Forbidden Planet and Fantastic Voyage: 6 Sci-Fi Movies We Actually Want to Remake

Ideas Ready for New Life

Hollywood often revisits familiar films, but remakes can feel unnecessary when they target classics that already succeeded. Science fiction offers a different opportunity because older visual effects can make once-groundbreaking films feel dated.

The strongest candidates, the article argues, are films with striking ideas that earlier technology could not fully realize. Their themes can still speak to present-day audiences.

Forbidden Planet’s Unseen Threat

Set in the 23rd century, Forbidden Planet follows Commander John J. Adams and his crew to Altair IV. They find Dr. Edward Morbius, his daughter Altaira and the robot Robby, while an invisible force begins attacking them.

Inspired by Shakespeare’s The Tempest, the film explores the dangers of power people cannot control. A new version could retain its mystery while giving Altaira a stronger role and using modern effects to make the threat more frightening.

A Voyage Through the Body

In Fantastic Voyage, a scientist who defected from behind the Iron Curtain falls into a coma because of a blood clot in his brain. A team of specialists, including agent Grant and medical technician Cora, is shrunk with a submarine and injected into his bloodstream.

They have one hour to reach and destroy the clot before returning to normal size, and a possible spy adds another danger. The film’s old sets now look theatrical, while modern effects could make the body an imposing landscape and sharpen the race against time.

Other Films Mentioned

Fury Road won six Academy Awards in 2016, while George Miller storyboarded the film in roughly 3,500 panels before a script existed. Its chase scenes were filmed almost entirely with practical effects in Namibia’s Namib Desert; the text also mentions the 2024 prequel Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and Blade Runner 2049’s Oscar recognition for Roger Deakins.