Hard Science Fiction Movies

[cljackson]

What are some good hard sci fi movies for someone looking to get away from Star Wars and Star Trek?

 

[nimbus]

Blade Runner. In a league of its own...
Terminators
The Thing is not quite hard SF (or maybe it is, I don't really know) but has the same gritty realism and quality characters.
12 Monkeys, also not quite hard SF (or maybe it is, check it out and see) but a realistic treatment of SF premise with quality cast and plot.
Children of Men, one more of that same type, also very good.
Cloverfield if you don't mind the Blair Witch redux composition.
Daybreakers surprised me, I expected extremely low quality and it was enjoyable. Didn't regret paying the ticket for it.
Demolition Man - Saw this one again after all these years and it hasn't aged too bad. In hindsight its predictions aren't so ridiculous.
Robocop, same as above, aged not too bad (though it's getting close to its age really getting in the way) and quality premise. One of those trilogies where the first is clearly the classic.
Sunshine is not too bad. Not perfectly hard SF but a quality effort for it. One of the few very recent serious space SF movies.
Gattaca, borderline hard SF, maybe more "speculative fiction". Still, a very good movie with an arguably SF premise, as of today.
Ghost in the Shell - Animated but seriously hard SF premise and plot.
I Robot - average plot, almost dated special effects, but it binges in visions of futuristic city life. Based on Asimov novel(s) but barely recognizable as such.
Minority Report - Don't recall this one specifically, but IIRC it is hard SF. Based on a P K Dick novel and doesn't fail it too bad.
Idiocracy - Serious take on a campy premise, or vice versa. Barely any SF to it, but quality dark humor..
Lost Highway - Not SF but surreal, worth checking out unless you're strictly after SF gadgets and landscapes.
Moon - A recent one. Not too rich or fancy in plot or visuals, but a quality composition, altogether.
Scanner - Another P K Dick adaptation. Pretty damn good.
Soderbergh's Solaris - Some people call this a chick movie, but I think that it's good as a hard SF flick . A mix of love story, detective, and some themes you usually don't see seriously fleshed out outside of hard SF.
The Quiet Earth - low budget in pretty much all respects and the ending isn't totally hard SF. But the premise is: a man suddenly finds himself seemingly last man on Earth after a science experiment. The story picks up from there. A film from New Zealand.
The Road. Recent, very good.
Virtuality - Just one episode, hour long (IIRC), by the guy behind Battlestar Galactica. It wasn't picked up by networks, unfortunately. Squeezes out more quality from its low budget and format limitations than most SF series do.
Total Recall - If you haven't seen it yet.
Trancers - I've only seen the first. It's not quite hard SF, and it's old. Kinda campy, or maybe it's just too dated.
Watchmen - Three hour adaptation of the classic comic book (IIRC something like the only graphic novel to make it into some prestigious list, like the Library of Congress or TIME's top 100 all time books, or something). The only comic book film I'd recommend for hard SF. Or along with...
Unbreakable - Fairly simple movie but carefully composed by M Night Shyamalan.
Westworld - Another one that's getting old. Still pretty good if you can cope with that.

 

[docm]

Inception: not out yet, but this Christopher Nolan (Momento, Batman Begins, Dark Knight) flick is said to be a mind-blower. Some critics are saying it's Nolan's masterpiece so far.

http://uk.movies.ign.com/articles/110/1103912p1.html

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/fil ... 2197.story

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117943 ... id=31&cs=1

Metropolis: a 1926 silent that's one of the best scifi films ever - PERIOD.

2001: A Space Odyssey: a Stanley Kubrick masterpiece. That's all you need to know.

Andromeda Strain: 1971 film of the Michael Crichton novel. Another classic, even if the f/x are dated now.

Solaris: the 1972 Russian version, not the Steven Soderberg/George Clooney abomination of a remake. A classic.

Akira: 1988 anime. Excellent

THX-1138: a George Lucas scifi effort made when he gave a damn about more than milking Star Wars

Silent Running: a 1972 environmentally-themed scifi directed by Douglas Trumbull, f/x supervisor for 2001 and Andromeda Strain

The Matrix: changed scifi film making with many themes taken from Ghost In The Shell and cyberpunk.

A Clockwork Orange: Stanley Kubrick again - less scifi and more speculative fiction about a dystopian future that's almost here.

Alien, and its sequel Aliens: scifi horror done right.

 

[StarRider1701]

Jurassic Park is still pretty good and it does stay within its own science boundaries.

Alien and Aliens both excellent hard SF, realistic and fun - rent them both and watch them back to back for a very enjoyable evening. The other Alien sequels are so-so, ok depending on your tastes.

Independence Day has always been one of my favorites.

nimbus gave you a good list, have to second all the Terminator movies, great hard SF, lots of fun too. When you're tired of watching movies, read Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. Lots of great hard SF in your local library or bookstore. There's more to life than movies and many good books haven't been made into movies. Yet...

 

[docm]

Someone who knows how to do adaptations really needs to film Lucifer's Hammer. One of my favorites as well.

 

[nimbus]

Primer. Probably one of the very few most "hard" SF flick ever made. A couple of engineers serendipitously turn their world upside down after one of their garage contraptions produces inexplicable (at first) effects. Low budget, and inversely proportional to plot craftsmanship. The technical dialog's on par with the experimental storylines.

I don't get the fuss about Sorderbergh's Solaris. Every negative take on it I've seen and heard sounded like the rants Woo's Hulk got, and rants about other remakes not rigidly following traditional style and plot.

Has anyone heard news about Diamond Age's adaptation?

Also upcoming, in a couple of years, is Spielberg's Interstellar. Nolan and physicist K Thorne are involved.

 

[ZenGalacticore]

"Jurassic Park"? Ehh, what kind of an a-hole builds a helio-pad right next to a pristine waterfall? :lol:

"We spared no expense..." I like how Spielberg potrayed the lawyer as the greedy one. As if Jewish Hollywood directors are not greedy.

 

[OleNewt]

Dark City. It seems to be sort of like Inception, but based a lot more in reality.

 

[crazyeddie]

Hmmmm, if "hard" sci-fi is defined as "a category of science fiction characterized by an emphasis on scientific or technical detail, or on scientific accuracy, or on both" (according to Wikipedia), then I recommend the following, from the oldest to the newest

Metropolis
Destination Moon
The War of the Worlds (1953 version)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Conquest of Space
On the Beach
Panic in Year Zero!
Robinson Crusoe on Mars
2001: A Space Odyssey
Marooned
The Andromeda Strain
Silent Running
Alien, Aliens
2010
The Abyss
Contact
Deep Impact
The Bicentennial Man

 

[yevaud]

Since Eddie posted the above list, it is worth replying to Docm that "Deep Impact" was, in fact, pretty much Lucifer's Hammer, or at least that novel with the serial numbers filed off and (once again) poorly written and produced.

I agree, Lucifer's Hammer would be in my very short list of films to be (competently) made.

 

[kelvinzero]

I might think of some more later but this one didnt seem to be on the list:

Outland http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082869/

 

[nimbus]

Connery makes that movie, yep. A good one. Almost the same title as another SF (maybe only borderline hard SF) title, Outlander, that's also not bad (surprisingly, if you'd only read the synopsis).

Pitch Black should make the list; it's hard-SF. It's sequel "Chronicles of Riddick" probably doesn't qualify.

(sequel not prequel)

 

[crazyeddie]

I might think of some more later but this one didnt seem to be on the list:

Outland http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082869/

I almost included that one, but I left it off my list because of one absurd, unscientific premise that was featured prominently in the movie's plot: that a human body would explode of exposed to vacuum.

 

[kelvinzero]

Just for that, I am going to suggest Pluto Nash

 

[StarRider1701]

Just for that, I am going to suggest Pluto Nash

Don't know about hard SF, but Pluto Nash was certainly funny! A nice change of pace... :lol: :lol: :lol:

And if you like to laugh and want to make fun of Star Trek, go for Galaxy Quest.

 

[eburacum45]

Perhaps I have a different definition of hard SF;

2001 - A Space Odyssey The spacecraft and effects were excellent, hard SF (if a bit over-optimistic) but the Monolith and Stargate were pure Fantasy.

Blade Runner Mostly hard SF, although the flying police cars were impractical and likely unfeasible.

Silent Running Artificial gravity, poor closed ecology science and worse psychology makes ths a soft SF film pretending to be hard.

Pitch Black An astronomically impossible planet makes this one soft SF too.

Alien An unfeasibly complex lifestyle in a parasite species which relies on interstellar spacecrew as a vector; bad biological strategy, as spacecraft must be almost vanishingly rare.

Independence Day The computer virus that runs on an alien operating system was pure soft SF.

Total Recall An unrealistic depiction of the effects of low atmospheric pressure, combined with unfeasibly quick terraformation makes this one fail the hard SF test.

Each of these films have good points about them, but it is not really accurate to call them hard SF.

 

[crazyeddie]

Perhaps I have a different definition of hard SF;

Each of these films have good points about them, but it is not really accurate to call them hard SF.

Good points, indeed. Perhaps there's "hard" science fiction, and then there's "rock-hard" science fiction, for purists!

 

[StarRider1701]

Alien An unfeasibly complex lifestyle in a parasite species which relies on interstellar spacecrew as a vector; bad biological strategy, as spacecraft must be almost vanishingly rare.

Totally missed the point here, didn't you? Alien ship lands on a planet somewhere and picks up this parasite species. Who knows what hosts these things have on thier home world, but they must be big and tough! Parasites infest ship, kills crew and ship crash lands on planet where humans found it... "...relies on interstellar spacecrew as a vector..." NO! But that doesn't mean that an interstellar space crew cannot become a vector for a persistent and hardy species!

PS. Looking only at the movie Alien here, not at what some hack might have said or done in some crappy film that came later.

 

[eburacum45]

There's plenty wrong with the Xenomorph life cycle, even if it did not evolve as a method for infecting interstellar spacecrews. The egg stage is very large, for an egg, and hatches a surprisingly small intermediate stage (the facehugger) which does nothing except inject another egg into the stomach of an alien species. This egg matures into another intermediate stage (the chest-burster) which is the same size as the face-hugger, and so there has been no appreciable gain in biomass since the creature emerged from the original egg.

Finally the chest-burster grows into the large, powerful xenomorph stage- without, apparently killing and eating anyone. It then proceeds to eat almost everyone on board ship, but it remains the same size. None of this makes any biological sense.

 

[StarRider1701]

There's plenty wrong with the Xenomorph life cycle, even if it did not evolve as a method for infecting interstellar spacecrews. The egg stage is very large, for an egg, and hatches a surprisingly small intermediate stage (the facehugger) which does nothing except inject another egg into the stomach of an alien species. This egg matures into another intermediate stage (the chest-burster) which is the same size as the face-hugger, and so there has been no appreciable gain in biomass since the creature emerged from the original egg.

Finally the chest-burster grows into the large, powerful xenomorph stage- without, apparently killing and eating anyone. It then proceeds to eat almost everyone on board ship, but it remains the same size. None of this makes any biological sense.

And this is a prime example of misunderstanding the concept of Science Fiction. People like you get so mindlocked onto the minor details of the Science not 100% perfect that you forget the second half of that designation. This is Fiction after all! You aren't the only one like that here at SDC... :roll:

 

[yevaud]

There's plenty wrong with the Xenomorph life cycle...

One point that always troubled me was that the chest-burster is obviously merely the immature form of the adult alien. So it bursts out and flees. Not much later, it's huge. Tell me...what did it eat to gain that size? For that mastter, what did it ever eat?

 

[eburacum45]

There are plenty of hard SF novels out there, from the likes of Alastair Reynolds, Stephen Baxter, Charles Stross, Gregory Benford, who don't make elementary mistakes in science when writing their stories. However the movie industry doesn't seem to be ready to move in this direction just yet.

I must say I was quite impressed with Avatar in most ways- apart from the overly humanoid aliens, the technology all looked like it could work. The Valkyrie spacecraft, for example, designed by Charles Pellegrino, is the first interstellar spacecraft in film which would actually work (given a large enough supply of antimatter, which is admittedly rather expensive).

 

[nimbus]

StarRider the point he's making is that it's not hard SF.

 

[a_lost_packet_]

One point that always troubled me was that the chest-burster is obviously merely the immature form of the adult alien. So it bursts out and flees. Not much later, it's huge. Tell me...what did it eat to gain that size? For that mastter, what did it ever eat?

IIRC, in Foster's adaption it may have eaten rats. It's been decades since I read it but, IIRC, something was alluded to there. It was either that or rats AND cats. I've always been partial to sci-fi stories that do things like periodically open up portions of the ship to kill rats or have cats on board as vermin control... I've also been known to have a cruel streak imagining little kitties getting spaced.... :twisted: (jk.. maybe..)

What I had a problem with was Ash's backstory. Did the Corp know about the planet beforehand and the possibility of a weaponizable species or was Ash just a corporate plant that happened to be in the right place and the right time? If they knew beforehand, why send the Nostromo instead of another expedition? If they had already sent an expedition that failed and went with a secret second-mission using the crew as bait, what's the story surrounding the first expedition/contact?

On hard Sci-Fi authors, I prefer the Killer B's - Benford, Bear and Brin. Brin would be at the low end of "Hard" but he definitely pays attention to the right way to do it.

On Hard Science Fiction Movies, that's a killer... There really aren't that many. Most of them are NOT the huge galactic space-battle, hi-tech wizbang stuff people love to see. Most are that sort of "Art Nouveau'ish" style like Blade Runner or limited near-future tech like Minority Report, the Final Cut, Runaway, etc... IOW, stuff that deals with Sci-Fi but focuses on the story more than just displaying the tech.

As long as technology is not explained by solutions that are "magical" then it's reasonable science fiction. Hard Sci-Fi implies a rigorous observance of rational explanations for technology, in most cases. But, for me, it also needs to address how that rationally derived tech impacts people, culture and society in some way for it to truly be Hard Science Fiction. Alien is a good example because the impact of technological advancements are clearly demonstrated. It's carried out seamlessly and is virtually transparent to the viewer.

 

[yevaud]

One good one was The Puppet Masters, done back in the 90's. It was damned good, faithful to Heinlein's novel (unlike that abomination of a movie, Starship Troopers), and was not once "hokey." Definitely "Hard" SF.

Since I was mentioning Heinlein...

the impact of technological advancements are clearly demonstrated. It's carried out seamlessly and is virtually transparent to the viewer.

He once wrote of how he did these things, such as making the simple comment in a story, "...and the door irised open." Seamless, as you say.