Top 5 World Building Films
There’s a movie Colin and I love—it’s an action parody from the early 1990s—called Last Action Hero. The set up for the movie is that the pre-teen protagonist has a stressful home life and he escapes by going to a local theater and watching Arnold action movies. Currently, there are so many of us experiencing stress on so many levels. And while I understand it is not always adequate to find a cinematic escape to solve our stress, I know it can also be one way that some people cope. If that is the case for you, I am hoping this list, the second installment of my Corona series, helps guide you to a whole new world. Or at least one you haven’t visited in awhile.
Cinema is a unique medium for world building—it does things that others cannot. Now, I love reading and books, and in a lot of ways reading unlock an imaginative stimulation you cannot get elsewhere. But, being a visual medium, film can paint a beautiful world and utilize a “show don’t tell” technique better than any other. This isn’t to put other mediums down; rather, it is to highlight one of the things that makes movies so powerful and empathetic. To see an actor, or a documentary subject, portray a glance of wonder or pain or excitement creates a connection and can open an entire world. The way that Luke, or now Rey, looks out upon the space before them adds to the wonder that Star Wars inspires in all of us. The way that societies are built, architecture is designed, governments are structured, or even something as simple and overlooked as the way a costume is styled helps to paint a new experience. All of this, and even more, can be illustrated on the screen and capture our attention and draw us in deeper to the story.
Good world-building sets up a story that we can escape into by making a rich setting for the characters we care about to be fleshed out. Without the perfect setting a character arc can fall flat or a theme can go undiscovered. If the director and screenwriter create a rich world then little suspension of disbelief can be allowed. The audience will consent to being thrown into a place that is often ridiculous or that doesn’t make any sense and they won’t even notice. Rather than write paragraphs about the tenants of good world-building, though, I am going to list my top five examples of excellent world-building in film. This list will hopefully give you something to add to your watchlist while there isn’t much else to do, or provide a distraction you’ve been craving. None of these movies are Last Action Hero, although it definitely excels in this category (you KNOW you’ve wanted to see a version of Terminator with Stallone in the lead). Also, my favorite example of world building, Spirited Away, is also not included. This is just because I used it in the last Corona themed list (click here) and repeating it seemed a little like cheating. So we’ll just call the “The In Honor of Spirited Away World Building List.”
5. Never Let Me Go
This movie is an under looked film from 2010 that is based off the incredible novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. I wanted to include this one because I have read the book it’s based on (unlike my number two pick). I mentioned that sometimes movies do world-building better because the visual element of filmmaking can enhance some aspects of creating setting. This case is interesting because both the book and the movie are set in the early nineties in our own world (specifically England). Almost every aspect, except the very nature of the characters, is familiar to us. Yet, especially in the book, the morose tone carries such a weight to it that we sit breathless waiting for the end. When I was reading the book I imagined landscapes and shorelines akin to a nature documentary—it wasn’t described like that or anything, but it was in the tone of the text. That feeling carried over to the film as well, and the dread of this society’s rules sinks into you with every shot of the British countryside. I actually prefer the book to the movie, but both are a breathtaking look at the human condition.
4. Black Panther
When Black Panther came out in 2018 I didn’t rush to the theater to see it because I just started a new job. I was making more money and trying to pay off some debt and was so exhausted from my new schedule I just couldn’t make it there. Eventually, though, my boyfriend and I did our duty as Marvel fans and got ourselves two tickets. My mind was BLOWN. Here was a country (that is not real) that had a fully fleshed out system of government and societal expectations that provided the framework for the hero and villain to take their respected paths. There were laws and jobs in this place, there was a purposeful system of farming, and the COSTUMES. The costumes had beautiful significant colors and styles that provided functions. The warriors seemed so real, and the technology fit perfectly inside the world of Marvel. There was nothing sloppy about the construction of Wakanda or the small details that make it seem real. If you haven’t revisited this one in a while I highly recommend going back to it and paying attention to these elements.
3. The Wind in the Willows
I am talking about the 1995 Dave Unwin version (PLEASE, if you are a parent or aunt/uncle/grandparent DO NOT. UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. SHOW YOUR YOUNG RELATIVE. ANY. OTHER. VERSION. This is it. The only one that counts. A faithful adaptation that captures the spirit of the original text while also exploring a visual creative freedom without making caricatures of the animals.) I wore this tape out as a kid because I was so lost in the world that this film constructed. The delicate pastel colors and gentle, unassuming animation surrounds the movie, even the crazier parts, with a calm and reassuring feeling. Maybe I am just a sucker for the English countryside (despite never have visited it…SO FAR) but I find this world to be so enchanting. I want to spend time with Ratty, Mole, and Badger (not so much Toad, though) and sip tea next to the fireside. I would include The Winter in the Willows here as well because nothing has made me want to cuddle up in a sweater like that movie, but if I had to pick one it’s the OG. I felt like it was important to include an animated children’s film somewhere on this list since so many of us had our imaginations stimulated as children by excellent world-building, which pushed us into creative projects later in life. This, for me, along with the Beatrix Potter BBC series, was a formative piece of media.
2. Big Fish
Okay, so when I think of world-building the first thing that comes to mind is surrealism. There is actually a lot of great art house picks that I could have put here instead of this one—films like Stalker, for example, but Big Fish (besides being more friendly to a broad audience/readership) holds the notable title of being the only film to make me ugly cry. I’m not talking about a simple tear or sniffle. I mean a full-on mascara running, don’t take a picture of me, Kim Kardashian ugly cry. It uses this huge and familiar, yet still strange, world filled with tall tales (or are they?) and quirky characters to emphasize a father/son relationship. I don’t want to spoil the film so I won’t set up much more, but most of the movie is set up through stories passed down from father to son. It’s a beautiful movie that shows Tim Burton at his best. It inspires a sense of wonder in adults that they may not have felt since they were children. Bring a tissue box, though. WOW.
1. Metropolis
This is the ultimate example of expansive world-building. And it’s a silent film, making it all the more impressive. Its analysis of classism in society is illustrated through the boss class reigning in tall towers 100 stories above the underground where the workers toil. Besides the fact that its 2030 setting is astoundingly close, and that its assessment of future society unnervingly accurate, this movie is remarkable for exactly what I have been saying movies can do: it can show us everything. And since this movie was made before there were any “talkies” it had no choice BUT to show. The special effects are incredible, even by today’s standards, and the scale is such an achievement that almost 100 years later it is STILL taught in high school and college classes across the world. This piece of cinema history is the perfect way to end this list—it builds a society and world that we fall into, that we believe, and that we take the time to fill in the gaps for.
That’s not all of the movies that are rich in world-building (of course). There are SO many and I struggled to leave some of them off. Some honorable mentions include: Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Neverending Story, The Story of NIHM, Star Wars (all of them), Alien, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Wall-E, Jurassic Park, and Blade Runner (both the OG and 2049). For a bigger (and ever-growing) list of world-building that I love click on the Letterboxd list I have been crafting here.
What are your favorite instances of world-building in film? Where do you escape to when you begin to feel stressed out and need to go to a different place?