Sci-fi films are incredibly popular for several reasons such as incorporating futuristic technologies, and subversive plotlines for the benefit of the story. While subversion doesn’t inherently make a movie good, when used well, it can elevate a film and pleasantly surprise audiences. The subversion can come in major plot twists or more subtle ways that aren’t always clear on the first watch.
Sci-fi is also an excellent genre to include such subversive elements due to the large number of tropes and expectations of how and why a story plays out. Like horror, a sci-fi movie has several expectations built in just as a result of the genre. Often, technology is involved, there’s usually a chosen character to help save others and restore peace or equilibrium, humans are usually good when faced with large ominous aliens, and there are set rules around technology and science.
10 Dune (2021)
The Chosen One trope
Dune is a brilliant film adapted from the first half of the novel by Frank Herbert. The story depicts intergalactic relationships, policies between vast space governments, and myths and legends from different parts of society. One such myth revolves around the existence of a Kwisatz Haderach for the Bene Gesserit peoples, and the Lisan al Ghiab for the Fremen. Both are essentially their versions of a chosen one or a messianic figure, and Paul is presented as being both. However, as the story unfolds, his true identity is unclear, and whether his fate remains a choice for him to decide or a prophecy he is forced to live up to.
9 Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
Not The Chosen One
Another film that appears to revolve around a chosen one before altering audience expectations is the modern sequel, Blade Runner 2049. Decades after the events of the first film, the Tyrell Corporation has dissolved and the Wallace Corporation now stands in its place. The protagonist, K (Ryan Gosling), is a replicant assigned to retire a replicant child who may hold the secrets to replicant biological reproduction.
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In the course of his investigation, K uncovers things that lead him to believe he is the child of Rick Deckard and the replicant Rachael, as he experiences memories that link him to them. However, the movie then turns that plot on its head when K discovers the real child and that he was simply implanted with their memories. The twist completely evaporates the idea that K was the chosen one and resets the audience’s expectations of his importance as it reveals that he is just another robot.
8 Starship Troopers (1997)
Humans Vs Aliens
Sci-fi films with aliens often frame humans as heroic. Star Trek follows this pattern; while some humans are villains, often, the human race is leading the way against alien invaders. In dystopian fiction, humans are often the villains, but Starship Troopers presents itself as sci-fi action until it reveals the darker truth. While humans expand their intergalactic empire, the experimentation and cruel torture they inflict on alien life start to surface. Having the aliens resemble giant arachnids is a masterstroke for this subversion, with many people disliking spiders, but revealing their intellect and the harm they suffer at the hands of humanity completely alters the way the story feels.
7 The Creator (2023)
Humans Vs AI
The Creator similarly sets up a war between humans and alternative lifeforms, this time with the life forms being AI. The movie presents the robots and highly advanced AI as being near human in terms of having independent thought, a drive toward survival, and hope for a brighter future. While humans live in fear and anger about their creations advancing to such a degree, they now seek to wipe them out. The war between the two reveals far more atrocities and cruel acts on the part of humans, and once again highlights a darker side of human nature.
6 Prometheus (2012)
Scientists Are Stupid
Ridley Scott’s return to the Alien franchise was met with mixed reviews despite being a box-office success. While the series walks a line between sci-fi and horror, it’s difficult to resolve how the characters supposedly possess characteristics of both. In sci-fi, scientists tend to divulge key information and be relatively intelligent. Prometheus does not continue this trend, with its scientists possessing all the charm of disposable characters in horror and no rational intelligence.
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They believe some ancient ruins to be an invitation to space, and those responsible for mapping new terrain get lost as though keeping track of their surroundings isn’t their only job. They get high and have sex, and struggle to stay on task until their dying breath. It makes sense that, in a panicked state, reason could disappear, but for every scientist in the movie to behave so poorly while employed to carry out a serious and dangerous mission is almost unfathomable. Fortunately, considering the movie is split between two genres and contains such incredible visuals while expanding the world of the franchise, it’s still a good movie.
5 Inception (2010)
Reality Doesn’t Matter
Sci-fi movies also rely on a certain level of base reality being established. Outliers like The Matrix build a story about that reality, but for most, knowing the rules of what is and isn’t real is important in sci-fi. Christopher Nolan’s Inception builds a whole movie about that concept as reality and the dream world have clear distinctions labeled throughout, and the main cast hopes to preserve reality through their actions. However, when the film ends with no clear answer about what is and isn’t real, it reflects Cobb’s (Leonardo DiCaprio) acceptance that he no longer cares what is or isn’t real.
4 Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Time Travel Doesn’t Change The Future
Time travel works differently in different sci-fi projects. Traveling to the past can create ripples that affect the future, create a branching timeline, have paradoxes, or paradoxes don’t exist, etc. However, Avengers: Endgame decided to go against most popular concepts of time travel in favor of something different.
When the team travels back in time, the fact is that the past then becomes their future, and time continues on linearly, with its impact on the past creating branching timelines, but none of those lines affect them. The MCU’s time travel was further confused by Loki, but, from the films at least, it remains one, indefinite line with everyone constantly moving forward, even if that sometimes means into the past. Most sci-fi films prefer to see time travel as altering things somehow, in the past, present, and future, which Avengers also did, but clearly and distinctly so as not to erase the past and stories already told.
3 Under The Skin (2013)
Improvised Scenes
Sci-fi is also one of the most expensive genres to create. Often depicting far-flung futures and distant worlds, the genre relies on thorough planning. While comedy, horror, and even romance can freely allow actors to improvise the lines and go with whatever is natural, sci-fi bills rack up with even a few seconds of extra footage to be edited. So, when Under the Skin starring Scarlett Johansson, was so flexible in terms of improvisation, it was a surprise. The movie was loose in terms of how it filmed scenes with Johansson largely working with non-actors and hidden cameras to make the scenes come across as more realistic (via BBC).
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2 Alien (1979)
Killing The Protagonist Halfway Through
The Alien franchise and its infamous protagonist, Ellen Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver, are now synonymous, but for those viewing the film for the first time without preconceptions, they’d be forgiven for assuming Captain Dallas, played by Tom Skerritt, to be the lead. The brave leader of the Nostromo is a vital part of the film until he dies halfway through. In fact, Dallas’ death happens in a deleted scene in Alien, which immediately reframes the importance of his character. Most protagonists survive in any genre, not just sci-fi, but it certainly added to the tension of the film.
1 Frankenstein (1931)
Set In The Past
While the novel doesn’t reveal a specific date, the medical practices and descriptions allude to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein taking place in the 1700s. Widely regarded as the first sci-fi story, Frankenstein didn’t bear the same constraints as modern sci-fi, but it still managed to go against what has become integral and traditional for the genre. The 1931 film of the same name is a faithful adaptation that sets the film in an unspecified past, which is highly uncommon for sci-fi. Aside from traveling back in time, most stories look to the future for science beyond understanding, while Frankenstein looks back.
