“The following tale of alien encounters is true. And by true, I mean false. It’s all lies. But they’re entertaining lies. And in the end, isn’t that the real truth? The answer is: No.”
– Leonard Nimoy
Tonight’s Monday Movie Night features contenders from the realm of science fiction! The arbitrary categories of this week pit the classics of science fiction against their modern counterparts. Who shall stand? Who shall fall? Join us this week to find out!
Classics:
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) 160min: Humanity finds a mysterious, obviously artificial, object buried beneath the Lunar surface and, with the intelligent computer H.A.L. 9000, sets off on a quest.
Forbidden Planet (1956) 98min: A starship crew goes to investigate the silence of a planet’s colony only to find two survivors and a deadly secret that one of them has.
Logan’s Run (1976) 119min: An idyllic sci-fi future has one major drawback: life must end at 30.
Metropolis (1927) 153min: In a futuristic city sharply divided between the working class and the city planners, the son of the city’s mastermind falls in love with a working class prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.
Silent Running (1972) 89min: In a future where all flora is extinct on Earth, an astronaut is given orders to destroy the last of Earth’s botany, kept in a greenhouse aboard a spacecraft.
Westworld (1973) 88min: A robot malfunction creates havoc and terror for unsuspecting vacationers at a futuristic, adult-themed amusement park.
Modern Sci Fi
Starship Troopers (1997) 129min: Humans in a fascistic, militaristic future do battle with giant alien bugs in a fight for survival.
Moon (2009) 97min: Astronaut Sam Bell has a quintessentially personal encounter toward the end of his three-year stint on the Moon, where he, working alongside his computer, GERTY, sends back to Earth parcels of a resource that has helped diminish our planet’s power problems.
Total Recall (1990) 113min: When a man goes for virtual vacation memories of the planet Mars, an unexpected and harrowing series of events forces him to go to the planet for real, or does he?
Under the Skin (2013) 108min: A mysterious woman seduces lonely men in the evening hours in Scotland. Events lead her to begin a process of self-discovery.