Every year, certain movies come out that speak to the geek in all of us. Here are the top geek movies of 2015.
Hands down, the most anticipated movie of the year (maybe even the decade) for geeks is the upcoming Star Wars film The Force Awakens. By late October, the film had already broken presale ticket records.
Released in early September, The Martian is based on Andy Weir’s 2011 novel with the same name. The film used real NASA technologies and earned praise from famed astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson.
The final installment of the Hunger Games series, Mockingjay Part 2 is an epic sci fi blockbuster. It had major box office success and got good reviews all around.
Ex Machina is an AI thriller directed by Alex Garland. The film deals with a programmer administering a turing test to an android. In fact, recently a computer actually beat the Turing Test.
This film stars Chris Hemsworth as Nicholas Hathaway, a convicted computer hacker. The film was released in the early part of the year and has received mixed reviews.
Chappie was directed by Neill Blomkamp, who also directed District 9. The film centers around an AI-powered robot and the concept of whether or not robots can have feelings, a debate we assumed had been settled after the release of Wall-E.
Another highly-anticipated film was Jurassic World, the fourth Jurassic Park film. Currently, it is the third highest grossing film under Titanic and Avatar.
In April, Avengers: Age of Ultron was released as the sequel to 2012’s Avengers. Continuing the rampant success of the recent Marvel movies, this film examines the concept of self-aware AI and its implications.
Number 24 in the James Bond series, Spectre was released in late October. It was the second Bond film by Sam Mendes, who also directed Skyfall. As per usual, Q supplied weird and sometimes flammable tech gadgets.
Ant-Man made its debut in the summer, starring Paul Rudd as the film’s titular character who uses a shrinking technology to become the size of an ant. The movie is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with other films like Iron Man and the Avengers series.
Perhaps the most well-known AI film series, Terminator’s fifth film is Genisys. While it didn’t get stellar reviews, the subject matter is geeky in its own way.
Directed by Robert Zemeckis, The Walk tells the story of Philippe Petit’s high wire walk between the Twin Towers in the 1970s. The concept isn’t particularly geeky, but all of the visual effects were rendered in the cloud.
The fourth installment in the dystopian future Mad Max series, Fury Road opened to positive reviews. Full of massive explosions and lengthy chase scenes, it’s a well-produced action film.
Directed by Danny Boyle, Steve Jobs stars Michael Fassbender as the Apple visionary. The film received both good and bad reviews, with some contending its historical accuracy.
Spy is a comedic take on the traditional espionage film. The film, released in March stars Melissa McCarthy and Jason Statham and is full of futuristic spy technology.
Conner is a former Senior Editor for TechRepublic. He is now a Senior Research Analyst at 451 Research.
