20 Sunshine, 2007

In the not-too-distant future, Earth’s dying sun spells the end for humanity. In a last-ditch effort to save the planet, a crew of eight men and women ventures into space with a device that could revive the star. However, an accident, a grave mistake and a distress beacon from a long-lost spaceship throw the crew and its desperate mission into a tailspin.

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19 The Man Who Knew Infinity, 2015

In 1913, brilliant East Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan travels to Trinity College in England to work with professor G.H. Hardy.

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18 Einstein and Eddington, 2008

Drama about the development of Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, and Einstein’s relationship with British scientist Sir Arthur Eddington, the first physicist to experimentally prove his ideas.

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17 Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey, 1988

This film is an adaptation of wildlife expert Dian Fossey’s autobiography. Midwesterner Fossey leaves the United States for Africa, where she studies the gorillas of Rwanda and Uganda. As Fossey develops a bond with the animals, she also becomes wary of the poachers who prey on them. Fearing that the gorillas will go extinct if humans continue to hunt them, she organizes a defense league to protect the animals; in doing so, though, she puts herself in a perilous situation.

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16 Lorenzo’s Oil, 1992

True-life drama of a father and mother who battled against the odds to save their son’s life. Augusto and Michaela Odone are dealt a cruel blow by fate: five-year-old Lorenzo is diagnosed with a rare and incurable disease, but the Odones’ persistence and faith leads to the cure which saves their boy and re-writes medical history.

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15 Arrival, 2016

Linguistics professor Louise Banks leads an elite team of investigators when gigantic spaceships touch down in 12 locations around the world. As nations teeter on the verge of global war, Banks and her crew must race against time to find a way to communicate with the extraterrestrial visitors. Hoping to unravel the mystery, she takes a chance that could threaten her life and quite possibly all of mankind.

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14 The Imitation Game, 2014

In 1939, newly created British intelligence agency MI6 recruits Cambridge mathematics alumnus Alan Turing to crack Nazi codes, including Enigma — which cryptanalysts had thought unbreakable. Turing’s team, including Joan Clarke, analyze Enigma messages while he builds a machine to decipher them. Turing and team finally succeed and become heroes, but in 1952, the quiet genius encounters disgrace when authorities reveal he is gay and send him to prison.

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13 Hawking, 2004

Stephen Hawking contracts a degenerative disease while a doctoral student, but goes on to achieve worldwide acclaim as a physicist and author.

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12 Inherit the Wind, 1960

In the 1920s, Tennessee schoolteacher Bertram Cates is put on trial for violating the Butler Act, a state law that prohibits public school teachers from teaching evolution instead of creationism. Drawing intense national attention in the media with writer E. K. Hornbeck reporting, two of the nation’s leading lawyers go head to head: Matthew Harrison Brady for the prosecution, and Henry Drummond for the defense.

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11 The Physician, 2013

Director Philipp Stölzl adapts author Noah Gordon’s novel about an 11th-century orphan who devotes his life to conquering death after his mother perishes when he is just a child, leaving him to fend for himself in an English mining town. In his quest to become a physician, the young boy studies medicine under renowned Persian expert Ibn Sina. Though the road to enlightenment is a difficult one, the young boy forms many human connections that instill him with the fortitude to pursue his ambitious goal.

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