# Recommend upbeat sci-fi/fantasy movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 16, 2016, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-upbeat-sci-fi-fantasy-movies/768760 "2016-10-16T19:40:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2016, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-upbeat-sci-fi-fantasy-movies/768760/21 "2016-10-17T16:00:13Z")
_Her_ ended on a fairly upbeat note, considering the subject matter. ---
**Author:** ![Chicken\_Fingers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Chicken\_Fingers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicken_Fingers)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2016, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-upbeat-sci-fi-fantasy-movies/768760/22 "2016-10-17T16:59:34Z")
You will love _Stardust_. It’s a fun movie. Another vote for _Moon_. (Very excited that Duncan Jones is now filming the sort-of-sequel, _Mute_.) I also really like _Mr. Nobody_. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2016, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-upbeat-sci-fi-fantasy-movies/768760/23 "2016-10-17T17:22:13Z")
Children of Men (one of my favorites) is very bleak through most of it but has an optimistic ending. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2016, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-upbeat-sci-fi-fantasy-movies/768760/24 "2016-10-17T18:33:10Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Children of Men (one of my favorites) is very bleak through most of it but has an optimistic ending. Didn’t Clive whasisname end up dead in a rowboat? ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2016, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-upbeat-sci-fi-fantasy-movies/768760/25 "2016-10-17T18:51:41Z")
_The Last Starfighter_, wasn’t great, but it was upbeat. _Paul_, the visiting alien trying to escape Earth with the help of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. _Shaun of the Dead_, if you count it as sci-fi parody and not horror movie parody. _Rapture Palooza_, a parody of the Apocalypse. _Evolution_, geeks & jocks vs mutants and the army. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2016, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-upbeat-sci-fi-fantasy-movies/768760/26 "2016-10-17T19:09:04Z")
The miniseries _The 10[sup]th[/sup] Kingdom_. Would _Secondhand Lions_ count as contemporary fantasy? ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2016, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-upbeat-sci-fi-fantasy-movies/768760/27 "2016-10-17T19:24:40Z")
I GUESS “Somewhere in Time” is upbeat but the journey there for both leads is crushing. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2016, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-upbeat-sci-fi-fantasy-movies/768760/28 "2016-10-17T20:27:47Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Didn’t Clive whasisname end up dead in a rowboat? Yeah, or maybe he just passed out. But there will be children again! ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2016, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-upbeat-sci-fi-fantasy-movies/768760/29 "2016-10-17T20:31:28Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Yeah, or maybe he just passed out. But there will be children again! One, on a boat. I would not want to be that ONE kid. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2016, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-upbeat-sci-fi-fantasy-movies/768760/30 "2016-10-17T21:48:52Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Ranchoth** : > > In any case, Howl’s Moving Castle certainly seems to qualify. Along with most of Studio Ghibli’s oeuvre. I don’t know; most of Miyazaki’s works seem to have a strong streak of darkness running through them, and that darkness usually isn’t actually resolved. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2016, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-upbeat-sci-fi-fantasy-movies/768760/31 "2016-10-17T23:11:18Z")
Since the vote isn’t in on Miyazaki’s work, I’ll nominate Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and Laputa: Castle in the Sky. Also, Time Bandits, but it’s been a while since I saw it, so it may not qualify. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2016, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-upbeat-sci-fi-fantasy-movies/768760/32 "2016-10-18T01:10:13Z")
> [@Chicken\_Fingers](#): > > You will love _Stardust_. It’s a fun movie. Another one with an original downer ending cheered up for the movies. But I agree it is a fun film :). > [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Children of Men (one of my favorites) is very bleak through most of it but has an optimistic ending. It has a very ambiguous ending - which I happen to imagine in my own mind as being very, very dark ;). Based on nothing whatsoever as the faintly menacing feel to the boat as it comes looming out of the mist, I am convinced that the folks on that vessel are the original cause of the birth failure. There will be NO more children. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2016, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-upbeat-sci-fi-fantasy-movies/768760/33 "2016-10-18T02:41:56Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I don’t know; most of Miyazaki’s works seem to have a strong streak of darkness running through them, and that darkness usually isn’t actually resolved. :dubious: Okay, I’ll bite. Define “darkness” and “resolved.” I mean, even “_Peanuts_” movies tend to have an undercurrent of melancholy, heartbreak, loss, and hopelessness. Or just an overcurrent. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2016, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-upbeat-sci-fi-fantasy-movies/768760/34 "2016-10-18T08:52:56Z")
**5ive Days to Midnight** was more thriller than upbeat but it wasn’t depressing. A modern day physics professor I s at the grave of his departed wife when he discovers an old file, it’s a cold case for a murder, his own. He’ll die in 5 days apparently, but the sick joke gets strange when events in the file begin to happen. Primer is cool too. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2016, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-upbeat-sci-fi-fantasy-movies/768760/35 "2016-10-18T09:13:10Z")
Super 8 Ladyhawke Jungle Book Secret of Kells How to Train Your Dragon Curse of the Were-Rabbit Wreck-It Ralph Edge of Tomorrow Oblivion Prince of Persia Dragonheart ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2016, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-upbeat-sci-fi-fantasy-movies/768760/36 "2016-10-18T14:43:04Z")
_Children of Men_ may end on an upbeat note, but it’s pretty damned depressing to get through. However, it does have Charlie Hunnam as a street gang thug, and three or four of the best “continuous take” sequences I know of. (Yes, they’re digitally faked, but it’s very difficult to spot the edits and at least two are completely breathtaking. As in, leave you gasping for air because people tend not to breathe until there are breaks in the onscreen action.) I’d put _Galaxy Quest_ and _Fifth Element_ at the top of “not depressing sf” list. ---
**Author:** ![psiekier](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psiekier/32/116_2.png) [@psiekier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psiekier)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2016, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-upbeat-sci-fi-fantasy-movies/768760/37 "2016-10-18T15:57:46Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > _Children of Men_ may end on an upbeat note, but it’s pretty damned depressing to get through. However, it does have Charlie Hunnam as a street gang thug… He’s also in _**[Pacific Rim](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5guMumPFBag)**_. Talk about fun sci-fi! That movie was 2,500 tons of awesome! ---
**Author:** ![Gukumatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/74df32/32.png) [@Gukumatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gukumatz)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2016, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-upbeat-sci-fi-fantasy-movies/768760/38 "2016-10-18T17:45:02Z")
Listing some perhaps obvious ones: - Wall-E - The Martian - Serenity - Edge of Tomorrow - The Man From Earth - Big Hero 6 - Zomebieland ---
**Author:** ![thorvitz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eb8c5e/32.png) [@thorvitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorvitz)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2016, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-upbeat-sci-fi-fantasy-movies/768760/39 "2016-10-18T18:19:50Z")
Seen these… love all of them, especially GD and Eternal! > [@Sefton](#): > > I enjoyed _Groundhog Day_, _Gattaca_, _Edge of Tomorrow_, and _Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind_. ---
**Author:** ![thorvitz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eb8c5e/32.png) [@thorvitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorvitz)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2016, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-upbeat-sci-fi-fantasy-movies/768760/40 "2016-10-18T18:22:17Z")
I should have been clearer. I want sappy sci fi/fantasy… or at least more emotional and less far fetched. Another Earth was based on theme of redemption - with moving (twist) at the end. Somewhere in Time, like Another Earth, is just over the edge of reality (not too wild of an idea) and (obviously) a very touching story. > [@Gukumatz](#): > > Listing some perhaps obvious ones: > > - Wall-E > - The Martian > - Serenity > - Edge of Tomorrow > - The Man From Earth > - Big Hero 6 > - Zomebieland [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-upbeat-sci-fi-fantasy-movies/768760.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-upbeat-sci-fi-fantasy-movies/768760.md?page=3)