Science Fiction Movies with A Message Did you ever wonder if there were some science fiction plots which either could be real or have the possibility of being real? I would like to check some of the plots in science fiction movies and discuss them. The plot which has made the biggest impression on the general public was the plot in the movie The Matrix. It led many to think maybe it was a true story. I would never go that far, but it was fascinating. How could we ever know if we were in a Matrix world or not? Perhaps this movie was the reason so many now are saying the universe is really the creation of some sort of super computer. There are even some scientists defending this idea. One older science fiction movie is topical today. It is Rocketship XM. The premise is astronauts on their way to the moon, get pulled off course and go to Mars by mistake. There is a lot of interest in Mars today and there are those, including myself who believe some articles have been found which are indications of intelligent life, probably in the distant past. The crew of the ship finds a world which is different than we think of it today. They decide to get out and explore and to their terror, they find there are humans there but they are mutilated from the effects of a nuclear war and are vicious and warlike. Could we find the remains of a society on Mars if we go there? There has been much talk lately about objects having a chance of hitting the earth and talk about the one that supposedly wiped out the dinosaurs. This idea is nothing new and in 1951 there was a movie which was ahead of its time called When Worlds Collide and many others since then. A rich industrialist commissioned the construction of a spacecraft to use to evacuate a few people. In the film it seems no one else was doing anything to save people, not even the government. As I said the idea of the earth being destroyed or at least human life is not new. Speaking about human life being destroyed can technology go too far? That is precisely what the next film was about. I am talking about the film Forbidden Planet which was the forerunner of Star Trek. A spaceship is sent to investigate if a colony is okay. They find only two people and a robot. A former civilization had existed on the planet but had all disappeared before the colony went there. As the commander investigates some sort of invisible monster starts to attack and kill his people. It is so powerful it can’t be stopped. The commander realizes it is being controlled by Doctor Morbius one of the two survivors but he doesn’t realize it. The monster had been built to protect the lost civilization but killed them all instead. Another technology gone too far movie is Terminator. I think we are all familiar with the plot. A computer becomes sentient and begins to build machines to eliminate humans and many of these machines look like humans but are powerful robots with only one task, to eliminate humans. With all the talk about time travel lately, it is only right I should talk about the greatest time travel movie I can think of and it is The Time Machine from 1960, but there have been some very good ones since then also. This was more about an adventure than science but it illustrates what happens when a scientist goes into the distant future and it is not the advanced place, he thought it would be and the human race is being controlled and eaten by deformed creatures who were once human. Other movies are based on different plots like time travel as a business where a mistake is made by them in a travel to the past and changes the present. Could this really happen? I don’t think so, but you never know. We keep hearing about how we have to save the planet. One movie in particular took on this challenge head on. The movie was Silent Running. It was about a future where the humans have launched several greenhouse vessels to preserve the trees and plants. They are doing fine when the order comes down to destroy all the vessels and return to earth. There is a revolt by one man who saves his vessel with the help of some robots. The question comes up, what do we do with aliens who want to live with us on Earth, as if we would have a choice? The movie District 9 tries to answer this problem with putting them all in a place with slum like conditions and treating them terribly. It is notable that the movie was made in South Africa, a formerly segregated country. There has been plenty of talk about UFOs and underwater bases. One base is even said to be off the coast of Catalina Island. James Cameron made a movie based on this premise. A human base is built under the ocean for drilling but the government sends divers down to look for a missing nuclear submarine. The head diver is under orders to recover a nuclear warhead. He sends the warhead into a nearby trench using a minisub which explodes and kills him. The warhead is being used to attack the extraterrestrials who in the end show they are peaceful. Some people worry about extraterrestrials taking over our minds, but in the movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the aliens did us one better, they eliminated us and grew copies. I don’t think clone would be the right term because I don’t know their cells were exactly the same, but their look certainly was. How patriotic would we be if we were being attacked by aliens. Not only that, but aliens who were intelligent bugs. That is the premise of Starship Troopers. It is the future and a big push is on to get recruits into the world’s military because so many are dying. The bugs are enormous and there are what resemble giant flies and brain bugs. The giant flylike bugs can rip humans apart and the brain bugs launch fire balls that can destroy even spaceships. The bugs are fierce enemies and seem to be fearless. There is a rumor the movie is going to be remade; it seems it was very popular. I know I liked it. The movie illustrates alien life could look like anything.
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