Killer robots, Alien invaders, and David Bowie — yes, the 1970s had it all. Keep watching for the best sci-fi movies of this weird and wonderful decade.
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00:00Killer robots, alien invaders, and David Bowie — yes, the 1970s had it all.
00:05Keep watching for the best sci-fi movies of this weird and wonderful decade.
00:10Today Westworld is better known as an acclaimed HBO series, but the show was actually spawned
00:15from a once-forgotten 1973 film that mixed gun-slinging action with sci-fi brilliance.
00:21Written by Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton, Westworld was his directorial debut and just
00:27his second original screenplay.
00:29Westworld is a futuristic adventure starring Yul Brynner in a deliberate homage to his
00:33role in The Magnificent Seven.
00:35Ten years into the future, the Delos Corporation has created a series of theme parks for the
00:40wealthy.
00:41One park, aptly known as Westworld, is an extravagant recreation of the Wild West.
00:46Adult guests can indulge in any desire they wish, but when a series of cascading program
00:50errors and system malfunctions spread throughout the parks, Westworld's androids develop minds
00:55of their own.
00:56I'm shot.
00:57What?
00:59I'm shot.
01:05One of several films to warn of the coming dangers of artificial intelligence and robot
01:10technology, Westworld was praised by Variety for its chilling topicality and suburbally
01:14intelligent serial comic story values.
01:18It was followed by a lesser sequel, Futureworld, and a single-season TV spinoff, Beyond Westworld.
01:24Not every great 70s science fiction film was a blockbuster.
01:27Released in 1970, Colossus the Forbidden Project is an underrated classic that crosses genres
01:32being equal parts frightening science fiction parable and riveting political thriller.
01:37Based on a novel by Dennis Baltham Jones, the movie warns of the dangers of artificial
01:41intelligence.
01:42In a grim near-future, on the brink of war, Dr. Charles Forbidden has designed a highly
01:47intelligent supercomputer called Colossus, which is intended to control the nuclear arsenal
01:51of the United States and its allies.
01:54Soon, however, Forbidden realizes that the Soviet Union has their own device, and he
01:57and his colleagues watch helplessly as the two AI systems begin to work together.
02:02A gripping science fiction thriller, Colossus the Forbidden Project dispenses with action
02:07and adventure, instead opting for a slow, deliberately paced narrative set mostly in
02:12boardrooms and control rooms.
02:14What the movie lacks in action, however, it more than makes up for in suspense.
02:19In the late 1960s, an aspiring young director named George Lucas crafted a 15-minute science
02:24fiction short about a totalitarian state that demands a total lack of emotion from its citizens.
02:30It was titled Electronic Labyrinth, THX-1138-4EB.
02:35The movie became the basis for one of the first projects distributed by Warner Bros.
02:39under the American Zoetrope banner, a production house started by Francis Ford Coppola to nurture
02:44creative young talent and independent filmmaking.
02:46The full-length feature THX-1138 was Lucas' feature film debut.
02:52THX-1138 is set in an underground world devoid of love, passion, hate, or anger, as free
02:57will and thought are squashed by the state.
03:00When one man and one woman stop taking the medication that suppresses feelings, however,
03:04they are confronted by the true horror of their world and fall in love in the process.
03:09They experience emotions for the first time, and immediately become fugitives from the
03:13law.
03:14The release of Lucas into a harrowing future, THX-1138 gained more attention after the release
03:18of Lucas' Star Wars, and has since become a revered classic for its exploration of the
03:23nature of free will.
03:24What do you do?
03:25For a living, I mean.
03:26Oh, just visiting.
03:27Many cult classics can stake a claim among the best sci-fi films of the 1970s, but none
03:35are quite as unusual and offbeat as The Man Who Fell to Earth.
03:39Most notable, perhaps, for its lead performance by David Bowie, the film was barely given
03:43a theatrical release, reportedly because Paramount executives were so perplexed by
03:47it.
03:48Over the years, however, The Man Who Fell to Earth has garnered a passionate fan following,
03:52not just for Bowie's charming and affecting performance, but also its eerie tone and compelling
03:57story.
03:58Bowie stars as an alien who hails from a world on which an environmental crisis has left
04:02the planet dry and barren.
04:04Coming to Earth seeking water, he takes on a human identity and sets himself up as the
04:08CEO of a major technology firm in order to save his homeworld.
04:12Soon though, he becomes a wealthy tycoon and slowly falls prey to Earth's many temptations,
04:17including the love of a beautiful woman.
04:19Today, The Man Who Fell to Earth is considered a bona fide sci-fi gem, and its influence
04:24lives on in a surprising limited-series remake that was launched in 2022.
04:30It's hard to remake a classic movie and do it justice.
04:33But the 1978 invasion of the Body Snatchers did just that and then some, retelling the
04:37same story as the 1956 film of the same name.
04:41Sometimes cited as one of the best remakes ever, the film brought the story of a sinister
04:45alien invasion into the 1970s, mixing it with the tone of the decade's best political thrillers
04:50and loading it with relevant social commentary.
04:53In this frightening reboot of the original movie, we meet San Francisco-based scientific
04:57researcher Elizabeth Driscoll, who is disturbed when her boyfriend begins acting strangely.
05:03It soon becomes clear that a strange alien force is creating duplicates of human beings,
05:07forcing Driscoll and her allies to flee from a city of doppelgangers.
05:11A stunning, suspense-filled alien invasion story with few equals, Invasion of the Body
05:16Snatchers also happens to boast one of the bleakest endings in sci-fi movie history.
05:21The subgenre of post-apocalyptic sci-fi gained steam in the 1970s, and it arguably reached
05:27its zenith with the ultra-low-budget Australian film Mad Max.
05:31George Miller's ability to carefully craft a high-quality futuristic action movie on
05:35a shoestring budget shook the filmmaking world, with a cottage industry of wannabes springing
05:39up in its wake.
05:41In Mad Max, most of society has all but fallen apart due to global oil shortages.
05:46As survivors try to eke out a meager living, local warlords and gangs of ruthless bikers
05:50attempt to take advantage of the chaos.
05:52But one of the last remnants of organized law enforcement, a cop named Max Rakitansky,
05:57is out to stop them.
05:59Still one of the best movies of its genre, Mad Max was a sensation in its native Australia
06:03thanks to its gear-grinding action and over-the-top violence.
06:07It found just as much success stateside, turning Mel Gibson into a star and kick-starting
06:11George Miller's directorial career.
06:14Eventually followed by a pair of sequels, Mad Max was later rebooted in 2015 with Mad
06:18Max Fury Road, a critically acclaimed blockbuster that reignited the franchise for the 21st
06:23century.
06:24Oh, what a day!
06:25What a lovely day!
06:27The man behind some of the best movies of all time, Stanley Kubrick, also directed one
06:31of the greatest dystopian sci-fi classics, A Clockwork Orange.
06:36Based on the celebrated 1962 novel by Anthony Burgess, the movie stars Malcolm McDowell
06:40and a broad ensemble cast of lesser-known actors in a story about a dismal future that
06:45mixes unsettling surrealism with sharp social commentary.
06:48A film that often borders on the avant-garde, A Clockwork Orange revolves around Alex DeLarge,
06:54an eccentric street punk who leads an ultra-violent gang of thugs as they steal, assault, and
06:59murder innocent people.
07:01Eventually, Alex is apprehended by the authorities, who force him to undergo a brutal form of
07:05brainwashing.
07:06A film that's cinematically breathtaking and disturbing in equal measure, A Clockwork Orange
07:11is today considered to be one of the truly iconic films of the 1970s.
07:16Young director Steven Spielberg had done plenty of work for television in the early 1970s,
07:20and his transition to feature films yielded results almost immediately.
07:24In his second film, Jaws, he produced one of the biggest hits of the decade and popularized
07:28the term blockbuster.
07:29To follow it up, he turned up science fiction with a poignant story that mixed family drama
07:33and an outer space mystery, the 1977 classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
07:39While Star Wars blew audiences away with its fast-moving in-space opera action, Spielberg
07:43went a different route, opting for an emotional drama told through a story of alien visitation.
07:48Here, family man Roy Neary is contacted by an extraterrestrial intelligence and becomes
07:53a conduit for communication when they arrive on Earth.
07:56Neary's personal journey sits at the heart of the film, as he struggles to understand
07:59what is happening while his family life deteriorates around him.
08:03A visually captivating experience that fuses mystery, terror, wonder, and awe, Close Encounters
08:08of the Third Kind was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Director for Spielberg.
08:13While it may not have been the biggest sci-fi film at the box office in 1977, it was probably
08:18the most moving.
08:20Based on a novel by Polish author Stanislaw Lem, the landmark film Solaris might be Russia's
08:24greatest contribution to the sci-fi genre.
08:27While many American audiences still haven't given the film its proper due, critics and
08:31sci-fi buffs have rightly hailed it as a milestone.
08:35Released in 1972, the film centers on Chris Kelvin, a psychologist who is sent to a space
08:39station orbiting the planet Solaris.
08:41On a mission to assess the mental condition of its crew following a series of unexplainable
08:46emotional breakdowns, Chris soon begins to suffer himself due to an unknown phenomenon
08:50that has struck the station.
08:52As he learns more about the aliens and Solaris itself, Klein's experience also helps him
08:57deal with the trauma that has haunted him for years.
09:00A spellbinding psychological drama, Solaris has always been highly acclaimed, but long
09:04underrated and underseen by wider audiences.
09:07That perhaps helps explain why director Steven Soderbergh and star George Clooney remade
09:12the film in 2002 in an effort to shine a light on an underappreciated classic.
09:16You've taken your first step into a larger world.
09:20George Lucas' sci-fi phenomenon Star Wars was enough of a cultural touchstone that it
09:24deserved to be counted among the best sci-fi films of the decade for its legacy alone.
09:29Star Wars debuted to massive crowds and lines that wrapped around city blocks while children
09:33skipped school and adults took off work to go see it.
09:36Boasting groundbreaking special effects, the movie is a modern-day fairy tale about a young
09:40group of heroes who band together to defeat an evil galactic empire.
09:44With its unprecedented ticket sales and mountainous merchandising blitz, Star Wars changed the
09:49landscape of movies forever.
09:51Every studio wanted a piece of the pie, and while sequels were nothing new in Tinseltown,
09:55the era of blockbuster franchises and toyed tie-ins truly began in 1977.
10:00And it wasn't just the special effects, the lunchboxes, and the box office bucks, either.
10:04Star Wars was also a well-crafted story with a heartfelt, emotional core.
10:08Despite being a kid-friendly, pulp comic book space story a la Flash Gordon, critics were
10:13bowled over, showering the film with gushing praise.
10:16Noted critic Roger Ebert, who wasn't typically impressed by flimsy blockbuster fare, happily
10:21awarded it four stars and remarked on its awe-inspiring nature.
10:25No matter how you look at it, when it comes to great 70s sci-fi adventures, Star Wars
10:29is unquestionably king.
10:31The 1970s were filled with great science fiction movies that ran the gamut from cerebral, thought-provoking
10:36message films to breezy space adventures.
10:39But in 1979, an iconic film from sophomore director Ridley Scott did something truly
10:45staggering.
10:46A grounded, realistic outer space chiller that was unlike anything audiences had experienced
10:50before, Alien delivered a story that expertly blended horror and science fiction.
10:55Screenwriter Dan O'Bannon created a world that mixed the lived-in grittiness of Star
10:59Wars with a cast of ordinary men and women, rather than larger-than-life heroes and colorful
11:04creatures.
11:05These were not intrepid space adventurers, but blue-collar workers, long-haul space truckers
11:10dealing with an extraordinary problem, a deadly alien stowaway that threatens to kill every
11:15last one of them.
11:16The terrifying creature, later known as a Xenomorph, would instantly become one of Hollywood's
11:21all-time greatest movie monsters.
11:23Sigourney Weaver led the film as Ellen Ripley, an unlikely woman protagonist, in an era when
11:29dashing male heroes dominated the screen.
11:31Her impressive performance inspired a generation, as her indomitable presence made Ripley a
11:36force to be reckoned with.
11:38Eschewing fast-paced space action for slowly building tension dripping with atmosphere,
11:42the film's stylish direction, gripping suspense, and sheer terror elevates Alien to the greatest
11:47sci-fi movie of the 1970s.