The War of the Worlds: Wells’ book turns Britain’s imperial mastery on its head … He [Orson Welles] moved the story to New Jersey. ibid.
The Thing from Another World (1951): In 1951 [John W] Campbell’s supremely paranoid little tale was adapted for the cinema. ibid.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956): The film owed much of its power to its extensive location footage grounding it in the humdrum ordinariness of the fictional town of Santa Mira. ibid.
‘Everyone! They’re here already! You’re next!’ ibid. terrified man Invasion of the Body Snatchers
In 1960 Wyndham’s story was adapted for the cinema as Village of the Damned (1960) … It’s the stare that stays with you. ibid.
British television’s love affair with science fiction had begun in 1953 with the live broadcast of The Quatermass Experiment (1953). ibid.
In November 1963 the most successful science fiction series in history made its grainy black and white debut: Doctor Who. ibid.
Jurassic Park (1993): was a warning about the dangers of creating new life. ibid.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977): pure H G Wells. ibid.
ET: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982): The story of a young boy … a kindred spirit: a lost lonely extraterrestrial … This time the aliens were the good guys. ibid.
A number of films that have used the issue of alien invasion as a metaphor for our contemporary anxieties, of our race relations, of multiculturalism and immigration. ibid.
District 9 offers a rather bleaker picture: unwanted alien settlers corralled into a government-run ghetto just outside Johannesburg. ibid.
What if one day the machines turned on their masters? Dominic Sandbrook, Tomorrow’s Worlds: The Unearthly History of Science Fiction III: Robots
Our very desire to play God might finally lead to our own downfall. And what are the dangers of using technology on ourselves to enhance our own capabilities? ibid.
The first great work to tackle the theme of artificial life: Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein ... Arguably the first science fiction novel ever written. ibid.
Metropolis (1927): one of the great landmarks in cinema history. ibid.
Isaac Asimov: He wanted to write about robots that were good … He outlined his three laws of robotics. ibid.
In 1956 the film Forbidden Planet presented us with Robby. ibid.
Silent Running (1972): Earth’s last trees and plants are sent into space … Credible, non-human robots on the screen. ibid.
One of cinema’s greatest double acts: Star Wars (1977). ibid.
The Terminator (1984): a robot with a human facade. ibid.
2001: A Space Odyssey: [Arthur C] Clarke and the director Stanley Kubric pushed computers one stage further, asking what might happen if an intelligent machine followed its programming to its logical conclusion regardless of the human cost. ibid.
Blade Runner (1982) adapted from a novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? ibid.
Battlestar Galactica explored the consequences of a world in which machines didn’t necessarily overtake humans but instead became human themselves. ibid.
What if humans became more like machines? … (1962) A Clockwork Orange. ibid.
Human beings literally transformed into machines: (1967) Doctor Who: The Tomb of the Cybermen. ibid.
One of the most popular American TV shows of the 1970s: The Six Million Dollar Man (1974-1978). ibid.
Robocop (1987) was the story of Murphy, a Detroit policeman who has been fatally wounded … A parable of how humanity might survive the forcible imposition of technology. ibid.
William Gibson is often seen as the great prophet of the internet age … Neuromancer. ibid.
The Matrix (1999): reality itself turns out to be an illusion built by a network of maligned machines. ibid.
But perhaps the greatest fantasy of all is one that I think at some level we all share: what if you could turn back the clock and relive your childhood … What if you could travel through time? Dominic Sandrook, Tomorrow’s Worlds: The Unearthly History of Science Fiction IV: Time Travel
The story of Time Travel is a fantastic voyage. ibid.
The Time Machine (2002) … Wells’s time traveller leaps first thousand then millions of years … A machine, a maverick and an extraordinary destination. ibid.
Dr Who … Science Fiction’s sacred ground … Just how odd it must have seemed to those first viewers who tuned in on Saturday 23rd November 1963: the story of an irascible old man with an extraordinary secret, wandering through space and time in of all things a battered British police box. ibid.
Back to the Future was born: a story of teenager Marty McFly, a mad professor Doc Brown and a very distinctive time machine. ibid.
It’d hard not to fall in love with the DeLorean’s Heath Robinson charm. ibid.
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1983) … Metropolis (1927): the first full-length science fiction film … Blade Runner (1982) … Science Fiction’s dystopian vision of the future … Groundhog Day offers a surprisingly bleak look into the darkest corners of the human soul … Groundhog Day is basically a modern morality tale … Quantum Leap (1989-1993) … ibid.
Time Travel stories have long been a vehicle for sharp social criticism. ibid.
Philip K Dick was immersed in a psychedelic counter culture of late sixties’ San Francisco. ibid.
Trainspotting exploded into Britain's cinemas in 1996. (Great Britain & Culture & Films) Dominic Sandbrook: Let Us Entertain You III: Modern Victorians, BBC 2015
The thing about the UK is we don’t really make that many great movies. Jason Statham
Each day a few more lies eat into the seed with which we are born, little institutional lies from the print of newspapers, the shock waves of television, and the sentimental cheats of the movie screen. Norman Mailer
That’s the way with these directors, they’re always biting the hand that lays the golden egg. Sam Goldwyn, 1882-1974, American film producer
Why should people go out and pay to see bad movies when they can stay at home and see bad television for nothing? Sam Goldwyn, cited Observer 9th September 1956
In an age when the faiths, the loyalties, and the purposes have been more than usually undermined, mental fatigue – or is it spiritual fatigue? – represents a large factor in everyday experience. Our cinema magnate does no more than exploit the occasion. He also, more or less frankly, is a dope peddler. John Grierson, re Hollywood film-makers
4If you gave him a good script, actors and technicians, Mickey Mouse could direct a movie. Nicholas Hytner, cited Daily Telegraph 24th February 1994, re UK release of Crucible
In another film the concept of global leader and global government is also strongly propagated. In 1996 the film Independence Day ... subliminal messages can be found indicating the free Masonic presence and the free Masonic agenda ... The film is part of an upsurge in an upsurge of films and television serials on the topics of aliens, UFOs and invasions threatening the whole of mankind. These are gradually fuelling the growing interest and public unrest in the issue. This is just one of the many ways in which the Freemasons are paving the way for global government. Shadows in Motion
A disgusting appeal as far as I can see to the gay Christian sadomasochistic niche market. Christopher Hitchens, lecture The Moral Necessity of Atheism, re Mel Gibson’s The Passion
Michael Moore’s film is full of lies. Some of them deliberate. And distorting. But it is itself a lie and a distortion. Christopher Hitchens
What’s amazing when you look at Disney and Disney movies over the years is how little the image of females has really changed. You still have the same highly sexualised female body with the big breasts, the tiny waists, the fluttering eyelashes, the coy expressions, the seductress. These images seem very similar over the years, and even whether in animal form, you’ve got this very seductive little female animal. This presents people with a kind of notion of what femininity is about. This is not a mirror on society, this is not reflecting who women really are, or what females really are, it is basically constructing notions of what femininity is. Dr Gail Dines
I’ve never seen any black people in Disney’s movies. Naomi, age 7