2007 Hit Ranked Among ‘Best Sci-Fi Movies of All Time’ Remains a Modern Classic
Alfonso Cuarón's groundbreaking sci-fi thriller Children of Men has been ranked among Rolling Stone's 150 Best Sci-Fi Movies of All Time, just twenty years after its release.
The film stars Clive Owen as a federal agent named Theo who is tasked with protecting a young woman who may harbor the secret to protecting humanity's future in a world where pregnancy has become extinct.
Children of Men explores the growing dystopia of modern society through the lens of a world that has already fallen into ruin, discussing the important ethical questions of what it means to bring children into a dying world and concluding that we bear a responsibility to protect Earth for the next generation.
Like many sci-fi movies, Children of Men uses a fantastical concept to hold a mirror up to the real world—and perhaps more than most, Cuarón's film feels strongly prophetic through its eerily accurate depiction of what the world could become.
The film's screenplay is based on P.D. James' 1992 novel The Children of Men, though Cuarón's movie makes some clear and potent changes to the story. Despite a staggered release strategy and lack of marketing, Children of Men found greater appreciation over time and would later receive a warm welcome at the Academy Awards.
The film was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Editing—but it was ultimately beaten by Martin Scorsese's The Departed in all three categories.
Rolling Stone's list places Children of Men at No. 7, praising the film for its "astounding technical accomplishments" and the compelling lead performances—they call it "one of the best pieces of speculative fiction of the 21st Century." The film has also appeared on several other lists of a similar nature, including the BBC's critics poll of the best films released between 2000 and 2016 in any genre.
Children of Men was also a massive breakthrough for Alfonso Cuarón, who had admittedly been well-known before this project, but who found himself thrust onto a whole new level of critical acclaim afterwards. Y Tu Mamá También had been a major success—and one that ultimately allowed him to land the job of directing the third Harry Potter movie—but Children of Men proved that his genius storytelling wasn't going anywhere.
His next two movies, Gravity and Roma, also performed extremely well at the Academy Awards—the latter of which was inches away from securing Netflix their first Best Picture victory.