Here are a few underrated 70s sci-fi films that we think deserve much more love and why we love them.

The Andromeda Strain

Filmmaker Alex Cox once compared The Andromeda Strain to 2001: A Space Odyssey. A not undeserved comparison. Not only do both contain incredible special effects work from Douglas Trumbull, but they also resist using “cinematic” stars and characterisation for their heroes and focus a lot on the mechanics of the science at play. When this is all paired with a prescient plot about scientists trying to contain a world-ending unknown alien organism that spreads like a disease you have a sci-fi disaster movie that feels much more real than many of its contemporaries.

Ivan Vasilievich Changes His Profession

Meanwhile, on the opposite side of cinematic realism, we have a farcical time-travel comedy. Which in many ways feels like a precursor to the Bill and Ted series. After an inventor creates a time machine he accidentally sends his building manager, Ivan, and a thief back in time to the court of Ivan the Terrible. Funnily enough, Ivan the Terrible is the spitting image of Ivan the Building Manager. So they end up swapping positions. There is some good social satire here about bureaucracy and power. But more than anything this is just a funny slapstick sci-fi comedy. With prior movies like The Time Machine establishing a serious tone around the subject, Ivan Vasilievich is a welcome break. It doesn’t care about paradoxes or plausibility it just picks up its fun premise and runs with it. Which creates an infectious energy you can’t help but be enraptured by.

The Asphyx

Similar in tone to the sci-fi-inflected horror films that came out of the likes of Hammer in the preceding decades, The Asphyx, tells the classic story of a scientist’s (Robert Stephens) search for immortality. What sets it apart is it’s more overt focus on human drama and its unique central premise. Robert Stephens’ and Robert Powell’s performances are really emotionally resonant. Stephens wants to protect his family at all costs, while Powell believes man can’t and shouldn’t control everything. Additionally, the film focuses on the use of steampunk-esque technology to trap spirits that bring death to humans. Not unlike a Victorian Ghostbusters. A wonky but wonderfully entertaining watch.

Space is the Place

Of the movies recommended here, Space is the Place is the most obscure but also the most interesting. An early Afrofuturist film, the narrative follows musician Sun-Ra and his crew, the Arkestra, as they return to Earth having decided to bring African Americans to a new planet he has discovered, using the medium of song. Once back on Earth, he has to deal with scepticism and battle the Overseer to determine what the future will be for African American people. Not everything here works. There is some wooden acting, the writing feels very self-indulgent at times and the lacklustre direction diminishes the power of key narrative moments. However, with an interesting central plot revolving around using sci-fi concepts to mirror and address themes specifically intended for African American audiences, like black empowerment, separatism and self-determination, beautiful design work and a unique blending of styles; music, crime, sci-fi, exploitation and more, Space is the Place is a trailblazing pioneer that everyone should see.

Hopefully, these examples have given you some more great 70s sci-fi to add to your watchlists. But these are just the tip of the iceberg for underrated sci-fi gems. So please use these choices as a jumping-off point to see more from this great period in genre history.

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In this article, we will look over some examples of technology envisioned in sci-fi movies that have since been realised. We will then consider science fiction’s role in influencing the development of new technologies before looking at the implications of deriving tech from the genre. 

Movie Technology In Real Life

1. Tablet Computers – 2001: A Space Odyssey

There has been no shortage of words written about how much 2001 got right about modern technology. But interestingly one of its technological predictions was so close to reality that Samsung offered it as evidence in a legal battle between them and Apple. That being the tablet computers that the crew of the Discovery One use during their Jupiter mission to watch videos. A scarily accurate vision of the future.

2. 3D Projected Images – Star Wars

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, R2-D2 used holographic technology to relay Princess Leia’s call for help to Obi-Wan Kenobi. In actuality, this was done by superimposing an element isolated from a TV screen. Now scientists have actually created 3D holograms which don’t need to be projected onto a 2D surface. Let’s hope that means more distress signals will be heard.

3. Digital Billboards – Blade Runner

Considering the amount of detail thrown into Blade Runner‘s world design it’s understandable how some things can be overlooked. However, in the background of many shots showing the then-futuristic 2019 Los Angeles, we see digital billboards advertising various products. At the time the film was made this practice had not yet emerged. Now they are everywhere. Just like the film predicted.

4. Biometric Security – Back To The Future Part 2

Every fan of Back To The Future Part 2 is still disappointed we don’t have flying hoverboards. But we have seen something else from the movie become widely available, biometric security, which is now commonly used in things like mobile phone security.

Art Influences Life

While many like to view science fiction as just a fantasy it has clearly had some level of influence. There are of course direct real-world influences with companies and researchers citing various movies as inspiration. But even without one-to-one examples, science fiction is a popular film genre (for example 8 of the 10 highest-grossing films of all time have some level of sci-fi genre trappings to them) that is seen by a huge number of people. With such a wide reach and its juxtaposition of seemingly fantastical inventions with real scientific theories (though rarely presented accurately), it is understandable why some people would try to realise what appears on screen.

Missing The Point?

However, it’s important to note that while movies like Star Wars are generally optimistic about advanced technology, and 2001 showcases the great possibilities of technology, so long as we don’t lose sight of humanity, many sci-fi movies also present a darker side to how technology can be used. 

The looming advertisements of Blade Runner are not presented positively. They symbolise how much capitalist corporations intrude on our lives. And while Back to the Future Part 2’s convenient biometric security is awed over it also notes how it can be used by forces like the police to keep watch over us. Science fiction encourages us to imagine but to be cautious of how technology can be corrupted for profit and for use by oppressive systems. Science fiction preaches altruism, and invention for the benefit of all, something science fact doesn’t always do.

Also Read: The Technology Inspired By Star Trek

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2001: A Space Odyssey

One of Stanley Kubrick’s many masterpieces 2001 is very good on a lot of issues involving space travel. For example, when the astronauts have a television interview on the ship it is mentioned that it takes a long time for each response to travel the distance to the ship and back but for the television broadcast that has been cut out. Famously 2001 is one of the few sci-fi films that doesn’t have sound in space; space is a vacuum and as such there would be no sound, but for the sake of tone, most sci-fi films ignore this. Another issue most sci-fi films ignore or hand-wave away is that of gravity but not 2001 – we see many examples of weightlessness, and there is a famous shot of an astronaut climbing down a ladder and then seemingly running along what would have been the wall when he was on the ladder.

Accuracy – While certainly not perfect 2001 certainly tried to be as accurate as possible, this whole article could have been about this film and how much work was put in to making it accurate.

Transformers

Most of the movies mentioned in this article deal with complicated ideas like space travel, artificial intelligence and time travel and can be forgiven for getting details wrong. However, the Transformers franchise seems to exist in a world where the basic laws of physics are forgotten about. You can ignore questions of how are these robots made, how they travel through etc and get onto basic things like their different size in different transformed states, or these giant robots jumping around and not causing huge devastation from their tremendous mass. It absolutely forgets that if a human falls from a great height a robot catching them moments before they hit the ground is not going to save them and will have much the same result as hitting the ground.

Accuracy – None whatsoever – but not particularly trying either.

Sunshine

An underappreciated Danny Boyle film Sunshine is a movie where the filmmakers have clearly thought about scientific accuracy a lot. In a nutshell, the plot is that the sun is dying and there is a spaceship heading there to “restart” the sun. Professor Brian Cox was the scientific consultant for the film and has said that he used some ideas in physics to give the plot some credence, but it’s not a documentary, for example in the film the sun has been damaged by a Q-Ball (which is a genuine idea in physics) but our sun isn’t dense enough to be affected by it. It would seem Boyle asked for scientists to come up with something vaguely plausible in science and he would then run with it.

Accuracy – this is a difficult example as much of the film is not accurate but does take a lot of inspiration from science.

Interstellar

Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi epic has a number of interesting sci-fi elements going on – from robots to spaceships and more. One of the concepts that runs through the film is that of time combined with space travel; time is not a simple constant in the universe, it is affected by gravity. As such if you travel to a planet of different size the planet’s different gravity will affect time, so when the astronauts visit one planet they are told every hour on the planet seven years will pass on Earth. Most sci-fi films that feature travel between solar systems and vast distances in space pay no heed to such problems. Not only is this incredibly difficult to grasp accurately it would cause chaos in most attempts at telling a story – the astronaut returning home could be decades younger than their children.

Arrival

Another sci-fi masterpiece Arrival has clearly spent a lot of time on research, in particular away from the traditional sci-fi interests of spaceships and lasers but about language and communication. In Arrival, linguist Dr Louise Banks is tasked with communicating with an alien race that has arrived on Earth. Not only do they have a different language but they have a different perception of reality and understanding of it, particularly that of time. Dr. Banks insists on learning the whole language before any attempts at negotiation, pointing out how easy it is for misunderstandings between humans who speak different languages. The film engages with the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, in that learning a new language can change how your brain works, in the film this allows Banks to experience time the way the aliens do. This is a real theory in linguistics but the way things work in Arrival is far beyond anything any linguists actually propose.

Accuracy – a genuine attempt at portraying linguistics well but doesn’t quite match up with the science.

Movies do not need to be scientifically accurate to be good movies. They don’t even need to be scientifically accurate to capture ideas in science, for example in Sunshine a lot of what happens simply isn’t possible but the understanding of the universe as an incredibly precarious place where forces that are so huge and so outside of our ability to do anything about could destroy us is conveyed well. Transformers clearly couldn’t care less about scientific accuracy and it is in no way trying to pass itself off as an insightful film about the real science of transforming robots and the way it discards everyday physics is no different to non-sci-fi movies like The Fast & Furious franchise. Sci-fi doesn’t need to be scientifically accurate, usually, sci-fi is more about our interaction with science than the science itself.

Also Read: Netflix and The Science of Recommendations

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Today we will recommend five alien encounter films and look at what their use of extraterrestrial characters mean.

A Trip To The Moon

Georges Méliès early silent short sees a group of scientists venturing to the moon in a rocket. Where they encounter a not-so-friendly race of moon people. While its aliens have simple designs and lack emotional depth as one of the earliest science fiction films this short showcased that films were capable of presenting other worlds as well as showing our own. It represented progress for cinematic imagination and inspired filmmakers to start dreaming of what extraterrestrial life could look like.

2001: A Space Odyssey

This sci-fi masterpiece charts the human race as it evolves and pursues travel to the stars. Each major event in our history (the development of tools, colonisation of the moon and interstellar travel) is marked by the appearance of a monolith that seems to communicate something. Eventually, when one astronaut finds another monolith beyond Jupiter something happens to him. Is it the birth of a new alien being? A way of communicating with beings beyond our understanding? Or something else? 2001 presents a visually arresting but grounded view of humanity’s technological progress. Additionally, it asks us to consider if our first encounter with alien intelligence will be terrifying, liberating or even conventionally understandable.

E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial

Cinema’s ultimate friendly alien. When E.T. gets left on earth he is taken in by the young Elliot. Eliott tries to keep E.T. safe from the government and eventually, with help from his family and brother’s friends, gets him home. A classic tale of bonding that through its fantastic direction, score, performances, and effects shows us the wonder of the world from a child’s perspective. But it also promotes the value of kindness by showing how the bonds of friendship and family are common. Even across the stars. It’s a film that by the end makes you want to be a better person.

The Thing (1982)

John Carpenter’s The Thing took the cinema staple of the hostile alien encounter to its most gruesome conclusion. A dog carrying an alien life form reaches an antarctic research station. After grotesquely transforming its host’s body the research team discovers that the alien can infect people through contact and absorb and imitate other life forms. Was anyone else infected by the alien and worse how can the team tell who is still human? The Thing is a great allegory for how viruses affect the body and human nature. But it also gave us perhaps cinema’s scariest alien. A creature that can hide anywhere and transform life into twisted parodies of itself. The Thing is the pinnacle of cosmic horror films and practical effects work.

District 9

If E.T. uses alien encounters to show humanity at its best District 9 uses them to comment on the worst of humanity. After a ship of aliens lands on Earth they are placed into an apartheid system where they are discriminated against and forced into separate houses and systems to humans. From there we follow Wikus van de Merwe, an agent of the company MNU, who through being exposed to something slowly begins turning into one of the aliens. Similar to E.T. District 9 uses aliens to comment on how we view others but this film focuses more on the at-once banal and other times violent nature of systemic oppression and the ramifications it can have on oppressed people. With some fantastic effects work, a compelling story, and poignant thematic underpinnings District 9 is a hard but rewarding watch.

We could honestly recommend many more alien contact movies. These films have been a staple for years because they represent cinema’s greatest qualities. The ability to visualise new worlds and people while reflecting the most human of experiences. If you have any favourites you want to recommend then please do so.

Also Read: Trains of Events: Great Movies About Trains

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1. Netflix Original Sci-Fi – Okja

A corporation sends 26 creatures, which were developed as a food source, across the world as a PR stunt. However, when they take one of the creatures (Okja) away, Mija (Seo-Hyun Ahn), sets out to get her back. What makes Okja special is its direction, which mixes many different elements (Science fiction, horror, comedy) together without feeling tonally confused, and Seo-Hyun Ahn’s performance which easily invests us in her struggle to get Okja back.

2. Hard Sci-Fi – The Martian

Mark Watney (Matt Damon) becomes stranded on Mars after his expedition team evacuates. Mark has one goal, survive. Thankfully, the world’s space agencies begin mounting a mission to rescue him. The Martian is great sci-fi. The entire cast makes their characters and the technical dialogue feel very natural. The special effects really sell the experience. And, it does a great job making the science feel accurate.

3. Sci-Fi Comedy – The Truman Show

Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey) slowly realises that his life is a TV show. He’s being filmed from every angle 24 hours a day. And lives inside the world’s biggest set. The Truman Show is a fantastic dark comedy that uses its sci-fi trappings to make great statements on humanity’s voyeuristic nature. In fact, with the continual expansion of surveillance technology, the Truman Show is more relevant now than ever.

4. Sci-Fi Action – Dredd

While on a training exercise Judge Dredd (Karl Urban) and rookie judge Anderson (Olivia Thirlby) get locked inside a futuristic skyscraper full of bloodthirsty gang members. With no retreat, the only option is to fight to the top to get out. Dredd’s futuristic setting explores many pressing issues such as the justice system and overpopulation, but it also facilitates some of the best action of the past decade.

5. Sci-Fi Horror – A Cure for Wellness

Lockhart (Dane DeHaan) goes to a remote wellness centre to retrieve his CEO. However, he soon becomes injured, meaning he can’t leave, and he begins to believe the facility is hiding something sinister. But what is happening and can Lockhart escape? A Cure for Wellness feels like a classic Universal horror film. Where the gothic atmosphere is thick and engaging. And the minor sci-fi ingredients greatly amplify the horror.

6. Sci-Fi Drama – Proxima

Sarah (Eva Green) is training to become an astronaut but she must try to balance her training with her family life, particularly preparing her daughter Stella (Zélie Boulant) for when she leaves. Proxima is an amazing look at the physical and emotional hardships astronauts go through to prepare for space travel, but it’s also an affecting family drama and an inspiring tribute to female astronauts. It’s also buoyed by Green and Boulant’s excellent performances.

7. Alien Sci-Fi – Close Encounters of the Third Kind

After Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) has a mysterious encounter with an unidentified flying object he and the government begin investigating and trying to contact alien life. Close Encounters is a fantastic exploration of how obsession with the unexplainable can negatively affect people and can also be used to cross boundaries.

8. Steampunk Sci-Fi – Castle in the Sky

Sheeta (Keiko Yokozawa) holds the key to finding Laputa, the castle in the sky, and along with Pazu (Mayumi Tanaka), she must try to outrun the pirates and a government agent trying to find Laputa for greed and conquest. A touchstone of modern steampunk fiction, Castle in the Sky is a thrilling adventure with a fun story and wonderful characters who populate an inventive fantasy world that melds modern and primitive technology together beautifully.

9. Children’s Sci-Fi – Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse

When Peter Parker dies Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) must become his world’s Spider-man and defeat the Kingpin with the help of the spider-people of several realities. Into the Spider-Verse is perfect kids science fiction because it’s full of great action, gorgeous visuals, and creative use of sci-fi concepts like alternate realities. But it’s also grounded by a fantastic lead, a great supporting cast, and a positive message about carving your own path.

10. Surreal Sci-Fi – Sorry to Bother You

Cassius (LaKeith Stanfield) begins losing touch with his roots after being promoted at his telemarketing company until he discovers a new project the company is working on. Sorry to Bother You is a vehicle for social commentary. This movie critiques capitalism, race, media and uses sci-fi elements to create a riveting dystopian portrait of contemporary life.

Those are just 10 great sci-fi movies available on Netflix. If you have any favourites we missed, let us know.

Also Read: The Future Is Now: How Sci-Fi Imagined the Future

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