A short excursion into science fiction cinema. Part 2

A short excursion into science fiction cinema. Part 1 After the release of A Space Odyssey, it became clear that science fiction was firmly entrenched in world cinema. All the major film studios were making or planning to make such films. This aroused increased interest and brought good profits. Some companies have decided that science fiction will be the next trend after the disaster movie. Cinema of the second half of the 20th century not only reflected social changes in reality, but also emphasized fears and fears about the future of all humanity.

Invasion of alien civilizations

The man who fell to the ground

Original title: The Man Who Fell to Earth Year: 1976 Director: Nicolas Roeg The film is based on the novel by Walter Tevis. This is the story of an alien who is on a rescue mission to Earth for the benefit of his planet, which is suffering from a terrible drought. But after a while he realizes that life on Earth is not so alien to him and has no intention of going back. Starring David Bowie. After all, no one else could play an alien better than Ziggy Stardust.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Original title: Close Encounters of the Third Kind Year: 1977 Director: Steven Spielberg A science fiction classic that needs no introduction. Unusual extraterrestrial activity is being recorded in different parts of the planet: ships from the Bermuda Triangle and planes that disappeared during World War II are returning, mysterious sources of bright light appearing in the dark sky. Scientists assume contact with alien minds, but an ordinary electrician will have to figure it all out.

Stranger

Original title: Alien Year: 1979 Director: Ridley Scott The title of the film refers to extraterrestrial very aggressive creatures that pursue and attack the crew of a spaceship. It's about things that can jump out of the dark and kill you. The Aliens series is considered to be the Golden Age of science fiction. The main character has little interest in the romance of searching for alien life forms, because they can be very unfriendly. It is worth highlighting the genuine realism of the film. Before facing the unknown, the crew members are introduced to us as real people with real problems: unfair pay, the expectation of overtime bonuses, and years of mistrust between colleagues.

My enemy

Original title: Enemy Mine Year: 1985 Director: Wolfgang Petersen In the near future, humanity begins to explore the stars in our galaxy and is faced with a problem - the Drac race, which disputes man's right to own all the resources in the star system, which leads to war. As a result of the confrontation, a person and a representative of the Draks find themselves on the same dead planet. How will their relationship develop further?

independence Day

Original title: Independence Day Year: 1996 Director: Roland Emmerich Huge mysterious spaceships are invading the planet. But the delight of meeting other civilizations gives way to fear at the sight of deadly rays that are aimed at all cities. And only a group of survivors can prevent the end of human history.

Men in Black

Original title: Men in Black Year: 1997 Director: Barry Sonnenfeld Pairing the eccentric Will Smith with the overly correct Tommy Lee Jones in the fight against alien invaders was a crazy director's idea that worked. And it worked so well that the story was continued in the form of two more films.

Space Opera

The legacy of “A Space Odyssey” can easily be called two space operas: Star Trek and Star Wars. They focus on depictions of space battles, a steady pace of storytelling, and classical compositions by Mozart and Vivaldi. The term was coined by Wilson Tucker back in 1940. And later used by William, who played Captain Kirk on Star Trek. The original Star Trek pioneered science fiction on television. Therefore, it was decided to release a full-length film. The film is known for its spectacular battles, strange speech patterns and dialects of alien races and music by John Williams. And despite the small budget, gaps in the script and “cardboard decorations”, it won the love of the audience and received many sequels in the form of films, TV series, books and computer games. Star Wars is another cult franchise that includes several films, TV series, cartoons, comics and books. Taking one part Burroughs, the other Heinlein, adding Shakespeare, some mythological archetypes and unearthly sound effects, George Lucas managed to produce a real epic. So who is the father of space opera now?

Dystopia

A Clockwork Orange

Original title: A Clockwork Orange Year: 1971 Director: Stanley Kubrick Many criticized Kubrick's shocking work for being too prosaic and refused to release it in theaters. The film recapitulates the state of society and political conflict after the Cold War through violent and pornographic elements. This picture is about good and evil, social pathology and the price of human freedom.

Solaris

Year: 1972 Director: Andrei Tarkovsky This film at one time won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival, and, according to many viewers and film experts, it is significantly superior to the novel of the same name by Stanislaw Lem, based on which it was based. An uncertain future, a group of scientists who find themselves on an intelligent planet that easily “finds out” what is eating people and recreates for them their painful memories almost in the flesh. From a cinematic point of view, this deeply philosophical film is almost perfect.

Soylent Green

Original title: Soylent Green Year: 1973 Director: Richard Fleischer As a result of the greenhouse effect, the Earth is overpopulated. Homeless and unemployed people flood the streets of New York. There is not enough food for everyone, so power in the city is seized by a monopolist corporation that produces a wonderful high-protein Soylent that can replace all traditional food. But what is the main mysterious ingredient of this drink?

Stalker

Year: 1979 Director: Andrei Tarkovsky A fantastic parable based on the novel “Roadside Picnic” by the Strugatsky brothers. This is a real philosophical fantasy based on science, metaphysics and speculation. The director slowly guides the viewer through the Zone, forcing him to think that a person is most often a stranger to himself, and all our thoughts about ourselves are a pure illusion.

Brazil

Original title: Brazil Year: 1985 Director: Terry Gilliam This film has been called the best satire of political bureaucracy since Dr. Strangelove and 1984. Capitalist power and urbanization cooperate in real life. At first it may seem that everyone is equal, but this is not the case. Status and wealth are important value criteria for a person. Separately, it is worth mentioning the music of “Aquarela do Brasil”, which first instills hope in the audience in order to save them from dramatization, and then plunges them into a state of anxious anxiety. In the 90s, the science fiction genre reached new heights. With the advent of CG character technology, which was used in Jurassic Park to depict dinosaurs in detail, filmmaking has undergone significant changes. Of course, new technologies served as a powerful tool to highlight the story and character of the characters. Various directors skillfully used new opportunities, so it is not for nothing that the ninth decade of the 20th century is considered the best in the creation of science fiction films.

Remember all

Original title: Total Recall Year: 1990 Director: Paul Verhoeven The film is based on Philip K. Dick's short story “We'll Remember It All.” For the main character, an ordinary builder, life seems boring and monotonous. He dares to use the services of a company that provides fake memories in which he is a secret agent who has already traveled to Mars. But something goes wrong and the operation affects those areas of memory that were erased earlier. Now the main character just has to find out which memories are his own and which are false?

Armageddon

Original title: Armageddon Year: 1998 Director: Michael Bay NASA has developed a space safety program to detect and study potentially dangerous space objects. They create possible scenarios for asteroid collisions with the earth and ways to prevent them. After all, the last mass extinction happened long before humans appeared. The film presents one of the possible scenarios for the development of events during the threat of a collision with an asteroid. This is fraught with the finale of human history - the sixth mass extinction. But be prepared for the brave John McClane to cope with this situation too.

Cyberpunk

The world was changing quickly. Social trends have progressed. Excitement at the advent of personal computers and worldwide networks gave way to horror at the exciting world of new technologies. Humanity feared the decline of culture and the rebellion of the machine against its creator. This led to the emergence of a new genre: cyberpunk in the 1980s. He compiled a dystopian world of total changes in the social structure and high technological development.

Terminator

Original title: The Terminator Year: 1984 Director: James Cameron Another story about the confrontation between a robot and a person. But now cyborgs want to change the future by changing the past.

Blade Runner

Original title: Blade Runner Year: 1982 Director: Ridley Scott Another film, based on Philip K. Dick's original book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, is considered the first cyberpunk. Here they touch upon the ethical aspect in the creation of artificial people - replicants. Do you still remember the code of conduct for robots? The action takes place in a dystopian future world, where androids live next to people and do the most difficult and obscene work. They are merely tools in the hands of their creators, despite being superior in strength and intelligence. And after a few years of hard work, they die and are replaced by others. But some replicants do not want to put up with this course of events and rebel. A special police department is being organized to combat protests. But what if not everyone in that department is human?

Throne

Original title: Tron Year: 1982 Director: Steven Lisberger The film appeals to the computer generation, for whom arcade video games are a new religion. The programs live in a totalitarian society controlled by artificial intelligence. And only one Master Developer can overthrow the ruler. Tron is a movie that follows its own path, leaving behind all the narratives and visual universes we've seen before.

Matrix

Original title: The Matrix Year: 1999 Director: Lana and Lilly Wachowski The Wachowski sisters (formerly brothers) changed cinema forever by using cutting-edge technology to create the ultimate masterpiece. They mixed American action clichés, the use of martial arts in the frame and fears of the approaching digital age. Compared to the digital-oriented films that are being made now, it looks quite stylish and modern. The film is in the best tradition: beware of your wishes, because they may come true. Programmer Neo suddenly discovers that his reality - a brain in a flask - is constructed by robots that use people as power sources. And he is the one who can change this.

Thirteenth floor

Original title: The Thirteenth Floor Year: 1999 Director: Josef Rusnak A sci-fi film about time travel and virtual reality. A scientist invents a computer model of reality - the city of his childhood. It is inhabited by many people who go about their daily business until the moment someone decides to play the game. The characters do not even suspect that they are just a computer simulation.