There is always a question on conventions of the genre. You
will need to be able to reference other films when you answer this. Over the
last few weeks, there have been any number of sci-fi films on TV and we have a
selection of the video server that you can access from outside school. You have
been reminded several times to watch some.
Let’s say the question gives you FOUR typical science
fiction conventions and asks you to write about them. To ensure you get some
marks, you’ll need to refer to TWO actual films. Some of these categories will
blend with others
Dystopian future – Metropolis (1927), Elysium
(2013), Terminator 2 (1991), I Am Legend (2007) – and many more…
How is the idea of a Dystopian future used in these films? A little bit of
Wikipedia research will soon answer that, even if you haven’t seen the films.
Dystopian films are often meant to be a warning against something – class
division (Metropolis, Elysium); increasing technologisation of society (Terminator2
– but I’m sure you can think of other examples)
Alien Invasion – Independence Day (1996), The
War of the Worlds (1953 and 2005), The Thing From Another World
(1951), The Mist (2007). Do the same. Why do the aliens invade? How are
they defeated? Talk about a couple of significant points – all these films, for
instance show Americans overcoming the alien forces, though The Mist has
a tragic ending. Independence Day had Americans from all walks of life
united to defeat the invaders; in The Mist, they bicker and quarrel and
remain divided so many are killed; even at the end, the ‘hero’ kills his son
and the survivors (but doesn’t have the nerve to kill himself, as they had
planned), fearing that the aliens are about to get them – but it turns out that
the sounds of alien craft they heard were from the army who were in the process
of defeating the aliens.
What do these films have in common – big set pieces – think
of the battles in Independence Day or the scene where the scientists put
the virus on the mothership - and special effects, CGI
in the more recent films. Most – The Mist being the exception, seem to
extol American ideology in that people pull together to defeat the bad guys.
A lot of alien invasion films depict the aliens as bad guys
without much in the way of a motive, like the way Indians were depicted in countless
Westerns in the past, but sometimes that isn’t the case. Close Encounters of
the Third Kind (1977) shows mankind willing to benefit from alien knowledge
and the aliens returning people they had abducted in the past and allowing
people from earth on board their ship for further study.
Many alien invasion films of the 1950s symbolise the threat America
felt from Russian invasion – in The Thing from Another World, the
scientist who wants to befriend the alien is dressed in a fur hat and has a
Lenin beard. In The War of the Worlds (1953 version), the people
initially approach the Martians to be their friends, but are instantly killed,
as if warning people what would happen if you befriended the Russians. As in
other genres, not all films were like this. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
is a stark warning against arms build-up. When the alien arrives, he is shot by
a panicky soldier and a huge robot emerges from the alien craft and
disintegrates the army’s vehicles and weapons, but he has come to earth to warn
them about the creation of weapons and their use and reminds them that if they
don’t join the other planets in peace, earth will be destroyed and left as a burnt
out cinder, which, of course, the fear of many people who were against the
build-up of nuclear weapons.
Space travel/other planets – way too many and too
many variants to mention, but, come on, think of the Star Trek movies,
exploring space and trying to create peace amongst warring peoples but not
before getting involved in some serious CGI
action of their own. Star Wars (1977)? Battles between rebels and
various regimes – and we can see this in some of the dystopian films where a
rebel force or a rebel group or even just a rebel hero (Elysium) fight
the system. More ‘realistic’ space films, like Gravity? Space films that
take a different turn of events, like Alien (1979), where the crew of a
space cargo ship are diverted to another planet and unknowingly, pick up
another life form which escapes onto the ship, grows and terrorises them,
picking them off one-by one until only the Last Girl – in this case, Ripley –
is left to use her ingenuity to kill it. This is also notable for involving
conspiratorial elements, because the company the crew work for forced them to
pick the alien (though it’s not made clear why) and one of the crew is a
lifelike robot, whose treachery isn’t discovered until later. So… this one
ticks off the artificial life/dangers of advanced technology box too.
Again, in these films, you’re looking at big set pieces and
mostly CGI, although earlier films relied on more primitive special effects. Forbidden
Planet (1953) features a group of Americans who land on a planet occupied
by a stranded scientist, Morbius and his daughter. Morbius claims his craft.
Morbius has been using the technology of an extinct native race, The Krell,
which he discovered in a vast underground complex. He refuses to turn it over
to the astronauts, but that night an alien invader (no CGI, but animated by
Disney animators on a special contract because the film was made by MGM)
attacks their ship. Later, they realise the Krell machinery was built to
materialize anything the Krell could imagine and this has affected Morbius who
has unwittingly created the monster to keep the earthmen away. Eventually, they
start an irreversible reaction in the Krell machine and escape the planet to
see it blow up from space – though not before Morbius has perished. A major
feature of the film was Robby the robot, created by Morbius using Krell
technology – though he’s a good ‘guy’ in the film. He was so popular that he
tuned up (under a different name) in other films of the period.
Technology – think of technology gone wrong. The
Demon Seed (1977) – Proteus, an advanced artifical intelligence programme,
takes over the house of its creator, trapping his wife inside, where he forces
her to conceive (don’t ask the details…). Although the programme is destroyed,
the resultant child, initially encased in metal, turns out to be a clone of the
couple’s existing child but speaks with Proteus’ voice.
Terminator 2 (1991) – in the future, an army of
robotic warriors terrorises the remaining human population, so the humans send
a good terminator (Schwarzenegger) back in time to protect the future leader of
the resistance and his mother while the robots send an evil, more advanced
terminator, to kill them. This is the second film in the sequence and in the
first, Schwarzenegger played the evil terminator, so, at first, people assume
he’s evil here and he dresses all in black and rides a motorbike to add to that
feeling; ironically, the real evil terminator initially disguises himself as a
policeman. It’s best not to think of the logic of this, but the arm of the
terminator (who had also come from the future) in the first film will be used
to by the company SkyNet to create artificial intelligence so Schwarzenegger
and the rebels – they’re rebels because no-one in authority will believe them –
have to destroy the arm – and after destroying the it and the evil terminator,
the good terminator has to sacrifice himself to stop his body being used to
develop an artificial intelligence that will turn evil.
Environmental disaster/genetic engineering – it was a
common theme in 1950s film, reflecting the fear of radioactivity and the atom
bomb, that things would mutate and create havoc – hence the giant ants of Them!
(1954) or the sea monster awoken from the depths of the sea (Godzilla –
a Japanese film (1954)). These are strange films that warn of the dangers of
science but often like Them!, use science to defeat them. Same happens in The
Thing From Another World, where the soldiers and scientists use science to
create an electrical field that destroys the alien, even though the chief
scientist is represented as a traitor. Of course, this theme is picked up in
films showing the dangers of technologisation.
Look at the Jurassic Park/Lost World films for the
dangers of genetic engineering gone wrong. Look at Mimic (1997) – a
plague carried by cockroaches is destroyed by Dr Susan Tyler when she uses
genetic engineering to create a Judas breed in which the metabolism speeds up
so they starve themselves to death, but… this genetic engineering has created a
breed that can grow and mimic humans. Susan’s husband manages to destroy the
eggs of thousands of the creatures, but the male leader is lured by Susan into
the path of an oncoming subway train and is killed.
I Am Legend – do some research…