Science Fiction Cinema in the Twenty-First Century: Transnational Futures, Cosmopolitan Concerns

194 Pages·2022·5.47 MB·English

by  Pablo Gómez-Muñoz

SCIENCE FICTION CINEMA IN
THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
Recent films are increasingly using themes and conventions of science fiction
such as dystopian societies, catastrophic environmental disasters, apocalyptic sce-
narios, aliens, monsters, time travel, teleportation, and supernatural abilities to
address cosmopolitan concerns such as human rights, climate change, economic
precarity, and mobility. This book identifies and analyses the new transnational
turn towards cosmopolitanism in science fiction cinema since the beginning of
the twenty-first century.
The book considers a wide selection of examples, including case studies of
films such as Elysium, In Time, 2012, Andrew Niccol’s The Host, Codependent
Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same, and Cloud Atlas. It also questions the seeming
cosmopolitanism of these narratives and exposes how they sometimes reproduce
social hierarchies and exploitative practices.
Dealing with diverse, interdisciplinary concerns represented in cinema, this
book in the Studies in Global Genre Fiction series will be of interest to readers
and scholars working in the fields of science fiction, film and media studies,
cosmopolitanism, border theory, popular culture, and cultural studies. It will
also appeal to fans of science fiction cinema and literature.
Pablo Gómez-Muñoz is Assistant Professor of English and Film at the University
of Zaragoza (Spain). His research interests are transnational cinema, science fiction,
borders, cosmopolitanism, globalization, precarity, and spectacle. His work has been
published in journals such as Geopolitics, Journal of Transnational American Studies,
and Atlantis and volumes such as Making Sense of Popular Culture and Frontières au
Cinéma.
Studies in Global Genre Fiction
Series Editors: Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay, University of Oslo, Norway
and Taryne Jade Taylor, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, USA
Studies in Global Genre Fiction offers original insights into the history of genre litera-
ture while contesting two hierarchies that constrain global genre fiction studies: (1)
Anglophone literature and other global language literatures and (2) literary fiction and
genre fiction. The series explores the exchanges between different literary cultures that
form aesthetic concerns and the specific literary, sociopolitical, geographical, economic,
and historical forces that shape genre fiction globally. A key focus is understudied genre
fictions from the ‘global South’ — where geographical location or language often con-
fines works to the margins of the global publishing industry, international circulation,
and academic scrutiny, even if they may be widely read in their own specific contexts.
Contributions to this series investigate the points of disruption, intersection and flows
between literary and genre fiction. The series analyses cross-cultural influences in literary
classifications, translation, transcreation, localization, production, and distribution while cap-
turing the rich history of world and global literatures.
Editorial Advisory Board
• Takayuki Tatsumi (Keio University, Japan)
• Dale Knickerbocker (East Carolina University, USA)
• Pawel Frelik (University of Warsaw, Poland)
• Joan Gordon (Nassau Community College/Science Fiction Studies, USA)
• Amy J. Ransom (Central Michigan University, USA)
• Farah Mendlesohn (Anglia Ruskin Centre for Science Fiction and Fantasy, UK)
• Rana Issa (American University of Beirut, Lebanon)
• Alexis Brooks de Vita (Texas Southern University, USA)
• M Elizabeth Ginway (University of Florida, USA)
• Aino-Kaisa Koistinen (University of Jyväskylä, Finland)
• Helge Jordheim (University of Oslo, Norway)
• Abhijit Gupta (Jadavpur University, India)
• Suparno Banerjee (Texas State University, USA)
• Isiah Lavender III (Louisiana State University, USA)
Books in this series
The Making of The Wandering Earth
A Film Production Handbook
Edited by Jiaren Wang and Regina Kanyu Wang (STORYCOM)
Translated by Guo Qi and Revised by John Shanahan
Burning Down the House
Latin American Comics in the 21st Century
Edited by Laura Fernández-González, Amadeo Gandolfo and Pablo Turnes
For more information about this series, please visit: https://www .routledge .com /
Studies -in -Global -Genre -Fiction /book -series /SGGF
SCIENCE FICTION
CINEMA IN THE
TWENTY-FIRST
CENTURY
Transnational Futures,
Cosmopolitan Concerns
Pablo Gómez-Muñoz
Cover image: Getty Images
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 Pablo Gómez-Muñoz
The right of Pablo Gómez-Muñoz to be identified as authors of this
work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other
means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
Disclaimer: Every effort has been made to contact copyright-holders.
Please advise the publisher of any errors or omissions, and these will be
corrected in subsequent editions.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-0-367-71532-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-75906-3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-16451-7 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003164517
Typeset in Bembo
by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
For my parents

CONTENTS
List of Figures viii
Acknowledgments x
Introduction: Transnational Futures, Cosmopolitan Concerns 1
1 Systemic Dystopias through a Cosmopolitan Lens:
Contesting Global Neoliberalism 18
2 Greening Apocalypse: Eco-Conscious Disaster and the
Biopolitics of Climate Change 55
3 Love for the Alien Same: Interplanetary Romance and
Kinship as Harbingers of Ambivalent Cosmopolitanism 88
4 The Cosmopolitan Potential of Connections across Time
and Space 125
Conclusion 158
Works Cited 163
Index 175
FIGURES
1.1 Earth is not enough: a socioeconomic system in need of
perpetual growth has no choice but to enlarge its scope to
outer space in Elysium (Blomkamp 2013) 36
1.2 Even when characters talk about personal and local
matters, the shadow of transnational financial interests
looms large in In Time (Niccol 2011) 41
1.3 By framing the protagonist through window security bars,
In Time (Niccol 2011) draws attention to borders from the
very beginning of the film 42
2.1 The sinking of Santa Monica mirrors the melting of a
glacier in 2012 (Emmerich 2009) 67
2.2 In 2012 (Emmerich 2009), freeways collapse and parking
lots vomit cars, showing the inability of the planet to cope
with more cars and the collapse of modernity in the city 74
3.1 Ian and Wanderer develop a mental void that offers room
for cosmopolitan understanding in The Host (Niccol 2013) 105
3.2 By having characters touch each other’s noses, Codependent
Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same (Olnek 2011) queers
affection and sex 117
3.3 Compositional imbalance and pleasurable awkwardness in
Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same (Olnek 2011) 118
3.4 Camp all over: Codependent Lesbian (Olnek 2011)
emphasizes its own and its characters’ resourcefulness 121
Figures ix
4.1 and 4.2 In Cloud Atlas (Tykwer and The Wachowskis
2012), two shots separated by 40 minutes of screen time
form a graphic match that stretches editing conventions
and invites viewers to look for connections in the film’s
spatiotemporal cocktail 139
4.3 and 4.4 Cloud Atlas (Tykwer and The Wachowskis 2012)
(top) and I Origins (Cahill 2014) (bottom) use doors as a
symbol of the cosmopolitan potential of reincarnation 146
4.5 In Cloud Atlas (Tykwer and The Wachowskis 2012), a
room full of china pieces about to be smashed presents an
alternative reality: a queer utopia 156