Some Of The Sci-Fi Films Are Stranger Than Fiction; Others Seem Surprisingly Relevant To Modern Times.
By Rashmi Goel
The science fiction genre is one of the most creative and flexible on the planet, allowing writers, filmmakers, and actors to free themselves from genre constraints. The best sci-fi movies include elements of action, drama, romance, adventure, and mystery without blurring the lines between sub-genres. Unfortunately, the reverse cannot be said. As a genre, science-fiction has something to offer everyone. Taking this into consideration, we looked through a range of sci-fi movies currently available on Netflix to provide you with a selection of films that will fit a variety of tastes. Whatever you're looking for - whether it's something family-friendly to watch with the children, something action-packed to share with a group of friends, or something unusual that you've never seen before - here everything is covered.
The Midnight Sky
Based on Lily Brooks-Dalton's 2016 novel Good Morning, Midnight, The Midnight Sky is a 2020 American science fiction film directed by George Clooney. Mark L. Smith wrote the screenplay. Clooney appears in the film as an aging scientist who has to venture across the arctic circle to warn planet Earth of a returning interplanetary spaceship. Aside from Felicity Jones and David Oyelowo, Tiffany Boone and Demián Bichir, Kyle Chandler and Caoilinn Springall also star. The Midnight Sky represents George Clooney's first foray into the science fiction genre as a director. His other directorial efforts have been mixed. Clooney's best work to date. Clooney does a remarkable job of portraying the scientist Augustine Lofthouse, who must stay on Earth while the rest of mankind searches for habitable planets in the universe. He only has one companion, the girl he raises as his daughter, Iris (Caoilinn Springall). Desplat's beautiful score brings this relationship to life.
Don’t Look Up
This apocalyptic black comedy was written, produced, and directed by Adam McKay. Climate change is an allegory in the impact event, and the film is a satire of government, political, celebrity, and media indifference to the issue. The group goes on a media tour to warn humankind of the impending apocalypse when the White House ridicules them and is indifferent to their warnings. Dramatized and satirized versions of real-life current events are depicted. Don't Look Up is not a true story, but it is based on real events.
Starship Troopers
A 1997 American science fiction action film directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Edward Neumeier, based on Robert A. Heinlein's 1959 novel of the same name. Johnny Rico, a young soldier in the Mobile Infantry, a futuristic military unit, is the main character of the novel. In contrast with an interstellar conflict between mankind and an insectoid species known as Arachnids, Rico's military career progresses from recruit to non-commissioned officer to officer.American writer Robert A. Heinlein created Starship Troopers, a military science fiction novel. Thousands of years from now, a race of giant alien insects is at war with the Earth. There is little information available about the Bugs except that they are intent on eliminating all human life. The war didn't begin right away... Mobile Infantry units traveled to distant alien worlds to attack the Bugs. There is only one mission for them: Survival of their species at any cost…
V For Vendetta
In 2005, the Wachowskis and James McTeigue directed a dystopian political action film titled V For Vendetta (based on a screenplay by the Wachowskis). Inspired by Alan Moore and David Lloyd's 1988 limited series of the same name published by DC Vertigo Comics. This film portrays a future in which Britain has been ruled by fascist totalitarian regimes. In this film, Hugo Weaving portrays V, an anarchist and masked freedom fighter who attempts to ignite a revolution with terrorist acts, and Natalie Portman portrays Evey Hammond, a young woman caught up in V's mission. Following the Second World War, London is a police state occupied by a fascist government, and a vigilante known only as V (Hugo Weaving) uses terrorist tactics to fight the oppressors of the world in which he now lives. During the course of saving Evey (Natalie Portman) from the secret police, V finds a new ally in his fight against England's oppressors.
The Adam Project
Shawn Levy directs this American science fiction adventure film, which was co-produced by Skydance Media, Maximum Effort, and 21 Laps Entertainment and written by Jonathan Tropper, T.S. Nowlin, Jennifer Flackett, and Mark Levin. This film stars Ryan Reynolds, Walker Scobell, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Garner, Catherine Keener, and Zoe Salda*a. Adam Reed, age 12, who had been grieving his father's sudden death a year earlier, walks into his garage one night to find a wounded pilot. It turns out that the mysterious pilot is the older version of himself from the future when time travel is just emerging. For a secret mission that brought him back in time, he has risked it all. They embark on a quest to find their father, repair things, and save the world together. Through their work together, the young and grown Adam are able to come to terms with the loss of their father and heal the wounds that have shaped them. They discover, however, that they don't much like each other, and if they are to save the world, they must first learn to get along.
The Cloverfield Paradox
An American science fiction horror film directed and written by Julius Onah, the story was written by Oren Uziel and Doug Jung, and the film was produced by Bad Robot Productions owned by J.J. Abrams. After Cloverfield (2008) and 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016), it is the third installment of the Cloverfield franchise. A group of astronauts aboard a space station try using a particle accelerator to solve Earth's energy crisis, but are sent home when the planet seems to vanish after using it to solve Earth's energy crisis. David Oyelowo and Chris O'Dowd star in the film. Researchers on the eve of a catastrophic energy war test a dangerous device that can provide unlimited power but also creates terrifying paradoxes, leaving them to confront an alternate reality.
Bird Box
Based on Josh Malerman's 2014 novel of the same name, Bird Box is a 2018 American post-apocalyptic horror thriller film directed by Susanne Bier and written by Eric Heisserer. Malorie Hayes, played by Sandra Bullock, tries to protect herself and her two children from entities that cause people who look at them to commit suicide. The only certainty when a mysterious force decimates a population is that it will kill anyone who sees it. In order to survive, the survivors must now avoid coming face-to-face with an entity that represents their worst fears. As a mother and her children look for hope and a new beginning, they embark on a journey through the woods and down a river to find the one place that might offer refuge. It will take them covering their eyes from the evil that pursues them, and they will have to complete the trip blindfolded.
Space Sweepers
The 2021 South Korean space Western film Space Sweepers stars Song Joong-ki, Kim Tae-ri, Jin Seon-kyu and Yoo Hae-jin. Known as the first Korean blockbuster. When it comes to science fiction adventure, it is hard to think of a movie better than Space Sweepers. The story revolves around a team of spaceship crew members who clean up debris in space who get swept up in an intergalactic dispute unlike anything they have ever experienced before. When viewing this story for the first time, it is best experienced with as little knowledge as possible since the heights this story reaches are best experienced for the first time. Characters and members of the cast are excellent throughout the show, finding humor as well as drama in every situation. Among the most enjoyable science fiction films of recent memory, there are big space battles galore and a real sense of excitement overflowing from every frame. Providing everything you could hope for from the genre and then some, it proves to be one of the most enduringly thrilling films you will ever witness.
Synchronic
The 2019 American science fiction horror film Synchronic was written by Justin Benson, who also directed and produced with Aaron Moorhead. This movie features Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan as paramedics who investigate a string of inexplicable deaths and their connection to a new designer drug. Synchronic marks a return for Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead to one of cinema's strangest, scariest universes. Through clever connections with their previous films, Synchronic further explores the consequences of a mysterious force that manipulates the world in ways that ripple through time. The ripple effects manifest themselves as a designer drug which leads to a rash of inexplicable deaths and injuries, a pattern that quickly attracts the attention of two paramedics who become BFFs (Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan). With stunning, unsettling imagery, Synchronic establishes a captivating puzzle that rewards every step in its solution with revelations that surprise, sometimes shock, and always raise the stakes. While Synchronic works as a standalone film for anyone not familiar with Benson and Moorhead's previous work (though you should), I must admit, with each new film, I am more and more intrigued by the scope of the world they are building, as well as their attention to detail from project to project.
Oxygen
The film Oxygen was directed and produced by Alexandre Aja, and it was based on a screenplay written by Christie LeBlanc. Melanie Laurent, Mathieu Amalric, and Malik Zidi are among the stars of this French-American coproduction. In Oxygen, Netflix's clever sci-fi thriller about a woman who wakes up in a futuristic medical pod with no memory of who she is, how she reached it, or how to exit, Melanie Laurent gives one of the most commanding and technically impressive performances of her career. Her oxygen supply is running low. The tightly contained thriller, directed by Crawl filmmaker Alexandre Aja , maintains tension with every new revelation while expanding the world and the stakes of Laurent's fight to survive, even as she feels trapped within the confines of her tiny cell. There aren't as many surprises in the movie as it thinks, but they do make for a fast-paced survival movie that's tightly crafted to deliver a wild ride, and a full embrace of sci-fi storytelling that allows something that's almost entirely staged in a box to seem much larger.
Okja
The film Okja is an action-adventure directed by Bong Joon-ho with a script by Bong and Jon Ronson based on a story by Bong. Young Mija has spent the last 10 years caring for and accompanying Okja - a massive animal and even bigger friend - at her mountain home in South Korea. Mirando Corporation, a family-owned multinational conglomerate, takes Okja for themselves and transports her to New York, where a self-promotional CEO has big plans for Mija's closest friend. Mija, determined in intent but without any specific plan, sets out on her rescue mission.
Freaks
The film Freaks is a science fiction thriller written and directed by Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein. A 2018 science-fiction thriller starring Emile Hirsch, Bruce Dern, Grace Park, Amanda Crew, and Lexy Kolker, "Freaks" explores a world in which a percentage of the population manifests supernatural abilities, causing them to be feared, ostracized, and hunted by society. A father, Henry (Emile Hirsch), uses his powers to hide his daughter Chloe (Lexy Kolker) from the world and train her to act normally. Chloe's power manifests itself when her eyes bleed - a tell-tale sign of her powers manifesting. Nick is in a constant state of paranoia and anxiety. They live a reclusive life in a boarded-up house, surviving on canned goods. Chloe's father tells her not to go outside the front door out of fear of the bad people trying to kill them. She has never ventured beyond their front door. As she gets older, her curiosity about the outside world and her craving for a maternal figure drive her to venture beyond the house. After arriving in the real world, she finds out the truth about her powers from her estranged maternal grandfather (Bruce Dern). With the movie progressing, Henry's wife, Chloe's mother Mary (Amanda Crew), who is presumed dead but actually held captive in an underground facility, is freed when the trio puts their differences aside.
Beyond Skyline
Liam O'Donnell in his directorial debut wrote, co-produced and directed the 2017 American science fiction action film Beyond Skyline. The movie stars Frank Grillo, Bojana Novakovic, Jonny Weston, Iko Uwais, Callan Mulvey, Yayan Ruhian, Pamelyn Chee, Betty Gabriel, and Antonio Fargas. In this sequel to the 2010 film Skyline, the events of the first film are continued. Beyond Skyline is one of those films that is just plain weird. A Beyond Skyline is a pulpy B-movie that features aliens that will take your brain right out of your head. Starring Frank Grillo as a cop at odds with his son ( Jonny Weston ), an alien attack sends them scrambling for their lives. From the moment the aliens contact us, the film breaks into characters and settings at a breakneck pace, packing a paperback book series' worth of sci-fi lunacy into a single feature film. It travels from subterranean tunnels to the nuclear wasteland of LA to an alien ship, and all the way to Laos, where Mark teams up with rebels against the alien threat.
Hollow Man
Hollow Man is based on H G Wells' 1897 novel The Invisible Man and its 1933 film adaptation. There are scientists working on a chemical formula for invisibility. Despite a strict budget, Sebastian Caine's (Kevin Bacon) megalomania compels him to test the serum on himself. In spite of becoming invisible, the team cannot restore his body's natural appearance. Having no one to judge his behavior, Sebastian's conduct quickly turns criminal, stalking, assaulting, and killing as he pleases. Featuring tense action, the film was directed by Paul Verhoeven (Robocop, Total Recall).
In the Shadow of the Moon
Shadow of the Moon is a 2019 science fiction thriller film directed by Jim Mickle and written by Gregory Weidman and Geoff Tock. This movie is starring Boyd Holbrook, Cleopatra Coleman, and Michael C. Hall. Boyd Holbrook stars as young Philadelphia cop Thomas Lockhart. Despite Lockhart's desire to stay at home with his pregnant wife (Rachel Keller), duty calls so he joins his partner Maddox (Bokeem Woodbine) at a crime scene. There they discover that a series of people have died mysteriously and simultaneously by oozing blood out of their orifices. He fails to notice the puncture wounds on one of the victims, though Lockhart's brother-in-law and boss, Detective Holt (Dexter's Michael C. Hall), is already on the case. Cleopatra Coleman, a regular on Last Man on Earth, plays the young African-American girl suspected of being the serial killer. Lockhart pursues her into a subway station, she overcomes him, handcuffs him to a bench-but not before congratulating him on the birth of his baby daughter and apologizing for killing his very-much-alive partner. Lockhart accidentally kills her when he tases her and she falls into an oncoming train when he tases her. As Lockhart's daughter is born on the night the serial killer predicted. He loses his wife during childbirth. The film flashes forward nine years to 1997, where Lockhart meets Rya again. Lockhart then meets Rya again in 2006. After that, they meet again in 2015. He realizes at this point that he's meeting a time traveler every nine years who appears in Philadelphia on the same day. A man becomes obsessed with his daughter, loses his job, and forgets about his responsibilities to his family. His goal is to kill her and undo the events she has set in motion so that he can regain his life.
Mute
Duncan Jones, who co-wrote the script with Michael Robert Johnson, directed this 2018 neo-noir science fiction film. The film tells the story of Leo (Alexander Skarsgard), a kind but short-tempered bartender who works in a Berlin nightclub circa 2050 and who cannot speak due to a childhood accident (his Amish mother refused surgery). Leo prefers making woodcarvings to surfing the Web, despite living in a world in which everyone seems to embrace technology. As the love of Leo's life disappears under mysterious circumstances, Leo searches for her - a search that eventually brings him into direct conflict with dangerous AWOL American soldiers Cactus Bill (Paul Rudd) and Duck (Justin Theroux) in the seedy surroundings of Berlin's criminal underworld.
Stowaway
Originally set in the year 2021, Stowaway is a science fiction thriller drama directed by Joe Penna, who wrote the screenplay with Ryan Morrison. Among the stars of the film are Anna Kendrick, Daniel Dae Kim, Shamier Anderson, and Toni Collette star as a trio of space travelers for an independent company, who discovers there's somehow an extra person aboard their spacecraft. Stowaway is a pretty good science fiction movie... for those who don't mind their science fiction slow-burn and bleak. However, he is not a villain, there is no deadly plot at work, he's just a company employee who somehow got stuck during takeoff, which makes it tough for them to make the decisions they need to when his arrival compromises their life support system.
