The 12 Best 'Save the World' Movies of All Time

  

I'm not a hippie but I do appreciate the Earth. To paraphrase Peter Quill, "I'm one of the idiots who lives on it." It's the only planet we've got. So whether from pollution, nuclear holocaust, massive asteroids, hostile aliens or genocidal A.I., we've gotta protect it. Check out these movies that celebrate that spirit:





12. An Inconvenient Truth

11. WarGames

 

WarGames made Matthew Broderick a star. Yep, it came out 3 years before Ferris Bueller's Day Off. It's also one of the few decent movies about computer hackers (Ferris also had hacking skills and used them to change his grades -- just like David, the hacker in WarGames). The story illustrated the potential destruction that hackers (and to a greater extent, governments with stockpiles of nuclear weapons) can cause. But it probably inspired more people to want to be hackers than not. The movie also introduced the general public to NORAD -- North American Aerospace Defense Command -- a facility built under the Rockies for use in protecting the President and other government VIPs in case of a nuclearr attack. It's worth noting that David, the hacker who starts all the trouble in the movie, lives in Seattle, which is a 19-minute drive from the birthplace of Microsoft -- Bellevue, Washington. A software developer in the movie, Dr. Stephen Falken, even has a drone shaped like a pterodactyl.

The deal is that David hacks into what he thinks is a video game company computer, but is really a classified U.S. Air Force program designed to launch a nuclear strike under threat conditions. The software uses war simulations to learn but while David thinks he's playing a video game, the system, the War Operations Plan Response (W.O.P.R. -- Yeah, exactly.) believes the U.S. has been attacked by the Soviet Union. If the system responds accordingly it will initiate World War III, which would be devastating to North America, Asia and possible the entire planet. The best line is the computer asking, "Shall we play a game?"

The Terminator, which features a supercomputer that develops artificial intelligence -- Skynet -- that does initiate Global Thermonuclear War in order to kill off mankind, hit theaters the very next year. Somehow, the planet and mankind survive in that movie.









10. Flash Gordon




 

 

What's Flash's superpower? A high QBR, I guess. He's the starting quarterback for the Jets. This probably Joe Namath's favorite movie. Anyway, the emperor of the planet Mongo, Ming the Merciless (that's the nickname I gave to a dude in high school), wants to destroy the Earth just for the hell of it -- seriously. So it's up to Flash and his allies to stop him.

Flash Gordon has the best theme song with words of any fantasy movie. It makes sense -- Queen handled the soundtrack. It's also possibly the only campy comics movie that works.

Flash is also the reason that the Star Wars Saga exists. Creator George Lucas initially wanted to remake Flash -- it was originally adapted to the big screen in 1936 -- but wasn't able to make it happen. Since he couldn't bring his favorite space adventures to life, he created a new one. Ironically, Star Wars' phenomenal success convinced studio execs to finally give Flash the Technicolor treatment.

Supposedly, Arnold Schwarzenegger wanted the starring role but was rejected because of his inability to change his accent (Seriously bro, you've been in Hollywood for a hundred years. Isn't switching accents a part of acting?).









9. Star Trek: The Motion Picture

 

In an expanded remake of a Star Trek episode, 1979's Star Trek: The Motion Picture is Paramount's reaction to the unbelievable success of Star Wars two years previously. 

Admiral Kirk commandeers the U.S.S. Enterprise, which has a new captain, in order to stop a gigantic, destructive energy cloud heading towards Earth. 









8. Crimson Tide

 

The simplest way to describe Crimson Tide is: Mutiny on the Bounty in a submarine. Is it me or is it corny to name the main submarine in a movie called Crimson Tide, the U.S.S. Alabama? At least they address it in the movie.

Crimson Tide is all about clashes: the U.S. versus Russia; blue-collar versus white-collar; young versus old; education versus experience; instinct versus logic; and black versus white; and preventing versus instigating a nuclear holocaust.









7. WALL-E

 

Nemo? Nope. Frozen? Get the hell outta here. WALL-E represents the zenith of Disney Pixar films. In fact, Entertainment Weekly named it the greatest animated film ever. WALL-E is an example of one of the rare times that the AMPAS got it right when the film earned the Oscar for Best Animated Feature at the 81st annual Academy Awards.

Like many space stories, our hero endures more than his share of isolation and loneliness. At its core, WALL-E is about an unassuming guy living in a desert wasteland, stuck doing menial labor, who travels to outer space for the first time in order to rescue a sophisticated female clad in white. Said female also happens to be pretty handy with a gun. He soon realizes that he, and she, are part of something much bigger than he ever imagined. Sound familiar? The difference is that instead of ending up in one, the hero is a trash compactor.
 
He barely talks, he looks like he belongs in the landfill in which he resides, and yet, you can't stop watching him. If he were a person, that little dude would be a great one. 

Believe it or not, WALL-E is also among the number of films in which a significant amount of its hero's woes can be traced to either an artificial intelligence or a huge corporate conglomerate. In this case, it's both. 

There are quite a few barely-veiled Christian themes at work here too: Imagine the spaceship, the Axiom, is Noah's Ark and Eve is the dove who brings back an olive branch. All that and Sigourney Weaver, too.









6. Oblivion

5. Ghost Protocol

The best thing about Ghost Protocol is the fact that Ethan Hunt really doesn't wanna perform the death-defying stunts crucial to completing the mission. He's so reluctant to put his body on the line, yet again, that he looks around the rooom for other candidates when the team decides that someone is going to have to climb the tallest skyscraper on the planet, Dubai's 2,722 foot-high Burj Khalifa -- and within a certain time frame. The second-best thing about Protocol is the fact that the gadgets, staples of the series, don't work -- which makes the idea of climbing that tower, using unreliable company equipment, that much less appealing.

Although the idiotic face-masks no longer work (thankfully), some things never change: Luther is as dependable as ever and Ethan continues one of his personal traditions established in the first Mission: Impossible movie -- sprinting at top speed.









4. The Age of Ultron

Scientist/inventors and founding members of the Avengers, Tony Stark (Iron Man) and Dr. Bruce Banner (the Hulk), develop an insanely advanced Artificial Intelligence that decides to pull a "destroy and rebuild" move on the planet by lifting the capital city of  European country Sokovia (using some type of comic book machine) and allowing it to crash back down after reaching a height sufficient enough to cause widespread devastation and kill billions of people with the impact. As Nick Fury says, "Whether or not he admits it, Ultron's mission is global destruction." 

The Age of Ultron is a disappointing (but entertaining) follow-up to The Avengers in nearly every way, except for: Nick Fury's thankfully diminished role, Captain America's much-improved uniform, and especially - the villain.
 
Though his origin was unnecessarily altered, Ultron made for an interesting adversary and owing to James Spader's extremely charismatic characterization, should enter the pantheon of cinematic automatons.

Although, I gotta say, I'm not sure his evil plan to drive mankind to extinction made much sense. If Ultron had succeeded in killing off billions of people by dropping the Sokovian capital city of Novi Grad from the upper atmosphere, wouldn't it have been much more difficult for him to function in the long term? Despite his best intentions though, Ultron did not tally up the highest body count. That honor belongs to the Hulk, who went on a rampage in an African city before ultimately being subdued by Iron Man and Veronica -- which is a name that's, thankfully, a hundred times more mature than "Hulkbuster armor". This isn't one of those movies in which the African-American dude is the first casualty, but having an Avenger kill off countless Africans, civilians included, and later saving the lives of an entire population of a European city sort of misses the point. 

And why, why -- Why go back to the stupid-ass blue lasers from Captain America: The First Avenger? And right off the bat, at that? Fuck, man.

But hey, at least Cap had some great lines. Some of the best actually - even better than Iron Man's. They include:

"I really miss the days when the weirdest thing science invented was me."
"You get hurt, hurt 'em back. You get killed - walk it off."
"What kinda monster would let a German scientist experiment on him to help his country." (Sarcastically referring to himself and the Maximoffs)      

The depictions of the Scarlet Witch, and especially, Quicksilver, were much better than expected. Although, the idea that their superpowers were derived from "experiments" using Loki's stupid wizard staff is a reminder of how far these movies haven't progressed. I suppose Marvel felt compelled to maintain a certain consistency in regards to idiocy -- it lines up nicely with the first movie's illustration of the magic stick's ability to grant it's wielder mind-control powers. I realize that 20th Century Fox owns the exclusive rights to mutant powers, but couldn't the filmmakers have just left the origin of the twins' powers unsaid (We all know they're Magneto's kids)? Mystery is far superior to lameness. And, if one of them had to die, why couldn't Wanda have been the one left in the dirt? I personally prefer physical superpowers to magic. For one thing, they're easier to quantify. And the last thing this franchise needs is more ludicrousness. Seriously, Maria Hill and Robin Hood survive and we lose the best version of Quicksilver, ever? South Korean geneticist Dr. Helen Cho takes a shot from Ultron at close range and she survives too? Come the fuck on.

The Age of Ultron is by no means profound and to most people it's an entertaining distraction at best, but AI researchers would do well to view it as the latest in a long line of cautionary tales.









3. Interstellar

Because the planet is losing its ability to sustain plant life, mankind needs to find a new home -- like yesterday. So ace pilot Joseph Cooper leaves his son, daughter, father-in-law and everybody else he knows in order to join an expedition to find a new planet. 

Interstellar also features something that the two superpowers of space cinema, Star Trek and Star Wars, have in spades -- daddy issues.

When Interstellar was released, several reviewers compared it to 2001: A Space Odyssey. While 2001 was the more philosophical of the two, Interstellar was more exciting. On top of that, TARS and CASE comprise the best robotic duo since R2D2 and C-3PO in the original Star Wars trilogy (their inclusion in the prequels was one of the many, many bad judgment calls concerning the first three episodes).









2. Man of Steel

 

Critics who think Man of Steel is too serious should take a look at Superman IV: The Quest for Peace to see what not being serious gets you.

Kal-El's nemesis, General Zod, is hellbent on using terraforming to turn Earth into New Krypton. The problem is (besides making the planet uninhabitable for humans), this same type of world-surgery is what destroyed the original Krypton in the first place.

When I think about this movie, my initial thoughts are: "The first 50 minutes or so are great, but the rest is just average." The thing is, I was snowed in for three days a couple of years ago and I watched Man of Steel over and over again -- from start to finish -- and never got sick of any of it. True story. The first third represents greatness -- for cinema, for comic book cinema, and especially for Superman. But, the rest is not merely average. It's just not the same caliber as the beginning. It suffers by comparison. The greatness lies in the retelling of his origin -- much like Batman Begins raised the Caped Crusader to new artistic heights. No Superman movie -- bar none -- introduces him anywhere near in as compelling a fashion or looks better. 

While it's not perfect, this is the best solo Superman movie in almost every way. The one exception -- Terrance Stamp. But only Terrance Stamp. The uniform his General Zod wore in Superman II would (or at least should) be laughed off the screen these days. His lieutenants are better now too -- Faora and whatever the big guy's name is (Non, I guess). Marlon Brando's immeasurable talent can't be denied, but his Jor-El was not missed. And as crazy as it sounds, neither was John Williams' score.

You know what would've been nice? If that stuff at the end with Clark wearing a big, stupid grin while working at the Daily Planet were a deleted scene. The beginning of the movie gave the impression that not being hokey was it's mission -- and then that shit. At least there was no Jimmy Olsen.









1. Star Trek

Is this the best reboot of all time? Maybe. If not, the title goes to either Man of Steel or Batman Begins. Batman Begins has more substance than the other two but it moves the slowest. Both Man of Steel and Star Trek involve global destruction and each features its hero as a newborn and the death of that hero's father at the hands of the bad guy and the death of a hero's mother during the destruction of her planet.

Anyway, in this origin story of the Enterprise crew, Kirk and company are in a race against time (literally -- the bad guys are time-travelers) to stop a vindictive Romulan starship captain from drilling into the Earth's core and depositing black hole-inducing "red matter", which will cause the planet to implode. The man 's got his reasons. Captain Nero's planet, Romulus, was destroyed (with his pregnant wife on it) by a supernova years earlier (Technically, years later. Time-travel, remember?) and he blames the Federation of Planets for failing to send Starfleet to help due to political reasons. So he's targeted the member planets of the Federation, which includes Earth, in order to get revenge. He's already done the same thing to Spock's home planet, Vulcan, so they know he's not playing games. Unfortunately, Kirk, who's revealed to have a genius IQ, isn't a captain yet and no one believes he has leadership skills.

There was criticism that this film was too much like the Star Wars films, but the fact is that it's easily better than most of those movies. Also, the fighting and ramped-up action in this film is more in line with the original television series than ANY of the pre-reboot movies.

Whether you like the Star Trek franchise or not, I'll say this -- the 2009 reboot eliminated everything that sucked about the franchise and put everything that worked on steroids.

Originally Posted 4/21/17

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