A Glean movie guide
Beyond the Dream: Mind-Bending Sci-Fi
Wake up to a new reality.
High-concept thrillers and reality-warping puzzles for fans of Inception.
Handpicked for this guide
The movie list
- 01
Tenet
A relentless, time-inverting spy thriller that demands your full attention to solve its complex narrative puzzle.
Armed with only one word - Tenet - and fighting for the survival of the entire world, the Protagonist journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond real time.
- 02
Paprika
This visually stunning anime explores the surreal dangers of entering and sharing dreams through experimental technology.
When a machine that allows therapists to enter their patient's dreams is stolen, all hell breaks loose. Only a young female therapist can stop it and recover it before damage is done: Paprika.
- 03
The Matrix
A definitive sci-fi epic that questions the nature of reality through high-concept action and philosophical depth.
Set in the 22nd century, The Matrix tells the story of a computer hacker who joins a group of underground insurgents fighting the vast and powerful computers who now rule the earth.
- 04
Shutter Island
Leonardo DiCaprio stars in an atmospheric thriller where a missing person case blurs the line between truth and delusion.
World War II soldier-turned-U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels investigates the disappearance of a patient from a hospital for the criminally insane, but his efforts are compromised by troubling visions and a mysterious doctor.
- 05
The Prestige
Two rival magicians engage in a dark game of obsession featuring a multi-layered plot and a stunning final reveal.
A mysterious story of two magicians whose intense rivalry leads them on a life-long battle for supremacy -- full of obsession, deceit and jealousy with dangerous and deadly consequences.
- 06
Memento
A gripping, reverse-chronological mystery that forces you to experience the world through a man with no short-term memory.
Leonard Shelby is tracking down the man who raped and murdered his wife. The difficulty of locating his wife's killer, however, is compounded by the fact that he suffers from a rare, untreatable form of short-term memory loss. Although he can recall details of life before his accident, Leonard cannot remember what happened fifteen minutes ago, where he's going, or why.
- 07
Source Code
A high-stakes race against time where a soldier must enter a digital simulation to prevent a looming catastrophe.
When decorated soldier Captain Colter Stevens wakes up in the body of an unknown man, he discovers he's part of a mission to find the bomber of a Chicago commuter train.
- 08
Coherence
A tense, low-budget masterpiece that uses a simple dinner party to explore the terrifying possibilities of parallel realities.
Four couples gather for dinner the night a mysterious and powerful comet passes overhead.
- 09
Primer
Widely regarded as the most intellectually demanding time-travel film ever made, requiring multiple viewings to decode.
A group of fledgling inventors discover a complex method to manipulate reality. At first, they successfully game the stock market with it, but the consequences of the invention start to catch up with them.
- 10
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
A surreal and deeply emotional journey through the subconscious as a man tries to erase his most painful memories.
Joel Barish, heartbroken that his girlfriend underwent a procedure to erase him from her memory, decides to do the same. However, as he watches his memories of her fade away, he realises that he still loves her, and may be too late to correct his mistake.
- 11
Arrival
An intellectual sci-fi drama that uses linguistics and non-linear time to tell a profound story of first contact.
Taking place after alien crafts land around the world, an expert linguist is recruited by the military to determine whether they come in peace or are a threat.
- 12
Looper
A gritty, high-concept crime thriller that pits a hitman against his future self in a complex web of causality.
In the year 2044, time travel has not yet been invented but in 30 years it will have been. When the mob wants to get rid of someone, they will send their target into the past where a looper, a hired gun, like Joe is waiting to mop up. Joe is getting rich and life is good until the day the mob decides to close the loop, sending back Joe's future self for assassination.