Ten Great Science Fiction Films (continued)
Continuing the list of ten great science fiction films. (Check out Part I of this series on mythology in media if you haven’t already.)
#2) Solaris (1972)
We don’t want to conquer space at all. We want to expand Earth endlessly. We don’t want other worlds; we want a mirror. We seek contact and will never achieve it. We are in the foolish position of a man striving for a goal he fears and doesn’t want. Man needs man!
Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky was not a fan of 2001: A Space Odyssey, and in many ways his film Solaris is the antithesis to it. For one thing, the contrasts between the films are striking.
- The space stations in 2001 are glorious. In Solaris, they look like run-down trailer park homes, which complement the scruffy-looking cosmonauts.
- In 2001, the hero faces the threat of AI. In Solaris, the characters face traumatic memories of lost loved ones (memories that are literally fleshed out by the “neutrino systems” of planet Solaris, which is actually a living mind).
- 2001 exalts space exploration. Solaris portrays the existential crisis we experience from being separated from our home (a crisis symbolized by the planet’s turbulent ocean surface).
Thus, the moral of Solaris is that in an era of rapid, technological progress, we’re leaving something crucial behind: each other. By obsessing over technological inventions to colonize other worlds, we may be laying waste to our own abode. Sure, technological innovation and scientific discovery are important, but not at the cost of losing people and places we love. Ultimately, it’s those beloved individuals and homelands that make us human, not technology alone.
Note on Solaris (2002)
Notwithstanding the brilliance of the Russian original, the movie was remade for American audiences in 2002. Overall, the remake is well done. Still, it’s not as great as the 1972 version, which, in the tradition of great Russia’s literary intellects (Dostoevsky, Solzhenitsyn, etc.), better captures the feeling of existential angst essential to the story.
#3) Cloud Atlas
Our lives are not our own. From womb to tomb, we are bound to others, past and present.
A slave-trade notary turned abolitionist. The tragedy of a musical genius. A journalist uncovering a corporate conspiracy. A publisher escaping a nursing home. An enslaved clone rebelling against a dystopian future. Survivors of an unexplained post-apocalyptic collapse. Cloud Atlas interweaves these six stories through seamless editing and near-perfect visual flow, making it one of the most ambitious science fiction films since 2001.
In addition, there’s a cautionary theme running across all six stories: the loss of individual freedom to byzantine machines.
When enough is never enough for an ever-expanding organization, its bloating power becomes uncontrollable, turning individuals into mere cogs in a machine. In Cloud Atlas, these machines include the slave trade, the aristocratic establishment, crony-capitalist companies, impersonal bureaucracies, totalitarian corporations, and their implosion into post-apocalyptic society.
Nevertheless, there’s a spiritual theme too: interconnectivity. For instance, as the movie progresses, each story features characters reincarnated from previous stories. These reincarnated characters are connected not just in spirit but also by pieces of technology—journals, musical recordings, hand-written letters, literature, movies, and data transmissions. After the characters reincarnate, they discover actions by their previous incarnations through those technologies.
Of course, you need not take reincarnation literally to grasp the underlying meaning. Really, the point is that our actions and technologies connect us to each other in unpredictable ways, causing ripple effects (or karma) throughout time.
#4) Back to the Future trilogy
Your future is whatever you make it. So make it a good one…
Surely, of all the trilogies in cinema, I’d argue that Back to the Future I, II, and III have the most idiosyncratic script, music, and actors. As in Cloud Atlas, there’s a theme in these science fiction films about ripple effects in time. In particular, using technology (like a time machine) to make a small change in the past can cause a ripple, or butterfly effect, that dramatically changes the future.
However, as Doc implies at the conclusion of these time-traveling adventures, what matters most are the choices we make now. After all, the current moment is when we reevaluate the past, remake the present, and set course for the future.
The three misfits of the trilogy learn this lesson well, thereby changing their lives for the better. Hence, George confronts the school bully, Marty overcomes his rashness to name calling, and Doc balances intellect and passion. In these ways, they all rewrite their destiny.
This list of ten great science fiction films will continue in Part III of this series on mythology in media.