A.I. Tales (2019)
Science Fiction Anthology
An anthology of four SF tales, short films from various directors around the world, although surprisingly none that feature Artificial Intelligences
Future Scenarios
The future concerns any setting at a point ahead of us now in time. Ever since its beginnings, science-fiction has made great efforts at depicting how society may change and evolve, how scientific progresses may transform the world, or alternately showing Dystopias where the future may become a nightmare.
The first major depictions of the future came in the industrial dystopia of Metropolis (1927) and the H.G. Wells scripted Things to Come (1936) that saw the future transformed by science into a world of clean white antiseptic lines where people wore Grecian robes.
By the 1950s, visions of the future headed to the stars, which saw the journey conducted by no-nonsense engineers in boiler suits. This led to the utopianism of Star Trek (1966-9), which saw diverse crews belonging to a galactic federation carrying a message of democracy to other worlds.
The 1960s also brought a series of dystopian visions with Fahrenheit 451 (1966) and other works, which usually extrapolated some undesirable social trend of the day to a nightmare extreme and saw it run by an autocratic government. By the time of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and George Lucas’s THX 1138 (1971), the antiseptic white vision of the future was one that saw humanity being strangled and reduced to an imperfection as our machinery and systems turned against us.
The 1950s brought the first depictions of the Post-Holocaust future, where civilisation had been destroyed (usually by nuclear war). By the 1980s, this had become a series of action films set in a world where crazies roamed the wastelands in dune buggies and affected a ragged leather chic. Depictions of the 2000s onwards became more grim and added environmental catastrophe scenarios to the mix.
The 1980s also brought Cyberpunk, a future that was a direct outthrust of today, filled with bustling texture, advertising and extrapolations of technology into A.I. and Virtual Reality. Adjacent to this is the dark future where cyborgs and androids fight in a rundown world teetering on or fully collapsed.
There are other works that take place in Near Future Settings where little of the present-day has changed except perhaps for one technological innovation or trend. Other depictions include futures where humanity has expanded out into the solar system and colonised other worlds or the entire galaxy. Other works are set in Far Future Settings where civilisation is forgotten and humanity has evolved or devolved.
A.li.ce (1999)
Anime/Dystopian Future/Time Travel
This was the first anime film made in CGI, an ambitious SF film involving a time travel plot and a struggle against a machine-dominated future
Aachi & Ssipak (2006)
Demented Korean Anime
South Korean anime that is set in a future world where people are obsessed with shit. This comes with a demented energy and a filthy-mindedness that is determined to outrage
The ABCs of Death (2012)
Horror Anthology
Unique anthology that offers 26 episodes from different directors, each ending with a death. The episodes vary wildly in quality but a sufficient number ignore all good taste and/or travel waaaay across taboo lines
Accion Mutante (1993)
Future Mutant Terrorists/Gonzo Comedy
The directorial debut of Spain’s Alex de la Iglesia, a planetary adventure about a group of mutant terrorists that comes with a bizarrely wacky sense of humour
Adrenalin: Fear the Rush (1996)
Near Future Action/Cops Pursue Deadly Infectee
An Albert Pyun action film with police officers Christopher Lambert and Natasha Henstridge pursuing an infected man through the sewers of a future quarantine zone
Aeon Flux (2005)
Dystopian Future/TV Series Remake
Disappointingly watered down live-action adaptation of the cult animated series. Karyn Kusama creates some interesting visuals but eventually everything lapses to Hollywood formula
After Yang (2021)
Android’s Secret Life
Another in the recent spate of works about A.I. This is a nicely subdued film, quite different to all the others where Colin Farrell discovers that his android had a secret emotional life
A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) (2001)
Android Boy’s Quest
Steven Spielberg directs an unfinished Stanley Kubrick project about an android boy’s quest. The result is a beautiful and intelligent SF film where the sensibilities of either director merge with magnificent results
Alita: Battle Angel (2019)
Cyborg Girl/Manga Adaptation
What was once a planned James Cameron adaptation of a manga about a cyborg girl is now brought to the screen by Robert Rodriguez but it is hard to say what an underwhelming disappointment the result is
Allegiant (2016)
Young Adult Dystopian Future
The Divergent series is a fundamentally implausible scenario for people that think horoscopes are a profound insight into human nature. This is the most interesting of the films and gives us an imaginative future world
Americathon (1979)
Future Telethon/1970s Satire
This seems like it had all the elements to be a biting satirical crosscut of the 1970s in which the US President holds a telethon to keep the country from going bankrupt but flounders in a series of unfunny skits
Android Apocalypse (2006)
Human-Android Relations
A variation on The Defiant Ones with a human and an android chained together but this fails to find anything to say either about androids or prejudice
Android Cop (2014)
Cop and Android Partner/The Asylum Mockbuster
An Asylum mockbuster intended to come out at the same time as the RoboCop remake. Okay low-budget action and use of Cyberpunk tropes where the film’s saving grace is a sense of humour
Andron (2015)
Mysterious Labyrinth/Future Televised Games
A group of people whose memories have been blanked wake up in a mysterious labyrinth and have to survive death traps and each other. A promising mix of Cube and The Hunger Games killed by clumsy storytelling
Anon (2018)
Mass-Surveillance Future
Andrew Niccol is one of the consistently intelligent and original directors out there. This, set in a world where mass surveillance has erased the concept of anonymity, is the most fascinating and original depiction of a future in some time
Antiviral (2012)
Future World of Celebrity Viruses
Brandon Cronenberg makes an impressive writing-directing debut, taking up the thematic reins of his father’s earlier films in a darkly satiric future escalation of contemporary celebrity culture
Appleseed (1988)
Anime/Future Anti-Terrorist Squad
The first anime film to be based on the manga, this is set in a future where the heroine is the head of a heavily armoured SWAT team fighting terrorists. Several different incarnations followed.
Appleseed (2004)
Anime/Future Anti-Terrorist Squad
A dazzling reboot of the earlier manga/anime made with stunning photorealistic animation design and breathtaking action scenes that made this a benchmark for modern anime. Sequels followed.
Appleseed Ex Machina (2007)
Anime/Future Anti-Terrorist Squad
Shinji Aramaki’s immediate sequel to his reboot of the Appleseed franchise. This lacks the visually stunning qualities of its predecessor and seems more conceptually muddled but Aramaki eventually gets it together
ARQ (2016)
Timeloop
Another variant on the Groundhog Day theme with characters trapped in a timeloop. This come with an SF rationale and contains the plot in a single location while spinning each repeat through some smart twists
Assault Girls (2009)
Virtual Reality Videogaming
Disappointing live-action film from anime director Mamoru Oshii of Ghost in the Shell fame, construed as nothing beyond a live-action videogame with kick-ass girls engaged in serial combat encounters
The Assessment (2024)
Future Couple Undergo Assessment for a Child
An hilariously black, deadpan film set in a future as a couple undergo assessment for whether they are fit to be parents. This involves Alicia Vikander moving into the house and play-acting being a child with absolutely chaotic effect
Astro Boy (2009)
Anime TV Series Remake/Android Boy
This animated theatrical remake of the old Astro Boy cartoon series is nicely made, although the film often feels over-simplistic in its scripting and use of cliches
Automata (2014)
Robots Develop Artificial Intelligence
This Blade Runner-influenced work about robots that develop artificial intelligence is exceptional, featuring a particularly captivating last half with Antonio Banderas journeying with strangely alive robots
Babylon A.D. (2008)
Cyberpunk Future
This was critically dismissed – even its director spoke out against it – nevertheless it proves a flawed but not entirely uninteresting French Cyberpunk film as mercenary Vin Diesel is hired to protect miracle girl Melane Thierry
Back to the Future Part II (1989)
Time Travel
The first of the Back to the Future sequels has a whiplash ingenuity that propels us through several different scenarios, including a trip to the future, a dark alternate present and requiring Michael J. Fox to duck unseen in and around the margins of the first film
The Bad Batch (2016)
Future Desert Wasteland of Crazies
Ana Lily Amirpour caught attention with A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. She makes her second film here, set in a desert prison of cannibals and scavengers, sort of Escape from New York by way of The Burning Man Festival
Barb Wire (1996)
Anarchic Future/Leather-Clad Bimbo
Enjoyably silly comic-book adaptation with a pneumatically-inflated Pamela Anderson playing the titular bounty hunter in an anarchic future. You cannot complain that this is a film that delivers exactly what it promises
Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 (2000)
Earth Under Alien Rule/L. Ron Hubbard Adaptation
The adaptation of the alien invasion novel by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard starring John Travolta is a completely ridiculous film that was laughed off screens and is regarded as a classic bad movie
BigBug (2022)
The Machine Rebellion Comedy
French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet of The City of Lost Children and Amelie fame returns with an appealingly eccentric, beautifully designed comedic take on the machine revolution
Black Road (2016)
Near Future Film Noir
Near future set science-fiction noir as a cyborg-enhanced hero is drawn in to conduct an investigation on behalf of a morally ambiguous femme fatale. Despite a reasonable effort made, this is a little too low key
Blade Runner (1982)
Cyberpunk Future/Hunt for Escaped Androids
Ridley Scott’s film was not a success at the time but has since been regarded as a SF masterpiece, one of the defining screen treatments of android themes while the incredibly dense Cyberpunk vision of the future was copied by many subsequent films
Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
Cyberpunk Future/Androids
Blade Runner is a landmark classic but this is well worthwhile sequel from Denis Villeneuve that recreates the fascinating Cyberpunk world in more detail and expands out on the themes laid down in the original. Made with impeccably beautiful detail
Bliss (2021)
We Are All Living in a Virtual Reality Illusion
Quite an entertaining film based on the conspiracy theory that we are all living in The Matrix where Owen Wilson and Salma Hayek become wound up in virtual simulation
Bodies (2023)
Cross-Historical Detective Story/Time Travel
A smart, intelligent tv mini-series that conducts a murder mystery that ranges between the 1890s and 2050s, before arriving at an ingenious and clever SF explanation
Borealis (2013)
Outpost in a Future Thawed-Out Arctic
A pilot for a tv series that never went ahead set in a future where Global Warming has turned the Arctic into a thawed-out tundra where various countries seek to claim the new territory
Box: Metaphor (2023)
Future Prison
Australian film about a future where people are imprisoned inside shipping containers, this suggests it is going to be something like another Cube
Brave New World (1998)
Dystopian Future
TV movie adaptation that conducts a hatchet job on Aldous Huxley’s dystopian novel where his vision of a conditioned class structure is turned into an allegory about a media-saturated world
Breathe (2024)
Earth With Depleted Oxygen Supplies
Film set in a harsh future as people struggle to survive in a world where oxygen supplies have been reduced to near zero. An okay film that suffers from an implausible premise
Bronx Warriors II (1983)
Future Gang Warfare
Enzo G. Castellari’s sequel to his Escape from New York ripoff 1990: The Bronx Warriors and a most more polished and entertaining B action movie
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979)
Space Opera/Man Unfrozen in the Future
In the aftermath of Star Wars, the comic-book/serial hero was revived in this heavily Star Wars influenced remake that was released theatrically and then served as the pilot of a tv series
Bunker Palace Hotel (1989)
Near-Future Civil War
The first film from Enki Bilal set in a decaying luxury bunker where the elite of the future take shelter from a civil war. A film that creates a fascinating world – in which nothing interesting ends up happening
Cafe Flesh (1982)
Adult Film/Sex Performers in an Impotent Future
An adult film that gained a critical respectability when it came out, an avant garde work set in a future where the populace has become impotent and the handful unaffected perform sex in clubs for paying audiences
Casshern (2004)
Future Superhero/Anime Remade in Live-Action
Live-action film based on an anime series where the original is built out with a series of of extraordinarily gorgeous over-ornamented visuals set in a strange retro-future world
Cherry 2000 (1987)
Oddball Post-Holocaust Quest
Overlooked work of considerable charms, this mashes the setting of Mad Max 2 and the plot of The African Queen with a sense of oddball humour. The show is stolen by Melanie Griffith as a tough wasteland tracker
Children of Men (2006)
Infertile Future
Alfonso Cuaron film set in a near-future afflicted by an epidemic of infertility. Cuaron’s depiction of a dystopian world comes with a richness of casually layered detail that makes for a stark and powerful film
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Future Thugs/Brainwashing
One of the key films by Stanley Kubrick, centred around ultra-violent thugs in a near-future setting. Everybody was outraged at Kubrick choreographing scenes of violence to classical music but the film has a considerable brilliance and very dark sense of humour
Cloud Atlas (2012)
Cross-Historical Epic
A cross-historical epic from The Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer. An uneven film driven more by its determination we view it as an epic. Surely a studio publicist’s nightmare, it grasps at the meaning of it all yet eludes telling audiences what it is about
Code 46 (2003)
Dystopian Future
A standout Michael Winterbottom film set in a fascinatingly detailed and well conceived future dominated by genetic laws where Tim Robbins and Samantha Morton conduct an illicit affair
The Colony (2013)
Grim Survival in a Frozen Future
This creates a fascinatingly different future – a world of grim survivalism amid a new Ice Age in the aftermath of Global Warming. The look of the film is fantastic, only to fritter it on an action focus and Mad Max cliches
The Congress (2013)
Virtual Actress/Future Shared Drug Hallucination
Waltz With Bashir director Ari Folman adapts a work by Stanislaw Lem into a conceptually challenging part-animated film concerning a virtual actress and a future where the populace lives inside a drug-induced mass hallucination
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972)
Planet of the Apes Sequel
The fourth of the original Planet of the Apes films, this cuts back on the humour and makes a stark parable for the Civil Rights movement with the apes rebelling against humanity in a revolution
Cosmoball (2020)
Future Sports
A Russian SF film about humans who have been selected to participate in an intergalactic sports tournament. This feels that it has been construed as an anti-Alita: Battle Angel and has some stunning design work
Crash and Burn (1990)
Killer Android
Charles Band film that gives the impression it is a Transformers-type film. While a Transformer does appear in a few scenes, this settles down to be more of a killer android whodunit.
The Creation of the Humanoids (1962)
Androids Rebel Against Humanity
An excellent underrated science-fiction film that was way ahead of its time about a class of androids in a future fighting for their rights as they gain increasing self-awareness
The Creator (2023)
Artificial Intelligence and Robotics
Gareth Edwards, the director of Monsters and Godzilla, makes a genre-defining work about robotics and artificial intelligence set in a stunningly detailed future world. This site’s Top Film for 2023
Crimes of the Future (1970)
Strange Future Mutations and Fetishes
The second film from David Cronenberg. Despite the SF title, this is more a work of arthouse surrealism where Cronenberg spends the film documenting strange behaviours in an hilarious deadpan tone that mimics a scientific paper
Crimes of the Future (2022)
Future Surgical Experiments
A 79 year-old David Cronenberg returns with one of his best films, a synthesis of his major themes in an extraordinary and perverse look at a future where surgery has become performance art. This site’s best film of 2022.
Cyber Zone (1995)
Android Bounty Hunter
B-budget director Fred Olen Ray makes a cyberpunk action film where the cut-price nature of the exercise is elevated by a tongue-in-cheek sense of humour
Dark Metropolis (2010)
Dystopia of Genetically Engineered Superhumans
a low-budget SF film set in an underground world ruled by a caste of genetically engineered people concerning who now face rebellion from among the lower classes
Darkside Blues (1994)
Anime/Dark Future/Mysterious Stranger
Anime where a mysterious other-dimensional stranger aids future rebels. This has a wonderfully ornate Gothic feel but an entirely confusing plot
The Dawnseeker (2018)
Planetary Adventure/Hunted by an Alien
A low-budget film about a group of soldiers crashed on another planet where they find themselves hunted by an alien. This channels the basics of Predator
Daybreakers (2009)
World of Vampires
Australia’s The Spierig Brothers create a strong and original scenario for a vampire film set in a future where vampires have killed almost all the humans and the blood supply is now running out.
Dead-End Drive-In (1986)
Drive-In Theatre as a Future Prison/Satire
A remarkable little film from Australian director Brian Trenchard-Smith set in a satiric future where teens find they are trapped in a drive-theatre used as a prison for troubled youth
Death Race 2000 (1975)
Future Road Race/Black Comedy
Satiric hit produced by Roger Corman, a spoof of Rollerball, with David Carradine as a driver in a futuristic road race where points are won by running down pedestrians. Also featuring a young unknown Sylvester Stallone
Death Race 2050 (2017)
Future Road Race/Satire
Death Race 2000 was a hit for producer Roger Corman. It was remade minus the satire as a straight action film with Death Race; here Corman remakes the original (albeit very cheaply) and restores the satire
Deathwatch (1980)
Future Media Obsession with a Dying Woman
Quietly understated French SF film set in a future where all illness has been abolished and a woman becomes a media sensation when she is diagnosed with a terminal condition
Delicatessen (1991)
Strange Apartment Building/Gonzo Comedy
In their debut, Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro make an hilariously eccentric and unclassifiable film about the inhabitants of a strange apartment building
Demolition Man (1993)
Satirical Politically Correct Dystopia/Action
One of Sylvester Stallone’s better films, a satirically funny work where he plays a contemporary police officer unfrozen in a future overrun by Political Correctness to chase down criminal Wesley Snipes
Le Dernier Combat (1983)
Mute Post-Holocaust
Luc Besson made his directorial debut with this remarkable film. At a time when everybody was making copies of Mad Max 2, Besson demonstrates a poetry in depicting a post-apocalyptic world where people have lost the ability to speak
Deus (2022)
Space Expedition Finds Gateway to Heaven
This has distinct overtones of 2001: Space Odyssey and Event Horizon about an expedition to Mars to investigate a mysterious black sphere – only to find that it offers a gateway to Heaven
Divergent (2014)
Young Adult Dystopian Future
Designed as a copycat of The Hunger Games, this Young Adult film as a modest hit. The premise is fundamentally implausible as human psychology – and when there’s no basic credibility, you cease to care about the contrived dramatics
Doomsday (2008)
Plague Ravaged Future Wasteland/Action
Immensely satisfying film from Neil Marshall set in a walled-off, post-pandemic Scotland where he seems to have set out to pay homage to sf/action films like Escape from New York and Mad Max 2
Dredd (2012)
Comic-Book Adaptation/Future Law Enforcement Officer
A second film version of the Judge Dredd comic-book. More faithful than the Sylvester Stallone version, this comes with a satisfyingly visceral kick, yet a low-budget means that we see little of Dredd’s satiric future
Dual (2022)
Woman Must Fight a Death Duel with Her Clone
Film in which a dying Karen Gillan has a clone made of herself only to make an unexpected recovery and be forced into a televised duel to death with the clone for ownership of her life
The Element of Crime (1984)
Decayed Future Thriller
The first feature film from Lars von Trier, a crime thriller set in a futuristic Europe. There are glimmers of the visual style von Trier would develop but the film also badly drags
Elysium (2013)
Future Class Divide
The second film from Neill Blomkamp. As in District 9, he starts out making a savage and biting social critique about social privilege and financial elites only to let the film descend into action moves in the third act
Equals (2015)
Dystopia
Dystopian film about a future where emotion is forbidden – this owes much to George Lucas’s THX 1138, right down to the blinding white-on-white look. The film is also hobbled by a non-acting Kristen Stewart
Escape from L.A. (1996)
Action/Los Angeles as a Future Prison
John Carpenter’s sequel to Escape from New York falls too much in the shadow of its predecessor, nevertheless has some effective moments of its own, with Carpenter in particular creating a satiric fundamentalist future
Escape from New York (1981)
Action/New York as a Future Prison
One of the key films from John Carpenter with Kurt Russell giving his best ever performance, a slick exciting action film that imagines a future Manhattan Island having been transformed into a lawless prison
Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
Book-Burning Dystopia/Ray Bradbury Adaptation
Francois Truffaut adapts Ray Bradbury’s novel about a dystopian future where books are burned. Truffaut finds different things in the story than Bradbury did but creates a beautiful film
Fahrenheit 451 (2018)
Book-Burning Dystopia/Ray Bradbury Adaptation
This had one simple job – adapt a book by one of the great SF writers. Instead, we go from a work set in a book-burning future to The Firemen on reality tv shows competing for Likes on social media
The Fifth Element (1997)
Space Opera/Showdown Against Ultimate Evil
A big-budget space opera from Luc Besson. This offers a dazzlingly designed future but the plot is an inane hodgepodge of bad SF elements with a tone that flails between action and camp
The Final Cut (2004)
The Editing of Memory
Fine and underrated Sf film set in a future where memory recording devices are commonplace with Robin Williams as a man whose job is to edit these for funeral services
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (2005)
Anime/Computer Game Adaptation
Not a seventh sequel to Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, this adapts the videogame of the same name. Dazzling anime action but is take-no-prisoners with explanations about what is happening to non game players
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)
Anime/Alien Soul Devourers
Despite being made by the same company, this has absolutely nothing to do with the Final Fantasy videogame. It is a visually stunning work of anime that takes place on an epic scale set after Earth has been invaded by spirit beings
The Final Programme (1974)
Spy Capers in an Entropic Future/Michael Moorcock Adaptation
Michael Moorcock’s psychedelic adventurer hero Jerry Cornelius gets a disappointing film adaptation here. There are imaginative sets but the plot plays out as a pedestrian spy thriller
Firebird 2015 AD (1980)
Car Races in a Dystopian Future
Canadian film set in a dystopian future where private use of cars has been banned and Darren McGavin is among the aging car aficionado who race custom cars in defiance of the authorities
Foe (2023)
Near Future/Android Replacement
From the pen of Iain Reid who wrote I’m Thinking of Ending Things, an SF film about a man recruited for a space mission and the training of his android replacement. Expectedly, what is going on is shifting and pulls expectation out from under us
Fortress (1993)
Future Prison
Stuart Gordon, a cult director on the basis of Re-Animator, ventures into making an SF action film set in a futuristic prison. The film has a bone-headed script that feels like it is only rehashing cliches from every SF film
Freejack (1992)
Future Body-Snatching/Time Travel
Emilio Estevez is snatched into the future and pursued for his body by bounty hunter Mick Jagger in an SF film that makes no sense at all. A film more worth watching for some bizarrely awful performances
Futuresport (1998)
Future Sports Game
This borrows the basics of Rollerball and concerns a futuristic sports game played aboard hoverboards. Cocky player Dean Cain decides a showdown with terrorists must be settled over the outcome of a game
Gamer (2009)
Future Live-Action Videogames
Film somewhere between Counterstrike and The Running Man where convicts are controlled as avatars inside a live-action videogame. A difficult to believe premise that is pumped up with hyper-adrenalised action visuals
Gattaca (1997)
Genetically-Engineered Dystopia
The first film from Andrew Niccol, a smart work set in a dystopian future where genetic engineering has perfected the human species and those who are born naturally are doomed to an underclass
The Gene Generation (2007)
Cyberpunk Future/Genetic Hacking
Modest Cyberpunk film set in a future where gene editing and hacking has become a norm. Bai Ling owns the show as the kick-ass fetish-gear clad heroine
Genesis II (1973)
Cryogenic Sleeper Awakes in a Post-Holocaust World
An unsold Gene Roddenberry tv pilot that is a fascinating almost-ran. Roddenberry rehashes Star Trek by way of Buck Rogers in a post-holocaust setting. This could have made for a worthwhile series
Ghosts With Shit Jobs (2012)
Slice-of-Life Portraits From a Post-Cyberpunk Future
Fascinating film interviewing people about the jobs they are forced to take in an economically collapsed future. Despite a minuscule budget, this has the grip of strong, intelligent SF
The Girl from Monday (2005)
Satiric Future/Alien Visitor
Hal Hartley was one of the foremost independent directors of the 1990s. Here he makes a film set in satiric future dominated by the advertising industry featuring a visit from an alien girl
The Giver (2014)
Young Adult Dystopia
Another adaptation of a classic Young Adult book, this merely substitutes well-worn dystopian tropes and comes out feeling like Divergent by way of Pleasantville