Top Ten Movies You Don’t Realize are Sci-Fi or Fantasy

Man, how great would it be if Howard the Duck had made this list?

One thing that always gets stuck in my craw is when people say they don’t like science fiction. Now, I can understand if you actually don’t like science fiction–to each their own–but I have a feeling that, if you really think about it, not only do you really enjoy science fiction, you actually kind of love it.

Bold claim, no?

The problem is, though, that you don’t realize you like sci-fi. Luckily, I’m here to help (and on the day after Christmas, no less–which you’ll soon realize is pretty a pretty apt time to talk about this). Because it’s my contention (yes, I contend it) that you like sci-fi without even knowing it. As such, I present to you the Top Ten Movies Are Totally Science Fiction and Totally Awesome.

I’m working on the title…

In order, from 10 to 1:

#10 WarGames – Remember when Matthew Broderick was playing a punk kid in movies? Of course you do, because Ferris Bueller is one of the great all-time movies. What you might forget, though, is that before Broderick took a day off, he played another slacker with a computer. And maybe it doesn’t hold up as well, WarGames is still a fun Cold War movie–which is probably what it’s remembered as. The thing is, the only reason the world was going to be plunged into nuclear holocaust is because the system Broderick’s character hacks is actually an artificial intelligence…and a childish one at that. Throw in 80s stand-bys Dabney Coleman (who was in one of my favorite movies from back then, Cloak & Dagger, which probably holds up even less than WarGames), Barry Corbin, and Alley Sheedy, and what you have is a fun, MacGuyver-meets-AI movie that is solved by tic-tac-toe.

#9 Sliding Doors – Okay, this one is probably got you scratching your head, mostly because you probably don’t remember it. It was a Gwyneth Paltrow vehicle back in a time when it made sense to have such a thing as a Gwyneth Paltrow vehicle, about a woman living in London whose life branches because she makes (or misses) her Underground train (hence the sliding door). Another “what if” movie, like It’s a Wonderful Life, this has even less of a fantastical element, since there’s no angel explaining this to Gwyneth. Instead, her life (and the interactions that make it up) follows different paths based on what we would all consider a minor inconvenience, but, in the concept of time, can be a big deal. Packaged as a love story, there’s no way a casual SF fan would even know about this movie (in regards to the genre), but I think it’s overarching theme of how time works is very interesting–and very sci-fi (with and emphasis on the “sci”). Paltrow is surprisingly lively as the two “versions” of her character, but the movie is pretty much stolen by the very charming and underrated John Hannah. I think, of all the movies on this list, this one will surprise you the most.

#8 The Manchurian Candidate – The amazing thing about this (the original movie, from 1962) actually isn’t Frank Sinatra doing kung-fu, although that is pretty unbelievable (although, apparently, he really did train to be able to do his own fight scene). Another movie about the Cold War, this was much darker than WarGames, being a political thriller rather than what I guess I’d consider an action thriller, and the suspense was a bit more ominous. For some reason–perhaps because WarGames ultimate threat was so “outlandish” to truly feel there could be more than one outcome, The Manchurian Candidate leaves a great deal of room for doubt, making it far scarier. Maybe it’s a stretch to call it science fiction, but as someone who considers all dystopian literature, like 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 sci-fi, I think this film fits the bill nicely: brainwashing, while certainly a real thing, has not yet reached the level (I hope!) that we can actually program someone so completely to be triggered off and on to do our bidding. Maybe I’m wrong here, and maybe things like The Bourne Identity and even Office Space have a basis in reality, the feel and tone of this movie (including a literally scary-good turn by Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Iselin) is Rod Serling-esque–and if that’s not sci-fi, then I don’t know what is. I haven’t seen the Denzel Washington version, but I’m guessing it holds up in terms of this list as well.

#7 Big – Tom Hanks before he took on AIDS, women’s baseball, space flight, and saving soldiers, was one of the bigger comedic actors of his day (Bachelor Party, Bosom Buddies, Turner and Hooch, to name a few). And one his transition movies from goofball to serious actor was the role of Josh Baskin in Big. I think what makes people forget about this movie’s fantastical element (he wishes to be big, and turns into a 30-year-old man) is that Hanks is so wonderful as a kid trapped in an adults body that it’s so easy to suspend disbelief–which is what great sci-fi is able to do. Unlike other movies that use this premise (Vice Versa, Like Father Like Son, and 13 Going on 30), Big worked because the story was strong and the acting was fantastic, something those other movies couldn’t seem to pull off.

#6 The Truman Show – Jim Carey, who will, like Charlie Kaufman, make two appearances on this list (coincidentally, both of their second times will come in the same movie), does a solid job in this movie of a man raised to unknowingly be 24-7 entertainment for the rest of the world, with only a few brief hiccups when he seems to be a little too, well, Jim Carey. Before the pervasiveness and ubiquitous-ness of reality television in our society, the idea of doing this–of forcing a human to be the monkey dancing to someone else’s organ–was both scary and yet compelling, a combination that is a hallmark of good science fiction. We’re not hit over the head with it in The Truman Show, at least not until the end, and Ed Harris’s god-complex comes across as so natural that again, it’s easy to dismiss this movie as being anything other than a “serious comedy” for Jim Carey to star in. And as the mystery unravels for Truman, and the absurdity of his life comes into (pun alert) focus, the “reality” of reality helps push aside those sci-fi elements that were the premise for movie in the first place, making it easy to forget that Carey is a prisoner in the town of Seahaven, ultimately placing this film in the realm of what I’d consider a lighter dystopian nightmare (a contradiction of terms that makes me all giddy inside).

#5 It’s a Wonderful Life – A bit of a spin on the classic Dickens’ tale, A Christmas Carol (and I seriously considered including another great Bill Murray movie, Scrooged, on this list, but refrained, as I’ll discuss below), Frank Capra turns his slightly dark gaze once again on small-town America (and if you don’t think Capra is dark, then try to go through the trials and tribulations he puts his “heroes” through in his movies). While ostensibly a Christmas movie (and never mind the inherent sci-fi and fantasy connotations of that particular holiday for the time being), it is more importantly an alternate reality movie, utilizing the the time-honored trope of “What if?”, in this case showing the value of a single life by showing George Bailey, played by the perfect Everyman Jimmy Stewart, what would have happened to his town if he didn’t exist. It gets overlooked because of the Christmas trappings, but It’s a Wonderful Life is definitely science fiction, as most Christmas movies generally are–this is simply the best of the lot.

#4 Being John Malkovich – The first entry from the rather eccentric yet exciting mind of Charlie Kaufman, Being John Malkovich is about exactly that: What if there was a door that allowed you to, briefly, enter the actor John Malkovich’s mind and control his actions? Like most of the movies on this list, the sci-fi element seems to be simply a plot device to get to the larger story. And yet, again like most of the movies on this list, that plot device is never simply discarded once used, but is instead an integral part of what makes this quirky film so amazing. For while John Malkovich is essentially made to do mundane things, the motivations of the characters are all just a bit “off,” adding to the weirdness that permeates the film. The exceptional acting by John Cusack, Catherine Keener, Cameron Diaz, Orson Bean, and, of course, John Malkovich, helps get this movie on the list, but not as high as the other Kaufman film.

#3 The Wizard of Oz – You’re probably wondering: Who doesn’t think The Wizard of Oz isn’t a fantasy? The answer is, for the most part, no one. But–and one of the reasons for this list–is that you’d probably have to describe it to someone as a fantasy first, before someone would label The Wizard of Oz as such. In other words, if you asked “Do you think The Wizard of Oz is a fantasy?”, I’m sure they’d say yes. But if you asked them to categorize The Wizard of Oz, I think most people would just say it’s a “classic movie,” and not consider the actual genre. And that’s why I’m including it here: because this beloved “classic,” is a fantasy of the highest caliber, and yet is never really discussed as such. But it’s the story of a young girl being whisked away to a Magic Land, where she’s made to go on a Quest to defeat an Ultimate Evil and hopefully Find A Way Home. There’s magic, monsters, and people singing about lollipop unions–sounds like a fantasy to me. Since it’s so canonical, though, it has been “usurped,” by film buffs as just a great film (which it, of course is–that’s part of the problem that I’m trying to address with this list, too), that we tend to forget that its roots are firmly planted in genre, much in the same way George Orwell’s 1984, Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, most of Kurt Vonnegut’s list, and, more recently, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road have “transcended” genre to be considered literature (as if we need to transcend science fiction to legitimize it). Granted, the movie deus ex machinas the whole plot with a “it was all a dream” at the end, but I think until then–coupled to its importance as a film in general–can’t take away from how great The Wizard of Oz is.

#2 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – Every so often people will for some reason want to get Jim Carey involved in discussions for the Oscars. Yes, that Jim Carey. And while I love the man (it’s amazing to me how Ace Ventura has stood up to the test of time), he’s not exactly bursting at the seams with acting chops. But if I had to make a case for him to win an acting award, it would be with the two Jim Carey movies on this list, especially this one. The second film from the pen of Charlie Kaufman on this list, this is so obviously science fiction that I almost hesitated including it here. With it’s plot-line of erasing memories that is almost Total Recall-esque, it seems strange that I need to defend its SF credentials. And yet, like most of the movies here, the SF is presented as so commonplace (just another day at the memory-erasing clinic) that I think it’s easy to forget how crazy the idea actually is. Unlike the aforementioned Manchurian Candidate, the brainwashing isn’t just a means to an end, it is the entire story (much more like Being John Malkovich). And what’s so great about it is that Jim Carey delivers this weirdness to us straight–a guy who has made a career on physical humor and wacky antics is almost subsumed into the quiet oddity of Kaufman’s world. Oscar-worthy? Perhaps not. But this was probably the first time we got a truly nuanced performance from Carey, and it’s impressive to watch (as is, surprisingly, Kirsten Dunst’s). And, like so many great SF stories, there’s a sadness overlying everything, with hope visible just at the end of the horizon.
and, last but not least…

#1 Groundhog Day – Bill Murray at his finest, combining his ability to come across as the selfish jerk character (Ghostbusters, Stripes) he established to balance his goofball characters (Caddyshack, Meatballs), the sci-fi element is clear (reliving the same day over and over) without being overt. His character’s development over the course of the film is brilliant, as he basically goes through the five stages of grief on his way to accepting that there are worse places to be stuck in than Punxsutawney. Named one of the American Film Institutes Top 100 Funniest movies (not to mention being on a number of other lists, including the AFI’s Top 10 Fantasy Movies), the thing that makes this movie so great is that the magic is both subtle and in your face. My only complaint is that I can’t stand Andie MacDowell, but, well, you can’t have everything, but for a movie that is a comedic Twilight Zone episode, without ever getting monotonous, this isn’t just a great sci-fi movie, it’s simply a great movie.

Now, I’m sure there will be plenty of disagreement, so please, if you think I missed something (and chances are, like with my friends who follow me on Twitter at @DelReySpectra, I might not have seen the movies some people have suggested to me for inclusion on this list), let me know–I’m always open to debate.