Dare to Dream SCI-FI: imagines a better or different reality, pushing beyond current limitations to explore possibilities for the future — building New Worlds to inspire Hope, and present Solutions to present-day problems, (rather than just escaping them). Science Fiction imagines what should be — or could be — serving as a first step toward making it a Reality.
“Things are only impossible until they are not.” — Jean-Luc Picard
Star Trek (1966-present)
Star Trek is an American SCI-FI TV series created by Gene Roddenberry that follows the adventures of the starship USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) and its crew. It acquired the retronym of Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS) to distinguish the show within the media franchise that it began.
Storyline
The show is set in the Milky Way galaxy, c. 2266–2269. The ship and crew are led by Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner), First Officer and Science Officer Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and Chief Medical Officer Leonard H. “Bones” McCoy (DeForest Kelley). Each episode starts with the “Where no man has gone before” intro.
The second pilot, “Where No Man Has Gone Before” introduced other main characters (besides Spock): Captain Kirk (William Shatner), Chief Engineer Lt. Commander Scott (James Doohan) and Lt. Sulu (George Takei), who served as a physicist in the pilot, but then became a helmsman for the rest of the series. Ship’s doctor Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley) joined the cast for the first season, and remained, achieving billing as the third star of the series. Also joining the ship’s permanent crew during the first season were the communications officer, Lt. Nyota Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), the first African-American woman to hold such an important role in an American TV series; the captain’s yeoman, Janice Rand (Grace Lee Whitney), who departed midway through the first season; and Christine Chapel (Majel Barrett), the ship’s nurse and assistant to McCoy. Walter Koenig joined the cast as Ensign Pavel Chekov in the second season.
Star Trek envisions an optimistic future where humanity has overcome poverty, war, and prejudice, thanks to technological advancements and collective wisdom, leading to a post-scarcity society focused on exploration, self-improvement, and unity within the United Federation of Planets. The franchise’s foundational humanist philosophy, promoted by creator Gene Roddenberry, emphasizes human potential and the rational, ethical application of technology for the betterment of all, creating an inclusive and hopeful vision of humanity’s future.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind is an American SCI-FI film written and directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Richard Dreyfuss, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban, Cary Guffey, and François Truffaut.
Storyline
In 1977, French scientist Claude Lacombe, along with interpreter and cartographer David Laughlin, examine Flight 19—a group of United States Navy aircraft that vanished over the Bermuda Triangle in 1945—now found immaculate and abandoned in the Sonoran Desert. They later learn that the SS Cotopaxi has similarly been found abandoned in the middle of the Gobi Desert. Meanwhile, near Indianapolis, two airplanes narrowly avoid a mid-air collision with an unidentified flying object (UFO).
At a rural home outside Muncie, Indiana, three-year-old Barry Guiler wakes to find his toys operating on their own and the fridge ransacked. He follows a trail outside before his mother, Jillian, catches him. Widespread power outages occur throughout the area, forcing electric utility lineman Roy Neary to investigate. En route, Roy experiences a close encounter with a UFO, and when it flies over his truck, it lightly burns the side of his face with its lights. The UFO takes off with three others in the sky, as Roy and police officers unsuccessfully pursue them by road.
Roy becomes fascinated with the UFOs and obsessed with a subliminal image of a mountainous shape, repeatedly making models of it. His increasingly erratic and eccentric behavior worries his wife Ronnie and their three children, and his friends and neighbors ostracize him. Ronnie eventually leaves with the children after Roy brings dirt, bricks, and other debris into their home to sculpt a large scale replica of the mountain. Jillian also begins compulsively sketching the same mountain. Soon after, she is terrorized in her home by a UFO which descends from the clouds. She fights off aggressive attempts by unseen beings to enter the home, but in the chaos, Barry is abducted.
Lacombe, Laughlin, and a group of United Nations experts continue to investigate increasing UFO activity and strange, related occurrences. Witnesses in Dharamsala, Northern India report that the UFOs make distinctive sounds: a five-tone musical phrase. Scientists broadcast the phrase to outer space, but receive only a seemingly meaningless repeating series of numbers in response. Laughlin eventually recognizes it as a set of geographical coordinates, which point to Devils Tower near Moorcroft, Wyoming.
The US Army evacuates the area around Devils Tower, planting false reports in the media that a train wreck has spilled a toxic nerve gas, while actually preparing a secret landing site for the UFOs. Seeing the mountain on the news, Roy and Jillian recognize it as the one they have been visualizing. Despite the evacuation order, they, along with others who have been experiencing the visions, set out for Devils Tower, but are intercepted by the Army. Lacombe interviews Roy, who is unable to explain his compulsion to reach the mountain beyond seeking answers. While the others are escorted away, Roy and Jillian escape and eventually reach the mountain site just as UFOs appear in the night sky.
The specialists there begin to communicate with the UFOs—which gradually appear by the dozens—by using light and sound on a large electrical billboard. An enormous mothership eventually arrives and seemingly conveys to the researchers a tonal means of communication before landing. A hatch opens, from which various humans and animals are released, having not aged since they were taken, including World War II pilots, Cotopaxi sailors, and Barry, who reunites with Jillian. Seeing Roy, Lacombe suggests preparing him for inclusion in the government’s select group of potential visitors to the mothership.
The Extraterrestrials finally emerge from the mothership and select Roy to join their travels. As Roy enters the mothership, one of the Extraterrestrials pauses for a few moments with the humans. Lacombe uses Curwen hand signs that correspond to the five-note tonal phrase. The Extraterrestrial responds in kind, smiles, and returns to its ship, which takes to the sky.
Equal parts saucer-age fairytale and character study, Close Encounters views “first contact” with Alien life from the perspective of ordinary people as opposed to scientists or the military. Roy Neary evolves throughout the story — from ordinary guy … to a pilgrim tormented by his search for Truth … to eventual Enlightenment.
2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984)
2010: The Year We Make Contact an American SCI-FI film written, produced, shot, and directed by Peter Hyams. The film is a sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey and adapts Arthur C. Clarke’s 1982 novel 2010: Odyssey Two. It stars Roy Scheider, Hellen Mirren and John Lithgow.
Storyline
Nine years have passed since the failure of the Discovery mission to Jupiter in 2001, in which commander David Bowman and his crew were lost. Amid international tensions, the United States and Soviet Union each prepare separate missions to Jupiter. The Soviet spacecraft Leonov will be ready a year before the American Discovery Two, but only the Americans can reactivate the ship’s sentient computer, HAL 9000, thought to be responsible for the disaster. Because Discovery will crash into Jupiter’s moon Io before the Americans can reach it, the Soviets agree to bring along former NCA Director Heywood Floyd (Scheider), Discovery engineer Walter Curnow (Lithgow), and HAL 9000 creator Dr. Chandra.
Arriving at Jupiter, Leonov detects chlorophyll on Jupiter’s icy moon Europa. A probe sent to investigate is destroyed by an energy burst upon reaching the source of the chlorophyll. Floyd suggests that this is a warning to stay away from Europa.
After aerobraking in Jupiter’s atmosphere, Leonov enters orbit around Io and encounters Discovery. Curnow and Cosmonaut Max Brailovsky spacewalk to and enter the derelict vessel. Both men suffer panic attacks for different reasons, bonding over the shared experience and becoming friends.
Curnow restores Discovery’s power and propulsion, and Chandra reactivates HAL. The ships move to investigate the giant monolith located at the Lagrange point between Jupiter and Io. Brailovsky approaches it in an EVA pod, but is killed when the pod is destroyed by an energy burst.
On Earth, Bowman, now a noncorporeal being, appears through his former wife’s television to say goodbye, telling her that “something wonderful” is going to happen. He then visits his comatose mother in a hospital, and she awakens, seemingly aware of her son’s presence. The unseen Bowman brushes her hair, and after he departs, she dies peacefully.
Chandra discovers the reasons for HAL’s malfunction: the National Security Council ordered HAL to conceal information about the monolith from Discovery’s crew. This conflicted with HAL’s basic programming, causing the computer equivalent of a paranoid breakdown. When Bowman and co-pilot Frank Poole discussed deactivating the malfunctioning computer, HAL concluded that the human crew was endangering the mission, and terminated them. Chandra blames Floyd, who denies any knowledge of the order, although it bears his signature.
A political crisis on Earth brings the United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of war. The Americans are thus ordered to leave Leonov for Discovery. Both ships plan to leave Jupiter in the coming weeks, but Bowman appears to Floyd to warn him that everyone must leave within two days.
Floyd returns to Leonov to convince Soviet captain Tanya Kirbuk (Mirren) to leave early. Neither ship has the fuel to reach Earth if they leave ahead of schedule, but Floyd proposes using Discovery as a booster rocket, then leaving it behind while both crews escape on Leonov. As they argue, the monolith suddenly disappears. Alarmed, Kirbuk agrees to Floyd’s plan.
An ominous black spot appears in Jupiter’s atmosphere. HAL determines that the spot is a vast group of monoliths, multiplying exponentially and altering Jupiter’s mass and chemical composition. He recommends halting the countdown to study the phenomenon. Floyd worries that HAL will prioritize his mission over the safety of the human crews, but Chandra reveals to HAL that the crew is in danger and that both ships could be destroyed. HAL thanks Chandra for telling him the truth, and proceeds with the escape plan. Once Discovery’s fuel is exhausted, Leonov separates and fires its own engines.
Bowman asks HAL to transmit a message to Earth. The monoliths engulf Jupiter, causing it to undergo nuclear fusion, and become a star. Before Discovery is destroyed, HAL sends this message:
ALL THESE WORLDS
ARE YOURS EXCEPT
EUROPA
ATTEMPT NO
LANDING THERE
USE THEM TOGETHER
USE THEM IN PEACE
Leonov survives the shockwave from Jupiter’s ignition, and returns home. Floyd narrates how the new star’s miraculous appearance, and the message from a mysterious alien power, inspire the American and Soviet leaders to seek peace. Under its infant sun, icy Europa transforms into a humid jungle, covered with life, and watched over by a monolith.
Contact (1997)
Contact is an American SCI-FI film co-produced and directed by Robert Zemeckis, based on the 1985 novel by Carl Sagan. It stars Jodie Foster as Dr. Eleanor “Ellie” Arroway, a SETI scientist who finds evidence of extraterrestrial life and is chosen to make first contact. Matthew McConaughey, James Woods, Tom Skerritt, William Fichtner, John Hurt, Angela Bassett, Rob Lowe, Jake Busey, and David Morse co-star.
Storyline
Dr. Ellie Arroway (Foster) works for the SETI program at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. She was inspired to pursue a career in science, starting with amateur radio, by her father, who died in her youth. Her work involves listening to radio emissions from space in the hopes of finding signs of intelligent extraterrestrial life. The program loses funding after David Drumlin (Skerritt), the President’s science advisor, deems it futile. However, Arroway receives financial support from S. R. Hadden (Hurt), the secretive billionaire industrialist who runs Hadden Industries, which enables her to keep working at the Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico.
Four years later, when Drumlin is about to terminate the SETI program at the VLA, Arroway discovers a signal containing a sequence of prime numbers originating from the star Vega. Drumlin and the National Security Council, headed by Michael Kitz (Woods), attempt to seize control of the facility. Arroway’s team discovers a video hidden within the signal: Adolf Hitler’s opening address at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany. The Hitler transmission was the first to penetrate the Earth’s ionosphere and reach Vega.
The project is put under security and its progress is monitored around the world. Arroway discovers the signal contains over 63,000 pages of encoded data, and Hadden provides her with the means to decode it. The decoded data reveals schematics for a machine that may be a form of transportation for a single person. Multiple nations provide funding for the construction of the machine, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral.
An international panel will select a candidate to travel in the machine. Arroway is a leading candidate until the Christian philosopher Palmer Joss (McConaughey), a member of the panel with whom she briefly had a romantic relationship in Puerto Rico, draws attention to her atheism. The panel selects Drumlin. During the first tests, a religious terrorist destroys the machine with a suicide bomb, killing himself, Drumlin, and several others. Hadden, now residing on the Mir space station and dying of cancer, reveals to Arroway the U.S. government and his company have used a secret contract to build a second machine in Hokkaido, Japan. Arroway, the only American remaining among the candidate pool, will use it.
Equipped with multiple recording devices, Arroway enters a pod which is dropped into the machine, and seemingly travels through wormholes. She observes a radio array-like structure at Vega, signs of civilization on an alien planet, and a celestial event that makes her ecstatic. Arroway finds herself on a beach similar to a childhood drawing she made of Pensacola, Florida. An Alien approaches, taking on the appearance of her deceased father. He explains that the Aliens detected humanity’s radio emissions and judged them worthy of being shown a first step into the cosmos.
Arroway regains consciousness in the pod. The mission control team tell her that the pod fell through the machine into a safety net and that the experiment achieved nothing. Arroway insists she was gone for about 18 hours, but her recording devices show only static. A Congressional Committee headed by Kitz speculates the signal and machine were a hoax designed by Hadden, who has since died. Arroway requests the committee accept the truth of her testimony on faith, saying that, while her testimony cannot be proven scientifically, it has affected her humanity.
Arroway reunites with Joss, who says he believes her. Kitz and the White House official Rachel Constantine discuss the confidential information, and observe that Arroway’s device recorded 18 hours of static. Arroway receives ongoing financial support for the SETI program at the VLA.
Tomorrowland (2015)
Tomorrowland is an American SCI-FI film directed by Brad Bird with a screenplay by Bird and Damon Lindelof. The film is based on the themed land Tomorrowland from the Disney Parks and a story by Bird, Lindelof, and Jeff Jensen. It stars George Clooney, Hugh Laurie, Britt Robertson, Raffey Cassidy, Tim McGraw, Kathryn Hahn, and Keegan-Michael Key. In the film, a disillusioned genius inventor and a teenage science enthusiast embark to an intriguing alternate dimension known as “Tomorrowland”, where their actions directly affect their own world.
In drafting their story, Bird and Lindelof took inspiration from the progressive cultural movements of the Space Age, as well as Walt Disney’s optimistic philosophy of the future, notably his conceptual vision for the planned community known as EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow).
Storyline
Young boy Frank Walker attends the New York World’s Fair (1964) to sell his prototype jet pack, but is rejected because it does not work. He is approached by the young girl Athena (Cassidy), who hands him an orange lapel pin with a blue “T” embossed on it, telling him to follow her onto Walt Disney’s “It’s a Small World” attraction at the Fair’s Pepsi-Cola Pavilion. Frank obeys, sneaking onto the ride. There, the pin is scanned by a laser, and he is transported to Tomorrowland, a futuristic cityscape, where advanced robots fix his jetpack, allowing him to fly and join the secretive world.
In the present day, optimistic teenager Casey Newton (Robertson) repeatedly sabotages the planned demolition of a NASA launch site in Florida. Her father Eddie (McGraw), a NASA engineer, faces losing his job. Casey is eventually caught and arrested. At the police station, she finds a pin in her belongings. Touching it, the pin transports her to Tomorrowland. Her adventure is cut short when the pin’s battery runs out, leaving Casey stranded in a lake.
With help from her younger brother Nate, Casey finds a Houston memorabilia store related to the pin. The owners attack her when she is unable to divulge where she got the pin, insisting that Casey knows about a “little girl”. Athena bursts in and defeats the owners, actually Audio-Animatronics, who self-destruct, blowing apart the shop. After Casey and Athena steal a car, Athena reveals she is also an animatronic, purposed to find and recruit people who fit the ideals of Tomorrowland. She then drops Casey off outside an adult Frank’s house in Pittsfield, New York. The now reclusive, cynical Frank (Clooney) declines Casey’s request to take her to Tomorrowland, having been banished from it years ago. Inside his house, Casey finds a probability counter marking the end of the world. Frank warns her that the future is doomed, but she disagrees, thus lowering the counter’s probability.
Animatronic assassins arrive to kill Casey, but she and Frank escape, meeting Athena in the woods outside his house. Frank resents Athena for lying to him about her true nature, but reluctantly agrees to help them get to Tomorrowland. Using a teleportation device, the trio travel to the top of the Eiffel Tower. Frank explains that Gustave Eiffel, Jules Verne, Nikola Tesla, and Thomas Edison co-founded “Plus Ultra,” a secret society of futurists, creating Tomorrowland in another dimension, free to make scientific breakthroughs without obstruction. The trio use an antique rocket, called the Spectacle, hidden beneath the Eiffel Tower to travel to Tomorrowland.
There, they find Tomorrowland in a state of decay. David Nix (Laurie), Tomorrowland’s governor, greets them. They travel to a tachyon machine, invented by Frank, which accurately predicted the worldwide catastrophe. Casey refuses to accept the world will end, causing the future to temporarily alter. Frank attempts to convince Nix to listen, who refuses and intends to have the group leave Tomorrowland. Casey realizes the tachyon machine is telling humanity that the world will end, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. They confront Nix, who admits he tried to prevent the future by projecting such images to humanity as a warning. Instead, they embraced the apocalypse, refusing to act to make a better future for their world.
Believing that humanity simply gave up, Nix has too and intends to allow the apocalypse to happen so he can rebuild the world to his liking. Casey, Frank, and Athena attempt to use a bomb to destroy the machine, leading to a fight with Nix. The bomb is accidentally thrown through a portal to an uninhabited island on Earth, the explosion pinning Nix’s leg. Athena sees a vision of the future where Frank is shot by Nix, and she jumps in the way of his attack, mortally wounding herself beyond repair. Making peace with Frank, Athena activates her self-destruct sequence, destroying the machine, which falls on Nix, killing him.
In the present, Casey and Frank lead Tomorrowland, recruit Eddie and Nate, and create a new group of recruitment animatronics like Athena, whom they were addressing at the beginning of the film. Given pins, the animatronic children set out to recruit new dreamers and thinkers for Tomorrowland.
Dare to Dream SCI-FI imagines what should be — or could be — a better or different Reality, building New Worlds to inspire Hope.
NEVER STOP DREAMING.
***
(click image link to view YouTube video)