Science Fiction: 316

The film Free Guy (2021), directed and produced by Shawn Levy, follows the story of a group of players in a popular MMORPG called Free City. The NPCs within the game are easily identified by their signature sunglasses and often find themselves engaged in chaotic battles with the players. One NPC, named Guy, works as a bank teller alongside his best friend Buddy, a security guard. However, the NPCs are unaware that they are living in a video game and remain oblivious to the chaos caused by the players. Meanwhile, Millie Rusk, an unemployed software developer, is playing Free City to uncover proof that Soonami Studios ...

Dune (2021), an American epic science fiction film directed by Denis Villeneuve and co-written by Jon Spaihts and Eric Roth, takes place in the distant future. Duke Leto Atreides of the planet Caladan is chosen by the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV to replace Baron Vladimir Harkonnen as fiefholder of Arrakis, a harsh desert planet that contains the sole source of “spice,” a valuable substance with psychotropic properties. This spice is crucial for interstellar travel, enabling the Spacing Guild Navigators to safely ...

An American thriller film, Old (2021), was written, directed, and produced by M. Night Shyamalan. Adapted from the French-language graphic novel Sandcastle by Pierre Oscar Lévy and Frederik Peeters, it revolves around Guy and Prisca Cappa’s separation. Wanting to protect their young children, Maddox and Trent, from the news, the couple takes them on a final family vacation to a tropical resort. While staying at the hotel, they receive complimentary drinks and their kids make friends with Idlib, the ...

Godzilla vs. Kong (2021), directed by Adam Wingard, is an American monster film. It serves as a sequel to both Kong: Skull Island (2017) and Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), and is the fourth installment in the MonsterVerse. Five years have passed since King Ghidorah, an extraterrestrial dragon-like creature, awakened the Titans worldwide, only to be defeated by Godzilla. Monarch now contains Kong within a massive dome on Skull Island, which has been exposed by a powerful storm. Jia, the last Iwi native and adopted daughter of Kong expert Ilene Andrews, communicates with Kong using sign ...

An American sci-fi film Chaos Walking (2021), directed by Doug Liman and written by Patrick Ness and Christopher Ford, is an adaptation of Ness’s trilogy of the same name. The first book, titled The Knife of Never Letting Go, serves as the basis for the movie’s plot. Set in 2257 AD on the planet New World, the male colonists are affected by a condition known as Noise, which exposes everyone’s thoughts to one another. The colonists were previously ...

Tales from the Loop (2020) is an American science fiction drama TV series created and penned by Nathaniel Halpern, inspired by the art book of Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag with the same name. The entire first season, consisting of eight episodes, premiered on Amazon Prime Video on April 3, 2020. It tells the story of the intertwined lives of individuals living in Mercer, Ohio – a fictional town that hosts the Mercer Center for Experimental Physics and a subterranean facility dubbed as the Loop. Within its walls, scientists strive to achieve what was once deemed ...

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 ...

The Midnight Sky (2020), a film directed by George Clooney, is based on the 2016 novel Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton. Augustine Lofthouse, a reclusive academic, has dedicated his life to searching for habitable planets in hopes of humanity’s expansion. He meets Jean Sullivan at a gala following a presentation and they begin a romantic relationship. However, after a pregnancy scare, she leaves him due to his work fixation and difficulty connecting with others. Years later, when they cross paths again, Jean reveals they have a daughter together ...

The Australian film, Monsters of Man (2020), contains graphic violence and potentially offensive themes. It follows a group of killer robots unleashed in the jungle as part of a military experiment. While the robots may be intriguing and the movie explores ideas of responsibility and life, it is lengthy, violent, and not particularly inclusive towards non-White-male characters. Many individuals meet their demise in shocking and grisly ways through heavy gunfire, explosions, and even a robot stepping on someone’s head. Other instances of violence include a man stabbing a woman to death. However, despite its brutality, there is some depth to the portrayal of ...

Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) is an action adventure comedy film based on Sega’s popular video game series. The film follows the story of Sonic, a young blue hedgehog with supersonic speed, who is unexpectedly ambushed by an echidna tribe on his home planet. His guardian, a wise owl named Longclaw, gives him a special bag of rings that can create portals to other places. She uses one to send Sonic to Earth while she stays behind to protect their home. Ten years later, Sonic lives in secrecy in a cavern beneath the rural town of Green Hills, Montana. Despite his hidden life, he longs for friendship and looks up to Sheriff Tom Wachowski and his wife Maddie. Little ...

The science fiction horror film, The Invisible Man (2020), is a new adaptation of the 1933 movie of the same name. Written and directed by Leigh Whannell, it is based on H.G. Wells’ novel with a similar title. In the film, Cecilia Kass finds herself in an abusive relationship with wealthy optics engineer and businessman, Adrian Griffin. He is also the CEO of Cobalt, a human-computer augmentation company. One night, she drugs Adrian with her diazepam and escapes his highly-secured house with her younger sister’s help. Cecilia seeks refuge at the home of her ...

Tenet (2020), a science fiction action thriller film, was both written and directed by Christopher Nolan. The film was produced by Nolan himself and his wife Emma Thomas. During a staged terrorist siege at an Opera House in Kyiv, the Protagonist leads a covert CIA extraction on ‘the 14th’ date. While facing KORD forces, he is rescued by a mysterious individual wearing a red trinket. Our protagonist successfully secures an artifact but his team is captured and subjected to torture. In a moment of desperation, he ...

Greenland (2020), an apocalyptic thriller directed by Ric Roman Waugh and written by Chris Sparling, follows the story of John Garrity, a structural engineer residing in Atlanta, Georgia with his estranged wife Allison and diabetic son Nathan. As they gather together to witness the passing of a newly-discovered interstellar comet named ‘Clarke’, John receives an automated message from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) informing him that he and his family have been selected for emergency sheltering. With chaos erupting around them, John rushes back home ...

Devs (2020), the American science fiction thriller miniseries from creator, writer, and director Alex Garland, made its debut on March 5, 2020, exclusively on FX on Hulu. The show delves into thought-provoking topics such as free will and determinism within the context of Silicon Valley. Garnering positive reception from reviewers, the series has been praised for its creativity, cinematography, cast performances, and musical score. Protagonist Lily Chan is a software engineer at Amaya, a quantum computing corporation led by Forest. As she becomes entangled in the mysterious circumstances surrounding her ...

Star Trek: Picard (2020–2023) is an American science fiction television series that premiered on the streaming service Paramount+ in 2020. It is the eighth installment in the Star Trek franchise and was included in Kurtzman’s expanded Star Trek Universe from 2020 to 2023. The show centers on retired Starfleet Admiral Jean-Luc Picard and takes place 20 years after his last appearance in the film Star Trek: Nemesis (2002). Rumors of a new series featuring Stewart as Picard began circulating in June 2018 and were officially confirmed that ...

For All Mankind (2019–2024), a sci-fi drama on Apple TV+, was created by Ronald D. Moore, Matt Wolpert, and Ben Nedivi. The show’s alternate timeline in 1969 sees Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov as the first human to land on the Moon. This event not only shatters morale at NASA but also spurs the United States to catch up. In response to the Soviet Union’s emphasis on diversity, including a female astronaut in subsequent missions, the U.S. is forced to keep pace by training women and minorities who were ...

Infinity Train (2019), an American animated TV show, was created by Owen Dennis who previously worked on Regular Show as a writer and storyboard artist. The immense train travels through a desolate landscape and its cars are filled with peculiar environments that defy logic. To move from one car to the next, passengers must overcome challenges that help them confront their mental anguish and emotional struggles. Each season of Infinity Train, referred to as a ‘Book’, features its own distinct storyline and characters, although some may reappear in other seasons. With praise for its ...

Gemini Man (2019) is an American sci-fi action flick helmed by Ang Lee. Henry Brogan, a former Force Recon Marine Scout Sniper, is now a member of the Defense Clandestine Service for the Defense Intelligence Agency. He is assigned to take out a bioterrorist aboard a train in Belgium. However, his spotter alerts him to the presence of a young girl near the target, causing him to delay his shot and ultimately hit the man in the neck instead of his head. Frustrated with his job, Henry decides to retire. In Buttermilk Sound, Georgia, he meets Danny, who manages boat rentals, and reconnects with an old friend named Jack. ...

Men in Black: International (2019) is an American sci-fi action comedy film directed by F. Gary Gray and scripted by Art Marcum and Matt Holloway. It belongs to the Men in Black franchise, but stands alone as a sequel within the same universe. Unlike previous films, it does not feature Will Smith or Tommy Lee Jones as protagonists. In 1996 Brooklyn, Molly Wright witnesses her parents being neuralyzed by MIB agents after they encounter an alien at home. Molly helps the extraterrestrial escape and avoids being ...

The American sci-fi flick, Ad Astra (2019), was produced, co-written, and directed by James Gray. Set in the early 22nd century, humanity faces a looming threat as unexplained power surges threaten to disrupt civilization. Roy McBride, a military major, receives word that these surges are linked to the ‘Lima Project’, a space station orbiting Neptune on a mission to discover intelligent life. Coincidentally, Roy’s father, H. Clifford McBride, leads this project. Desperate for answers, Roy agrees to journey to Mars to investigate the fate of the station’s crew. Unfortunately, his trip is derailed ...