1583 – Sputnik (2020)

spacetime coordinates: 1983 Soviet Union / Soviet Kazakhstan

Sputnik (Russian: Спутник) is a 2020 Russian science-fiction thriller film directed by Egor Abramenko in his feature directorial debut. It stars Oksana Akinshina as a young doctor who is recruited by the military to assess a cosmonaut who survived a mysterious space accident and returned to Earth with a dangerous organism living inside him. Alongside Akinshina, the film’s cast includes Pyotr Fyodorov and Fyodor Bondarchuk. (wiki)

‘Sputnik’ is a word associated with space exploration, as it was the name of the first artificial satellites put in orbit around the earth. It is also the Russian word for ‘companion’ or ‘fellow traveler’, alluding to the companion the commander brings along.

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1581 – Project Power (2020)

spacetime coordinates: near-future New Orleans

Project Power is a 2020 American superhero film directed by Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost. It stars Jamie Foxx, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Dominique Fishback, alongside Colson Baker, Rodrigo Santoro, Amy Landecker and Allen Maldonado, and follows a drug dealer, a police officer, and a former soldier who team up to stop the distribution of a pill that gives the user superpowers for five minutes. (wiki)

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1568 – High-Rise (2015)

spacetime coordinates: luxury tower block during the 1970s. Featuring a wealth of modern conveniences, the building allows its residents to become gradually uninterested in the outside world. The infrastructure begins to fail and tensions between residents become apparent, and the building soon descends into chaos.

High-Rise is a 2015 British dystopian film directed by Ben Wheatley, starring Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Miller, Luke Evans, and Elisabeth Moss.

It was produced by Jeremy Thomas through his production company Recorded Picture Company. Its screenplay was written by Amy Jump and based on the 1975 novel High-Rise by British writer J. G. Ballard. Film scored by Clint Mansell. (wiki)

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1567 – Archive (2020)

spacetime coordinates: 2038.  halfway up a snow-capped mountain near Kyoto at a secret facility codenamed ‘The Garden’

Archive is a 2020 British science fiction film written and directed by Gavin Rothery, in his directorial debut. It stars Theo James, Stacy Martin, Rhona Mitra, Peter Ferdinando and Toby Jones. Set in the dystopian future of 2038, the film follows a scientist who is trying to advance artificial intelligence a step further than human-beings all while bringing his wife back from the dead. (wiki)

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1566 – Species (1995)

spacetime coordinates: 1990’s  Los Angeles, California

Species is a 1995 American science fiction horror film directed by Roger Donaldson and written by Dennis Feldman. It stars Natasha Henstridge (in her film debut role), Ben Kingsley, Michael Madsen, Alfred Molina, Forest Whitaker and Marg Helgenberger. The film’s plot concerns a motley crew of scientists and government agents who try to track down Sil (Henstridge), a seductive extraterrestrial-human hybrid, before she successfully mates with a human male.

The extraterrestrial aspect of Sil’s character was created by H. R. Giger, who was also responsible for the beings from the Alien franchise. The effects combined practical models designed by Giger collaborator Steve Johnson and XFX, with computer-generated imagery done by Richard Edlund‘s Boss Film Studios. (wiki)

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1564 – Mimic (1997)

spacetime coordinates: 1990’s New York City

Mimic is a 1997 American science fiction horror film co-written and directed by Guillermo del Toro based on Donald A. Wollheim‘s short story of the same name, and starring Mira Sorvino, Jeremy Northam, Josh Brolin, Charles S. Dutton, Giancarlo Giannini and F. Murray Abraham. The film features Norman Reedus in his Hollywood debut. (wiki)

Originally planned as a single 30-min. short as part of a feature of sci-fi/horror/comedy shorts by Miramax. The other segments also grew into the features Impostor (2001) and Alien Love Triangle (2008).

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1559 – Now Apocalypse (TV Series 2019)

spacetime coordinates: 2010’s Los Angeles

Now Apocalypse is an American comedy television series that aired for one season of ten episodes from March 10 to May 12, 2019, on Starz. The series was written by Gregg Araki and Karley Sciortino. Araki also was director and executive producer alongside Steven Soderbergh and Gregory Jacobs. Starz canceled the series on July 26, 2019. Araki later stated that he was shopping the series to other networks.

Ulysses, his friends Carly and Ford, and Ford’s girlfriend Severine navigate love, sex, and fame in Los Angeles. Troubled by sinister, premonitory dreams, Ulysses wonders if the end of the world as we know it is coming, or if he is simply suffering some kind of marijuana-fueled delusions. (wiki)

This is all perfectly well-made, candy-coloured fun as well as being a bang up-to-date exploration of 21st-century sexual identities (co-written by Araki with sex columnist Karley Sciortino), albeit one in which everyone looks amazing all the time. Boyd Hilton / Empire Magazine / rottentomatoes

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