Sci-fi movies which are not action movies...

[eschaton]

So, as someone who is primarily a fan of literary science fiction, one of the things which has always let me down about movie adaptations is that 90% of them are basically some variant of action-adventure. Obviously there are good examples of this subgenre, but action spectacle is just one side of sci-fi. What are some examples of great non-action sci-fi movies you guys like? Obviously there are classics out there like the original Solaris and 2001. Arrival blew me away a few years back too - because it's exactly the sort of sci-fi story I always want to see made into a movie, but seldom is.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

2001: A Space Odyssey
Arrival

Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
The Andromeda Strain (1971)
Forbidden Planet
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
Silent Running
Alien

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

2010 The Year We Made Contact
Stalker
Deep Impact
Dark Star
THX 1138
Silent Running
Sleeper
The Andromeda Strain
The Quatermas Trilogy
Contact
Destination Moon
Slaughterhouse Five
Soylent Green
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Dead Zone
Primer
Upstream Color
Brainstorm

 

[Mr. Adventure]

So basically pre-Star Wars

 

[Starbreaker]

Moon
Safety Not Guaranteed
Womb
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
The One I Love
Another Earth
I, Origins
Her

 

[Awesome Possum]

E.T.
Starman

 

[Christopher]

Gattaca and Ex Machina come to mind.

The Truman Show is a drama that's generally not recognized as science fiction, but it definitely is -- it takes a cultural/technological trend (reality TV) and extrapolates it to a future extreme in order to examine its impact on human lives and society, which is the very essence of science fiction. It's just that reality caught up with it fairly quickly.

 

[Awesome Possum]

Rocky Horror Picture Show, despite having horror in the title is about aliens. It's sequel Shock Treatment is a bit scifi given that it's about a town that exists purely inside a television studio with inhabitants' lives being watched 24/7 by a live audience who also live in the studio 24/7. It's social commentary about reality TV decades before it became reality. It's a proto-Black Mirror with songs.

 

[Marc]

First one that came to mind for me was Gattaca.

 

[lab rat]

Colossus
Phase IV

 

[GNDN18]

2010 The Year We Made Contact
Stalker
Deep Impact
Dark Star
THX 1138
Silent Running
Sleeper
The Andromeda Strain
The Quatermas Trilogy
Contact
Destination Moon
Slaughterhouse Five
Soylent Green
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Dead Zone
Primer
Upstream Color
Brainstorm

I agree with this except for Quatermas. Nothing says “action movie” more than Brian Donlevy’s name in the credits.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Altered States.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

I agree with this except for Quatermas. Nothing says “action movie” more than Brian Donlevy’s name in the credits.

Perhaps. It depends how one defines "action movie". As far as I recall, Professor Quatermas didn't go around waving a gun. However, the armed forces did get involved so you have a point.

Another suggestion:
Fantastic Planet (La Planete Sauvage)

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Europa Report.

You know, a movie like Source Code has definite action elements, so perhaps arguably doesn't belong in the discussion, but it really is very much worth mentioning as an example of excellent, thought-provoking science fiction from recent years, and it has practically nothing, or least very little, in common with the likes of, say, Commando. Echoing @Asbo Zaprudder, I guess the question is where the line is drawn.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Some more suggestions:

Close Encounters of the Third Kind
WALL-E
The Man Who Fell To Earth
Cocoon

 

[Christopher]

Close Encounters of the Third Kind
WALL-E

I'd say there's plenty of action in both of those. "Action" includes things like chase scenes as well as fight scenes, and there's a fair amount of chasing in both of those. Sequences of vehicles out of control or crashing, as in WALL-E, also count.

 

[Marynator]

I really enjoyed "Passengers" last year.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

I'd say there's plenty of action in both of those. "Action" includes things like chase scenes as well as fight scenes, and there's a fair amount of chasing in both of those. Sequences of vehicles out of control or crashing, as in WALL-E, also count.

I agree. The OP could have been more specific. Action and adventure perhaps could include just about anything where adrenalin stimulates the protagonists into a fight or flight response. Of course, WALL-E doesn't have any adrenal glands, his responses to stimuli are programmed, but the passengers must have had such a response to events.

How about The Invasion of the Body Snatchers? (70's version) By the definition above, it must be action/adventure but then so must be 2001, THX 1138, Forbidden Planet etc, where the heart rate of a main character is elevated because of events that threaten his/her survival or well-being. A movie without any jeopardy at all would be pretty uninteresting. Even The Fountain contains action elements.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Altered States.

That one came to mind for me. A strange movie for sure.

 

[Christopher]

I agree. The OP could have been more specific. Action and adventure perhaps could include just about anything where adrenalin stimulates the protagonists into a fight or flight response. Of course, WALL-E doesn't have any adrenal glands, his responses to stimuli are programmed, but the passengers must have had such a response to events.

More like anything that stimulates the audience's adrenaline.

How about The Invasion of the Body Snatchers? (70's version) By the definition above, it must be action/adventure but then so must be 2001, THX 1138, Forbidden Planet etc, where the heart rate of a main character is elevated because of events that threaten his/her survival or well-being. A movie without any jeopardy at all would be pretty uninteresting. Even The Fountain contains action elements.

Well, there's a difference between "a movie that contains action" and "an action movie." It depends on whether the action element is a central or dominant constituent, as opposed to one or two fairly brief interludes in what's mainly a drama or comedy. By analogy, a horror movie can contain a romantic subplot, but that doesn't make it a romance movie. And a tense drama with a comic-relief subplot is not a comedy movie. Most movies have a blend of genre elements, but it's the dominant one (or sometimes more than one) that defines a given film's genre.