Science fiction creators make up tons of fictional technological innovations, typically to explain whatever the writer needs to happen within the narrative. This can feel lazy from time to time, but inventing a piece of technology that can move the story forward can be extremely intelligent. When it comes to story writing, technology can be impressive on its own merits and awe-inspiring as a narrative device.
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The Point of View Gun — The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy
The 2005 film adaptation of Douglas Adam’s beloved sci-fi comedy introduced a number of strange developments to the original tale. One of the most interesting new ideas from the adaptation’s script, co-written by Adams who tragically passed away in 2001, was the Point of View gun. Invented by Deep Thought, the supercomputer that solved all things, the Point of View gun forces its target to perceive reality through the shooter’s perspective.
Communication is difficult amongst intelligent beings, and having characters state their feelings is a fairly lazy way of exploring a narrative. Instead, the Point of View gun forces the other characters to undergo the emotional reality of their fellows. This concept is fascinating, presenting an alternative to arguments that could render all conflict obsolete. The film uses it a couple of times, allowing the heroes to better understand each other and to get out of a jam near the end.
The Holtzman Shield — Dune
When Frank Herbert wrote Dune in 1965, he was inspired by a wide variety of myths and legends. From the tales of King Arthur to the epic of Beowulf, Dune was to be a mixture of hard sci-fi and those legends of old. When one looks at sci-fi combat, one typically pictures laser pistols and spaceship dogfights. Herbert needed a way to make sword and knife combat work in the same reality as ornithopters and suspensor technology.
Enter the Holtzman Shield, a personal force field that kept the wearer safe from harm. Encasing one’s body in impermeable energy would be equivalent to vacuum-sealed plastic wrap, so the shield is carefully tuned to allow through matter which moves at low speeds. This allows the wielder to breathe, but also leaves them partially vulnerable. The shield annihilates projectile and thrown weapons instantly, but can be pierced by hand-held blades. This instantly provides perfect narrative justification for the unique knife-fighting combat of the Dune universe.
The Neuralyzer — Men in Black
The iconic 1997 sci-fi comedy classic and its three disappointing sequels invented one of the most clever ways of getting around a common narrative problem. The titular Men in Black organization functions in secret, dealing with extraterrestrial affairs on Earth without ever giving themselves away. When introducing a narrative that hinges on secrecy, it can be tough to go all-out with the blockbuster theatrics without viewers wondering how the hidden details aren’t found out. To circumvent this, superheroes have secret identities, spies have government infrastructures to bury evidence, and sci-fi space cops have the neuralyzer.
This device erases a brief period of a person’s memory with a flash of light, allowing the user to rewrite recent events. This allows for a ton of stellar comedy bits that give the movie its unique flavor, but it’s also a perfect way to allow the secretive organization to do whatever they want and still stay secret.
The T-1000 — T2: Judgement Day
The less-intelligent aspects of Skynet’s plans have been interrogated countless times by countless different sources, but the singularity had some good ideas. The first film introduced the T-800 model, which was designed to blend into human society to hunt down Sarah Connor. That plan was theoretically solid but had several weak points. Once Sarah survived the first attempt on her life, the T-800’s disguise became useless for its core purpose. In addition, the T-800 is walking around in the body of one of the largest and most distinct-looking humans on Earth, which helps him stand out.
The T-1000 solves those problems with the ability to become any person it encounters. This introduces an element of terror to every random civilian that John and Sarah come across. T-1000 can even take the form of the floor underneath Sarah’s feet. It’s a staggering upgrade and adds so much to the story.
The Drift — Pacific Rim
Guillermo del Toro brings his staggering grasp of storytelling to the giant monster movie in this 2013 masterpiece. Mankind is faced with monsters that threaten to wipe out all life on Earth, so they put aside their differences to create giant machines to defeat them. The Jaegers are too big for one person to pilot, so two must share the load. But there’s a catch: the two pilots must be in such perfect synchronicity that they act as one being.
This process is called The Drift, and it’s perfect. Main characters Raleigh and Mako start off competing and struggling to see eye to eye, but their ability to fight the big monster is locked behind their ability to get over their emotional issues. It is a dramatic in-universe reason to force the heroes to face their inner demons before they’re able to fight the bad guys. It’s an act of deceptive genius which allows the viewer to watch the pilots go through the emotional wringer with the same tension and power as a life-or-death struggle. The Drift is subtly the most clever invention of Pacific Rim, and more sci-fi films should take notes.
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