Where Are We, Really, on the Sci-Fi Movie Timeline?

Joel Eisenberg
Writing For Your Life
22 min readApr 12, 2020

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Warning: You may be dismayed.

Social Media meme; designer unknown

2020 has been a year of global change unlike any other. Turn on the news and words like “dystopia” and “apocalypse” are no longer relegated to fiction.

This is a hell of an appropriate time in my opinion to begin this piece, an examination of prescience in one of our most popular entertainment forms: science fiction movies.

It can be argued that there are innumerable science fiction films that belong in the above list and are not, among them: “Mad Max,” The Road Warrior,” and possibly “The Road,” “A Boy and His Dog” and, in a stretch, “The Man Who Fell To Earth” and even “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.”

I’m certain there are many more still. “Things to Come,” “1984” (any version), “Brave New World” (either version), the “Planet of the Apes” sequels and most recent trilogy, and “Blade Runner 2049” come to mind, as do a host of 1950s and 1960s classic monster movies.

Adaptations of H.G. Wells’ “The Time Machine,” anyone, as mentioned on Facebook regarding this list by Jay Michaels?

You get the picture. The above list is incomplete, and the date of release of the last film on the list is 2009 (assuming “Star Trek” as the J.J. Abrams film).

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Joel Eisenberg
Writing For Your Life

Joel Eisenberg is an award-winning author, screenwriter, and producer. The Oscar in the profile pic isn’t his but he’s scheming. WGA and Pen America member.