Journey back about 50 years. There was a time when cellular phones didn’t exist, very few households actually had a television, and society was nowhere near the idea of nanotechnology. Return to the present day where laptop computers are everywhere, vaccinations for numerous illnesses are taken regularly, and people appear to talk to themselves through Bluetooth headsets. Look at all the technological advances we have acquired in less than half a century! As we continue to push forward in additions to machines and inventions, people stopped to ponder the consequences. Both positive and negative results are shown through science fiction. The Science Fiction, Sci-Fi, genre is wholly based on plausible outcomes of new science issues and events. Excellent science fiction allows the viewer’s mind to wander beyond solid facts of our present knowledge because it displays the positive, or negative, consequences that may result from an event or situation.
The biggest part of a Science Fiction would be the scientific breakthroughs. Without the ‘science’, Science Fiction would simply be a boring form of just ‘fiction’. The Sci-Fi genre introduces people to the most recent science breakthroughs, in our present time period, or even things that don’t yet exist. The idea needs to be recent enough to still capture people’s attention, yet general enough to leave a wide range of possibilities to expand on. In the 1966 to 1969 series of Star Trek (Director: Gene Roddenberry) audiences were captivated by the range of new gadgets. For these people, seeing Captain Kirk flip his small, portable communicator to talk to Sulu, or Spock beaming down to the planet from the spaceship, was mind blowing. Scenes that showed of these types of devices stretched the imagination of some- to wonder what if the world actually had these things like it.
In any good Science Fiction story there is an interesting and exciting storyline. Storylines show off a stable setting, meaning that the facts of the story are constant throughout. Also, the conflict is clear, and the overall story ends in a satisfying place for the viewers. In Wall-E (2008, Director: Andrew Stanton), the setting of Earth begins as a desolate place- seemingly unable to sustain life. Meanwhile the humans are living on a spaceship. In the first scene where these humans are shown, the audience can infer that humans are overly dependent on technology, by the way they are overweight and in floating transportation chairs. At the end of the movie, all citizens over come the technology running their lives after seeing the main character so desperate to save the only evidence that planet Earth is able to sustain life again- happening to be a little green plant. In the final scene, the spaceship returns to Earth and it shows mankind starting to rebuild what they once had.
The idea of a Science Fiction story comes from breakthroughs. It is made interesting by the screen write and storyline. However, the part that makes anyone’s eyes glue to the story is the connections it makes with them. In this way the story is relatable and the audience fells similarly to the actors’ emotions. The Matrix (1999, Director: Andy Wachowski) has many scenes that make the audience relate to the feelings of the characters. One example is when Neo is ‘awaken’ in the real world, in the human pod. As he breaks through the thick goop and the machine unplugs him, it is very common to cringe with disgust because it is not normal to see a human hooked up in that way, with plugs directly in the body. Another example is when the character Cypher turns to a traitor against Morpheus’ crew. Audiences may feel the slight sadness of loss when Cypher pulls the plug from Apoc and Switch while their minds are still in the Matrix world, instantly killing them.
Technology is evolving everywhere we turn. It is hard to imagine all the changes, good or bad, that will result from technological advances. Many wonder if relying on more machines will most likely benefit or be the downfall to civilization. This is why Sci-Fi can be so powerful. It gives viewers imagined insights to any “what if” scenarios, while being an engaging variation of entertainment.
