Sci-fi films that make you think

Domo said:
Dunno why some are saying Starship Troopers made them think :confused:
Not really a brain teaser in anyway!
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Never read the book then? cause the film might be a bit different but it still makes a quite big point about misplaced sense of duty, pointless wars, media manipulation and if you dig a little deeper its a massive dig at communism versus captialism...
 
Velocity219e said:
Never read the book then? cause the film might be a bit different but it still makes a quite big point about misplaced sense of duty, pointless wars, media manipulation and if you dig a little deeper its a massive dig at communism versus captialism...
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Actually it's mostly a massive urine-take of the Americans...


I'm inclined to agree with DF about Total Recall, but possibly not for the same reasons. Despite having almost nothing to do with the original PKD story, odd bits of his ideas linger on: how to distinguish between reality and illusion, the nature of memory, how to reconcile conflicting memories etc.


But in general most SF films aren't designed to make you think. Even where the source book was intelligent ("Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep") the resulting film ("Blade Runner") is so dumbed-down that only low-level thought is involved. Compared with the best written SF, even the best film SF is pretty tame. I'd give Kudos to Solaris though - both versions. The US version was much more faithful to the original Tarkovsky version than I expected. If people think the American one is hard work, try the 3hours+ Russian one. Also from Tarkovsky, "Stalker" is hard work - but again not as good as the book it is based on.


M
 
Katoom said:
Donnie darko, still not sure what its about, time travel? good film though!
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My take on it is this, in a nutshell:

Donnie sees his "chosen" path - let's say "destiny" or "god's will" as an abstract, and see's that by deviating from his destiny life for others (specifically the girl) will be FAR worse....

In the end, he knows his fate, but knows if he deviates from it he makes her suffer and life for many other people turns out for the worse. So he looks up to his ceiling and smiles knowing that this is his path, and he is bound to it, knowing that he will die so that she may live....

Discuss. :cool:
 
S7yl3s said:
12 Monkeys
The Butterfly Effect
The Original Matrix
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Agreed, I thought Butterfly would be terrible because Aston Kutcher was in it, but I like this kind of film that you just sit and think and go... wow!

I used to LOVE the Matrix, back when it was ONE FILM. The other 2 have COMPLTEELY and TOTALLY ruined the whole thing...

If you could go back to the original matrix and just ponder it, it was amazing... really really amazing, and the other 2 blew this to crap :( If only it could have been just 2 films, with the second one being completely different lol...
 
Docaroo said:
My take on it is this, in a nutshell:

Donnie sees his "chosen" path - let's say "destiny" or "god's will" as an abstract, and see's that by deviating from his destiny life for others (specifically the girl) will be FAR worse....

In the end, he knows his fate, but knows if he deviates from it he makes her suffer and life for many other people turns out for the worse. So he looks up to his ceiling and smiles knowing that this is his path, and he is bound to it, knowing that he will die so that she may live....

Discuss. :cool:
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Excellent explanation. My hat is well and truly off

Jacobs Ladder
Videodrome
 
Donnie Darko was good, you have to watch it at least twice to get the full effect of it though as the first time you really dont know whats going on.

Another film I really liked and made me think was K-Pax.

Saw that on TV and its all just pure genious acting imo, no real special effects just a good sci-fi plot with a decent message about human nature.
 
cleanbluesky said:
Excellent explanation. My hat is well and truly off
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Why thanks!! I use that to explain to many people who say they don't get it... it seems the simplest, easiest to grasp way of thinking about the movie... but I haven't seen any commentaries or anything so I don't know if they mention other ideas :confused:

cheets64 said:
Nobody has said Contact, abit drawn out, take out all the side storys and the sci fi bit is sweet.
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nooo... words...... should've....sent.... a .. poett.......

..... noooo.....woorrddsss........ should've....... beautiful.... no ... words.....

lol
 
The Andromeda Strain - Just love the menacing computer graphics at the end. 601!!! :eek:

The Day the Earth Caught Fire - (Second favourite bit of 50's/60's sci-fi, after Forbidden Planet)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (70's Remake) - At the end, was Donald Sutherland really one of them?
 
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