Yuri Gagarin, who walked the space sixty years ago this week, gave the world, among other things, an intergalactic imagination, which auteurs have managed to convert into astonishing specimens of cinema — meditations which spawn not just the Great Dark but also dystopianism, psychography, alienism and most importantly, the unending search for a soul like ours. Here is a possible list of sci-fi hall of fame.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Arguably the greatest sci-fi film ever made, 2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick and co-written by Kubrick and science writer Arthur C Clarke. This classic deals with human evolution, technology, artificial intelligence, and extraterrestrial life. Quoting critics, Wikipedia calls the film notable for scientific realism, pioneering special effects, ambiguous and surreal imagery, haunting use of music including Johann Strauss’s The Blue Danube and the symphonic Also Sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss (from Nietzsche’s work of the same name) and the minimal use of dialogue. This film shows what kind of kinetic energy and meditative power the genre can attain if in the hands of one of the foremost talents of cinema anywhere. Concerned deeply and philosophically about the extent and limit of human intelligence, this film gave us HAL and a lot more to chew on, much of it realisable only on subsequent viewings. The film is on the top ten list of most polls across the globe and has been named more than once as the greatest film to have ever been made. It was and is an astonishing achievement in moving pictures.

The Blade Runner (1982)

Rated by The Guardian poll as the greatest sci-fi ever made, this Ridley Scott masterpiece, based loosely on a story by Philip Dick (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) has in many ways defined dystopianism, which has sought to replace Cold War allegories in the genre since the early ‘80s. Set in LA in November 2019, this film is about genetically engineered organic robots called replicants who are exclusively used for dangerous, menial or leisure work on Earth’s off-world colonies. Revolting Replicants face termination by special operatives called Blade Runners. The film follows the chase of four recently escaped replicants hiding in Los Angeles by burnt-out expert blade runner, Rick Deckard, who reluctantly agrees to take on one more assignment to hunt them down. It’s the basic question about what it means to be human that the film tries to answer and that is what makes it such a compelling work of art.

Solaris (1972)

The only sci-fi film to have been made by one of the masters of arthouse cinema, Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris (based on the Stanislaw Lem novel) is a startlingly original interpretation of the psychography of space. In the film, a psychologist travels to a base on a remote planet to replace a mysteriously deceased scientist. There he encounters the secretive survivors — and his dead wife. Academic Gregory Benford calls it “The only film to address the limits of science set by our constrained human perceptions, categories and tendency to anthropomorphise.” What also attracts cinephiles to the classic is the compelling drama that unfolds in the meditative Tarkovsky style with unforgettable performances from Donatas Banionis as protagonist Kris Kelvin and Natalya Bondarchuk, his wife Hari.

Metropolis (1927)

It is still a matter of wonder how visionary auteur Fritz Lang conceived this brilliant expressionist sci-fi, sitting in Germany of the 1920s, when movie technology was at its elementary and the Weimar was at its most stable. A dystopian critique of capitalism at its harshest, Metropolis was the costliest silent film of immense repute ever made and remains till date the only major sci-fi film to have been made outside (or rather before) the Cold War paradigm.

Matrix (1999)

The genre-defining movie event of the 90s, Matrix Trilogy, directed by the Wachowski Brothers, depicts the dystopian future in which reality is a perceived simulation created by sentient machines to subdue humans. Not only did the film redefine the action sci-fi genre with superlative slo-mo camerawork that matched the hand to hand brio of Keanu Neo Reeves with Hugo Agent Smith Weaving but gave rise to worldwide academic debates about the meaning of Real, attracting Marxist scholars like Slavoj Žižek into the fray. “Cod philosophy, fetish clothing and incredibly cool special effects combined in 1999 for a fresh take on man-made artificial intelligence enslaving the planet”, wrote The Guardian.

Close Encounters (1977)

The first of the friendly alien films, this was a dream project from sophomore Steven Spielberg which brought him into the limelight of popular cinema. The film tells the story of Roy Neary, an Indiana lineman who sees his life change after an encounter with an unidentified flying object, about which the US government is keen to take note along with a team of international researchers. What happens is the crux of the film — one of those rare gems from the genre that can be heartily recommended to children.

Star Wars (1977)

No list on the subject can ever be complete without this franchise, which The Guardian calls more nostalgia than science. The franchise remains a money-spinner and an all-time hit with lovers of pop culture. This George Lucas film’s importance in extending the boundaries of the genre can never be overestimated, more so because the way it has defined a generation, though critics have called it more an intergalactic curry western rather than a film on the reach and riches of human ambition. The epic saga spanning six films is un-uniform though the first two remain as popular. “Its use of science is sketchy at best — light-speed travel is dealt with by the use of a ‘hyperspace’, where the normal laws of physics don’t seem to apply and force-wielding Jedi fight with theoretically impossible lightsabers — but the emphasis here is certainly not on answering the problems of the human condition”, says The Guardian.

Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

One of the first films to have taken notice of the emergent Cold War scenario, this Robert Wise allegory about the pre-emptive notions of the Other and how it can destroy humanity, retains its charm even today. Against a raging Cold War paranoia in postwar America, a flying saucer lands in Washington DC and a humanoid alien, Klaatu emerges, accompanied by his robot, Gort. Klaatu (who pronounces: “I’m impatient with stupidity. My people have learned to live without it”) tries to convince the world’s leaders — and when they won’t listen, scientists — to stop the rush towards mutual destruction. The film’s technology looks dated but its message, as a critique of our aspirations for world supremacy, finds obvious echo in our times.

Alien (1979)

The second in the list from Ridley Scott and the only to have depicted aliens as grisly, bloodthirsty extraterrestrials, the film stands out for its symbolic nuances and unrelenting tension in the script. “Praised for the gothic set design and Sigourney Weaver’s portrayal of reluctant hero Ellen Ripley, it is notable for its underlying themes of motherhood, penetration and birth. But for space physiologist Kevin Fong it’s the mundanity of the crew’s lifestyle that makes it stand out”, says The Guardian.

Inception (2010)

When we thought we have seen it all came this mind-bending, genre-busting devil of a movie made by the only man who could have made it now and helped the genre take a few steps forward. Christopher Nolan assembled the talented ensemble of actors in the heist action flick about dream invasion through technology and what happens when a dream invader is offered redemption in exchange for inception. State-of-the-art technology marries edge of the seat thrill and some compelling performances to make this the first sci-fi classic of the century and the film is likely to wear the crown for some time to come.

Satyajit Ray’s image of the friendly Alien and the film that was never made

Not many know that Satyajit Ray had planned a film called The Alien as an Indian-American science fiction film that was to be produced by Columbia Pictures with none other than Peter Sellers and Marlon Brando in the lead. The script was written by Ray in 1967, loosely based on his own story Bankubabur Bandhu and could have been the first film to have considered aliens not as a marauding enemy but friendly, even empowering creatures who come to befriend the man. The film was shelved after Ray found the studio too interfering but his script stayed with the studio and was later unofficially remade as the most popular children’s film of all time: Steven Speilberg’s ET. Ray himself is on record saying that Steven Spielberg’s film “would not have been possible without my script of The Alien being available throughout America in mimeographed copies.” 

 No doubt, this is one great film that was never to have been made.