The Must See of Space Based Motion Pictures

[something]

KSP is more or less about the exploration of space as is Star Trek which recently celebrated its 50th anniversary - a TV series which led to the invention of automatic doors and the mobile phone and I always assumed everybody on this forum had seen at least one episode of that franchise, but a few days ago I was taught wrong. Which led me to the question what are your favorite science fiction films (and why?), which do you consider 'must see' and which films are still on your personal to do list?

So here's my selection:

Contact - nice exploration of the 'what if they answered the call' theme

Firefly - weird genre mixture yet interesting characters

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - the mean of propulsion is worth an entry in this list

Independence Day - the film that made Will Smith famous

Interstellar - for bringing General Relativity to the Big Screen

The Martian - a more realistic approach to 70s disco music in space

Star Trek - a social critic view of society put into space

Star Wars - features explosions in space. An early precursor to KSP.

Never saw 2001 - A Space Odyssey and Alien.....gotta correct that some day...

 

What is your list?

Edited September 10, 2016 by something

[Majorjim!]

Just now, something said:

Never saw 2001 - A Space Odyssey and Alien.....gotta correct that some day...

Do this immediately! Also if you have not already watch Aliens. It's a masterpiece.

 

[psychogre]

Europa Report - the story is told in an odd non-linear fashion, but the visuals are breath-taking, and the soundtrack is glorious!

 

[Vanamonde]

Since this is not about KSP itself, the thread has been moved to The Lounge. 

[Bill Phil]

Sunshine is pretty interesting.

[katateochi]

24 minutes ago, Majorjim! said:

Do this immediately! Also if you have not already watch Aliens. It's a masterpiece.

I second this! Recently re-watched Alien, with trepidation that it would now seem too dated...it wasn't, still good.

14 minutes ago, psychogre said:

Europa Report - the story is told in an odd non-linear fashion, but the visuals are breath-taking, and the soundtrack is glorious!

And this.

I'd also add Firefly to the list, I know it's already there, but any list should include it at least twice  (lost count of how many times I've watched it)
And then Cowboy Bebop, The 5th Element and Event Horizon.

[Green Man]

They may not be the greatest sci-fi films ever made but these are definitely some of my favorites.

Them! (1954) - Giant radioactive mutant ants attack. - Must see.

The Day of the Triffids (1962) - Mysterious atmospheric flashes of light blind large portions of the populace and then giant plants attack.

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) - A nervous soldier ruins humanity's fast path to scientific evolution by shooting a gift bearing extra-terrestrial. - Must see.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) - A heinous extra-terrestrial plot starts by replacing Terran citizens with doppelgangers grown from within pods.

Planet of the Apes (1968) - Three star voyagers awake from hibernation after their ship crashes on a planet where the dominant species are damn dirty apes!

Barbarella (1968) - A young star voyager disrobes from her space suit. I forget what happened after that but I remember really liking this film.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) - A mysterious scientist throws a freak-out of a party, constructs a hunky pleasure servant, seduces uninvited guests, serves a failed experiment to a dinner party and faces a mutiny from his staff. And, It's a friggen musical!

Flash Gordon (1980) - Gordon confounds Ming's plans with some help. Soundtrack by Queen and Howard Blake.

Explorers (1985) - Three kids become star voyagers by constructing a craft from junk and a state of the art computing device.

Moon (2009) - An hour and one half of (mostly) two actors. Friggen brilliant.

Edited September 14, 2016 by Green Man
Snipped a porn recommendation.

[Alshain]

Mission To Mars

Fifth Element

Stargate

Thor

Guardians of the Galaxy

Avatar

District 9

Spaceballs

Who could forget Wall E... (other than the fact forgetting Wall E was the plot line of Wall E)

If you want a classic, Close Encounters of the Third Kind...

... and Cocoon.

Does Men In Black count?

Also, Apollo 13, based on a true story but still Hollywood.  Does that count?

 

 

If we are including Anime, Bebop is one of my favorites, and also admittedly I'm a Gundam fan, either Seed or Wing... it's a tossup.  The problem with Anime is there are so many good ones that could be on this list, it might get a bit long... Blue Gender, there is another one I just thought of.

Edited September 11, 2016 by Alshain

[Robotengineer]

Moon.

I'm hyped for Arrival. Though it looks like it is going to differ a lot from the book (Story of Your Life, Ted Chiang). Only heard about the book through news of the movie, read it shortly after hearing about it and it is quite good. 

[Wolfmoon]

Europa Report and Dune!

(although when it comes to Dune you might want to stick to the 2000 miniseries as the 1984 movie doesn't really follow the books and might be a bit boring if you haven't read them)

[Green Baron]

Old stuff just for historic completeness:

Space 1999 (series, early afternoon entertainment)

for the germans: Raumpatroullie Orion. Cute low cost black and white series with funny requisites, like toilet-paper rolls als ceiling covering or flat iron handle as throttle :-) Would be a shame if this hadn't been translated into english ... idk.

 

Solaris (though the novel by Stanislaw Lem is better)

yeah, Dune (sure, my avatar), a version from 1984 and another from the early 2000s

 

[Tex_NL]

A lot of classics here. And a few not so classic but all worth watching.

But whatever you do steer well clear of Iron Sky. You have been warned! You can not un-see it!

[Green Baron]

Yes, @Tex_NL, Iron Sky ! The most brilliant SciFi-Nonsense ever !

[Mike Mars]

Add my vote for Europa Report.

Also love Destination Moon, a 1950 classic produced by George Pal. Great story and awesome special effects for it's time. It's available on Youtube.

Lastly, The Cold Equations, a 1996 Sci-Fi Channel film based on a 1950's short story.

MM

Edited September 11, 2016 by Mike Mars

[razark]

The Right Stuff.

Marooned.

[Carraux]

Silent Running

[pxi]

2001, and to a lesser extent 2010

Contact

The Right Stuff (Though I personally found the book to be far superior)

The Andromeda Strain

Event Horizon

Capricorn One (Worth it IMHO insofar as it's referenced by many *ahem* alternative theories.)

Iron Sky

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Make the time to watch this in a theatre with other fans.  Watching it at home will not do it justice.)

Apollo 13

Europa Report

Silent Running

 

There's undoubtedly more, but that's what a quick scan through my collection reveals.

[LordFerret]

We had a thread running here just this past month about this stuff, but what the heck.

Dark Star

[something]

Raumpatroulie Orion has been translated to English? Wow,wasn't aware of that. Definitely a nice series in the German original version, though.

As for Apollo 13 - why shouldn't it count towards Space Based Science Fiction?

 

 

[Bill Phil]

7 hours ago, Tex_NL said:

But whatever you do steer well clear of Iron Sky. You have been warned! You can not un-see it!

The director's cut is much better (besides making more sense, it's got a lot more in general).

[razark]

1 hour ago, something said:

As for Apollo 13 - why shouldn't it count towards Space Based Science Fiction?

Well, the definition of "fiction" kind of rules it out.

[Spaceception]

Well, I can't wait for Arrival.

Interstellar and The Martian are my favorite.

[benzman]

The Last Starfighter   A film that doesn't take itself too seriously and has the coolest final scene.

 

[Tex_NL]

33 minutes ago, Spaceception said:

Well, I can't wait for Arrival.

Interstellar and The Martian are my favorite.

Fortunately you're talking about Arrival and not The Arrival. The Arrival is nearly as bad as Iron Sky.

An absolute MUST SEE: Contact.
And for those that like anime: PlanetES

Edited September 11, 2016 by Tex_NL

[Andem]

Apollo 13, anyone?