FOREWORD

BY ROGER CORMAN

I remember going to see my first science-fiction movie as a kid in 1936. It was a Saturday matinee of Things to Come, an awe-inspiring, futuristic epic from the brilliant mind of H. G. Wells. It ignited my imagination, inspiring a lifelong interest in the genre. As a director, writer, and producer, science fiction, like horror, is a genre I keep returning to again and again throughout my career, in part because it has such a devoted following. Sci-fi fans not only buy movie tickets, they love to discuss every detail they have absorbed from watching and re-watching their favorites.

The first film I ever produced, Monster from the Ocean Floor, was about a creature that had mutated due to atomic radiation. It was made in 1954, the same year Them! and Gojira were released. It was part of a money-making trend (atomic mutants were all the rage), but it also had a few underlying themes and political statements. Working outside of the Hollywood establishment, we were able to experiment, to play, to have fun—and to use science fiction to question and comment on society. Science fiction was synonymous with low budgets in those days. Because there were no big stars in the pictures, it was the genre—the idea—that sold tickets. Therefore, the more outrageous the concept, the better.

Since then, science-fiction movies have undergone an incredible evolution. When I started in the business, it was all about monsters. In the world of low-budget filmmaking, we had little money for special effects, and of course we did not yet have the computer technology of today. So we relied heavily on imagination. Over the past sixty years, I have seen science fiction grow from papier-mâché-and-wire monsters (which could be very effective indeed—look at George Pal’s The War of the Worlds, for one) to lifelike computer-generated graphics. I’ve observed the genre as atomic monsters of the 1950s gave way to the hallucinogenic extraterrestrial experiences of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), witnessed first-hand the impact Star Wars (1977) had on cinema, and watched as James Cameron went from spending $6 million on The Terminator in 1984 to over $230 million on Avatar in 2009. And the budgets just keep getting bigger.

But even in the age of expensive wonders, making a science-fiction movie still boils down to imagination. All the money and sophisticated technology in the world cannot produce an entertaining film unless there is an idea behind it. It’s always disappointing to go and see a big-budget extravaganza with spectacular effects, but to leave the theater feeling empty because the story had nothing original to say. Unforgettable science-fiction stories stimulate the mind just a little, in addition to their sheer entertainment value. After all, fun is what we go to the movies for. That’s why classic sci-fi movies remain so enjoyable: they offer thrills, chills, and sometimes laughs, but they also make you think.

The “must-see sci-fi” movies in this book are considered classics because they were made with imagination. Whether a timeless Hollywood favorite like James Whale’s Frankenstein (1931) or a modestly budgeted independent like John Sayles’s The Brother from Another Planet (1984), each of these fifty films transcends its era. Each has a universal quality that allows it to live on for future generations to discover. If you’re already a fanatic or if you’re just discovering them for the first time, I hope you enjoy these movies as much as I have. May your imagination run wild.