The Proverbial Great SF Movie

[The Laughing Vulcan]

For time travel and AIs there's always Terminator, which manages to combine the two very successfully.

How would you categorise Dark City? That's one of my favourite sci-fi movies.

Since you already mentioned Akira, a couple more worthy sci-fi anime would be Ghost in the Shell (influential on the Matrix), and Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise, an alternate world space race story.

 

[HIjol]

Third Trope: Evolutionary Travel
Kind of like:
William "Deadpan" Hurt in "Altered States" meets John Darnton's "Neanderthal" flavored with a little "Galaxia"

Proverbial best SF Movies?

Forbidden Planet
The Day the Earth Stood Still
The Time Machine
A Wrinkle in Time (the Movie in my head, it is really good!)
Aliens
Terminator I and II
2001
2010
The first "DDD Time-Babes on the Planet of Buns-Up"
(2 and 3 were just too shallow for me)

 

[Admiral2]

The first "DDD Time-Babes on the Planet of Buns-Up"
(2 and 3 were just too shallow for me)

They weren't shallow. They were just more expansive and vibrant with the subject matter.

 

[HIjol]

The first "DDD Time-Babes on the Planet of Buns-Up"
(2 and 3 were just too shallow for me)

They weren't shallow. They were just more expansive and vibrant with the subject matter.

You know, now that I remember it, they had that Guy with the Voice doing the overdub of the description of those movies, and he was using words like "vibrant" and "expansive!" He may have also said, "pliant!" Huh. I thought it was just the hype. Might be time for a re-screen! Thanks for the new perspective!

 

[Australis]

"DDD Time-Babes on the Planet of Buns-Up"

I must find this film. For Science!

 

[wulfio]

I started this thread elsewhere, and a mod said it may be better done, say, here, so...

Question for fans of Big SF.

By now a lot of you will have seen '[Interstellar', and quite a few the short 'Wanderers' on YT. I was thinking about how they hark back to the "proverbial good SF moive" that Kubrick aimed to make in '2001'. SInce then (Sixties) we've had a couple of others, like 'Solaris'.

I was thinking about this, and how I'd like to write a script like that, then the idea popped into my head: what about the "proverbial good SF trilogy"? WTH? But with a big difference: each movie would embrace a particular SF trope, while still using mostly the same leads over the three stories, a little like 'Cloud Atlas' (which I have not seen but heard good thing about). So two of them would be space travel and time travel. But I'm a bit stumped as to what the third one would be. apocalypse? Alien invasion? The robots? Dystopia?

So, what are your thoughts? Two questions:
What would your choice nbe as the big SF trope outside the 2 I mentioned?
What films are, to you, the proverbial good SF films?

Count Zero also said:

For me, the third trope would be artificial intelligence. It could be combined with robots/androids, i.e. artificial life.

Some suggestions already:
District 9, Moon, Children of Men, Solaris (both versions are solid), Alien, Inception, Carpenter's The Thing, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Twelve Monkeys, Interstellar, Akira. Moon, Automata.

What else? And what should the third idea be?

The bolded, and AI as well, seem very cliche if I'm understanding correctly what your ambition is for the first 2, based on your comparison to 2001. Plus, if you're dealing with time travel in the 2nd part, AI seems like a massive step backwards for the 3rd installment.

If you're going to have AI, then I would suggest more along the lines of AI -> Space -> Time. AI is more attainable for us today than interstellar travel. Though again, for me, it's just very cliche right now.

So, assuming the same actors are being used in different time periods re: cloud atlas... My suggestion is being loosely inspired by the divine comedy, sans religious subtext.

inferno - space
purgatory - time
paradise - ascension/evolution

Take the final part how you may. Whether it's becoming "q like", or simply taking the next leap(small one) in human evolution to make it more palatable for a general audience. The protagonists are the ones evolving, and the antagonists may be the ones that are being left behind. With all the possible confrontations and issues that surround that kind of plot.

That to me, is the final progression for epic sci-fi narratives.

Good sci-fi for me? I'm all over the place... 2001 of course, moon, alien, blade runner, enemy mine, etc. Then again, I love me some Ice Pirates and The Last Starfighter as well.

 

[shivkala]

I'm going to throw Back to the Future in here. Sure, it doesn't have space travel, but it does have time travel. I'd go with Terminator 2 over the original.

I think the issue here is that "Sci-Fi" is such a broad genre, as we've got so many variations of it with Sci-Fi comedy, Sci-Fi horror, Sci-Fi drama, "Hard" Sci-Fi, Future Sci-Fi, alternative history Sci-Fi, etc.

It might be easier to pick one of the many Sci-Fi sub-genres and then work from there.

 

[HIjol]

"DDD Time-Babes on the Planet of Buns-Up"

I must find this film. For Science!

<Hijol, in his very best "Peter Lorre">

Masthter, Masthter, there is a hm transmission, hm hm, coming in on frequency, hm, Delta Delta Delta...The message, <snort> is repeating, hm, something snnish about a film festival on a planet hm hm called "Buns-Up." Shall I hm hm hm lower forward Corset and Lingerie Shields?...hm hm?

 

[Australis]

<Australis, in his very best "Sydney Greenstreet">
Oh yes, m'dear fellow, by all means. You are a card, sir, an absolute card!.

 

[Australis]

Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone. I still haven't decided, but there is much to thinkl about.

Space and time travel lend themselves easily to epic adventure and deep thinking at the same time, whether it's the distances involved or the looping through eras to return things to the way they were. It's the "going there and coming back" that will be the key. This doesn't mean a reset at the end of each section/genre, but it does mean fhat the other subgenre has to have as big a concept to stand beside them.

 

[HIjol]

It was/is a cool thread idea and fun to contribute to and to think about!

 

[Australis]

And we can keep it going.

The hard part is going to be avoiding what has been done before. Like Stargate: Contuinuum unsetting then resetting the same timeline.Or Terminator, which combinbes the dystopia and robots and time travel ideas.

(Thought for today: when someone goes back and changes the past, why does it never work out better rahter than worse? I've seen that in precisely one film, Timequest, whih is well worth looking for if you haven't seen it).

More later.

 

[HIjol]

Thanks, I will check it out. I agree the concept should be fresh, and options in that catagory are relatively few. I like the "internal" travel because one can be so creative with it, and come up with any number of "travels." I have also been hooked on Gibson's stuff since first I read it, and even got to ask him at a signing about making his words into movies. He was all for it, but shared a barely understandable to laypeople explanation, using Neuromancer as an example. Something about one entity buying if for development, and then having the option expire but a second entity had all kind of hoop jumping and hand tying and then a syndicate blah blah blah and before you know it, all the hoops and jumps and bullshit made the property exhorbitantly expensive and way too complicated to make. Better our own stuff, Methinks!

 

[HIjol]

And we can keep it going.

The hard part is going to be avoiding what has been done before. Like Stargate: Contuinuum unsetting then resetting the same timeline.Or Terminator, which combinbes the dystopia and robots and time travel ideas.

(Thought for today: when someone goes back and changes the past, why does it never work out better rahter than worse? I've seen that in precisely one film, Timequest, whih is well worth looking for if you haven't seen it).

More later.

Just some random thoughts and meanderings;

Somthing to do with Genetic/Racial Memory. Not exaclty like Jung's stuff, but along those lines.

Thinking more about Gibson and what he wrote in Neuromancer (1984) and Burning Chrome (1982) and also Count Zero Interrupt (1986)...some of that stuff is already here!

Subspace/Black Hole Beings - we could tap Dryson's Knowledge and Expertise here...

thoughts?

 

[Australis]

I'd really like to do a Gibson-style cyberpunk story. Neuromancer is the reason I work in IT at all. You have of course read Mona Lisa Overdrive as the final part of the Sprawl trilogy?

There is of course 'Johnny Mnemonic', based on a Sprawl short from Burning Chrome, and I've seen a Brit version of 'The Cernsback Continuum', and 'New Rose Hotel', which I haven't seen but has Christopher Walken and Willem Dafoe.

It would be intriguing to try to tie cyberpunk, filled with hi-tech low-lifes, to the shining visions and high ideals of an 'Interstellar'-style space travel story (see the short 'Wanderers') and the desperate mystery and looping back of a time travel story (see Crichton's 'Timescape'). Hmmmmmm.

(sidenote: I also think Gibson's 'The Winter Market' would make a great screenplay, if the mind state idea (that eg, produces the 'Ghost Dance' sequence) could be clearly translated to the screen.)

ETA: note sure about black holes etc, but it could be interesting to tie genetic memory to time travel, and maybe with the ancient technology genre.

 

[Set Harth]

and also Count Zero Interrupt (1986)

Actually it's just called Count Zero.

and 'New Rose Hotel', which I haven't seen but has Christopher Walken and Willem Dafoe.

I've seen it once (rented the tape!). I don't remember much about it except that it wasn't very good. Total B movie territory.

 

[HIjol]

I'd really like to do a Gibson-stylke cyberpounk story. Neuromancer is the reason I work in IT at all. You have of course read Mona Lisa Overdrive as the final part of the Sprawl trilogy?

There is of course 'Johnny Mnemonic', based on a Sprawl short from Burning Chrome, and I've seen a Brit version of 'The Cernsback Continuum', and 'New Rose Hotel', which I haven't seen but has Christopher Walken and Willem Dafoe.

It would be intriguing to try to tie cyberpunk, filled with hi-tech low-lifes, to the shining visions and high ideals of an 'Interstellar'-style space travel story (see the short 'Wanderers') and the desperate mystery and looping back of a time travel story (see Crichton's 'Timescape'). Hmmmmmm.

(sidenote: I also think Gibson's 'The Winter Market' would make a great screenplay, if the mind state idea (that eg, produces the 'Ghost Dance' sequence) could be clearly translated to the screen.)

ETA: note sure about black holes etc, but it could be interesting to tie genetic memory to time travel, and maybe with the ancient technology genre.

Keanu did a pretty good job with "Johnny", and I asked Gibson what he thought. He said he was on-set a lot, and was happy with the outcome.

Yeah, all his books are a pretty big infuence on my life. Every paragraph is so dense with material and meaning. Jesus. All the ideas above (especially the "Winter Market") could go well.

Varek, Lise, the Villa Straylight, Case, Ratz, the Sprawl; all of the characters and settings he conjured could work in various ways.

Shit. Money and Time, that is all it takes.

 

[Australis]

And interest from the greenlight guys. But I gather smart guys have tried to do it, and haven't made it work so far.

 

[HIjol]

What Gibson told me with a few of his stories was that one entity would buy the rights for a period of time and then would start the very beginings of making a movie, including subnegotiating (?) some aspects of that property. Time would be up, and the given story would be bogged down with so many potential claims on the thing, if it ever made it to the screen, that it was financially undoable, but not free and clear to resell. He said "Neuromancer", "Count Zero" and "Mona Lisa Overdrive were in that situation, but I spoke to him in Oak Park, Il around 10 years ago, so maybe things have changed.

 

[RJDiogenes]

I think that happens a lot with optioned properties. It makes money for the author, but nothing ever actually gets made.