Sometimes we all need a little break from reality. That’s one of the most appealing aspects of sci-fi, as it offers a temporary glance at worlds that only resemble our own.
Some of the most popular sci-fi movies ever made also revolve around war, including the obvious example, Star Wars. But not all those flicks function as escapist entertainment and war stories.
The Watch With Us team has selected three great sci-fi movies to watch on Memorial Day Weekend that successfully blend war into the stories without getting oppressively grim.
Our first pick is a sci-fi classic from the late ’90s, followed by a remake of an iconic science fiction novel and a more recent film that debuted as a Prime Video original.
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‘Starship Troopers’ (1997)
Robert A. Heinlein‘s Starship Troopers novel is neither a comedy nor a satire, but director Paul Verhoeven and screenwriter Edward Neumeier added a satirical edge to the film that has made it a cult classic. In the future, humanity’s reach extends far beyond the Earth as the colonization of the universe begins. The humans are initially dismissive of the giant alien arachnids that they encounter until the bugs launch a devastating long-distance assault on Earth.
Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien), Dizzy Flores (Dina Meyer), Carmen Ibanez (Denise Richards) and Carl Jenkins (Neil Patrick Harris) didn’t join the military because they wanted to go to war. Yet all of them are swept up in a galactic conflict that is rapidly becoming an inevitable triumph for the bugs. Unless something changes quickly, humanity is about to become an endangered species.
Starship Troopers is streaming on Netflix.
‘War of the Worlds’ (2005)
Tom Cruise‘s second collaboration with director Steven Spielberg was a modern adaptation of H.G. Wells‘ classic novel, The War of the Worlds. And unlike Cruise’s previous Spielberg film, Minority Report, he’s no action hero here. Instead, Ray Ferrier (Cruise) is just a divorced dock worker taking care of his kids, Rachel (Dakota Fanning) and Robbie (Justin Chatwin), when aliens suddenly arrive on Earth and launch a devastating attack.
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Earth’s military forces can’t hold off the aliens’ superior technology, and Ray is forced to flee with his children and keep away from the invaders. Since the aliens appear to be harvesting humans for blood, there’s seemingly nowhere safe to run. The only thing Ray can do is keep his children alive as long as possible.
War of the Worlds is streaming on Paramount+.
‘The Tomorrow War’ (2021)
Guardians of the Galaxy leading man Chris Pratt stars in The Tomorrow War as James Daniel Forester Jr., a former Green Beret who thought his military service was behind him. Unfortunately for Dan, humanity’s darkest days are ahead, as evidenced by the arrival of soldiers from the future. These visitors from another time come with a dire warning that humanity will perish in a war against alien invaders if modern soldiers and civilians don’t enlist to go to the future and fight the war alongside their descendants.
When Dan gets to the future, he discovers that the situation is even more desperate than he was led to believe. He also teams up with his now-adult daughter, Colonel Muri Forester (Yvonne Strahovski), and eventually reunites with his estranged father, James Daniel Forester, Sr. (J. K. Simmons), to find a way to end the alien reign of terror.
The Tomorrow War is streaming on Prime Video.
