0335 – Screamers (1995)

spacetime coordinates:  SIRIUS 6B, Year 2078

Screamers is a 1995 Canadian-American dystopian science fiction film starring Peter Weller, Roy Dupuis, and Jennifer Rubin, and directed by Christian Duguay. The screenplay, written by Dan O’Bannon with a rewrite by Miguel Tejada-Flores, is based on Philip K. Dick‘s short story “Second Variety“, and addresses themes commonly found in that author’s work: societal conflict, confusion of reality and illusion, and machines turning upon their creators. Although critical reaction to the film was generally negative at the time of its release, it has gained a cult following.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114367/

0331 – War of the Worlds (2005)

spacetime coordinates: 2000s New Jersey // New York // Boston

War of the Worlds is an 2005 American science fiction thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Josh Friedman and David Koepp, loosely based on the novel of the same title by H. G. Wells. It stars Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Justin Chatwin, Miranda Otto and Tim Robbins, with narration by Morgan Freeman. In the film, an American dock worker is forced to look after his children, from whom he lives separately, as he struggles to protect them and reunite them with their mother when extraterrestrials invade the Earth and devastate cities with towering war machines.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0407304/

325 – Dark States (TV Mini-Series 2017)

Louis Theroux visits three American cities and examines a uniquely devastating human crisis in each – opioid and heroin addiction in Huntington, sex trafficking in Houston, and murder in Milwaukee.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt7492256/

251 – Apocalypto (2006)

spacetime coordinates:  pre-Columbian Yucatan and Guatemala, 1502

Apocalypto is a 2006 American epic adventure film directed and produced by Mel Gibson and written by Gibson and Farhad Safinia.  Similar to Gibson’s earlier film The Passion of the Christ, all dialogue is in a modern approximation of the ancient language of the setting. Here, the Yucatec Maya language is used, with English and other language subtitles, which sometimes refer to the language as Mayan.

Themes

Historical Accuracy

imdb

 

0225 – Kuky se vrací (2010)

Kooky (Czech: Kuky se vrací, literally “Kuky returns”, a pun on Lassie se vrací) is a 2010 Czech action comedy film directed by Jan Svěrák. The film combines techniques of puppet animation, stop motion and live action. It tells the story of a six-year-old asthmatic boy whose parents throw him away his favorite toy, an old teddy bear named Kooky. The boy, however, secretly sneaks out of the house at night to retrieve Kooky from the garbage can and bring him back home. Due to that, the boy gets ill. In his feverish dreams, Kooky comes to life in the landfill, escapes into a mysterious forest and begins its journey amongst the rough-and-ready creatures of the forest.

The film was inspired by the works of the Czech sculptor and painter František Skála, who refused to participate in the production. Svěrák offered collaboration on the technical development of puppets and visual effects to Jakub Dvorský from the video game company Amanita Design. The puppets in the film were manipulated by the members of the ensemble Buchty a loutky.  During the post-production process, Svěrák and his team concentrated on removing the strings and wires with the help of computer animation. Kooky is technically the most complicated film by Svěrák; it contains three times more visual effects than Dark Blue World, the most expensive Czech film up to that point.  In addition to fictional puppet figures, the film makes use of real animals (fox, butterfly, snail, frog etc.)

imdb   wiki

224 – Small Soldiers (1998)

spacetime coordinates: 1998 Ohio 

Small Soldiers is a 1998 American science fiction action film directed by Joe Dante. The film revolves around two adolescents who get caught in the middle of a war between two factions of sentient action figures, the Gorgonites and the Commando Elite.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Soldiers

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0122718/

218 – Room (2015)

spacetime coordinates: 2010’s Akron, Ohio 

Room is a 2015 Canadian-Irish independent drama film directed by Lenny Abrahamson and written by Emma Donoghue, based on her novel of the same name. It stars Brie Larson as a woman who has been held captive for seven years, and whose 5-year-old son (Jacob Tremblay) was born in captivity. Their escape allows the boy to experience the outside world for the first time.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3170832/