A Glean movie guide
Mind-Bending Sci-Fi (Without the Headache)
Big ideas, clear stories.
High-concept thrillers and reality-warping mysteries that keep the plot easy to follow.
Handpicked for this guide
The movie list
- 01
Source Code
A high-concept thriller with a clear, repetitive structure that makes its complex premise easy to track.
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.
- 02
The Matrix
The definitive simulated-reality movie, following a classic hero’s journey that is always easy to follow.
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.
- 03
Edge of Tomorrow
Combines a clever time-loop mechanic with a straightforward, high-stakes action movie structure.
Major Bill Cage is an officer who has never seen a day of combat when he is unceremoniously demoted and dropped into combat. Cage is killed within minutes, managing to take an alpha alien down with him. He awakens back at the beginning of the same day and is forced to fight and die again... and again - as physical contact with the alien has thrown him into a time loop.
- 04
Looper
A gritty sci-fi where the rules of time travel are explained clearly through sharp dialogue and character drama.
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.
- 05
Minority Report
A sleek futuristic mystery that uses clear visual storytelling to explain its complex 'pre-crime' concepts.
John Anderton is a top 'Precrime' cop in the late-21st century, when technology can predict crimes before they're committed. But Anderton becomes the quarry when another investigator targets him for a murder charge.
- 06
The Adjustment Bureau
Explores a hidden reality behind our own through a linear narrative and a clear protagonist goal.
A man glimpses the future Fate has planned for him – and chooses to fight for his own destiny. Battling the powerful Adjustment Bureau across, under and through the streets of New York, he risks his destined greatness to be with the only woman he's ever loved.
- 07
Total Recall
A driving action-thriller that questions the nature of memory while keeping the plot moving forward.
Construction worker Douglas Quaid's obsession with the planet Mars leads him to visit Recall, a company that manufactures memories. When his memory implant goes wrong, Doug can no longer be sure what is and isn't reality.
- 08
Limitless
Visualizes the expansion of the human mind in a stylized way that remains grounded in a chronological plot.
The life of an unsuccessful writer is transformed by a top-secret 'smart drug' that allows him to use 100% of his brain and become a perfect version of himself. His enhanced abilities soon attract shadowy forces that threaten his new life.
- 09
The Truman Show
A psychological look at a fabricated world that is exceptionally easy to follow as the truth is uncovered.
An insurance salesman begins to suspect that his whole life is actually some sort of reality TV show.
- 10
Dark City
A noir mystery that reveals its reality-bending secrets step-by-step through strong visual parallels to Inception.
A man struggles with memories of his past, including a wife he cannot remember, in a nightmarish world with no sun and run by beings with telekinetic powers who seek the souls of humans.
- 11
Oblivion
A visually stunning mystery about identity and memory with a singular, focused puzzle to solve.
Jack Harper is one of the last few drone repairmen stationed on Earth. Part of a massive operation to extract vital resources after decades of war with a terrifying threat known as the Scavs, Jack’s mission is nearly complete. His existence is brought crashing down when he rescues a beautiful stranger from a downed spacecraft. Her arrival triggers a chain of events that forces him to question everything he knows and puts the fate of humanity in his hands.
- 12
Paycheck
A linear 'puzzle' movie where a man uses physical clues to recover his erased memories.
Michael Jennings is a genius who's hired – and paid handsomely – by high-tech firms to work on highly sensitive projects, after which his short-term memory is erased so he's incapable of breaching security. But at the end of a three-year job, he's told he isn't getting a paycheck and instead receives a mysterious envelope. In it are clues he must piece together to find out why he wasn't paid – and why he's now in hot water.