Hacker Cinema
City of Ember
2008 · Film · 95 min
Directed by Gil Kenan
For generations, the people of the City of Ember have flourished in an amazing world of glittering lights. But Ember's once powerful generator is failing and the great lamps that illuminate the city are starting to flicker. Now, two teenagers, in a race against time, must search Ember for clues that will unlock the ancient mystery of the city's existence, before the the lights go out forever.
2 positive6 neutralfrom 8 commenters
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8 comments on Hacker News
We should build underground cities like the movie "city of ember" and adapt. We can become mole people. When you dig hard enough and become an subterranean billonaire, then you can afford a house above ground. Otherwise, your social karama score will determine your above ground privileges.
The robots will farm above ground and care for the planet as we use geothermal energy and nuclear power to burrow out new homes.
Don't worry, we can still have meaningless corporate meetings underground to remind ourselves of who we truly are.
"Respect the reader's time. For example, in reviewing "City of Ember," a film about a city of the future buried deep beneath the surface of the earth," you must not say it "looks like it was shot on a sound stage." As Louis Armstrong said about jazz, some folks they know, and the others, you can't tell 'em.'
Never heard that Armstrong quote, but I'm stealing it
Edit (maybe add Ebert to the title, I wouldn't have read it haven't I seen the website!)
These are all generally highly reviewed can lead to interesting discussions:
Gattaca - interesting take on genetics/DNA discrimination
Europa - hard science fiction, maybe a bit slow for a 12 year old
The Net - older movie but the concept of digital exile resonates today
City of Ember - post apocalyptic civilization that lives deep underground
First Man - dramatization of Neil Armstrong and the first moon landing (not realy "fiction")
Arrival - first contact situation, tastefully done
Contact - another first contact situation that explores how politics, skepticism, and fanaticism react
The Martian - easily as fun as the book
The Prestige - competing magicians in an industrial age setting
The Hunger Games - extreme class divide in a future setting
Jurassic Park - the original not the sequels
Stargate - wormhole travel to another planet (be careful with the TV shows though, SG1 on streaming has full frontal nudity and "not ok" scenes which were obviously not on the broadcast version and a total shock when we watched it as a family)
District 9 - has some graphic gore and language, so it might be 14+, but is an interesting look at aliens as refugees
Contagion - a look at how a pandemic could play out. Premiered before COVID.
The Maze Runner - interesting setting and look at group dynamics
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids - fun setting
The Village - scary movie with a sci fi twist
Galaxy Quest - comedy
Short Circuit - old movie that deals with AI sentience
Innerspace - another old one, but has some fun concepts
Classic, this is a story that will always stick with you. City of Ember is also thematically similar, it's a fun movie.
It reminded me initially of the movie City of Ember
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0970411/
After taking a lot of medical courses just for fun, and a lot of neuroscience, I took a course "Introduction to Clinical Neurology" offered on Coursera that had some stringent exam conditions so that it would even count towards having taken an official course for practicing doctors as part of continuing education. I also took one on the same platform actually taught by African doctors about various parasites common in Africa, leishmaniasis was in it too. (Note: Can't link, after the reorg. of Coursera those free courses are not even available in archived form.)
So anyway, especially the neurology course was kind of depressing. Basically, apart from watching and treating a few symptoms, and maybe delaying symptoms (the main example being Parkinson's and brain implants), there is nothing that can be done.
Looking at the state of medicine I'm reminded of the movie "City of Ember" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0970411/), where survivors of the nuclear apocalypse were placed in an underground city, and the movie starts a few hundred years later when their (1960s level) technology and especially their power plant starts falling apart after many, many repairs. The engineers there, with no access to make anything new, only the supply they were given at the beginning, are like doctors, and the machinery like human bodies. You start with what you are given and it all goes downhill from there, with more or less horrible kludges and hacks around arising problems along the way.
Yes it's strange how far our developments in efficiency have progressed yet somehow everyone is still working 60 hour work weeks..
Reminds me of that obscure Bill Murray movie "City of Ember" : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkSFsbv6eUg
There are a lot of good movies here already, I missed these two however:
Big Fish http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0319061/
City of Ember http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0970411/