6 Complex Sci-Fi Movies That Will Melt Your Brain (In a Tricky Way)

Complex sci-fi movies often leave the audience scratching their heads since most people cannot understand either the film’s message or the overall storyline. To fully interpret the complexity of these movies is a challenge for some of us.

Movie Insiderz has a list of complex sci-fi movies that expand the way we think. After watching them, you can decide whether they ignited your imagination or created more confusion. 

Solaris (1972)

This film explores the intricacies of the human mind. A psychologist is sent to investigate the mental health issues of the cosmonauts and the death of a doctor on a space station orbiting a planet called Solaris. The psychologist comes to know that the water of the planet does something with the brain, awakening suppressed memories and obsessions. 

The movie is deemed complex in terms of its slow pace, philosophical themes, and unclear ending. The use of science fiction as a framework to dig deeper into existential issues becomes too hard to digest for the common audience. Therefore, it requires deep attention and focusing spectacle once you have put it on. 

Primer (2004)

Aaron (Shane Carruth) and Abe (David Sullivan) are two interstellar engineers who try to build and sell error-checking technology. Their friends help in the endeavor, but they accidentally invent something more surprising.

They think it is a time machine, and Abe refines it by making a version that can transport humans. Abe starts testing it, but questions their own invention as they find themselves trapped in the web of consequences of their own actions.

The complexities of time travel are intricate in any given era. The film was a debut directorial attempt by Shane Carruth, and its non-linear structure added to its complexity. The use of convoluted technical dialogues left the audience with the harder task of simplifying the meaning of the film’s storyline.  

Beyond the Black Rainbow (2010)

Eva Allan or Elena (played by Eva Bourne) is the daughter of Anna and Mercurio. She is kept isolated at the Arboria Institute, where she stays secluded. She is heavily sedated and gains psychic powers, ESP, during her captivity. 

The film’s experimental style doesn’t hold the viewers’ hands as they want to stare at the wall after watching it. They have to struggle to comprehend the unconventional narrative, which was embedded in the film’s experimental style. 

The dreamlike atmosphere with a slow pace made it hard for the audience to stick to the movie for long, making it boring and contributing to the audience’s disoriented experience.  

Inception (2010)

The human mind is already quite complicated, and when it comes to dreams or desires in the subconscious, it is even more intricate. Inception is the story of Dom Cobb (played by Leonardo DiCaprio), who has a rare ability to enter anyone’s dream and steal their secrets from their subconscious.

With this, he has a chance at redemption with an impossible task offered to him: the corporate world has become a fan of his stealing skills and asks him to plant an idea in someone’s mind. Cobb is unaware that his expertise might stand against him, becoming a perfect crime and earning him a dangerous enemy.

The film gained reviews on the same viewpoint, such as this one from The Hollywood Reporter,

“If you don’t follow all this, join the club. It will perhaps take multiple viewings of these multiple dream states to extract all the logic and regulations.” [Source] 

The film is considered complex because of its dream-within-dream narrative. The multilayer technique distorts the dream realities and timelines. Viewers have to put in all their energies to understand the blurry lines between reality and the subconscious since the visual and narrative tricks become too much for the audience, keeping them from understanding the film’s real message. 

Interstellar (2014)

Interstellar is a dystopian sci-fi film where ex-NASA pilot Joseph Cooper (played by Matthew McConaughey) and his team go inside a wormhole that leads to three possible new planets. Out of these three, one could be the new home to the inhabitants of the planet Earth as it is becoming unlivable in the future due to global crop blight and the second Dust Bowl. 

The movie is complicated for a general audience due to complex scientific concepts, abstract ideas about time and the universe, and jumping between timelines. The intertwining of knotty themes of loss, family, and humanity’s future with the above-mentioned scientific elements makes it emotionally challenging for viewers to decode.  

Predestination (2014)

The film is based on a short story, All You Zombies, by Robert Heinlein. It revolves around a time-traveling agent (Ethan Hawke) who needs to go back in time, in the 1970s, to catch a notorious terrorist. The terrorist is called Fizzle Bomb. The agent is successful in diffusing the bomb but gets seriously injured.

The revelation of the main characters in different stages becomes hard to decipher for the viewers, making it a complex sci-fi watch. This film also uses a non-linear storytelling approach, which can lead the viewers into a hole of confusion. The connection of characters makes it a closed-loop story where information is disclosed gradually. Till then, viewers are left hanging in the air.

Are complex sci-fi movies meant to confuse or inspire?

Sci-fi movies are a good way to represent social, political, and human moral issues, and we need more sci-fi movies than ever. However, the question of smarter sci-fi movies arises as soon as we think of this genre.

The latest example of a sci-fi movie where humans’ existence and mortality entwine with political and ethical dilemmas is Mickey 17. Korean filmmakers are already vigorous in showing social and political injustice in horror and sci-fi genres. They are a source of inspiration to explore sub-themes of climate change, political corruption, and unfair treatment of humans in future times.  

Emotional storytelling remains the heart of modern cinema, and weaving amazing sci-fi stories that are less complicated and more thought-provoking is required. They should be beyond time-travel, space-based fighters, and FTL (faster than light) communications. They should directly address social issues rather than making it harder to interpret for the audience.

Movies today are more about making a connection with the audience rather than crafting gritty or heavy visuals. The potential challenges of the future world could be best explained in sci-fi films, as entertainment can be used genuinely for human progress.

Thus, sci-fi movies have the ability to stir our imagination and direct our minds towards issues that otherwise might appear serious or boring to ponder. Despite being intentionally elusive, sci-fi movies have the power to be impactful enough, by warding off the complexity to fathom.