Science fiction is literally made of two words, or concepts that generally describe it, although not entirely. And the combination of these two dimensions, science and fiction, is only partially responsible for its appeal and popularity as a movie genre. The real charm in sci-fi is in its telling of the human situation. But before you may understand this dimension, notice how fiction is used in sci-fi films to create a world contained within a film.
Sci-fi films depict, and present to you, a fictional world, an artificial representation, that captures your vision as you are shown an artificial design of an environment that may not actually exist. Unreal fantastical structures, spacecraft and wide-ranging technologies, these are the superficial parts of the made-up world, created and then displayed on-screen, in a fictional time period. In which, for example, you may be taken along a ride forward in time, into a fictional future, which is filled with stunning and impressive sights and sounds. But all of these fictional aspects are difficult to relate to because you are not entirely familiar with, nor have you been exposed to, these imagined scenes. These are enough to get you interested, but holding your attention, and creating a sense of investment, requires more.
It requires a connection to the human situation. These are the things you may relate to since these are the beliefs, thoughts and emotions you may have internally experienced in your life. You need not have a movie explain these things to you — it is from this aspect by which the sci-fi genre operates, by appealing to your human side. In other words, although you may not relate to the artificial world that is constructed on screen, which exists in an unfamiliar time period, you may directly connect to the human elements of the sci-fi movie. The elements of problem solving, hopes, fears, anxieties, excitements, joys and pains, and thus, the allure of the sci-fi genre is in the telling of the human situation, as you know it and, as it exists in the present. So even though sci-fi movies may have wild action scenes and confusing visuals, their fundamental appeal lies in their connection to you. To elaborate more comprehensively, subtly messaged behind the graphics and visuals, the unfamiliar images and scenes, is the presentation of human concerns, of beliefs, thoughts and feelings, through narrative, storytelling structures. This is the human situation upon which sci-fi is truly about, but there are many human situations, or many perspectives from which a person may see the world.
Although every person may have the ability to feel the same moods and experience the same sensations, it is the human situation in relation to its environment, its norms, customs and belief. Thus, the human situation differs according to cultural context, but the sci-fi genre, rarely, if ever, presents from multiple perspectives. Sci-fi movies present a point-of-view from one particular angle, and this is an overwhelming and important dimension that factors into the final product, that is the sci-film product. These products are made in the West. In other words, this genre of film is made from the point of view of the Western world.
Sci-fi movies are commentaries from the perspective of Western culture since, for one reason, the movie makers themselves are constrained to this narrow point-of-view. It is strictly a product of Western Hollywood cinema. This is not the case with, for example, action, drama, and comedy genres, which can be found in movie industries around the globe. Sci-fi, as a genre of film, does not exist in the Egyptian, Bollywood, and Chinese film industries. Moreover, sci-films are typically large scale productions. Although there have been horror movies that have been made for less than six figures in U.S. dollar terms, this is almost never the case with sci-fi films. Thus sci-fi productions need more than just a director, they need US dollar funding. It’s rare, in today’s institutionalized Western world of hyper-greed and exploitation, to receive relatively significant sums of money upfront, without return and without condition, all at once. The funding may have a purpose, and Hollywood movies are made, and produced, by a western cultured ecosystem in almost every way. Therefore, sci-fi movies are almost always filtered through the Western lens, and this includes the science that is portrayed in science fiction.
The science, presented in the science fiction genre, is the science of trial and error in the name of supremacy over, as opposed to understanding and harmony with, nature. It is the science without enforced boundaries of morality and ethics, inconsiderate of the transparent consequences to humanity. It’s industrial and organized, the militariness is of a specific kind. Likewise with the scientists themselves, most often stereotypically portrayed according to Western archetypes. The science in sci-fi is of the Western variety. In contrast to Islamic science, Indian science or Chinese science. Consider the popular sci-fi HBO show which is titled “Westworld”, as it is just one of many clear, or blunt, examples. It naturally follows that, since the sci-fi genre is unique to the the West, it is a genre that seeks to understand the obsessions and goals of the Western world.
To do this, sci-fi movies perform an in-depth examination and analysis of present-day Western dynamics, at the individual and human level, as well as at the societal and political levels. Thus, sci-fi films present the Western world, on-screen, in several dimensions. Panning in and zooming out. Moving side to side and diagonal. Independence Day, for example, had it all. It was a movie which contained its own world. Its own globe. And for the West, politics is not just domestic, it is global. In fact, for example, Tenet first debuted outside the U.S., globally.
Ultimately, sci-fi movies are presentations of the Western mind. They are studies that deconstruct its past, as well as its obsessions and its venture for power in the future. Sci-fi is appealing, not just because of its projection of space and time, but, more so, because of its human elements. And these are viewed from the Western world point of view. Thus, we can understand sci-fi movies in relation to Western dynamics, especially at the geopolitical vantage point.
