The 25 Best Sci-Fi Movies of the Last 15 Years

[Thomas Shey]

I think everything talked about here is sci-fi, but which sub-genre seems to be the debate. I'm especially puzzled by Fury Road as there really is no technology or fantasy element to it. It's the post apocalypse and people are using primitive means to fight for precious resources.

Is that enough to be sci-fi? Are stories like The Road or Book of Eli also Sci-Fi because they are post apocalypse? I can see zombie apocalypse being sci-fi because, well zombies are science based and/or fantasy. What are the base requirements for sci-fi?

Classically, post-apocalyse stories are assumed to be sci-fi, just environmental or social sci-fi (or both). Not all science fiction is technological.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Apocalyptic movies and Zombie Apocalypse movies might as well be the same genre. The zombies are pretty much treated like extreme weather, in most cases, and the real danger is other people.

And note there are a number of possible stand-ins for the zombie problem--robots, mutants, alien animals. Zombies have just become the best known one.

 

[MarkB]

True, but usually some bio-weapon or space rock triggers the zombie event. Peak oil, nuclear war, or climate change are not fantastic events or technologically futuristic.

Frequently, though, the exact triggering event is irrelevant to the plot or message of the movie - as parodied in Shaun of the Dead, where we never learn exactly what caused the outbreak.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Frequently, though, the exact triggering event is irrelevant to the plot or message of the movie - as parodied in Shaun of the Dead, where we never learn exactly what caused the outbreak.

Technically that was true in the original Dawn of the Dead. It was assumed to be because of a crashed (satellite? Its been too long) but there wasn't really anything their except temporal correlation.

 

[Mannahnin]

Technically that was true in the original Dawn of the Dead. It was assumed to be because of a crashed (satellite? Its been too long) but there wasn't really anything their except temporal correlation.

Night of the Living Dead, yes. The TV broadcasts in the original state that "Scientists theorize that the reanimations are occurring due to radiation from a space probe that exploded in Earth's atmosphere on the way back from Venus."

Dawn of the Dead and the other follow-ups leave the cause unspecified, as I recall.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Night of the Living Dead, yes. The TV broadcasts in the original state that "Scientists theorize that the reanimations are occurring due to radiation from a space probe that exploded in Earth's atmosphere on the way back from Venus."

Dawn of the Dead and the other follow-ups leave the cause unspecified, as I recall.

Duh, I meant Night. I've been talking about the Dawn boardgame somewhere else, so its lodged in my brain.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Frequently, though, the exact triggering event is irrelevant to the plot or message of the movie - as parodied in Shaun of the Dead, where we never learn exactly what caused the outbreak.

It's very common trope for it to be left unanswered. From Day of the Triffids to Tremors.