The 6th Day (2000)
Cloned Man/Action
Arnold Schwarzenegger revisits something of Total Recall in this modest and clever action film in which he discovers that a clone has stolen his life
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.
Sleeper (1973)
Dystopian Future Comedy
An hilarious Woody Allen film in which he plays a contemporary man cryogenically unthawed in the 22nd century. This satirisises SF cliches and contains some side-slitting comedy sequences
Snowpiercer (2013)
Train Containing the Last Survivors of Humanity
One of the most original science-fiction films of recent years. Set aboard a train where the last survivors of humanity circle a frozen globe, this is less an action film than something like Runaway Train turned into a unique conceptual breakthrough story, all rent through with a fierce parable about social revolution
Solar Crisis (1990)
Space Mission
Ambitious SF film about a space expedition to save the Sun, this bombed at the time but is not uninteresting
Solarbabies (1986)
Post-Holocaust Teen Sports Team
Embarrassingly bad Mel Brooks produced film that seems to have been conceived in terms of conducting a juvenile Mad Max film on rollerskates and throwing SF cliches about without any coherent script
Soylent Green (1973)
Overpopulated Future
The film mangles and fails to understand the fine Harry Harrison novel it is based on but in its own right creates an effective and worthwhile portrait of a badly overpopulated 21st Century New York
Space Battleship Yamato (2010)
Anime TV Series in Live-Action/Space Opera
A live-action remake of the 1970s anime series Space Cruiser Yamato made with stupendous effects, although now much of the plot has been rendered familiar by assorted Star Wars copies
Space Cruiser Yamato (1977)
Anime Space Opera
Anime film spun off from a popular Japanese tv series. Despite crude animation, this has a colourful vigour and taps the same space opera vein as Star Wars, which came only three months earlier
Space Sweepers (2021)
Space Junk Collectors/Korean Space Opera
South Korean space opera about a crew of space junk collectors. If the Star Wars series wanted to find a director to create fresh and exhilarating effects scenes, they need look no further than here
Starship Troopers (1997)
War with Aliens
Travesty of Robert Heinlein’s classic SF novel from Paul Verhoeven. Heinlein’s philosophical argument for militarism is junked in favour of blackly comic mindless violence
Steampunk Samurai Biker Chick (2012)
Future Action
I must admit to being drawn in by the title, but this proves to be a massive cheat. What we get is a painfully cheap future action film
Supergrid (2018)
Socially Collapsed Future Action
Lowell Dean, director of WolfCop, makes what feels like a revival of the low-budget Mad Max film – an action film set in a socially collapsed future
Surrogates (2009)
Future Where People Inhabit Avatar Bodies
Interesting conceptual SF film where the populace of the future inhabit a series of perfect avatar bodies. Despite a few logical quibbles with the premise, this does a good job in exploring the idea of such a world
Tamala 2010 (2002)
Demented Anime/Girl Cat's Space Adventures
Grungy low tech anime that comes out like a sarcastic version of Hello Kitty
Tekken (2010)
Videogame Adaptation/Combat Tournament
Another videogame adapted film, this has almost entirely been conceived around a series of slick fight sequences and little else
The Tenth Victim (1965)
Killing as a Future Sport
Satiric film set in a future where contestants hunt and kill one another on a tv show. The first film on the theme of human bloodsports later popularised by The Hunger Games and others
Terminus (1987)
Future Truck Race
Very strange French SF film about a futuristic truck race
Theodore Rex (1995)
Cop and Dinosaur Partner
Disastrous flop that tries to do a Lethal Weapon buddy cop film by way of Jurassic Park and gives us a film about a cop with a dinosaur partner!
Things to Come (1936)
Building a Scientific Utopia
From a script by H.G. Wells, this comes with a visionary sweep that depicts the building of a scientific utopia but equally suffers from dull and heavy-handed polemical dialogue
The Thinning (2016)
Future Education System Eliminates Failed Students
Another variant on the Young Adult dystopia a la The Hunger Games and Divergent films, concerning a future where that who fail standardised school tests are executed to keep the population down. The blandness of approach utterly feels to grapple with the ideas at play
THX 1138 (1971)
Dystopian Future
George Lucas’s first film and always a puzzle to those who come to it after the Star Wars series where its antiseptic, dehumanised aesthetic and dystopian future seems almost the polar opposite of the Star Wars universe
The Time Machine (1960)
Time Travel/H.G. Wells Adaptation
This adaptation of H.G. Wells’ classic novel was one of the best films from 1950s SF producer/director George Pal. The time travel is depicted with considerable wondrousness and standout effects for the era
The Time Machine (2002)
Time Travel/H.G. Wells Adaptation
Remake of the classic H.G. Wells novel that comes with the novelty of being directed by Wells’s great-grandson. More disappointingly it prefers to merely remake the 1960 film rather than return to the book
Timestalker (2024)
Comedy/Romance Reincarnated Through History
Actress Alice Lowe directs/stars in a comedy about a woman who pursues the man she is infatuated with as both reincarnate through history
Tomorrowland (2015)
The Fight to Create a Utopian Future
Despite being another film based on a Disney theme park, I had high expectations of this because of Brad Bird. Alas, the initial promise of a retro-sf work that mainlined the wonderment of Jetsons-styled futurism turns into a surprisingly glum and message-heavy work about how the modern world is a depressing place
Total Recall (2012)
Virtual Memories/Reality Bender/Action
I was never a particular fan of the Schwarzenegger original and this improves on it somewhat. This is far better conceived as an action film with some amazing Cyberpunk designs. On the other hand, the two decades interim has made the story’s Philip K. Dick-ian reality bendings seem commonplace
Twelve Monkeys (1995)
Time Paradox
Terry Gilliam remakes the classic short film La Jetee as one of the most impressive of modern time travel films with an exceptional plot that is built around a sophisticated time paradox
The 25th Reich (2012)
Time Travel, UFOs and Nazi-Ruled Alternate Future
Time travel, Nazis in UFOs and a Nazi-ruled alternate timeline, giant robot spiders – ok, I’m sold. A surprisingly good little film where the fact that this is also made on a low budget and with a good deal of conceptual constraint makes it all the more creative an effort
2046 (2004)
Memories of Lost Relationships
An exquisitely dreamy Wong Kar Wai film as a man remembers his liaisons with various women. Only peripherally a science-fiction film concerning a story the protagonist is writing.
2103: The Deadly Wake (1996)
Futuristic Ship Voyage
Low-budget SF film about a ship at sea carrying a cargo of convicts, toxic waste, a deadly virus and a killer android
2067 (2020)
Time Portal
Australian film in which Kodi Smit-McPhee heads through a time portal to save a polluted world resulting in a time paradox that ties back to his childhood. This had promise but badly lets down on its premise
Ultraviolet (2006)
Dystopian Future Action/Vampire Mutations
Milla Jovovich is a part of a vampire rebel underground in a dystopian future. A film filled with incredible design schemes and action scenes that are as spectacular as they are ridiculously improbable
V for Vendetta (2006)
Graphic Novel Adaptation/Totalitarian Future England
Adaptation of the Alan Moore graphic novel with a script from The Wachowskis. Moore’s repudiation aside, this is a fine and literate work that retells the story of an anarchist trickster and potently politicises it for the era of the George W. Bush.
Vexille (2007)
Anime/Future Android Japan
Anime film about an android-overrun future Japan that resembles another episode of the Appleseed franchise
Wall-E (2008)
Pixar Animation/Lonely Robot
A near-dialogueless story of a lonely robot clearing up junk in the aftermath of civilisation. This is surely Pixar’s most endearing film to date where they are operating at the peak of their creativity
Warning (2021)
Anthology of Future SF Tales
An anthology film that has been intended in the same vein as tv’s Black Mirror, offering a series of dark reflections of technological changes
Welcome to Blood City (1977)
Western Simulation in Virtual Reality
Clearly influenced by the original Westworld, this is an interesting film about people waking up inside a computer-simulated Western town. Without realising it, this was the very first film to depict Virtual Reality
What Happened to Monday (2017)
Overpopulated Dystopian Future
From Tommy Wirkola, director of Dead Snow and Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, a film where Noomi Rapace plays seven identical sisters hiding their existence in an overpopulated dystopian future, A film where neither the scenario nor the central characters end up convincing in any way
Wild in the Streets (1968)
Satiric Youth Revolution
Satiric 1960s Youth Revolution film where a rock star becomes US President, reduces the voting age and everyone over thirty is placed in a concentration camp
X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
Comic-Book Superheroes
It is nice to see Bryan Singer regain his form after several years lull. The plot is nothing world-shattering but it is nice to see a character-driven X-Men, while Singer delivers the superheroics with a cheer-out loud elan that most of the sequels missed by a wide margin
Xchange (2000)
Body-Swapping Future
A modest and surprisingly well thought out SF film set in a future where swapping bodies is commonplace only for a man to find his original body has been stolen
The Year of the Sex Olympics (1968)
Media-Controlled Future
Film from Quatermass creator Nigel Kneale well ahead of its time in its prediction of a populace controlled by television
Young Ones (2014)
Drought-Ridden Future
Not to be confused with the cult British comedy series, the anonymous title disguises an excellent film about a drought-ridden future. Less another Mad Max-inspired film than an SF version of There Will Be Blood that becomes a study in greed, ambition and the fight for resource control
Z.P.G. (Zero Population Growth) (1972)
Dystopian Future Where Childbirth is Outlawed
SF film set in a future that is so overpopulated that childbirth is treated as an executable crime. Although sometimes naive in its speculations, this creates a dystopian scenario that imaginatively turns many familiar aspects of the present on their head
Zebraman 2: Attack on Zebra City (2010)
Japanese Superhero
Takashi Miike makes a sequel to his earlier superhero film filled with his typically eccentric touches
The Zero Theorem (2013)
Dystopian Future/The Meaning of It All
This is Terry Gilliam largely going back to revisit Brazil, albeit having been updated to the 2010s and the era of the internet. A renaissance of many Gilliam themes, nevertheless this feels like one of his slighter works