Films about scientists

College Confidential Community
1

Hi,
I’m looking for films about scientists and discoveries for a small film series I’m trying to show. The more diverse (or different from one another) the better.

So far, I have

  • Imitation game /Turing/CS
  • Gorillas in the Mist/Fossey/Zoology
  • Theory of everything/Hawkins/Physics
  • Not sure if the beginning of Indiana Jones would qualify!

TV shows are okay, too.
Target public: young adults, older teens, college age.

And, just for fun, Black Panther since science and superpowers are equally important to the film.

Any suggestions appreciated!!

2

A beautiful mind (Nash, Economics)
The man who knew infinity (Ramanujan, Math)
The race for the double helix (Crick/Watson/Franklin, biochemistry)

3

Awesome! Thank you!
A beautiful mind makes me think= social sciences count too!

More thoughts…
Are there films about finding dinosaurs, archeologists, fossils… Can be historical, medical…
I’m thinking there’s a film about a woman looking for fossils…???

4

What about Hidden Figures?

5

Oh yes!!!
?
Also: female scientists!

6

–There is a movie about Jane Goodall called Jane.
–The Martian
–Any Robin Cook book that has been turned into a movie would have medicine/science (ex. Coma).
–More along the lines of Indiana Jones there is Jurassic Park.
–It is a stretch but perhaps Inherit the Wind (about the Scopes Monkey Trial) – it is about science but not a scientist.

7

Thanks!
Keep’em coming.

8

If you really wanted to stretch it a bit, Good Will Hunting.

9

https://in.bookmyshow.com/entertainment/movies/8-movies-scientist/
Feel free to browse and watch these films.

10

Hidden Figures! The movie was good - but the book was great!!

11

Young Frankenstein

12

The Andromeda Strain
Chernobyl
Stanford Prison Experiment
The Theory of Everything
Fat Man and Little Boy

hmm, I can’t think of anything related to fossils…

13

Thank you!

14

I’ll add the comedy “Real Genius” and the Curie biopic “Radioactive” with Rosamund Pike.
Was the novel Remarkable Creatures ever made into a film?
The list is very short on women scientists :frowning: and beside Hidden Figures are there POC in STEM films???

15

“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” and “Lorenzo’s Oil”

16

Thanks! Wow, I didn’t know they’d made a film with Immortal life. Terrific.

17

“Jim Allison: Breakthrough” is an incredible documentary about a Nobel Prize winning cancer research scientist and how he got there. You can’t help but be inspired after watching it. https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/movies/four-stars-for-a-cancer-documentary-yes-jim-allison-breakthrough-is-that-good/2019/10/02/c5d01320-dfd4-11e9-b199-f638bf2c340f_story.html?arc404=true

And it is currently streaming for free on PBS Independent Lens: https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/videos/jim-allison-breakthrough/

18

Thank you!

19

Diagnosis, a NYT non fiction series about rare cases. Very well filmed, and it’s with Dr.Lisa Sanders. She uses crowdsourcing so a lot of ethical questions are discussed! It’s on Netflix

20

If you are looking at fiction, I would add Contact (1997).

I would not use “Inherit the Wind”, since almost nothing about it is even close to reality, which was much more fun and much less dramatic.