Summary: The evolution of man is traced from the dawn of civilization through to a manned space craft's 21st century voyages throughout the cosmos.



Discuss: What is the significance of the towering black monoliths that bookend the film? Have human beings evolved to the highest degree yet or is there still the possibility of further progress?

Summary: A delivery man who breaks into people's homes becomes entangled in a love triangle after meeting a lonely woman and her possessive husband.



Discuss: Is the love that's restricted to the shadows necessarily doomed or is it as fulfilling as that which can be pursued openly?

Summary: Successful yet frustrated, a film director struggles to complete his latest feature.



Discuss: What factors tend to influence or hinder one's creativity? Is all creativity intentional? If not, then how important is the role of chance or accident in the creative process, and what does this say about the artist?

Summary: When a man is trapped inside a collapsed cave, an opportunistic reporter (Kirk Douglas) seizes the moment and milks the story for all it's worth at the expense of the victim.



Discuss: Along with Sidney Lumet's Network, this film has an almost eerily prescient understanding of the media's exploitative and distortive nature. How is this film's portrayal of the media like the reality of the media today?

Summary: A man in Moscow spies a beautiful woman on Mars through his powerful telescope and vows to build a rocket ship that will carry him to her.



Discuss: This was one of the first significant examples of science fiction on film. How has the genre truly changed since this film was made? How effective were the techniques employed here?

Summary: Recently deceased souls meet in a temporary weigh station as their first destination in the after-life where they have one week to choose for themselves how they'd prefer to spend eternity.



Discuss: How do the concepts of heaven and hell jive with the film's rather open representation of the after-life? Would an eternity restricted to one's single happiest memory indeed be blissful or rather tiresome and ultimately painful if played out forever? What does the film suggest about good people with otherwise sorrowful lives who unfairly may not have any happy memories from which to choose? If you had to choose one memory, what would you choose?

Summary: 16th century Spanish conquistadors search for El Dorado in the wilds of Peru but grow increasingly anxious when their journey becomes more dangerous than when they began.



Discuss: Does nature have defense mechanisms in place against humanity's trespasses? Are there some secrets that nature keeps hidden and unknowable?

Summary: In this sequel to Alien, Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) awakes from a cryogenic freeze to discover a young girl she must protect when the vicious species of murderous aliens returns to wreak havoc.



Discuss: Does the theme of motherhood make the alien mother any more sympathetic or Ripley any less believable as a mainstream Hollywood blockbuster heroine? What are the film's attitudes toward motherhood and the instinct to protect one's own?

Summary: A lonely widow, with the help of his casting director friend, auditions women under false pretenses in a quest to find a suitable mate.



Discuss: Was the widow's torture justified at all? Does the film's drastic change in tone punish us for objectifying the film and the will of the director, and furthermore is this like or unlike the widow's objectification of the woman?

Summary: When a woman goes missing on a boating trip in the Mediterranean, her boyfriend and a girl-friend attempt to find her until they slowly start forming a relationship and gradually begin to forget about her.



Discuss: Are the two survivors merely emotionally bankrupt, ambivalent young adults leading vacant, self-absorbed lives if they could forget about their friend so easily? What do they really care about? Did you gradually begin to forget about the friend, too, just because the film went in that direction? If so, what does that suggest?