Third Type of SF Film and Why we are Interested in SF

While reading the book Screening Space (2004), by Vivian Sobchack I noticed that she mentioned a third type of SF film. There is no name for the type of SF film, but it seeks a purpose. Basically if a movie falls under the category of the third type, such as Jurassic Park (1993) or the example given in Vivian’s book, The Amazing Colossal Man (1957), then the film has both as quoted by Sobchack, “visual optimism and visual pessimism” (Sobchack 2004 137). When a film displays both optimism and pessimism it lets the viewer have a sense of hope even though most of the movie displays chaos and in general a dystopian world. For example in Jurassic Park (1993), at the beginning the creation of dinosaurs is thought of as a great feat for the human race, but is also looked upon by a select few as a mistake. Then as most of us know, later on in the movie the dinosaurs get lose and wreak havoc among the island at which they are stationed. Jurassic Park (1993) relates to present day as if we are the dinosaurs and the human race is wreaking havoc among the earth using up all of its resources, polluting it more and more as every day passes us by. By the end of the film the dinosaurs are eventually contained and safety is restored to the island, maybe humans need to be contained before all of our resources are gone.

By next year the world population is predicted to go above seven billion and at some point the earth is not going to be able to support the human race. There are already a few places around the world that are over populated, such as China where they have instituted a policy that couples can only have two children maximum. The pollution is very bad in China, to the point where people can easily distinguish the difference in air quality. Eventually the whole world will be like China and the human race will die off because there will not be enough food to support the overgrown population. Our visual optimistic view is that eventually we can create enough ways to not use gasoline or diesel fuel in order to slow down pollution at a worldwide rate and maybe come up with a way to not use as many resources as we are right now.

Relating back to the original terms “science” and “fiction” as stated in Screening Space (2004), “The satisfaction comes from seeing the visual integration of actual and impossible in the same frame” (Sobchack 2004 141). One of the reasons humans are so interested in SF films is because these movies portray what could possibly be our future and some of the images are not ideal. Terminator (1984) is a great example of a dystopian image of our future when our greatest advancements turn on us and create a dystopian world. SF films really wake us up and bring us back to reality with some of the disastrous images that our future could hold.