Part 2
Part 3
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40: Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (Kaze no Tani no Naushika)
What If: In the distant future, the world starts to become overrun with toxic jungles and giant bugs, and a princess has to stop warring kingdoms from incurring the giant bugs' wrath.
The Film: Despite its age, this anime film presents a world unlike anything that's been filmed before, straddling the line between an imaginative steampunk fantasy and harrowing post-apocalyptic future. In the midst of it all, the character of Nausicaa is most lovable, and provides a conduit to explore the bleak themes of war and environmental destruction. It's not subtle, but it is quite powerful and invoking, the film's vision is unique, and it is exciting the whole time.
My score: 5/5
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39: Contact
What If: Alien signals are intercepted from an array of satellite dishes, and they contain hidden instructions.
The Film: A strong character-based drama to the core, but with some plausible ideas and a firm focus on science-vs-spirituality. The characters come to represent all the different levels of those two opposing forces, but they come together to assert that we are not alone in the universe, because we have each other. Of course, the film also presents a fantastic view of the galaxy and the possibility of extraterrestrial life. It gets a bit sappy, the film definitely touches upon strong themes and concepts worth exploring.
My score: 4/5
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38: They Live
What If: Sunglasses make you see subliminal messages everywhere.
The Film: It's happening already. You can't go far in modern society without somebody trying to push a hidden agenda to you in secret. All our commercials, billboards, books, magazines, TV...it's all working to tell us what to do and how to live our lives. This film simply exposes that theme in a literal fashion, and crafts a small-scale action-packed thriller out of it. Despite the film's limitations, it boasts some big and fascinating ideas concerning modern consumerism and gentrification. Even today, these themes still resonate, and the film is still as exciting as it is interesting.
My score: 4.5/5
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37: The Road Warrior (Mad Max 2)
What If: After the fall of civilization, oil and gasoline become the most treasured commodities. A dude named Max has to protect a town, containing a huge amount of oil, from being pillaged.
The Film: The first Mad Max film was a pretty brutal dystopian flick, but this follow-up takes things a step further. It's a step further into the future, where the settings are more desolate and civilization is nonexistent. It's a step further into brutality, with even more savage gangs roaming the wastelands. It also steps up the action, with a plethora of awesome car-chase scenes with some of the most imaginative buggies and vehicles ever designed. It's a thrilling post-apocalyptic adventure, but I wouldn't be surprised if the search for precious oil could reach this level of mania some day.
My score: 4.5/5
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36: RoboCop (1987)
What If: A fatally-wounded police officer is reborn as a cyborg. Then he takes a huge, juicy bite out of crime.
The Film: It's a short film, but it's jam-packed with action and ideas. The plot is tight, simple, but well-executed. It's set in an extreme, over-the-top world where extreme commercialization does little to cover up the extreme violence and extreme gentrification. Not only is the film perfectly entertaining, but it's also well-composed and laden with so much satire that it'd put Kurt Vonnegut to shame.
My score: 5/5
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35: Soylent Green
What If: In the future, when cities are overpopulated and resources are thin, a murder mystery leads a detective to learn a horrifying truth about society.
The Film: The film is pretty rough around the edges and hasn't aged well, but its story is fundamentally interesting, and the ideas resonate more and more the closer we get to this scary future. Overpopulation and resource depletion are real problems that we may be facing, and the film shows us a harrowing view of what the possible solutions could be if things get out of control. Even though the film is going on forty years old, its ideas are still relevant.
My score: 4/5
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34: Dredd
What If: Megacity 1 is a massive walled metropolis where judges serve as judge, jury, and executioner. Dredd is one such judge who is called upon to investigate deaths surrounding the distribution of a new drug; when he's trapped in a block with his rookie partner, all hell breaks loose.
The Film: Much edgier, darker, and more intense than 1995's Judge Dredd, this rendition of the character strikes the right chord as a gritty, R-rated dystopian action movie. Borrowing the basic storyline of The Raid, Dredd uses its limitations to let the action flow, to let the characters speak for themselves, and to let the scuzzy world of Megacity 1 take on a life of its own. It is a beautifully brutal world, and Dredd is a badass hero who can bring justice to it; it doesn't get much more awesome than that!
My score: 5/5
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33: Fantastic Voyage
What If: A special project shrinks a submarine with a group of people inside so that it can be injected into a dying man's body. Internal surgery ensues.
The Film: Sci-fi films have explored space and time, but Fantastic Voyage is one original picture that explores one place that few other films are able to: inner space, or the human body. With this clever premise of shrinking scientists and implanting them into a body, the film makes an odyssey out of the human anatomy, exploring all the different systems. There is peril to be had, as the characters fight against white blood cells and other anomalies. It's an insightful view of the microscopic world, and it makes for one refreshingly original concept.
My score: 4/5
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32: Forbidden Planet
What If: Space explorers land on a planet and wind up fighting an invisible monster.
The Film: When it comes to the sci-fi craze of the 50s, it doesn't get much more classic than this. The film features one cool flying saucer, one cool robot, and a cool planet with cool features and animals. The ending, however, presents one cool idea that unifies the whole picture and gives it more relevant meaning; despite all the dangers on Forbidden Planet, man might be the most dangerous thing of all...
My score: 4/5
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31: Dune
What If: In the year 10,191, royal houses fight over control of a desert planet called Arrakis (aka Dune), which is the only source of the Spice Melange, which makes space travel possible.
The Film: This film was a pretty major flop at its time, and many would still call it gaudy, boring, or misconceived. Regardless, the film covers the basics of Frank Herbert's story, and it does so with a phenomenal amount of flair and style. David Lynch did his best to craft dreamy images and strong emotions, making the film immensely powerful.
My score: 5/5
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30: Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan
What If: In the 24th century, the starship Enterprise encounters an old adversary named Khan, who commandeers the starship Reliant and project Genesis in a frantic bid for vengeance.
The Film: While Star Trek: The Motion Picture brought back the original Trek crew in one intriguing space opera adventure, it was a rather dry picture with a gaudy production value and pacing issues. This sequel sets the tone perfectly for a more action-packed adventure; the space battles are cool, the conflicts are tense, and Khan remains one of the most iconic villains of the lot. The film also has its share of cool ideas, including a warhead capable of terraforming a dead planet; with this as the centerpiece, the film underscores its dual-sided nature, as both a tool of creation and a weapon of mass destruction. With these dynamics at work, the film ultimately digs up some very strong death and rebirth themes, which in the grand scheme of the cosmos, is profound indeed.
My score: 4.5/5
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29: Star Trek (2009)
What If: In the 24th century, a young Jim Kirk takes control of the starship Enterprise, and goes on an adventure to stop a Romulan adversary from destroying Earth.
The Film: After countless years of Star Trek adventures, JJ Abrams brings back the classic crew with fresh new faces and a fresh new look. The film is as vivid and stylish as they come (almost to the point of being annoying, with the lens flares and camera moves), and the action is phenomenal. The characters are as lovable as ever, brought to life perfectly by a fresh young cast. As far as the science goes, the classic gadgets of the Trek universe are on full display as always, but the film plays around a lot with alternate universes and time travel, which connects the new franchise with the old and clears the slate for a whole new series of adventures. It's a clever play on the classic sci-fi series, and given the success of both this film and Into Darkness, this new series will be here to stay for a while.
My score: 5/5
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28: Book of Eli
What If: A lone wanderer in the wastelands has to escort a special book to some special people.
The Film: Very few films have captured a post-apocalyptic landscape as bleak and desolate as this; Book of Eli is set in a vast, expansive, and drab world that has only otherwise been seen in the Fallout 3 video game. The film has its share of thrilling action (some of which might be a bit too unbelievable). It tells a story that's simple and fundamental, but with strong themes of faith. Combined with the film's smooth style, this is one of the most seminal end-of-the-world tales on film.
My score: 4/5
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27: Gravity
What If: Astronauts become stranded in space.
The Film: With the simple premise of astronauts struggling to survive in Earth's orbit, this film makes the most of its limitations and expands it greatly to become a thrilling, awe-inspiring spectacle. It is visually fantastic and harrowing to watch entire space shuttles and space stations being obliterated, and it is immensely suspenseful to watch the characters' fight for survival. It's not always 100% scientifically accurate, but a disaster like this is very plausible, and the film does its best to turn it into an invoking thrill ride.
My score: 5/5
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26: Prometheus
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| It's so pretty... |
What If: Human beings were originally created on Earth by an alien race called the Engineers; in the future, we send a mission in deep space to literally meet our makers.
The Film: Highly-anticipated as the prequel to Alien, Prometheus offers its share of scares, as alien life seems to evolve out of control and consume the crew of the starship Prometheus. At its core though, it's a marvelous sci-fi picture with its heart firmly set on exploration, even into the deepest and darkest truths of life's existence. The story is a fascinating parallel to the Prometheus myth. Plus, it has an awesome style and a top-notch production, making this one of the slickest and best-looking sci-fi/horror pictures ever made.
My score: 4.5/5
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25: Close Encounters of the Third Kind
What If: Aliens are coming.
The Film: Alien encounters have been documented with a wide range of responses; there have been fearful tales of abductions and otherworldly intrusions, and tales of wonderful spectacle. Close Encounters provides both, with a lot of mystery and conspiracy, which drives the story to a awe-inspiring show of light and music. It's probably one of the more realistic movies available regarding alien encounters, and it's refreshing that it's not always a threatening picture. By its end, it leaves the audience in a state of wonder, and it might make you look to the stars and wonder what life might up up there. It means something...this is important...
My score: 4/5
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24: The Time Machine (1960)
What If: Some guy invents a time machine and plays with it for a while.
The Film: A faithful adaptation of H.G. Welles' novel, the original Time Machine features some phenomenal special effects and a solid production value that brings this story to life in an imaginative way. Despite the film's age, it's still cool to see the time-lapse footage simulating the rushing passing of the years. The rest of the film is a pretty unique adventure, with signature themes of utopia and human progress. The story provided an insightful view of what could be lost in the passage of time, and what could be given to the future; the film is an admirable telling of this classic tale.
My score: 4/5
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23: Logan's Run
What If: In the distant future, everybody lives in domed cities, where life is perfect...and nobody lives past the age of 30...
The Film: The film hasn't aged that gracefully - it is laden with some rather weak and cheap-looking SFX and sets - and parts of it are a bit laughable. Regardless, it is a pretty cool story that emphasizes the dark side of a utopic society. The film offers its share of adventure and futuristic spectacle, and still has enough interesting ideas to make it a seminal sci-fi favorite.
My score: 4/5
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22: Akira
What If: In the futuristic city of NeoTokyo, some punk kid is picked up by the government and experimented on, unlocking latent psychic power that threatens the entire universe.
The Film: The film is long, it's densely-packed, and the story goes off in wild directions, but it still tells a hell of a tale with loads of incredible mass destruction. The settings are incredibly dystopic, the technology on display is really slick, and the ideas gets really far-out. It's not an easy film to understand, but it is easy to enjoy, and it is one of many that's helped western audiences break into anime films. For its thrilling action and concepts, the film stands as one of my favorite dystopian films of all time.
My score: 5/5
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21: Terminator 2: Judgment Day
What If: For a second time, robots from the future send back an assassin to terminate the leader of the future resistance. And this time, another machine is sent back to protect the target.
The Film: While the first Terminator film presented an original story with a fresh, original style, this follow-up really cranks up the stakes and the action to a whole new level. Among the film's highlights, there are thrilling car chases, lots of shoot-outs, and scary encounters with an imaginatively-rendered liquid-metal robot. In between all the running-around and shooting, however, the film still has time to breathe and contemplate the deeper issues concerning nuclear war and humanity's destructive nature. With a cast of heartfelt characters, the film is as invoking as it is exciting, and it offers a pretty scary glimpse of what a robot-pocalyse could look like.
My score: 5/5
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To be concluded...
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