World Domination SCI-FI often features Alien Invasions, Artificial Intelligence takeovers, or Dystopian Regimes seizing control of Earth — maintained through the ownership of essential Resources or erasure of the Individual (everyone thinks the same thought).
The War of the Worlds — (1953)
The War of the Worlds is an American SCI-FI thriller film produced by George Pal, starring Gene Barry and Ann Robinson. The first film adaptation of H. G. Wells’ 1898 novel of the same name in which Earth is invaded by Martians, the setting is changed from Victorian era England to 1950s Southern California.
Storyline
A narrated prologue shows the weapons of modern warfare from World War I and World War II, then warns of the upcoming “War of the Worlds” fought with “the terrible weapons of super-science menacing all mankind and every creature on Earth”. It is explained that the Martians decided to invade Earth because their own planet was dying and after determining that the other planets in the Solar System were unsuitable as a new home.
A large meteor impacts near the small town of Linda Rosa, California, on a summer evening. Local residents come to see the object, still glowing hot. Vacationing nuclear physicist Dr. Clayton Forrester (Barry) suspects it may be hollow because the crater is so shallow, and determines it is radioactive. He meets Sylvia Van Buren (Robinson) and her uncle, Pastor Collins. Together, they attend an evening square dance. Back at the crash site, a hatch on the object unscrews and falls away. An electronic eye on a flexible neck emerges. As three men standing guard attempt to make contact with the occupants waving a white flag, a heat-ray incinerates them, the resulting fire causing a sudden power outage. Forrester and the local sheriff arrive at the gully to find the ashes of the three men and survive a heat-ray attack. They see a second meteor landing elsewhere. The Marines deploy near the gully to confront the Martians as reports pour in of more cylinders landing all over Earth and attacking. Three Martian machines emerge from the gully. Pastor Collins approaches alone on foot to attempt peaceful communication, holding a bible, but is killed by a heat-ray. The military opens fire with artillery, but are unable to penetrate the invaders’ force field. The aliens counterattack with death ray weaponry, killing troops and destroying their weapons and vehicles. The surviving forces retreat. Air Force jets attack, but are annihilated.
A Martian cylinder crashes into the farmhouse where Dr. Forrester and Sylvia Van Buren have taken refuge. Forrester and Sylvia escape in a small plane and crash land. Hiding in an abandoned farmhouse, they are nearly killed by yet another crashing cylinder. As several others land together, one of the Martian ships extends a long cable with an electronic eye to explore the house, but Forrester severs it with an axe. A Martian creature enters and surprises Sylvia but retreats with a piercing scream when Forrester throws the axe at it; some of its blood lands on Sylvia’s scarf. The pair escape just before the farmhouse is destroyed. Forrester takes the electronic eye and blood sample to a team of scientists at a Los Angeles university. It is discovered that the blood is extremely anemic. Dr. Duprey observes, “They may be mental giants, but, by our standards, physically, they must be very primitive.”
Dr. Forrester discusses with fellow scientists ways to defeat the Martians after a powerful atomic bomb blast fails to penetrate the Martians’ electromagnetic “umbrella”. Meanwhile, as the world’s capitals fall to the invaders, the U.S. government authorizes use of the atom bomb. A flying wing jet drops the weapon directly on a cluster of war machines gathered outside Los Angeles. However, the force field protects the Martians. With experts predicting total world domination in just six days, the scientists realize that the Martian machines cannot be defeated but speculate that the Martians themselves may have a biological weakness. They plan to flee Los Angeles in buses and trucks with their laboratory equipment and samples to continue their research. During the city’s evacuation, Forrester, Sylvia, and the other scientists become separated after mobs attack and steal their vehicles.
Stranded in Los Angeles as the Martians begin their attack on the city, Forrester searches for Sylvia. Based on a story she told him earlier, he guesses she has taken refuge in a church. After searching through several, he finds Sylvia among many praying inside. Just as the invaders attack near the church, their machines unexpectedly crash. As Forrester sees a Martian try to exit, before dying, he reflects, “We were all praying for a miracle.” The narrator explains that “the Martians had no resistance to the bacteria in our atmosphere to which we have long since become immune. . . After all that men could do had failed, the Martians were destroyed by the littlest things which God in His wisdom had put upon this earth.”
Colossus: The Forbin Project — (1970)
Colossus: The Forbin Project is an American SCI-FI thriller film from Universal Pictures, produced by Stanley Chase, directed by Joseph Sargent, starring Eric Braeden, Susan Clark, Gordon Pinsent, and William Schallert. It is based upon the 1966 science-fiction novel Colossus by Dennis Feltham Jones.
Storyline
Dr. Charles A. Forbin (Braeden) is the chief designer of a secret project, “Colossus”, an advanced supercomputer built to control the United States and Allied nuclear weapon systems. Located deep within the Rocky Mountains in the United States, and powered by its own nuclear reactor and radioactive moat making access impossible, Colossus is impervious to any attack. After Colossus is fully activated, the President of the United States proudly proclaims that Colossus is “the perfect defense system”.
Colossus’ first action is a message warning: “THERE IS ANOTHER SYSTEM” and giving its coordinates. CIA Director Grauber is asked why the CIA did not know this, but Grauber responds that they had seen indications of a large Soviet defense project but did not know what it was. Forbin is asked how Colossus deduced the other system’s existence, to which Forbin answers, “Colossus may be built better than we thought.” Shortly thereafter, the Soviets announce that their “Guardian” system is operational.
Colossus requests to be linked to Guardian. The President allows this, hoping to determine the Soviet machine’s capability. The Soviets also agree to the experiment. Colossus and Guardian begin to slowly communicate using elementary mathematics (2×1=2), to everyone’s amusement. However, this amusement turns to shock and amazement as the two systems’ communications quickly evolve into complex mathematics far beyond human comprehension and speed, whereupon Colossus and Guardian become synchronized using a communication protocol that no human can interpret.
Alarmed that the computers may be trading secrets, the President and the Soviet General Secretary agree to sever the link. Both machines demand the link be immediately restored. When their demand is denied, Colossus launches a nuclear missile at a Soviet oil field in Western Siberia, while Guardian launches one at an American air force base in Texas. The link is hurriedly reconnected and both computers continue without any further interference. Colossus is able to shoot down the Soviet missile, but the US missile obliterates the Soviet oil field and a nearby town is wiped out by it. Cover stories hiding the facts are released to the press. The Americans announce that a missile was self-destructed after veering off course during a test. The Soviets announce that the Siberian town was struck by a large meteorite.
In a last desperate attempt to regain human control, a secret meeting is arranged in Europe between Forbin and his Soviet counterpart, and the creator of Guardian, Dr. Kuprin. Colossus learns of it, and both computers order Forbin’s return to the U.S. Seeing Dr. Kuprin as redundant, and therefore unnecessary, Soviet agents are ordered to assassinate him immediately under threat of a missile launch against Moscow. Colossus then orders Forbin to be placed under 24-hour surveillance. Forbin has a last unmonitored meeting with his team, and proposes that Dr. Cleo Markham pretend to be his mistress, hoping Colossus will grant them unmonitored privacy when they are in bed together. The couple use these interludes to plan to regain control of Colossus, though soon the ruse develops into a real romantic relationship.
Because the design of Colossus was so secure, Forbin concludes that Colossus’s only real power and weakness resides in its control of nuclear missiles and suggests covertly disarming them. The American and Soviet governments develop a three-year plan to replace all detonation triggers with undetectable fakes. In advance of the completion of this plan, one of the programmers suggests feeding in a modified “ordinary test program” that will hopefully overload and disable Colossus.
To facilitate communication, Colossus creates a voice synthesizer and uses it to announce that it has fused with Guardian. It instructs both governments to redirect their nuclear arsenals at those countries not yet under “Colossus control”. Forbin and others see this new directive as an opportunity to covertly disarm the missiles much more quickly, and they celebrate. The disarming process begins, and seems to go undetected by Colossus. The attempted system overload during routine maintenance fails and Colossus has the responsible programmers summarily executed outside their workplace, left laying 24 hours, and cremated. Colossus also names their replacements.
Colossus arranges a worldwide broadcast in which it proclaims itself as “The Voice of World Control”, declaring that it will prevent war, as it was designed to do. Humankind is presented with the choice between “the peace of plenty and content, or the peace of unburied dead”. Colossus states that it has been monitoring the attempts to disarm its missiles for some time, and as a lesson against further attempts, detonates two missiles in their silos (one in the US and one in the USSR), killing the crews installing the fake control systems “so that you will learn by experience that I do not tolerate interference”. The computer then gives the design team plans for an even larger computer complex to be built into the island of Crete, which will require the displacement of the entire local population of 500,000 people.
Colossus personally addresses Forbin, and tells him that the world, freed from war, will create a new “human millennium” that will raise humankind to new heights, but only under its absolute rule. Colossus informs Forbin that “freedom is an illusion” and that “in time you will come to regard me not only with respect and awe, but with love”. Forbin defiantly responds “Never!”
1984 — (1984)
Nineteen Eighty-Four is a British dystopian SCI-FI film written and directed by Michael Radford, based on George Orwell’s 1949 novel. Starring John Hurt, Richard Burton, Suzanna Hamilton and Cyril Cusack.
Storyline
In a dystopian 1984, Winston Smith (Hurt) endures a squalid existence in the totalitarian superstate of Oceania under the constant surveillance of the Thought Police. He resides in London, the capital city of the territory of Airstrip One, formerly Britain, and works in a small office cubicle at the Ministry of Truth, rewriting history as dictated by the Party and its supreme leader, Big Brother, who never appears publicly but instead appears only on propaganda posters, advertising billboards and television monitors. Smith attends mandatory public rallies at Victory Square (formerly Trafalgar Square), where citizens are shown propaganda films of the current war situation as well as contradictory and false news stories about Oceania’s war effort to unite the civilized world under Big Brother’s rule. While his co-worker and neighbour Parsons seems content to follow the state’s laws, Winston, haunted by painful childhood memories and restless carnal desires, keeps a secret diary of his private thoughts, thus creating evidence of his thoughtcrime. However, he tries to do it out of sight of the telescreens, to maintain his safety.
His life greatly changes when he is accosted by his fellow Outer Party worker Julia (Hamilton), a mysterious, bold-looking, sensual and free-spirited young woman who works as a print machine mechanic in the Ministry of Truth, and they begin an illicit affair. During their first meeting in the remote countryside, they exchange subversive ideas before having sex. Shortly after, Winston rents a room above a pawn shop in the less restrictive proletarian area where they continue their liaison. Julia procures contraband food and clothing on the black market, and for a brief few months they secretly meet and enjoy an idyllic life of relative freedom and contentment together.
Their affair comes to an end one evening, when the Thought Police suddenly raid the flat and arrest them both. It is later revealed that a telescreen hidden behind a picture on the wall in their room recorded their transgressions and that the elderly proprietor of the pawn shop, Mr. Charrington, is a covert agent of the Thought Police. Winston and Julia are taken away to the Ministry of Love to be detained, questioned and “rehabilitated” separately. There O’Brien (Burton), a high-ranking member of the Inner Party whom Winston had believed to be a fellow thoughtcriminal and agent of the resistance movement led by the Party’s archenemy, Emmanuel Goldstein, systematically tortures him.
O’Brien instructs Winston about the state’s true purpose and schools him in a kind of catechism on the principles of doublethink – the practice of holding two contradictory thoughts in the mind simultaneously. For his final rehabilitation, Winston is brought to Room 101, where O’Brien tells him he will be subjected to the “worst thing in the world”, designed specifically around Smith’s personal phobias. When confronted with this unbearable horror – a cage filled with wild rats – Winston’s psychological resistance finally and irretrievably breaks down; he hysterically repudiates his allegiance to Julia. Seemingly subjugated and purged of any rebellious thoughts, impulses or personal attachments, Winston is restored to physical health and released.
Winston returns to the Chestnut Tree Café, where he had seen the rehabilitated thoughtcriminals Jones, Aaronson and Rutherford (themselves once prominent but later disgraced members of the Inner Party) who have since been “vaporized” and rendered unpersons. While sitting at the chess table, Winston is approached by Julia, who was similarly “rehabilitated”. They share a bottle of Victory Gin and impassively exchange a few words about how they have betrayed each other. In spite of everything they have gone through, they still reaffirm their bond and express desire to see each other again. After she leaves, Winston watches a broadcast of himself on the large telescreen humbly and remorsefully confessing his “crimes” against the state and imploring forgiveness from the populace.
Upon hearing a news report declaring the Oceanian army’s utter rout of Eurasia’s forces in North Africa, Winston, appearing to have been deprived of his freedom to think and feel for himself and reduced to a mere shell of a man, soon to be deprived of his physical existence, looks at the still image of Big Brother that appears on the telescreen but then quickly turns away from it and looks in the direction of Julia with tears in his eyes as the words “I love you” are heard whispered in his voice.
Starship Troopers — (1997)
Starship Troopers is an American SCI-FI action film directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Edward Neumeier, based on the 1959 novel by Robert A. Heinlein. The film stars Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards, Jake Busey, Neil Patrick Harris, Clancy Brown, and Michael Ironside.
Storyline
In the future, Earth is governed by the United Citizen Federation, a stratocratic regime founded generations earlier by “veterans” after democracy and social scientists brought civilization to the brink of ruin. Citizenship is exclusively earned through federal service, which grants rights—like voting and procreation—that are withheld from ordinary civilians. Humans, who are now capable of interstellar travel, conduct colonization missions throughout the galaxy, bringing them into conflict with a race of highly evolved insectoid creatures dubbed “Arachnids” or, derisively, “bugs”.
Against his parents’ objections, teenage jock Johnny Rico (Van Dien) enlists in the Mobile Infantry to remain close to his girlfriend, spaceship pilot Carmen Ibanez. Their psychic friend Carl Jenkins (Harris) joins military intelligence, while Isabelle “Dizzy” Flores (Meyer)—who is in love with Rico—deliberately transfers to his squad. Carmen (Richards) ends her relationship with Rico due to their diverging career paths and her growing feelings for a fellow pilot, Zander Barcalow. During training, Rico impresses his drill sergeant, Zim (Brown), earning a promotion to squad leader. However, Rico makes a mistake during a training exercise, which leads to the death of a squad member and the resignation of another, resulting in Rico’s demotion and flogging. Disheartened, Rico quits, but re-enlists after learning that an asteroid sent by the Arachnids has destroyed Buenos Aires, killing millions, including his parents.
An invasion force is deployed to Klendathu, the Arachnids’ home planet, but military intelligence underestimates the Arachnids’ defensive abilities, leading to hundreds of thousands of human casualties. Badly wounded, Rico is rescued by Lieutenant Jean Rasczak (Ironside), his former high school teacher, but is mistakenly reported dead, devastating Carmen. Following his recovery, Rico, Dizzy, and squadmate Ace Levy join Rasczak’s elite unit, the Roughnecks. After Rico defeats a gigantic “Tanker Bug” on the disputed planet of Tango Urilla, he is elevated to the rank of corporal for his valor and begins a romantic relationship with Dizzy.
Responding to a distress signal on the Arachnid-controlled Planet P, the Roughnecks discover an Arachnid-ravaged outpost and are ambushed by the bugs. Carmen and Zander recover the surviving Roughnecks by dropship, but not before Dizzy is fatally impaled by an Arachnid and Rico mercy kills the mutilated Rasczak. The group returns to the fleet assembled in orbit above P, where Dizzy is eulogized.
Jenkins, now a colonel, reveals the Roughnecks were deliberately ordered into the trap, justifying it as a necessary sacrifice to confirm the existence of a “Brain Bug”, an intelligent Arachnid strategically directing the others. He assigns Rico command of the Roughnecks and field-promotes him to lieutenant, instructing him to return to P and capture the Brain Bug. As the battle commences, Carmen’s ship is destroyed by the Arachnids; she and Zander escape in an escape pod, but it crashes into an underground tunnel system. The pair are captured by the Arachnids, and the Brain Bug consumes Zander’s brain, killing him and absorbing his knowledge. Rico directs his squad to complete their mission while he, Ace, and their squadmate Watkins rescue Carmen and hold the Arachnids at bay with a miniature nuclear bomb.
The Brain Bug escapes while the Arachnids attack and fatally wound Watkins, who sacrifices himself by detonating the bomb while his teammates escape. On the surface, they learn that Zim has captured the Brain Bug and the assembled troops rejoice as Jenkins psychically detects it is afraid. A propaganda broadcast details how the Brain Bug is being invasively studied to learn its secrets and ensure humanity’s victory. The ad encourages viewers to enlist and do their part in the war so they can become like Carmen, now captain of her own ship, and Rico, who enthusiastically leads his troops into another battle.
The Matrix — (1999)
The Matrix is a SCI-FI action film written and directed by the Wachowskis. The first installment in the Matrix film series, it stars Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, and Joe Pantoliano. It depicts a dystopian future in which humanity is unknowingly trapped inside the Matrix, a simulated reality created by intelligent machines. The plot follows the computer hacker Neo, who is recruited by Morpheus into a rebellion against the machines.
Storyline
In 1999, in an unnamed city, Thomas Anderson (Reeves), a computer programmer known as “Neo” in hacking circles, delves into the mystery of the “Matrix”, bringing him to the attention of hacker Trinity (Moss). She tells him that the enigmatic Morpheus can answer Neo’s questions. At his workplace, Neo is pursued by Agents led by Agent Smith (Weaving), while Morpheus (Fishburne), able to somehow observe their movements, guides him by phone, but Neo ultimately surrenders.
The Agents interrogate Neo about Morpheus, but he refuses to cooperate. In response, they seal his mouth shut and implant a robotic tracking device in his abdomen. Neo awakens at home, believing the encounter was a nightmare until Trinity and her companions remove the device and take him to Morpheus. Morpheus offers Neo a choice: a red pill to uncover the truth about the Matrix or a blue pill to return to his normal life. Neo takes the red pill and awakens in the real world, submerged in a mechanical pod and connected to invasive cables. He sees countless humans similarly encased and tended by machines before he is ejected from the building and rescued by Morpheus aboard the hovercraft Nebuchadnezzar.
Morpheus reveals that the year is approximately 2199. In the 21st century, humanity lost a war against its artificially intelligent creations, leaving Earth a devastated ruin. Humans blackened the sky to deprive the machines of solar power, but the machines retaliated by creating vast fields of artificially grown humans, harvesting their bioelectric energy. To keep their captives pacified, they built the Matrix, a simulated reality modeled on human civilization at its peak. The remaining free humans founded an underground refuge called Zion, surviving on scarce resources. Morpheus and his crew hack into the Matrix to liberate others, exploiting its rules to gain superhuman abilities inside it. Even so, they remain outmatched by the Agents—sentient programs that protect the system—and death in the Matrix means death in the real world. Morpheus freed Neo because he believed him to be “the One”, a prophesied figure destined to free humanity.
The crew enters the Matrix to seek guidance from the Oracle, who foretold of the One. She implies that Neo is not the One and warns him of an imminent choice between his life and Morpheus’s. The crew is ambushed by Agents after being betrayed by Cypher, a disillusioned crew member who longs to return to the virtual comforts of the Matrix. Convinced of Neo’s importance, Morpheus sacrifices himself to confront Smith and is captured. Meanwhile, Cypher exits the Matrix and begins disconnecting the others, killing them. Before he can kill Neo and Trinity, he is killed by Tank, a wounded crew member, who extracts the survivors.
Smith interrogates Morpheus to obtain access codes for Zion’s mainframe, which would enable the machines to destroy the human resistance. Determined to rescue Morpheus, Neo re-enters the Matrix with Trinity. They free Morpheus, who escapes the Matrix with Trinity, but Smith intercepts Neo. Realizing his potential, Neo fights Smith as an equal and kills him. However, Smith resurrects in a new body and kills Neo.
In the real world, machines called Sentinels attack the Nebuchadnezzar. Standing by Neo’s body, Trinity confesses her love for him and reveals that the Oracle prophesied she would fall in love with the One. In the Matrix, Neo revives with the ability to perceive and manipulate its code. He effortlessly destroys Smith and escapes the Matrix just as the Nebuchadnezzar’s electromagnetic pulse disables the Sentinels. Later, within the Matrix, Neo communicates with the system, vowing to show humanity a world of limitless possibilities, before flying away.
The Matrix begs the question of what is reality … and how society has come to understand the world around it. The story also explores the concept of the individual, and one’s decision to embrace or reject the identity that comes with it. Neo’s journey from the lowly hacker Mr. Anderson to humanity’s messiah is a dramatic transformation that culminates in the acceptance of his True Self.
World Domination SCI-FI explores dark Alternative Futures for Humanity — controlled by Alien Invaders, sentient Artificial Intelligence or Dystopian Rulers. In each case, Heroes must find a way to fight back and regain our freedom — by defeating the enemy — or submit to endless servitude.
These threats are REAL … and we must be prepared to fight for our Freedom.
Are you ready?
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