Ontological Films
by WaaDoku | created - 03 Dec 2018 | updated - 3 months ago | PublicTL;DR: Movies that give you something to think about.
This list contains films that deal with the meaning of "being" and "existence" and explore complex metaphysical concepts. Sometimes they try to give answers, sometimes they just ask questions. This list should be seen as an attempt to balance out the overwhelming majority of mass-produced, consumerist, hedonist, low-concept movies dominating film industries and silver screens of the present and past.
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1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
G | 149 min | Adventure, Sci-Fi
After uncovering a mysterious artifact buried beneath the Lunar surface, a spacecraft is sent to Jupiter to find its origins: a spacecraft manned by two men and the supercomputer HAL 9000.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Daniel Richter
Votes: 720,055 | Gross: $56.95M
2. Ghost in the Shell (1995)
TV-MA | 83 min | Animation, Action, Crime
A cyborg policewoman and her partner hunt a mysterious and powerful hacker called the Puppet Master.
Directors: Mizuho Nishikubo, Mamoru Oshii | Stars: Atsuko Tanaka, Iemasa Kayumi, Akio Ôtsuka, Kôichi Yamadera
Votes: 157,022 | Gross: $0.52M
3. Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (I) (2004)
PG-13 | 100 min | Animation, Drama, Mystery
In the year 2032, Batô, a cyborg detective for the anti-terrorist unit Public Security Section 9, investigates the case of a female robot--one created solely for sexual pleasure--who slaughtered her owner.
Directors: Naoko Kusumi, Mizuho Nishikubo, Mamoru Oshii | Stars: Akio Ôtsuka, Atsuko Tanaka, Tamio Ôki, Kôichi Yamadera
Votes: 40,327 | Gross: $1.04M
4. Blade Runner (1982)
R | 117 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
A blade runner must pursue and terminate four replicants who stole a ship in space and have returned to Earth to find their creator.
Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Edward James Olmos
Votes: 823,542 | Gross: $32.87M
5. Primer (2004)
PG-13 | 77 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Four friends/fledgling entrepreneurs, knowing that there's something bigger and more innovative than the different error-checking devices they've built, wrestle over their new invention.
Director: Shane Carruth | Stars: Shane Carruth, David Sullivan, Casey Gooden, Anand Upadhyaya
Votes: 114,223 | Gross: $0.42M
6. Donnie Darko (2001)
R | 113 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
After narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, a troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a man in a large rabbit suit who manipulates him to commit a series of crimes.
Director: Richard Kelly | Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Mary McDonnell, Holmes Osborne
Votes: 850,490 | Gross: $1.48M
7. The Tree of Life (2011)
PG-13 | 139 min | Drama, Fantasy
The story of a family in Waco, Texas in 1956. The eldest son witnesses the loss of innocence and struggles with his parents' conflicting teachings.
Director: Terrence Malick | Stars: Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain, Hunter McCracken
Votes: 184,182 | Gross: $13.30M
8. Koyaanisqatsi (1982)
Not Rated | 86 min | Documentary, Music
A collection of expertly photographed phenomena with no conventional plot. The footage focuses on the relationship between nature, humanity, and technology.
Director: Godfrey Reggio | Stars: Edward Asner, Pat Benatar, Jerry Brown, Johnny Carson
Votes: 41,517 | Gross: $1.72M
9. Powaqqatsi (1988)
G | 99 min | Documentary, Music
An exploration of technologically developing nations and the effect the transition to Western-style modernization has had on them.
Director: Godfrey Reggio | Stars: Christie Brinkley, David Brinkley, Patrick Disanto, Pope John Paul II
Votes: 8,878 | Gross: $0.59M
10. Naqoyqatsi (2002)
PG | 89 min | Documentary, Music
A visual montage portrait of our contemporary world dominated by globalized technology and violence.
Director: Godfrey Reggio | Stars: Belladonna, Marlon Brando, Elton John, Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Votes: 6,244 | Gross: $0.13M
11. I Origins (2014)
R | 106 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
A molecular biologist and his laboratory partner uncover evidence that may fundamentally change society as we know it.
Director: Mike Cahill | Stars: Michael Pitt, Steven Yeun, Astrid Bergès-Frisbey, Brit Marling
Votes: 133,674 | Gross: $0.33M
12. Above All Things (2017)
14 min | Documentary, Short | Completed
A discussion about the sense and nonsense of religion- inside a crane cabin.
Director: Florian Schurz
13.
Nova (1974– )
Episode:
Dawn of Humanity
(2015)
TV-PG | 114 min | Documentary
Deep in a South African cave, an astounding discovery reveals clues to what made us human.
Director: Graham Townsley | Stars: Zeresenay Alemseged, Lee Rogers Berger, Matthew Berger, Pieter Boshoff
Votes: 188
14. Don't Hug Me I'm Scared (2011 Video)
16+ | 3 min | Animation, Short, Comedy
Three puppets known as Red Guy, Yellow Guy and Duck learn about creativity from a talking sketchbook.
Directors: Joseph Pelling, Becky Sloan | Stars: Joseph Pelling, Becky Sloan, Baker Terry
Votes: 5,365
15. Don't Hug Me I'm Scared 2: Time (2014 Video)
16+ | 4 min | Animation, Short, Comedy
Red Guy, Yellow Guy and Duck just want to watch their show, but are interrupted by a talking clock known as Tony, who chimes in to teach them about time.
Directors: Joseph Pelling, Becky Sloan | Stars: Baker Terry, Royngtt, Joseph Pelling
Votes: 2,958
16. Don't Hug Me I'm Scared 3: Love (2014 Video)
16+ | 6 min | Animation, Short, Comedy
After Duck upsets Yellow Guy, a butterfly (or a little baby pigeon?) named Shrignold attempts to help him feel better by showing him the wonders of love.
Directors: Joseph Pelling, Becky Sloan | Stars: Baker Terry, Becky Sloan, Joseph Pelling, Royngtt
Votes: 2,603
17. Don't Hug Me I'm Scared 4 (2015 Video)
16+ | 5 min | Animation, Short, Comedy
After getting stumped at a board game, Red Guy, Yellow Guy and Duck would like to learn more about the world, and Colin the Computer is eager to help.
Directors: Joseph Pelling, Becky Sloan | Stars: Baker Terry, Royngtt, Joseph Pelling
Votes: 2,497
18. Don't Hug Me I'm Scared 5 (2015 Video)
16+ | 6 min | Animation, Short, Comedy
With Red Guy gone, Yellow Guy and Duck are feeling that something is wrong when a group of food starts teaching misinformation about dieting and a mysterious phone call keeps interrupting their "lesson".
Directors: Joseph Pelling, Becky Sloan | Stars: Baker Terry, Becky Sloan, Royngtt, Joseph Pelling
Votes: 2,505
19. Suicide Club (2001)
R | 99 min | Crime, Drama, Horror
A detective is trying to find the cause of a string of suicides.
Director: Sion Sono | Stars: Ryo Ishibashi, Masatoshi Nagase, Mai Hosho, Tamao Satô
Votes: 22,233
20. Annihilation (I) (2018)
R | 115 min | Adventure, Drama, Horror
A biologist signs up for a dangerous, secret expedition into a mysterious zone where the laws of nature don't apply.
Director: Alex Garland | Stars: Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tessa Thompson, Benedict Wong
Votes: 361,903 | Gross: $32.73M
21. The Act of Killing (2012)
Not Rated | 117 min | Documentary, Biography, Crime
A documentary which challenges former Indonesian death-squad leaders to reenact their mass-killings in whichever cinematic genres they wish, including classic Hollywood crime scenarios and lavish musical numbers.
Directors: Joshua Oppenheimer, Anonymous, Christine Cynn | Stars: Anwar Congo, Herman Koto, Syamsul Arifin, Ibrahim Sinik
Votes: 40,829 | Gross: $0.49M
23. Reminiscentia (2016)
89 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Mikhail is a writer who has a supernatural power to erase people`s memories. He has many visitors who want to get their bad experiences out of their minds. He takes their memories and ... See full summary »
Director: Masaki Inoue | Stars: Julia Asadova, Igor Bondarenko, Anton Fomichev, Eugenia Fomicheva
Votes: 15
24. Red Line Crossing (2017)
81 min | Mystery, Thriller
This is a mystery-thriller which is about the Jr.High School faculty members in Japan who prompt action for checking student's bag in secret to prevent the student crime.
Director: Shugo Fujii | Stars: Hiroshi Katsura, Hitomi Kawano, Tomoya Mochizuki, Ayumu Okumoto
Votes: 30
25. Adam (II) (2016)
6 min | Animation, Short, Sci-Fi
In a dystopian future, organic body is a privilege easy to lose. A convict awakens to the grim reality of having been transferred into a mechanical shell.
Director: Veselin Efremov | Stars: Ovanes Torosian, Stanimir Stamatov
Votes: 932
26. Adam: The Mirror (2017)
7 min | Animation, Short, Sci-Fi
Neill Blomkamp's disturbing vision of the future on Earth, a computer generated film created in Unity 2017 and rendered in real-time at 30 frames per second.
Director: Neill Blomkamp | Stars: Jason Cope, Ken Lawson, Coulton Jackson, Alyson Walker
Votes: 1,841
27. The Blood of a Poet (1932)
Not Rated | 55 min | Fantasy
Told in four episodes - an unnamed artist is transported through a mirror into another dimension, where he travels through various bizarre scenarios.
Director: Jean Cocteau | Stars: Enrique Rivero, Elizabeth Lee Miller, Pauline Carton, Odette Talazac
Votes: 7,371
28. Cloud Atlas (2012)
R | 172 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
An exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future, as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution.
Directors: Tom Tykwer, Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski | Stars: Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugh Grant, Hugo Weaving
Votes: 374,501 | Gross: $27.11M
29. Piper (2016)
G | 6 min | Animation, Short, Family
A hungry sandpiper hatchling ventures from her nest for the first time to dig for food by the shoreline. The problem is, the food is buried in the sand where scary waves roll up.
Director: Alan Barillaro
Votes: 31,882
30. Embrace of the Serpent (2015)
Not Rated | 125 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
The story of the relationship between Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman and last survivor of his people, and two scientists who work together over the course of forty years to search the Amazon for a sacred healing plant.
Director: Ciro Guerra | Stars: Nilbio Torres, Jan Bijvoet, Antonio Bolívar, Brionne Davis
Votes: 24,485 | Gross: $1.33M
31. Ex Machina (2014)
R | 108 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A young programmer is selected to participate in a ground-breaking experiment in synthetic intelligence by evaluating the human qualities of a highly advanced humanoid A.I.
Director: Alex Garland | Stars: Alicia Vikander, Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac, Sonoya Mizuno
Votes: 590,275 | Gross: $25.44M
32. Prometheus (I) (2012)
R | 124 min | Adventure, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Following clues to the origin of mankind, a team finds a structure on a distant moon, but they soon realize they are not alone.
Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Noomi Rapace, Logan Marshall-Green, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron
Votes: 644,544 | Gross: $126.48M
33. Into the Wild (2007)
R | 148 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
After graduating from Emory University, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandons his possessions, gives his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhikes to Alaska to live in the wilderness. Along the way, Christopher encounters a series of characters that shape his life.
Director: Sean Penn | Stars: Emile Hirsch, Vince Vaughn, Catherine Keener, Marcia Gay Harden
Votes: 658,482 | Gross: $18.35M
34. A Serious Man (2009)
R | 106 min | Comedy, Drama
Larry Gopnik, a Midwestern physics teacher, watches his life unravel over multiple sudden incidents. Though seeking meaning and answers amidst his turmoils, he seems to keep sinking.
Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen | Stars: Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind, Sari Lennick, Fred Melamed
Votes: 149,989 | Gross: $9.19M
35. The Brand New Testament (2015)
Not Rated | 114 min | Comedy, Fantasy
Did you know that God is alive and lives in Brussels with his daughter?
Director: Jaco Van Dormael | Stars: Pili Groyne, Benoît Poelvoorde, Catherine Deneuve, François Damiens
Votes: 35,018 | Gross: $0.09M
36. Mr. Nobody (2009)
R | 141 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
A boy stands on a station platform as a train is about to leave. Should he go with his mother or stay with his father? Infinite possibilities arise from this decision. As long as he doesn't choose, anything is possible.
Director: Jaco Van Dormael | Stars: Jared Leto, Sarah Polley, Diane Kruger, Linh-Dan Pham
Votes: 245,930 | Gross: $0.00M
37. Wanderers (2014)
4 min | Documentary, Animation, Short
What if we, humans, were to expand beyond the strict bounds of our pale blue dot called planet Earth?
Director: Erik Wernquist | Star: Carl Sagan
Votes: 1,217
38. Transcendence (I) (2014)
PG-13 | 119 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
A scientist's drive for artificial intelligence takes on dangerous implications when his own consciousness is uploaded into one such program.
Director: Wally Pfister | Stars: Johnny Depp, Rebecca Hall, Morgan Freeman, Cillian Murphy
Votes: 238,927 | Gross: $23.02M
39. Wings of Desire (1987)
PG-13 | 128 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
An angel tires of his purely ethereal life of merely overseeing the human activity of Berlin's residents, and longs for the tangible joys of physical existence when he falls in love with a mortal.
Director: Wim Wenders | Stars: Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin, Otto Sander, Curt Bois
Votes: 77,094 | Gross: $3.33M
40. The Zero Theorem (2013)
R | 107 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
A hugely talented but socially isolated computer operator is tasked by Management to prove the Zero Theorem: that the universe ends as nothing, rendering life meaningless. But meaning is what he already craves.
Director: Terry Gilliam | Stars: Christoph Waltz, Lucas Hedges, Mélanie Thierry, David Thewlis
Votes: 49,682 | Gross: $0.22M
41. Sunshine (2007)
R | 107 min | Sci-Fi, Thriller
A team of international astronauts is sent on a dangerous mission to reignite the dying Sun with a nuclear fission bomb in 2057.
Director: Danny Boyle | Stars: Cillian Murphy, Rose Byrne, Chris Evans, Cliff Curtis
Votes: 267,635 | Gross: $3.68M
42. Persona (1966)
Not Rated | 83 min | Drama, Thriller
A nurse is put in charge of a mute actress and finds that their personae are melding together.
Director: Ingmar Bergman | Stars: Bibi Andersson, Liv Ullmann, Margaretha Krook, Gunnar Björnstrand
Votes: 131,014
43. Her (2013)
R | 126 min | Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi
In a near future, a lonely writer develops an unlikely relationship with an operating system designed to meet his every need.
Director: Spike Jonze | Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Scarlett Johansson, Rooney Mara
Votes: 670,061 | Gross: $25.57M
44. THX 1138 (1971)
R | 86 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
In the 25th century, a time when people have designations instead of names, a man, THX 1138, and a woman, LUH 3417, rebel against their rigidly controlled society.
Director: George Lucas | Stars: Robert Duvall, Donald Pleasence, Don Pedro Colley, Maggie McOmie
Votes: 54,647 | Gross: $2.44M
45. The Abyss (1989)
PG-13 | 140 min | Adventure, Drama, Mystery
A civilian diving team is enlisted to search for a lost nuclear submarine and faces danger while encountering an alien aquatic species.
Director: James Cameron | Stars: Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Michael Biehn, Leo Burmester
Votes: 193,569 | Gross: $54.46M
46. Solaris (2002)
PG-13 | 99 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
A troubled psychologist is sent to investigate the crew of an isolated research station orbiting a bizarre planet.
Director: Steven Soderbergh | Stars: George Clooney, Natascha McElhone, Ulrich Tukur, Viola Davis
Votes: 86,286 | Gross: $14.97M
47.
Nova (1974– )
Episode:
What Darwin Never Knew
(2009)
TV-PG | 113 min | Documentary
A look at Charles Darwin, his book On The Origin of Species, and how his theory of evolution is explained. It includes Darwin's observations through work on the Human Genome Project.
Directors: Serena Davies, Rushmore DeNooyer, Sarah Holt, John Rubin | Stars: Ellen Becker-Gray, Jerry Chu, Kandace C. Cummings, Olivia Judson
Votes: 142
48. Tower of the Sun (2018)
112 min | Documentary
Taro OKAMOTO became world-famous by designing the "Tower of the Sun" at the Expo '70 in Osaka. The ideas and problems that came with its creation, however, are intertwined with the ... See full summary »
Director: Kôsai Sekine | Star: Taro Okamoto
Votes: 22
49. Ten Years Japan (2018)
98 min | Drama
Five short 'film' stories of how 5 different directors imagine Japan to be in 10 years from now.
Directors: Akiyo Fujimura, Chie Hayakawa, Kei Ishikawa, Yusuke Kinoshita, Megumi Tsuno | Stars: Jun Kunimura, Hana Sugisaki, Taiga Nakano, Masaki Miura
Votes: 207
50. Pi (1998)
R | 84 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A paranoid mathematician searches for a key number that will unlock the universal patterns found in nature.
Director: Darren Aronofsky | Stars: Sean Gullette, Mark Margolis, Ben Shenkman, Pamela Hart
Votes: 186,506 | Gross: $3.22M
51. Apocatastasis (2022)
83 min | Drama
Aida is a lonely foreigner in Germany working as a dental assistant, living a paranoia that leads her to believe that radiation is causing hallucinations in her mind. Joaquin is a musician ... See full summary »
Director: Shinpei Takeda | Stars: Ann Ayano, Josemar Gonzalez Lizarraga
52. Solar Blader (2022)
4 min | Animation, Short
Directors: Nic Collins, Conor Reed | Stars: Nic Collins, Patrick Lindhorst, Conor Reed, Taylor Russ
Votes: 13
53. Red Moon Tide (2020)
84 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
In a village where the sea and the moon are near, there was a monster, three witches, many ghosts and a shipwrecked man.
Director: Lois Patiño | Stars: Rubio de Camelle, Ana Marra, Carmen Martínez, Pilar Rodlos
Votes: 880
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