December 16, 2009
Ten Movies We Loved From the 2000s
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, courtesy of Focus Features
The last decade has been a pretty good one for science in the movies (though there are exceptions, as we’ll see tomorrow). Here are 10 movies we enjoyed:
- A Beautiful Mind (2001): This is the nearly-true story of John Nash, the mathematician who won a Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics for his work in game theory but later struggled with paranoid schizophrenia. The film won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004): Jim Carrey erases Kate Winslet from his brain. It may seem like crazy science fiction, but scientists know how to do it in mice, and this week New York University researchers claimed that they have figured out how to rewrite fear memories.
- Primer (2004): This $7,000 film about time travel was praised for its attempt to portray scientific discovery—even if it’s outlandish and impossible—in a realistic and down-to-earth manner.
- March of the Penguins (2005): We can forgive the anthropomorphization of Antarctic emperor penguins in this French documentary because not only was the movie beautiful and charming, but it also got thousands of people, especially children, interested in nature. The film won the 2005 Academy Award for Best Documentary.
- An Inconvenient Truth (2006): The documentary about Al Gore’s slideshow woke up the United States to the issue of climate change. (And before the skeptics start arguing with us: Gore got most of the science right.) The movie won an Academy Award, Gore got a Nobel Prize and it looks like the country might be on its way finally to tackling the problem.
- Flock of Dodos (2006): Marine biologist-turned-filmaker Randy Olson explores the evolution-intelligent design debate, smacking down the proponents of creationism and intelligent design and chiding scientists for losing the message war.
- Idiocracy (2006): Two modern-day people have their bodies put into stasis by the military—which forgets about the experiment—and wake up 500 years in the future to find the human race has devolved. It’s crass comedy but one of the best examples of human evolution to be portrayed in a movie.
- Encounters at the End of the World (2007): This was acclaimed filmmaker Werner Herzog’s answer to March of the Penguins. While there are penguins in the movie, there are also volcanologists and physicists, maintenance workers at science stations and stunning footage of the Antarctic underwater.
- WALL-E (2008): The sweet love story of the only robot left cleaning up the Earth after humans have fled takes on the themes of environmentalism, technology and even human evolution. The film won the 2008 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
- Star Trek (2009): There’s this one lovely moment at the beginning of the movie where there is silence in space, a rarity in science fiction films. So the movie makers got much of the rest of the science wrong. Who cares? We really like the reinvented Star Trek universe, especially the new Spock.
What was your favorite science-y movie of the 2000s? Tell us in the comments below.
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Winged Migration had some gorgeous footage of flying birds. Unfortunately, the narration was inane.
there are a lot that deserve to be on this list but these are the obvious ones that come to mind:
the russian film “ugly swans” (gadkie lebedi, 2006) – amazing movie, mostly about human evolution.
the spanish film “los cronocrimenes” (timecrimes, 2007) – great time travel movie about human nature.
“naqoyqatsi” (2002) – portrays quite frighteningly some of the implications of our sciences.
and then there’s a couple good old entertaining holywood sci-fi fare with good questions/messages:
“minority report” (2002) and “district 9″ (2009)
Donnie Darko should be on this list. It incorporates time travel and paranoid schizophrenia, along with other elements of science.
Why are BATMAN BEGINS & THE DARK KNIGHT not on the list? These 2 movies made Batman more popular than Superman ever was. Batman is part of pop culture since 1939. There has been more movies made about Batman than any other superhero. He is the most human of all because he doesn’t have any powers or isn’t a mutant.
BIG MISTAKE!!!
Follow-up to previous comment. Heath Ledger, who played the Joker in THE DARK KNIGHT won the 2008 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Enough said.
To follow up on Mr. Estrada’s comments – I think you overlooked the valuable lessons of what can happen if bitten by a radioactive spider that were finally brought to our attention by the latest Spiderman franchise.
What about Sunshine and Moon? Granted, neither had wide cinema coverage, but they were both good in their own ways. Definitly different from your “average” sci-fi fare.
Avatar….Hands down the best!!!
Hi,
Watching movies with extensive technical influence is a major part of geek life. These movies provide inspiration and insight into many technological advancement that can be implemented into real life situations.
Danny Boyle’s Sunshine (2007) was a sleeper hit for me.
I’m not surprised that you left Avatar off of your list. Not because it does not deserve to be on the list, but simply because you appear to favor only those movies which contain genetic evolutionary elements. However, what you seem to fail to realize is that there is room to consider the premise of an evolving spiritual conscience within the human race. Disregarding temporarily the premise of an all powerful omnipotent being, mankind is not without the certain element of collectivism, most usually used as a forum for common good. Today’s mediums, especially the internet, have connected mankind like never before. Avatar’s representation of that collectivism is substantial.
In a bow to “make believe science” riddled with real science, how about The Fifth Element, Forbidden Planet, ET, Solaris, The Day the Earth Stood Still (the original) & Slaughterhouse-Five?
Then of course the great movie classics which are science riddled with potential future science: Serenity, Soylent Green, On the Beach, Contact, Bicentennial Man, Blade Runner, The Andromeda Strain, Silent Running, Westworld and of course, 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Enjoy
[...] looking at the lists, I think we can conclude that the last couple of decades has been both good and bad when it comes to sci-fi in the movies. Special effects can make our imagination come to [...]
With regards to Avatar, no one seems to mention that the material concern in the movie (unobtanium, blech) appears to be a room temperature superconductor as seen in an approximately 5 second scene with a chunk of the substance on a desk.