Al Weisel - CDNow's 10 Essential Science-Fiction Films
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| The 10 Essential Science-Fiction Films
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 | By
Al Weisel
CDNOW Senior Editor, Movies
Science Fiction films imagine what the future will be like
in order to comment on the present. Fritz Lang's pioneering
1927 film Metropolis envisioned a future in which
classes were even more divided than they were in his time.
Metropolis wasn't the first science-fiction film --
George Méliès' short 1902 film A Trip to the Moon
(available on the collection Landmarks
of Early Film), with its famous image of a
bullet-shaped rocket ship lodged in the eye of the Moon, and
the 1924 Russian film Aelita:
Queen of Mars, about an uprising of the Martian
proletariat, are two films that preceded it -- but it was the
first to elevate the genre to high art. With few exceptions
(1936's Things
to Come being one) most sci-fi films rarely reached
this level again until the 1950s, unless one counts hybrids of
horror and science-fiction such as Frankenstein.
In the 1950s fears of atomic destruction and Communism were
reflected in classics like The Day the Earth Stood
Still, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The
Incredible Shrinking Man, and War
of the Worlds.
Because science fiction films are often set in a time that
hasn't happened or a place we've never explored, these films
allow their makers' imaginations to run wild. To create these
imaginary worlds science fiction films often have to invent
new special effects and visual techniques. Films like 2001:
A Space Odyssey, Star Wars, and The Matrix
have not only depicted the futuristic worlds, they have pushed
filmmaking itself into the future with their innovative
visuals.
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| 1. 2001: A Space Odyssey
(1968) |
 Stanley Kubrick's visually stunning, enigmatic
masterpiece brought intellectual depth to the genre. It's less
a narrative about astronauts investigating the source of a
strange obelisk found on the moon who battle a murderous,
deadpan computer than a cinematic tone poem. Among its
unforgettable images is the famous scene of an ape throwing a
bone up in the air that transforms into a space ship floating
in the void to a Strauss waltz.
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| 2. Blade Runner (1982) |
 Based on a Philip K. Dick novel, Ridley Scott's
Blade Runner is a futuristic film noir set in a
rain-soaked, neon-streaked, polyglot Los Angeles. Harrison
Ford stars as an android hunter whose search for renegade
"replicants" leads him to question what it is that makes
someone human. Instead of the cold, clean settings of most
sci-fi visions of the future, the Los Angeles of this film is
a gritty, realistic dystopia.
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| 3. Day the Earth Stood Still
(1951) |
 When The Day the Earth Stood Still was
released, most science fiction at the time consisted of
monster movies and outer space shoot-'em-ups. Robert Wise's
serious, thoughtful film starring Michael Rennie as an alien
who comes to Earth to warn us about the dangers of atomic
weapons has a smart script by Edmund North, an atmospheric
score by Bernard Herrmann, and top-notch acting from Rennie
and Patricia Neal.
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| 4. Solaris (1972) |
 Like Stanley Kubrick, the idiosyncratic Andrei
Tarkovsky directed hypnotic, meditative works full of
beautiful, mystifying images. Solaris, based on a novel
by Stanislaw Lem, is about a psychologist sent on a mission to
a space station orbiting a mysterious planet that has the
power to take the repressed thoughts and memories of the
station's inhabitants and bring them to life. In Tarkovsky's
world even a long drive on a highway at dusk becomes a
riveting, futuristic vision.
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| 5. A Clockwork Orange
(1971) |
 Stanley Kubrick's savage satire about violence in a
sensation-starved future is full of breathtaking sets and
outlandish scenarios. Malcolm McDowell gives a chilling
performance as a Beethoven-loving juvenile delinquent whom the
state tries to rehabilitate after he dishes out a brutal
beating choreographed to "Singin' in the Rain." While it's
Kubrick's most controversial film because of its unblinking
look at brutality (it was even banned in the U.K.), the
violence in this film is far from gratuitous.
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| 6. The Matrix (1999) |
 The first great film of the Internet age, The
Matrix, like many of the best sci-fi films, looks like
nothing that came before it. Drawing on everything from Lewis
Carroll to Hong Kong action flicks to virtual reality games,
the film stars Keanu Reeves as a hacker who discovers nothing
less than the secret of existence. The Matrix is full
of ground-breaking computer-generated imagery, including the
now-famous scene where Reeves bends over backwards to dodge a
speeding bullet.
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| 7. Star Wars (1977) |
 George Lucas' film became at the time of its release
the highest-grossing film ever made, and it's easy to see why.
Its dazzling special effects -- combined with an
old-fashioned, crowd-pleasing story with easily identifiable
heroes and villains -- make it a movie that's easy to love.
Stealing the look of 2001 (while dumbing down the
story), Star Wars' tale of a callow farm boy, a cynical
mercenary, and a spunky princess fighting evil in a galaxy
far, far away is as impossible to resist as another handful of
popcorn.
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| 8. Metropolis (1927) |
 This early silent film by the legendary German
director Fritz Lang is the first great science fiction movie.
Its story is as simple as a fable -- in a world where the
working classes live in a hellish underground and the elite
live in towering skyscrapers, the son of an industrialist,
shocked by what he sees, foments an uprising. But the film's
vision of the future was years ahead of its
time.
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| 9. Invasion of the Body Snatchers
(1956) |
 Made at a time when anti-Communist paranoia was
ripping this country apart, Donald Siegel's frightening film
about alien invaders who take over people's bodies was a
perfect metaphor for a society where even your friends and
neighbors might denounce you for being a spy. When Kevin
McCarthy's doctor realizes that almost everyone he knows has
been taken over by pods from outer space, he makes a desperate
attempt to warn everyone what is happening before it's too
late.
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| 10. Forbidden Planet (1956) |
 Loosely based on Shakespeare's The Tempest,
this film blended high and low art with its smart story and
campy action. Set on a strange planet where a mysterious
monster has killed all but two of the inhabitants of a space
colony -- Dr. Morbius and his beautiful daughter -- as well as
an ancient, technologically advanced race, Forbidden
Planet's stark visuals and stock characters -- especially
Robbie the Robot -- influenced every science fiction film that
came after it.
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