Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris (1972). It had practically no special effects, and the set didn’t really look like a spaceship, but the directing was utterly brilliant just the same.
The real value of this film was the power and depth of its philosophical challenge to your understanding of reality. Solaris is a planetary intelligence with unimaginably great mental powers over humans. All the cosmonauts who go there are affected in life-shattering ways. The film forces you to ask what reality really is, and how can you know what is real. And what is love.
On the down side, it gets off to a slow start, and the beginning would not have suffered from some cuts. But once it really gets going, it’s sheer genius.
On the plus side, the female love interest is played by Natalya Bondarchuk, and Gospodi! she is one goriachaia zhenshchina.
I won’t give away the ending, but take my word the final thirty seconds are absolutely mindblowing.
I’m gonna go with Georges Méliès’ “A Trip to the Moon” (1902). Not just the famous scene where the moon gets hit in the eye like a big pizza pie (though that IS amoré). But have you ever seen the whole film, all 12 minutes or so? Great special effects, moon monsters, and the rocket being pushed into space by a bevy of Folies Bergere dancers! How can you beat THAT?
Fifth Element (1997). I liked how the movie didn’t just center around scientists or the military (well Bruce Willis’ character was a FORMER special forces guy, but current taxi cab driver) and actually portrayed what the society was like, to a degree.
Charlie A movie version of Daniel Keye’s Flowers for Algernon 2001 A Space Odessey
Planet of the Apes - The first one, which is, IMHO, one of the very few movies that’s better than the book. The other Ape movies are junk. Star Wars
The Thing - The John Carperter one, that is, which is far more faithful to John W. Campbell’s Who Goes There? than the '51 cabbage-from-hell version. The Andromeda Strain
Aliens
And I can’t quit without mentioning… Death Race 2000
which is really enjoyable on several levels in spite of the rock-bottom production values. It is a Roger Corman flick, after all. It’s probably the best socio-political satire in a science fiction motif even filmed - certainly the funniest.
My nose-up-in-the-air choice is Bladerunner. Brilliant film. Much food for thought. Plus, Harrison Ford.
My great-classic-film choice is War of the Worlds. Very creepy in places, and much Cold War angst. Also, physicist square-dancing!
My stuck-on-a-desert-island choice is . . . oh, gawd, I’m gonna get flamed for this, but it’s Stargate. It’s got really cool visuals, and an awesome soundtrack. I make no apologies for its general suckiness.
I think the Terminator premise was interesting
Total recall had an interesting premise as well.
I liked Contact quite a bit.
Fifth Element I can watch over and over.
2001 is great but a little out there (no pun intended).
Forbidden planet is excellent but suffers ever so slightly from hokiness. Up there, though.
The day the Earth Stood Still is up there
War of the worlds is more straight-forward invasion.
When worlds collide - another fave
I remember liking Solaris. I still have some lines written in a notebook somewhere. beautiful stuff.
Then you have Brother from another planet
Liquid sky
The Quiet Earth - now there’s a good one.
I’m still waiting for the film preservationists to unearth a cache of 50’s-60’s Science fiction movies.
I guess I lean towards the older ones so I’ll give to The Day the Earth Stood Still. No, Forbidden Planet. No - wait…
The overwhelming majority of filmmakers seem to believe that science fiction is just a setting. They think if you make a horror movie with aliens, a war movie with spaceships, a western with lasers, or a film noir with robots you’ve made a science fiction film. In my humble opinion, the distinct element of science fiction is that it raises possibilities that cannot otherwise occur. And a true science fiction movie should use these possibilities as central elements of its plot.
That said, I feel 12 Monkeys is a rare great movie that’s also genuine science fiction.
loved 2001 bla bla bla, Spaceballs, The Ape thingy was awesome I’d love to see it again and not know the ending, sigh. ooh ooh The Time Machine, I’d like to get me a little Weena. The oldy time German one…Metropolis, freaky. Any movie with Princess Leia in it. Not sure if this is really sci-fi but it really is Young Frankenstein, second funniest Mel Brooks flick. Bladerunner is awesome, even the director’s cut. I know I’m leaving many great flicks out but I’m too tired to think or form proper sentances. anyhoo …
but I think I’ll give my booby prize to badabadabadabadabadabadababada “Soylent Green” awww man, those suicide scenes!!! if I can’t go having sex, I’ll go like that. And remember yes, Soylent Green is people, Soylent Green, made from the best stuff on earth, people!
Not REALLY Sci-fi, but Seargent Kabukiman N.Y.P.D. (I just got it on Dvd!!!)
But also, Blade Runner, Alien trilogy (excluding resurrection), and a few others. But you know what? I dislike star wars. I don’t hate it, but I’m just tired of it. It’s not as good as people make it out to be.
Hey, Totoro, if you don’t like the movies (Star Wars, that is), read all 80+ books. You’ll probably enjoy those much more.
Anyway, my picks basically jibe with all of yours, but The Empire Strikes Back was not named specifically, a heinous omission, I might add. It was without a doubt the best movie of the trilogy, and the trilogy was damn good.
Other than that, I gotta give it up to Blade Runner (I’m a Harrison Ford junkie).
God knows you have time to think while you’re watching the movie. You know, during all those incredibly loooonggg shots that are all about Kubrick showcasing special effects instead of telling a story? And what exactly am I supposed to be thinking about while seven minutes of my life drip away as I watch a stewardess in a funny hat and lots of polyester mincing slow-motion down the aisle to capture Heywood’s wayward pen? I can think about how long it’s been since my last oil change. I can mentally compose a grocery list.
If I want to think, I find I’m just a tad more stimulated by the book.
Hey, I already made the disclaimer, I was weaned on Sesame Street. Okay, we’re in zero gee, we’ve established that, so let’s move the plot forward, shall we? Yo, apes foraging on the savanna. I get it. If I’m going to stare at chimps for this long, I want a narrator relating interesting facts. I don’t have to watch the guy jogging for ten minutes to figure out the whole spinning-spaceship thing. And I don’t have to watch a boring light show for fifteen minutes to figure out that Something Unusual is happening to Bowman. Chop, chop, chop! Plot! Character development! Things happening! This is what makes a movie interesting.
(Fifth Element is another great flick. Definitely number two on my desert-island list.)
