12 Best Solar Eclipse Movies
Eclipse fever is upon us…or at least those of us who are on, near, or traveling along the path of the totality of the April 8th celestial event. Total solar eclipses aren’t as rare as you might think: from Earth’s perspective, they occur about once every 18 months. The trick is to be able to see it happening.
This month’s eclipse is significant precisely because its visible path extends through major population centers in North America: Austin, Dallas, Indianapolis, Buffalo and Montreal are among the major cities in the totality’s path, with partial views thousands of miles in any direction. Because of the relative rarity of being in the right place at the right time, eclipses in films are almost always highly symbolic events; they never just happen.
While we all get ready to see something wonderful here in the real world, in the movies, eclipses are almost always unsettling, if not downright ominous. There is a feeling that once the sun begins to fade, the usual rules no longer apply. Revelation is already on the table, as is transformation. Eclipses may imply the triumph of the weak over the strong or, conversely, the triumph of darkness over light.
Unlike an eclipse, which you absolutely can’t watch without good eye protection, you can watch these 12 movies directly.
An Eclipse, or the Courtship of the Sun and Moon (1907)
You are undoubtedly familiar with the work of French cinema pioneer Georges Méliès from his most famous film , A Trip to the Moon from 1902. However, this was not his only cinematic trip to heaven, and he had just as much fun with this later project. It starts out as a stuffy science lesson in a room full of stuffy old professors (including Méliès himself) and then turns into a highly sexualized meeting of the Sun and Moon in the night sky (for any viewer with even the slightest hint of imagination, this is positively messy).
Whether this represents a completely straight encounter has been debated for decades, as the devilishly masculine sun takes the ambiguous-gender moon from behind. In any case, Méliès clearly understood that a few minutes of darkness during the day, when other eyes were distracted, could represent something of an opportunity. If you know what I mean.
Where to stream: YouTube
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1949)
In Mark Twain’s original satirical novel, traditional images of medieval life and chivalry were popular elsewhere in Britain. It was also a decisive overthrow of both monarchy and unfettered capitalism. The 1949 film version drops much of this interesting subtext (and poignancy) while still retaining the spirit of good old-fashioned American courage personified by Bing Crosby. It’s all a lot of fun and reaches its climax when a time-displaced Hank Crosby accurately predicts a total solar eclipse just as he’s about to be executed (a good moment). Luckily, he traveled with a book that noted the times and dates of such events, reminding us to think carefully about what we take with us on our time travel.
Stumbling block: The film did not record the June 528 eclipse, but Twain could have based similar events in the novel on a true story : Christopher Columbus, particularly bad at everything he ever set out to do, earned a last-minute reprieve on one of events. of his latest travels thanks to a little foresight. After beaching his unseaworthy ships off the coast of Jamaica, his crew began to abuse the locals, who soon lost interest in providing the food that kept the starving sailors alive. Columbus used his foresight of a coming eclipse to convince local leaders that his God was going to punish them. They relented, and Columbus survived to catch a rescue ship and spend the rest of his life ridiculed by his contemporaries as a sore failure (and his afterlife was honored with an American holiday). As for the film’s plot, early medieval scientists knew about eclipses and their causes (one of King Arthur’s proto-sources is the monk Bede, who wrote quite accurately about how eclipses happen), but it’s not unreasonable to think that this is normal. people would be horrified if Bing Crosby showed up and seemingly ordered the sun to go out.
Where to watch: Tubi
Barabbas (1961)
The film is less well remembered than the other major biblical epics of the 1960s, but it contains rich scenery and a superb (if a bit pointless) classic Hollywood cast, including Anthony Quinn, Anthony Kennedy, Ernest Borgnine, Jack Palance and Sharon Tate. . Quinn plays the title character, a thief who is freed by Pontius Pilate instead of Jesus. A particular film innovation occurs during the scene during which Barabbas returns to witness the death of Jesus: taking on faith the New Testament about the coming of darkness, this sequence was filmed during the actual total eclipse of February 15, 1961, when the entire event was visible over Italy, where filming took place. I’m guessing there were no second takes.
Where to watch: digital rental.
Bloody Birthday (1981)
This underrated slasher film follows a group of three children born on the same day during a less-than-convincing solar eclipse. The circumstances of their birth quite naturally cause them to become murderously evil on their 10th birthday. (You can’t argue with basic science.) Kids start chasing horny teenagers, and the film quickly becomes like a crossover between The Bad Seed and Friday the 13th . Susan Strasberg and Jose Ferrer give the drama some authenticity and help drive home the moral (“Don’t give birth during an eclipse! What were you thinking!”).
Where to watch: Tubi
Ladyhawke (1985)
In Richard Donner’s overlooked medieval fantasy, young thief Philip Gaston (Matthew Broderick) befriends the Captain of Navarre (Rutger Hauer), a man under a curse. Navarre and his beloved Lady Isabeau d’Anjou (Michelle Pfeiffer) can never be together – he becomes a wolf at night, and she turns into a hawk during the day. The eclipse is the narrative’s answer to their prayers: during this time, when there is neither full night nor full day, they are both able to assume their true human forms at the same time, giving them a real chance of defeating the jealous wizard who deceived them. above.
Where to watch: Tubi
Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
The origins of the carnivorous, plump-lipped Audrey II are not entirely clear, but we do know this: in the shop of an old Chinese plant seller (showing unfortunate hints of outdated exotic Orientalism), a plant appeared out of nowhere. right in the middle of a solar eclipse. A self-proclaimed evil green mother from outer space, Audrey II clearly came from the stars, but could only seemingly do so under very specific conditions. So the day of the eclipse may not be the best day to buy plants.
Where to watch: digital rental.
Dolores Claiborne (1995)
Stephen King has never been shy about linking his novels together, but he often does so in subtle ways – sometimes throwing in little Easter eggs here and there. The novels Gerald’s Game and Dolores Claiborne , released in 1992, go even further and were at one point intended to be one novel. Each features women suffering from the presence of abusive and controlling men in their lives, and each includes significant narrative events interspersed with a real-life total solar eclipse that occurred on July 20, 1963 (although the film makes the date fictitious – the 1970s years). . Here, Kathy Bates’s Dolores kills her abusive husband (David Strathairn) during a flashback dramatically framed by the disappearance of the sun; the novel adds the detail of an eclipse party, attracting the attention of most of the inhabitants of the island they live on. In any case, now is the time to think about everything that may be happening around you while your attention is focused on the waning sun.
Where to watch: digital rental.
Pitch Black (2000)
Eclipses are about perspective, but they are also universal. All you need is the sun, an orbital body to block it, and someone standing in the right place to notice. Humanity has already seen even a hint of this: a partial solar eclipse captured by the Perseverance Rover on Mars. The sci-fi drama Pitch Black takes us to a much more distant world, to the wreck of a prison ship carrying, among others, Vin Diesel’s Richard B. Riddick. Survivors learn that while the planet’s three suns provide nearly constant daylight, there are periods of eclipses—at which point the world’s evil underground monsters come to the surface for a snack. Naturally, the eclipse is approaching. Fortunately, the light-sensitive Riddick is even more durable and scary in the dark.
Where to watch: digital rental.
Sunshine (2007)
Danny Boyle’s Sunshine , written by Alex Garland, doesn’t involve an actual eclipse (at least not one visible from Earth), but thematically it works as well as any other film on this list. Mixing science and psychology in the style of Solaris or 2001 , the film follows an eight-person team as they try to reignite our dying sun in the near future of 2057. Images of our star’s gradual waning evoke the frightening, primal awe that ensures a real eclipse. No matter how much we understand this process scientifically, it’s hard not to feel uneasy when the sun fades from the sky in the middle of the day.
Where to watch: digital rental.
Gerald’s Game (2017)
As has been noted, at least in Stephen King’s novel, the eclipse presented here is the same eclipse in which Dolores Claiborne fatally encountered abuse and violence at the hands of her husband. This moment connects Dolores spiritually and psychically with young Jessie, who faced horrific sexual abuse at the hands of her father. The film version drops this connection, but retains the meaning of sexual violence that connected the two women. Here, Jessie (Carla Gugino) is locked in an isolated cabin after the death of her husband. In addition to some horrifyingly tangible threats, Jessie’s isolation forces her to reflect on the sexual trauma of her youth, which is punctuated by this eclipse, and how it has followed her throughout her life.
Where to watch: Netflix
Veronica (2017)
You have to feel sorry for 15-year-old Veronica and her friends who are tormented by paranormal phenomena. But honestly, doing a seance with a Ouija board during an eclipse, even after you’ve already been told that eclipse magic is used to summon dark spirits, is asking for trouble. It’s a very creepy movie about demonic possession, based on a true (well, “true”) story, although an eclipse was added to the film version. However, even non-superstitious people are probably advised to avoid attempting to summon a spirit during an all-out state.
Where to watch: Netflix
Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)
James Cameron’s Pandora is not a planet, but a satellite of the (possibly fictional) gas giant Polyphemus, which itself orbits the (real) star Alpha Centauri A, part of a triple star in the Alpha Centauri system. The point of all this is that complex orbital dynamics mean that Pandora itself does not see darkness, even at night. However, there are periodic moments where Polyphemus completely eclipses Pandora’s sun, leading to some particularly cool visual effects in the film, including bioluminescence. One such eclipse occurs during the final battle of the “Way of Water “. On the one hand, this foreshadows that the seemingly weaker Metkain clan may triumph over the RDA’s colonial forces, but it also signals significant changes to come.
Where to watch: Max, Disney+.