Akira by Katsuhiro Ôtomo

 

Akira, by Japanese manga artist and director Katsuhiro Ôtomo, was the film that drew the western world’s attention to the extraordinary visual and narrative potential of anime. It begins with a Hiroshima-style nuclear explosion in Tokyo, before cutting to Neo-Tokyo, the dystopian city that has emerged from its ashes, 30 years on. Neo-Tokyo is a neon-lit cesspit of crime and decay, rife with gang violence and riots. Adding to the chaos is Tetsuo, a teen biker with telekinetic powers, hellbent on freeing the captive psychic that destroyed Tokyo.

 

Akira’s frenetic, breathtakingly detailed animation coupled with its potency as a nuclear-age cautionary tale – with prevailing themes of ruination and rebirth, government corruption, disaffected youth and the power of friendship – guarantees a sci-fi experience you won’t soon forget.
 

Dune by David Lynch

 

In 1984, esoteric auteur David Lynch embarked on the Herculean task of translating Frank Herbert’s landmark sci-fi novel Dune to film. Armed with a $40 million budget, Lynch set about conjuring up the book’s farflung, feudal future, where flamboyantly clad humans occupy colonised planets and battle for spice, the universe’s most valuable resource. Lynch’s take has divided viewers, but its fans rejoice in what IndieWire’s Eric Kohn dubs its “hazy fusion of pop culture and experimental artistry” (think: beguiling visuals, eerie sounds, and fragmented, dreamlike storytelling on a Hollywood scale).

 

And while Denis Villeneuve’s 2021 contemporary retelling is undeniably more epic, Lynch’s Dune – replete with Sandworm puppets and a plastic-Speedo-sporting Sting – is sci-fi at its most madcap and mysterious.
 

 

Ex Machina by Alex Garland

 

Alex Garland’s directorial debut is as much a psychological thriller as it is a sci-fi film – with a number of clever twists and turns that keep you guessing the whole way through. It tracks a computer programmer who is beckoned to his CEO’s mountain-top dwelling and set an unusual task: to determine the level of consciousness of his boss’s latest creation – the beautiful, female-appearing robot, Ava, who may, it seems, possess the mental and emotional intelligence to outsmart them both.

 

With its pristine aesthetic, and equally flawless narrative, Ex Machina is a brilliantly modern and frightening musing on what the future of A.I. may hold.
 

The Matrix by Lana and Lilly Wachowski

 

Responsible for some of the most electrifying special effects and iconic action scenes in recent history – including the ultimate bullet dodge – the inaugural 1999 film in The Matrix series, by US writer-director duo the Wachowski sisters, is a modern sci-fi masterpiece. It centres on a computer hacker named Neo, who discovers that what he once deemed reality is in fact a simulation, conceived to exert control over humankind.

 

The film’s hyperkinetic pacing, slick cyberpunk aesthetic, and stylised cinematography make for explosive, achingly cool viewing, imbued with a spooky prescience. Indeed, the conceptual and spiritual ideas presented in the series – including the anticipated 2021 instalment, The Matrix Resurrections – are enduringly, and increasingly, relevant, and will likely remain so until the day comes that we ourselves have to make a choice between the red or blue pill.