Movies about scientists and tech geniuses: when reality surpasses fiction
Sometimes it seems that humanity has no hope except for aliens, when the powerful in this world do what we read about in the news and the consequences of which we feel on ourselves every day. But then you remember that sometimes people of a different caste also influence the world order. Those who seek and find a way into space. Those who create extraordinary inventions or make scientific discoveries. And they do it not in order to destroy as many people as possible, but on the contrary, to make their lives at least a little easier. Or... Or those who work on super-complex tasks because they are extremely interested in it, and they cannot do otherwise... And create a miracle, sometimes without even realizing it, as is often the case with theoretical scientists, or radically change the rules of the game. Such people are called geniuses, and their existence gives hope that perhaps common sense will prevail, and we will manage on our own, without aliens, and not turn our planet into a scorched radioactive wasteland in the process.
In this selection, we have collected interesting films about real geniuses of science and technology. Some of them really changed the rules of the game, some just wanted to, but something went wrong. And some accidentally created something different from what they had hoped for. Let's start with films about modern techno-geniuses and gradually move on to films about scientists.
The Social Network
Year: 2010
Director: David Fincher
IMDB rating: 7.8/10
Main role: Jesse Eisenberg
Once upon a time, in the 2000s, there was a socially insecure but very ambitious student at Harvard. However, his ambitions were not so much about studies as about technology and websites. Once he created a platform where he could publicly evaluate the appearance of female students, which, of course, offended them. The scandal did not stop him. On the contrary, he continued to experiment with digital communities. In the end, using the work of other students, he created a website for an elite Harvard society, which later turned into the most massive social network in the world. The student's name is Mark Zuckerberg, and the network is the well-known Facebook.
Interestingly, the film was shot in 2010, just a few years after the real events – during the peak of Facebook's popularity, when Mark himself was only 25 years old.
The film shows how programming can change the world, but also reveals the price of success: lost friendships, legal battles and moral dilemmas of the digital age. David Fincher masterfully conveys the atmosphere of the technological revolution of the early 2000s, when innovations were born in dormitories and future billionaires coded at night to the tune of pizza and energy drinks.
Steve Jobs
Year: 2015
Director: Danny Boyle
IMDB rating: 7.2/10
Main role: Michael Fassbender
Danny Boyle's film is not a biography in the usual, chronological sense. It tells the story of the legendary Apple visionary through the lens of three important presentations: the Macintosh (1984), NeXT (1988), and iMac (1998).
Each of these presentations is a kind of duel. A few minutes before going on stage, Jobs resolves conflicts with his daughter, with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, with marketing expert Joanna Hoffman. All these people circle around him, trying to break through his egoism to the living person inside. Sometimes they succeed. Sometimes they don't.
Michael Fassbender portrays Jobs not as a saint of innovation, but as a complex, contradictory man who often forgets that morals apply even to those who change the world. He is convinced that his mission justifies any sacrifices - even those that are made by those closest to him.
This is a chamber, dialogic, somewhat theatrical film, where presentations become the backdrop for emotional drama. Instead of definitive answers, the viewer is given the opportunity to independently assess the complex figure of Steve Jobs. But with the constant refrain-hint that genius is no excuse for cruelty. And that the best ideas are born not when one dictates to everyone else, but when true talents unite for a common goal. The paradox of Jobs is that he understood this and at the same time categorically refused to admit it.
Jobs
Year: 2013
Director: Joshua Michael Stern
IMDB rating: 5.9/10
Main role: Ashton Kutcher
Unlike Danny Boyle's film, Jobs is a more traditional biography of Steve Jobs, covering his journey from a rebellious student to an icon of modern technology. The film does not delve into the psychological labyrinths and moral dilemmas that the genius's life was certainly filled with, but tells a slightly romanticized story, as is usually the case with biopics. From the first experiments in the garage to the triumphant return to Apple, the film tells a familiar story in a familiar language. Ashton Kutcher diligently copies Jobs' mannerisms and appearance, but does he manage to convey what was inside this man?
Critics have received this film mixed reviews. Perhaps because it respects its hero too much, and instead of revealing the contradictions of a genius, it shows an almost ideal version of the American dream of success. Jobs here is always the right visionary, surrounded by people who do not understand his genius. There are conflicts, but they are quickly resolved in favor of the main character. The film resembles the statement of a fan who finds it difficult to admit that there are spots on the Sun.
And yet, even this approach has its advantages. If only because the film inspires and reminds us that behind every great breakthrough there are years of daily work, countless failures and an endless belief that the impossible is possible. Perhaps this is what is most important in any story about geniuses – not their personal demons, but the ability not to give up when the whole world is against you.
Pirates of Silicon Valley
Year: 1999
Director: Martin Burke
IMDB rating: 7.2/10
Starring: Noah Wiley, Anthony Michael Hall
Pirates of Silicon Valley is a TV movie about a time when computers took up half a room, the idea of a personal PC seemed like a naive dream, and future giants of the tech industry still worked in garages and dormitories. The events in the film cover the years 1970–1985 – the period of the birth of Apple and Microsoft. The film itself was shot in the late 90s, and from that perspective, so we have nostalgia in square measure.
At the center of the story of Pirates are two key figures of the computer revolution: Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. One is a charismatic but emotionally unstable perfectionist, the other is a cold-blooded strategist and master of opportunity. Their path is not only a technical breakthrough, but also a series of personal betrayals, commercial cunning, ambition and the first "wars" for dominance in the new digital world.
The HBO film does not claim documentary accuracy or deep psychologicalism. It encounters a certain fragmentation: events jump in time, the detail of historical facts is limited. However, it successfully conveys the spirit of the era - the moment when technologists truly "inherited the crown."
Interestingly, the film was released before Jobs returned to Apple, before the iPod and iPhone appeared. At that time, he seemed like a fading star, and Gates was an unwavering winner. But the reality turned out to be more complicated, and Pirates acquired a new meaning, becoming a retrospective prediction of the future.
Noah Wyle as Jobs and Anthony Michael Hall as Gates fit well into their characters: one is brilliant but unpredictable, the other is an opportunist who doesn't shy away from "borrowings" but doesn't look like a 100% antagonist either.
This is a nice nostalgic film, especially for those who remember the advent of the first personal computers or want to understand how the modern digital world was born in the chaos of student dreams and early codes.
The Imitation Game
Year: 2014
Director: Morten Tyldum
IMDB rating: 8.0/10
Main role: Benedict Cumberbatch
The story of Alan Turing, a brilliant mathematician and cryptographer who helped the Allies break the Enigma code used by Nazi Germany during World War II. His work at Bletchley Park was a key factor in the victory: historians and British security services estimate that it shortened the duration of the war by two years and saved more than 14 million lives.
In the film, Turing appears not only as a scientist, but as a complex, closed person with a difficult childhood experience. He is socially withdrawn and at the same time incredibly vulnerable. He is also gay, and considering how this feature is still reacted to even in progressive (ha!) modern times, one can only imagine how difficult Turing's life was in post-war Britain. At that time, homosexuality was officially considered a criminal offense, and the society he literally saved publicly condemned him.
The Imitation Game is a rather restrained presentation, but deeply moving story about a genius who was broken not by calculations or enemies, but by a system that could not stand his otherness. The film straightforwardly poses an important question: what does society value more - talent or conformity to the norm?
The Theory of Everything
Year: 2014
Director: James Marsh
IMDB rating: 7.7/10
Main role: Eddie Redmayne
Almost everyone knows physicist Stephen Hawking. He passed away not so long ago, leaving behind not only a significant scientific legacy, but also an example of indomitable strength of spirit. Despite a serious illness that gradually paralyzed his body, he continued to work, write, and inspire against all odds.
The Theory of Everything is the moving story of Stephen Hawking's journey: from a brilliant Cambridge student to a world-famous theoretical physicist who substantiated the idea of so-called Hawking radiation - a process by which black holes can lose mass and gradually evaporate.
The film skillfully combines scientific achievements with personal drama: a diagnosis that left no chance (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS), the struggle for independence, the difficult relationship with his wife Jane - the woman who had long been his support. Their union withstood extraordinary strain - both medical and emotional, and social. And although the relationship later changed, the film shows its complexity without simplification or excessive melodrama.
Eddie Redmayne created an extremely convincing and delicate image, for which he deservedly received an Oscar.
The Man Who Knew Infinity
Year: 2015
Director: Matt Brown
IMDB rating: 7.2/10
Starring: Dev Patel, Jeremy Irons
Perhaps you have come across people whose thinking and ideas are so fascinating and impressive that you wonder why they haven't patented anything yet / aren't world-famous scientists / haven't received one of the super prizes, and so on. Sometimes it seems to me that such potential geniuses are given to humanity as a reserve, just in case someone else "doesn't shoot". So sometimes genius is not about being ahead of your time at all, but about appearing in it in the wrong place, in the wrong environment and with a very unprepared world around. This is what happened to the hero of the film The Man Who Knew Infinity.
Srinivasa Ramanujan, a self-taught mathematician from South India, had no formal education in mathematics, did not graduate from a university, did not study at prestigious institutions, did not have an academic circle of like-minded people. But he had an incredible ability to see analogies among analogies, which is, according to the famous saying of Stefan Banach (an outstanding mathematician whose grave, by the way, can be found in the Lychakiv cemetery in Lviv), a sign of a higher level of mathematical thinking. So, Ramanujan rediscovered or intuitively deduced some mathematical results discovered before him, which he most likely did not know about due to isolation and limited sources. But in many ways he went further.
He sent his work to Professor Godfrey Hardy of Cambridge, and by some miracle Hardy not only reads the letter, but also sees in it something he had never seen before: an intuition that breaks all academic rules, but works. The film shows very well the importance of this meeting, the intersection of two worlds: colonial India and conservative Britain, the intuitive genius and the rational professor.
Ramanujan's work influenced not only mathematics but also modern physics, including string theory and quantum field theory. Some of the formulas found in his notebooks have become the basis for research into the 21st century.
Ramanujan lived only 32 years. Some of his works will be rediscovered in the 21st century. Some of them no one has ever been able to prove. Perhaps the most painful thing about this story is that it repeats itself over and over again. How many geniuses never got their Hardy? How many revolutionary ideas were lost due to wars or other senseless events? The film reminds us that sometimes the most valuable thing in science is not just what we already know, but what we can lose because of our limitations or prejudices.
A Beautiful Mind
Year: 2001
Director: Ron Howard
IMDB rating: 8.2/10
Main role: Russell Crowe
An amazing story about how a brilliant mind is able to work and achieve outstanding results, even when hindered by a serious illness - schizophrenia. It significantly complicates the ability to distinguish reality from "mind games" - images and situations that are formed by a sick imagination.
John Nash is a talented student, and later a professor of mathematics, ambitious and passionate about science. In his youth, he develops a groundbreaking theory of game equilibrium, which has influenced the development of economics. At the same time, he conducts "pure" mathematical research and teaches at his native university. And it seems that everything is going perfectly: his career is going up, he has loyal friends, a beloved wife, and a son is born.
But over time, it turns out that there are people and events in his life that don't really exist. Reality mixes with fantasy, and the simplest things turn into complex equations. However, the scientist gradually learns to coexist with his illness, receives the Nobel Prize in Economics, and keeps his family together.
The film combines biographical drama with the tension of a psychological thriller, focusing not only on the struggle for recognition, but also on the struggle with oneself for oneself. Of course, the story of John Nash in the film is partly romanticized, and the final chord of the film sounds almost like a Dantean conclusion: "Love that moves both the sun and other stars."
By the way, in real life, John and his wife Alicia did live a long life together and tragically died together in a car accident. Even fate, it seems, did not dare to separate them.
Oppenheimer
Year: 2023
Director: Christopher Nolan
IMDB rating: 8.3/10
Main role: Cillian Murphy
One of the most high-profile films of recent years, Oppenheimer is a sweeping story about the man who created the most destructive weapon in human history. Robert Oppenheimer, a brilliant theoretical physicist, heads the Manhattan Project during World War II, changing the course of history. But the real conflict begins after the project is completed.
Nolan shows not only the technical process of creating an atomic bomb, but also the psychological cost of a scientific breakthrough. The main theme is the responsibility of a scientist to the world when his discoveries become weapons of mass destruction. The film immerses the viewer in a world of ethical dilemmas, political intrigues and personal guilt.
Cillian Murphy creates a complex and restrained portrait of a man who is both a war hero and a symbol of the moral burden of science. This is not just a biography, but also a philosophical drama about choice, its consequences and the limits of control.
The Aviator
Year: 2004
Director: Martin Scorsese
IMDB rating: 7.5/10
Main role: Leonardo DiCaprio
The Aviator is a large-scale biographical drama about Howard Hughes, one of the brightest and most controversial entrepreneurs of the 20th century. It is difficult to even determine who exactly he was. At the very least - an innovator, director, aircraft designer, billionaire, and at the same time - a man who was captivated by his own illusions. Hughes left his mark on Hollywood cinema, developed the fastest planes of his time, built business empires. And gradually lost control of himself.
Martin Scorsese has managed to bring to life on screen a portrait of a man who would have been worth inventing, even if he didn't exist. Howard Hughes had extraordinary creative energy and almost boundless ambition, but he was gradually destroyed by obsessive-compulsive disorder. This is a story about how success and genius can go hand in hand with mental vulnerability. And about how an excessive, uncontrolled desire for perfection can be both the engine of rise and the cause of fall.
Leonardo DiCaprio creates a powerful image of an obsessed visionary who is not stopped by technical difficulties, public condemnation, or his own phobias.
Radioactive
Year: 2019
Director: Marjane Satrapi
IMDB rating: 6.2/10
Main role: Rosamund Pike
The film Radioactive tells the story of Marie Curie, an outstanding scientist who was not only the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize, but also the only person to be awarded the Nobel Prize in two different fields - physics and chemistry. She discovered polonium and radium, made significant contributions to the development of radiology, and changed medicine and humanity's understanding of energy.
The film combines the story of scientific breakthroughs and personal drama: the struggle with academic barriers, with systemic discrimination against women in science, with difficult losses in her personal life. The path of Marie Curie is the path of a woman who is forced every day to prove her right to be heard in a world where only men have traditionally had a voice.
Rosamund Pike creates a strong and deeply emotional image of a person who lived by science and at the same time understood its dark side. After all, along with the new era of medicine, the era of nuclear weapons also opened. And it is this duality of scientific progress that the film shows particularly subtly, as an inevitable part of the great journey.
Other films about scientists and science
The Current War is the battle between Edison, Tesla, and Westinghouse over which current, alternating or direct, will power America's electrification. (2017, directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, IMDb: 6.5/10)
Agora – a drama about the philosopher and scientist Hypatia, who lived in Alexandria at the turn of the century and fought for science in a world that rejected her. (2009, dir. Alejandro Amenábar, IMDb: 7.1/10)
Infinity is a biographical film about Richard Feynman, a physicist and one of the key participants in the Manhattan Project. (1996, directed by Matthew Broderick, IMDb: 6.2/10)
Einstein and Eddington is a TV movie about the scientific collaboration of two physicists during a war that changed the way we think about the universe. (2008, dir. Philip Martin, IMDb: 7.2/10)