Help complete my classic sci-fi movie education

[jamesotron]

Hey all.

After listening to "Impossible Dreams" I can't help but think about all the classic films that I have missed out on, so I thought it might be a good idea to collect suggestions for the best sci-fi movies that we all should have seen, I'm listing movies I have seen, just incase you haven't:

• Barbarella
• Forbidden Planet
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
• Fahrenheit 451
• Plan9 from Outer Space
• The Day The Earth Stood Still
• Metropolis
• War of the Worlds (1953 version)
• Invasion of the body snatchers
• Evil Dead (all three)
• Blade Runner
• Star Wars IV: A New Hope
• This Island Earth
• The Time Machine (1960)
• Jason and the Argonauts
• Planet of the Apes (1968)
• The Quiet Earth (really this is just my patriotism in action)
• The Last Starfighter
• Tron
• Logans Run (1976, not the most likely terrible remake)
• The Matrix
• Strange Days

Well, there's a start. I'm interested in what people think and what suggestions they have.

[slic]

I'm surprised Matrix isn't on your list - that is definitely a classic.  And the Evil Dead trilogy isn't really sci-fi (here we go again ), more campy horror.  Same with Jason and the Argonauts, though that's fantasy - even still, it is among my personal favourites. 

Which version of Planet of the Apes - the Marky Mark version was crap compared to Charlton Heston.

Maybe add Strange Days.

I've seen A Quiet Earth, and other than the really really strange ending, I really enjoyed it.

[jamesotron]

Re the Matrix, I left it off my list because I only wanted _good_ movies 
But seriously, I didn't think of it - mainly because I don't tend to think of the Matrix as being original in any way - it's mainly just a westernised manga flick, and a derivative one at that.  Still, I'll add it at your suggestion.

You're right, I mean the Charlton Heston version of Planet of the Apes, not the campy remake ("You damn dirty ape!").

[Michael]

You have some of the worst films ever made on your list!  (Plan 9 is truly, truly awful -- better to watch the film about the man who made it Ed Wood (1994) -- that won an Oscar.)

Suggest You scratch some of the above (Missing out is a relative term--I have adopted the philosophy that life is too short for movies rated below 5.0 on the IMDB)

Additions:

The Omega Man
Silent Running
Alien
When Worlds Collide
Day of The Triffids

[ClintMemo]

If you add Alien, then also add Aliens (the second movie), but skip movies 3 and 4.
If you want something a bit more weird and off-beat, you might also look at
Dark City
Donny Darko
Twelve Monkeys
Brazil

[slic]

I also recommend 12 Monkeys and Dark City!  Both great mind benders with a twist, well written, well acted.

[Simon]

Hmm.. Just to hold up the slightly artier end of the SF movie spectrum:

Gattaca
Solaris (The Tarkovsky version although I like the Sodbergh too)
Stalker
The City Of Lost Children
The Fifth Element
Primer

[slic]

Hmm.. Just to hold up the slightly artier end of the SF movie spectrum:

Gattaca
Solaris (The Tarkovsky version although I like the Sodbergh too)
Stalker
The City Of Lost Children
The Fifth Element
Primer

I dunno about "classics"   Gattaca wasn't bad, and while I really enjoyed The Fifth Element I wouldn't make it as anything new.  I somewhat agree with jamesotron about the Matrix being heavily influenced by Anime - it was "new" to sci-fi live action film and broke new ground with the special effects.

[FNH]

You asked for opinions ( I am Mr Rent-an-opinion )

• Barbarella ( Forget it, trash )
• Forbidden Planet ( Classic  you need this )
• 2001: A Space Odyssey ( Good but only as a prequel to 2010 which is the classic )
• Fahrenheit 451 ( Yawn )
• Plan9 from Outer Space ( Good laugh but not Classic )
• The Day The Earth Stood Still ( Classic )
• Metropolis ( Never seen it, kicking myself for that )
• War of the Worlds (1953 version) ( Classic )
• Invasion of the body snatchers (  Classic )
• Evil Dead (Out of context)
• Blade Runner ( Classic )
• Star Wars IV: A New Hope ( Classic )
• This Island Earth ( Classic )
• The Time Machine (1960)
• Jason and the Argonauts ( (Classic )
• Planet of the Apes (1968) ( Classic )
• The Quiet Earth ( Never seen it so it must be rubbish :-) )
• The Last Starfighter ( Classic )
• Tron ( Classic )
• Logans Run ( Classic , as in, slow and boring)
• The Matrix ( Dont go there )
• Strange Days ( dont know it, so must be rubbish )

[SFEley]

Dark City
Donny Darko
Twelve Monkeys
Brazil

Thank you for mentioning Donnie Darko.  That is one twisted movie, and almost unquestionably science fiction.  >8->

When asked questions like this, I like to dig up independent movies I think no one's ever heard of.  From that angle: everyone's seen Cube, right?

And Primer is a must-see for any SF fan with a logical mindset.  It's a very down-to-earth time travel movie, rigorous and consistent throughout, with characters who act like engineers.  See it and you'll appreciate how rare that is.  And how scary it can be.  (It was also the very first EP movie review, BTW.)

[SFEley]

And Primer is a must-see for any SF fan with a logical mindset.  It's a very down-to-earth time travel movie, rigorous and consistent throughout, with characters who act like engineers.

Oh. And from that perspective, we mustn't forget Apollo 13.

Yes, I know it isn't a science fiction movie.  So what?  It's still a better science fiction movie than most science fiction movies.  (Come on, portions of it were filmed in free fall!) 

It's also one of the very few movies I've ever seen where engineers and scientists are sincerely treated like heroes.  I am not much of an engineer or scientist, but I'm a groupie.  My wife is a chemist; many of the people I've had crushes on over the years have been engineers.  I truly believe that good engineering can be heroic.  And here, in this movie, you had engineers directly saving lives, on screen, and getting their props for it.  The "round peg in the square hole" scene made my heart sing.

[Kurt Faler]

Charly (Flowers for Algernon) 1968 version.

[Simon]

I dont know *HOW* I forgot this one.. It is, after all, my all time favourite SF movie:

Capricorn One.

Fuck yeah!

Mars landings faked, Watergate-esque conspiracies.... Absolutely singing 70's dialogue (I love the bits with either Elliot Gould or Hal Holbrook...) It's a fascinating character study into political evil.  Just about the best movie about the dangers of government research ever made.

I love it, all the way down to O.J dying in the desert, and the roaring biplane chase with Telly Savales.

If you watch it expecting a Star Wars, you will be disappointed.. But as a study in political evil, it makes The Parallax View and The Manchurian Candidate look like bad episodes of The X Files.

Did I mention it had a score by Jerry Goldsmith?

Did I also mention that the reason that everything falls apart is because The Heat Shields Fail (exactly as happened on Columbia)?   

Fuck Yeah!

[Michael]

Bubba Ho-Tep?

http://www.bubbahotep.com/

What makes a classic?

 

[jamesotron]

Thanks all. I'm getting some really great stuff here.

Capricon One was great. OJ Simpson's death scene was so insanely great.
Charly sounds great. The book as amazing.
Primer sounds great, I'll check the EP archives for the review.
Cube was a pile of crap. What kind of lame arse maths genius can't figure out if a number ending in 5 is a prime?!?
Dark City was great, although I'm not sure it's a classic.
Brazil is definitely a classic.
Twelve Monkeys and Donny Darko, while both great films don't seem antiquated enough to meet my probably eronious definition of classic.

I'd like to throw onto the pile a couple more:

They Live
Clockwork Orange

[wakela]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned The Thing, either one. 

If the purpose of this list is education, I would add Frankenstein (1931) and Bride of Frankenstein. 

[Michael]

They Live is one of the best science fiction movies of all time. 



"This Is Your God"

[Simon]

Harryhausen, and not a film about greek gods either.

[ClintMemo]

I never saw "Cube" but I did see the sequel, Hypercube, which I thought was cool.

They Live: "I came here to kick ass and chew bubblegum and I'm all out of bubble gum."   
If we are getting in to campy stuff, then you have to include "Escape from New York," though I like "Big Trouble in Little China" more.

Forbidden Planet is excellent and I can't believe (and am grateful) that no one has remade it yet.

I'm surprised no on has mentioned "The Abyss" and a movie that everyone raves about that I haven't yet seen "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"

[Listener]

I really liked The Abyss.

Terminator 2 was very good.  I liked it better than the first one.

Code 46 is not a classic but it was still pretty interesting, very slickly-produced for a "low budget" sci fi film.

I don't know, I'm not much for "classic" SF.

[ClintMemo]

Another pretty good classic - "Colossus: The Forbin Project"

You also might peruse IMDB's top 100 Sci-Fi list here
http://www.imdb.com/chart/scifi

though it has some that aren't sci-fi at all, like "Failsafe" (an excellent movie) and others that are more horror or fantasy.

[SFEley]

I never saw "Cube" but I did see the sequel, Hypercube, which I thought was cool.

Oh, my sympathies.  I thought Cube was vastly better than the sequel.  It was tight, it was tense, the characters were well-drawn.  It also obeyed the laws of physics (if not plausibility), which the second film went out of its way to break.  The rooms and traps were clever, but they were purely mechanical and could be solved by real-world thinking and teamwork.

Unfortunately, the premise and most of the character archetypes of the second movie were directly lifted from the first one; if you watched Cube now there would be few surprises.  I'd still recommend it, though, just for the fun of it.  And to see how much one suspense one can accomplish with a movie that was shot entirely in a single 14x14x14 foot room.  >8->

[jamesotron]

Of course, how could I forget to mention Pi? Probably because it's one of my favourite movies or all time

[Zathras]

Three movies not mentioned:
Starship Troopers: mediocre but cool special effects
Battlefield Earth:  terrible.
Enemy Mine:  saw it when I was young and liked it, not sure how it held up.

[Thaurismunths]

I never saw "Cube" but I did see the sequel, Hypercube, which I thought was cool.

Oh, my sympathies.  I thought Cube was vastly better than the sequel.
<snip>
And to see how much one suspense one can accomplish with a movie that was shot entirely in a single 14x14x14 foot room.  >8->

Oh yes, Cube. What a GREAT movie!
Now, maybe this is just me, but did Resident Evil 1 give a nod to Cube? I'm thinking of how the first prisoner bites it in the Cube, and how one of the guys bites it trying to reach the Red Queen.

How about Flight Of The Navigator?

[Listener]

Of course, how could I forget to mention Pi? Probably because it's one of my favourite movies or all time

I wasn't blown away by Pi.

How about Flight Of The Navigator?

I think I still have that on tape somewhere.

For some decent silly sci-fi, there's The Cat From Outer Space.

[jamesotron]

Of course there's Disney's "The Black Hole" probably the second best disney film ever made (after Tron).  Maximillion was such a great badass.

Also, John Carpenter's "Dark Star".

Is it just me, or do I like my sci-fi with a helping of cheese?  Perhaps EP should run some nice cheesy spaceship radioesque cheese some time soon.  That would rule.

(I've just noticed that half of the movies mentioned here as my favourites are listed in the "Sci-Fi we can do without" (http://forum.escapeartists.info/index.php?topic=771.0) thread.  Awesome.)

[ClintMemo]

(I've just noticed that half of the movies mentioned here as my favourites are listed in the "Sci-Fi we can do without" (http://forum.escapeartists.info/index.php?topic=771.0) thread.  Awesome.)

That's only because I had forgotten about "The Black Hole." 
Now I'm starting to remember it again  ACK!!
(quickly runs to other thread...)

[Alasdair5000]

And Primer is a must-see for any SF fan with a logical mindset.  It's a very down-to-earth time travel movie, rigorous and consistent throughout, with characters who act like engineers.

Oh. And from that perspective, we mustn't forget Apollo 13.

Yes, I know it isn't a science fiction movie.  So what?  It's still a better science fiction movie than most science fiction movies.  (Come on, portions of it were filmed in free fall!) 

It's also one of the very few movies I've ever seen where engineers and scientists are sincerely treated like heroes.  I am not much of an engineer or scientist, but I'm a groupie.  My wife is a chemist; many of the people I've had crushes on over the years have been engineers.  I truly believe that good engineering can be heroic.  And here, in this movie, you had engineers directly saving lives, on screen, and getting their props for it.  The "round peg in the square hole" scene made my heart sing.

   One of my all time favourites, both for that reason and how perfectly the movie embodies the idea of the mission being Nasa's 'Greatest' failiure.  Also, Ed Harris as Chris Kraft is astonishing in a cast packed full of good performances.  There's a moment at the end which makes me blub like a good 'un every time I watch it, where Kraft sits down and you realise that that's the first time he's done so since the mission went wrong.  It's a staggering piece of physical acting, relief and fatigue and emotion all perfectly communicated absolutely silently.

   As for other recommendations:

-Cube 0 is actually quite interesting and provides some unusual hints as to why the project may have begun in the first place.

-The Quatermass Experiment-Classic '50s SF produced by Hammer.  Experiment is interesting for how seriously it treats its source material whilst Quatermass II and Quatermass and the Pit expand on the existing background in very interesting and in the case of the Pit, utterly bloody demented ways.  Also worth tracking down is the BBC live version from a couple of years ago featuring David Tennant and Mark Gatiss in supporting roles and Jason Flemyng doing excellent work as an unusually young Quatermass.

-The 13th Floor-The least well known of the VR movies that hit at the same time as The Matrix it's also probably the best of the bunch.  It's also, just to be irritating and enigmatic, one of those films that you enjoy so much more if you know nothing about it.  But trust me, it is worth your time.

[Lar]

Ed Harris played Gene Kranz.  Gene was NASA's flight director during the Gemini and Apollo programs.

Failure is not an option.

[DKT]

I'm jumping in a bit late but here are some additions to the list:

Classics:
*Blade Runner
*Alien
*Aliens
*Back to the Future
*Close Encounters of the Third Kind
*ET
*The Terminator (I know someone mentioned T2, but I really liked the original

As far as good SF movies that have been made recently:
*A Scanner Darkly
*Children of Men

[Alasdair5000]

Ed Harris played Gene Kranz.  Gene was NASA's flight director during the Gemini and Apollo programs.

Failure is not an option.

Oh hell you're right.  Sorry about the mix up.  Oh and another vote for Children of Men.  Astonishingly good movie.

[oddpod]

loved Children of Men
did any one else think the visuals had much in comen whith parts of half life 2?

[Planish]

THX 1138, written and directed by George Lucas, 1971. http://imdb.com/title/tt0066434/
Low-budget early work by Lucas. Think Nineteen Eighty-four with really bright lighting and white walls.

The Toxic Avenger - http://imdb.com/title/tt0090190/ - well, maybe it's an aquired taste, as are all the other Troma productions - http://imdb.com/company/co0019150/ - with titles like "Redneck Zombies" (rednecks drink radioactive waste), "Surf Nazis Must Die" (I forget the premise) and "Nuke-Em High" (teens smoke irradiated pot). Totally ridiculous wastes of time, unless you enjoy them.

ditto on The Abyss.

Jacob's Ladder - Not exactly sci-fi except for the element of testing of psychotropic drugs on troops, but I really enjoyed it. Maybe more in the Horror genre, with an interesting ending.

David Lynch's Dune, mostly for the set design. And because I like David Lynch.

[Planish]

Forbidden Planet is excellent and I can't believe (and am grateful) that no one has remade it yet.

Some guy named Bill Shakespeare totally ripped it off and calls it The Tempest.

[Ananzi]

I recommend "The Day the Earth Stood Still" if you haven't seen it .Also "THEM",both classic SciFi movies.
"Mad Max 2:The Road Warrior" could be fun if you haven't seen it...

[scottbp]

Well coming to this conversation a little late...
but was surprised that no one mentioned "the andromeda strain" which I have always considered a great work of sci fi.
Also, regarding "invasion of the body snatchers," make sure you check out the 70s AND the 50s versions... both are important for differing reasons

[Leon Kensington]

Silent Running (great song even greater movie)

[Chodon]

I'm totally drawing a blank on the title of a great movie that should be added to this list...maybe you can help.

It's got characters called something like "gravitron priests". I know that's not it, because google came up empty, but it's similar.  They study the statistics of gunfights and learn to minimize their chances of being hit, and the best statistical places to aim.  Everyone has to pop pills provided by the gov't to keep them happy...it's a good story with good action.  Anyone know what movie I'm talking about?

[Mr. Tweedy]

Those would be "Gramaton Clerics" from the movie Equilibrium.  Decent story with some memorable fight sequences.  Well worth seeing, but I wouldn't call it a classic.

[Chodon]

Bingo!  Thanks, that would have bugged me all day.  Yeah, I wouldn't call it a classic, but it was a good sci-fi flick that not many people have seen.  I might go rent it tonight...

[jamesotron]

I haven't popped in in a few days, but boy you guys just keep it coming.  My poor old Bittorrent client is getting pretty full with all your suggestions

[jamesotron]

what was the movie that starts with a fire on a space shuttle and then has two naked vampires?

[Alasdair5000]

Lifeforce!  Lifeforce is brilliant, sort of like a Doctor Who story with extra blood and lesbian space vampires.  Top film:)

[Tango Alpha Delta]

Only here could one find that kind of Q&A.

Why did I ever stop reading?

Everything I could think to add to the list was mentioned by someone; but has a Kzin ever appeared onscreen?  If so, I want to see it.

[Ocicat]

has a Kzin ever appeared onscreen?  If so, I want to see it.

A Kzin from Larry Niven's Ringworld and other Known Space stories?  Sure, they've had a screen appearance on Star Trek  *mumble* the animated series...

[Tango Alpha Delta]

has a Kzin ever appeared onscreen?  If so, I want to see it.

A Kzin from Larry Niven's Ringworld and other Known Space stories?  Sure, they've had a screen appearance on Star Trek  *mumble* the animated series...

That's the Kzin I was thinking of... but I forgot about that cameo(w).  I was hoping someone might have heard rumors of a film, though.  Maybe if we started enough rumors, a studio might take the hint?

[CyBerend]

Well, this is some kind of miracle-thread for me: with the exeption of 'A scanner Darkly', which I haven't seen yet, I know - and for the most part - love every single one of the movies that were mentioned. This is truly a forum of likeminded folk :-)

Trying to come up with stuff that no one mentioned, but I have scanned the thread rather quickly, so I may have missed these:
- The Black Hole, riding on scifi wave created by Star Wars this Disney movie can be regarded as the ultimate derivative film. Visuals with a very Gerry Anderson (Thunderbirds, Space1999) feel, and a rehashed script from their own 20.000 leagues under the sea movie. But also: a very cool space-fortress ship, very effective sfx, nice casting and an ominous evil robot. I even loved the religious ending.
- Battle Beyond the Stars, talking about derivative, this Roger Corman production actually looks pretty big budget for once. It's The Magnificent Seven in Space, which was Seven Samurai in the west to begin with. Includes George 'Hannibal' Peppard als Space Cowboy, the Man From UNCLE and that guy that used to be John-Boy or something in one of those Idyllic Wild West (little house on the prairie?) series.
- Message from Space, Japanese attempt at making a Star Wars movie. Silliness that now had become quite commonplace, like sailing spaceships looking like 19th centrury clippers. The only movie I've seen that I don't actually own in some format or another, so I'm scetchy on the details. Didn't it revolve around some magical nuts? Weren't these things called Liabe-nuts?
Starcrash- David Hasselhof. Need we say any more? Okay then, Christopher Plummer as the emperor, and an evil count that actually does the "Mwhoehahaha"-evil laugh. A lot. And he lives in a space-castle-station that is shaped like a hand. When the hand is attacked it clenches like a fist. The movie was made after Star Wars, but looks like it was made in the sixties - at which time it would have impressed us all a lot more than it did in 1979 (or there abouts). Full of Harryhausen-type (not quite the quality) stop motion effects. Wonderful, wonderful sillyness.

I'll try to think of more...

[Cognosco]

Here's another one that may not yet be on anyone's list of "classics", but I believe would stand up with most of the others listed above:  "Until The End of the World" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101458/) also known by German title "Bis ans Ende der Welt". 

Sorry for posting to this thread so long after everyone else stopped.  The aliens just returned me to Earth last week and I'm catching up on all my emails and stuff.

[wintermute]

And Primer is a must-see for any SF fan with a logical mindset.  It's a very down-to-earth time travel movie, rigorous and consistent throughout, with characters who act like engineers.

Oh. And from that perspective, we mustn't forget Apollo 13.

Yes, I know it isn't a science fiction movie.  So what?  It's still a better science fiction movie than most science fiction movies.  (Come on, portions of it were filmed in free fall!) 

It's also one of the very few movies I've ever seen where engineers and scientists are sincerely treated like heroes.  I am not much of an engineer or scientist, but I'm a groupie.  My wife is a chemist; many of the people I've had crushes on over the years have been engineers.  I truly believe that good engineering can be heroic.  And here, in this movie, you had engineers directly saving lives, on screen, and getting their props for it.  The "round peg in the square hole" scene made my heart sing.

My movie-watching plans have a tendency to change from moment to moment, but I have a house to myself tonight, so I plan to watch at least two movies. And I think Apollo 13 deserves to be seen again.

Thanks, Steve.

[Windup]

Time Bandits.  Deeply weird, and possibly not as good as I remember, but hey, it has a Sean Connery cameo...

[stePH]

Time Bandits.  Deeply weird, and possibly not as good as I remember, but hey, it has a Sean Connery cameo...

And The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.  Deeply weird, and possibly not as good as I remember, but hey, it has a Robin Williams cameo... 

[corporatewhore]

No one's mentioned WarGames

[corporatewhore]

Oh yeah,

Krull

[Sandikal]

I didn't see "Village of the Damned" listed.  I really liked both versions of the movie.  You can't beat creepy half-alien kids. 

I'm big on post-apocalyptic fiction.  "The Quiet Earth" was one of my favorite films in that sub-genre. 

[stePH]

I'm big on post-apocalyptic fiction.  "The Quiet Earth" was one of my favorite films in that sub-genre. 

Speaking of which, I plan to re-watch A Boy and His Dog tonight.