From exploring infinite space and time to end-of-the-world dystopias and wooly action-packed adventures, science fiction is one of the few genres that has endless space for creativity.
Other genres require writers to draw on their real-world experiences to build a believable connection with reality, but when no such reality exists one needs the push the limits of the human mind to portray something out of the ordinary.
However, within this endless space for exploration motion pictures today have limited themselves to certain hit themes and storylines for the sake of commercialization. Why is that so? Well, creating whole universes on script and production scale requires a whole lot of creative, logistical, and financial commitment and effort that big studios nowadays want to avoid at all costs.
This is one of the key reasons that most popular and mass-appealing movies are renewed for several seasons while truly original, paradoxical, and magnetizing ones are dumped by studios due to lack of interest and box office success, and these are the movies that truly innovate and deliver punching Sci-Fi experience.
In this article, we are going to share three of the most underrated Sci-Fi flicks that are a must-watch for the sci-fi-hungry population and don’t worry they are not about sex robots or exploding aliens. But before we embark on this journey, imagine watching a movie and right at the most climatic moments your internet starts acting funny. You would literally want to throw something to the screen.
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Prospect (2018) – Peacock
Human greed and space exploration is a combo that never disappoints and always seems to connect with the audience on a subconscious level and this is the exact story of Prospect where a father and his teenage daughter travel to a distant moon to find endless riches to set themselves for life. In such circumstances, things usually take a wrong turn, never following a linear trajectory.
After landing on the moon the duo discovers that elusive gems are hidden deep beneath the moon’s toxic forest. What they don’t know is the forest is lurking with others who are waiting to take them out and what follows becomes a fight for survival.
Damon played by Pedro Pascal is a man of intense greed, who wants to win at every cost even under the most chaotic of circumstances. Things take an interesting turn when the protagonist Cee played by Sophie Thatcher decides that she must carve out her own path if she wants to survive and that is where things start becoming really interesting.
Cargo: Space Is Cold (2009) – Amazon Prime Video/Apple TV
Space-thrillers that are grounded in real-world human emotions and fears are never disappointing and one great mention among these adventures is Cargo: Space is Cold.
The series begins where an overpopulated earth is battling for survival and it has simply become an unaffordable living space for most humans. For the sake of all humankind, most people have to migrate to inhumane and squalid orbitals or colonies in space to find shelter.
Most of the events and key discoveries in the series revolve around Dr. Laura Portmann played by Anna-Katharina Schwabroh, who signs up for an 8-year round-trip an interstellar cargo ship vessel as an in-house doctor to afford living space with her sister on a distant planet.
As the journey begins, most of the crew members go into sleep stasis while one member takes an 8-month shift overseeing the vessel. It is during one of these shifts that Dr. Portmann makes a disturbing discovery that there is someone in the vessel manipulating the ship’s system and things are about to go horribly wrong for the crew members…
Level 16 (2018) – Netflix/Amazon Prime Video
Based on Kazuo Ishiguro’s bestselling novel Never Let Me Go, Level 16 is a deeply upsetting confrontation of the realities that await us in the future.
The film depicts the story of orphaned girls in Vestalis Academy, where the girls a dystopian outworld reality is created to keep the girls within the facility for the service of their keepers. However, these girls are never taught anything besides ladylike manners.
However, soon the girls realize the reality of the clinic and plan an escape to uncover the truth about the facility. The facility is actually a skin clinic for the rich and the girls are merely a vessel to produce good skin for the rich and exuberant population.
Some Honorable Mentions:
- The Vast of Night (2019) – Amazon Prime Video
- Cosmos (2019) – Hulu
- Cube (1997) – Netflix/Tubi
- Infinity Chamber (2019) – Amazon Prime Video
- The Frame (2014) – Amazon Prime Video/Apple TV
Final Thoughts
It is usually the most underrated movie that truly delivers the unexpected and most fulfilling of experiences. They are probably not for everyone, but if you are bored watching the same plots and action-thrillers again and again then give these a try.