0808 – Gravity (2013)

timespace coordinates: Earth orbit, mission STS-157 to service the Hubble Space Telescope in the not too distant past

Gravity is a 2013 science fiction thriller film directed, co-written, co-edited, and produced by Alfonso Cuarón. It stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney as American astronauts who are stranded in space after the mid-orbit destruction of their space shuttle, and their subsequent attempt to return to Earth.

Visual effects company Framestore spent more than three years creating most of the film’s visual effects, which make up over 80 of its 91 minutes. (wiki)

Although Gravity is often referred to in the media as a science fiction film, Cuarón told BBC that he sees the film rather as “a drama of a woman in space”. According to him, the main theme of the film was “adversity” and he uses the debris as a metaphor for this. Despite being set in space, the film uses motifs from shipwreck and wilderness survival stories about psychological change and resilience in the aftermath of a catastrophe. (read more: Themes)

scientific accuracy

imdb

805 – Spectral (2016)

timespace coordinates: near-future Chișinău,  Moldova

Spectral is an American military science fiction action film directed by Nic Mathieu. The screenplay was written by Ian Fried, Mathieu and George Nolfi from a screen story by Fried. The film stars James Badge Dale, Max Martini, Emily Mortimer, and Bruce Greenwood.  Described as a supernatural Black Hawk Down, Spectral centers on a special-ops team dispatched to fight supernatural beings who have taken over a European city. (wiki)

imdb   /   http://conceptartworld.com/news/spectral-concept-art-andrew-leung/

0802 – The Adjustment Bureau (2011)

timespace coordinates: 2006 – 2010 New York City

The Adjustment Bureau is a 2011 American romantic science fiction thriller film loosely based on the Philip K. Dick short story “Adjustment Team“. The film was written and directed by George Nolfi, produced by Chris Moore and stars Matt Damon and Emily Blunt. The cast also includes Anthony Mackie, John Slattery, Michael Kelly, and Terence Stamp. The film tells the story of a United States congressman who discovers that what appear to be chance events in his life are controlled by a technologically advanced intelligence network. (wiki)

imdb

0801 – Minority Report (2002)

timespace coordinates: 2054 Washington, D.C. and Northern Virginia

Minority Report is a 2002 American neo-noir science fiction film directed by Steven Spielberg and loosely based on the short story “The Minority Report” by Philip K. Dick. It is set primarily in Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia in the year 2054, where PreCrime, a specialized police department, apprehends criminals based on foreknowledge provided by three psychics called “precogs“. The cast includes Tom Cruise as Chief of PreCrime John Anderton, Colin Farrell as Department of Justice agent Danny Witwer, Samantha Morton as the senior precog Agatha, and Max von Sydow as Anderton’s superior Lamar Burgess.

The film combines elements of tech noir, whodunit, thriller and science fiction genres, as well as a traditional chase film, as the main protagonist is accused of a crime he has not committed and becomes a fugitive. Spielberg has characterized the story as “fifty percent character and fifty percent very complicated storytelling with layers and layers of murder mystery and plot”. The film’s central theme is the question of free will versus determinism. It examines whether free will can exist if the future is set and known in advance. Other themes include the role of preventive government in protecting its citizenry, the role of media in a future state where technological advancements make its presence nearly boundless, the potential legality of an infallible prosecutor, and Spielberg’s repeated theme of broken families.

During pre-production, Spielberg consulted numerous scientists in an attempt to present a more plausible future world than that seen in other science fiction films, and some of the technology designs in the film have proven prescient. Minority Report has a unique visual style. It uses high contrast to create dark colors and shadows, much like a film noir picture. The film’s overlit shots feature desaturated colors which were achieved by bleach-bypassing the film’s negative in post-production. (wiki)

imdb

797 – Hold the Dark (2018)

timespace coordinates: December 2004, small village in the Alaska wilderness (Keelut)

‘Green Room’ filmmaker Jeremy Saulnier’s art-horror adaptation of Arctic Noir novel is bloody, brutal, bleak and Freudian as hell”  (rollingstone review)

Hold the Dark is a 2018 American thriller film directed by Jeremy Saulnier from a screenplay by Macon Blair. It is based upon the novel of the same name by William Giraldi. It stars Jeffrey Wright, Alexander Skarsgård, James Badge Dale, Riley Keough, Tantoo Cardinal, Irene Bidel and Julian Black Antelope. (wiki)

imdb

796 – Side Effects (2013)

timespace coordinates: 2010’s New York CitySide Effects is a 2013 American psychological thriller film directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Scott Z. Burns. It stars Rooney Mara as a woman who is prescribed experimental drugs by psychiatrists (Jude Law and Catherine Zeta-Jones) after her husband (Channing Tatum) is released from prison. (wiki)

imdb

0795 – Cure (1997)

timespace coordinates: 1990’s Tokyo

Cure (キュア Kyua) is a 1997 Japanese psychological horror-thriller film written and directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, starring Kōji Yakusho, Masato Hagiwara, Tsuyoshi Ujiki and Anna Nakagawa. The film was released to strong critical acclaim in both the East and the West, with critics praising Kurosawa’s direction as well as the visuals and atmosphere. In 2012, South Korean film director Bong Joon-ho listed the film as one of the greatest films of all time. (wiki)

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mesmerism   hypnosis