philoscifiz

Fantastic Voyage (1966) [#9 - summer 2021]

Matt and Dave explore the significance of not smushing an ant! Ship ahoy as the crew of the Proteus are miniaturised in order to enter the blood stream and save the life of a dying scientist. Racing against the clock in real time, we go on a biological excursion as a kind of space exploration. Is the movie an expression of red scare paranoia? Or does it expose such fears? And what is the outcome of the Socratic dialogues between Dr Duval and Dr Michaels?

The Black Hole (1979) [#8 - summer 2021]

Matt and Dave go to robot heaven in this old-skool sci-fi classic from the late 1970s. On one side, the aphoristic, gung-ho Vincent and the fear and trembling of old Bob; on the other, the martial uniformity of the sentinels, the eerie horror of the cyborgs, and the malign presence and silence of Maximillian. Join us and the crew of the Palomino as we encounter the evil genius of Dr Hans Reinhardt, and the ambiguity of the black hole and the spacetime beyond.

The Fifth Element (1997) [#7 - summer 2021]

Matt and Dave bound into the second season of the podcast with this bright, joyful, and profound multi-perspectival sci-fi movie. A big ball of evil is zooming towards the Earth, with only the elemental Leeloo standing in the way of an extinction event. But is human life worth saving when we do what we do to each other? Or should Leeloo love her fate, as wise-cracking Korben Dallas believes? Questions Nietzsche explored beyond good and evil proliferate!

Krull (1983) [#6 - spring 2021]

To conclude the first season on a high, Matt and Dave explore a box office flop! Why? The film didn’t fail – we, the audience, failed the film. Thusly, it is time to join Prince Colwyn and his disparate companions as they journey through all manner of terrors in this visually stunning film to save Princess Lyssa and their planet from the Beast. Fantasy rises from the foundations of sci-fi as we encounter myth with Joseph Campbell and 'The Hero with a Thousand Faces'.

Silent Running (1972) [#5 - spring 2021]

Matt and Dave feel some droid love with Huey, Dewey, and Louie aboard the Valley Forge at the rings of Saturn. This film explores the environmental fears of our time pushed into the future so we can see them with clarity. But is it really trees vs technology? Is it really Hannah Arendt’s Eichmann vs Adam in Eden? Or something far more complex and ambiguous? What is for sure, is the ecological, social, and personal trauma of Freeman Lowell.

Things to Come (1936) [#4 - spring 2021]

Matt and Dave go back to the early days of sound cinema and one of the first great sci-fi films, scripted by non-other than H. G. Wells. A lavish golden age blockbuster! We follow as the movie explores socialism and technology in the 1940s, 1970s, and 2030s. Along the way we cross paths with the philosophy of Hannah Arendt, Marshall McLuhan, and Karl Marx, as well as the late writing of Wells. At stake are questions of human progress, happiness, and intention.

Demolition Man (1993) [#3 - spring 2021]

Matt and Dave psychoanalyse Lenny Huxley's brave new world of LA 2030 with the rise of uber-criminal Simon Phoenix and return of the indomitable John Spartan. We watch Hollywood burn with the LA Uprisings of the early ‘90s, interrogate a mise en scène of hygiene, and explore the fetishisation of the male body turning to Freud and his topological theory of mind. What transforms a utopia into a dystopia? Or, are they already the same thing?

I Am Mother (2019) [#2 - spring 2021]

Matt and Dave encounter the aftermath of a human apocalypse and the endeavours of a robot artificial intelligence to repopulate the Earth. But all is not as it seems for the young girl at the centre of events. Swerving the ethical dilemma of the trolley problem - explored within the film – we hurtle straight for Kant and the possibility of universal morality. We also touch upon the lifetime of a civilisation within the Drake equation, as well as the lies of Plato's Republic.

Back to the Future Part II (1989) [#1- spring 2021]

Matt and Dave take a deep dive in the further temporal shenanigans of Marty and the Doc. Find out how short shift can be made of the standard paradoxes of time, and what time travel films in general and the ‘Back to the Future’ trilogy in particular seem to explore. Along the way we have a close encounter with Trump, get caught up in family values, and see how the film can be said to affirm multiplicity.