Rotten Tomatoes released a list of “10 Sci Fi Flicks For the Thinking Man (or Woman)” and I have created an alternative which I believe to be much better. Both lists are less about fighting aliens and outer space battles than they are a list that contains “more thoughtful movies as to what it means to be human.” I usually can count on Rotten Tomatoes, but for this list I think they got a good portion of it wrong AND I think many of the movies they have picked are movies that are just recycled into most science fiction movie lists. Their list isn’t terrible, but it is typical. How many times do we need to see Blade Runner, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Planet of the Apes in a top 10 list? My list will contain alternative options with movies that you may not have seen. Also, I’m taking the liberty to make my list a list not only about “what it means to be human” but also a list where “thinking people are allowed to think.”

The Rotten Tomatoes list can be found near the bottom of this post or on their site. Below that I’ve written a little about why I don’t like their selection. But first and foremost, here is my selection:

Here’s my list:

10. Stalker

The Rotten Tomatoes list has the Tarkovsky film Solaris, but I’ve chosen Stalker. This is a slower-paced movie about this somewhat creepy guy who’s occupation is a “stalker.” We don’t know much about who hires him or who gets him to do what he does but he does it anyway. And we really have a difficult time determining what he actually does. We learn that he brings very specific people to this illegal site and leads them through a series of humbling performances and rituals so that eventually they will enter a room that will change their life if they don’t die in the process. There are some wonderful conversations about freedom, independence, control, and letting go. This film will help solidify the free-thinker in their quest for independence.

9. The Stepford Wives

Not to be confused with the 2004 remake, The original Stepford Wives is part suspense/horror and part science fiction. This is an early film that advocates for the rights of women. The film does this by showing us the dilemmas and inner struggles of a non-conforming wife. She finds it especially difficult fitting in with the other wives in the town of Stepford because they are so good at being housewives, keeping their houses clean, pleasing their husbands, cooking for everyone, and not speaking out of turn. When our main lady starts feeling the pressure to conform, and when her friend goes off the deep end she begins to suspect there is more than meets the eye.

8. Alphaville

This Godard film clearly inspired some of Ridley Scotts decisions in Blade Runner. In this movie Lemmy Caution is an agent that is sent to Alphaville where he finds a centralized computer that manipulates and hypnotizes the citizens of the city with a quite persuasive voice of reason. This computer attempts to remove love and free thought from the citizens because these are irrational traits. Caution is caught in a bind with growing feelings for a woman who can’t reciprocate those emotions.This movie is for the thinking person because it is about the thinking person, and the debate about rationality and irrationality, what it means to be a human and be free, and it is all executed with some heady philosophical dialog.

7. A Boy and His Dog

One of my favorite examples of the blurring of utopia and dystopia. This is a post-apocalyptic film where one boy lives in a dangerous wasteland which is the surface of the earth after what seems to be a nuclear holocaust. A group of apocalyptic survivors live below ground and kidnap this boy, using him to supply sperm to their women because the men in this underground world are no longer capable of reproduction. The people underground live in some type of false happiness where they dogmatically follow all rules of etiquette and moral conduct while remaining isolated and shallow. Even though they believe they have created a perfect world for themselves the boy can’t wait to return to his desolate dystopia up top. Smart thinking.

6. Primer

Primer was on the Rotten Tomatoes list so you  know it must be a worthwhile film if we both recommend it ;). Two scientists have discovered time travel quite by accident and their friendship quickly turns into a business relationship where trust is broken. Not only that, but because people now travel back and forth through time, multiple versions of the same person exist. Quite the dilemma! What do we do with the other versions of me? How do I know I’m the original guy and not the new one? Does it even matter? The movie revolves around dialog; there are no special effects, instead we hear the two friends discussing what is happening and what they are discovering, and what they are going through. It may be confusing, but in the end you realize that’s the point.

5. The Handmaid’s Tale

A good replacement for The Children of Men, which is also a good movie, but this is a very very nice alternative. Only one in every hundred women can have children. Those women are taken, brainwashed, and sent into training so that they can become “handmaid’s” for rich couples who want to have children. So, the handmaid has the child for the couple. We see that in this dystopia even the act of childbearing has been regulated by the government. The lucky are made unlucky and the priveledged rich become luckier. The struggle of who belongs to who and what say one person has over another person’s life is at the heart of this film, which is why this film definitely belongs on a list of sci fi movies about what it means to be human.

4. The Fly

This 1986 version of The Fly is probably the most disturbing movie I’ve ever seen. Why does it make this list? How did it not make the Rotten Tomatoes list is the real question! Jeff Goldblum plays Seth Brundle, a promising scientist who has learned how to transport items from one end of the room to another. Brundle, in an act of desperation, attempts to transport himself across the room but his genes accidentally become mixed with those of a fly. In the meantime Brundle has developed a beautiful relationship with a woman who is documenting his research. As Brundle slowly mutates into this fly over a period of a few months we see him becoming less and less human and more and more animal. But his lover cannot let go of him, she has fallen so desperately in love with him that we too feel her pain and disgust simultaneously. And so we have the question of what is human and what is the power of one human’s love over another? Oh, it’s wretched and twisted and not for the faint of heart!

3. Gattaca

This is the 2nd and last movie that is on both my list and the Rotten Tomatoes list. It is also probably the most popular movie on my list (The Fly might also be just as popular actually), however, you would be surprised at how many people have not seen this movie. If you haven’t, I think you should do yourself a favor and see it. In the future parents can choose what sorts of traits their children will have and they can enhance their abilities through genetic manipulation. This is a common practice and everyone buys into this system without giving it much thought. These enhancements determine your occupation and your social class. The movie follows the life of one man who was born a “God child” (a natural birth) and doesn’t have all the enhancements everyone else around him has. The movie follows him and his struggle to do what he has always dreamed of doing in a world where it is impossible to do so. This is definitely one of the most provacative contemporary science fiction movies there is and it is my personal favorite.

2. The Man Who Could Work Miracles

This movie makes the list because it really dives head first into the nature of being human, the decisions we make and our struggle to enact our ideals into the world. This is truly a thinking person’s movie. What if angels gave one person on earth the ability to create miracles? Would this person use this power for good or evil? Selfishly or selflessly? What would I use these powers for? That’s a question the man who receives this power asks to everyone around him. Unfortunately everyone has a different idea of how he should use his new powers. Our desire to do good can be confused with our desire to be great. This is a provacative movie, even in its old age (it’s from 1937).

1. Creation of the Humanoids

And topping this list of smart science fiction movies for the thinking person is Creation of the Humanoids (1962) – a movie all about what is human, what is not, what makes someone or something a human and who gets to decide, and how we should treat people who are not quite like us. The movie mostly focuses on the internal struggle and the external politics of accepting people who are 94% human and 6% robot. There aren’t really any special effects and the movie is almost entirely robots and humans conversing with each other. The discussions they have with each other are fantastic and definitely still applicable in contemporary society. A lovely movie.

The Original Rotten Tomatoes List:

10. Planet of the Apes 9. Dark City 8. Sleeper 7. Gattaca 6. Primer 5. Children of Men 4. Solaris (original) 3. Close Encounters of the Third Kind 2. Blade Runner 1. 2001: A Space Odyssey

As mentioned above, one of the main problems I have with this list is that many of these movies are in just about every sci fi movie list ever. I think it’s good to place a less-known movie in a spot where someone would normally be thinking “the next movie on the list has got to be 2001: A Space Odyssey” and instead you give them something a bit more obscure. Juxtaposing movies like that, and breaking expectations might just allow the “thinking person” to make connections between obscurer movies and classics, and help them appreciate the genre a little more. Not all the movies I’m picking are obscure, in fact, some of my movies are already on this list, but I’m definitely mixing it up. Also, I don’t thinking I’m “trying to hard;” This list came to me pretty easily.

Additionally I think some of the choices Rotten Tomatoes made could use some rethinking. Sleeper wouldn’t be on my list because it is heavy handed and a bit pretentious. It thinks it has all the answers and that society needs to wake up from its boredom and mundanity. I think it’s important to see the beauty in this mundanity and know that there are copious amounts of creativity that arises from it. To condemn it all is to take the easy way out. Sure, Sleeper is a smart movie – it uses big words and big ideas but it leads you too much and doesn’t let you think for yourself. There are many better movies that explore what it means to awaken from “the system” and do a much better job showing the struggle of what it means to be a free thinking agent in a world where all the roads have already been laid for you.

I know not everyone would agree with me but I think Dark City is a terrible movie. I don’t’ think that it explores what it means to be a human as much as it tries to trick you with the last 20 minutes of the movie. That’s what the whole movie is about…the twist at the end…and that’s boring. I could care less about any of the characters in that movie, and I don’t think they did a remotely good job of portraying what makes humanity so special. Maybe they should have read Frank Herbert’s book The Heaven Makers before they made this movie.

I don’t want to go through every movie and explain what I would do differently, but you can get a sense of my thoughts by what I just wrote along with the list I created. Please tell me what you think, I would love to hear your thoughts.