Realistic sci-fi

[Christoast]

I'm looking for sci-fi movies that are a little realistic and based on or at least inspired by real science/ideas or math. I'm going for the Michael Crichton atmosphere.

Movies like: Jurassic Park, Sphere (especially) Contact, Congo, Sunshine, The Abyss, Pi (I know what you're thinking but i let it go), Lost in Space, The 6th Day (guilty pleasure), Gattaca, A Beautiful Mind, The Day the Earth Stood Still, 2001, Alien, Solaris (1972 and 2002), Minority Report, Signs etc..

[jokergirl]

Does that have to do with the date or is it just me who's laughing?

Nice Aperture icon, though (I used to have the WCC but got bored and switched last week)

[geonuc]

We have some threads on this topic over in Small Media at Large (which is probably where this thread should be). You will no doubt pick up a few movie titles there.

[Christoast]

Does that have to do with the date or is it just me who's laughing?

Realistic relative to other scifi movies like star wars. No I don't think they are actually realistic, but you should get my meaning. There's "BOOM BOOM" sci-fi and theres "Hmmm?" sci-fi. I like movies that are heavy in thought experiment and deal heavily in the unknown.

si tacuerit, sapiens reputabitur <-- I like that.

[HenrikOlsen]

(which is probably where this thread should be).

Which is where the thread is.

[Space Chimp]

You might look into Silent Running, a 1972 movie starring Bruce Dern. It has a heavy ecological theme concerning saving the last of the earth's forests and animal life in space aboard specialized freighters. However, it's probably more famous as the movie which started the cute robot trend which came to fruition a few years later with R2-D2.

Another possibility would be Ridley Scott's dystopian Blade Runner. I keep hoping Scott will return to science fiction one of these days.

[timb]

I'm looking for sci-fi movies that are a little realistic and based on or at least inspired by real science/ideas or math. I'm going for the Michael Crichton atmosphere.

Movies like: Jurassic Park, Sphere (especially) Contact, Congo, Sunshine, The Abyss, Pi (I know what you're thinking but i let it go), Lost in Space, The 6th Day (guilty pleasure),

I've never liked a film with Mr. Schwarzenegger in it, but you should include Total Recall which is at least as realistic.

Gattaca, A Beautiful Mind,

I thought A Beautiful Mind was intended to be straight fiction/biography.

The Day the Earth Stood Still, 2001, Alien, Solaris (1972 and 2002), Minority Report, Signs

I took Signs to be religious propaganda.

No science fiction film can be completely realistic, or it wouldn't be fiction. Almost all science fiction requires some suspension of disbelief. For example, several of the films you mention involve faster than light travel, a violation of one of the most fundamental principles of modern physics. Most people don't find this unbelievable, whereas they do find time travel hard to accept. This is ironic because FTL enables time travel, but most people don't know that. To them time travel is obviously impossible, while planes go faster than the speed of sound so why shouldn't space ships go faster than the speed of light?

The less science you know the more realistic most science fiction seems.

[NorthGuy]

I'm looking for sci-fi movies that are a little realistic and based on or at least inspired by real science/ideas or math. I'm going for the Michael Crichton atmosphere.

You didn't mention The Andromeda Strain. (That is the first movie; I haven't seen the recent remake). I would describe it as both good and realistic SF.

[Christoast]

I took Signs to be religious propaganda.

The less science you know the more realistic most science fiction seems.

Regardless of it being propaganda (which i do agree), I judge things how i enjoyed the experience overall and have an opinion based on many things instead of being narrow minded and pretentious. The delivery of the alien situation seemed interesting.

As I said before, no I don't think they are actually realistic, so don't imply my knowledge of science is limited.

[Human]

I thought 'I, Robot' was great when I first saw it.

[Gillianren]

I thought A Beautiful Mind was intended to be straight fiction/biography.

It was. It's not terribly good as a biography, but it is a straight biography.

[Human]

It was. It's not terribly good as a biography, but it is a straight biography.

I remember listening to the Directors Commentary while watching it, and they mention that the implant would have been a hi-tech feature if it was real. Or at least not a possible feature in the time that the biography was based on.

[Gillianren]

I remember listening to the Directors Commentary while watching it, and they mention that the implant would have been a hi-tech feature if it was real. Or at least not a possible feature in the time that the biography was based on.

I have to admit, I don't remember an implant. Was it real or imagined? Because imagined implants don't really need a time in order to be a delusion. As for real ones, well, they're working on it. It may someday be possible for an implant to actually work for mental illnesses, but I'm not holding my breath.

[Human]

I have to admit, I don't remember an implant. Was it real or imagined? Because imagined implants don't really need a time in order to be a delusion. As for real ones, well, they're working on it. It may someday be possible for an implant to actually work for mental illnesses, but I'm not holding my breath.

He imagined that he had a secret implant in his arm, showing a hidden code when exposed to light. That's why he hurt his arm in the hospital, because he was trying to get the implant out of his arm.

I think that this possibly hi-tech feature was mentioned in the commentary because it would question people if it was real or not. But I think most people didn't notice, and was just going with the flow while watching the movie.

[timb]

As I said before, no I don't think they are actually realistic, so don't imply my knowledge of science is limited.

I made no such implication.

[Gillianren]

He imagined that he had a secret implant in his arm, showing a hidden code when exposed to light. That's why he hurt his arm in the hospital, because he was trying to get the implant out of his arm.

I think that this possibly hi-tech feature was mentioned in the commentary because it would question people if it was real or not. But I think most people didn't notice, and was just going with the flow while watching the movie.

Okay. As I said, it's been a while since I've seen it. However, my study of mental illness (mostly bipolar disorder, obviously, but some on schizophrenia) suggests that belief of implants is not as new as you might think. I'm not sure exactly how long it goes back, but a while.

[DarkHorse220]

The thing about Signs that made me laugh so much was how the aliens, supposedly advanced enough to travel between stars, couldn't figure out Hazmat suits.

I mean, if I go invade a planet with oceans of sulfuric acid, sulfuric acid in the air, and my entire mission is to "harvest" the lifeforms which are also based on sulfuric acid, I'm at least going to bring along some kind of NBC gear, not run around naked.

That whole invasion could have been beaten by gardeners with hoses.

[Delvo]

I think what the original post calls "realism", the thing that those movies have in common, is actually not scientific realism at all, but a feeling of reality about the characters and their feelings and motivations, because those are pretty normal and familiar to us even if the setting in which the characters find themselves isn't. In grand epics or creations based on the creators' personal political/sociological/philosophical preferences, the characters are more likely to be defined by conceptual types, and end up feeling like concepts rather than just people.

This general concept is said to be what Joss Whedon was thinking of when he created the short-lived TV show Firefly, which was then followed by the movie Serenity (both about the crew and passengers of a "Firefly-class" cargo & passenger ship named Serenity). He said he wanted to make it be about ordinary people whom history and large-scale political/historical/epic shows tend to ignore.

[timb]

I think what the original post calls "realism", the thing that those movies have in common, is actually not scientific realism at all, but a feeling of reality about the characters and their feelings and motivations, because those are pretty normal and familiar to us even if the setting in which the characters find themselves isn't. In grand epics or creations based on the creators' personal political/sociological/philosophical preferences, the characters are more likely to be defined by conceptual types, and end up feeling like concepts rather than just people.

That's a good point. Epics like Star Wars and Star Trek fail this test of realism. They are synthetic epics, myths without the cachet of antiquity. I don't find them attractive but obviously I am at odds with the majority because they dominate the market. They are probably at their best when the camp it up, like Flash Gordon.

The following aren't scientifically realistic, but don't involve galactic heroes:

The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)
Dark Star (1974)
THX 1138 (1971)
Donnie Darko (2001)

[Christoast]

I think what the original post calls "realism", the thing that those movies have in common, is actually not scientific realism at all, but a feeling of reality about the characters and their feelings and motivations, because those are pretty normal and familiar to us even if the setting in which the characters find themselves isn't. In grand epics or creations based on the creators' personal political/sociological/philosophical preferences, the characters are more likely to be defined by conceptual types, and end up feeling like concepts rather than just people.

This general concept is said to be what Joss Whedon was thinking of when he created the short-lived TV show Firefly, which was then followed by the movie Serenity (both about the crew and passengers of a "Firefly-class" cargo & passenger ship named Serenity). He said he wanted to make it be about ordinary people whom history and large-scale political/historical/epic shows tend to ignore.

Wow, Said it better then I could.

Aslo, timb - what about Star Trek: TNG? I agree 100% about star wars though.

[timb]

Wow, Said it better then I could.

Aslo, timb - what about Star Trek: TNG? I agree 100% about star wars though.

That was TV, and I didn't watch it regularly. So I can't comment.

[novaderrik]

it wouldn't be much fun to watch a totally realistic sci fi movie- especially one set in deep space.
the most action we'd see would be a short engine burn to make a minor change in trajectory, followed by a couple of hours of people floating around and looking out the window at an endless see of unchanging stars. every once in a while they'd get a radio transmission responding to a transmission they made a year earlier...

[Paul Beardsley]

At the risk of making this thread a copy of another recent thread, I'd say, if you want to make an SF film reasonably realistic, then keep to real science except where the story will benefit from suspension of known laws.

This seems to me very obvious. Unfortunately, the attitude of "it's only science fiction so we don't have to give it due care" seems to be prevalent in some quarters.

[Space Chimp]

That's a good point. Epics like Star Wars and Star Trek fail this test of realism. They are synthetic epics, myths without the cachet of antiquity. I don't find them attractive but obviously I am at odds with the majority because they dominate the market. They are probably at their best when the camp it up, like Flash Gordon.

The following aren't scientifically realistic, but don't involve galactic heroes:

The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)
Dark Star (1974)
THX 1138 (1971)
Donnie Darko (2001)

Interesting to note that most of them are pre-Star Wars. (1977)

Another one to add, Solyent Green (1973).Interesting not just for it's take on over-population or pollution, but the idea that the government would actually promote euthanasia—a concept that also shows up in Children of Men. A movie probably always destinied to be most famous for the last line uttered.

[SeanF]

They are synthetic epics, myths without the cachet of antiquity.

Which, of course, is how all myths started out.

[Human]

I would like to add '12 Monkeys' on the list.

The thing about Signs that made me laugh so much was how the aliens, supposedly advanced enough to travel between stars, couldn't figure out Hazmat suits.

I mean, if I go invade a planet with oceans of sulfuric acid, sulfuric acid in the air, and my entire mission is to "harvest" the lifeforms which are also based on sulfuric acid, I'm at least going to bring along some kind of NBC gear, not run around naked.

That whole invasion could have been beaten by gardeners with hoses.

Most aliens I have seen in Sci-Fi don't bother to use clothes. I don't know why that is, but I think it definitely remind us that they are indeed aliens.

[Gillianren]

Interesting to note that most of them are pre-Star Wars. (1977)

Another one to add, Solyent Green (1973).Interesting not just for it's take on over-population or pollution, but the idea that the government would actually promote euthanasia—a concept that also shows up in Children of Men. A movie probably always destinied to be most famous for the last line uttered.

Well, first off, I should clarify that you mean Soylent Green in the last line, not Children of Men, the last line of which I cannot remember.

And I believe it was the opposite problem in Children of Men.

[DaveC426913]

Children of Men, the last line of which I cannot remember.

It was:

"Oh my GOD will that thing EVER STOP WAILING! Now I remember why we KILLED THEM ALL!"

[Paul Beardsley]

It was:

"Oh my GOD will that thing EVER STOP WAILING! Now I remember why we KILLED THEM ALL!"

Nice one!

My own last words were, "Was there supposed to be a point to all this?"

[novaderrik]

I would like to add '12 Monkeys' on the list.



Most aliens I have seen in Sci-Fi don't bother to use clothes. I don't know why that is, but I think it definitely remind us that they are indeed aliens.

it's also to remind us that they have evolved past the need for petty things like clothing. and war. and racism. and whatever else it is that the writers think should be included in the list of bad things about humanity.
it's a good thing that the human race usually has the flag waving all American values that are needed to overcome the adversity of such an obviously superior alien force in the end. well, maybe not in Soviet science fiction- if there was such a thing- then it's the evil aliens that would have the evil All American characteristics that are overcome by their obviously superior way of life..