Help with identifying Sci Fi movie

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What channel or streaming service was this on? Is it American, or is it possible it's from another country? Does it seem like a major stuido film? Or more like an independent film? Maybe a made-for-TV movie? Did you recognize any actors? Do you remember any word-for-word quotes from the movie that you could search?

The part about 30 miles makes me think of the Hollywood TMZ (thirty mile zone), so maybe this film takes place in the greater Los Angeles metro?

I started looking at titles on Wikipedia's List of Science Fiction Films of the 2000s.
They are organized by year, and the lists can be sorted by country. So if you know it was made in the U.S., you can scroll down to those. Perhaps you will see the title?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_science_fiction_films_of_the_2000s

The movie you are looking for...can you identify some specific details about it that differentiate it from The Thirteenth Floor [1999]? From The Village [2004]? Vivarium [2019]? Miracle Mile [1988]? The Island [2005]?

Specific details about match and not match would be good.

When those two people crossed the barrier, you're saying they went to the future?

Those two people...one woman and one man? Or, two men? Or, two women? Were both adults?

Were they both there from the beginning?

The edge of the city, where things change... Was there a wall? A moat? Were there guards? Was there any clear indication they had crossed a perimeter or were they just magically not "beyond"?

Was anything "virtual"? That is, inside computers?

I wish I could remember more but I can't. I know there was a guy, brown hair, I think with a beard who ended up in the future. It seems like it was on the west coast. No flying saucers

You previously thought there was a couple of people. Did the second person show up after the guy went into the future?

And you said he couldn't travel more than 30 miles. Was that before he jumped to the future, or after? After jumping to the future, did he later jump back to the original time?

How did he travel to the future? Was there a time machine? Was he frozen or asleep for a long time? Was it magic?

What prevented him from traveling more than 30 miles? Was there a wall? Water? Were there people with weapons? Was it just too far to walk and he did not have any other means of transport? Did he just mystically get turned around?

Was the movie a comedy? Romance?

Was there lots of action? What kind?

Were there lots of special effects? What kind?

this is a mystery of the highest order!

I asled ChatGPT, it said “The Island”. This one of three films DuckHairback suggested.

There are some similarities with The Island [2005]...but a beard? Steve Buscemi's character did appear to possibly have a five-o'clock shadow, so maybe. And when Scarlett Johansson and Ewan McGregor's characters escape I would not personally have thought they'd escaped into an idyllic setting a century in the future, though others might see it differently.

I'm leaning toward Æon Flux [2005] but it is a matter of interpretation as to what extent it fits ProfessorJohn's recollections. But it would be unreasonable to expect a plethora of detailed recollections in these circumstances...we're talking about a saw-it-once-vaguely-remembered kind of thing.

In both The Island and Æon Flux, personally, where the utopian one hundred years in the future thing could be explained without time travel. Just a one hundred year difference in the relative states of the inside and outside worlds. But if there really was time travel in the target movie that would change where we look.

More details should help narrow it down.

Personally, I am hoping we figure it out. Ideally it will turn out to be a candidate new movie for our collection!

I think we're taking about a saw-the-first-five-minutes-then-fell-asleep-and-dreamed-the-rest kind of thing. Happens to me all the time.

But i too hope we get a resolution. I hate an unsolved mystery.

miniseries "Tin Man"?

In the 2007 Syfy miniseries Tin Man, DG (Dorothy Gale) finds herself in the Outer Zone, also known as the O.Z., after the sorceress Azkadellia sends her soldiers to capture her.

While were playing "can you remember?":
I saw a science fiction show once. I thought it was the 1985 Twilight Zone reboot but I have been through the episode guide and none of the plots match. A man is being hunted in the woods by hunters. The time and place is the present, or near future, parallel now. The hunters have rifled or shotguns and look more or less like ordinary dear hunters. The hunted man finds a cabin in the woods and goes in. He starts searching through the cabin for anything he might use. He finds blueprints for an android. The android is him. He discovers how to bypass his restrictions on fighting back. The hunters arrive and reveal that they left the blueprints there for him on purpose to make the hunt more interesting. This was something like "The Most Dangerous Game" (Richard Connell 1924) but with a sifi twist.

( Personally, I have always wanted to find my own blueprints, so I could fix some of my more annoying and upsetting glitches. )

Can you remember this? Can anyone identify the source?

Last edited by Fenn on 01 May 2024, 12:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.

ChatGPT:
Based on the description of a barrier at the edge of the city, traveling to a utopian future, and the absence of flying saucers, here are a few other options that come to mind:

1. "Tomorrowland" (2015) - This film involves a young girl and a former boy-genius inventor who embark on a journey to a place called Tomorrowland, a futuristic utopia.
2. "The Giver" (2014) - While not set in the future, this film adaptation of the novel features a society with strict rules and a barrier beyond which lies the truth about their world.
3. "In Time" (2011) - Although not exactly matching your description, this film explores a dystopian future where time is currency, and there are societal barriers that segregate people based on wealth and status.
4. "The Village" (2004) - While not a utopian future, this M. Night Shyamalan film involves a secluded village surrounded by a barrier, and the characters' discovery of the truth about their world.
These options may not perfectly match your description, but they share some thematic elements related to barriers and discovering new worlds or truths. If none of these seem to be the movie you're thinking of, additional details could help narrow down the search.

Me:
expand to include the 1990s and tv shows.

ChatGPT
Certainly! Here are some additional options from the 1990s and TV shows that fit the theme of barriers, utopian futures, and time travel:

● "Sliders" (1995-2000) - This TV series follows a group of travelers who "slide" between parallel universes, encountering different societies and versions of Earth, including utopian and dystopian futures.
● "Stargate SG-1" (1997-2007) - While primarily focused on interstellar travel through a Stargate, this series occasionally explores alternate realities and utopian/dystopian societies.
● "The Truman Show" (1998) - While not a utopian future per se, this film involves a man living in a controlled environment where he is unaware that his entire life is a television show, with a barrier separating him from the outside world.
● "Dark City" (1998) - This film involves a man waking up with no memory in a city where the sun never rises, and he discovers the truth about the city and its inhabitants.
● "Fringe" (2008-2013) - While from the late 2000s, this TV series explores alternate realities, time travel, and scientific mysteries, with episodes featuring different versions of Earth and futuristic settings.
These options from the 1990s and TV shows offer a range of narratives involving barriers, alternate realities, and utopian/dystopian elements that may align with what you're looking for. If none of these seem to be the movie or show you're thinking of, any additional details or specific scenes you remember could help in pinpointing the title.

"The Hunt"?

Yeah - that was probably it. I just read the plot. I think I only ever saw the beginning.

I often think about that one scene.

A lot of cognitive science, neurology is about rediscovering our blueprints. God does good work. We humans are playing catch up. As a professional computer scientist basically my whole career is trying to figure out my blueprint and encoding a bad imitation of bits of it into the computer. I’ve got a few glitches I wouldn’t mind fixing.

It is not Dark City, I watched the end of that on youtube at that wasn't it. I also watched the ending of The 13th Floor, and that might be what I was thinking of. Might have just misremembered parts of it. I need to go back at watch the movie again to see if it strikes any chords. I really don't remember much about the movie at all, just the ending which left an imprint on me for some reason.

I see at the end of The 13th Floor the date is June 21, 2024. We get to soon see how accurate they were in predicting the future!

Doesn't the Terminator take place in a few years, at least the fighting the machines part?

https://terminator.fandom.com/wiki/The_ ... r_timeline

2029 seems to be the year most mentioned in a search I just did.