Science-fiction movies seem to be mostly about leaving the planet behind for the stars, but sometimes the characters bring a little bit of the Earth with them.
While gardens and farming aren’t the first things that come to mind in most classic sci-fi flicks, some films feature a touch of green, whether to define a character or as a main plot point.
Why not fire up the DVD player or do a search on streaming services for these 4 science fiction movies that feature gardening?
Science-Fiction Movies
- Amazon Prime Video (Video on Demand)
- Ron Rifkin, Bruce Dern, Jesse Vint (Actors)
Silent Running
Usually known for playing off-kilter characters, Bruce Dern is at his best as botanist and ecologist Freeman Lowell. It's the far future, the Earth is dying, and immense domes filled with the last forests have been shot into space, where they circle Saturn and Lowell and three other crewmembers tend to them.
Inexplicably, ground control orders them to destroy the domes and return home, causing Lowell to crack up. His green thumbs begin to run red with the blood of his teammates, but he and three adorable robots named Huey, Dewey, and Louie stay to care for the plants.
This one is as trippy and weird as any movie made in the early 70s can be.
- Amazon Prime Video (Video on Demand)
- Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig (Actors)
The Martian
Matt Damon as astronaut Mark Watney, another botanist (though considerably less nutty than Freeman Lowell). Mark is accidentally marooned on Mars when a violent dust storm rises and his teammates abandon him thinking he’s dead.
Watney struggles to survive on the red planet until he can be rescued, and uses all his wits to produce enough water, oxygen, and food. Regarding the latter, he decides potatoes will grow best in Martian and produces a fine crop.
Sadly, no butter, sour cream, or deep fryers are available on Mars.
- Amazon Prime Video (Video on Demand)
- Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Jeff Garlin (Actors)
Wall-E
For the most part, there’s technically only one tiny plant in Wall-E, but it’s an important one. Earth, near-dead and covered with waste, has been abandoned by humanity. Wall-E—which, by the way, is short for Waste Allocation Load-Lifter: Earth-Class—is the last of his kind, having spent centuries crushing garbage into cubes and building massive garbage piles to clean up the planet.
Lo and behold, Wall-E finds a plant amongst the trash and then encounters EVE, a robot probe in search of life on Earth. Wall-E's little plant brings them together, while also bringing hope to humanity.
- Amazon Prime Video (Video on Demand)
- Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher (Actors)
Star Wars
After 40 years, you might not think that any of the Star Wars series belongs in a list of 4 science fiction movies that feature gardening. It’s easy to forget that before Luke Skywalker was a rebel leader and Jedi master, he was a simple farm boy on the desert planet of Tatooine.
His Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru ran a moisture farm, where moisture evaporators (also called vapor spires) drew water from the atmosphere, which was transmitted to underground hydroponic farms where the crops were raised.
We first meet Luke and Owen at the Jawa Sandcrawler where they’re in search of droids and, perhaps, discount grow supplies for the farm.
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