Sci-fi Movies of 1994: Was Stargate the Best Movie?

    Welcome to 1994! The year when Nancy Kerrigan got hit in the knee, Northridge in California got hit by an earthquake, Michael Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley, and Kurt Cobain committed suicide. The Highest Grossing films were The Lion King and Forrest Gump. While there were many great films that year, Science Fiction films were not as popular.  It's possible that it was because Science Fiction TV shows were so great at the time. 

    There weren't a lot of movies to choose from this year. I wasn't able to find a way to watch Timecop starring Jean Claude Van Damme. I was able to rewatch Stargate and Star Trek Generations, both movies I saw in the theater when they came out. Someone on Twitter recommended The Puppet Masters and it ended up being a surprisingly fun movie. 

    So what were the science fiction movies of 1994? 

Class of 1999 II: The Substitute -  (Sci-fi Horror, Robots) Sequel of 1990's Class of 1999 about a future where schools schools are so terrible that they have a Department of Education Defense which declared martial law in the schools. A mad scientist tries out robot teachers in a school in Washington state. These robots turn out to be former military robots that have no declared war on the students. The two major gangs of the school team up to defeat the robots. This is the direct to video sequel. It's not directed by Mark L. Lester and doesn't have Pam Grier, Malcolm McDonald, or Stacy Keach in it. I can't recommend the sequel but I can recommend  Class of 1999. 

Brainscan (Sci-fi Horror, Video Games) - This is about an interactive video game that murders people in real life. It stars Terminator 2's Edward Furlong. 

No Escape - (Sci-fi Action Dystopian) - This movie is about a dystopian future where our main character in thrown in a prison on an island and tries to escape. It stars Ray Liotta and takes place in 2022. I tried watching this movie but got bored. I will try again and compare the movie's 2022 with the real 2022. 

Roswell (Sci-fi Aliens) This is a television film about the supposed 1947 U.F.O. crash and Roswell, New Mexico and the cover up. I remember watching this on TV when it came out but I don't remember any details. Since X-Files was one of the most popular shows at the time, it makes sense that Networks would try to cash in. Kyle MacLachlan and Martin Sheen star in it. 

Time Cop (Sci-fi Thriller Time Travel) This is a Jean Claude Van Damme movie based on a comic book. Van Damme's character fights time travel crimes. I am ashamed to say that I haven't seen it. 

The Puppet Masters (Sci-fi Aliens) This was a surprisingly fun movie. It is an alien invasion and conspiracy movie, again very popular at the time. The 90's were a time when we began to question our government and wonder what they were hiding from us. The aliens are a form of parasite that take over people's bodies. Scientists have to figure out how to save humanity from the alien parasites. 

Stargate (Sci-fi Adventure Aliens) This was probably the most popular science fiction movie of the year. Directed by Roland Emmerich, it imagines that the knowledge of the pyramids and knowledge of the Ancient Egyptians was given to them by parasitic aliens who travel through the galaxy using Star Gates. The movie later inspired a popular TV Show. 

Star Trek Generations (Sci-fi Adventure) This was Star Trek Then Next Generation's first time in the movie theaters. The crew of the Enterprise D must stop the villain from destroying a star system to return to the Nexus, a place in another dimension. This is the movie that killed off James T. Kirk and crashed the Enterprise D. The movie had interesting ideas about a place where all of your wishes can become a reality. I was never a fan of this movie before it was cool to not like the movie. I thought it was boring and that Data with his emotion chip wasn't funny. I also didn't understand why Picard wished to have a family in Victorian England. They should pretend this movie never happened and start back over. The idea of the Nexus has potential and is more interesting than another Wrath of Khan revenge plot. 

Since I was unable to watch all of the movies I can't give you an honest ranking. For now, Stargate is my favorite with The Puppet Masters in second. 

What do these movies tell us about 1994? It tells us that we didn't trust what we were being told by the government and by society.  (and that also X-Files was extremely popular.) We could believe that the government was hiding information about alien contact or that historians hid the truth about aliens building the pyramids. I see a hint of the danger of video games inspiring real violence with Brainscan and the temptation to live in a false reality with Generations. No Escape was about the problems with corporations owning the prison system an issue we still have to this day. 

                              

Ra and Daniel Jackson