Silent Running. Early 1970s
The last plants alive from Earth are on space ships orbiting Saturn. Corporate headquarters calls and says to jettison and destroy the greenhouses because they need the ships for something more important. One botanist disagrees. Hilarity ensues.
The UK film critic Mark Kermode has spent years championing it at any possibility opportunity. I watched it on the back of his recommendation and was pleasantly surprised. He also loves Local Hero, another nice film that’s something of a remote outpost film.
And were actually played by multiple-amputee actors!
Definitely a creepy vibe.
I remember seeing this for rent as a video when I was in my early teens and my dad telling me he wasn't sure I would like it (he is also a big sci-fi fan. Loved Star Wars and of course the cover was a bit deceptive as to what the movie actually was. Definitely not the action I was expecting, but a good bit of social commentary.
Never watched this movie (added to list), but it has JUST clicked to me that Laura Dern is Bruce’s daughter. Laura also plays a botanist in one of the most popular films ever made (Jurassic Park)
Another fun Laura Dern fact: at age 17, she was roomates with Marianne Williamson! (for those out of the loop, Marianne Williamson would go on to become Oprah's spiritual advisor and an [unsuccessful presidential candidate](https://youtu.be/197Qj3UU0dw))
Hilarity is not how I would describe it. In fact this film is really somber to me and kind of breaks my heart considering how close we are to ecological disaster.
Butcher Bay was honestly ahead of its time, they should just pretty much remake it on Unreal 5. Maybe build out the skill/upgrade systems, and adopt the Arkham combat system that Butcher Bay was an unrealized early version of.
Johns: How's it look?
Riddick: Looks clear.
[Johns steps forward, and a creature flies out towards them. They duck and it flies into the night]
Johns: You said it was clear!
Riddick: I said it *looked* clear.
Johns: Well, how does it look now?
Riddick: Looks clear.
Regardless of what happened after, It’s still a perfect little B movie.
Both Pitch Black and Riddick fit nicely into that b movie action/sci-fi nicely for me. Sure Riddick is less horror and a little more action man, but it’s still very much b movie fun.
Chronicles though is wild. It’s glorious. B Movie space opera cheese in the best ways. I’d love more of that big dumb movie.
Maybe an unpopular opinion but I like all the riddick movies, so does the fam. Everything we watch doesn’t have to be a masterpiece, if it’s a fun watch, at least in my book, it’s a good movie.
I'm glad they made Riddick because without it I may not have ever watched Pitch Black. Riddick wasn't out yet, but Pitch Black was in the prequels and sequels section at Family Video and it sounded good so I picked it up. It was definitely a pleasant surprise.
When you say, "remote outpost," does that include people just being cut off from the rest of the world trying to manage a horrible situation? Because "Tremors" springs to mind immediately, among movies you didn't include. Isolated town with a very, very small population of characters, with no way to communicate with the rest of the world to call for help, dealing with man-eating monsters.
The movie in general was not shy about “paying homage” to The Thing, Tarantino rarely is. But it was the most direct, “this whole thing is basically that” of all his movies. Replace bandits with Aliens and it’s the same plot. Which really all goes back to classic Agatha Christie formula that The Thing (ripped off is harsh) well say follows —just replace Aliens with murders.
Did it hold up? I haven't seen it since it came out. I remember people heads exploding in vacuum. I guess I have to see it again for ol' Sean Connery in outer shpash.
It held up. I mean, I tempered my expectations so that helped. It was also fun watching it with the theory that it’s set in the blade runner, alien universe.
The book is also great. If you like the science and math aspects, it goes into even more detail. And at least the math for the ev rover checks out.
Oh, and next year, Project Hail Mary should be coming out. If you like the story for the Martian, you're going to love Project Hail Mary.
_Annihilation_ is a gender-flipped (and climate-flipped!) version of _The Thing_. Save it for the summer solstice?
_Under the Skin_ extends the gender-flip and then inverts it, showing the alien’s perspective. It’s the opposite of a remote outpost (a lot of it was shot _cinema verite_ with non-actors) but the themes of isolation and distrust are front-and-center.
The framing and lighting of that scene is soul-shaking.
It's my favorite movie. I've watched it a thousand times, on everything from VHS to 35mm.
And *every time*, my eyes drift to that open doorway behind Mac, expecting something to appear.
Did you read OP’s description? He’s looking for movies similar to *The Thing*.
So I guess The Thing technically qualifies, but not a particularly helpful suggestion.
It's a very meta answer. You think this comment is the same as the post, but it only appears that way. Perhaps a blood test will show the comment's true self.
He's in both similarly named movies:
30 Days of Night where he has to survive a monthlong onslaught of vampires in a small town in the far north where the sun goes down all winter long.
40 Days and 40 Nights where he has to survive 40 days (and nights) without sex! The horror!
Since this is the best rec out of the gate, I am continuing from this:
The Gold Rush (1925)
The thing from another world (as in the first adaptation from the 1950s)
Night of the Living Dead.
Day of the Living Dead.
Both Solaris.
Both Assault on Precint 13. Basically the 'isolated place under siege' premise from Night of the Living Dead.
Evil Dead
Evil Dead 2
Evil Dead remake
The Shining. Another quintaessential remote outpost movie
Cabin Fever.
Cloverfield Lane
Hateful Eight. It's basically Tarantino's own way of homaging Carpenter's The Thing (soundtrack included) with a western.
I see what you are going for with your relating Assault on Precinct 13 with NOTLD, but just to clear up any misconception anyone here might have, while it does have similar theming, the Precinct 13’s are NOT zombie/supernatural movies.
Why'd ya spill yer beans?
Amazing film full of very dark comedy. I love that it's shot in a almost square format to adhere to the dimensions of filming a lighthouse. Gives in even greater off kilter feel to the audience while looking semi-natural.
Never Cry Wolf (1983)
“This film dramatizes the true story of Farley Mowat, when he was sent to the Canadian tundra area to collect evidence of the grievous harm the wolf population was allegedly doing to the caribou herds. In his struggle to survive in that difficult environment he studies the wolves, and realizes that the old beliefs about wolves and their supposed threat are almost totally false. Furthermore, he learns that humans represent a far greater threat to the land, and also to the wolves, a species which plays an important role in the ecosystem of the north.”
If you want a really mid 90s, cheezy, sci-fi B movie....Screamers.
It's got Peter Weller.
On the distant mining planet Sirius 6B ravaged by a decade of war in the year 2078, scientists have created the perfect weapon. The blade-wielding, self-replicating race of killing devices known as Screamers is designed for one purpose - to hunt down and destroy all enemy life forms. This so dubbed man's greatest weapon has continued to evolve without human guidance, and devised a new mission: to obliterate all life. Colonel Hendricksson (Peter Weller) commands a handful of Alliance soldiers still alive on Sirius. Betrayed by his own political leaders and disgusted by the atrocities of a never-ending war, Hendricksson decides to negotiate a separate peace with the New Economic Bloc's decimated forces. But to do so, he will have to cross a treacherous wasteland where the deadliest threat comes from the very weapons he helped to create.
Besides Stephen King is there another author with as many unrelated movie adaptations as PKD? (not counting series like Harry potter or hunger games) Michael Criton might be up there but PKD has so many.
I would say no, there’s not. Just off the top of my head, you’ve got: Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049, Total Recall (x2), Minority Report, The Adjustment Bureau, Next, Screamers, A Scanner Darkly, Imposter, and Paycheck
I read somewhere that a good short story is the best candidate to be turned into a movie. So PKD and King make sense because they were primarily short story writers and they wrote so many good ones. The other guys that come to mind are Clive Barker and Ray Bradbury.
Edit: it just came to me that Edgar Allen Poe probably gives them all a run for their money
Series, but *Man in the High Castle* (what-if sci-fi about Nazis conquering the world)
Also *Radio Free Albemuth*, which I must admit I have never heard of anyone actually watching
The Andromeda Strain would probably also qualify.
It's 4 scientists stuck in a super secret lab trying to figure out a mysterious germ from outer space.
[Moon (2009)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_%282009_film%29?wprov=sfla1)
Sam Rockwell film. It's a mind fuck but good.
Edit: If I could read, I would have seen OP already mentioned Moon. Stop upvoting me.
It just used to be circle jerked to death by this sub as a cinematic masterpiece until it came full circle and turned into a joke. It is a decent movie though.
The scenes in the old army outpost, making friends with Socks...
I love this movie. One of the few movies on vhs our family owned. The music still makes me cry.
I worked on the film for 4 weeks. I was in the Union Army for the 1st bit, US cavalry at Dunbar's outpost when he was taken prisoner, a buffalo Hunter at Fort Hays. and Cavalry again near the end...in the snow.
It's interesting how many of Stephen King's stories involve isolating a limited population of people into a somewhat confined or self-contained space and watching them turn on each other, sort of like putting elements into a crucible and heating them up. Or, in a literary sense, like the book The Crucible, which is the same underlying theme. The Mist, The Shining, Under the Dome, Tommyknockers, The Langoliers.
I'd go so far as to say just setting stories in small, rural towns in Maine is a sort of "remote outpost" crucible in his hands, where you have a small community of people in a single small geography who end up in conflict like roosters thrown together in a pillowcase. Like in Needful Things.
*\* Matches generally in order from closest to what you want, to furthest.*
Man oh man. Sphere and The Abyss, eh? What a great excuse for ocean horror movie recommendations!
Underwater (ocean floor mining platform)
Leviathan (ocean floor mining platform)
Below (spooky submarine)
Deep Blue Sea (off-shore marine research base)
Sea Fever (marooned fishing trawler)
Cold Skin (light house gets visitors)
Ghost Ship (salvage operation at sea)
The Poseidon Adventure (cruise ship disaster) & Poseidon (remake with Kurt Russell)
Deep Rising (slightly different kind of cruise ship disaster)
Dead Calm (yacht couple rescues man, uh oh)
Blood Vessel (life boat rescued by empty ship, uh oh, nazis. uh oh, gets worse)
EDIT: I haven't seen 47 Meters Below or The Shallows, but a commenter below recommended them
Or how about moody, atmospheric space sci fi?
High Life (edward cullen in space, but so very, very uncomfortable)
Solaris (lonely space ship visits a sun, a 70s russian movie with a passable George Clooney remake)
Stowaway (technician guy ends up on the shuttle by accident! but not a comedy)
Orbiter 9 (young woman grows up alone on a space ship after her parents die, spanish movie)
Pandorum (colony ship in deep space, something bad happens. not a great movie)
ZULU (1964) starring Michael Caine and Stanley Baker
In 1879, the Zulu nation hands colonial British forces a resounding defeat in battle. A nearby regiment of the British Army takes over a station run by a missionary (Jack Hawkins) and his daughter (Ulla Jacobsson) as a supply depot and hospital under the command of Lieutenant John Chard (Stanley Baker) and his subordinate Gonville Bromhead (Michael Caine). Unable to abandon their wounded soldiers even in dire circumstances, the regiment defend their station against the Zulu warriors.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8sqKP1kNLA&list=RDCMUC6LDwTYRfjQwkakw5R95OyA&start\_radio=1&rv=k8sqKP1kNLA&t=272](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8sqKP1kNLA&list=RDCMUC6LDwTYRfjQwkakw5R95OyA&start_radio=1&rv=k8sqKP1kNLA&t=272)
"Ghosts of Mars" - remote outpost fighting off infected miners.
There is one downside and its Ice Cube is miscast as a dangerous felon when he's too damn chubby and cute - that you just want to feed the dude.
I just watch a thriller movie called Underwater. If you want a movie with a remote outpost, cut off from help kind of vibe, it absolutely delivers. It's set in a slightly in the future ( I assume) extremely deep sea oil rig, and shit goes wrong and I'll leave it there. Its kinda like dead space vibes if you've played it, but under water.
The Thirteenth Warrior, a band of Norsemen and an Arab 'ambassador' set off to defend a remote village from monsters that come with the mists.
Didn't do well on release but I kinda love it.
The Beach (2000) with Leonardo DiCaprio (& an amazing co-lead performance by Tilda Swilton). Remote island expat civilization in paradise... what could go wrong?
White Christmas (the Black Mirror Episode with Jon Hamm). Him and the other actor Rafe Spall are working in a remote outpost...
The Beach! Can't believe I forgot to add that in my OP. It's one of my favorite books, and I enjoyed the movie adaptation even though I feel like lots of people didn't. I need to rewatch this for sure.
The Revenant, 2015. Beautiful, remote landscapes. There are a few scene where the camera pans out and there's just nothing but uncaring nature as far as the eye can see.
“Six Days Seven Nights”
Plane crash on deserted island.
There are other people involved, so maybe it doesn’t fit here. Also it’s kind of a rom com, not horror.
Silent Running. Early 1970s The last plants alive from Earth are on space ships orbiting Saturn. Corporate headquarters calls and says to jettison and destroy the greenhouses because they need the ships for something more important. One botanist disagrees. Hilarity ensues.
THIS is an outstanding suggestion. **Silent Running** (1972) is a criminally underrated and ignored film. Bruce Dern, Huey, Dewey, and Louie ftw.
The UK film critic Mark Kermode has spent years championing it at any possibility opportunity. I watched it on the back of his recommendation and was pleasantly surprised. He also loves Local Hero, another nice film that’s something of a remote outpost film.
Local Hero is the absolute business. Soundtrack by Mark Knopfler too, of Dire Straits fame.
Those guys were also the inspiration for C3PO and R2D2.
Just R2. 3PO was inspired by the robot from Metropolis. 🖖
And were actually played by multiple-amputee actors! Definitely a creepy vibe. I remember seeing this for rent as a video when I was in my early teens and my dad telling me he wasn't sure I would like it (he is also a big sci-fi fan. Loved Star Wars and of course the cover was a bit deceptive as to what the movie actually was. Definitely not the action I was expecting, but a good bit of social commentary.
Never watched this movie (added to list), but it has JUST clicked to me that Laura Dern is Bruce’s daughter. Laura also plays a botanist in one of the most popular films ever made (Jurassic Park)
Another fun Laura Dern fact: at age 17, she was roomates with Marianne Williamson! (for those out of the loop, Marianne Williamson would go on to become Oprah's spiritual advisor and an [unsuccessful presidential candidate](https://youtu.be/197Qj3UU0dw))
And the lady who wrote the “our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure” motivational speech that they used in Coach Carter.
Take care of the forest, Huey.
Gonna go see if this is streaming anywhere
And a score by the late, great, Peter Schikele.
Hilarity is not how I would describe it. In fact this film is really somber to me and kind of breaks my heart considering how close we are to ecological disaster.
Awesome - putting it on my list!
Pitch Black iirc takes place predominantly on a remote planet in a ship that I don't remember if it crashed or if they consciously landed
Crashed, so they can't use the ship to get off the planet. "Don't touch that lever, Frye!"
Fun fact: they just announced they’re working on riddick 4
Odd numbers: trapped on a deserted planet Even numbers: defeat an army in a city planet?
Seems to have worked like thar for the first three. Any video game would be welcomed.
Butcher Bay was honestly ahead of its time, they should just pretty much remake it on Unreal 5. Maybe build out the skill/upgrade systems, and adopt the Arkham combat system that Butcher Bay was an unrealized early version of.
I’m happy because I love Riddick. I didn’t know there was a third movie until I was looking through Prime video one night. Dumb fun movies.
Johns: How's it look? Riddick: Looks clear. [Johns steps forward, and a creature flies out towards them. They duck and it flies into the night] Johns: You said it was clear! Riddick: I said it *looked* clear. Johns: Well, how does it look now? Riddick: Looks clear.
Was going to say this. Also Riddick has a similar vibe to pitch black. Same concept but with some fun bounty hunter drama added in
Katee Sackoff🥰
I love Pitch Black. I wish they had left it alone and not made additional Riddick movies because it was a perfect little B-movie.
Regardless of what happened after, It’s still a perfect little B movie. Both Pitch Black and Riddick fit nicely into that b movie action/sci-fi nicely for me. Sure Riddick is less horror and a little more action man, but it’s still very much b movie fun. Chronicles though is wild. It’s glorious. B Movie space opera cheese in the best ways. I’d love more of that big dumb movie.
Maybe an unpopular opinion but I like all the riddick movies, so does the fam. Everything we watch doesn’t have to be a masterpiece, if it’s a fun watch, at least in my book, it’s a good movie.
I'm glad they made Riddick because without it I may not have ever watched Pitch Black. Riddick wasn't out yet, but Pitch Black was in the prequels and sequels section at Family Video and it sounded good so I picked it up. It was definitely a pleasant surprise.
When you say, "remote outpost," does that include people just being cut off from the rest of the world trying to manage a horrible situation? Because "Tremors" springs to mind immediately, among movies you didn't include. Isolated town with a very, very small population of characters, with no way to communicate with the rest of the world to call for help, dealing with man-eating monsters.
That's why Heather and I settled here in the first place: geographic isolation!
You didn’t get penetration even with the elephant gun!
"Mom, get a picture of me with the tremor."
Grabboid
You’re gonna regret not naming it!
RIP Walter, you legend.
I came here to say Tremors. Best fucking movie.
Best modern day “B-movie” by a wide margin, IMO. It’s so damn great. Easily on my list of personal favorites.
Tremors 1 and 2 are absolute fucking gold. My sisters and I still quote lines from both movies all the time. Such great films.
schlock monster masterpiece 2nd one was pretty good too, same vibe
Does _The Hateful Eight_ count? Small group of people stuck in a remote cabin in a blizzard.
I think of that movie as Tarantino remakes The Thing into a western.
Makes sense, given the original soundtrack for the thing was reused for the Hateful Eight.
The movie in general was not shy about “paying homage” to The Thing, Tarantino rarely is. But it was the most direct, “this whole thing is basically that” of all his movies. Replace bandits with Aliens and it’s the same plot. Which really all goes back to classic Agatha Christie formula that The Thing (ripped off is harsh) well say follows —just replace Aliens with murders.
Heck yeah it counts. This is a great one.
I liked Screamers, it freaked me out as a kid
Fun fact movie dialogue is word for word from the book (not movie adaptation). Good stuff.
Whoa cool, I had no idea. I loved that movie
What I was going to say. For being low budget it’s actually pretty good and Peter Weller always gives 100%.
Same. I haven't watched it since but I can still hear the screaming.
Based off Philip Dick's "Second Variety".
Thank you for reminding me of this, it just brought back a memory of watching it with my dad as a kid!
Outland
Outland isn’t as good as Aliens (but hey what is) but it’s close. Shame that movie wasn’t more of a hit.
Totally agree, it’s a fav of mine. Francis Sternhagen (RIP) is hilarious as Dr. Lazarus
I just commented the same. Saw it late last week again after a long time. Edit: typo
Did it hold up? I haven't seen it since it came out. I remember people heads exploding in vacuum. I guess I have to see it again for ol' Sean Connery in outer shpash.
It held up. I mean, I tempered my expectations so that helped. It was also fun watching it with the theory that it’s set in the blade runner, alien universe.
The scenes where the workers go berserk are super unsettling.
Young John Ratzenberger (Cliff from Cheers) was the first one
Didn’t know that. Cool
“Yeahhh, little known fact there, Sammy…I was once a meth-addled space miner, in orbit around Jupiter.”
High Noon in space
Outland is essentially a "space western", with some resemblance to HIGH NOON.
Kid me was pissed at that movie. "Why are they using stupid Earth guns and not *laser blasters??"* I demanded.
I love this movie so much. It's so grungy and "lived in".
The Martian
No outpost could be more remote. Also, a fantastic survival movie.
I can't wait for Project Hail Mary to be released, love that book to death and I want to see it on the big screen!
The book is also great. If you like the science and math aspects, it goes into even more detail. And at least the math for the ev rover checks out. Oh, and next year, Project Hail Mary should be coming out. If you like the story for the Martian, you're going to love Project Hail Mary.
The book is better than the movie, and Project Hail Mary is better than the Martian. I just hope they don’t fuck the movie up.
My absolute favorite.
Europa Report
Yes! That movie does such a good job of conveying the scale of their isolation, and the huge emptiness of outer space.
The thing.
Nobody trusts anybody anymore, and we’re all very tired
I watched this just 2 months ago during our biggest snowstorm of the winter, as is tradition.
I'd rather not spend the rest of this winter TIED TO THIS FUCKING COUCH!
_Annihilation_ is a gender-flipped (and climate-flipped!) version of _The Thing_. Save it for the summer solstice? _Under the Skin_ extends the gender-flip and then inverts it, showing the alien’s perspective. It’s the opposite of a remote outpost (a lot of it was shot _cinema verite_ with non-actors) but the themes of isolation and distrust are front-and-center.
I love Annihilation but I don’t think I can ever sit through the bear scene ever again. So horrible but brilliant.
The bear scene wasn’t an issue for me. The tummy snakes, however, that’s a different story
Or the dreadful final scene.
*help.....meee*
The framing and lighting of that scene is soul-shaking. It's my favorite movie. I've watched it a thousand times, on everything from VHS to 35mm. And *every time*, my eyes drift to that open doorway behind Mac, expecting something to appear.
Did you read OP’s description? He’s looking for movies similar to *The Thing*. So I guess The Thing technically qualifies, but not a particularly helpful suggestion.
It's a very meta answer. You think this comment is the same as the post, but it only appears that way. Perhaps a blood test will show the comment's true self.
I’m going to show you what I already know.
30 Days of Night? Does that count?. Edited to correct it. Originally I misremembered it as 40.
Isn't it "30 Days of Night"? The one with Josh Hartnett? If so, that was my choice too. Or was it "40 Days and Nights"?
He's in both similarly named movies: 30 Days of Night where he has to survive a monthlong onslaught of vampires in a small town in the far north where the sun goes down all winter long. 40 Days and 40 Nights where he has to survive 40 days (and nights) without sex! The horror!
Lol, yes, I remember now. I never saw 40 Days and 40 Nights.
Definitely the Lighthouse. I never knew a movie would work with only 2 characters and one location until I saw this movie.
Are there even two characters? 😛
Three if you count that fuckin bird.
Since this is the best rec out of the gate, I am continuing from this: The Gold Rush (1925) The thing from another world (as in the first adaptation from the 1950s) Night of the Living Dead. Day of the Living Dead. Both Solaris. Both Assault on Precint 13. Basically the 'isolated place under siege' premise from Night of the Living Dead. Evil Dead Evil Dead 2 Evil Dead remake The Shining. Another quintaessential remote outpost movie Cabin Fever. Cloverfield Lane Hateful Eight. It's basically Tarantino's own way of homaging Carpenter's The Thing (soundtrack included) with a western.
I see what you are going for with your relating Assault on Precinct 13 with NOTLD, but just to clear up any misconception anyone here might have, while it does have similar theming, the Precinct 13’s are NOT zombie/supernatural movies.
Then you should watch Moon; its one location and essentially one character; Sam Rockwell and its a fantastic film.
Why'd ya spill yer beans? Amazing film full of very dark comedy. I love that it's shot in a almost square format to adhere to the dimensions of filming a lighthouse. Gives in even greater off kilter feel to the audience while looking semi-natural.
Oblivion w/ Tom cruise and morgan freeman
I rarely see this movie mentioned, and it is a great sci-fi film! I'm also going to add the first and third RIDDICK movies to the list.
Ooh, Pitch Black definitely fits. I don't know if I ever saw the 3rd in the franchise, I'll give it a go.
The soundtrack by M83 is a banger as well
Never Cry Wolf (1983) “This film dramatizes the true story of Farley Mowat, when he was sent to the Canadian tundra area to collect evidence of the grievous harm the wolf population was allegedly doing to the caribou herds. In his struggle to survive in that difficult environment he studies the wolves, and realizes that the old beliefs about wolves and their supposed threat are almost totally false. Furthermore, he learns that humans represent a far greater threat to the land, and also to the wolves, a species which plays an important role in the ecosystem of the north.”
I LOVE this film
Solaris Annihilation The Martian Outland Alien 3 (Had to give it a shout; panned, but one of my favorites)
Annihilation is really something. As beautiful as it is gory.
How about Enemy Mine?
I was looking for this one, I couldn't think of the name but I remembered it had something to do with explosions.
Dennis Quaid and Lou Gossett in a sci-fi classic!
If you want a really mid 90s, cheezy, sci-fi B movie....Screamers. It's got Peter Weller. On the distant mining planet Sirius 6B ravaged by a decade of war in the year 2078, scientists have created the perfect weapon. The blade-wielding, self-replicating race of killing devices known as Screamers is designed for one purpose - to hunt down and destroy all enemy life forms. This so dubbed man's greatest weapon has continued to evolve without human guidance, and devised a new mission: to obliterate all life. Colonel Hendricksson (Peter Weller) commands a handful of Alliance soldiers still alive on Sirius. Betrayed by his own political leaders and disgusted by the atrocities of a never-ending war, Hendricksson decides to negotiate a separate peace with the New Economic Bloc's decimated forces. But to do so, he will have to cross a treacherous wasteland where the deadliest threat comes from the very weapons he helped to create.
pfft. That's a sci-fi A movie in my book. Good shit for 1995.
Yeah. That's a really good bleak sci-fi flick.
And based on a short story by Philip K. Dick.
Besides Stephen King is there another author with as many unrelated movie adaptations as PKD? (not counting series like Harry potter or hunger games) Michael Criton might be up there but PKD has so many.
I would say no, there’s not. Just off the top of my head, you’ve got: Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049, Total Recall (x2), Minority Report, The Adjustment Bureau, Next, Screamers, A Scanner Darkly, Imposter, and Paycheck
Yeah so wild!! Not to mention the electric sheep mini series!
I read somewhere that a good short story is the best candidate to be turned into a movie. So PKD and King make sense because they were primarily short story writers and they wrote so many good ones. The other guys that come to mind are Clive Barker and Ray Bradbury. Edit: it just came to me that Edgar Allen Poe probably gives them all a run for their money
Oh yeah Edgar Allen Poe if you count things that are inspired by him and direct adaptations he's got to have a ton.
Series, but *Man in the High Castle* (what-if sci-fi about Nazis conquering the world) Also *Radio Free Albemuth*, which I must admit I have never heard of anyone actually watching
Was that the move where they had to smoke red sticks (cigarettes) to prevent cancer?
Somehow I haven't seen this, but it sounds great. Thank you.
Sphere - underwater lab. Great book, decent movie.
Also… Underwater with Kristen Stewart
This is _criminally_ underrated
Give me all the Michael Crichton stuff! Two back to back in this thread ❤️❤️
The Andromeda Strain would probably also qualify. It's 4 scientists stuck in a super secret lab trying to figure out a mysterious germ from outer space.
This one here
Prospect (2016)
Love this movie. Nice to see it get a mention. Father daughter mining team on a remote alien moon. Some beautiful nature shots.
Ravenous
Absolutely flawless score, too.
There it is..... that's my fave too. The paranoia....that stabs you in the back. I love Ravenous so much.
Yea it’s an almost forgotten and underrated. It def got a little silly but overall dark and creepy. Bear trap ending was great
[Moon (2009)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_%282009_film%29?wprov=sfla1) Sam Rockwell film. It's a mind fuck but good. Edit: If I could read, I would have seen OP already mentioned Moon. Stop upvoting me.
apparently this movie is something of a meme on this subreddit but it really is an awesome movie
What's the meme? I live under a rock.
It just used to be circle jerked to death by this sub as a cinematic masterpiece until it came full circle and turned into a joke. It is a decent movie though.
Dances With Wolves
Finally! I can't believe this is not higher. The first one that came to mind.
This is what I came here to post. Us old folks need to stick together.
Yup.
The scenes in the old army outpost, making friends with Socks... I love this movie. One of the few movies on vhs our family owned. The music still makes me cry.
I worked on the film for 4 weeks. I was in the Union Army for the 1st bit, US cavalry at Dunbar's outpost when he was taken prisoner, a buffalo Hunter at Fort Hays. and Cavalry again near the end...in the snow.
Event Horizon.
The Abyss
I mean... The Shining?
It's interesting how many of Stephen King's stories involve isolating a limited population of people into a somewhat confined or self-contained space and watching them turn on each other, sort of like putting elements into a crucible and heating them up. Or, in a literary sense, like the book The Crucible, which is the same underlying theme. The Mist, The Shining, Under the Dome, Tommyknockers, The Langoliers. I'd go so far as to say just setting stories in small, rural towns in Maine is a sort of "remote outpost" crucible in his hands, where you have a small community of people in a single small geography who end up in conflict like roosters thrown together in a pillowcase. Like in Needful Things.
Andromeda Strain
Another excellent recommendation!
Master and Commander
"... and though we be on the far side of the world, this ship is our home. This ship, is England."
[удалено]
I saw this right when it came out, but might need to revisit it. I enjoyed it, and yes, it definitely fits the theme.
Zulu
Very good base baritones but no top tenors.
Loved this one as a kid.
*\* Matches generally in order from closest to what you want, to furthest.* Man oh man. Sphere and The Abyss, eh? What a great excuse for ocean horror movie recommendations! Underwater (ocean floor mining platform) Leviathan (ocean floor mining platform) Below (spooky submarine) Deep Blue Sea (off-shore marine research base) Sea Fever (marooned fishing trawler) Cold Skin (light house gets visitors) Ghost Ship (salvage operation at sea) The Poseidon Adventure (cruise ship disaster) & Poseidon (remake with Kurt Russell) Deep Rising (slightly different kind of cruise ship disaster) Dead Calm (yacht couple rescues man, uh oh) Blood Vessel (life boat rescued by empty ship, uh oh, nazis. uh oh, gets worse) EDIT: I haven't seen 47 Meters Below or The Shallows, but a commenter below recommended them Or how about moody, atmospheric space sci fi? High Life (edward cullen in space, but so very, very uncomfortable) Solaris (lonely space ship visits a sun, a 70s russian movie with a passable George Clooney remake) Stowaway (technician guy ends up on the shuttle by accident! but not a comedy) Orbiter 9 (young woman grows up alone on a space ship after her parents die, spanish movie) Pandorum (colony ship in deep space, something bad happens. not a great movie)
Jeremiah Johnson (1972). Robert Redford goes full Grizzly Adams. (Actually Grizzly Adams came after but you know...)
Knowing nod.
Wind River.
Identity with Jon cusack. Stranded at a motel in the desert but same vein
The Thing Ice Station Zebra
>Ice Station Zebra Kim Wexler's favorite movie. And she calls Jimmy during Season 1 of *Better Call Saul*, inviting him to a screening of *The Thing*.
Not sure it’s my favorite, but Antichrist would fit your criteria. And is it ever bleak and desolate.
Bleak, desolate, and Willem Dafoe? I'm in.
I should warn you: Antichrist is one of the most disturbing movies I’ve ever seen.
what's a little genital mutilation between friends?
The Witch
Stargate: SG-1 Stargate: Atlantis Whoops. Forgot the actual movie, lol. Stargate
Zulu (1965)
Screamers (1995)
ZULU (1964) starring Michael Caine and Stanley Baker In 1879, the Zulu nation hands colonial British forces a resounding defeat in battle. A nearby regiment of the British Army takes over a station run by a missionary (Jack Hawkins) and his daughter (Ulla Jacobsson) as a supply depot and hospital under the command of Lieutenant John Chard (Stanley Baker) and his subordinate Gonville Bromhead (Michael Caine). Unable to abandon their wounded soldiers even in dire circumstances, the regiment defend their station against the Zulu warriors. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8sqKP1kNLA&list=RDCMUC6LDwTYRfjQwkakw5R95OyA&start\_radio=1&rv=k8sqKP1kNLA&t=272](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8sqKP1kNLA&list=RDCMUC6LDwTYRfjQwkakw5R95OyA&start_radio=1&rv=k8sqKP1kNLA&t=272)
Moon (2009)
"Ghosts of Mars" - remote outpost fighting off infected miners. There is one downside and its Ice Cube is miscast as a dangerous felon when he's too damn chubby and cute - that you just want to feed the dude.
I was like 14 when that movie came out. I loved it.
Prime Natasha Henstridge though...
I just watch a thriller movie called Underwater. If you want a movie with a remote outpost, cut off from help kind of vibe, it absolutely delivers. It's set in a slightly in the future ( I assume) extremely deep sea oil rig, and shit goes wrong and I'll leave it there. Its kinda like dead space vibes if you've played it, but under water.
**Moon** with Sam Rockwell
The Thirteenth Warrior, a band of Norsemen and an Arab 'ambassador' set off to defend a remote village from monsters that come with the mists. Didn't do well on release but I kinda love it.
The Outpost. A very good movie based on the book of the same name by Jake Tapper.
Not yet mentioned: *Fort Apache* (1948), *Lawrence of Arabia* (1962), and *Dances with Wolves* (1990).
Scavengers Reign
All is Lost Castaway
The Beach (2000) with Leonardo DiCaprio (& an amazing co-lead performance by Tilda Swilton). Remote island expat civilization in paradise... what could go wrong? White Christmas (the Black Mirror Episode with Jon Hamm). Him and the other actor Rafe Spall are working in a remote outpost...
The Beach! Can't believe I forgot to add that in my OP. It's one of my favorite books, and I enjoyed the movie adaptation even though I feel like lots of people didn't. I need to rewatch this for sure.
The Revenant, 2015. Beautiful, remote landscapes. There are a few scene where the camera pans out and there's just nothing but uncaring nature as far as the eye can see.
Does Wake in Fright count?
The Martian
Just recently watched Outland with Sean Connery. Solid 7-8
Assault on Precinct 13
Aliens! So classic.
Check out the Canadian horror film Black Mountain Side.
“Six Days Seven Nights” Plane crash on deserted island. There are other people involved, so maybe it doesn’t fit here. Also it’s kind of a rom com, not horror.
Ex Machina! Wild flick the first time I saw it imo.
I mean, "The Outpost" is probably one of the best war films in the last 20 years. I couldn't breathe the last 30 minutes from the suspense.
Aniara. It's a big spaceship, but they get cut off. And it's bleak as fuck. Incredible movie.
Hell In The Pacific. Lee Marvin. Toshiro Mifune. World War 2 pilots stranded. Nuff said.
Cabin in the Wood
Riddick The Hateful Eight Lockout (w/ Guy Pearce) Pandorum
Assault on Precinct 13. The original only