Ten Deep 10.05.09: Top 50 Science Fiction Movies - Part 5/5

Posted by Owain J. Brimfield on 11.05.2009

It's the moment you've all been waiting for as our five-week odyssey finally cracks the top ten - head inside and see if it's been worth the wait! (Hint: it has.)





Welcome to week 54 of 'Ten Deep'! I'm sure you're as excited as I am about the conclusion of this magnum opus, so let's not delay things too much further and crack on with some:

Reactions and interactions

It seems some people have short memories, since there were a few clamorings for films I specifically excluded at the outset of our odyssey, namely Eternal Sunshine and A Clockwork Orange, but still, I'll forgive you guys, I can barely remember what I read five minutes ago let alone five weeks ago. It seems that with the top ten upon us - and I'm sure there'll be a lot more of this in the comments section this week - that those films that didn't make the grade are being brought up, with The Fly, The Fifth Element and The Omega Man in particular all gaining mention. Shortlisted candidates all, and I'm particularly fond of The Fifth Element, but sadly they didn't make the grade.

M:-X wonders if it's the case that The Matrix could be accused of ripping off Dark City. I've heard that accusation before, but in my opinion, although there are a number of similarities, the basic conceit behind it all is a philosophical conundrum that dates back many many years, and it's a particularly attractive premise for science fiction as a genre. I'm going to call it cosmic coincidence.

The Tortoise King directs an extreeeeemely anal nitpick my way and questions whether The Thing should be labeled a remake or not. Nevermind though, since he redeems himself with a bogglingly accurate guess as to the nature of this week's top ten. Kudos to you and your prognosticative abilities, sir.

AG Awesome says that A.I. is the worst movie ever made. Having seen National Lampoon's Men in White, I'd have to disagree.

Our own Len Archibald has an interesting take on the idea of list-making, pointing out that he's more interested in the reasoning behind my appreciation for these films than the actual subjective rankings. More people should think like this man.

Other than that, the comments these past few weeks have been generally supportive of this whole project, so thanks for your input and for taking the time to read the opinions of just another guy on the internet.

Wait... hang on... before we go any further...

F.O.: "The Terminator at 15 and Children of Men at 12? A movie that has been accepted into the National Film Registry as "historically significant" below that piece of shit? Don't bother with the final 10."

Curse the gods! It transpires that this entire 15,000 word, multi-week undertaking is actually all for nought - having made it as far as the top ten, it seems I've been struck down at the last moment. Yes, that's right, it turns out the mighty oracle F.O. doesn't like Children of Men, and I do. Oh, the humanity of it all! How could I be so foolish! Please, ladies and gentlemen, don't bother reading any further, for the esteemed F.O. has deemed it a fruitless endeavor. I, meanwhile, shall fall on my sword in penance for my foolish actions.

Man, I love sarcasm, especially when it's directed at idiots.

Moving on! Let's finally tackle the top ten.


As always, there's one golden rule: if I haven't seen it, it's not allowed on the list.

This week's golden rule notable omissions: District 9, Fantastic Voyage, The Man Who Fell to Earth, Moon, Tetsuo





The Story So Far...

Honorable mentions:
The Man From Earth
La Jetée
La Voyage dans la Lune
Logan's Run
The Quiet Earth
Serenity

50. Casshern 49. Pi 48. Independence Day 47. The Time Machine 46. Things to Come 45. Solaris 44. Primer 43. Robocop 42. Superman II 41. Westworld

40. Minority Report 39. Pitch Black 38. Brazil 37. The Iron Giant 36. Total Recall 35. Silent Running 34. Predator 33. WALL-E 32. Close Encounters 31. Return of the Jedi

30. Akira 29. Dark Star 28. The Andromeda Strain 27. The Day the Earth Caught Fire 26. Starship Troopers 25. The Road Warrior 24. Star Trek II 23. E.T. 22. Forbidden Planet 21. Aliens

20. Solyaris 19. The Fountain 18. Twelve Monkeys 17. Dark City 16. Back to the Future 15. The Terminator 14. The Thing 13. Invasion of the Body Snatchers 12. Children of Men 11. Stalker

10. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

We dive into the crystalline waters of the top ten with a film that sets the tone for all those to come, being one of the landmark movies of the SF genre and possessing a wonderfully sturdy reputation on which to build the remainder of our list (and, if a number of our commenters are to be believed, also thoroughly deserving of the top spot itself). Thanks to the recent flaccid reimagining with Keanu Reeves in the lead role, most of you should be familiar with the basics of the plot, which sees a benevolent alien visitor come to Earth, accompanied by a giant metal bodyguard, and pleads for mankind to halt its barbaric ways before it's too late for the survival of the human race. Of course, humans being humans, said alien is shot in the arm before he even has a chance to deliver his message, setting the tension for the rest of the movie as Mr. Klaatu engineers the titular happening to ensure his powers aren't taken lightly. Considering its flying saucers and giant robots with laser vision, coupled with the 50s setting, it's surprising that the film never threatens to descend into pulp (not that there's anything inherently wrong with that), instead taking a more intellectual route and focusing on Klaatu's interaction with the humans and their rather perverse attempts to negotiate with and later, naturally, imprison their visitor. Even the climactic showdown with all the world's greatest thinkers is devoid of action, with Klaatu essentially just buggering off and leaving mankind to it, but the ideas that stem from this very real meeting with alien life are more thrilling than any tacked-on action scenes could have hoped to be. As far as templates for great cinematic science fiction go, The Day the Earth Stood Still is about as solid a foundation as you could hope for.

9. Alien (1979)

For those of you keeping score, I do personally prefer the sequel, but there's no way I can hold it as an objectively better or more important sci-fi movie than Alien. Groundbreaking for so many reasons, from the note-perfect merging of the horror and SF genres, to the positioning of a female character as the strong action hero, to Giger's design of the alien creature itself and all the associated grue. Plus, for added kudos, as if it were needed, there's that scene. The fact that you already know which one I'm talking about speaks volumes for its impact. As far as sheer suspense goes, I don't think Ridley Scott has ever made a better movie, with the tension from the moment the alien beastie emerges onto the ship being quite tangible, and the almost slasher-esque progression of the monster as it takes down the ship's crew one by one belongs, seemingly, in quite a different genre. That Alien manages to tie in these overt horror themes and remain solidly within the SF genre is a testament both to Scott's direction and the production design, with the ambient corridors and darkened ventilation shafts of the Nostromo proving the perfect hiding place for big bad beasties and spooks from the shadows. Of course the real star of the show is the titular thingy itself, a design that became an instant classic of cinema and remains the definitive movie alien (or at least, "bad" alien, as I imagine E.T. would have cause to argue with me on that one). While subsequent entries in the franchise only helped dilute the monstrous impact of the creature, it's here in the original film that it was at its best, a single creature utterly terrifying and proving that SF is more than capable of some solid scares. Had the alien never burst free of poor John Hurt's stomach, the world of science fiction cinema would be a different place.

8. Planet of the Apes (1968)

Let's have some musical accompaniment for this one. Close your ears if you don't like punk rock:



While The Misfits are catchy and all, 'Forbidden Zone' is no match for Jerry Goldsmith's superb original score on Planet of the Apes, which aside from the notorious ending scene and "take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!" is probably the most memorable facet of the movie, all jangling and clattering and restless and never letting go of your eardrums for a moment. Yet another case of a classic science fiction movie that begat a franchise of cheap imitations and poorly conceived sequels, the original Planet is, as are so many on this list, a genre milestone. Years ahead of its time (remember this was made before even the swinging sixties was over), the story of Charlton "NRA4EVA" Heston crash landing his spaceship on a planet inhabited by walking, talking monkeys and being imprisoned for his transgressions, has entered cinematic folklore and deservedly so. You never doubt that the jagged landscape of the Forbidden Zone itself is an alien world, something that's crucial to the film's denouement of course, and the apes themselves are both believable and despicably irrational, and unwilling to see things from the human's perspective. It's important that the film gets behind the protagonist, and it succeeds in doing so despite Heston's typically abrasive qualities. The surprising emphasis throughout the second act on the rationalization of Heston's appearance amongst the ape community throws an unexpected light on the story, with some neat intellectualizing leading both to Dr. Zaius' emergence as an antagonist to fear, and some clever moments like the discovery of paper airplanes. Naturally though, the vast majority of the talk about the film will center on its ending, which remains one of cinema's most brilliant twists and is just as powerful even when you know exactly what's coming. It's a fantastic (if oft-parodied) cap to one of SF's most potent stories, and you should all watch it immediately if you haven't before.

7. Star Wars (1977)

I was actually debating with myself for a good long while as to whether this film or its immediate sequel deserved to be placed higher in the list, which may come as a surprise since it's the general conception that Star Wars is, if only by a hair's breadth, the inferior of the two. I caved to the consensus in the end, but there's no denying that if you factor in importance, Star Wars more than deserves its share of adulation - in fact, if we were going on importance to the genre alone, this would be far and away in second place, second only very closely to our number six pick coming up in a moment. While we could talk for eons about the lasting legacy of this film and its franchise empire though, let's try if we can to hop back to 1977 when this was just a one-off and the idea of 'Episode IV' hadn't even come to fruition. As a self-contained sci-fi / fantasy / space opera / blablabla it's not SF blablabla, Star Wars is a superior distillation of adventure serials, SF elements, and good old fashioned exciting filmmaking that really has very little parallel. Sure, it's not highbrow or "pure" science fiction, but dammit if it isn't one of the most straightforwardly enjoyable movies ever made. For all the analysis that can be made about Kurosawa influences, religious analogies, the Hero's Journey and all the rest, and amidst the billion dollar industry that sprung up around it over the next few decades, that's a fact that seems forgotten a little too often for my liking. In truth, Star Wars is, and continues to be, more than just a sci-fi milestone; it's a sci-fi way of life - but it's also a brilliant sci-fi movie.

6. Metropolis (1927)

Metropolis - so good that Motorhead wrote a song about it. If it gets Lemmy's seal of approval it's alright by me. Depicting an industrialist, quasi-dystopic mega-city a hundred years ahead of its time, Metropolis set about defining convention after convention for sci-fi movies to come, from the use of Art Deco and modernistic architecture to the dominance of technology, to the depiction of robots only a few years after the term even came into existence. It's worthy of mention, too, that Metropolis was essentially the first science fiction blockbuster. Created at a modern equivalent cost of around $200 million, the enormous and intricate sets lent the film an epic feel that was entirely unrivalled by motion pictures of the time, and it still feels surprisingly ‘real' today. The future world envisaged by Lang is remarkably convincing, yet conversely somehow archaic, with biplanes soaring past skyscrapers modeled on the Tower of Babel, and workers laboring day and night to stoke the furnaces that power the great city. As much as the Metropolis itself could be considered a character, though, the real meat of the film is in the characterization of the humans and the complex love story that develops. The plot, involving class struggles, mass unrest, love triangles and, yes, mad scientists, is always complex but despite the silent medium, always compelling, and that the film stands up over eighty years after its release is truly remarkable. And let's face it, the image of Brigitte Helm's Maria being technologically superimposed over Rotwang's robotic mannequin is the first truly iconic moment in science fiction on the big screen, and is still remarkably spine-tingling even now. For a fan of the SF genre, Metropolis is the filmic equivalent of H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds - the first real landmark of the genre in its chosen medium.

5. The Matrix (1999)

Although its reputation has been somewhat sullied by the inferior back-to back sequels, time has actually been quite kind to the reputation of The Matrix, which ten years on stands as the most immediately influential addition to the genre in recent memory. It might be hard to remember a time when people were genuinely amazed by bullet-time, but trust me, it happened, and it was genuinely amazing. Drawing on a surprising number of divergent philosophical themes and ideas (must be why it appeals to me so much; in fact an old lecturer of mine used to refer to this movie in every single one of his seminars as a prime thought experiment... but I digress), from Cartesian metaphysics to eastern spiritualism, The Matrix is one of those rare films that provides a note-perfect balance of coherent, intriguing ideas and high-octane action sequences, that are just as heart-pounding now as they were a decade hence. You too will wonder whether you would have taken the red pill or the blue pill, and fantasize about being able to manipulate the laws of physics as if you were in the matrix itself. That's not hyperbole, it really is that thought-provoking. The film is SF unlike anything that came before it, juxtaposing an ineffable style onto a seemingly staid sci-fi concept and revitalizing it beyond anything you could have imagined. Not all SF has to be revolutionary, but all truly great SF should have an aspect of that, and The Matrix has revolutions coming out of its ears. Pun intended, of course. While some chastise it as style over substance and some condemn its supposedly naive ideas, the inverse is more than the case. As arguably the defining contemporary science fiction movie and certainly one of the most frequently discussed and dissected, The Matrix more than deserves to crack into the top five.

4. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

If this is slightly higher than you might have expected, I'm referring to the 'Ultimate Edition', or the extended director's cut or whatever it's called in your particular DVD region, rather than the theatrical release, since that's the one regarded as the definitive version even if it might not have been viewed by quite so many. Seriously though, if you haven't seen it, it's more than worth doing so, as the extra quarter of an hour or so draws things out and transforms T2 from a classic SF/action flick to a legendary science fiction film. Building on every single aspect of its predecessor, the film is a perfect template for anyone looking to make a sequel - everything about the first movie, extremely good though it was, is taken to another level. All the ingredients are there - iconic hero (and Arnie's defining role), terrifying villain, time travel, "hasta la vista baby", balls-to-the-wall action, Guns N' Roses, Skynet, the end of the world, and the cheesiest cheesemongering ending to a film ever (in a good way). Science fiction has rarely felt quite so definitive as it does here, with class oozing from the film's every pore - you can tell pretty early on that you're watching a movie destined to be a classic, and that's not just limited to the genre. I could discuss any number of the elements that make this film such a success, but the one that always sticks out to me is the CGI of the liquid metal nemesis - twenty years old (almost) and, unbelievably, it's barely dated a jot. That, my friends, is one of the hallmarks of a keeper. With the extended running time come some further ruminations about judgment day itself that add an extra air of pending apocalypse, giving the feeling that no matter how big and bad the events depicted here can get, something bigger is yet to come. yet by the time the credits roll, you realize that that "something bigger" has in fact just been and gone, in the shape of the best action/SF movie of all time.

3. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

"An epic drama of adventure and exploration" as it was tagged on initial release, which may well be one of the vastest understatements in advertising history. 2001 is a film that transcends most, if not all, of the boundaries associated with cinema. Pleasingly, Stanley Kubrick refused to divulge the intended meaning behind the film's themes and events, which are so monumental in scope as to seemingly defy an extensive and coherent reading, instead leaving the next forty years' worth of cineastes, writers and amateurs to endlessly debate the meaning of the black monolith and the Star Child, amongst the many other weird and wonderful occurrences in 2001. While awards and honors tend in the grand scheme of things to be remarkably transient, glancing at a list of the plaudits flung the film's way from all corners of the moviegoing world reveals a film that's embraced by pretty much everyone as one of the 20th century's most stellar cinematic achievements (except for the vocal minority that thinks it's slow and boring, but thankfully they've been proven wrong scientifically so we don't have to listen to them). As SF goes, few authors have had such an impact on the literary side of things as Arthur C. Clarke, and combining a talent such as his with one of the world's foremost directors was clearly a recipe for invention. The story is packed with classic moments, from the famous cut to the satellite to the indelible use of 'Also Sprach Zarathustra', to HAL singing 'Daisy, Daisy', to the Star Child gazing benevolently down to Earth at the film's climax, that it's impossible to single out any particular moment - the hits just keep coming and fuse into a single work of artistic endeavor that's arguably the most singular the genre has ever seen, and continues to enthrall and provoke discussion to this day.

2. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Oh ho, and of course now the surprise is spoiled for number one, but we'll get to that in a minute. Despite talk earlier about wondering whether or not Empire is better than Star Wars, of course we all knew that that was a foregone conclusion, and it logically follows that the best movie in the saga should by rights by very close indeed to the top of this list. Empire in particular of all the movies in this top fifty holds some nostalgic memories for me, being my first proper introduction to cinematic science fiction when it was shown on the tellybox way back in Christmas time around the very early 90s - I remember that experience of being captivated by the grainy signal on our little 12-incher so vividly I could even tell you what adverts were playing during the breaks. Of course, I knew nothing at all about Star Wars, so for me the overarching storyline was pretty irrelevant, compared to these awesome cool laser swords, big bad guy with the world's deepest voice, the little green dude with the funny voice and all the rest of it. Twenty years older and I still love the thrill of the adventure every bit as much as I did back then, although it's different things I appreciate now; the cave on Dagobah, Lando's betrayal, "I love you / I know", that famous ending shot - I could, of course, go on and on. Suffice it to say beyond the genre itself, Empire is a pure reminder of the magic of cinema and the power of SF to captivate like nothing else. Splitting the difference for number one by not very much margin at all, The Empire Strikes Back may not quite be the best science fiction movie of all time, but it's damn close.

1. Blade Runner (1982)

We'll be discussing 'The Final Cut', in case you're wondering, which as evidenced by the recent DVD rereleases is most certainly the definitive version of Blade Runner - and by logical extension, the definitive version of a masterpiece was surely destined for the number one spot in our epic countdown (incidentally, I know it's some people's opinion that the divergent cuts of the film actually add to it, allowing you to view it from different perspectives, which is a nice thought even if I don't subscribe to it). The majesty of Ridley Scott's magnum opus is something that's understandable even from the opening moments, as the camera slowly pans over the dystopic skyline of Los Angeles, 2019, a city that over the course of the film's running length comes to be one of the most beautifully photographed of all futures. The film is every inch science fiction and every inch a cinema classic, with the story of Deckard's quest to search out malevolent replicants and terminate their AI being one of the most hotly contested in genre history - in fact, the only flaw I can realistically level at the film is that Scott didn't take the Kubrick approach and instead weighed in with the answer to the enduring question of whether or not Deckard is a replicant. It's an impeccable motion picture, from the cast to the score to the cinematography to the production design to the direction to the timeless narrative. As an interesting tidbit, when I first started planning and researching this column to its conclusion here and now, this was the only position in the list that was filled without debate and remained that way till the end. Still, however much I could write about Blade Runner being the best science fiction movie of all time, it's actually possible to sum it up in 42 [coincidence?] words:

We interrupt this column for a special announcement.

For all the latest 411 updates in bite-sized chunks of tweety goodness, behold:

http://www.twitter.com/411mania
http://www.twitter.com/411wrestling
http://www.twitter.com/411moviestv
http://www.twitter.com/411music
http://www.twitter.com/411games
http://www.twitter.com/411mma

...and don't forget to set 411mania.com as your homepage for all your pop-culture needs!

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

And finally…

Feeling aggrieved or elated at this week's ten picks? Then let me know! The magic of the interweb allows you to post your comments right here on this very page, and if they're especially insightful (or idiotic), I may even respond in the next column. Be sure to tune in next week for another edition of 'Ten Deep', but until then - keep watching the skies.