At the core of almost every science fiction movie that focuses on the future of Earth, a strong sense of imagination is anchored by the "what if?" scenarios of an inescapable apocalypse or catastrophic major climactic tragedies. More often than not, these Hollywood films incorporate real, life-threatening problems that the planet is already facing and offer a clear picture of what the future holds for humanity.
Even if Hollywood is known for its over-the-top and extra dramatic productions, there are pieces that have stronger scientific accuracy and look way more believable than others. Most refer to events and predictions yet to be revealed and are intended to bring awareness of the dangers coming if human action doesn't start playing a decisive role in preventing irreversible damage - whether on environmental policies or societal threats to democracy.
The Matrix
The fourth movie of this sci-fi saga is already in production, even though the original has received the biggest praise in the critics' circles. This media franchise has proven to be outstandingly creative with the exploration of resourceful, sort of fascist computer programs that created an entire simulated world to subdue the human race.
These machines' infinite power, featured in a post-apocalyptic reality, fight against a group of software programmer rebels. Underlined in this plotline is the permiss that Artificial Intelligence keeps on growing in today's society and, in the future, its impact could very well become dangerous and authoritarian.
Greenland
This sci-fi disaster movie, which focuses on a destructive comet speeding towards Earth and how humanity/governments react to survive it, is very much Hollywood-style. While it's not a topic on present-day problems like global warming or resource depletion, its scientific accuracy is relatively convincing. The movie's doomsday plot targets Comet Clarke's arrival from another solar system that has split into countless hefty pieces.
Each piece's path is unpredictable but there's speculation that it could cause planetary annihilation. Gerald Butler and Morena Baccarin portray a couple who fights for survival amid this catastrophic phenomenon, one that, in the present reality, already echoes the emerging science of interstellar objects which have been spotted around the Earth.
Snowpiercer
After a frozen Earth becomes too cold to support life amid a failed experiment to counteract global warming effects, the last survivors get stuck inside a train whose engine never stops in order to keep its passengers from freezing. Unlike most sci-fi movies that usually place a high value on the technology used, this one concerns the exploration of how a futuristic society based on an extreme capitalist stratification could work.
In between riots and chaos inside this train, the film criticizes how the unequal distribution of wealth in today's world could be so much worse in a post-apocalyptic scenario. Plus, the movie aims to have the audience ponder what would be the impact and how would people survive if human action worsened global warming to such a point that the planet would face another ice age.
The Midnight Sky
Looking to the future through science fiction's eyes can be scary and daunting when most films present issues that are a consequence of humanity's disregard for the planet nowadays. George Clooney's most recent Hollywood piece certainly fits this profile and while there are several key elements on it that have raised more questions than given answers, it still has a plausible sci-fi/dystopian premise.
The audience learns that "the event" was a terrible environmental disaster that annihilated almost all life on Earth and there are very few people surviving. The ones who do are mostly a few astronauts who are inside a spaceship that, in the end, travels to a moon near Saturn to start a new civilization.
Interstellar
This layered and complex sci-fi story follows the journey of a group of astrophysicists who live on a future Earth where humanity is known to be near extinction due to irreversible climate damage. This group travels to a wormhole and ends up being challenged a lot more than they anticipated. Perhaps viewers don't know this but, according to scientists, this space movie has very accurate visual appearances on the supermassive black hole that is so often mentioned, and the time dilation effect that the crew experiences on a planet they visit too.
But even when it comes to the state of the Earth, the film offers a credible representation of real physics and serves as an important cautionary tale about where humanity might be heading.
Elysium
Set in a dystopian future where the globe has been abandoned by the rich and societies embody drastic classic divisions, a perfect artificially created habitat around the Earth's orbit thrives with powerful and healthy humans. By contrast, the lower classes remain terrestrial survivors, in a place where food became insufficient and medical care inadequate. The story follows a man who tries to break into the Elysium.
Besides the question on the value of humanity as a social commentary story, this motion picture presents futuristic technologies that make it believable. In that pristine orbital colony, audiences watch a combination of natural resources and advanced technological devices being at a display for the wealthy people. There are even beds that detect and cure cancer in seconds.
The Day After Tomorrow
This climate science fiction disaster film is based on the authenticity of a plausible theory that changing temperatures could disrupt ocean currents and lead to a catastrophic collapse of Earth’s biological equilibrium. The story of a group of people in New York who are caught up in a North American storm may look a bit too fictional - in typical Hollywood style - but the science behind this cataclysm has some strong valid arguments.
Global warming can surely cause a rise in sea level, even on a rapid scale, triggered by an earthquake that leads to a powerful tsunami, which, then, may result in devastating consequences.
The Road
Narratives around the end of the world that enlist the help of authorities in the scientific field, usually turn out to be solid and plausible. And that's exactly the case here. A very realistic drama set after a doomsday scenario, this movie tells the story of an ailing father protecting his son from dangerous survivors as they slowly travel to the sea.
It's a scary and heartbreaking view of a tragedy caused by global warming as anarchy is installed and everyone is trying to escape death while lacking basic resources such as food or even the simplicity of a sunshine.
Ex Machina
The fascinating and tremendous advancement of artificial intelligence is still pretty much a mysterious field and it's easy to say that humans are barely starting to understand its impact in everyday life. More often than not, movies that explore its development raise the question of whether these machines will become just as human as humans are. While these offer valuable opportunities, they certainly don't come risk-free.
In this dystopic film, an A.I. character ends up controlling and murdering her creator with her capacity to outwit him through abstract thought and strategy. This concept of machines getting conscious of their existence and having their own desires isn't new, but in this movie, the story looks pretty credible.
The Martian
Contemporary speculative fictions commonly have a pessimistic tone. Yet, in this film, there is a sense of optimism mixed with a very scientifically plausible portrayal of a mission to Mars. An astronaut becomes stranded on the red planet after a mission goes wrong and finds himself having to be creative in order to survive and ask for help.
Not only is such a mission to Earth's neighbor planet probable to happen but its realistic aspects (like its accurate violent storms) make it look very believable. This sci-fi piece shows a man brilliantly strategizing various survival techniques while the crew tries to go back and save him, showing that there's hope that human unity as a species is definitely worth believing.