15 Sci-Fi Films To Look Forward To In 2015
THE MARTIAN
Directed by: Ridley Scott
Release date: November 25
Starring: Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Sean Bean, Kristen Wiig, Kata Mara, Michael Pena, Donald GloverSix days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. Chances are, though, he won’t have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old “human error” are much more likely to kill him first. But Mark isn’t ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills—and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit—he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him.
JUPITER ASCENDING
Directed by: Larry & Lana Wachowski
Release date: February 5, 2014
Starring: Channing Tatum, Mila Kunis, Sean Bean, & Eddie Redmayne
Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis) was born under a night sky, with signs predicting that she was destined for great things. Now grown, Jupiter dreams of the stars but wakes up to the cold reality of a job cleaning toilets and an endless run of bad breaks. Only when Caine (Channing Tatum), a genetically engineered ex-military hunter, arrives on Earth to track her down does Jupiter begin to glimpse the fate that has been waiting for her all along – her genetic signature marks her as next in line for an extraordinary inheritance that could alter the balance of the cosmos. I’m a huge fan of the Wachowskis (Cloud Atlas was my favourite film of 2012) and I can’t wait to see how this one turns out. Eddie Redmayne, Douglas Booth, Tuppence Middleton, Doona Bae, James D’Arcy, and Sean Bean also star.
EQUALS
Directed by: Drake Doremus
Release date: July 31
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Nicholas HoultIn a futuristic utopian society, human emotions have been eradicated and everyone lives in peace but when a new disease surfaces, everything changes for illustrator Silas (Nicholas Hoult). He becomes an outcast once infected and is drawn to his writer co-worker Nia (Kristen Stewart), whom is also infected but hiding her condition. In order to survive, they have to escape together.”
TERMINATOR: GENISYS
Directed by: Alan Taylor
Release date: July 1
Starring: Emilia Clarke, Jai Courtney, Arnold Schwarzenegger, JK Simmons Terminator: Genisys, the first of three planned films that Paramount hopes will relaunch the beloved sci-fi franchise, is set in 2029, when the Future War is raging and a group of human rebels has the evil artificial-intelligence system Skynet on the ropes. John Connor (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ Jason Clarke) is the leader of the resistance, and Kyle Reese (Divergent‘s Jai Courtney) is his loyal soldier, raised in the ruins of post apocalyptic California. As in the original film, Connor sends Reese back to 1984 to save Connor’s mother, Sarah (Game of Thrones‘ Emilia Clarke), from a Terminator programmed to kill her so that she won’t ever give birth to John. But what Reese finds on the other side is nothing like he expected.
EX MACHINA
Directed by: Alex Garland
Release date: April 10
Starring: Domnhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac, Alicia VikanderAlex Garland, writer of 28 Days Later and Sunshine, makes his directorial debut with the stylish and cerebral thriller, EX MACHINA. Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson), a programmer at an internet-search giant, wins a competition to spend a week at the private mountain estate of the company’s brilliant and reclusive CEO, Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac). Upon his arrival, Caleb learns that Nathan has chosen him to be the human component in a Turing Test—charging him with evaluating the capabilities, and ultimately the consciousness, of Nathan’s latest experiment in artificial intelligence. That experiment is Ava (Alicia Vikander), a breathtaking A.I. whose emotional intelligence proves more sophisticated, seductive––and more deceptive––than the two men could have imagined.
400 DAYS
Directed by: Matt Osterman
Release date: April 15
Starring: Caity Lotz, Brandon Routh, Tom Cavanagh, Ben FeldmanFour rookie astronauts are sent on a simulated mission to a distant planet to test the psychological effects of deep space travel. Locked away for 400 days, the crew’s mental state begins to deteriorate when things outside the module begin to go haywire and all communication with mission control is lost. Upon exiting the ship, they discover that this mission was no simulation.
MAD MAX: FURY ROAD
Directed by: George Miller
Release date: May 15
Starring: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult
MAD MAX: FURY ROAD is the fourth film of George Miller‘s Road Warrior/Mad Max franchise co-written and directed by Miller. The post-apocalyptic action film is set in the furthest reaches of our planet, in a stark desert landscape where humanity is broken, and most everyone is crazed fighting for the necessities of life. “Within this world of fire and blood exist two rebels on the run who just might be able to restore order… There’s Max, a man of action and a man of few words, who seeks peace of mind following the loss of his wife and child in the aftermath of the chaos. And… Furiosa, a woman of action and a woman who believes her path to survival may be achieved if she can make it across the desert back to her childhood homeland.”
SELFLESS
Directed by: Tarsem Singh
Release date: July 31
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Michelle Dockery, Ben Kingsley, Victor Garber, Matthew Goode, Derek Luke and Natalie MartinezRyan Reynolds stars in “Selfless,” an unconventional sci-fi thriller about a terminally ill billionaire who buys a chance for eternal life through an experimental underground medical procedure called “shedding”, which transfers his consciousness into the cadaver of a younger man. But the promise of immortality turns into a nightmare when he experiences flashbacks which begin to reveal the disturbing origins of the body he now inhabits.
STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS
Directed by: J.J. Abrams
Release date: December 18
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is directed by J.J. Abrams from a screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan & Abrams, and features a cast including actors John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong’o, Gwendoline Christie, Crystal Clarke, Pip Andersen, Domhnall Gleeson, and Max von Sydow. They will join the original stars of the saga, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Kenny Baker. The film is being produced by Kathleen Kennedy, J.J. Abrams, and Bryan Burk, and John Williams returns as the composer. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is Episode VII in the Star Wars Saga.
MIDNIGHT SPECIAL
Directed by: Jeff Nichols
Release date: November 25
Starring: Michael Shannon, Kirsten Dunst, Joel Edgerton, and Adam DriverWritten and directed by Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter, Mud), Midnight Special is a sci-fi government chase story and centers on a father and son who go on the run after the dad learns his child possesses special powers.
JURASSIC WORLD
Directed by: Colin Trevorrow
Release date: June 12
Starring: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Judy Greer, Ty SimpkinsTwenty-two years after the events of Jurassic Park, Isla Nublar, off Costa Rica’s Pacific coast, now features a fully functioning dinosaur theme park, Jurassic World, as originally envisioned by John Hammond. This new park is owned by the Masrani Global Corporation. Owen (Chris Pratt), a member of the park’s on-site staff, conducts behavioral research on the Velociraptors. At the corporation’s request, the park’s geneticists create a genetically modified hybrid dinosaur to boost visitor attendance, but it soon runs wild on the island.
THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY PART 2
Directed by: Francis Lawrence
Release date: November 20
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth, Josh Hutcherson, Sam Claflin, Elizabeth Banks, Natalie Dormer, Donald SutherlandThe epic global phenomenon of “The Hunger Games” arrives at its powerful final chapter with “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2” – in which Katniss Everdeen now fully realizes the stakes are no longer just for survival, they are for the future. With the nation of Panem in a full scale war, Katniss Everdeen confronts President Snow in the final showdown. Teamed with a group of her closest friends – including Gale , Finnick, and Peeta – Katniss goes off mission, using the unit from District 13 – and risking their lives – to stage an assassination attempt on President Snow increasingly obsessed with destroying her, the mortal traps, enemies, and moral choices that await Katniss will challenge her more than any arena she faced in The Hunger Games.
Z FOR ZACHARIAH
Directed by: Craig Zobel
Release date: 2015 TBA
Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Chris Pine, Margot Robbie
Based on the book by Robert C. O’Brien’s acclaimed novel of the same name, Z for Zachariah is a psychological thriller, set after an apocalyptic event. It centers on a teenaged girl (Robbie) who is seemingly the sole survivor until a scientist (Ejiofor) finds her farm, and the two fall in love. Another survivor, a young man (Pine), surfaces, complicating matters.
HIGH-RISE
Directed by: Ben Wheatley
Release date: TBA 2015
Starring: Tom Hiddleston, Elizabeth Moss, Luke Evans, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Miller
Within the concealing walls of an elegant forty-storey tower block, the affluent tenants are hell-bent on an orgy of destruction. Cocktail parties degenerate into marauding attacks on ‘enemy’ floors and the once-luxurious amenities become an arena for technological mayhem… In this classic visionary tale, human society slips into violent reverse as the inhabitants of the high-rise, driven by primal urges, recreate a world ruled by the laws of the jungle. The film is based on the 1975 novel of the same name by J.G. Ballard.
TOMORROWLAND
Directed by: Brad Bird
Release date: May 15
Starring: Britt Robertson, George Clooney, Hugh Laurie
Bound by a shared destiny, a bright, optimistic teen bursting with scientific curiosity and a former boy-genius inventor jaded by disillusionment embark on a danger-filled mission to unearth the secrets of an enigmatic place somewhere in time and space that exists in their collective memory as “Tomorrowland.”