This first list of five great sci-fi films focuses on humanity’s deep ambivalence toward technology. This is arguably the oldest theme in sci-fi: It was the central focus of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, which some scholars consider the first sci-fi novel. The title of this list is taken from the line Dr. Frankenstein famously exclaims as he completes the creature who will eventually come to terrorize him in the 1931 film adaptation.[1] These films show that, despite our will to expand our control through creation, we cannot escape the fear that our creations will control us.
5. Her (2013)
Written and directed by Spike Jonze
In the near future, a lonely everyman (Joaquin Phoenix) forms a romantic relationship with an artificially intelligent operating system (voiced by Scarlett Johansson). He soon finds that romance with a hyper-intelligent being is more complicated than he anticipated. While a movie which renders our love affair with computers and smartphones as literal may sound like the stuff of parody, Jonze’s deft treatment strikes all the deepest chords. He posits that even though our own creations may grow beyond our control, our own humanity will endure. Jonze won an Oscar, Golden Globe, Saturn, and Critics’ Choice Award for the film’s screenplay.
4. Ex Machina (2015)
Written and directed by Alex Garland
Like Her, this film focuses on a young man (Domhnall Gleeson) who becomes infatuated with a feminine artificial intelligence (an android played by Alicia Vikander). In this film, however, that relationship is threatened by the android’s creator (Oscar Isaac), who has his own agenda for her and an eerie similarity to real-life tech innovators. Ex Machina shows what could happen to men’s conflicts over their creations once a creation develops her own interests. The film won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects and the Directors Guild of America Award for first time directors.
3. Jurassic Park (1993)
Based on the novel Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
Screenplay by Michael Crichton and David Koepp
Directed by Steven Spielberg
While we often focus on artificial intelligence in sci-fi films to explore humanity’s ambivalence toward our creations, sci-fi films can also turn our attention to artificial monstrosity. In Jurassic Park, an ambitious industrialist (Richard Attenborough) creates the titular theme park and populates it with clones of extinct dinosaurs. When a team of scientists (Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum) arrives to evaluate the park, carnivorous dinosaurs escape their enclosures and begin preying upon the humans. Jurassic Park won the Oscars for Best Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, and Visual Effects and the Saturn Awards for Best Writing, Director, Special Effects, and Science Fiction Film. It also introduced the science, and philosophical implications, of DNA research to millions of viewers.
2. Inception (2010)
Written and directed by Christopher Nolan
In some sci-fi films, like Her, Ex Machina, and Jurassic Park, the technological innovation has a mind of its own in order to dramatize the tension between creator and creation. In other sci-fi films, like Inception, the technological innovation escalates the internal conflicts in our own minds. In this film, an expert in the new technology of dream sharing (Leonardo DiCaprio), riskily pushes the technology as far as he can, despite being haunted by losses from his prior gambles. By questioning the reality of their experiences, the characters (and audience) inevitably question their own actions. Inception won the Oscars for Best Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Visual Effects, and Cinematography, and the Saturn Awards for Best Writing, Director, Special Effects, and Science Fiction Film.
1. The Matrix (1999)
Written and directed by the Wachowski siblings
The Matrix captures our anxiety over technology and dramatizes existential crisis more thrillingly than any other film I've seen. It tells the story of Neo (Keanu Reeves), a hacker who discovers that machines hold more control over humanity than he thought possible. That realization completely transforms how Neo sees the world and lives his life. His story also inspires us to question whether we are similarly trapped by our own paradigms. The Matrix won the Oscars for Best Film Editing, Sound, Sound Effects Editing, and Visual Effects, and the Saturn Awards for Best Director and Science Fiction Film. It also revolutionized the way Hollywood makes action movies.
Humanity’s ambivalence toward technology may be the most persistent theme in sci-fi. So much so, that audiences could be forgiven for craving sci-fi films that aren’t about technology-run-amok. In the next list, I will do my best to satisfy that craving by turning our attention upward: We will “reach for the stars.”
[1] Frankenstein (1931) is not on this list, unfortunately, because I’ve never watched it in entirety.
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