What do you think the future holds for mankind? Is your version anything like these?
Planet of the Apes (1969) The future isn’t bright for the human race (or apes) in the Planet of the Ape series. Charlton Heston stars as an astronaut who finds himself hundreds of years in the future on a strange planet populated by talking apes. I lost count of the sequels. The 2001 Mark Wahlberg version is okay.
Soylent Green (1973) It’s the year 2022 and the earth is overpopulated, there are voluntary euthanasia centers, a single corporation rules, and mankind is running out of food. Charlton Heston is a detective who discovers a vital secret. (We don’t have long to go before 2022)
Terminator (1984) Arnold is the terminator, a cyborg sent from the Machine ruled future to kill and change to future. Not a whole lot of “futuristic” but the series of movies are interesting and full of action. How many movies in this series?
The Matrix (1999) It’s another future not good for the human race flick where machines rule the future again and humans are kept in a perpetual state of virtual reality as energy for the machines. Keanu Reeves learns the truth and joins a group of humans who escaped the Matrix. How many flicks here?
Minority Report (2002) It’d be nice to stop violent crimes before they ever occur right? As head of Pre-Crime division Tom Cruise thought so until he learns of his future crime. He sets out to prove his innocence and along the way uncovers a cover-up.
Paycheck (2003) How’d you like to hired for a special project for a couple of years and then have your mind wiped so that you remember nothing about those two years? That’s what Ben Affleck does for a living but during his last job something went wrong. He doesn’t remember what and now he’s being hunted. It’s a clever film.
I, Robot (2004) Hey, everyone owns at least one robot. They do the menial and dangerous work humans don’t want to do. Uh oh, there’s always a bug in things people build. Will Smith learns of the “bug” and in the face of danger he tries to correct it and of course the bad guys don’t want him to.
The Island (2005) Ewan McGregor and Scarlet Johansson escape from a large facility they believed was a safe haven from a contaminated earth. On the outside they learn they’re not who or what they thought they were. Now they’re hunted to prevent the rest of the world from knowing what’s really going on in the high tech realm of cloning.
Wall-E (2008) Well, we did it. We trashed the earth and had to leave. Thank goodness we left behind a little robot to clean up the place while we cruise the solar system in giant resorts doing nothing but talking on cell phones and getting fat. But back on earth our little robot Wall-E has made an important discovery the bad guys don’t want us to know about. Who will win out?
Star Trek (2009) Young James T Kirk is as X-treme in the way he lives as they come. Now he’s challenged to join Star Fleet and walk in his father’s shoes. Can he do it? Follow the beginnings of Kirk, McCoy, Spock, and all the rest in this excellent sci-fi with a good story, clever nuances, and great special effects.
So now, it starts all over again. How many more generations will watch Star Trek?
Runner-ups
Omega Man (1971), Blade Runner (1982)
