Your First Science Fiction Film?

[AE35Unit]

Was she draped in a swoon over the menacing arms of a robot while a spacesuited blonde haired hero aimed his laser pistol at the offending mechanoid?

Named Robbie?

 

[TheTomG]

Yes - he reformed his evil ways though and went on to have a singing career, "Angels" was quite good, and "Let Me Entertain You" wasn't bad either. A long ways from bootlegging liquor on some distant planet, always good to see someone turn their life around like that!

 

[Steve Jordan]

If I had to guess... because, after so many years, it's all I can do... I'd bet it was 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, since that movie ran on The Wonderful World of Disney, one of the earliest TV shows I remember watching. I watched a lot of SF television shows at that age, Star Trek, Twilight Zone, Lost In Space, etc... but 20,000 Leagues was probably my first actual SF movie.

I'm also assuming that horror movies and The Ten Commandments don't count as SF...

 

[MontyCircus]

1953's classic War of the Worlds.

Love that movie!

 

[MontyCircus]

If I had to guess... because, after so many years, it's all I can do... I'd bet it was 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, since that movie ran on The Wonderful World of Disney, one of the earliest TV shows I remember watching. I watched a lot of SF television shows at that age, Star Trek, Twilight Zone, Lost In Space, etc... but 20,000 Leagues was probably my first actual SF movie.

I'm also assuming that horror movies and The Ten Commandments don't count as SF...

I love 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea too! It's been forever since I've seen it...

 

[mr kite]

I still remember in impact of the first Sci Fi I saw at the Cinema , and I guess was the start of something that got me hooked on Sci Fi .
The film .
Escape From The Planet Of The Apes

 

[Harpo]

The first I saw at the cinema was in about 1976:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061868/

Then I queued around the block for something called Star Wars.

 

[manephelien]

E.T. - the extra-terrestrial (1982)

 

[Vertigo]

I'm not sure if it was the first SF film I saw but it was certainly the first to make a serious impression on me: 2001: A Space Odyssey when it first came out.

Not only my first SF film, but I was so impressed with everything about the film that the soundtrack was possibly my first LP purchase (as opposed to pop singles). I'm not sure about that as it may have been L A Woman by the Doors. Mmmm somewhat catholic tastes even at an early age!

 

[Bick]

On TV, I wouldn't have a clue. Possibly I didn't see any SF movie at home (as they weren't on much in Britain in the 1970's) prior to going to movies for one of the very first times to see...

... Star Wars!. I remember my dad taking me and my brother to see it in Nottingham when we were visiting my grandparents, in 1977. I would have been 8. It blew my mind and made the whole world seem brighter and more exciting for years afterward. Like many kids I'm sure, it would be no exaggeration to describe it as a defining moment in my childhood.

Interestingly, the only 2 movies I recall seeing at all before SW were "Bambie" (I cried) and ... "Orca Killer Whale" with Bo Derek and Richard Harris! I don't know what my dad was thinking there! I seem to recall we went to see something more appropriate, but the cinema had sold out for the other film.

 

[BetaWolf]

I think it was Star Wars, for me, too. My aunt was into Star Trek something fierce, so I watched the six original movies. Watching Search for Spock at age 12 made Spock an especially sympathetic character.

In fantasy, I always had a love for Willow.

 

[Alex Mason]

I have a specific memory of seeing Return of the Jedi in theaters when I was a child. That would be the first Sci-fi Film I remember seeing and probably the first one since I wasn't even 5 years old yet. The first movie I remember all of and was old enough to think about it and want to see it again and again etc. is The Last Starfighter. I remember seeing it and Gremlins when they came out and wanting the audiobooks and more from both of them.

 

[Einstein's left ear]

The Lost Missile (1958) with my Dad. A strange missile from outer space circles the Earth at low altitudes, destroying everything in its path. My second The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961) with my Mom and Dad. It was the first X certificate film I saw even though I was 15 a year younger than I should have been.

 

[JunkMonkey]

The Lost Missile (1958) with my Dad. A strange missile from outer space circles the Earth at low altitudes, destroying everything in its path.

An odd little film (Spoiler: The hero dies).

The first SF films I remember seeing in the cinema were René Laloux's Fantastic Planet and Trumbull's Silent Running. (Not, unfortunately, as a double bill.)

Thinking about it now it strikes me that, even aged 13, I had great taste in movies

 

[JunkMonkey]

My folks took me to see Star Wars when I was 3 - fell asleep thru most of it!

I have that reaction to it too.

 

[leah36]

My first sci-fi movie I remember watching was Star Wars (1977) and i'm still a huge fan of it now and collect the merchandise .

 

[polacks_on_the_moon]

I'm not sure if it was the first one ever, but when I was a kid (born 92) I used to have Independence Day on VHS and I used to watch it very often when I had nothing better to do. It was one of my favourite movies back then (the top 3 were this one, Jumanji and Jurassick Park). I watched it again a few years ago however and it kind of ruined my memories because I discovered a huge disproportion between the amount of awesomeness I remembered and the actual amount of awesomeness

fun fact: I used to have a crush on Jeff Goldblum.

 

[quantumtheif]

Star wars, when I was six. Watched the star wars trilogy many times into teenhood(seeing how until then it was the only thing we owned). Sci fi helps poverty , and that is probably why Sci fi had a big impact on me.

 

[Dr Zoidberg]

Funnily enough, I think mine would have been Star Wars as well, though I'm pretty sure I bypassed Empire and jumped to Return of the Jedi at the cinema.

Battle Beyond The Stars may have been the second SciFi, followed a while after by Tron, back in the days when you used to get a short film before the main picture as a warm up.

Ghostbusters is another I remember on the Big Screen, though that was a bit later on.

 

[chrispenycate]

It will have been at saturday morning cinema (special cheap sessions to hook the up and coming generation, not foreseeing the chaos television was to bring), in black and white, and already considered too old to show in main showings by this time (late 50s). It was probably cut up into episodes; I remember the Lone Ranger and Zorro cut up into cliff-hanging segments, but not any specific SF, although I seem to remember Robbie the robot from "Forbidden Planet" – could that have been it (or did Robbie feature in any other lower budget productions?)

The first SF film I saw in 70mm with multitrack magnetic sound was "2001" – now, that's an experience that hangs on in memory.