We’re asking readers to suggest scientific themes for the Sci-Fi London 48-hour filmmaking challenge. Here’s a selection of classics to get your sci-fi juices oozing
Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon) (1902): Just 14 minutes long, French director Georges Melies's space travel fantasy is regarded as the first sci-fi film. With groundbreaking special effects and animation, its most enduring image is of the spaceship crashing in the moon's eyePhotograph: Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty ImagesMetropolis (1927): Fritz Lang's film visualises a dystopian future city of workers ruled by intellectuals where robots and humans are connectedPhotograph: Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesIsland Of Lost Souls (1932): This evolution-themed sci-fi horror, based on H. G. Wells's The Island of Dr Moreau, starred Charles Laughton and Bela Lugosi. A scientist creates mutated, half-human creatures with inevitably disastrous resultsPhotograph: Moviestore Collection/Rex FeaturesInvasion of the Body Snatchers (1956): This sci-fi drama caught the American imagination with its theme of alien invasion, following a small-town doctor who discovers his community is gradually being replaced by emotionless duplicatesPhotograph: Rex Features2001: A Space Odyssey (1968): Stanley Kubrick's surreal masterpiece with its memorable soundtrack explores many themes including human evolution from ape to space traveller, creation, death and fears about computer technologyPhotograph: Rex FeaturesSolaris (1972): Natalya Bondarchuck and Donatas Banionis in Andrei Tarkovsky's film set on board a space station orbiting Solaris, a planet that is exerting a strange psychological force on the crew that brings their loved ones to lifePhotograph: Ronald Grant ArchiveSleeper (1973): Diane Keaton stars opposite director and screenwriter Woody Allen in a comedy about a nerdy shop owner who is cryogenically frozen and revived 200 years later in an absurd totalitarian state. The film parodies many of science fiction's notable worksPhotograph: CorbisLogan's Run (1976): This thriller set in the 23rd century follows a couple (Michael York and Jenny Agutter) who live in a pleasure-filled idyllic world, only to discover that life must end at 30 for that world to remain sustainable. They decide it is time to escape …Photograph: Ronald Grant ArchiveTron (1982): Steven Lisberger's film starring Jeff Bridges follows a software engineer abducted into the inner world of a computer and forced to compete in gladitorial gamesPhotograph: Moviestore Collection/Rex FeaturesBlade Runner (1982): Ridley Scott's futuristic vision follows Harrison Ford, a man charged with the job of tracking down replicants - artificial humans. Loosely based on another Philip K. Dick story, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Photograph: Allstar Picture LibraryBrazil (1985): Terry Gilliam's fantasy stars Jonathan Pryce as a low-level civil servant embroiled in a dystopian world of faulty machines and bureaucracyPhotograph: Universal/Rex FeaturesBack to the Future (1985): This popular comedy starring Christopher Lloyd (pictured) and Michael J. Fox explores the possibilities and paradoxes of time travelPhotograph: Everett Collection/Rex FeaturesTotal Recall (1990): Playing with psychological themes, a film based on a story by Philip K. Dick follows Arnold Schwarzenegger as a man who believes he is taking a virtual, dream-induced holiday to Mars as a secret agent, only to discover he may be living the real thingPhotograph: Moviestore Collection/Rex FeaturesJurassic Park (1993): A Tyrannosaurus rex sniffs out potential prey in Steven Spielberg's blockbuster based on Michael Crichton's novel. An island safari park is populated by dinosaurs cloned using DNA extracted from insects preserved in amberPhotograph: Close Murray/CorbisMinority Report (2002): Tom Cruise stars in this thriller exploring themes of time travel and psychology. Based in 2054 Washington DC, Cruise is an officer working in 'PreCrime' – stopping crimes before they have happenedPhotograph: Rex FeaturesThe Matrix Reloaded (2003): The sequel to The Matrix (1999), part of a franchise trilogy that follows a computer hacker (Keanu Reeves) into a virtual world where a future war is being waged against intelligent machines and Reeves must fight his formidable computer-generated opponent Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving)Photograph: Warner Bros./ReutersEternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004): Michel Gondry's sci-fi romantic drama follows Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey, a couple who undergo a procedure to erase each other from their memoriesPhotograph: Moviestore Collection/Rex FeaturesA Scanner Darkly (2006): Richard Linklater's innovative animation feature, based on yet another story by Philip K. Dick, follows an undercover cop who becomes immersed in a world of a psychoactive drug that causes the hemispheres of the brain to work independentlyPhotograph: Moviestore Collection/Rex FeaturesChildren of Men (2006): Based on a PD James novel, Clive Owen stars in Alfonso Cuarón's grim vision of the UK as a militarised state in 2027 where infertility has led to the collapse of societyPhotograph: Ronald Grant ArchiveSunshine (2007): Danny Boyle's thriller follows a team of astronauts who are sent to reignite the dying sun 50 years into the future Photograph: 20 Century Fox/AllstarMoon (2009): An astronaut is apparently experiencing hallucinations after a three-year stint at a lunar mining stationPhotograph: c.Sony Pics/Rex FeaturesWall-E (2008): This animated sci-fi follows a humble, waste-collecting robot on an abandoned planet who inadvertently discovers the last remnants of plant life in a world where human resources and energy are running outPhotograph: c.BuenaVist//Rex FeaturesDistrict 9 (2009): Sharlto Copley serves an eviction notice on one of the extraterrestrials forced to live in a South African slum township after being stranded on EarthPhotograph: Courtesy of TriStar PicturesInception (2010): Leonardo DiCaprio stars in Christopher Nolan's espionage thriller in which technology is used to infiltrate human dreams. Special effects dazzle as characters appear to travel through levels of consciousness in a fast-changing landscapePhotograph: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Picture/AP
