There are a lot of things you can do on Earth Day to honor this pale blue dot we live on. I suppose the most meaningful thing would be to go completely off the grid for 24 hours and get back to appreciating the living world around you. But let's be realistic; very few people are actually going to go do that. They might walk to work for the day or drink out of a cup instead of buying a bottle of water, but they're not going to go dark. And why should they when Avatar is coming out on DVD and Blu-ray on Earth Day to give everyone an at-home reminder that our world is indeed worth saving?
I won't be watching Avatar on Earth Day, however -- I'd prefer to get my love-the-planet wake-up call from one of these ten films instead.
10. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Oh, sure, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a harmless family film about interstellar adventures with aliens, but let's not forget that the film actually opens with planet earth being demolished to pave way for an intergalactic highway. Sure, the decimation of the planet isn't quite as visually bombastic in Garth Jenning's 2005 adaptation of Douglas Adams' classic novel(s) as it is in, say, a Roland Emmerich film, but it's still a bummer to see the only world we've got vaporized without a second's hesistation.
9. Knowing
Alex Proyas' Knowing was the most pleasant sci-fi surprise of 2009 in my book. I went into it expecting another bad Nicolas Cage movie and came away a little stunned at how much tenderness and immediacy it bestows upon the end of the world. Plus, of every film on this list, Knowing easily boasts the most terrifying end-of-the-world scenario. There is absolutely nothing we can do about a solar flare. One day life on Earth is fine, the next day the sun has a stronger-than-normal hiccup and our globe is turned into an E-Z Bake Oven. Knowing is all about appreciating what you have while you have it — a perfect fit for Earth Day.
8. The Fifth Element
Okay, so there's not much left of the natural world once the future of Luc Besson's The Fifth Element arrives. It's been replaced by endless high rises and sky-highways for flying cars that stretch as far as the eye can see. But even though Besson's world only vaguely resembles our own, when it's threatened by an all-encompassing force spreading through the universe we want to see it saved all the same.
7. Dark City
Alex Proyas sure does love to remind us that we've currently got it good on planet Earth. He doesn't need to destroy it in Dark City to help convey that message, he need only hide it from the viewer. It's depressing watching a city with no sunlight and no happiness. After watching Dark City I just want to go frolicking in a sun-drenched corn field.
6. Sunshine
And speaking of no sunlight, why not turn to Danny Boyle's Sunshine for a dose of Earth Day love. It's full of characters whose desire to one day share a sunrise with their families back on terra firma is surpassed only by their passion to ensure all life on our planet survives the dimming of the sun. Alex Garland's script may not have a realistic threat at its center, but it's still a great story of how man has the supreme power to alter his own fate.
5. Deep Impact
If you want a realistic scenario, though, Deep Impact should do the job just fine. Sure, the actual movie is overly long and overly sappy. And sure, the effects on the final tidal wave are surely dated by contemporary standards, but seeing this as a child permanently seared a latent fear of asteroids into my brain. And as all of us living in the current climate of fearmongering well know, fear is a great motivator for change.
4. Independence Day
When I first thought about making a list of movies to tie into Earth Day, I told myself I couldn't have any Roland Emmerich movies on it. Well, I'm breaking that rule. I just have too soft a spot for Independence Day to not give the explosion-loving maestro his due. This is one of those movies where my analytical adult brain is always defeated by the kid in me. I know full well that Independence Day is a bad movie, but damnit if I'm not rooting for the human race to save itself and the planet every time it's on TV.
3. Billabong Odyssey
We need to have some actual, non-special effects footage of our astounding home in the mix. Sure, any frame of any David Attenborough BBC special will have you falling in love with nature all over again, but if you want to go straight for the awe and wonder of how man is such a tiny, fragile part of a planet that is going to do whatever it wants regardless of us, just watch this unbelievable shot from Philip Boston's documentary Billabong Odyssey.
2. Blade Runner
Blade Runner may not have anything to do with an apocalypse scenario for our planet, but it, not unlike Dark City, always has me wanting to go outside and cherish nature. It's the portrayal of the future in Ridley Scott's film that always gets me. The unending, suffocating pollution. The inescapable maze of inner city life. A world with no natural wildlife whatsoever to speak of. Blade Runner is the future I never want to happen.
1. Contact
Contact contains a number of my favorite shots in cinema, but the most relevant to this topic is the opening. Inspired by the IBM-produced short film The Powers of 10, Robert Zemeckis opens with a camera that pulls farther and farther away from the planet Earth until we are completely invisible to the naked eye. I love how humbling it is, how succinctly it reminds us that we are all truly insignificant specs in the universe. That said, Contact is hardly a pessimessitic film. I think it actually has the most Earth Day-friendly message of any film on this list: even though we are insignificant, we are not inconsequential.
If you'd like to get involved with Earth Day, check out the Earth Day Network.