A Glean movie guide
Beyond the Event Horizon
Space, time, and the human heart.
High-concept sci-fi that blends mind-bending physics with profound human emotion.
Handpicked for this guide
The movie list
- 01
Contact
A definitive look at first contact that mirrors Interstellar’s blend of theoretical physics and family bonds.
A radio astronomer receives the first extraterrestrial radio signal ever picked up on Earth. As the world powers scramble to decipher the message and decide upon a course of action, she must make some difficult decisions between her beliefs, the truth, and reality.
- 02
Arrival
A cerebral masterpiece that uses linguistics and non-linear time to tell a deeply moving story of parenthood.
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.
- 03
2001: A Space Odyssey
The visual and philosophical blueprint for modern space epics, exploring humanity’s place in the cosmos.
Humanity finds a mysterious object buried beneath the lunar surface and sets off to find its origins with the help of HAL 9000, the world's most advanced super computer.
- 04
The Martian
A thrilling, scientifically grounded survival story that celebrates human ingenuity and the scale of NASA missions.
During a manned mission to Mars, Astronaut Mark Watney is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney has survived and finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet. With only meager supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, wit and spirit to subsist and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive.
- 05
Ad Astra
A moody, realistic journey across the solar system centered on a complex father-son relationship.
The near future, a time when both hope and hardships drive humanity to look to the stars and beyond. While a mysterious phenomenon menaces to destroy life on planet Earth, astronaut Roy McBride undertakes a mission across the immensity of space and its many perils to uncover the truth about a lost expedition that decades before boldly faced emptiness and silence in search of the unknown.
- 06
Inception
Christopher Nolan’s other high-concept puzzle, driven by a father’s desperate need to return to his children.
Cobb, a skilled thief who commits corporate espionage by infiltrating the subconscious of his targets is offered a chance to regain his old life as payment for a task considered to be impossible: "inception", the implantation of another person's idea into a target's subconscious.
- 07
Gravity
A visceral, high-stakes survival thriller that captures the terrifying beauty and isolation of Earth's orbit.
Dr Ryan Stone, an engineer on her first space mission, and Matt Kowalski, an astronaut on his final expedition, have to survive in space after they are hit by debris while spacewalking.
- 08
Sunshine
A tense, atmospheric mission to save humanity that explores the psychological toll of deep space travel.
Fifty years into the future, the sun is dying, and Earth is threatened by arctic temperatures. A team of astronauts is sent to revive the Sun — but the mission fails. Seven years later, a new team is sent to finish the mission as mankind’s last hope.
- 09
Moon
A grounded and haunting character study about isolation and identity on a lonely lunar base.
With only three weeks left in his three-year contract, Sam Bell is eager to return to Earth. Stationed alone at a Moon-based facility with his computer assistant GERTY, an unexpected accident sets off a series of unsettling events that shake his isolation.
- 10
Solaris
A slow-burn philosophical epic that examines how grief and memory manifest in the far reaches of space.
A psychologist is sent to a space station orbiting a planet called Solaris to investigate the death of a doctor and the mental problems of cosmonauts on the station. He soon discovers that the water on the planet is a type of brain which brings out repressed memories and obsessions.