For lovers of Sci-Fi in the 1970’s, few can forget those epic words, spoken by Richard Dreyfuss as Roy Neary in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Its message still resonates to this day.
Some of us love Science Fiction because at its best, the genre challenges us to question everything we think we know–about the world, ourselves, and our “place” in the universe.
We identify with characters on a quest to find answers–even when it means leaving behind everything we’ve ever been taught. Why? Because we cannot ignore the feeling each time we gaze into the night sky, that
WE ARE NOT ALONE.
Increasingly as I get older, the “truth” presented in Sci-Fi means more than anything else.
My “need to know” keeps me turning, again and again, to thought-provoking stories told by visionary film makers like Ridley Scott, Steven Spielberg, and Christopher Nolan. New films that fit into this category are few and far between. Watching and waiting for them fills me with anticipation. Recent gems that come to mind: Interstellar with Matthew McConaughey and Arrival with Amy Adams.
These films transcend our expectations, often posing questions that we have not even thought to ask. Critics blast them as “too cerebral”, hoping to dissuade the public from seeing them at all.
Great works of art and fiction are often misunderstood.
Now a new film comes along with great potential: Ad Astra with Brad Pitt. Its tagline:
THE ANSWERS WE SEEK
ARE
JUST OUTSIDE OUR REACH
Few details have been released regarding its storyline. Its Official Site at foxmovies.com describes it as:
A paranoid thriller in space that follows Roy McBride
(Brad Pitt) on a mission across an unforgiving solar
system to uncover the truth about his missing father
and his doomed expedition that now, 30 years later,
threatens the universe.
With its theatrical release only a few days away, we can only hope that Ad Astra will be another Sci-Fi gem…that shines with a glimmer of truth–to challenge all of us.