To many people, science is a very mysterious thing. Those who know little about the scientific world and what advancements science makes may be easily coerced into believing that many things which are physically impossible are. This is where film comes in, making the impossible seem probable enough for a film to be built around it. But, where impossible science is involved, there will also be the flaws and disasters that force conflict upon the movie’s characters. Movies where scientific studies or technologies go wrong and terrorize the main characters have existed for a long time, before film was even invented, and basically pioneered the science fiction genre with Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein. And with Morgan, a movie where a bioengineered child starts to reveal and use her special powers, coming out this Friday, I thought I’d take a look at some other “science gone wrong” films.
Back to the Future
One means of doing the science gone wrong genre is throwing someone who doesn’t know a lot about science into the middle of an experiment, leaving them lost and confused in a world they don’t understand. Back to the Future is one of the best examples of this type, combining its witty humor and great characters to make one of the greatest movies of the 1980’s. The film follows Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox), a teenager in the 1980’s whose best friend, Doctor Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd), has invented a time machine. Built inside a DMC DeLorean, the time machine is Doc’s crowning achievement, having poured all of his family’s fortune and years of his live into its design. One circumstance leads to another, however, and Marty accidentally ends up in the year 1955, with no way to return home. Thus, he must convince a thirty-years younger Doc Brown to help him, all while making sure his parents fall in love, so he doesn’t end up phasing out of existence.
Like many movies that involve time travel, Back to the Future may seem a bit hard to follow at a first glance. However, the movie is written extremely well, making sure that at no point is the audience left scratching their heads in confusion. The screenplay is very tight, making sure that few plot-holes and inconsistencies slip through. The script also manages to sneak in little references and slight changes based on the date Marty has traveled to, which may not be noticed by viewers upon a first watch. These details make the movie feel more believable and give the film more depth. It makes you feel like you are there with Marty, traveling through time and trying to return home.
The movie also makes the situations Marty are thrown in more palatable by making its characters relatable and fun to follow/root for. Marty is an extremely relatable character, feeling like the quintessential teenager without adhering to any specific stereotype. He’s not a nerd and not a jock; he’s not a stoner and he’s not a straight-laced goody-two-shoes type. He manages to simply be a teenager, a person who can easily be related to given his charisma and situation. Doc is a crazy and fun scientist type character, more of a stereotype than Marty but still a fun character. The rest of the characters are also quite stereotypical, with Marty’s mom being the secretly rebellious and infatuated teen, his dad being a science fiction loving nerd and Biff being the generic bully, but they work well off Marty’s less stereotypical nature. His dynamic with each of the other characters is what makes the movie so great, with his relatability leading the charge for what is one of the best movies of its decade.
Grade: A+
Like many movies that involve time travel, Back to the Future may seem a bit hard to follow at a first glance. However, the movie is written extremely well, making sure that at no point is the audience left scratching their heads in confusion. The screenplay is very tight, making sure that few plot-holes and inconsistencies slip through. The script also manages to sneak in little references and slight changes based on the date Marty has traveled to, which may not be noticed by viewers upon a first watch. These details make the movie feel more believable and give the film more depth. It makes you feel like you are there with Marty, traveling through time and trying to return home.
The movie also makes the situations Marty are thrown in more palatable by making its characters relatable and fun to follow/root for. Marty is an extremely relatable character, feeling like the quintessential teenager without adhering to any specific stereotype. He’s not a nerd and not a jock; he’s not a stoner and he’s not a straight-laced goody-two-shoes type. He manages to simply be a teenager, a person who can easily be related to given his charisma and situation. Doc is a crazy and fun scientist type character, more of a stereotype than Marty but still a fun character. The rest of the characters are also quite stereotypical, with Marty’s mom being the secretly rebellious and infatuated teen, his dad being a science fiction loving nerd and Biff being the generic bully, but they work well off Marty’s less stereotypical nature. His dynamic with each of the other characters is what makes the movie so great, with his relatability leading the charge for what is one of the best movies of its decade.
Grade: A+
Ex Machina
One of the most terrifying movies of late, Ex Machina follows the trope of “technology gone awry” to perfection, showing the true horror that could come when artificial intelligence becomes too self-aware. The movie begins with Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson), a young programmer who is selected by his company to be part of a groundbreaking experiment in artificial intelligence. Caleb’s boss Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac) has cracked the science behind perfect AI, having created a robotic woman named Ava (Alicia Vikander), who is so realistic that she would seem human without her robotic servos showing. As Caleb begins testing Ava with Nathan, he slowly begins to realize how unhinged Nathan is, beginning to sympathize with Ava and helping her plot an escape.
The movie, like many other great films about artificial intelligence, manages to be terrifying, using the claustrophobia of Caleb’s setting to make him, and the audience, more unnerved. While Caleb is at first excited by the prospects of getting to test the world’s most perfect AI, he slowly begins to go stir crazy in a house that is completely isolated from the rest of the world. His claustrophobia translates to the audience through the movie's excellent lighting and camera work, where every frame of the movie helps make you feel as trapped as Caleb feels. His feeling of isolation, along with his slow realization about his boss’s insanity, also leads him into his sympathy for Ava, who has been trapped in the house for the entirety of her existence.
The terror builds even more rapidly through the amazing performances in the film, especially that of Oscar Isaac. As Caleb begins to find out just how crazy Nathan is, Isaac’s performance quickly becomes more sinister and chilling. This adds to the claustrophobic nature of the film, making the audience feel more sympathetic for the situation that both Caleb and Ava are in. However, like in most AI films, things are not always as they seem with Ava. I won’t give anything away here, but Vikander’s performance perfectly keeps the audience guessing as to what her actual intentions are. This makes us feel even more afraid for Caleb, as we are unsure of whether or not his only ally in this situation is actually on his side. All of these factors contribute to the audience remaining on edge the entire film, creating a tone that is hard to find in many other movies.
Grade: A
The movie, like many other great films about artificial intelligence, manages to be terrifying, using the claustrophobia of Caleb’s setting to make him, and the audience, more unnerved. While Caleb is at first excited by the prospects of getting to test the world’s most perfect AI, he slowly begins to go stir crazy in a house that is completely isolated from the rest of the world. His claustrophobia translates to the audience through the movie's excellent lighting and camera work, where every frame of the movie helps make you feel as trapped as Caleb feels. His feeling of isolation, along with his slow realization about his boss’s insanity, also leads him into his sympathy for Ava, who has been trapped in the house for the entirety of her existence.
The terror builds even more rapidly through the amazing performances in the film, especially that of Oscar Isaac. As Caleb begins to find out just how crazy Nathan is, Isaac’s performance quickly becomes more sinister and chilling. This adds to the claustrophobic nature of the film, making the audience feel more sympathetic for the situation that both Caleb and Ava are in. However, like in most AI films, things are not always as they seem with Ava. I won’t give anything away here, but Vikander’s performance perfectly keeps the audience guessing as to what her actual intentions are. This makes us feel even more afraid for Caleb, as we are unsure of whether or not his only ally in this situation is actually on his side. All of these factors contribute to the audience remaining on edge the entire film, creating a tone that is hard to find in many other movies.
Grade: A
This is the final installment of This Week in Movies (for now!)
Last week covered boxing films in preparation for Hands of Stone.
Last week covered boxing films in preparation for Hands of Stone.
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