Movies about space: fantasy, adventure, fantasy, horror

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The theme of space in literature and art appeared long before humanity went beyond the earth's atmosphere. Baron Munchausen, and Cyrano de Bergerac, and the heroes of Jules Verne flew into space. Even in ancient times, people inhabited the Moon with intelligent selenites. Plutarch wrote about the Selenites, suggesting that:

…they are not corpulent and able to eat what they have to…

Movies about space appeared almost simultaneously with the advent of cinema.

Aelita

In 1902, a fourteen-minute film based on Jules Verne's book A Trip to the Moon appeared. And even then "special effects" in the form of animation were applied.

In 1924 Yakov Protazanov's film based on the novel "Aelita" by A. N. Tolstoy was released. Earthlings are sent to Mars in order to free the oppressed slaves. The role of the Martian queen Aelita was played by Yulia Solntseva, the famous actress and director, wife of Alexander Dovzhenko, and the role of the Martian energy keeper Horus was played by Yuri Zavadsky, the future director of the Theater. Moscow City Council. At this time, Soviet Russia was just recovering from the Civil War. However, the struggle for freedom"frozen slaves" was received with great interest. The film entered the history of both Russian and world cinema. It was the first full-length science fiction movie about aliens and space. The creator of spacecraft control systems, Soviet scientist and designer Boris Chertok said that it was watching the film "Aelita" that prompted him to take up radio engineering.

During the Second World War, there were practically no feature films about space. Hollywood cartoons about Superman were purely propaganda. Superman fought monsters and imperialist Japan.

About space in the cinema is told in all cinematic genres: it's science fiction, and adventure, and fantasy, and horror.

Planet of Storms

In the fifties and sixties, the Soviet Union was inspired by space exploration. Launch of the first satellite, the first man in space! And of course, there were also Russian films about space.

In 1961, the Soviet film "Planet of Storms" was released, based on the novel by science fiction writer Alexander Kazantsev. The film tells about the flight of the Soviet-American expedition to the planet Venus. On Venus, inhabited by huge lizards, the expedition overcomes numerous difficulties, and Soviet researchers rescue the Americans. The film used special effects and combined shots that were amazing, given the more than modest technical equipment. Stanley Kubrick and GeorgeLucas said that without this film, neither "A Space Odyssey" nor "Star Wars" would have happened.

2001: A Space Odyssey

The film was released in 1968. It was based on Arthur Clarke's short story "The Sentry". Clark worked on the script with Stanley Kubrick, and subsequently wrote a novel of the same name. The novel appeared after the release of the film. The plot of the film is built around some artifacts (monoliths) that have fantastic properties and influence human history. On a signal from the monolith, Dave Bowman is sent from the moon. The crew of the ship did not know about the true purpose of the expedition.

"Space Odyssey" is not just an interesting movie about space. This is an attempt to comprehend what place a person occupies in the Universe, what future awaits a person as an individual, as a bearer of reason. Can a person remain a person when something incomprehensible, frightening, unknowable happens?

The scenery was done very carefully in the film. The spaceships were created jointly with NASA experts. The director used a special technique to create special effects.

Kubrick was even accused of filming scenes on the moon to fake the landing of American astronauts on the moon.

The American Film Institute named this film the best sci-fi film in Hollywood history.

Star Wars

The epic "Star Wars" has become a cult film for several generations. George Lucas created the whole world with his culture, politics, traditions. The first film of the epic "A New Hope" (Episode IV) was released in 1977

At the beginning of 2018, 8 films have already been shot. The story was filmed in stages. First, episodes IV-VI were filmed, then the previous events in episodes I-III. The third stage of creation is now in production.

The film takes place on nearly 40 planets.

This (fantasy) space movie has sparked an entire fan culture. Based on the films, role-playing reconstructions were created, fan clubs were organized. An entire industry sprang up to produce accessories, Star Wars costumes, and the expression "dark and light side of the force" took root in many languages, along with the word "Jedi".

Solaris

Andrei Tarkovsky in 1972 made the film "Solaris". This is an amazing drama based on the novel by Stanislav Lem. Many believe that this is the best Russian movie about space. About attempts to understand someone else's mind and cope with their own complexes, which are capable of killing, is described in the film. The sentient ocean Solaris extracts disturbing feelings from the minds of the heroes and creates their material embodiment.

Andrey Tarkovsky said that this film is about the penetration into the secrets of nature should be in direct connection with moral progress. Stanislav Lem did not accept such an interpretation of hisworks and spoke negatively about Tarkovsky's film.

The film "Solaris" was awarded the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival in 1972

In space no one can hear you scream

This is a quote from the 1979 Ridley Scott movie Alien. This is a real space thriller that tells about an alien monster that destroys the crew of a spaceship. This is the best movie about space, science fiction, horror. A monster (xenomorph) is a real predator, ready to kill other unfamiliar life forms that may pose a threat to its existence. The life cycle of an Alien resembles the stages of an insect parasite, the larva of which - the breastbreaker - kills the one in which it takes root and develops.

Subsequently, Ridley Scott shot six more episodes of Alien, which look in one breath. Alien won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. Thriller lovers think that this is the best movie (fantasy) about aliens and space.

In 2015, Ridley Scott created the film "The Martian". Matt Damon plays the lead role of Mark Watney, who is left completely alone on Mars due to a sandstorm. It may seem paradoxical, but the film, based on the novel by Andy Weier, is striking in its realism. Every action Watney has a natural-scientific justification. Everything happens without violating the laws of nature and known physical laws. At the same time, the charm of the protagonist makes you worry about his fate.

Time of the first

The film was released in 2017. It is dedicated to the first human spacewalk. The director of the film is Dmitry Kiselev. Yevgeny Mironov plays cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, and Konstantin Khabensky plays cosmonaut Pavel Belyaev. The film was consulted by Alexei Leonov himself. The events of half a century ago never cease to amaze. A hastily prepared launch could end in disaster. Leonov's suit was inflated, and Belyaev, due to the failure of automation, was forced to land the ship manually. This is a very interesting movie about space, based on real events.

Salyut-7

In 1985, the Soviet space station "Salyut-7" stopped communicating, and it was decided to send a crew there urgently so that the station would not go out of orbit, and most importantly, so that secret developments would not fall into the hands of the Americans. This is the beginning of the film "Salyut-7", directed by Klim Shipenko. The main roles in the film are played by Vladimir Vdovichenkov and Pavel Derevyanko. The film tells that the cosmonauts Dzhanibekov and Savinykh did the almost impossible at that time. This has not yet been repeated by anyone.

The film "Salyut-7" was demonstrated at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, and was well received by experts.

Optimism and pessimism of space movies

The number of films in which the theme of space is raised, spacetravel, contact with aliens, is very large. But in general, they can be divided into two categories: optimistic and pessimistic. In optimistic films, the characters overcome difficulties, encounter the unknown, and even die. The plot can be arbitrarily incredible. But in general, victory remains on the side of mankind, and the future promises to be beautiful. For example, in the movie "Armageddon" the hero of Bruce Willis dies, but the Earth will be saved. Or in the film "Avatar" the predatory destruction of the planet Pandora stops, and the heroes find contact with a biological civilization. In pessimistic films, the heroes fail and there is no bright future. These films include "It's hard to be a god" by Alexei German.

Science-fiction films about space naturally reflect all the problems that humanity has. These are ecological, ethical and mutual understanding problems. All the questions that humanity asks itself are reflected in these films. What will the development of technology, artificial intelligence lead to? Contact with aliens, what will it be - friendly or hostile? Are interstellar flights possible? How will a person change when using new biotechnologies? And since these questions will never end, we are waiting for a constantly interesting movie about space travel.