In 2019, The Shape of Water won the Best Picture award, becoming the first science-fiction film to ever do it. And we should not forget to mention Black Panther, Marvel’s movie that amazed everyone with the complex technology people of Wakanda used. Black Panther and The Shape of Water are two of the most marvellous science-themed movies, but they are not the only ones in the history of film that have brought science in the Hollywoodian light.
Science movies encourage people to study science, Princess Shuri proving to young girls that they can choose something else than fashion.
So what are the best movies about scientists?
The Imitation Game
You may know Benedict Cumberbatch from Doctor Strange or Sherlock Holmes, but he also played the role of the mathematical genius Alan Turing that managed to crack the German Enigma code by working with a team of expert mathematicians.
The real-life story of cryptanalyst Alan Turing is the inspiration behind The Imitation Game, and it reveals to the public the intense race against time he and his outstanding team led to discover the code the Germans were using during the World War II.
The movie introduces to the public three essential periods from the life of Alan Turing a legendary mathematics professor.
The British Government hired him to lead a secret team of experts with the purpose to break the Nazi code machine called Enigma. The issue about this system is that the Germans recode it daily, so it requires exceptional skills to decipher a message.
You’ll not find hard to love this character, even if he is an arrogant, solitary, antisocial and literal-minded person. The movie allows is heart-breaking because it shows how different people are bullied by society and have to deal with obstacles average people don’t have to.
A Beautiful Mind
Often scientists are asocial people, and they accept jobs that don’t require working with a team. This is the case of John Nash, a brilliant mathematician who decides to work in cryptography, but whose job transforms his boring life into a nightmare.
A Beautiful Mind shows how a man can be taken from the heights of fame to the depths of depravity, even if he has one of the most outstanding minds in the world. John Nash made a great discovery as a young mathematician, and his career took off since that moment. He was acclaimed as a genius internationally. He was a handsome genius but arrogant man and he found difficult to self discover.
This movie is one of the firsts that address mental issues as handicaps and they show how these illnesses can affect the patient’s professional, domestic and personal life.
John Nash worked as a teacher at the Princeton University, where he romantically involved with one of his students. During this period, the Government also hired him to break Soviet codes, a job that makes him part of a conspiracy plot. His discoveries make him paranoid and he finds hard to recover his mental health.
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
For the ones who love investigation movies, here is a series that follows the adventures of an elite team of forensic evidence investigation experts who work on some of the most complex cases in Las Vegas. The Las Vegas Police Department Crime Investigation Bureau is the second busiest crime lab in the USA and the best scientists are working there day and night to catch criminals.
The show run between 2000 and 2015 and it followed the cases Captain Jim Brass and his team solved. They use scientific analysis to prove impossible facts. Because Las Vegas receives a constant influx of tourists, the crime investigation department has plenty of cases to work with and meets criminals of all types. Many of the people who involve in crimes in Las Vegas have the misconception the police are too busy to track them. Others are confident they completed the crime in high secret, so no one can catch them. The investigation unit Gill Grissom leads prove to them that there’s no such thing as the perfect crime.
Bones
Here is another investigation show, only this time it follows the story of Dr Temperance “Bones” Brenan and her team of forensic specialists who manage to discover murders by analysing bones. She partners up with the cocky FBI special agent Seeley Both, who often presents to her evidence in the form of mere bones.
Dr Temperance Brenan is another example of a brilliant but socially awkward scientist who is unable to show her emotions, but it’s amazing at her work. Seeley Booth and Bones work together on an FBI case, and then they decide to continue the partnership that allows them to solve cases no other regular forensic team would do.
Brenan’s team consists of experts in various domains, from biologists to forensic artists and archaeologists. To fully understand the terms they use when they analyse evidence you may need to enrol to some online science classes, but once the story catches you, you’ll want to understand every word they say.
The Martian
This movie is a classic sci-fi movie that portrays a scientist who uses science to survive. The Martian tells the story of an astronaut who is stranded on Mars because his team considers him dead. He needs to survive on Mars until he finds a way to signal to Earth that he is alive and they send help.
Because he is a botanist, he finds a way to improvise a farm on the surface habitat the crew lived before the storm. He manages to fertilise Martian soil, and extract water to grow potatoes, he wants to eat for the Thanksgiving dinner.
Mark Watney has to survive on a hostile planet with limited supplies that require his ingenuity and creativity to allow him to subsist for a long period until helps from Earth come. The film shows a NASA team that works day and night to bring their astronaut home, but all signs show it’s an impossible mission.
These incredible movies show the story of outstanding scientists who use their genius to survive or help the world. They should inspire every one of us to learn more about science.
