Awesome Science Fiction

This upcoming Netflix original series originates from Germany, and follows the story of two children who suddenly vanish. As the layers of the onion are peeled back, we’re lead down the rabbit hole into a mystery about the very nature of time. Drops 12/1/17.

“If the corporations can achieve this vast goal, what else are they capable of?” Adam Westbrook’s criminally ignored satirical documentary series about our planet ends with the aliens concluding that there is hope. For the corporations.

Digital artist Julius Horsthuis calls his short “fantasy sci-fi story without a story.” What makes his eye-popping film even more amazing is that the structures and planets were generated procedurally, using fractal math. The soundtrack by David Levy seals the deal.

Looper, Terminator, Back to the Future, and even Groundhog Day each play with the idea of time travel in different ways. Minute Physics explores the many ways in which moving through time affects characters, story, and the universe around them. We love do-over movies.

The Future is Now: Neon Rising is the second edition of the second book in Josan Gonzalez’s cyberpunk series. Almost all of its 212 pages has full-page illustrations, which tie into each other to create a “silent graphic novel.” It comes with three postcards.

A woman finds herself trapped in a temporal loop after she’s kidnapped by a mysterious agency and locked away in a prison cell. Olga Osorio’s short science fiction film about time and memory takes inspiration from the classic La Jetée, which inspired Twelve Monkeys.

A biologist joins the latest expedition into a bizarre disaster zone to find out what happened to her husband, who was sent there in the previous expedition. Alex Garland (Ex Machina, 28 Days Later, Sunshine) directs Natalie Portman and Oscar Isaac in this sci-fi mystery.

Tested’s Adam Savage stopped by UK special effects costume house FBFX to check out some of the incredible spacesuits they’ve made for science fiction movies. The engineering, detail, and craftsmanship in each of these outfits is truly extraordinary.

Dave Bautista stars as Sapper, a replicant on the run in the second of a series of short films which take place between Blade Runner and Blade Runner: 2049. Again, it captures the texture of the original film well, though it drops more questions than answers. Original here.

“Employees have no individual sentience. Only the group is aware of itself.” After identifying Earth’s prime inhabitants, the aliens in Adam Westbrook’s mockumentary look at the perfect drones. They replicate and recharge on their own, but are too dumb to escape their fate.

(PG-13: Language) After the recent teaser, we now have the 7-minute concept short film based on Charlie Human’s novel about Baxter Zevchenko, a strange young man who finds himself pulled into a underworld filled with supernatural forces. We want more!

A new anthology series based on the works of Philip K. Dick, mixing elements of Doctor Who and The Twilight Zone. Executive produced by Bryan Cranston, Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica), and Michael Dinner (Justified). Coming to Stan, Channel 4, and Amazon Prime.

Director Michael Matthews’ short film will drag us into a deep, dark alternate underbelly of Cape Town, South Africa filled with supernatural forces, monsters, and government conspiracies. Based on the novel by Charlie Human, the film dops on Short of the Week on 8/29/17.

“We can conclude that the sole purpose of civilization on this planet is to maximize profit.” Adam Westbrook’s criminally unappreciated faux documentary series continues. Here the aliens talk about what they deem to be Earth’s prime inhabitants: corporations.

(PG-13: Language) We’ve got enough problems with corporations selling guns to people who probably shouldn’t have them, but the humans are now doing weapons deals with a bunch of creepy aliens in Ray Sullivan’s short sci-fi film, based on Simon Roy’s comic.

(PG-13: Language) A “second-rate” scientist is asked to man an underground research facility, alone but for a test subject with a gruesome disease. John Lynch’s short film reveals its hand too easily, but its setting and tone make it worth watching.

It’s not the live-action sequel we’ve been hoping for, but this CGI animated feature has plenty of cheesy dialogue, Casper Van Diem, and way more bugs than Paul Verhoeven’s 1997 original. It’s in theaters for a one-night-only showing on 8/21, then hits digital and Blu-ray.

It’s rare that we’re this excited for a sequel, but with Denis Villeneuve directing, Roger Deakins behind the lens, and original screenwriter Hampton Fancher, all under the watchful eye of Ridley Scott, it’s got every chance of being great. Please let it be as good as it looks.

“The human way is violence and death.” Like other excellent examples of fantasy and science fiction, the Planet of the Apes movies urge us to look inward. ScreenPrism points out how the franchise’s movies served as signs of their times.

(PG-13, Gore) Neill Blomkamp’s Oats Studios is back with more outstanding nightmare fuel. Dakota Fanning stars in a story about a Arctic mining colony terrorized by an experiment gone wrong – an assimilating monster that makes the Borg look like Care Bears.

(PG-13: Language) Javier Chillon tense science fiction short film takes place aboard a spaceship packed with human cargo in cryogenic stasis. The ship’s skeleton crew decides to wake a critical team member when the ship’s engines malfunction, and a terrible truth is revealed.

(PG-13: Language/Gore) Animator Sam Barnett follows up his 2013 stop-motion short with another incredible episode about an evil corporation that enslaves and controls its workers with creepy biomechanical parasites. Help fund episode 3 over on Kickstarter.

Simon Stålenhag is back with more retro sci-fi paintings. Set in an alternate ’90s US and centered on a young girl traveling with her robot, The Electric State is a 120-page art book with a supplementary narrative written by Simon as well. More on his site.