A Glean movie guide
Beyond the Stars: Cerebral Sci-Fi
For the thinkers and the dreamers.
High-concept journeys through space, time, and the mysteries of first contact.
Handpicked for this guide
The movie list
- 01
Contact
A grounded and deeply emotional exploration of humanity’s first encounter with alien intelligence.
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
2001: A Space Odyssey
The definitive visual masterpiece exploring human evolution and the vast mysteries of 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.
- 03
Blade Runner 2049
A visually stunning, slow-burn meditation on memory and what it truly means to be human.
Thirty years after the events of the first film, a new blade runner, LAPD Officer K, unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what's left of society into chaos. K's discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard, a former LAPD blade runner who has been missing for 30 years.
- 04
Ad Astra
A contemplative journey across the solar system that mirrors an intimate search for a lost father.
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.
- 05
Solaris
A hauntingly atmospheric look at how the unknown challenges our memories and our grief.
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.
- 06
The Martian
A thrilling celebration of scientific ingenuity and the human will to survive against the odds.
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.
- 07
Moon
A minimalist, character-driven mystery that examines identity and isolation on a 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.
- 08
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
A classic tale of obsession and wonder that captures the awe of communicating with the unknown.
After an encounter with UFOs, an electricity linesman feels undeniably drawn to an isolated area in the wilderness where something spectacular is about to happen.
- 09
Inception
A complex, multi-layered odyssey through the subconscious that balances high-stakes action with emotional depth.
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.
- 10
Ex Machina
A tense, intellectual thriller that probes the ethics of consciousness and artificial intelligence.
Caleb, a coder at the world's largest internet company, wins a competition to spend a week at a private mountain retreat belonging to Nathan, the reclusive CEO of the company. But when Caleb arrives at the remote location he finds that he will have to participate in a strange and fascinating experiment in which he must interact with the world's first true artificial intelligence, housed in the body of a beautiful robot girl.
- 11
Annihilation
A surreal and intellectually challenging expedition into a zone where the laws of nature are rewritten.
A biologist signs up for a dangerous, secret expedition into a mysterious zone where the laws of nature don't apply.
- 12
Sunshine
A visually arresting mission to the sun that blends hard science with philosophical desperation.
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.