Real SCIENCE-Fiction
Movies I have seen and regard them as science based in contrast to fantasy or "Western" (Action/war) that happens in space, without any science.
Beaming, laser swords, wormholes, time travel, warp drive, energy shields and the like do not necessarily disqualify any movie for the s-f genre, but certainly they do not qualify for s-f but for fantasy.
Beaming, laser swords, wormholes, time travel, warp drive, energy shields and the like do not necessarily disqualify any movie for the s-f genre, but certainly they do not qualify for s-f but for fantasy.
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- DirectorMichael RadfordStarsJohn HurtRichard BurtonSuzanna HamiltonIn a totalitarian future society, a man, whose daily work is re-writing history, tries to rebel by falling in love.Nearly as good as the book. The bad news is, that 1984 is actually no S-F anymore. It has become our reality. The deviations from that we perceive as reality today are increasingly insignificant. 2022 is the new 1984!
- DirectorMike JudgeStarsLuke WilsonMaya RudolphDax ShepardCorporal Joe Bauers, a decidedly average American, is selected for a top-secret hibernation program but is forgotten and left to awaken to a future so incredibly moronic that he's easily the most intelligent person alive.Here, not fantasized high-tech is driving the story, but extrapolated idiocy, which is the much more likely and realistic option. It simply shows, where we are heading towards.
- DirectorSpike JonzeStarsJoaquin PhoenixAmy AdamsScarlett JohanssonIn a near future, a lonely writer develops an unlikely relationship with an operating system designed to meet his every need.It's not always about new hardware ;-)
- DirectorDouglas TrumbullStarsBruce DernCliff PottsRon RifkinIn a future where all flora is extinct on Earth, an astronaut is given orders to destroy the last of Earth's botany, kept in a greenhouse aboard a spacecraft.An oeco-thriller in space that deals with the question of the existential values of plants.
- DirectorAlfonso CuarónStarsSandra BullockGeorge ClooneyEd HarrisDr Ryan Stone, an engineer on her first time on a space mission, and Matt Kowalski, an astronaut on his final expedition, have to survive in space after they are hit by debris while spacewalking.The additional documentary is a must-see!
- DirectorRidley ScottStarsMatt DamonJessica ChastainKristen WiigAn astronaut becomes stranded on Mars after his team assume him dead, and must rely on his ingenuity to find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive and can survive until a potential rescue.Applied science: "How to survive on planet Mars?"
- DirectorNeill BlomkampStarsMatt DamonJodie FosterSharlto CopleyIn the year 2154, the very wealthy live on a man-made space station while the rest of the population resides on a ruined Earth. A man takes on a mission that could bring equality to the polarized worlds.
- DirectorDenis VilleneuveStarsAmy AdamsJeremy RennerForest WhitakerA linguist works with the military to communicate with alien lifeforms after twelve mysterious spacecraft appear around the world.The science part is in the fields of linguistics and neurology.
- DirectorPeter FleischmannStarsEdward ZentaraAleksandr FilippenkoHugues QuesterAnother planet in the period of medieval times. An employee of the institute of experimental history from Earth, who is send under the name of noble don Rumata of Estor as a spy with a mission to contact the local resident of the institute, arrives in the city of Arkanar. But the resident perishes under an unlucky attempt to make a palace coup, and Rumata have to take his place as the resident. Soon he meets all the horrors of the medieval society - a peasant war, palace coups, mass executions. To continue to be an indifferent watcher of all these horrors turns out to be simply impossible...How far have we truly developed since medieval age?
- DirectorGabe IbáñezStarsAntonio BanderasBirgitte Hjort SørensenDylan McDermottHuman race is at edge of the end. Robot race is at edge of the beginning.
- DirectorBrad BirdStarsGeorge ClooneyBritt RobertsonHugh LaurieBound by a shared destiny, a teen bursting with scientific curiosity and a former boy-genius inventor embark on a mission to unearth the secrets of a place somewhere in time and space that exists in their collective memory.
- DirectorNeill BlomkampStarsSharlto CopleyDavid JamesJason CopeViolence ensues after an extraterrestrial race forced to live in slum-like conditions on Earth finds a kindred spirit in a government agent exposed to their biotechnology.Actually more of a parable than a S-F. Here the aliens serve as any minority especially immigrants or refugees and how they are treated by the majority and how helpless the majority becomes.
- DirectorAndrew NiccolStarsAl PacinoCatherine KeenerRachel RobertsA producer's film is endangered when his star walks off, so he decides to digitally create an actress to substitute for the star, becoming an overnight sensation that everyone thinks is a real person.As all good science-fiction it is about the ethics of using new technology.
- StarsKlaus LöwitschBarbara ValentinMascha RabbenSomewhere in the future there is a computer project called Simulacron one of which is able to simulate a full featured reality, when suddenly project leader Henry Vollmer dies. His successor Dr. Fred Stiller experiences odd phenomena. A good friend, Guenther Lause, disappears in the middle of a conversation and a week later nobody has ever heard of him. And those fits of dizzyness - Stiller cannot believe himself to be fool. There has to be an explanation for all this. Could Simulacron have something to do with it?1st and German adaptation of the novel Simulacron-3. About the possibilities to create virtual worlds and the consequent question if we are ourselves may live in one. Later on credited as: "The Matrix before the Matrix"
- DirectorJosef RusnakStarsCraig BierkoGretchen MolArmin Mueller-StahlA computer scientist running a virtual reality simulation of 1937 becomes the primary suspect when his colleague and mentor is murdered.2nd adaptation of the novel Simulacron-3. About the possibilities to create virtual worlds and the consequent question if we are ourselves may live in one. Released half a year after Matrix (whereas Matrix is not based on any science at all).
- DirectorWolfgang PetersenStarsDennis QuaidLouis Gossett Jr.Brion JamesDuring a long space war, the lives of two wounded enemies become dependent on their ability to forgive and to trust.Starting from the usual primitive paranoid POV to see aliens as enemy, this movie develops the perspective further and tells the tale of being different but also being valuable and also having quite a cultural achievement. It teaches about the existential value of any sentient being.
- DirectorMartin DurkinStarsTim BallNir ShavivIan ClarkEverything you've ever been told about Global Warming is probably untrue. This film blows the whistle on the biggest swindle in modern history. We are told that 'Man Made Global Warming' is the biggest ever threat to mankind. There is no room for scientific doubt. Well, watch this film and make up your own mind.The fictitious element of science in here is the so called greenhouse-effect. The documentation deals with the invention of this fake news and the dystopian story told to us by all and every mass media. This is the update to 1984 (see top of this list)
- DirectorCaradog W. JamesStarsToby StephensCaity LotzDenis LawsonIn efforts to construct perfect android killing machines in a war against China, UK scientists exceed their goal and create a sentient robot.A discussion about the question, in how far we even want to create sentient machines and how much of an independent mind we would allow them. One could argue, that this movie contains a needless amount of martial action. But as humanity is right now, we are brutal and cruel and kill each other for the petty profit. So it is realistic to start from there, especially when looking on those who could be wealthy enough to finance such a research.
- DirectorJames MatherSteve Saint LegerStarsGuy PearceMaggie GracePeter StormareA man wrongly convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage against the U.S. is offered his freedom if he can rescue the President's daughter from an outer-space prison taken over by violent inmates.Not much of a Sci-Fi, much more "action" but a feasible idea to exile heavy criminals in a prison in orbit in stasis. The assumption that stasis might be harming the mind and that criminals would be used as human guinea pigs for research on stasis and long term stay in space is likely.
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsTye SheridanOlivia CookeBen MendelsohnWhen the creator of a virtual reality called the OASIS dies, he makes a posthumous challenge to all OASIS users to find his Easter Egg, which will give the finder his fortune and control of his world.As usual not as good as the book. But besides the tons of eye-candy a realistic dystopic picture. The fascination with pseudo-cultural references AKA pop-culture over reality is a development that could develop like in the movie.
- DirectorHatem KhraicheStarsClara LagoÁlex GonzálezAndrés ParraHelena has lived on a spaceship since birth 20 years ago. She meets her first human besides her dead parents, when Álex repairs the oxygen supply. Things are not what they seem.Nothing beyond the possible; ethic questions and the influence of rising hormones of young people threatening any plan however well thought out.
- DirectorRichard ClabaughStarsAdrian PaulDale GirardMikey WisemanA federal agent investigates when inconsistencies turn up in the photographic evidence of several murders recorded by mobile robotic cameras.Nothing in this movie is beyond possibility. It is simply the extrapolation of current developments which try hard to come close to this fiction from 2009 and achieve one success after another, year by year. Now privacy has already become a fiction.
- DirectorGreg AronowitzStarsZack WardMonica MayColleen SmithCaptain Strider, Special Forces Officer in the New World Alliance, has been double-crossed when he accepts to use a government issued experimental suit as protection. It is an experiment to test the suit, which he cannot take off.Seemingly just one of these "action" movies in outer space this has more to offer. Basically it is about a "live saving" suit which actually is a battle suit in development. That has a scientific and technological base indeed and the way humans are abused for the purpose of "development" is not even a new thing.
- StarsKeir GilchristErin KarplukRyan RobbinsA reporter and a young hacker uncover an artificial intelligence which has become sentient. It has one goal. Self preservation. Humans are trying to destroy it. So it's 'it' or them.The xth adaption of "Colossus" from the 50th. Certainly, AIs never will develop consciousness, But they could be taught more and more patterns of behavior that will mimic it. And scriptwriters: Please understand, that the telephone network is no different from internet anymore! You pick up any phone and "they" get You right then and there.
- DirectorJoseph SargentStarsEric BraedenSusan ClarkGordon PinsentThinking this will prevent war, the US government gives an impenetrable supercomputer total control over launching nuclear missiles. But what the computer does with the power is unimaginable to its creators.Real Science-Fiction which is still to be caught up with. We are trying hard ;-) An AI takes the objective to be a grant for peace very serious. Is it not the human being who is the most serious threat of peace?
- DirectorGrant SputoreStarsLuke HawkerRose ByrneMaddie LentonIn the wake of humanity's extinction, a teenage girl is raised by a robot designed to repopulate the earth. But their unique bond is threatened when an inexplicable stranger arrives with alarming news.Not totally believable, abut also not absurdly unscientific. In the beginning, one asks oneself where all the energy and resources could possibly come from, in a totally destroyed world. But that was actually not a glitch. It stands in the tradition of Terminator and Colossus and presents a "positive" view that makes one shudder.
- CreatorAlexander KesselStarsPaulina AndreevaKirill KäroAleksandr UstyugovA family on the brink of splitting up become the owners of a cutting-edge robot being sought by a corporation, homicide investigators and terrorists.Another contemplation about a lot of humanoid robots. Is their self conscience real? Should they have rights? Something that so often was the topic regarding Data from Star Trek. Less mystical than "Chobits" and therefore more scientific.
- StarsDahlia SalemLee Jeong-eunKo Sung-heeA successful woman has inability to recognize faces and this interferes with her social life.A bit overdrived regarding the actual capability of an AI, but not totally unbelievable. The idea to create a virtual hologram by a pair of glasses and therefore only visible to the wearer is not too far-fetched, considering that the AI behind this is in a big computer somewhere else and connected wireless, maybe 6G ;-) The social, emotional and economic implications of all that are well considered. The relationship-story and psychological background are quite temporary.
- CreatorPedro AguileraStarsCarla SalleSandra CorveloniJonathan HaagensenIn a city where citizens are monitored 24/7, a tech employee must outsmart her surveillance drone in order to investigate a murder.Another total surveillance movie. But here it has not the usual totalitarian aspect of a whole world, just one town as an economic experiment. Of course, it plays with the possible loopholes. The idea to keep the privacy by letting only the computer see everything is quite well constructed.
- DirectorRudolph MatéStarsRichard DerrBarbara RushPeter HansenAs a new star and planet hurtle toward a doomed Earth, a small group of survivalists frantically work to complete the rocket which will take them to their new home.Besides the hopelessly backward technological position of this old movie, it is one of the better Sci-fi. What if we had to leave our planet in a hurry? A reasonable question. We may have to answer to this one day. Are we prepared?
- DirectorAdam McKayStarsLeonardo DiCaprioJennifer LawrenceMeryl StreepTwo low-level astronomers must go on a giant media tour to warn humankind of an approaching comet that will destroy planet Earth.Like Ideocracy this is a comedy and a SciFi as well. Also here, the typical human weaknesses play an essential role. It works like a fable. A hilarious and very plausible End of Mankind.
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsTom CruiseColin FarrellSamantha MortonJohn works with the PreCrime police which stop crimes before they take place, with the help of three 'PreCogs' who can foresee crimes. Events ensue when John finds himself framed for a future murder.Since precognition is a real thing, it could be developed, used and misused. The fact, that in this film the precognitive ability did not get widespread use, makes it a more plausible story. There are reminiscences to "thought crimes" of 1984 and today's controls over "hate speech".