- A.I. Artificial Intelligence
- Alien
- Altered States
- The Andromeda Strain
- Back to the Future
- The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms
- Blade Runner
- Children of Men
- A Clockwork Orange
- Close Encounters of the Third Kind
- Cocoon
- Contact
- The Day the Earth Stood Still
- Destination Moon
- E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
- Escape From New York
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
- Fantastic Voyage
- The Fly (1986)
- Forbidden Planet
- Frankenstein (1931)
- The Incredible Shrinking Man
- Independence Day
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
- The Invisible Man (1933)
- It Came From Outer Space
- Jurassic Park
- Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
- The Matrix
- Men in Black
- Minority Report
- Planet of the Apes (1968)
- Repo Man
- RoboCop
- Rollerball (1975)
- Silent Running
- Soylent Green
- Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan
- Star Wars: Episode IV--A New Hope
- Starman
- The Stepford Wives (1975)
- Terminator 2: Judgment Day
- Them!
- The Thing From Another World
- The Time Machine (1960)
- Total Recall
- Tron
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- The War of the Worlds (1953)
- Westworld
I find it odd that Episode IV made the list, but not Episode V (clearly a better movie). I can't disagree with their Star Trek II or Terminator 2 choices, but Total Recall? I love that Alien is recognized as being the best of its franchise, although personally I would've put Aliens on the list ahead of many of the choices they came up with (Independence Day? Why not Mars Attacks! while you're at it?!)
But, of course, that's what makes these sorts of lists so much fun...
(And Contact's inclusion makes me want to tell our family's story that revolves around that movie, but Tammy would probably kill me.)
3 comments:
Only 50? Desn't the AFI usually pick 100 for its lists?
Interesting how many "cult" movies are on there---more than the other AFI lists, if I recall those correctly. I mean, seriously, Repo Man? Rollerball? The pulpy invasion/atomic-mutant movies from the '50s? Makes Escape From New York look almost mainstream.
It's just a feeling, but I think the range of subject matter is wider than the other lists the AFI has put together. I'm not sure any of them includes movies as disparate as 2001, Thunderdome, RoboCop and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
It would be interesting (but not enough for me to actually go out and investigate for myself) to see how many of the top 50 SF movies are in the AFI's top 100 of all time, and compare that to the other AFI lists. I suspect SF is a) under-represented, and b) further down the list on average than any other genre. (OK, I just went to see the top 100 list, and you have to register and log in to see it, and any of the other lists! WTF?!)
Although no list will ever be complete unless you make it yourself, the fact that four of my favourites (an I thought highly credited) movies are not in the list makes me wonder what the criteria were for inclusion... I'm talking about 12 Monkeys, Gattaca, The Fifth Element and Dark City. Imho much better movies then many on the list! But then again, that's the great thing about these lists...they only make real sense to the people who make 'em...
12 Monkeys and Dark City - great choices to be on the list. I wonder if their criteria was best is the genre but then that doesn't work for some of their choices. I like Peter's thought that they chose mostly cult movies. Just a sad sad list when it could have been great.
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