Special effects are "one of the defining characteristics of science fiction and an important draw for audiences" (King and Krzywinska 62-4).

J.P. Telotte quotes Garrett Stewart's article "The 'Videology' of Science Fiction": "[M]ovies about the future tend to be about the future of movies" (Telotte 24).

Science fiction film is inextricably bound to the technological development of special effects, especially CGI: Computer-Generated Imagery (Telotte 116). Scifi films in their use of cutting edge special effects "reflect the technology that makes them possible" (Telotte 25).

Filmmakers and viewers exhibit a range of attitudes toward special effects:

• There is an interest in techniques:
  • The filmmaker wants to push the technology for more spectacular effects
  • The viewer wants to know: how did they do that?
• Filmmakers often want to create effects that serve the narrative--realizing a vision from another world
• There is an interest in and admiration for effects for their own sake (King and Krzywinska 64-6)

Sci fi film uses images and sounds, not words, to portray the fantasy (Sontag 215)
Scifi films are pure spectacle; the audience doesn't access the characters' feelings (Sontag 218)

Special effects from the 1950s had a documentary authenticity. The special effects of the more modern science fiction film serve to intensify emotional reaction (Sobchack 282)

Some films make use of electronic (i.e. computer) space with movements that are representational rather than realistically human; think, for example of the starfighter sequences in Star Wars (Sobchack 284).

Some special effects mimic the ability to create virtual realities. The concept of virtual reality is prominent in such films as

• Lawnmower Man (1992)
• Johnny Mnemonic (1995)
• The Matrix (1999)

Note that these films play up the seductive danger of virtual reality and that virtual reality is itself a medium that rivals that of film (Telotte 118)

Some films are made only when the special effects are up to the task:

• George Lucas did not tackle his prequel Star Wars trilogy until he felt that the state of art of special effects would allow him to realize his vision
• Steven Spielberg reissued E.T. in a director's cut when special effects technology allowed him to make the movements of the animatronic E.T. more lifelike

CGI is now so advanced that Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow  (2004) was made without sets at all; actors worked against a blue screen and all the set design was added later.

Special effects can be narratively and thematically significant; think for example of the sense of transcendence as the mother ship--looking more like a carousel than a space vehicle--lands in Close Encounters (Sobchack 284).

2001 was a landmark film for its "complex special effects and its epic scope" (Telotte 100).

• Kubrick used a computer-controlled camera and extensive model work
• The film is a visual experience and is "in many ways a return to the mythic substrate of science fiction" (Telotte 100).

J.P. Telotte says that the hallmark scene in which the bone transitions to the spacecraft remains one of the most effective transitions in film history (Telotte 102). The transition implies that even in 2001 we are still just tossing our technology out there.

Since most science fiction and fantasy films take place in an imaginary place or a future time costume and set design are very important to set the mood and to convey information about the setting. We can identify some broad categories of set design:

• Futurism
• Retrofuturism
• Metropolis
• Blade Runner
• Forbidden Planet
• Realism
  • Destination Moon
• Independence Day
• War Games
• Gothic
• Alien films
• Dune with its late medieval and Victorian costumes
• Post-apocalyptic
• Mad Max
• Waterworld (King and Krzywinska 72)

Design elements of computers, robots, weapons, and miscellaneous technological gizmos are also important (King and Krzywinska 82). Weapons are often ray guns and light sabers, clean and clinical destruction (King and Krzywinska 84)

The design elements of circles and spheres indicate:

• Shape of space
• Shape of the universe, the planets, the stars
• Shape of spaceships (King and Krzywinska 84)

The design elements of light and landscape convey the "otherness" of the setting.

Design elements of vision are often prominent in genre films

• Prosthetic devices to enhance vision
• Geordi LaForge's visor from Star Trek: The Next Generation
• Sunglasses that project "an aura of futuristic cool and enigma
• Terminator series
• Matrix series
• Men in Black (King and Krzywinska 87)
• Perspective of optical enhancement
• Robocop
• Seeing targets and readouts through the eyes of the Terminator
• Deckard's ability to seen into photographs in Blade Runner (King and Krzywinska 87)

We can trace thematic concerns through set design. Note the differences in the ways that robots are depicted:

• Gort from The Day the Earth Stood Still
• Robby from Forbidden Planet
• R2D2 and 3CP0 from Star Wars
• Robocop

Spaceships also vary in design. As Vivian Sobchak has pointed out, the spaceship evokes no consistent cluster of meanings, nor is there a consistent image of the spaceship (68). But spaceship design tells the viewer a lot about the setting:

• Sleek clean design is emblematic of progress
  • 2001
  • The Day the Earth Stood Still: the spaceship is "so pure in line, so aesthetically designed . . . that it concretizes the Platonic virtues of clarity, sanity, reason. . ." (Sobchack 77)
  Gritty, dirty ships are emblematic of work in space
  • the Nostromo from Alien
  • the Millenium Falcon from Star Wars
  Confining and cold ships are emblematic of death and isolation:
  • the Borg Cube from Star Trek
• Hawklike predatory design is emblematic of war:
  • Klingon warship from Star Trek
  • Romulan bird of prey from Star Trek
• Neutral ship design is emblematic of basic transportation

Music often plays a significant role in genre films:

• Electronic instrumentation in Forbidden Planet
• Theramin in The Day the Earth Stood Still
• Classical themes (most notably Strauss) in 2001

Sound in general is also important:

• Lucas' development of THX, a variation of Dolby surround sound
• Darth Vader's breathing (listen for it at the end of the Phantom Menace credits)
• R2D2's chirping

Silence can be signficant

• F. Anthony Macklin notes that there are only 43 minutes of dialogue in the 138-minute long 2001: A Space Odyssey (Sobchack 159)
• The lingering long shots of the Enterprise in Star Trek: The Motion Picture

King, Geoff, and Tanya Krzywinska. Science Fiction Cinema: From Outerspace to Cyberspace.  London: Wallflower, 2000.

Sobchack, Vivian.  Screening Space: The American Science Fiction Film. 2nd ed. New York: Ungar, 1993.

Sontag, Susan.  "The Imagination of Disaster." Against Interpretation and Other Essays.  New York:  Dell, 1966: 212-28

Telotte, J.P. Science Fiction Film. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001.