The Matrix?

The Matrix is considered one of the best science fiction films of all time and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being culturally, historically and aesthetically significant. It was written by the directors, the Wachowski sisters, specifically for film. But I want to take the term Science Fiction and give my top ten of actual books made into films.

10 Soylent Green. Based on a 1966 science fiction novel Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison. It starred Charlton Heston, Leigh Taylor-Young and Edward G. Robinson and was directed by Richard Fleischer. It tells the story of New York in the year 2022, when the population has swollen to 80 million, and people live in the streets and line up for their rations of water and Soylent Green which is plankton. Maybe.

9 Minority Report. Based on a story by Philip K. Dick and directed by Stephen Spielberg the film follows a police officer (Tom Cruise) in the year 2054 working in the PreCrime department, which arrests people before they commit crimes foreseen by psychic "precogs."

still from Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris

8 Solaris. I’ve read that the author of this film, Stanislaw Lem, is the best science fiction writer ever, and Solaris is his most famous book. I much prefer the 1972 version of the film which was co-written and directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. The plot centres on a space station orbiting the fictional planet Solaris, where a scientific mission has stalled because the three scientists have fallen into emotional crises. Psychologist Kris Kelvin travels to the station to evaluate the situation, only to encounter the same mysterious phenomena as the others.

7 Frankenstein. Written by Mary Shelley in 1818. There’s no point in going over the story as it has developed a life of its own. But I would urge you to read the actual book it is fantastic. However, I would point you to the spoof version ‘Young Frankenstein’ directed by Mel Brooks. The screenplay was co-written by Brooks and Gene Wilder. Wilder also starred in the lead role as the title character, a descendant of the infamous Dr. Victor Frankenstein. Walk this way.

6 Arrival. Based on Ted Chiang's novella, Story of Your Life and directed by Denis Villeneuve, this story follows linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams) when she is tasked with communicating with aliens that have arrived on Earth in a massive, black spacecraft. But it’s more than that.

5 Dune. The first in the series of novels entitled the Dune saga written by Frank Herbert. I remember being absorbed by this back in the 60s. I wonder if I still would be. The story is based around a future thousands of years away and concerns various empires feuding. Sort of. The current film has received rave reviews. I haven’t seen it yet. Previous ones have been turkeys.

still from Sir Ridley Scott's Blade Runner

4 Blade Runner. Based on Philip K. Dick's book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and directed by Ridley Scott in 1982. The film is set in a Los Angeles of 2019, in which synthetic humans known as replicants are bio-engineered to work on space colonies. When a fugitive group of advanced replicants led by Roy Batty ( Rutger Hauer, ) escapes back to Earth, burnt-out cop Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) reluctantly agrees to hunt them down. It’s the atmosphere of it all and Batty’s amazing speech at the end ‘I've seen things you people wouldn't believe....’

3 Alien. Daniel Thomas O'Bann wrote the screenplay for the 1979 film, adapted from a story he wrote with Ronald Shusett and it was directed by Ridley Scott. And it stars Sigourney Weaver as Ripley (gulp). I presume that you will know the plot but just think on that scene with John Hurt. In 2002, Alien was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

2 The Martian. The book was written by Andy Weir and published in 2014. ‘A book I just couldn’t put down! It has the very rare combination of a good, original story, interestingly real characters and fascinating technical accuracy’ so says Astronaut Chris Hadfield, Commander of the International Space Station’. I’d go further and say it’s the best science fiction book I’ve read. It is nail bitingly thrilling. I stayed up until 2 am to finish it and my heart was thumping. The trouble is that it is so good I don’t want to see the film although it has great reviews.

still from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey

1 2001: A Space Odyssey. Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick wrote this together although it was based on Clarke’s 1951 short story The Sentinel. I saw the film in 1968 on probably a Friday night in Birmingham and went back on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. It was the Ultimate Trip. I don’t know how many times I have watched it. Everything about the film is perfect. I say no more. Except Daisy, Daisy give me your answer do.

That’s my list and I’m sure people would disagree. And here’s a poem on the very subject:

Science Fiction

Once upon a time
density span and speed
L = (1/2) ρ v2 s CL

as beautiful as a 747
departing the fact
of Terminal 3

guided past Control Towers
into that crumpled paperback
Asimov or Clarke
where this is a game
played in a maze
by something beyond
Tuesday Manchester

only rain makes sense
blurring binoculars
on the airport car park
spotters casually scribbling
the number of Flight 6122
reaching for coffee
as wheels leave the ground

to a single gasp
lost in the roar

of elegant lines
where L is the force
that lifted wings
in text book problems
that now and then
came to the same conclusion
as answers in the back
where total disbelief
that I’d got it right
equals eight thousand hundredweight
turning south over Wilmslow.

(First published in The Journal, 2019)

eight thousand hundredweight getting airborne

Thanks for reading, Terry.