I have a memory from my childhood of an animated film about a utopian culture. The protagonists and the female supporting character discover that their society is managed by mutated humans. The mutants do all the labor, and this is hidden from the rest of the community. The couple who discover that the underlying society is unjust rebel along with the mutants, but find a giant brain that created the social structure that they cannot defeat. This brain puts the protagonist to sleep under the sea for two thousand years with a large black poisonous thorn. His mission, when he awakes, is to kill the brain with the thorn. Two thousand years later, the hero awakens to find the brain created a new world with an army of robots. He has to defeat them. Eventually, the brain and the hero meet. The brain is much older and shows signs of atrophy. The hero kills the brain by stabbing it with the black thorn.   It may be possible that I watched two movies that day and melded them together. I've asked my father about this, but he has no recollection. I've gone to comic shops and discussed the plot with salespeople, to no avail. I search the internet. Nothing comes up that is similar to my description of this film. Perhaps you can help. The film could not have been produced later than 1990. My guess is that the date range to be considered is from the 1970s to the 1980s.   My best guess is that the origin of this animation is European. The subject matter, as I infer, relates to the Soviet Communist occupation. The large brain represents the authoritarian Communist regime that Europeans feared in the mid to late 1900s, and the protagonist represents the liberator of the machinery it builds. There are many films from France with this subject matter and themes relating to the social commentary of a utopian culture.
45956
It was a weird sci-fi animated movie I saw only a little bit of it. This is what I recall:   It was old but had color, so I assume it was late 1960s to early 1970s. The animation and style reminded me of  but it wasn't as psychedelic. The setting was an alien planet with all sorts of bizarre creatures. The tech was advanced but not a dominant aspect of the planet's culture. The people lived simple and peaceful. The protagonist is a man with bluish skin like the others. The antagonists were humanoid shaped black robots that shot a beam that would turn people into stone.
119448
This film is very similar to Lifepod 1993, but it takes place in a large ship, not a pod.  I can remember three characters... a technical engineer, being the one sabotaging the ship. And also this military cut character (who looks a lot like Kane from Mortal Kombat) and another girl (I think it was long, wavy black hair).  The "plot" twist that sends this one apart, at least back in the 1990´s, is that the ending comes to the fact there is only enough food and oxygen for one survivor and no escape pods or cryotubes, only a device that "could" work as a cryotube. For some reason that I cant remember the "Kane" dude chooses to die instead, by taking poison (which had been previously used on other surviving members). But the girl "tricks" him and drugs him instead, then places him in the "cryotube" and she stays awake to await for the rescue team.  Of course, they get salvaged, and he is still okay, surprised that she tricked him and saved him. Rings a bell for anyone? Is definitely a B-movie.
107450
Another dim memory from my sci-fi reading binges in the 1980s... this one almost definitely in one of the big hardback collections full of late Golden Age short stories.  The story is told from the perspective of a robot (maybe cyborg?) tank that has stopped responding to control signals and is aggressively "defending" some portion of the Moon, to which it was previously assigned. Maybe a war had ended, or maybe it became confused about an exercise that it thought was real?  There was a person trapped in a cave trying to communicate with the tank. The tank mostly ignores him, so the main purpose of what he says is exposition for the reader. I think this person was an expert on this type of robot/cyborg sent to "talk it down", but the tank had attacked, and this guy was the only survivor. The expert was badly wounded -- I think he mentions his suit had to amputate his leg to seal a hole -- or maybe flood it with water which would freeze to seal the hole but mean that his leg had to be amputated later. He keeps trying to convince the tank to stand down, at one point saying that he knew it "back when it was just a two-wheeler an autocyber in boot camp" or something along that line. (Edit: I must have been reading too fast and/or distracted back then, since per the quote below I seem to have misread "motorcycle" for "autocyber"!)  One detail of the attack stands out -- the tank was low on ammunition, I think, so it used a kind of bomb with an electric/magnetic "catapult" (aka "magnapult") to hit the expert's transport. The tank was proud of itself for figuring out a way to hit it far out of the normal range by 1) using its own top speed to add velocity to the projectile, and 2) building up the catapult's energy past its normal operating range, which caused it pain but made the bomb go much further. It catches the transport by surprise, since they thought they were safely out of range of the armaments it had left.  The premise sounds a lot like a Keith Laumer "Bolo" story, but I'm fairly sure that it's not actually one of them. It had a somewhat grimmer feel to it. I could be wrong, though, since it's been 30 years.
81830
This is one of the few movies I saw on one of my relative's computer screen when I was little. As I was too young to understand anything, it was approximately 15 to 20 years ago (I believe the movie couldn't have come out after 2000, but the quality of the pictures looked good enough that I have my doubts).   The movie I am looking for was fully animated. Potentially a Japanese animated movie, but I can't tell for sure, as I was too young to tell the difference between Japanese, English or any language. There may be blood in the movie, but I can't tell for sure. However, now that I'm looking back, the drawing style looked slightly Japanese, although it was more of the bloody kind (I could slightly compare its style to "Blood: The Last Vampire" (2000)). Maybe it had an Asian tone to it (e.g. it could be a Korean animated movie too).   One of the "bad guys" was a tall, heavy guy, in a very armoured suit. I can't tell whether he was wearing a suit, or if his body was enhanced because he survived an accident (although I have some form of memory about the latter). Most of his body was covered, but I remember his face not being covered. The most distinctive feature he had was the fact that he had a Minigun where one of his arm should be (a bit like Barret in Final Fantasy 7). I think the first time we see him, he's seen crushing a metallic ashtray with his other hand.   A battle scene in the movie includes the heavy guy having a shoot-out against a relatively thin guy (or should I say "normal-sized man"), fighting him with a machine-gun mounted vehicle (he wasn't the one driving; he was shooting from the back of the vehicle). While they were shooting at each others, I remember the heavy guy screaming (nothing in particular, he was just shouting continuous "AAAHH~!!" in pure rage). The fight didn't seem to happen in a city. It slightly looked like a battlefield. The fight ended with some form of explosion, probably killing off the heavy armoured guy.   The other noticable character was a young boy. He looked... pale, almost weird. His skin was almost green, otherwise he looked like a regular child. He seemed to have some psychic powers too: at some point, when he was feeling uneasy and sweating, a man picked a sample of blood from the back of his neck, using a portable device. But when the man was... either incapacitated or down, that boy broke the device containing his blood simply by looking at it.   At some point near the end of the movie, the pale looking boy and some people (with scientists among them) seemed to be inside a huge facility or underground hangar. There was a lot of space, although I can't remember if it was a factory, or if it was an underground weapon storage. The child was also giving some form of speech too, as all the lights turned on suddenly. The others were possibly surprised by what they were seeing.   One last detail I remember about that child is his smile. While it wasn't as scary as the Joker's, his grin was... kind of creepy, because of how he looked at the others with his small round eyes. He was oftenly grinning.   Overall, most of the scenes I remember were quite dark (mostly because there was little light, or it was night time). The two exception being the battle scene (although it was dark, there was a lot of muzzle fire), and the last underground scene with the boy.   When I asked my relative about the movie, all they could tell me was: "The coloured word 'Aiko' was written on the cover of the CD".
75032
I am trying to remember title (and author) of best sci-fi book i have ever read (at least thats what my fading memory tells me).  Plot revolves around multiple-universe theories - set on earth, 'hero' is given a brain implant that allows him to decide which future he wants to exist in (eg: coin toss produces 2 universes - one where it is heads, one tails) - he can 'choose' which of the 2 possible futures to take. The unchosen future is destroyed or disappears somehow(?).  Hero is tasked with finding a young girl who has same ability but can do it without implant. Plan is to find and kill her because the effect of her decisions (and now his) are affecting whole universe and aliens have wrapped solar system in some kind of event horizon to cut us off from universe until we sort out the problem.  Cant remember any real specifics; - lots of action (tech, guns etc), bladerunner-ish. Read it around 1990-5.  Googling hasnt got me anywhere but title potentially something like "sphere of influence. 2150"  If i can find this book, i will be eternally grateful.
50992
I remember seeing a movie when I was younger, but can't find it online because I can't remember a whole lot about the story.  What I do remember is there was a group of soldiers trying to catch this castle that appeared only during the day and at the start of each new day it would teleport to a new random location.  I also remember the main character having this neat little flying blade disk that reminds me of something from the Predator movies that he could control with his mind.  Again I can't recall a lot about the movie, but if it sounds familiar I would be grateful.  Also it seems like at one point there were horses that ran so fast they caught fire!
107257
Many years ago I saw this movie. The main protagonist is out with his woman partner (girlfriend or wife, forgot). At some point, after they went to some remote place by car, she is revealed to be an android, her eyes start shining, she starts to scream and tries to kill him, but he manages to run her over with the car. After that, suspected of murdering her, he is on the run. At some point, the protagonist meets another android, who is some kind of professor, and the android tries to kill him, along with shining eyes and screams, but whenever the protagonist asks the professor a question, the professor briefly interrupts (eyes and voice briefly back to normal) to answer the question before he continues to go after the protagonist. This makes it possible for the protagonist to badly damage the professor and escape. At the end, we see a highly dysfunctional professor sitting on a chair behind a desk doing nonsensical things. The protagonist also meets a woman, with whom he becomes friendly. At some point, they discuss whether all of the androids are evil, and the woman insists that maybe not all of them are evil. The woman is eventually revealed to be one of the androids: as she is steering a car, her eyes start shining and she appears to attempt to run over the man, but then she stops on her own, her eyes go back to normal and she drives away.
23381
I'm trying to identify an old anime movie from my childhood. I saw it around the might-eighties.  It was a space opera, and I can recall the following elements:   A big space fleet that is escaping their dying homeworld attacks Earth in order to conquer it. There might have been some time travel paradox or loop involved, like the invading fleet turning out to be from a future Earth or somesuch. Visual element: I believe a flashback (or perhaps a dream sequence) had a rose in it.
103717
This short story (probably pre 1980) shows the puzzled authorities seeking to explain the behaviour consulting a series of so called experts such as military,  engineering,  psychologists, etc, culminating with a historian. The historian unsettles them by claiming to be the last representative of culture, even though they regard their society as the best, the very best.  I forget the ultimate conclusion which is why I want to read it again. It seems very relevant to today.   I think the country was fictitious, future society run as a technology dominated, authoritarian, possibly military dominated, with hardly any soft professions in humanities or arts. The behaviour of the young men, who generally showed no signs of rebellion, would suddenly change to lethally attacking people. Hence my use of the words lone wolf or berserker.  I suspect the author was contrasting two mind sets in their approach to a human problem. In the extreme perhaps no nonsense industrial, military types vs fine arts. No women involved from memory.
57146
This is something I heard mentioned in passing several (around five?) years ago, so I haven't read the book, nor have I watched the movie.  I think I heard about the movie, but I believe it's based on a book.  It's really more horror than sci-fi/fantasy, but I guess it could qualify for some sci-fi/fantasy sub-genres...  In retrospect, I've thought that what I remember is a lot like "The Hunger Games" and that I may have heard early talks about the film adaptation, but I don't really think so...  Some (young?) teens have been abducted and placed on an island (or somewhere else remote and isolated). (I assume) Only one of them will be allowed to leave, so they'll have to fight and kill each other. To prevent them from co-operating - or hatching a plan to escape - they've all been collared with something akin to shock-collars that will shock them (and possibly kill them) if they spend too much time in proximity to each other.  I believe it's somewhat Saw-like.
22530
I remember a group of people (soldiers?) stuck in a jungle and attacked by two different sorts of aliens. One looked a lot like the Xenomorphs from the Alien movies, very bestial. The other was a humanoid armored creature  like in Predator films which I remember had a jetpack, and might have had a thrown weapon that looked like a fanged frisbee. I distinctly remember the jetpack bit happened on a bridge.  After that, my memory gets very fuzzy right up until the end credits which featured the aliens (both? Maybe just the Xenomorph ones) on a talk show. I vaguely remember TV Tropes mentioning this, and that vague memory suggests it was originally a Swedish movie.  I would have watched it on TV somewhere between 1994 and 1998, possibly on a premium cable channel as I think I watched it while at All State Choir, where they bunked us up in hotels and frequently forgot to shut down the premium channels.  I'm pretty sure that the English title had the word "Alien" in it, and I think it was just a two word title.  Trish Ling clued me in that the talk show bit is from a totally different movie than the first movie, which is the one I was really looking for, so I've struck out those bits.
122682
This is a follow up to   Logan  in Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and other wilderness locations.  Besides the obviously sci-fi elements (cybernetic mutants and their weapons, medical technology, etc, for example, which in the X-Men universe are not necessarily futuristic) what else is there in the appearance of film that would indicate that this is 12 years into the future?  This is a question about  -- the appearance of things, people, and settings, indepedent of the story elements.   I.e. we agree it takes place in the future; the question is about what visual elements there are that were influenced by that story element -- and, for the purpose of this question, that are different than present day real-world things.
67588
I watched this cartoon in the '90s or early 2000s and believe that it is American. I remember that the story was about the world after an asteroid impact. An important detail is that uranium/plutonium somehow stops working, thus no nuclear power. Therefore, there was always a struggle for energy.  There was a kind of world government with strong governors (maybe on continental level). However, some evil warlord with its rebels (in red, maybe) ruled in a forbidden zone. The last thing I remember is that the protagonist (I forgot about him) discovered that another impact might occur soon.  Sorry for the few details but I looked in all blogs, wikis and IMDb lists and cannot find it.
50220
I need help identyfying this movie I once saw late night on TNT, late 90s or early 2000s.  I don't have very clear recollection about it. The movie was very strange. It all took place in a single room of a spaceship or an escape pod that had lost power. A woman and a man, or several men, were stuck in a ship or a spacepod that was somehow damaged or didn't have power.   The movie was entirely made of the dialogs between the woman and the man (or men). They would talk about what was happening outside, how to contact help, about their lives. During their conversation details about the world around them emerge. In this movie people have colonized the solar system but not moved outside it, and there is some sort of a war.  Other things I remember are that it was dark in that room. I think they used only a lightbulb or even direct starlight and sunlight (if they were far away from the sun), because there was no power. Also it was getting colder, becaus the ship's heating system was not functioning, and so it was losing its heat. The people would constantly complain about how cold it's getting. I think that the woman was the captain of the ship. She would sometimes go to the control cabin and try to do something to help their situation, either restore power or contact someone so they can be rescued.  What impressed me about it was how they managed to make it realistic. Because the actors would talk and act like it was all real, it made it somehow feel very realistic to me as well.  That's about it as far as I remember. Hope someone has watched this movie and can tell me what it is.  Update  I want to add a few more details about the movie. While I watched it in the late 90s/early 2000s the movie looked much older. It looked like a vintage B-Movie made in the style of the 70s or 80s. In particular the decor looked more like Alien 1 or Cosmos 1999.   I just watched the firefly episode and it can't be it. It has too much action, and the atmosphere is not dark enough.
82971
In this movie there are scientists who (spoilers ahead)       ...are creating a simulation. One scientist starts seeing odd looking characters but no one else sees them. He asks around and more and more characters are missing or don't know about the characters in the story he knows about.  He finds out that he is part of a simulation. He finds out that the characters only he remembers have been deleted. He also finds out that there are characters from his own simulation that have broken free of his simulation and are in his world.    Hints: I remember this being an older film (70's?); it might have been foreign film possibly with subtitles (not Hollywood); it might have been part of the Criterion collection; I'm pretty sure I streamed it from Hulu. Sorry, I can't remember more details.
102506
One of the most memorable scenes is where one of the characters is killed by a hovering spherical robot about 1-2 ft in diameter (looks a little bit like the pokémon fortress). The robot sticks out a little propeller blade about 4 inches wide and saws through the guy’s clipboard (which for some reason he chooses to protect himself with) and into his abdomen. The guy who is in charge of the robot says something like "Why did you do that? He was a good man" to the robot, which I think must've had a mind of its own as it didn't seem to care.    Another thing I remember in the film is these people sitting at control panels and they wear long dark brown robes, and wear large reflective helmets so you can't see their faces.  I'm sorry there isn't a lot of detail here, but I remember seeing this movie when I was really young and it terrified me. I'd love to know what it is, so any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks!
81140
I recall when I was young (about 30+ years ago) I saw on TV a movie about a civilization (possibly humans in the future)  with limited life span (they died young) and if I recall correctly, an integrated red light indicator in their hands showing when they were about to die. When the light indicator turned on or turned off (I dont recall exactly) it meant they were about to die soon.   Does anyone have an idea which movie it could be?