The Most Dangerous Game

Richard Connell's short story The Most Dangerous Game famously describes people hunting other people for sport. However humans aren’t alone in gunning for our world’s top predator. To celebrate the release of After Earth, set on a planet where everything has evolved to hunt humans, this is my Top Ten Nastiest Creatures With A Taste For Homo-Sapiens.

10. Weeping Angels – Dr Who

Not the Doctor’s best-known enemy but certainly one of the scarier from his more recent adventures, the Weeping Angels are among the oldest creatures in the universe. Why they look like a statue from our recent past is never explained, but it is this every day disguise that I find especially scary. The minute you look away, that innocent statue over there will reveal the quantum monster within, and zap humans into the past to feast off of their potential energy. After watching an Angel episode of Dr Who, you will be convinced that every sculpture you see has moved while your back was turned. So just remember, whatever you do, don’t blink.

9. Velociraptor – Jurassic Park

For years Jurassic Park was my favourite film. A Spielberg on top form filled his audience with equal parts wonder and terror at the sight of living, breathing dinosaurs. Never had good and evil been so clearly defined than in the contrast between the reptiles who eat plants and the reptiles who eat you. The standout dino from this film is undoubtedly the raptor. Yes, T-Rex is a brute but Spielberg’s improved raptors are clever, they hunt in packs, can open doors and display almost human emotions. My favourite moment is the irony of our heroes almost being eaten in a kitchen. All fans of the film should read this Wikipedia article on what science tells us raptors were actually like.

8. Wraith – Stargate Universe

Stargate has many alien villains but none quite as scary as the Wraith. Using advanced technology to harvest humans as a food source and spread fear across the galaxy, this bizarre progeny of humans and a life-sucking spider feeds directly off human life force. What makes the Wraith interesting is the sad inevitability of their story. They need to kill humans to live, and despite their cruelty they are still people trying to survive. The Wraith exploit the tragedy most vampire stories overlook or over simplify, the fact that they simply don’t have a choice.

7. Genestealers – Space Hulk

No one wants to be trapped in a confined space with something dangerous – let along something that is mainly made out of claws and wants to rip you apart. This is the main premise of Space Hulk, a Warhammer 40K spin-off in which humans explore abandoned space ships and try and avoid Genestealer attacks. The Genestealers are perhaps 40K’s most iconic alien menace, and in Space Hulk they came into their own. This game cleverly subverted the open space aspect of the 40k tabletop battlefield with its tight and confined setting. As a game it borrows extensively from films to capture a claustrophobic mood. The Genestealers are alien predators distilled: vicious, tough, fast and driven by murderous urges.

6. Polymorph – Red Dwarf

What do you fear most? Snakes? A bad case of indigestion after a vindaloo? Or perhaps this giant, killer monster? The Polymorph is a well-known Red Dwarf creation capable of turning into whatever its prey fears or hates the most. It is dangerous in itself, as it also sucks emotions out of its victims’ heads, but it is the Polymorph’s ability to transform into other creatures to torment its targets that makes it really special. Red Dwarf makes use of its limited budget to create a villain that is memorable and leads its fans to ask themselves the dreaded question – if I met the Polymorph, what would it turn into?

5. The Thing – The Thing

Another creature capable of changing its shape to infiltrate human circles, The Thing first attacked Kurt Russell in 1982, making him question his closest friends. An alien who crashes near a human research post in Antarctica, The Thing then disguises itself as its victims to pick them off the one by one. This film is John Carpenter at his finest, being genuinely nasty. The sight of characters split apart into unnatural configurations of organs as the Thing changes from its human form into its alien body is so unsettling that it has left a permanent impression on me.

4. Reavers – Firefly

People hunting people will always be scary. From Scream to Duel, the idea of being hunted by another person touches a deep chord of fear within us all. What makes the Reavers even scarier is the mindlessness of their aggression. The primary antagonists of Joss Whedon’s Firefly and Serenity, they move quickly and kill without reason. The perfect illustration of how narrow the line between civilisation and savagery can be, the Reavers hunt, torture and kill for no other reason than perverse thrill.

3. Predator – Predator franchise

Anything Arnold Schwarzenegger cannot kill is worthy of a place in this list. The nameless intergalactic skull-collectors first appeared in cinemas in 1987 and have since made the leap to comics and games. Unlike some other creatures on this list, the predators are made to look vaguely human and point of view shots throughout the film put the viewer inside their heads. However, their complete lack of remorse or restraint sets them apart. As space’s ultimate sportsmen, who hunt and kill for fun, they are a reflection of our own viciousness towards each other and other living things.

2. Slake Moth – Perdido Street Station

Giant dream-sucking moths from another dimension? It can only be a China Miéville novel. What I find scariest about the Slake Moths is how entirely unlike any other creature in the Bas-Lag universe they are. In a world populated by so many bizarre beings, it takes something truly aberrant and outlandish for Miéville to describe it as alien. The villains of Perdido Street Station start life as curios caterpillars but soon grow into huge vicious predators with indescribable limbs and hypnotic wings. The Slake Moths stalk the night in the city of New Crobuzon, feeding off the dreams of their prey. They hunt humans as a source of food but unfortunately for us, they have limitless appetites and their feeding drains their victims heads’ of all thought. Another genuinely terrifying aspect of the Slake Moths is the way that they eat your mind, but leave your body untouched.

1. Alien – Alien, Aliens, etc

A strong candidate for any scariest creature in science fiction award, the Alien has terrorised audiences in a number of media since it first exploded out of John Hurt’s chest in 1979. What begins as a routine planetary exploration trip for the crew of the Nostromo ends up with a monster chasing them through their own ship. The aggressive extraterrestrial of unknown origin boasts acid blood and two sets of razor sharp jaws, including one on the tip of its tongue. However, what makes it really scary is how unpredictable the alien is. It is clearly intelligent, but is so different from humans that we cannot communicate; leading to inevitable violence of the most basic and animal kind. Following the initial encounter, the Alien has appeared in a series of sequels, games, books and comics as well as several high profile crossovers with the Predators. The Alien is the original monster, delivering utmost terror with the tagline “in space no one can hear you scream.”

Star Trek Into Darkness

We know that JJ Abrams is a well-known creator of visually stunning action/sci-fi blockbusters. From an alien trashing New York in Cloverfield to a high-speed train crash in Super-8, his movies make full use of the big screen. It follows that his take on Star Trek is to seize the potential of a space adventure to deliver a spectacular romp through Gene Roddenberry’s much celebrated universe. So how well does Star Trek work as a grand spectacle of the silver screen?

All the essential elements of a blockbuster are present in Star Trek. The action set pieces are amazing; the sequence involving the fight on ships flying through a recently devastated city is especially breath-taking. The space based action is a joy to behold, genuinely tense and realised with vivid CGI, these give a real sense of the scale on which space combat takes place.

The plot is unobtrusive enough for a sci-fi blockbuster. James T Kirk (Chris Pine) is a young maverick captain in Starfleet. He clashes with Spock (Zachary Quinto), his first officer, who sticks dogmatically to the rules. When Earth is attacked by an unknown terrorist, Kirk and his crew must pursue the mysterious villain to where he is hiding on the Klingon home world. The plot promises plenty of high stakes drama and delivers on most of it.

The relationship between the heroes is well developed as is the relationship between the heroes and the antagonist, played by Benedict Cumberbatch who delivers the film's standout performance. Cumberbatch puts his stage experience to good use and is wonderful as the larger than life villain. He draws your attention whenever he is on screen and when he is not you eagerly await his return.

Pine and Quinto are also very good in their respective roles and provide the emotional core around which our empathy rests. Their scenes together are subtle enough that we feel privy to the character's psychology whilst being sufficiently straight forward that they do not slow down the plot. One scene involving an emotional exchange through a glass door conveys the essence of the relationship between these two iconic characters with simple efficiency and touching sentiment.

This film is more than just another summer sci-fi action spectacle, there is plenty here for Star Trek fans. There are lots of nods to the 60s TV show in dialogue between the characters. All the favourites from the show get an important role to play from Bones (Karl Urban) to Uhura (Zoe Saldana). There are also lots of references to the Star Trek films of the 80s and clever reversals of famous scene that serious fans will love. A cameo appearance from the Tribbles will please the fans greatly.

Star Trek Into Darkness will satisfy both fans of Star Trek and cinema goers interested in an action spectacle as there are strong performances as well as an established franchise continuing in strong form. JJ Abrams has created another enjoyable film to add to his already strong filmography. Star Trek ticks all the boxes of an action/sci-fi blockbuster and will certainly be one of the big commercial hits of the year. This is one film that is certainly worth seeing on the big screen.

Iron Man 3

Are superhero films also sci-fi films? Are they a subgenre of this larger storytelling form, or are they a genre in their own right? Some would argue that super heroes are their own genre with their own set of iconic characters, classic stories and narrative conventions. Superhero films frequently use sci-fi elements in their stories: aliens, mad scientists and advanced tech crop up frequently, but they use these in a way distinctive to their own genre. Some have argued that if the conventions of a set of films are well known enough that they can be parodied, this makes them a genre. Kick-Ass distills the essence of the superhero film as a genre in the same way that Blazing Saddles sums up what a western is.

Iron Man 3, which opened at cinemas nationwide last Thursday, has many sci-fi elements within it. Robert Downey Jr's Tony Stark is in charge of a technology empire and is a scientific genius capable of building incredible machines. Despite this, he cannot sleep and his relationship with his girlfriend Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) is falling apart. At the same time, a terrorist known as the Mandarin is attacking America with hi-tech man/machine hybrids.

It all sounds very much like a sci-fi film, also when you consider the plot is constructed around a series of high octane action spectacles, like a lot of recent sci-fi films are. One of the film's strongest scenes involves Stark using all his Iron Man skill and technological agility to save people falling from a crippled Air Force One. The villains are classic sci-fi evil cyborgs, and this film borrows very much from the Superman 2 ethos that we empathise with the hero the most when he is hitting someone capable of hitting him back.

The movie also has a lot which is characteristic of superhero films and not sci-fi films - mainly that it is built around one strong performance, as opposed to an engaging story. Iron Man 3 is mainly sold on Robert Downey Jr's charisma, which is extremely entertaining. He has the acting chops to carry the emotional scenes and is brilliant at the comedy moments, especially in one-on-one dialogue exchanges with Don Cheadle's War Machine or a child played by Ty Simpkins. Cheadle is also very good in his supporting role, as are Paltrow and Guy Pearce. A special mention should go to Ben Kingsley, who delivers an astonishing transition as the Mandarin and can almost match Downey Jr for being serious and comic in the same film.

The story of Iron Man 3 is almost inconsequential, which is not typical of plot driven sci-fi films, but the action and general sense of a film not taking itself too seriously carries the viewer through.

Iron Man 3 has more in common with the conventions of the superhero genre than that of a sci-fi film - conventions which are clearly defined enough in this film alone to make the case for superhero films being a genre in and of themselves. Downey Jr is stellar in the title role, with enough magnetism to carry the whole film, and all the other elements are present to make this a thoroughly enjoyable superhero movie. The final action sequence involving a horde of cyborgs and up to forty Iron Man suits is breath taking. In terms of sci-fi, Iron Man 3 lacks the main appeal but as a superhero film, it excels.

Oblivion

Hard sci-fi and cinema do not necessarily go together. This expansive genre which requires immersive world building is not generally suited to contracted film format. An hour and a half or two hours is not long enough to sufficiently develop the speculative world and tell a decent story in it. Hard sci-fi is better suited to novels or games which have much longer to develop their story. David Lynch's adaptation of Dunecaptures the mood of Frank Herbert's master work but the story and details of the universe were left on the cutting room floor.

However it looks like Hollywood is trying again, with forthcoming film adaptations of Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game and a mooted version of Iain M Banks’s A Gift From The Culture. Before that, we have Tom Cruise in high tech, post apocalyptic action adventure Oblivion which has more than a few touches of hard sci-fi to it.

Mostly it handles the genre well, mainly because the premise is simple and does not require much world building. In the future Earth has been devastated in a war with an alien race known as the Scavengers. Most of humanity has either fled to Titan or lives on the TET, a giant space station in orbit above the Earth. Jack (Cruise) lives on Earth and works maintaining a fleet of robotic drones which protect devices which harvest Earth's water for fusion power. Jack has strange dreams of his life before the war with the Scavengers which his colleague Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) refuses to discuss with him. When a human space ship from the pre-Scavenger war days crashed on Earth Jack is surprised that the drones kill the human survives. He saves one woman who resembles someone from his dreams. Together they must find the truth to Jack's past and real purpose of the TET.

Oblivion is filled with motifs familiar to hard sci-fi. There are alien invaders that make noises reminiscent of the Combine's radio chatter from Half-Life 2. Computers up to no good, more than a little like 2001's Hal. Matrix-style resistance leader encouraging the hero to discover reality. Flyers that behave like Dune's ornithopters and drones that appear to have been designed by Aperture Science.

All this is well trodden ground for sci-fi fans, but the question is: can the story compare with novels or games which have a lot longer to develop their characters and world? The short answer is no. The story behind Oblivion (despite being engaging) is not as nuanced as that you find in a novel. It might be slight unfair to expect it to be, but the need for action sequences and the mainly linear narrative prevent Oblivion from becoming a world the viewer can really feel they inhabit. There are too many unanswered questions, which I will not go into here for fear of spoilers, but a bit more world building and explanation would have made a big difference. That said it is already a long film and is well paced, what the story needs could be the undoing of the whole film.

As an action adventure film with sci-fi elements Oblivion works well. The story is exciting and immersive, the performances are good and the special effects are very good. The sound design is especially strong, adding to the tension and brilliantly characterising the non-human characters. The movie uses the entire film-makers toolbox to bring the sci-fi world to life which is one of the film's great strengths. Another is that the high budget of a Hollywood blockbuster allows for the sci-fi elements to be beautifully realised.

As an example of hard sci-fi Oblivion comes up lacking and I feel this has more to do with the problems of putting hard sci-fi onto film. The world is not sufficiently developed and there too many issues left hanging. The story is complete in the sense of a film but lacks the full realisation that I would expect from a novel or game. Oblivionis a strong attempt to make a hard sci-fi which works very well as a film. Whether it answers the question as to how well hard sci-fi can ever be put onto film is more difficult. In part, it illustrates the problems of hard sci-fi on film and in part it shows how hard sci-fi can benefit from being on the big screen.

A Scanner Darkly

Generally on this list I am not playing favourites, as it is already a list of my favourite films, but a few films really do stand out as making a big impression on me, and A Scanner Darkly is one of them. I love everything about this film, from the animation, to the writing, to the music, to the source material. I feel like it is one of those films which has been made especially for me.

A Scanner Darkly is based on the Philip K. Dick novel of the same name and it stands in the grand tradition of sci-fi films based on Philip K. Dick novels. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep became Blade Runner, We Can Remember It For You Wholesale became Total Recall, Minority Report, Paycheck, The 6^th Day, the list goes on. A Scanner Darkly is perhaps Dick’s most personal work dealing with his own issues of drug abuse and paranoia. It is a deeply personal story which best defines the themes which run through all of his other writing.

Set in the near future where everything we do is recorded and monitored, A Scanner Darkly follows Bob Arctor (Keanu Reeves), an undercover cop investigating the supply of a new drug called Substance D (street name Death). Death is a metaphor for all serious drugs and the long-term effects of taking Death are serious brain damage, paranoia, confusion, loss of self and eventually death itself. During the course of being undercover, Arctor has become addicted to Death and is loosing himself. As part of his undercover work investigating a Death dealing ring, Arctor is assigned to investigate himself (as his superiors do not know his identity). During the investigation, Arctor grows increasingly confused and paranoid. The ring he is involved with is centred around James Barris (Robert Downey Jr) a Death dealer and general paranoid nut case.

My favourite aspect of A Scanner Darkly is the animation. The actors were filmed against a green screen and then the backgrounds and characters animated over their performances, a process called interpolated rotoscope. This gives the animation a surreal, cartoonish edge but still capturing extremely life like performances. Everything from the colour to the background design is set up to convey Arctor’s deteriorating mental state.

The animation style perfectly suits the strong performances from the film. Reeves is great at looking perpetually confused and worried, Downey Jr is stunning as the psychotic Barris. His insane thought process, played out through the film’s wonderful dialogue, is both hilarious and terrifying. The character also perfectly plays off Downey Jr’s real life drug woes.

The supporting cast of Winona Ryder and Woody Harrelson are also excellent. Special mention must go to the latter for delivering my favourite line of film perfectly: “What if they came in through the back door or the bathroom window, like the infamous Beatles song?”

This film is everything that is great about Dick’s writing: dark, surreal and painful. It is desperate cry for help, muffled by the cruel world it takes place in. The animation is stunning and the visuals suit the story and mood perfectly.

The 5th Element

Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Gary Oldman, Ian Holm and Chris Tucker now that is an unusual cast. Throw in direction from Luc Besson and you have a very interesting movie. The 5^th Element is an ode to over the stop style, a poem dedicated to visual sensation. Every set piece is lavish. Every scene is beautiful.

 

The plot is more than a little daft. Every three hundred years a Great Evil will arise to destroy the world, unless a weapon can be used to stop it. This weapon involves the four accent Greek elements (fire, water, earth and wind) and a 5^th element, the universe’s perfect being, played by Milla Jovovich. In the 23^rd century the Great Evil (personified by a black fiery planet) is returning and the elements must be united in Egypt to stop it. Unfortunately a warlike alien race called the Mangalores destroys the 5^th Element. Humans recover a small fraction of the creature and clone a woman called Leeloo, who promptly escapes and winds up with Korben Dallas (Burice Willis), a former police offices and cab driver. Together with Father Vito Cornelius (Ian Holm) and obnoxious oversexed radio DJ Ruby Rhod (Chris Tucker) they try to recover the accent stones, which symbolize the other four elements, and stop the Great Evil who has hired industrialist Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg (Gary Oldman) and the Mangalores to stop them.

 

Ridiculous plot aside, the main appeal of the 5^th Element is Luc Besson’s visual style, given complete free reign in his colorful futuristic environment. Everything in this film is a treat for the eyes from 23^rdcentury New York City with its flying taxis to alien opera singers. The costumes are especially good, special mention must go to Chris Tucker who wears this get up and raps. That clip pretty much sums up everything you need to know about the film.

 

The consideration to detail in The 5^thElement is amazing. By the end of film Besson and Jovovich were able to converse in the supposedly accent language they invented for Leeloo. However, it is not just visual treaties, the performances are excellent, moving from heart breaking to hilarious. This film walks the difficult line dividing serious and silly. It is both funny and touching. Gary Oldman is brilliant as ever, play a villain he gets to revel in being evil. Willis and Tucker are the perfect double team, one subtle and nearly silent, the other flamboyant and larger than life. Jovovich is also excellent as Leeloo who is both fascinated and terrified of our world. Her relationship with Dallas forms an important emotional core around which the film is anchored.

 

The 5^th Element is the perfect rainy day movie; it is fun, over the top and self-assured. The actors are director are all at the top of their craft and clearly enjoying themselves. This one film that is beautiful from start to finish.