Movies from Neil deGrasse Tyson

The Avengers

When an unexpected enemy emerges and threatens global safety and security, Nick Fury, director of the international peacekeeping agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D., finds himself in need of a team to pull the world back from the brink of disaster. Spanning the globe, a daring recruitment effort begins!
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Scientist, TV Host, Interviewer
As a scientist, I lean Avengers universe, if only because many of their superheroes started as scientists, or derive their powers from authentically fictional (rather than fantastically magical) science concepts.
Movies recommended by Neil deGrasse Tyson
11 movies

Movie Arithmetic - 11 Films Descriptions from Neil Degrasse Tyson

Neil Degrasse Tyson briefly describes movies from mathematical point of view. Film equations are made of other movies.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Scientist, TV Host, Interviewer
Neil Degrasse Tyson briefly describes movies from mathematical point of view. Film equations are made of other movies.
Movies from Neil deGrasse Tyson

The Sun Is Also a Star

Two young New Yorkers begin to fall in love over the course of a single day, as a series of potentially life-altering meetings loom over their heads - hers concerning her family’s deportation to Jamaica, and his concerning an education at Dartmouth.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Scientist, TV Host, Interviewer
In the astronomically sprinkled urban love story "The Sun Is Also A Star" (2019) they got most of their science right. Some scenes were even filmed in the Hayden Planetarium itself. And you gotta love the #Manhattanhenge title scene.
Movies from Neil deGrasse Tyson

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

It's the 23rd century, and a mysterious alien power is threatening Earth by evaporating the oceans and destroying the atmosphere. In a frantic attempt to save mankind, Kirk and his crew must time travel back to 1986 San Francisco where they find a world of punk, pizza and exact-change buses that are as alien as anything they've ever encountered in the far reaches of the galaxy. A thrilling, action-packed Star Trek adventure!
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Scientist, TV Host, Interviewer
My favorite film with Time Travel? Dare I say: "Terminator." But StarTrek IV "save the whales" was fun too.
Movies from Neil deGrasse Tyson

Hidden Figures

The untold story of Katherine G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson – brilliant African-American women working at NASA and serving as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in history – the launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit. The visionary trio crossed all gender and race lines to inspire generations to dream big.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Scientist, TV Host, Interviewer
In the film @HiddenFigures, most of the equations and graphs on the chalkboards were accurately written. GOOD.
Movies from Neil deGrasse Tyson

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

Bill and Ted are high school buddies starting a band. They are also about to fail their history class—which means Ted would be sent to military school—but receive help from Rufus, a traveller from a future where their band is the foundation for a perfect society. With the use of Rufus' time machine, Bill and Ted travel to various points in history, returning with important figures to help them complete their final history presentation.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Scientist, TV Host, Interviewer
I still like the film "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure".
Movies from Neil deGrasse Tyson

Lincoln

The revealing story of the 16th US President's tumultuous final months in office. In a nation divided by war and the strong winds of change, Lincoln pursues a course of action designed to end the war, unite the country and abolish slavery. With the moral courage and fierce determination to succeed, his choices during this critical moment will change the fate of generations to come.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Scientist, TV Host, Interviewer
Lincoln: A poignant, authentic film, capturing a time long past when the American South hated the slave-freeing Republicans.
Movies from Neil deGrasse Tyson

Frozen

Young princess Anna of Arendelle dreams about finding true love at her sister Elsa’s coronation. Fate takes her on a dangerous journey in an attempt to end the eternal winter that has fallen over the kingdom. She's accompanied by ice delivery man Kristoff, his reindeer Sven, and snowman Olaf. On an adventure where she will find out what friendship, courage, family, and true love really means.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Scientist, TV Host, Interviewer
The opening scene to @Disney ’s #Frozen portrays Ice Harvesters hauling blocks of ice, afloat with about 10% of their volume above water. Just like icebergs. So somebody at Disney does, in fact, care about physics — not to mention all the shit they got right in #TheLionKing.
Movies from Neil deGrasse Tyson

The Lodge

When a father is forced to abruptly depart for work, he leaves his children, Aidan and Mia, at their holiday home in the care of his new girlfriend, Grace. Isolated and alone, a blizzard traps them inside the lodge as terrifying events summon specters from Grace's dark past.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Scientist, TV Host, Interviewer
Minus the dripping blood, the poster for the horror film #TheLODGE offers a most excellent Snowflake, complete with six-fold symmetry — as Nature exhibits and as the Physics of our Universe requires.
Movies from Neil deGrasse Tyson

Interstellar

The adventures of a group of explorers who make use of a newly discovered wormhole to surpass the limitations on human space travel and conquer the vast distances involved in an interstellar voyage.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Scientist, TV Host, Interviewer
I would say that the science was ambitious. The science that they tackled black holes , wormholes, relativistic time dilation. I mean they went all out for that, and so I'd give it 8 or 9 out of 10 on this. Well, they had a real adviser, a real science adviser who was also executive producer
Movies from Neil deGrasse Tyson

Blade Runner

In the smog-choked dystopian Los Angeles of 2019, blade runner Rick Deckard is called out of retirement to terminate a quartet of replicants who have escaped to Earth seeking their creator for a way to extend their short life spans.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Scientist, TV Host, Interviewer
As a runner up, Tyson cited Blade Runner (1982), stating "This story was simultaneously deep and scary. But I never warmed to it the way so many lovers of the genre have.
Movies from Neil deGrasse Tyson

Watchmen

In a gritty and alternate 1985 the glory days of costumed vigilantes have been brought to a close by a government crackdown, but after one of the masked veterans is brutally murdered, an investigation into the killer is initiated. The reunited heroes set out to prevent their own destruction, but in doing so uncover a sinister plot that puts all of humanity in grave danger.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Scientist, TV Host, Interviewer
I don’t know if I am alone in thinking that “Watchmen” is the best-of-genre among all superhero films. I liked it because the characters had fully expressed, complex personality profiles. They experience love, hate, revenge, megalomania, moral anguish and trepidation. Nothing polished about them. For this reason, they were all more real to me. If the world really did have superheroes in it, “Watchmen” is the world it would be.
Movies from Neil deGrasse Tyson

The Lion King

Simba idolizes his father, King Mufasa, and takes to heart his own royal destiny. But not everyone in the kingdom celebrates the new cub's arrival. Scar, Mufasa's brother—and former heir to the throne—has plans of his own. The battle for Pride Rock is ravaged with betrayal, tragedy and drama, ultimately resulting in Simba's exile. With help from a curious pair of newfound friends, Simba will have to figure out how to grow up and take back what is rightfully his.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Scientist, TV Host, Interviewer
In the current release of @DisneyLionKing , Earthshine was accurately captured (as was damn near everything else) in a scene containing the thin crescent Moon.
Movies from Neil deGrasse Tyson

The Island

In 2019, Lincoln Six-Echo is a resident of a seemingly "Utopian" but contained facility. Like all of the inhabitants of this carefully-controlled environment, Lincoln hopes to be chosen to go to The Island — reportedly the last uncontaminated location on the planet. But Lincoln soon discovers that everything about his existence is a lie.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Scientist, TV Host, Interviewer
Apart from too many minutes of gratuitous chase scenes, I think this movie is profound in its message as well as visually stunning. A rare study of science in the service of vanity, mixed with an exploration of corporate profits, human identity and free will. I've always viewed “Gattaca” (1997) as a lower-budget cousin of this film.
Movies from Neil deGrasse Tyson

The Matrix

Set in the 22nd century, The Matrix tells the story of a computer hacker who joins a group of underground insurgents fighting the vast and powerful computers who now rule the earth.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Scientist, TV Host, Interviewer
My top film in any category. From the opening credits to final scenes, every moment of this film is so fully conceived and so well executed that in spite of the complete fantasy world portrayed, the viewer was there, experiencing it with the characters themselves.
Movies from Neil deGrasse Tyson

Deep Impact

A seven-mile-wide space rock is hurtling toward Earth, threatening to obliterate the planet. Now, it's up to the president of the United States to save the world. He appoints a tough-as-nails veteran astronaut to lead a joint American-Russian crew into space to destroy the comet before impact. Meanwhile, an enterprising reporter uses her smarts to uncover the scoop of the century.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Scientist, TV Host, Interviewer
There have been many asteroid/comet disaster films. But this one took the time to get most of the physics right, and made sure you cared about all the characters in the film so that their prospect of dying matters to the viewer. And Morgan Freeman’s portrayal of the president of the United States may be the best ever.
Movies from Neil deGrasse Tyson

Contact

Contact is a science fiction film about an encounter with alien intelligence. Based on the novel by Carl Sagan the film starred Jodie Foster as the one chosen scientist who must make some difficult decisions between her beliefs, the truth, and reality.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Scientist, TV Host, Interviewer
The second film that I know of that is all about contact with alien intelligence and yet does not offer you a glimpse of what they look like. Perhaps it’s no surprise that Carl Sagan advised Arthur C. Clarke to not show aliens in “2001: A Space Odyssey,” and “Contact” itself is Carl Sagan’s Story. A brilliant exploration of how our culturally and religiously pluralistic society might react to the knowledge that we have been contacted by a species more intelligent than we are.
Movies from Neil deGrasse Tyson

The Quiet Earth

After a top-secret experiment misfires, a scientist may be the only man left alive in the world.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Scientist, TV Host, Interviewer
Low budget, low distribution. One of many films that imagine for you what life might be like if you were the last person alive on Earth. In this case, the premise, the story, the casual science literacy of the main character, keeps the viewer in suspense the entire time, wondering what the hell happened and why.
Movies from Neil deGrasse Tyson

The Terminator

In the post-apocalyptic future, reigning tyrannical supercomputers teleport a cyborg assassin known as the "Terminator" back to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor, whose unborn son is destined to lead insurgents against 21st century mechanical hegemony. Meanwhile, the human-resistance movement dispatches a lone warrior to safeguard Sarah. Can he stop the virtually indestructible killing machine?
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Scientist, TV Host, Interviewer
Deftly woven action, violence, sentient machines, a heroine and time travel. All stitched together in a tight and scarily plausible storyline. And, when you think about it, a perfect acting vehicle for Arnold Schwarzenegger, as a mostly mute terminator, whom many would rather look at than listen to.
Movies from Neil deGrasse Tyson

Planet of the Apes

An U.S. Spaceship lands on a desolate planet, stranding astronaut Taylor in a world dominated by apes, 2000 years into the future, who use a primitive race of humans for experimentation and sport. Soon Taylor finds himself among the hunted, his life in the hands of a benevolent chimpanzee scientist.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Scientist, TV Host, Interviewer
Saw this again recently and it held up over all these years in many important details. Had not appreciated when I first saw it. The hierarchy of apes that ran the planet, chimps were the academics, baboons were the soldiers, orangutans were the diplomats. An action-adventure movie that was an insightful mirror to our lives and our civilization.
Movies from Neil deGrasse Tyson

2001: A Space Odyssey

Humanity finds a mysterious object buried beneath the lunar surface and sets off to find its origins with the help of HAL 9000, the world's most advanced super computer.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Scientist, TV Host, Interviewer
Perhaps the first film to be all about the discovery of alien intelligence yet not show what it looks like, knowing that our imagination could surely do a better job than Hollywood. In any case, it was a visual orgy of space travel and space exploration that we remain far from achieving, even 13 years after the 33 years-in-the-future it portrayed.
Movies from Neil deGrasse Tyson

The Day the Earth Stood Still

An alien and a robot land on Earth after World War II and tell mankind to be peaceful or face destruction.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Scientist, TV Host, Interviewer
The story was so strong and compelling that the film did not require heavy special effects or monsters or violence to be simultaneously hopeful and terrifying.