Creepy/sci-fi/dystopian... on the beach?
July 5, 2019 10:20 AM Subscribe
I was sitting on the beach the other night and thinking about movies that are creepy/sci-fi/dystopian that feature ocean/beach scenes and wave sounds. I was thinking of Planet of the Apes, Rogue One, Interstellar, The Road, and the night scenes in Castaway. Can you help me find some others to watch and enjoy? TIA!
For dystopian and depressing, there is a scene in The Road where the father and son eventually make it to the ocean. There are ocean sounds. Here is a clip.
Also, for science fiction, The Expanse on Amazon (TV show, not a movie), there is a scene where Bobbie Draper makes it to the ocean after looking for it for a while. There is an extended scene there where a discussion happens between her and someone else. I believe it has ocean noises as a backdrop.
posted by SpacemanStix at 10:34 AM on July 5, 2019
Also, for science fiction, The Expanse on Amazon (TV show, not a movie), there is a scene where Bobbie Draper makes it to the ocean after looking for it for a while. There is an extended scene there where a discussion happens between her and someone else. I believe it has ocean noises as a backdrop.
posted by SpacemanStix at 10:34 AM on July 5, 2019
Possibly Gattaca, but I don't remember whether you can hear the water.
posted by wintersweet at 10:44 AM on July 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by wintersweet at 10:44 AM on July 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
A Tidal Wave of Terror: Attack of the Crab Monsters! (1957)
posted by Rash at 10:52 AM on July 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Rash at 10:52 AM on July 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
Pacific Rim has at least one ocean fight scene.
posted by mismatched at 10:52 AM on July 5, 2019
posted by mismatched at 10:52 AM on July 5, 2019
Waterworld, natch, which though set ostensibly in a flooded world does end on a beach.
I'm not sure whether your title coincidently matches, or is a reference to the classic nuclear doomsday book that had several movie adaptions, On the Beach, which is partly about a US submarine crew fleeing the massively irradiated northern hemisphere for Australia. Here's the opening few minutes, from the 1959 movie, which shows the sub underway on the surface of the sea. I assume there's a beach scene somewhere; it's not entirely figurative in the book.
posted by Sunburnt at 10:53 AM on July 5, 2019 [5 favorites]
I'm not sure whether your title coincidently matches, or is a reference to the classic nuclear doomsday book that had several movie adaptions, On the Beach, which is partly about a US submarine crew fleeing the massively irradiated northern hemisphere for Australia. Here's the opening few minutes, from the 1959 movie, which shows the sub underway on the surface of the sea. I assume there's a beach scene somewhere; it's not entirely figurative in the book.
posted by Sunburnt at 10:53 AM on July 5, 2019 [5 favorites]
The Gattaca Beach beach scene is here. It fits the bill.
posted by Sunburnt at 10:55 AM on July 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Sunburnt at 10:55 AM on July 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
I am Mother features a post apocalyptic beach, complete with a shipwrecked container ship.
The ending of Children of Men
Jodie Foster meets the extraterrestrial intelligence on a sort of cosmic dream beach in Contact.
The City of Lost Children
And of course The Beach.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 11:01 AM on July 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
The ending of Children of Men
Jodie Foster meets the extraterrestrial intelligence on a sort of cosmic dream beach in Contact.
The City of Lost Children
And of course The Beach.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 11:01 AM on July 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
There's a beach scene in the climax of Contact.
posted by j_curiouser at 11:02 AM on July 5, 2019
posted by j_curiouser at 11:02 AM on July 5, 2019
The Fog. Very silly, quite brilliant.
posted by HandfulOfDust at 11:14 AM on July 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by HandfulOfDust at 11:14 AM on July 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
Annihilation takes place in a coastal area. It's definitely "Creepy/sci-fi/dystopian"
posted by sleeping bear at 11:41 AM on July 5, 2019 [8 favorites]
posted by sleeping bear at 11:41 AM on July 5, 2019 [8 favorites]
Seconding The City of Lost Children. Also, though 97% of it doesn't take place on the beach, a beach is absolutely vital to The Quiet Earth.
posted by eotvos at 11:41 AM on July 5, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by eotvos at 11:41 AM on July 5, 2019 [4 favorites]
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind has a beach as an important motif.
The creepy British sci-fi show The Prisoner had a lot of beach scenes, like the one depicted here.
posted by mbrubeck at 11:42 AM on July 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
The creepy British sci-fi show The Prisoner had a lot of beach scenes, like the one depicted here.
posted by mbrubeck at 11:42 AM on July 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
The ending of Barton Fink.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 11:50 AM on July 5, 2019
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 11:50 AM on July 5, 2019
If you can call it sci-fi, Deep Impact has a beach scene near the end!
posted by Synesthesia at 12:55 PM on July 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by Synesthesia at 12:55 PM on July 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
Terry's Gilliam's The Zero Theorem has a few pretty good uncanny valley beach scenes.
posted by mattamatic at 1:26 PM on July 5, 2019
posted by mattamatic at 1:26 PM on July 5, 2019
The Last Wave.
posted by baseballpajamas at 2:05 PM on July 5, 2019
posted by baseballpajamas at 2:05 PM on July 5, 2019
Do the lobstrosities and the beach in Stephen King's The Dark Tower series count?
posted by humboldt32 at 2:19 PM on July 5, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by humboldt32 at 2:19 PM on July 5, 2019 [2 favorites]
Also came in here to mention Annihilation. The follow-on books (Authority and Acceptance) take place in the same general geography and are some of my favorite weird sci-fi books ever.
posted by jquinby at 2:36 PM on July 5, 2019
posted by jquinby at 2:36 PM on July 5, 2019
Never Let Me Go has a few beach and waterfront scenes. Trailer
posted by chr1sb0y at 2:49 PM on July 5, 2019
posted by chr1sb0y at 2:49 PM on July 5, 2019
I think "Lord of the Flies" is dystopian, even though society at large is intact.
posted by tacodave at 3:27 PM on July 5, 2019
posted by tacodave at 3:27 PM on July 5, 2019
There's loads of underwater films... in fact 1989 & 1990 alone gave us way too many oddball underwater movies of variable quality: DeepStar Six, Leviathan, Lords of the Deep, The Evil Below, The Abyss, The Rift. There's the "snakes on a submarine" TV movie, Fer-De-Lance. And of course who could forget the snorkelling themed murder mystery from Hammer, the SNORKEL!
More beach related there's the Lovecraftian lighthouse horror Cold Skin or maybe the mermaid horror Night Tide. There's the Nazi zombies on a deserted island movie, Shock Waves. The Filipino radioactivity meets tropical paradise horror Brides of Blood. There's various beach parties gone deadly: Piranha, Humanoids from the Deep, Blood Beach, the Horror of Party Beach, Beach Girls and the Monster. Oh Space Children had a lot of beach scenes. And failed pilot, The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre.
Maybe one of those lost civilization movies? There's the Filipino made Beyond Atlantis. War Gods of the Deep? Island at the Top of the World? The various versions of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea / Mysterious Island might fit the bill. Or my childhood favorite, Bermuda Depths?
posted by Ashwagandha at 5:16 PM on July 5, 2019 [2 favorites]
More beach related there's the Lovecraftian lighthouse horror Cold Skin or maybe the mermaid horror Night Tide. There's the Nazi zombies on a deserted island movie, Shock Waves. The Filipino radioactivity meets tropical paradise horror Brides of Blood. There's various beach parties gone deadly: Piranha, Humanoids from the Deep, Blood Beach, the Horror of Party Beach, Beach Girls and the Monster. Oh Space Children had a lot of beach scenes. And failed pilot, The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre.
Maybe one of those lost civilization movies? There's the Filipino made Beyond Atlantis. War Gods of the Deep? Island at the Top of the World? The various versions of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea / Mysterious Island might fit the bill. Or my childhood favorite, Bermuda Depths?
posted by Ashwagandha at 5:16 PM on July 5, 2019 [2 favorites]
This isn't quite what you requested but if you're willing to entertain fanfiction and you like horror fiction, the Supernatural fanfiction A Complete Kingdom, by Komodobits has quite a lot of this and most likely has the atmosphere, if not the exact topic. (I love reading horror and this messed me up right good)
posted by gloriouslyincandescent at 5:27 PM on July 5, 2019
posted by gloriouslyincandescent at 5:27 PM on July 5, 2019
Thought of a few more... There's also Messiah of Evil which largely takes place at a creepy seaside town and is sort of in the same vein as Rosemary's Baby. Character actor Laurence Harvey's Welcome to Arrow Beach. Who Can Kill a Child? features a lot of beach scenes. Australian horror Long Weekend about a couple on a beach vacation terrorised by nature.
posted by Ashwagandha at 5:49 PM on July 5, 2019
posted by Ashwagandha at 5:49 PM on July 5, 2019
The Shallows is a movie starring Blake Lively as a surfer who is stranded on a rock formation with a leg injury while a shark stalks her.
posted by Constance Mirabella at 5:35 AM on July 6, 2019
posted by Constance Mirabella at 5:35 AM on July 6, 2019
Us by Jordan Peele takes place in the beach town of Santa Cruz, with many scenes occurring on the beach and adjacent boardwalk, and others on a lake.
It also directly refers to the Lost Boys, which also takes place in Santa Cruz, but I haven’t seen it in a long time and can’t remember if there are beach scenes in it.
posted by ejs at 6:56 AM on July 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
It also directly refers to the Lost Boys, which also takes place in Santa Cruz, but I haven’t seen it in a long time and can’t remember if there are beach scenes in it.
posted by ejs at 6:56 AM on July 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
There are a couple beach scenes in Lost Boys, mostly featuring orgiastic 80s parties on the boardwalk, but for the most part the vampire lair is in freeway underpasses - I don't recall any specific beach apocalypse stuff.
posted by aspersioncast at 10:20 PM on July 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by aspersioncast at 10:20 PM on July 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
Speaking of Stephen King...
There’s “Something to Tide You Over” from Creepshow, which to me is sort of the archetypal scary beach scene.
And then there’s “The Raft” from Creepshow 2, which is also creepy but involves a pond and not an ocean, so I’m not sure that fits your request.
posted by panama joe at 6:54 AM on July 7, 2019 [1 favorite]
There’s “Something to Tide You Over” from Creepshow, which to me is sort of the archetypal scary beach scene.
And then there’s “The Raft” from Creepshow 2, which is also creepy but involves a pond and not an ocean, so I’m not sure that fits your request.
posted by panama joe at 6:54 AM on July 7, 2019 [1 favorite]
(No spoilers) The last post-credits sequence of Spiderman: Far from Home features a familiar character apparently on a beach, briefly, followed by being in a scifi setting that's potentially creepy.
posted by Sunburnt at 1:06 PM on July 7, 2019
posted by Sunburnt at 1:06 PM on July 7, 2019
This thread is closed to new comments.
The way the tides are moving is a plot point in Minority Report.
posted by moonmilk at 10:32 AM on July 5, 2019 [4 favorites]