It’s been a long while but here is the final part of the list. All these films have inspired me in one or another way and helped me to come up with certain ideas for projects. Beside that it’s also a collection of movies that give you some nice stories and characters that may help you if you plan to write something in the field of SciFi. Let me know what you think about the movies and what may have inspired you.
*Not listed by favourites.
Batteries Not Included
I really like this one since it shows pretty good how we humans actually are. It shows the full spectrum of human behaviour. Greed, violence, hate, hope, love… all these things that make us… human I think. I really dig the concept of these little alien kinda robot/spaceships. Especially when they give birth! Yes! It’s one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen! How they show the process of learning. How the collaboration of humans and aliens results in something great that has a chance to live on. How much different species with different backgrounds can have in common. How much we sometimes depend on each other. This one is a recommendation… especially if you’re a R2, Wall-E or generally a robots fan.
Batteries Not Included on IMDb
The Thing From Another World & The Thing
While the old movie seems a little harmless (with a large portion of charme), it’s the newer one that really shows how alien (space)Aliens can actually be and look. Both movies are considered scifi classics and should definitely exist on every scifi movies list. Especially the creature in John Carpenter’s The Thing is almost a piece of abstract modern art. Disgusting and fascinating at the same time. I just saw the Bluray that has a nice documentary on it. The practical creature FX worked so well that I don’t understand why they used so much CG in the 2011. It all looks fake. Anyway… the 51 and 82 version are the way to go!
The Thing From Another World (1951) on IMDb
The Thing (1982) on IMDb
Predator Series (not AvP)
Oh lord what can I say about this one that hasen’t been mentioned somewhere else already. To me these weird AVP movies don’t count. THat’s for sure. The games were better. The newer ‘Predators’ movie was good too. Even if I hoped for a more exotic alien jungle and environment. The old movies, part one and two, are awesome! The first one is a classic. The second one is very very good too and also pretty underrated if you ask me. It’s cool to see Danny Glover being a complete badass cop. Especially in that one chase scene at the end of the movie. Just great action. Also… the guy who had this idea with placing an Alien skull in the trophy chamber of the Predator ship… GENIUS! Interlinking these two universes made sense. Both are dark, gritty and violent. It all falls into place so well. It’s also stimultes your own fantasy and imagination.
Predator (1987) on IMDb
Predator 2 (1990) on IMDb
Predators (2010) on IMDb
Serenity
Now there was this tv production called ‘Firefly’. It was a great season! Excellent cast! Some serious fun to have! And it got canceled. And the people who canceled it didn’t even care. A true shame. However… the dvd box was such a success that they decided to make a movie to round up the existing episodes. Unfortunately the movie really closes the story. But that doesn’t make the movie a bad movie. No no! This movie has some really awesome moments! The cast, the mixture and the design works pretty much on every level! Even if you haven’t seen the tv episodes. I saw the movie before the tv episodes. The cast, story and the characters within that storyline are so unique and interesting that it is really sad that we did not get more of this production.
Firefly on IMDb
Serenity on IMDb
Silent Running (1972)
While this one might not be the most actiony film it still delivers a nice concept and some good acting. It’s basically about some huuuuuuge transport ships that are used to preserve the last bits of nature that is left from planet earth. When suddenly the order arrives to destroy the cargo to get the ships back to commercial duties. One member of the crew then takes matters into his own hands to keep that little piece of nature alive. Yes it’s a very hippie’ish plot, but nicely written. I like the overall design and look of it all. Surely one of the smaller SciFi gems out there.
Silent Running on IMDb
End of part 7. And the last part for now. I think the movies listed in all the parts deliver a great inspirational foundation if you want to go into SciFi art direction. The movies not only deliver visual inspiration but also some very memorable stories and characters. Something writers struggle so much with nowadays. But that’s a different thing. Also I want to say that the movies listed are films that inspired me. It’s not a SciFi best of list or something. So of course there are a lot more movies out there. ‘Outland’ with Sean Connery for example is a nice one too. So yeah, for now I hope you found some movies you haven’t already seen. Seek them out and maybe the creativity in these movies will spawn some ideas and concepts for your own work too.
Regards
To continue my interview streak I have to announce another nice one I did for 
Databases can be a b*tch. Now yesterday my provider decided to do a php update on their servers. That didn’t run as smooth as it should have. So on the updated database were quite a few posts missing on my site. Gladly not too many. I was able to recover all of them and hope it all works again. Since the database is updated I may even try to update my wordpress. Couldn’t switch to version 3 yet because my old database wasn’t uptodate. Now with the new one running it shouldn’t be a problem anymore. At least one positive thing out of that useless trouble the last two days.
