, I eventually decided on compiling a list of the 50 Greatest Science-Fiction films (largely because I’d seen many of the great ones already).

Photo: Dreamworks

Even though I was relatively knowledgeable of the genre, I felt the need to do the list justice and make sure I’d seen all the sci-fi movies that might be considered one of the greatest. I compiled a list of around sixty sci-fi movies to watch before I could comprehensively and definitively rank the very best, and spent the better part of this spring and summer going through them. (It’s a good thing, too, as seven of the Top 50 ultimately came from that catch-up list.)

Photo: RKO Radio Pictures

The oldest movie on the list is from 1903, while the youngest came out just last year. There are sci-fi comedies, sci-fi thrillers, animated sci-fi, time-travel movies, giant monster movies, silent films, Cold War parables, sequels, remakes, and Spider-Man 2.

James Cameron directed the most movies on the list, helming five of the final fifty. (Steven Spielberg came directly behind, with four entries to his name.) Sigourney Weaver is the most represented actor on the list, followed by a four-way tie of Harrison Ford, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, and Jeff Goldblum.

Photo: Warner Bros.

Because of the value I place on perspective and time, I did not include any movies less than a year old. (Gravity, for example, is just too new to accurately judge its place in the pantheon of science-fiction.) I also didn’t consider movies that included sci-fi elements but that were not inherently science-fiction movies. (So titles like Cloud Atlas, The Dark Knight, or The City of Lost Children, despite all being brilliant movies, didn’t make the cut.) Lastly, movies like Apollo 13 or The Right Stuff are not, by my definition, science-fiction: they are science-fact. Consequently, such historical re-enactments of science-related stories didn’t qualify.

Photo: Columbia Pictures

The ultimate order was determined not necessarily by how great a movie each title is but by how great a science-fiction movie each is. The other criteria were a film’s artistry, its innovation, its impact, its value as an example of science-fiction, and its influence on science-fiction movies that followed.

From dinosaurs to aliens, from Star Wars to Star Trek, from the depths of the ocean to the far reaches of outer space, these are The 50 Greatest Science-Fiction Movies.

Part 1 of the five-part series debuts Monday, Nov. 4, with another part being posted each morning until the final 10 are revealed on Friday.