A Glean movie guide
Sci-Fi for the Thinking Mind
High-concept cinema
Immersive films that challenge your perception of reality, ethics, and humanity.
Handpicked for this guide
The movie list
- 01
Arrival
A profound look at how language shapes our perception of time and reality.
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.
- 02
Ex Machina
A tense, minimalist exploration of consciousness and the ethics of 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.
- 03
Blade Runner 2049
A visually stunning meditation on what it truly means to have a soul.
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
Gattaca
A grounded, powerful story about human potential in a society obsessed with genetic perfection.
Vincent is an all-too-human man who dares to defy a system obsessed with genetic perfection. He is an "In-Valid" who assumes the identity of a member of the genetic elite to pursue his goal of traveling into space with the Gattaca Aerospace Corporation.
- 05
Children of Men
A gritty, realistic look at hope and societal collapse in a world without a future.
In 2027, in a chaotic world in which humans can no longer procreate, a former activist agrees to help transport a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea, where her child's birth may help scientists save the future of humankind.
- 06
Moon
A haunting, character-driven study of isolation and corporate morality.
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.
- 07
Primer
An uncompromisingly complex puzzle that demands your full attention to unravel.
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.
- 08
Her
A tender, insightful examination of love and connection in the digital age.
In the not so distant future, Theodore, a lonely writer, purchases a newly developed operating system designed to meet the user's every need. To Theodore's surprise, a romantic relationship develops between him and his operating system. This unconventional love story blends science fiction and romance in a sweet tale that explores the nature of love and the ways that technology isolates and connects us all.
- 09
Stalker
A meditative, allegorical journey into the deepest desires of the human heart.
Near a gray and unnamed city is the Zone, a place guarded by barbed wire and soldiers, and where the normal laws of physics are victim to frequent anomalies. A stalker guides two men into the Zone, specifically to an area in which deep-seated desires are granted.
- 10
Coherence
A brilliant, low-budget experiment in quantum physics and psychological tension.
Four couples gather for dinner the night a mysterious and powerful comet passes overhead.