Science fiction stories come in all shapes and sizes. The genre can cover such a wide swath of settings, characters and situations that they can be subcategorized in some hyper-specific ways. One such way is the discernment between hard and soft sci-fi. While the definitions of these two subgenres are often fluid and open to interpretation, their basic tenets remain the same. Hard sci-fi is concerned with real science, its applications, and the cause and effect of certain principles or technologies, whereas soft sci-fi focuses emphasizes emotion and character with so little interest in how the science of its story works that it might as well be considered magic.
In cinephile terms, it’s the spectrum between 2001: A Space Odyssey and Her. The reality is that most sci-fi movies fall somewhere along the middle of that spectrum, as even the most plausible of science fiction films aren’t 100% factually correct, and even some of the most fanciful films have a nugget of real science buried somewhere in them. Even so, some films demonstrate both these approaches to science fiction. These are the greatest movies that are both soft and hard sci-fi, marrying aspects of both to excellent results.
‘Jurassic Park’ (1993)
Michael Crichton was known for infusing his writing with a dense amount of scientific research, even if completely fabricated in many instances. His novel Jurassic Park includes annotated references and a bibliography to back up the “science” that makes dinosaurs possible. That attempt to make what is in essence an old-fashioned island adventure story more scientifically plausible carries over into Steven Spielberg‘s movie, which devotes an entire animated sequence to explaining how its dinosaurs have been brought back to life through a combination of preserved DNA and genetic engineering.
The science is ultimately all complete bunk, and the movie is generally more interested in spectacle and its human connections than the novel is with its larger illustrative implications of chaos theory. In typical Spielberg fashion, it pays more attention to the humane side of the story and how its characters are ultimately changed by the ordeal. Still, that kernel of science is preserved in the final film, and is what sets it apart from earlier adventure movies like King Kong, with which it shares a lot of DNA. The dinosaurs aren’t the result of some long-lost island that time forgot, but the machinations of unethical science colliding with unchecked capitalism.
‘Minority Report’ (2002)
Jurassic Park is far from Spielberg’s only dalliance with science fiction and while most of the director’s work in the genre is decidedly more of the soft variety, his 2002 neo-noir Minority Report, goes just a bit harder thanks to some of its prescient technology. Based on a novella by Philip K. Dick, the movie centers around a completely fanciful technology where three psychics, known as precogs, are able to predict violent crimes so they can be prevented. That fictional technology is used to explore more philosophical issues, such as the nature of free will and the dangers of predictive policing. It’s an insightful techno-thriller with Hitchcockian elements of chase and mystery.
Where the harder aspects of its sci-fi come in are in the many technologies that are on the periphery of the main storyline. Spielberg consulted with a number of scientific experts so that he could ground the film’s version of the future in a plausible reality. As a result, a number of the technologies depicted in the movie have become reality in the years since its release, including targeted advertising, autonomous cars and touchless interfaces. The science behind these technologies is never drilled into Minority Report‘s actual plot beats, but their plausibility was born out of research rather than manifested wishful thinking.
‘Gattaca’ (1997)
One of the most underrated science fiction films of the ’90s, Andrew Niccol‘s Gattaca takes a grounded approach to a dystopian future where eugenics has split society into two distinct groups, “valids” and “in-valids,” breaking discrimination down to the genetic level. Ethan Hawke plays an in-valid, born naturally without genetic selection, who uses the genetic material from a valid in order to fulfill his dream of space travel. Deep with themes of genetic determinism and classism, the movie certainly leans soft in its focus, but the technology that drives the narrative is decidedly hard.
The film has become a part of the larger debate about genetic discrimination and eugenics, with many who oppose the advancing technology using it as a central argument and a cautionary tale for humanity’s unchecked ambitions. It’s not all perfect, as bioethicists have also criticized the film for oversimplifying the ethics surrounding exclusionary genetic screenings. Regardless of how salient Gattaca‘s argument is, there is no doubting that its impact has reached further for how uniquely plausible its science and the consequences thereof are.
‘Interstellar’ (2014)
Christopher Nolan is known for his grounded approach to filmmaking, with his trilogy of Batman films all attempting to root the superhero in a realistic world buoyed by sci-fi technology. Even the deliberately incomprehensible Tenet is dense with physics concepts while still being a complete work of fiction. Nolan’s film that most comfortably fits between hard and soft science fiction is Interstellar, which has been noted for its theoretically plausible science and general fidelity towards facts over fiction, while still making big exceptions when it favors telling a compelling human story.
Set some time in the future, the Earth is in crisis due to crop blights, leading NASA to send expeditions to confirm the viability of a series of planets accessible through a wormhole. The film’s premise was originally developed by theoretical physicist Kip Thorne before Nolan came aboard and expanded the film through his unique sensibilities for epic scale and entertainment value. The jaw-dropping, awe-inspiring result is a film that received divisive responses from critics, who alternatively argued that the science and the characters both pulled focus from the other, but has continued to grow in estimation since. Now, Interstellar often ranks among the best sci-fi movies of the 2010s, and arguably Nolan’s most emotional effort thus far.
‘Arrival’ (2016)
Arrival is another sci-fi film that anchors its narrative to the complex systems of linguistics and communication with extra-terrestrials, while also using that same anchor to better explore deeper emotional themes, most notably maternal bonds and the prospect of inevitability. A career-best Amy Adams plays a linguist who is tasked with trying to communicate with an alien species after they’ve made first contact with Earth. Language is central to the film, both the science of it and the ways in which humanity can contort or weaponize it.
Arrival is a lesson in human communication that understands the true power of words and uses the science behind them to deepen its thought-provoking, introspective themes. Director Denis Villeneuve would go on to make sci-fi films far softer in their approach to science, including both Dune and Blade Runner 2049, but it’s his first entry into the genre that remains so immediately compelling. Arrival plausibly uses its science to inform its characters, making for a perfect blend of soft and hard science fiction.
Arrival
- Release Date
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November 11, 2016
