Ingenious Media (United Kingdom): 16

David Cronenberg’s science fiction body horror drama, Crimes of the Future (2022), takes place in an unspecified future where biotechnology has advanced greatly. This has resulted in the creation of machines and computers that can directly interface with and control bodily functions, making them commonplace. As a result, humans have also undergone unexplained biological changes. These include the disappearance of physical pain and infectious disease for a majority of people, allowing for safe conscious surgery in regular settings. However, some individuals have experienced more radical alterations to their ...

The Protégé (2021), an American action thriller film directed by Martin Campbell with a screenplay by Richard Wenk, follows the story of Anna, an assassin who was taken in and trained by Moody after he rescued her from a violent ordeal in Da Nang. Together, they traveled the world and completed high-profile contracts before settling down in England. While Anna runs a rare-book store, Moody resides in a grand manor house. On one fateful day, Rembrandt walks into Anna’s shop under the guise of buying a gift. In present times, Anna and Moody collaborate to take down a ...

In Joe Carnahan’s sci-fi action film, Boss Level (2020), Roy Pulver, a retired Delta Force soldier living in Atlanta, is trapped in a time loop. After experiencing the same events repeatedly, he has become familiar with the day’s routines and can predict when danger will strike. His day starts at 07:00 AM when he wakes up and must quickly avoid an assassin in his apartment. This is followed by an attack from a gunman in a helicopter outside his window, leading him to escape his apartment before it explodes. As the morning goes on, he successfully evades more assassins but struggles to survive an assault at ...

Dragged Across Concrete (2018) is a riveting neo-noir crime thriller written and directed by S. Craig Zahler. Set in the fictional city of Bulwark, the film follows Henry Johns, a recently paroled individual who confronts his mother about her return to prostitution and drug use before meeting up with his brother Ethan, who has a disability. Meanwhile, Detectives Brett Ridgeman and Anthony Lurasetti find themselves suspended without pay from their police department due to a video that exposes their use of excessive force on a drug dealer. In dire need of money, Ridgeman hopes to move his family to a safer neighborhood ...

The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017) is a comedic-drama biopic about author Charles Dickens. Directed by Bharat Nalluri and written by Susan Coyne, the film is based on Les Standiford’s non-fiction book of the same title. Set in 1843, four years after Dickens’ successful novel Oliver Twist, the story follows his struggles with financial difficulties following the failure of his last three books. Despite being rejected by publishers, he decides to write and self-publish a new book to improve his financial ...

In the fantasy film, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (2016), directed by Tim Burton and written by Jane Goldman, Jake has grown up listening to his grandfather Abe’s tales of battling monsters at ‘Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children’ on the island of Cairnholm. The residents, including the headmistress Miss Peregrine, possess supernatural abilities and are known as ‘Peculiars’. When Abe passes away with no explanation other than a clue to September 3rd, 1943, Jake follows the advice of Dr. Golan and travels to ...

Billy Ray’s Secret in Their Eyes (2015) is a thriller film that serves as a remake of the 2009 Argentine film of the same name, which was based on Eduardo Sacheri’s novel La pregunta de sus ojos. Following the events of September 11th, FBI counterterrorism agent Ray Kasten and his friend Jess Cobb, an investigator for the Los Angeles district attorney’s office, cross paths with new ADA Claire Sloan. The two are called to investigate an unidentified female body found near a mosque that could potentially have ties to terrorism. Sadly, they ...

The Maze Runner (2014) is an American sci-fi film directed by Wes Ball. It is based on the eponymous novel written by James Dashner and marks Ball’s directorial debut. Our protagonist, a teenage boy, wakes up in an underground elevator with no recollection of his identity. He is welcomed by a group of male youths in an open grassy area known as the ‘Glade’, enclosed by towering stone walls. The boys have established a basic society with each assigned specific tasks. It becomes clear to our young hero that their only means of escape from the maze they are trapped in lies within its complicated pathways. ...

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) is an American sci-fi action film directed by Matt Reeves. A decade after the deadly Simian Flu pandemic, the global human population has drastically decreased and only a small fraction are genetically immune. Human society collapsed as a result. Meanwhile, a group of apes with enhanced intelligence from the virus have settled in Muir Woods National Monument near San Francisco, led by Caesar and his lieutenants Maurice, Rocket, and Koba. Unknowingly, a team of humans led by Malcolm enter the apes’ territory in search of a hydroelectric dam to restore their community’s ...

Directed and co-produced by Bryan Singer and written by Simon Kinberg, X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) is a superhero film based on the Marvel Comics team. The fifth installment in the X-Men series, it serves as both a sequel to 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand and 2011’s X-Men: First Class, as well as a follow-up to 2013’s The Wolverine. Set in a dystopian version of 2023, the film follows robot Sentinels who hunt and kill those with mutant potential or those who protect them. In Moscow, this results in an attack on ...

The Counselor (2013), directed by Ridley Scott and written by Cormac McCarthy, is a crime thriller film. In Mexico, cocaine is transported in barrels inside a sewage truck across the border to the United States. The drug is then stored at a sewage treatment plant. To purchase an engagement ring for his girlfriend Laura, The Counselor travels to Amsterdam to meet with a diamond dealer. Upon returning to the United States, he attends a party in Texas hosted by drug dealer Reiner and his girlfriend Malkina. During their conversation, The Counselor reveals his involvement in ...

The psychological thriller film, Trance (2013), was directed by Danny Boyle and written by Joe Ahearne and John Hodge from a story by Ahearne. During a heist at an auction house, the thieves steal what they believe to be a valuable painting. In the midst of the robbery, Simon Newton attacks their leader Franck and is knocked unconscious. But when Franck opens the package, he finds only an empty frame. It turns out that Simon, who was the ‘inside man’ for the ...

The film The Wolverine (2013) follows the story of the Marvel Comics character of the same name. It is part of the X-Men series and specifically the second movie in a trilogy about Wolverine. After being captured during World War II, Logan finds himself in a Japanese POW camp near Nagasaki. During an atomic bombing, he saves a man named Ichirō Yashida by shielding him from the blast. In present day, Logan lives alone in the Yukon and struggles with visions of Jean Grey, who he had to kill to protect the world. He is approached by Yukio, a fellow mutant with powers to foresee death, on behalf of Ichirō who is now a successful CEO. Despite his terminal ...

Life of Pi (2012), an adventure-drama film directed and produced by Ang Lee and written by David Magee, shares the story of Pi Patel. In Canada, a writer is told that Pi would make a compelling subject for a book. Pi recounts his experiences to the writer: being named after the famous French swimming pool Piscine Molitor Patel by his father and adopting the nickname ‘Pi’ during his secondary schooling in Pondicherry as a means of avoiding bullying. Growing up in a Hindu household, Pi becomes interested in Christianity and Islam at the age of 12, ultimately ...

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), an American science fiction action film, follows pharmaceutical chemist Will Rodman in San Francisco as he tests the virus-based drug ALZ-112 on chimpanzees at biotechnology company Gen-Sys. His goal is to find a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. Their test subject, a chimp named Bright Eyes, shows remarkable intelligence after being given the drug. Her newfound intelligence leads her to escape her cage during Will’s presentation and ultimately be killed. Will’s boss, Steven Jacobs, ends the project and orders all chimps to be euthanized. However, Robert Franklin, Will’s assistant, reveals that Bright Eyes had ...

The superhero film, X-Men: First Class (2011), is based on the X-Men characters from Marvel Comics. At the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944, Nazi officer Klaus Schmidt witnesses a young Erik Lehnsherr using his mind to bend a metal gate after being separated from his parents. Schmidt then takes Erik to his office and asks him to move a coin on his desk. When Erik fails, Schmidt kills his mother. In distress, Erik’s magnetic power suddenly appears and destroys the room. Meanwhile, at a mansion in Westchester County, New York, child telepath Charles Xavier meets Raven, whose natural form is blue-skinned scales and has the ability to shapeshift, and invites her ...