One of the best movies of the year opened last weekend. And according to the box office numbers, you probably didn’t see it.
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, based on the influential French comic series by Pierre Christin and artist Jean-Claude Mézières, is the story of two space cops played by Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne, who find a vast conspiracy hidden in a gigantic space station called Alpha, where a thousand civilizations live peacefully together in cultures and environments that have been shoved right on top of each other to make the most of the space.
Also: ‘Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets’ Review | What a Wonderful Worlds
It’s a dazzling motion picture, in some respects unlike any science fiction film before it, and it relies on the some truly pulpy storytelling sensibilities. So basically, it bears a lot of the qualities that made Star Wars so successful almost 40 years ago. (The comic book, incidentally, was one of George Lucas’s influences in the first place.)
Luc Besson, a fan of Valerian and Laureline since childhood, has brought the story to vivid life, and I was thrilled to get him on the phone shortly before the film’s release to talk about this vision for the future, the importance of telling stories about optimistic futures, what orifice the Mül converter spits pearls out of, and why his sci-fi classic The Fifth Element – which also struggled to find an audience when it first came out 20 years ago – was never going to have a sequel, despite rumors to the contrary.
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is out now.
STX Entertainment
Crave: There is a rich backstory for Valerine and Laureline in the comics. Why did you want to start with City of a Thousand Planets? Why was this the story to start with?
Luc Besson: I think that I was very interested by Alpha, the city of a thousand planets, this place where we try to live together, sharing knowledge and culture. To me it was a background, very positive and very funny and colorful. It was a way for me to show off the world that Valerine and Laureline are living in. So we learn a lot through this locatiohn and then we will learn more about their past. If we do a second one, I hope, or a third, then we will explain more about where they come from and all this. But for the first one I’d rather do it this way.
Speaking of Alpha, your opening sequence in Valerian is the origin of Alpha, but it also plays like a mission statement. It’s all about how science and science fiction can bring about this message of hope for the future. Was that your intent, or did you just want to do a cool music video?
[Laughs.] No, no. It was very, very important and it was an idea that I had for a long time. I wanted to start with some footage from 1972. I want to start from who we are, okay? In 1972, Americans and Russians are able to smile to each other and shake their hands. And we forgot! It starts well. Everything was well until six months ago! [Laughs.]
But it’s very important to show that these humans, no matter where they come from… okay, here is Russia and America, but they’re so happy to meet! They’re so happy to shake their hands. And then after we see the Chinese and they’re happy too. And then we see the alien. We see everyone and then the first alien, and we are little nervous when we met the first one but we smile and we shake hands. I just love that. I just love to see that we are writing our future. So we are we writing something so dark? Everything is possible on paper. It’s doesn’t mean that we will finally have a world so idealistic, but at least we can write it, you know?
Yeah, I feel like a lot of the science fiction that we create for ourselves – especially on a grand scale – has a certain cynicism to it. And here you have a film that opens with handshakes and hugs.
That’s exactly what I feel as a human and as a moviegoer. I’m really fed up to see all these films where the alien is always the villain, and the hero, the superhero is wondering what they should do, if he should interfere or not. It’s just metaphysic problems, and I don’t get it. You’re a superhero. You’re not washing the dishes. You don’t clean your room. You don’t have to do all these things. So why are you so pessimistic? You’re a fucking superhero with super power. Just enjoy it.
STX Entertainment
And yet you do have to tell a story with conflict and ultimately the story of Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets does go to some dark places. How do you try to balance that hopeful future with something very dark that happens in it?
I think it’s like life. Life is like this. Since I’m born, you’re happy for ten minutes and you’re laughing for ten minutes and then the phone rings and someone from your family is dead. It’s like this. It doesn’t advance from anything. And then you’re at the cemetery and you’re very sad, and suddenly you see one thing and then you start laughing, because it’s ridiculous. Life is like this. […]
What I like about Valerian is that it’s a tiny story. It’s about a guy and a girl and they’re like you and me. They’re cops, they’re working, they try to get the girl, he’s lying, he’s heroic sometimes, he’s pretentious the rest of the time. It’s very human. And then on the top of this little story then we have a big story, a story of humanity, a story of lying, a story killing people, and we have this big theme on the top of it. But it’s very human. Valerian is not a superhero and he’s not even a hero. He is heroic sometimes. [Laughs.] That’s who we are.
There’s a great bit towards the end of the film where Valerian and Laureline are handed a moral dilemma and their first instinct is to do the exact opposite things, which I thought was kind of refreshing.
Yeah, and in the end the winner is love.
There’s a word that has been used to describe Valerian and even The Fifth Element, as a contrast to a lot of the American films of similar landscapes. That word is “European.” They’re very European, is the word I keep hearing. What does that even mean to you?
Not so much, in a way, because all the Europeans are saying that I’m lost because I’m an American now, and the Americans are saying that I’m European, so I feel like an orphan. [Laughs.] Please, someone, take me! Take me! I need a passport! I don’t want to be an alien!
STX Entertainment
Alpha will welcome you, I guess.
Thank you. What’s so interesting – you know what? – compared to thirty years ago, today if you are in Bombay and you listen to, in your phone, you listen to reggae and you’re eating some sushi, it’s okay. You can do these three things at the same time. That’s how our cultures are mixed up now, and I love that. You can do that. Thirty years ago, don’t even think about it. You eat sushi in Japan and you hear reggae in Jamaica, and if you’re not Indian you’re not in India.
I like the fact that everything is mixed up now, and it’s a real progress, I think. I’m probably less European now than I was when I did The Fifth Element. When I did The Fifth Element the American audience was like, “Where did this weirdo come from?” Now, after ten years of internet, most of the kids and people are exchanging everything. Now at least they say, “Oh, that’s a cool weirdo!”
I remember when The Fifth Element came out. I was immediately enamored of it but I had a hard time convincing some other people to see it, just because it didn’t conform to what they had idea that science fiction and fantasy was.
I know, I know…
My philosophy was, it’s science fiction and fantasy. Why should it conform to anything? Shouldn’t be just as big and crazy as we want it to be?
I agree. I agree 100% with you.
I guess that leads me to my next line of thought, which is in Valerian…
Can I interrupt you for a second?
STX Entertainment
Please, go ahead.
I think also when you’re in Europe, in Paris for example, you can see more than 400 different kinds of films in Paris the same day, from – every day – more than 30 different nationalities. So we are kind of… we’re okay with Japanese films, Indian films, American films, Italian films. We’re used to that. So we’re probably more curious and open, where here in the U.S., the American films are really leading the market. It’s 95% of the thing. So the people get used to that, so when it’s too different, sometimes it takes time for them to accept it, you know?
I find also there’s a certain dominance in the American market, for the lack of a better word, in which movies that look and play even remotely like Valerian are usually called Star Wars or Star Trek. People aren’t familiar with the other ones.
It’s true, yeah.
Does that create, when you’re working on a film like Valerian, a sense of competition? Are you actively trying to make sure you’re not doing what those films do?
No, no, no. Never, ever think about that. You have to do your painting. It doesn’t matter what Picasso or Modigliani have done before. You are doing your painting. It belongs to you. It’s your vision. If you’re using blue and people are saying, “Oh, Picasso used the same blue in one painting?” “Okay, great, [but] that’s MY painting.”
STX Entertainment
There’s an amount of visual invention in Valerian that kind of blows my mind. There are so many things in this film that I’ve literally never seen in other movies before. There are action sequences that take place in multiple dimensions, there are chase scenes that fly through different planets, but it leaves me wondering… is there anything you COULDN’T do? Was there anything that was impossible to articulate, or too expensive, or is it all on the screen?
It’s all on the screen and there is nothing that I couldn’t do, at all. And I’m going to explain for you why. It’s because I’m not a techno guy, at all. So if I was a techno, I would probably reduce myself because I would say “Oh my god, we will never be able to do that.” Here, I’m totally insane and I have this idea. I put my VFX team with me and I explain what I want and then I leave, and they’re scratching their heads and say “How the fuck are we going to do this thing?” [Laughs.]
But you know what? It’s their problem, not mine, and I don’t care because I’m responsible for the characters, for the emotion, for the pace, the rhythm, the soul, but I’m not responsible for the technical part. So this what I want, and try to make it as best you can. And actually I was blown away by what they had done. Blown away. I would never expect that the pearls and the Mül planet would be so cool and so gorgeous. I’d never expect that the big market would be so easy to understand and funny to watch. I was amazed most of the time. It was beyond what I expected.
Is there ever a moment when you’re making new characters, new environments, where you even say to yourself, “Well, THIS is weird!”
.No. [Laughs.]
I bring it up because I was watching the movie and the Mül converter is such a bizarre creature around which to hinge an entire story. It eats something and then for all intents and purposes it defecates copies of it. That’s odd.
I know, but you know what? I’ve known the converter since I was ten years old! Because he was in the albums. So for me this pet exists. I know it, since I’m ten, so I never think about… yeah, for me it’s like a dog. You know, a dog exists. Cats exist. And [the Mül converter] exists. So the only problem I had, because I never spoke of it before with the VFX team, is we actually had to answer the question… from which holes the thing is getting out, because I really don’t want to use the asshole, for sure. That’s too weird. So if you watch carefully, the second time you watch the film, it’s totally vague where it comes from.
Yeah, it’s just sort of the bottom of it somewhere.
Yeah. Somewhere. We don’t know. But it’s not pooping out the thing, that’s for sure.
STX Entertainment
It must be fun to make a movie where an actual line of questioning people have to ask you about is what orifice on the creature are the pearls coming out of?
[Laughs.] For the rest, for example the first alien who comes in the film, their name is the Kortan Dahük. They’re [the] aliens kind of red and blue with big lips, and very peaceful. And then when we saw the first drawing of it four or five years ago, and you work on them, you work on them, you have the actors playing it, and you go on the internet, you’re looking for how they’re going to walk and you I find some footages of camels, the way the camel works, and how the ostrich is walking, and I make a kind of compilation of camels and ostriches to show to the actor, and we have to find how they’re walking… and that was so exciting. It was almost like seeing the birth of someone. And then when, finally, you have all together the actors, the location, the CGI, and then you see the humanity they have in their eyes, it was like… I was so thrilled and so happy to see them coming, you know?
It’s wonderful to see the world of Valerian brought to life and it was wonderful to see the world of The Fifth Element brought to life, but one of the things that was rumored for many years was that there might have been a sequel to The Fifth Element. How close did we ever get to that actually becoming a reality?
No, I never thought about it.
Really?
No, never. No, it was a story by itself. So I don’t see… Valerian is totally different because they’re two cops and they are in charge of one mission. So it’s easy, conceptually, to see these two cops in another mission. It’s Starsky and Hutch in space, so you can do as many as you want. In the DNA of the story, the characters, yes, you can do as many as you want because it’s based on a comic book where they have 29 stories. So yes, you can, you know?
On The Fifth Element, you can’t. I don’t even know how I would start if I wanted to do a sequel. What’s interesting is when I started writing The Fifth Element I wrote the film in two parts, part one and part two, so I had two films at the beginning. It was one story of four hours, cut in two. But I guess at the time I came too soon, and no one would have the guts to go for two films right away. They said “Oh, we never know. If the first one doesn’t work it’s going to be worse for the second” and da-da-da. And they obliged me to reduce the story and to do only one.
STX Entertainment
So The Fifth Element was your two stories combined into one film.
Yeah. And I regret that. I regret that because the entire full four-hour story was great.
What was the cut off point? How far did we get into The Fifth Element before the second film would have begun?
Oh, that’s twenty years ago, so god, I don’t remember. I remember that Corben has to find his dad, who was actually blind, and there’s this nice scene where he has not seen son [in] 25 years but recognizes him by touching him. The last time he saw him he was a kid. No, I remember this scene because it was very good. So, that’s too bad. We won’t have it! [Laughs.]
Maybe you can find another place for it someday. Maybe in a sequel to Valerian.
Yeah, I will find a way.
There are almost 30 different Valerian stories. You started with City of a Thousand Planets. Are there any other favorites, ones you would hope to do in the future?
Oh yeah, yeah. Many of them. I mean, I hope this film will be successful enough so I can do a second one because I really, really want to do a second one. I’m ready. I’ve finished the script already, like a month ago. Even if I’m not sure I will do it, it doesn’t matter, I want to write it. And actually I wrote the third one already, also. I’m in the middle of it. Because I’m just excited! I don’t know if I will do them but that’s okay. [Laughs.]
I hope the movie does really, really well, but regardless I want to read those scripts someday. Or see something.
You know what? If we can’t make the second and third then I will probably make a book, at least. [Laughs.] It’s cheaper.
The Top 50 Best Sci-Fi Movies of the 1990s
Top Photos: STX Entertainment & Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic
William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and Canceled Too Soon, and watch him on the weekly YouTube series What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
The Top 50 Best Sci-Fi Movies of the 1990s
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50. Species (1995)
Roger Donaldson's Alien riff stars Natasha Henstridge as a half-human, half-extraterrestrial hybrid who has be stopped before she can find a man to impregnate her. Species isn't as smart as it thinks it is, but a few classic scenes - like Henstridge's tongue shooting out of the back of an undesirable mate's skull - make it memorable.
Photo: MGM
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49. RoboCop 2 (1990)
RoboCop 2 isn't as good as the original, but it's still an entertaining film. Irvin Kirshner piles on the cynical humor, creating a cartoonishly wicked society for RoboCop to both protect and fall victim to. And the climactic fight between two RoboCops is an impressive spectacle.
Photo: Orion Pictures
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48. Event Horizon
The idea of Event Horizon is better than the actual film, which suffers from stilted dialogue and poor plotting. Nevertheless, a superb cast and exciting production design have earned this "haunted house in space" sci-fi thriller its standing as a cult classic.
Photo: Paramount
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47. Freejack
A wealthy, dying Anthony Hopkins wants to transplant his mind in a healthy body, so he uses time travel to steal one from a less polluted era. Soon, a young Emilio Estevez is on the run from Mick Jagger in a bizarre futuristic version of The Fugitive which doesn't always make sense, but has a lot of charm.
Photo: Warner Bros.
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46. Mars Attacks! (1996)
Tim Burton's mean-spirited all-star comedy imagines a world populated by such unlikable jerks that the audience won't mind when they're all disintegrated in a catastrophic alien invasion. It's incredible that a movie this vicious exists, and that any studio would spend such an enormous amount of money to bring it to life. But they did, and it's undeniably fascinating.
Photo: Warner Bros.
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45. The Lawnmower Man (1992)
In the early 1990s everyone thought virtual reality would change the world, mostly because The Lawnmower Man said so. Brett Leonard's so-called adaptation of a Stephen King story (other than the presence of a lawnmower they have nothing in common) imagines a world in which computers could increase our brain power to the point of near godhood. It was ludicrous then, it's ludicrous now, but it's intriguing as a reminder of where we once thought technology might take us.
Photo: New Line Cinema
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44. Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (1991)
The original Bill & Ted was a kooky teen Doctor Who riff about slackers who use a time machine to get an "A+" on their history test. The sequel is 100 times weirder, introducing killer robots and eventually sending Bill and Ted to Hell and Heaven, where they're chased by Easter Bunnies, meet God personally and team up with aliens. Weirdest of all, somehow it kinda makes sense.
Photo: Orion Pictures
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43. Body Snatchers (1993)
Abel Ferrara's remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers doesn't have the same powerful cultural commentary as its predecessors, but it's a creepy rendition with disturbing visual effects and a solid cast. Meg Tilly, in particular, has one of the scariest speeches in horror movie history.
Photo: Warner Bros.
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42. No Escape (1994)
In the future, a private prison has given up on architecture and simply sends all their prisoners to a deserted island to fend for themselves. Lance Henriksen leads a tribe that wants to build a society, Stuart Wilson wants to burn it all to the ground, and Ray Liotta is the soldier who could turn the tide in their war. No Escape is a tense, grungy sci-fi thriller that deserves a bigger audience.
Photo: Savoy Pictures
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41. Fortress (1992)
The other great privatized prison sci-fi film of the 1990s stars Christopher Lambert and Loryn Locklin as a married couple who are condemned for having too many children. Kurtwood Smith runs the Fortress, a bizarre place full of colorful characters and horrifying adjudication technology. The "intestinators" will stick with you for a while.
Photo: Dimension Films
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40. Deep Blue Sea (1999)
Scientists have found a way to use shark brains to cure Alzheimer's disease, so they decide to genetically engineer giant supersmart sharks to speed up the process. The concept is absurd but a smart alecky screenplay with lots of unexpected moments turns this kooky killer shark flick into a sci-fi thrill ride that still satisfies nearly 20 years later.
Photo: Warner Bros.
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39. Robot Jox (1992)
In the future, countries don't go to war. When they have a dispute they have gladiators fight it out in giant robots. Robot Jox is just an excuse for fantastic stop-motion robot fights, but there's nothing wrong with that, especially when those fights still put many bigger budgeted contemporary action movies to shame.
Photo: Trans World Entertainment
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38. Universal Soldier (1992)
Roland Emmerich put himself on the map with Universal Soldier, a film about zombie black ops soldiers. Jean-Claude Van Damme plays an undead juggernaut who goes on the run, Dolph Lundgren plays the corpse who goes Section 8 and starts cutting off ears. It's some of the most entertaining work we've ever seen from both action stars, in a film that's pretty clever and culminates in an epic showdown between badass movie titans.
Photo: TriStar Pictures
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37. Escape from L.A. (1996)
Fans of Escape from New York originally balked at John Carpenter's jokier sequel, but time has been kind to Escape from L.A. Kurt Russell returns as Snake Plissken, enlisted against his will by a conservative dictator to rescue the First Daughter from the horrors of Hollywood, which is overrun by freaky villains. The social satire is broad but on point, and if you've ever spent any real time in Los Angeles you'll laugh your butt off at all the in-jokes.
Photo: Paramount
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36. The Faculty (1998)
From the director of Desperado and the writer of Scream came an Invasion of the Body Snatchers riff set in a high school. That's about it really, but the execution is so excellent and the cast is so charismatic that The Faculty still stands out as a rock solid 90s sci-fi/horror thriller.
Photo: Miramax Films
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35. Alien 3 (1992)
Another underrated sequel. Fans of the Alien series were frustrated when David Fincher killed off two beloved characters before the end of the credits, but the film that remains is a harrowing claustrophobic nightmare in which Ellen Ripley finds herself in a maximum security penitentiary where an unusual breed of xenomorph might be the least of her worries. Alien 3 may be messy, but it's devastating.
Photo: 20th Century Fox
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34. Stargate (1994)
Roland Emmerich took the fantastical idea that aliens built the pyramids and ran with it, creating a flashy pulp saga about soldiers who help save an alien planet from the tyrannical rule of an extraterrestrial Egyptian god. Who cares if it's ludicrous? Stargate is a lot of fun.
Photo: MGM
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33. The Arrival (1996)
This overlooked sci-fi gem stars Charlie Sheen as a radio astronomer who finally finds a alien communication signal... but it's coming FROM the planet Earth. A vast conspiracy is underfoot in David Twohy's smart, unexpected potboiler.
Photo: Orion Pictures
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32. Tank Girl (1995)
Rachel Talalay's adaptation of the cult classic comic book stars Lori Petty and Naomi Watts as women on the run from a tyrannical despot, who steal a tank and a jet and team up with kangaroo men to save the future and indulge in the occasional musical number. Tank Girl is deliriously punk, unconcerned with convention and brimming with subversive personality.
Photo: United Artists
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31. Hardware (1990)
Richard Stanley's low-budget cyberpunk shocker is the story of a guy who accidentally gives his sculptor girlfriend a self-repairing murder robot as a present. Hardware has a bit more atmosphere than substance but it's a scary sci-fi thriller with impressive practical effects.
Photo: Miramax
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30. Six-String Samurai (1998)
A Buddy Holly impersonator (?) wanders the post-apocalyptic wasteland, slicing his sword through villains on his path to becoming the King of Rock and Roll. Along the way he tangles with Death and picks up a kid sidekick in Lance Mungia's cult classic, an energetic and highly unusual blend of rockabilly and samurai iconography.
Photo: Palm Pictures
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29. Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
One of the best Star Trek movies veers further into action territory than most of the other films in the series, pitting an unusually angry Capt. Jean-Luc Picard against the tyrannical Borg and sending the crew of the Enterprise back in time to fix the future. What First Contact lacks in philosophical thoughtfulness it compensates for with fast-paced suspense and satisfying sci-fi set pieces.
Photo: Paramount
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28. Harrison Bergeron (1995)
This mostly forgotten adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's dystopian short story stars Sean Astin as Harrison Bergeron, a genius in a world where mediocrity is law. He expects to be lobotomized but winds up enlisted in a secret government program that keeps everyone - even the politicians - from becoming too smart for their own good. Harrison Bergeron is a fantastic adaptation with big ideas that stick with you longer after the credits roll.
Photo: Republic Pictures
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27. Face/Off (1997)
So much of Face/Off plays just like a normal, overblown John Woo movie that it might be easy to forget it takes place in a world with crazy magnetized prisons and technology that can immediately graft someone's face onto your own. Face/Off features glorious action but Nicolas Cage and John Travolta are the ones who really bring it to life, exploring the inner turmoil and tragedy of two arch-enemies who are forced to trade faces... and lives.
Photo: Paramount
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26. Strange Days (1995)
Kathryn Bigelow's vision of a semi-futuristic 1999 didn't come to pass but Stronge Days is an impressive thriller anyway. Ralph Fiennes plays an illegal tech dealer who sells virtual reality experiences, but who finds himself at the center of a mystery when he discovers that someone is recording themselves committing murder. A solid mystery, a great cast and a grimy cyberpunk aesthetic has turned Strange Days into a beloved cult classic.
Photo: 20th Century Fox
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25. Cube (1997)
A group of strangers wake up inside a giant cube. On each side of the cube is an entrance to another cube, which leads to more cubes, and so on. They embark on a journey to find their way out of the futuristic labyrinth but a series of ingenious math problems, horrifying death traps and disturbing revelations about their identities make it a perilous prospect in Vincenzo Natali's impressively simple, yet somehow disturbingly elaborate Cube.
Photo: Trimark Pictures
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24. Independence Day (1996)
Big, dumb and undeniably entertaining, Roland Emmerich's Independence Day updated the original War of the Worlds idea into a flashy ensemble blockbuster, taking the old Irwin Allen disaster movie approach so audiences can witness the alien invasion from multiple perspectives. It's still fun, damn it.
Photo: 20th Century Fox
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23. Back to the Future Part III (1990)
The last installment of the Back to the Future trilogy sends Doc Brown and Marty McFly back to the old west, where they have to somehow fix a time machine before any of the parts have been invented. It's a major departure for the series, which was usually more self-reflexive than this, but Robert Zemeckis is obviously having a hell of a time concocting a sci-fi western. The writing is sharp, the cast is as great as ever, and it ultimately brings one of the best movie trilogies to a satisfying close.
Photo: Universal Pictures
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22. The Rocketeer (1991)
Howard Hughes built a jetpack and the Nazis want to use it to conquer the world. Fortunately, a wide-eyed pilot finds the contraption instead and uses it to become a hero in Joe Johnston's damn near perfect superhero movie The Rocketeer. The sci-fi angle isn't incidental: this film invents a technology and figures out how it would affect the world for the better, and the worse.
Photo: Buena Vista Pictures
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21. eXistenZ (1999)
David Cronenberg's stab at virtual reality storytelling has more viscera than any of the other 1990s V.R. thrillers. Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jude Law hook themselves up by umbilical cord to a video game with bizarre rules and guns made out of meat, in an attempt to uncover a violent conspiracy. eXistenZ is a twisted and squirmy sci-fi thriller.
Photo: Miramax
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20. The City of Lost Children (1995)
A mad scientist cannot dream, so he kidnaps children in order to steal theirs. It's a fairy tale nightmare from Jean-Pierre Jeunet, a garish and immersive fantasy that uses science as a form of modern magic. And it's absolutely magical.
Photo: Union Générale Cinématographique
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19. Fire in the Sky (1993)
The urban legend about alien abductions came to terrifying life in Fire in the Sky, a film based on the (supposedly) true story of a logger who disappeared for five days and came back with a tale of horrible experimentation at the hands of extraterrestrials. Robert Lieberman's film focuses mostly on the mystery until the incredible climax, which is filled with horrifying alien abduction imagery that haunted the dreams of a whole generation.
Photo: Paramount
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18. Demolition Man (1993)
What looked like just another Sylvester Stallone action movie turned out to be a wickedly funny sci-fi comedy about a future run by social conservatives, in which swearing is against the law, sex is against the law and practically everybody is a dweeb. Demolition Man refuses to be forgotten. It's just too distinctive and strange.
Photo: Warner Bros.
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17. Pi (1998)
Darren Aronofsky's first film is a low budget sci-fi religious drama about a man who may have discovered the mathematical equation for god. Pi looks like it was photographed inside of Kafka's psyche, an eery place full of disturbing ideas and overbearing obsessions.
Photo: Artisan Entertainment
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16. 12 Monkeys (1995)
Chris Marker's brilliant French short La Jetée got stretched out to impressive effect in Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys, a film that captures the spirit of the original and adds another, distinct flavor. Bruce Willis plays a man from a post-apocalyptic future who keeps traveling back in time to prevent a disaster, and unwittingly becomes entangled in an uncontrollable series of events.
Photo: Universal Pictures
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15. Men in Black (1997)
The myth that the government has already made contact with aliens and is keeping the information secret from the citizenry is a disturbing idea. So Barry Sonenfeld turned it into cheerful workplace comedy starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones as government schlubs who are responsible for keeping the conspiracy and fighting for the well-being of an unregistered extraterrestrial immigrant population. Dry humor abounds, and Smith and Jones have unmistakable, perfect comic chemistry.
Photo: Columbia Pictures
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14. Galaxy Quest (1999)
A group of has-been sci-fi tv actors are recruited by aliens to relive their most iconic roles in Galaxy Quest, a love note to Star Trek fans and, in a roundabout way, one of the best Star Treks ever made... even though it isn't technically Star Trek. The characters aren't just funny, they're real people you immediately start to care about. And all the in-jokes amount to a glorious conclusion in which, funny or not, the stakes really do matter.
Photo: Dreamworks Pictures
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13. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
Arguably the best Star Trek movie (but certainly right up there), Nicholas Meyer's tale of political intrigue finds Captain Kirk and Doctor McCoy framed for a political assassination that could tear the Federation apart. It's a clever allegory for the end of the Cold War, a period in which old dogs had to learn new tricks and everyone had to set aside their differences for the betterment of all. And it's a corker of an adventure too.
Photo: Paramount
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12. Gattaca (1997)
Andrew Niccol envisions a future where genetic manipulation has created a new kind of class warfare, in which some people are literally born better than others. Ethan Hawke plays a natural born citizen who impersonates a genetically superior man in order to achieve his dreams, but in so doing he lives a lie, constantly looking over his shoulder, unable to ever demonstrate the slightest weakness. Gattaca is a potent sci-fi story that will, sadly, probably always be relevant, even if we never start actually genetically modifying ourselves.
Photo: Columbia Pictures
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11. Contact (1997)
When people dream about making contact with alien life forms, Robert Zemeckis's Contact is how they imagine it will go down. Based on Carl Sagan's novel, Jodie Foster plays a doctor who discovers an alien signal but has to contend with government spooks and religious extremists in order to follow the clues to their logical conclusion. Gorgeous and impressively plausible, it's only the slightly cop-out ending that keeps Contact out of the top ten.
Photo: Warner Bros.
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10. The Fifth Element (1997)
Luc Besson imagines a future that's colorful, bizarre and absolutely alive in The Fifth Element, which stars Bruce Willis as a cab driver who has to escort a godlike alien being on her mission to save the Earth. Brilliant editing and elaborate visuals unleash Besson's spring-loaded sense of humor in practically every frame. There was nothing quite like it in the 1990s, and sadly, few sci-fi films have followed The Fifth Element's suit ever since.
Photo: Columbia Pictures
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9. The Iron Giant (1999)
A young boy befriends a giant metal alien robot in Brad Bird's lovely 1950s throwback, an instant animated classic that sadly didn't find an audience in its own time. The Iron Giant is a universal saga of friendship and determination, and an important indictment of the Cold War paranoia that was holding back our progress as a species.
Photo: Warner Bros.
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8. The Truman Show (1998)
Jim Carrey plays a man who doesn't know that his entire life is a tv show. Ed Harris plays the producer whose job is to keep "Truman" oblivious and sated by mediocrity. And so begins an epic tale of perseverance directed by the great Peter Weir and written by the wily Andrew Niccol (Gattaca). Reality tv became popular after The Truman Show but this film still has a powerful impact, using conventions of television to create a world of constant existential dread.
Photo: Paramount
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7. Ghost in the Shell (1995)
Mamoru Oshii's stylish cyberpunk thriller tells the story of a cyborg on the hunt for a criminal who can hack into the minds of just about anybody, and create new realities in which they live. The ideas at play in Ghost in the Shell are mind-blowing, the action is unforgettable, but the filmmaking is pulled back, objective. It may be a cartoon and it may be sci-fi, but the original Ghost in the Shell feels real.
Photo: Shochiku
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6. Dark City (1998)
A man wakes up in a bathtub with no memory of who he is. All he knows is that the sun never rises, and at the same time every "night" the whole world goes to sleep... except for him. Alex Proyas' Dark City is a bottomless pit of German expressionism and sci-fi headiness, gloomy and gorgeous, brought to life like practically no film before it.
Photo: New Line Cinema
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5. Starship Troopers (1997)
Paul Verhoeven took the unabashed military jingoism of Robert Heinlein's novel about space marines fighting alien bugs and transformed it into a subversive indictment of military-obsessed popular culture. Starship Troopers works as a big dumb action movie but it's designed as a fascist propaganda film, complete with too-young, too-attractive leads who learn valuable lessons about why all who oppose them are evil and why the best thing in life is to give your free will over to the state. That some audiences didn't get the joke speaks volumes about the insidiousness of action cinema, but those who picked up on Starship Troopers' cues noticed that it's one of the most damning and ingenious sci-fi movies ever produced.
Photo: Columbia Pictures
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4. The Matrix (1999)
The Wachowskis weren't the first filmmakers to use virtual reality as a storytelling mechanic but they were the ones who did it best, imagining a future in which mankind is hooked up to a computer simulation and nobody realizes their planet has been conquered by machines. Add groundbreaking action sequences and visual effects and you've got The Matrix, one of the best and smartest sci-fi movies ever made.
Photo: Warner Bros.
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3. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
James Cameron took his low-budget sci-fi shocker The Terminator and evolved it into one of the biggest action movies in history, a retelling of the same basic story beats as the original but with all the characters taking different positions, and a new villain unlike anything ever seen in motion pictures before. Terminator 2 is a high water mark for the action and sci-fi genres, steeped in glorious mythology and endearing characters, with brilliant concepts brought to life through spectacular action.
Photo: TriStar Pictures
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2. Jurassic Park (1993)
It's hard to describe the feeling of watching Jurassic Park for the first time, during its original release. Steven Spielberg's film is in many respects a typical monster movie - scientists create dinosaurs, dinosaurs eat the scientists - but writ so large, using such incredible visual effects, that it felt completely new. Jurassic Park brought dinosaurs to life in a way never thought possible, and Spielberg knew exactly when to make us feel a sense of wonder, and when to twist that fantasy into a horrifying nightmare.
Photo: Universal Pictures
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1. Total Recall (1990)
Paul Verhoeven's masterful Philip K. Dick adaptation stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as a blue collar guy who buys memories of a vacation on Mars, only to discover that the memories are real... OR ARE THEY? Reality and fiction become interchangeable in Total Recall, one of the greatest mindfucks in movie history, a gloriously violent and elaborate production, and an ingenious satire of the way we project ourselves into our imaginary worlds. Maybe it's real. Maybe it's all a dream. Maybe it doesn't matter, and that's the most disturbing idea of all.
Photo: TriStar Pictures
