One of the most fascinating subgenres of films is the biopic, and films about scientists show that every major discovery has a backstory that needs to be dived into. Additionally, science-related movies provide a window into a fascinating world that we might not typically be aware of.
Recently, the R Madhavan-starring flick Rocketry brought our attention to a world we rarely see on screen. Also, here are a few other movies that achieved the same.
1. Rocketry
The life of Nambi Narayanan, an aerospace engineer and former scientist with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), is the basis for the Indian biography. He was detained in 1994 after being falsely accused of being a spy. With the police officers who wrongly accused him still on the job, he is fighting for justice even though he is free.
2. Mission Mangal
The movie recounts the remarkable story of Mangalyaan, India’s first Mars mission, which was launched in 2013. It features an ensemble cast led by Akshay Kumar, Vidya Balan, Sonakshi Sinha, and Taapsee Pannu and is loosely based on the lives of scientists at the Indian Space Research Organization who contributed to India’s first interplanetary expedition Mars Orbiter Mission.
3. Rocket Boys
The tale of two outstanding scientists, Dr. Homi J. Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai, is the focus of Rocket Boys. The three pivotal decades in India’s development into an independent country are the central story. Bhabha designed India’s nuclear programme, and Sarabhai founded the Indian Space Program in addition to many more institutions, all with aspirations and visions in their eyes.
4. The Man Who Knew Infinity
Based on Robert Kanigel’s 1991 book of the same name, this British biographical drama movie is about the Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan. Ramanujan, a brilliant self-taught mathematician, perseveres despite dropping out of college. In order to attend Trinity College, he contacts Professor G H Hardy and expresses his desire to follow his interest.
5. The Theory Of Everything
The Theory of Everything tells the tale of how Stephen Hawking, a bright Cambridge University student and future physicist, falls in love with Jane Hawking. This amazing account of one of the greatest living minds in the world stars Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones.
6. The Imitation Game
In order to decipher Nazi codes, particularly Enigma, which cryptanalysts had previously believed to be indecipherable, newly established British intelligence organisation MI6 recruits Cambridge mathematics alumnus Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch). While Turing develops a machine to decipher Enigma signals, his team, which includes Joan Clarke (Keira Knightley), analyses the messages.
7. A Beautiful Mind
The drama A Beautiful Mind was influenced by incidents in John Forbes Nash Jr.’s life. John Forbes Nash Jr. went through it all, from fame’s pinnacles to the lowest points of depravity. He was a mathematical prodigy who was on the verge of becoming well-known around the world when he made an astounding discovery early in his career.
8. The Current War
Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse, two of the greatest inventors of the industrial era, compete in a historical drama film that is based on their 19th-century rivalry. Their technological and intellectual combat will determine whose electrical system would power the new century.
9. Hidden Figures
In this movie, Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson, three brilliant African-American women who worked for NASA, portray the minds behind one of the greatest operations in history. The launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit was a stunning accomplishment that rekindled the nation’s confidence, reversed the Space Race, and inspired the entire world.
10. Temple Grandin
The biography of Temple Grandin is about an autistic woman who surmounted the restrictions placed on her by her disability to become a Ph.D. and a leading authority in animal husbandry. She challenged preconceived notions about autism with her unusual communication abilities and intelligence.
11. Radioactive
The 2010 graphic novel Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout by American author Lauren Redniss served as the inspiration for the movie. The remarkable real account of Marie Sklodowska-Curie and the impact of her work, which won her a Nobel Prize. As she seeks to explain previously unidentified radioactive components, her dedication to research doesn’t waver.
12. Tesla
Tesla is a 2020 American biographical drama film starring Ethan Hawke as Nikola Tesla that was written and directed by Michael Almereyda. With his novel technique for global wireless energy, visionary scientist Nikola Tesla first encounters difficult obstacles to bring his revolutionary electrical system to life.
13. Gorillas in the Mist
Dian Fossey, a wildlife expert, had her autobiography turned into a movie. Fossey (Sigourney Weaver), a native of the Midwest, departs the country for Africa where she does research on the gorillas of Rwanda and Uganda. Fossey grows attached to the animals, but she also starts to worry about the poachers who feed on them.
14. Creation
In the movie based on Charles Darwin’s life, the English biologist is left heartbroken by the loss of his cherished daughter, Annie, and is depicted as being a wreck. When it comes to writing his book about evolution, Darwin (Paul Bettany) falls into a severe despair. Although Annie’s passing has undermined Darwin’s faith in God, his wife Emma’s has been strengthened by it (Jennifer Connelly).
15. Awakenings
The screenplay for the movie, which was written by Steven Zaillian and directed by Penny Marshall, was based on Oliver Sacks’ 1973 autobiography Awakenings. The tale of a doctor’s remarkable efforts in the 1960s with a group of patients he discovers in a Bronx hospital who is catatonic.
So, are you set to binge?