Wes Anderson and Steven Spielberg use science fiction in the same way

Wes Anderson’s new film is deep in the credits asteroid city has an unexpected name. In the special thanks section near the end of the list, alongside Anderson’s friends and former collaborators like Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow, Steven Spielberg is the highest grossing director of all time. These two filmmakers seem quite distant from each other: Spielberg is best known for his popular entertainment, whether it’s in the form of suspenseful fantastical adventures or sobering journeys through 20th-century horror films. Anderson is known for carefully constructing wryly funny worlds. With asteroid cityBut their connection becomes clearer: both use science fiction to explore the loss and melancholy of broken families.

Anderson isn’t known as a sci-fi or fantasy director — but those aren’t Spielberg’s main genres anymore either. Barring rumors that his films appear to be set on an entirely different planet, Anderson’s last overt sci-fi film was 2018’s stop-motion dystopian tale Island of Dogsduring 2014 The Grand Budapest Hotel contains elements from fantasy and alternative history as well as from the year 2004 Aquatic Life with Steve Zissou features fantastic, fictional creatures. asteroid city probably writes Spielberg the honor because it is based on the 1977s Close Encounters of the Third KindSpielberg’s first true science fiction film: When an alien ship makes contact with humans in the American desert asteroid citythe event mimics something close encounters.

A spacecraft made mostly of glass hovers over a crowd seated in an asteroid blast crater in a shot lit only by eerie green light in Wes Anderson's Asteroid City — The Extraterrestrial Encounter *asteroid city*

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close encounters Notoriously culminating in a journey that Spielberg has since reflected he would not have felt comfortable with later in his career – Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) finally abandons his wife and children, boards the visiting spaceship, and alights with his mysterious Beings in space towards unknown points. (Technically, Roy’s family left him at this point due to his obsession with the extraterrestrials, but leaving Earth feels a little more final to him.) In asteroid city, the aliens don’t wield quite as much physical power over the central family, led by Augie Steenbeck (Jason Schwartzman). The mother of Augie’s four children has already left, albeit not willingly. Weeks before their desert journey, she succumbed to what sounds like cancer, and on the day of the aliens’ visit, Augie finally breaks the news to his kids.

However, encountering the aliens changes the Steenbeck family, particularly Augie’s teenage son Woodrow (Jake Ryan), who is both intrigued and disturbed by the idea that humanity is not alone in this universe. The evidence of our potential insignificance overwhelms him. That’s a remarkable response, because Anderson characters so often seem to pre-emptively fight that sense of smallness, delving into their own hobbies or worlds to exert control in a chaotic, unpredictable world. Woodrow’s grief for his mother fits perfectly with his crisis of faith, because few things feel more chaotic or destabilizing than family changes.

Spielberg understands this particularly well and is almost always present in his science fiction films. ET the extraterrestrial follows a family shattered by divorce: the father has moved away, leaving behind a struggling ex-wife and a struggling son, Elliott (Henry Thomas), who feels insecure and lonely. Spielberg’s war of the Worlds gives another absentee father a (terrifying) chance to regain his allegiance to parenting amid a deadly alien attack. minority report gives a more dedicated father (played by the same actor, no less!) closure after a devastating loss. AI Artificial IntelligencePerhaps Spielberg’s best and boldest sci-fi film, it’s about a robotic boy programmed to simulate familial love, only to be misled when the family he serves no longer needs him to meet a certain… to fill a gap in their lives.

Teenage Woodrow Steenbeck (Jake Ryan) and his triplets, three young girls, sit lined up outside a pastel-white desert motel in Wes Anderson's Asteroid City — Woodrow (Jake Ryan) and his three sisters learn of their mother’s death *asteroid city*.

Like Spielberg’s work in this genre, Anderson’s sci-fi stories are often about families that are broken by the time the film opens. Atari (Koyu Rankin) lost his parents at the beginning Island of DogsIt is all the more important for him that he brings his dog and best friend Spots (Liev Schreiber) back from exile on the island. (It’s similar to the protective zeal Elliott feels for ET, his own non-human sidekick.) Steve Zissou (Bill Murray) from Life in the waterlike Ray from Tom Cruise war of the WorldsHe has essentially given up his role as a father and instead lived what he envisioned as a carefree younger man – although Steve is even further away as the child (who is being referred to as ‘possibly my son’) grows into an adult, before Steve has any contact with him.

The characters of the filmmakers are often drastically different. This also applies to their technical approaches as directors: Spielberg prefers propulsive movements in his stories, while Anderson constructs smaller gestures in frames that often look like incredibly detailed comic strips. Because of these very different forms of spectacle, and their respective interests in fantastical mise-en-scène, both filmmakers are sometimes mistaken for childish or feigned innocence.

But while they both look at fantastical images from a child’s perspective, they also tap into the dynamic of the child with his train, which portrays Spielberg The Fabelmans – No wonder pictures of a train bookend asteroid cityor that The Darjeeling Limited takes place largely within an individual – to go beyond the simple Spielberg face Shy. Instead, they each convey a nuanced understanding of how we process loss and how we relate it to our place in a larger world.

Spielberg’s sci-fi arrangements often seem there to illustrate the gulf between family members that cannot always be bridged. Think back to the Precog Agatha minority report, in which she describes her vision of an alternative life for the son John Anderton (Cruise) lost, her visions being as heartbreakingly clear as real memories. Or the thousands of years that little robot David (Haley Joel Osment) lives on, while his programming persists beyond the waning days of humanity to emulate.

The robot David, who looks like a small child (played by Haley Joel Osment) with ice in his hair, face and eyes in Steven Spielberg's AI Artificial Intelligence — David (Haley Joel Osment) in *AI Artificial Intelligence*.

Anderson, on the other hand, sometimes takes a more meta-oriented approach that suits his characters’ confidence. In asteroid cityFor example, the science fiction story of alien encounters is just one level of worlds within worlds that Anderson creates. The story – described as a play, framed as a TV show – frames its scenes from a distance, as a way to engage with the infinite nature of the universe. Science fiction is a way of looking into the unknown, even if at some point we have to shy away from it.

That’s the depth that imitators often miss in Anderson and Spielberg. (Another unexpected thing they have in common: They’ve both spawned numerous imitators.) Spielberg impersonations tend to come from films that are stuck in a dead end 80s nostalgia idea what his films look like, but the imitators often think about it AND and some Amblin films that Spielberg produced decades ago. Anderson impersonations tend to be parodies and impressions of his style. (Although some true feature films have been influenced by his style without really capturing his tone – if you look at you, Paddington!)

What the imitators lack, however, and what the genuine articles have in common, is a sense that loss and grief recalibrate our personal worlds, recontextualize them, and – in ways that can be strange or even terrifying – open them up.

While Spielberg is known for his pep talk, his sci-fi interventions aren’t always proven to heal the family in a given story. war of the Worlds is the exception rather than the rule in this respect, and in this film the family goes through a truly horrific bloodbath (not to mention the actual murder committed by Ray) on the way to a happy ending for the time being. There is a similar effect of baptism of fire (though to a much lesser extent) with Life in the waterwhere Steve must survive before even more loss close encounters-like moment between humans and another species.

A group of government agents in white hazmat suits comb the asteroid crater where the alien landed in Wes Anderson's Asteroid City — *asteroid city*

Steve’s heartbreaking reaction to the jaguar shark — “I wonder if he remembers me” — is more solipsistic than an expression of concern for his makeshift family. But it offers a glimpse of the panic and emptiness he feels as he realizes those closest to him are no more permanent on this earth than he is.

Anderson provides a more traditional solution island of dogs, with heroism and positive change for his near-future dystopia. Atari’s quest is fulfilled and a new form of domestication achieved. That’s a simpler summary than is possible with almost all of Spielberg’s major sci-fi projects, except maybe Ready, player one.

asteroid cityon the other hand, implies that the Steenbecks must absorb their losses as best they can, as does the family within AND, minus the cathartic emotional crescendo achieved by John Williams. This is significant, despite the framing techniques that draw attention to the artificiality of the part set in the desert asteroid cityIn the story, the film still ends with this piece within a show. Far more than the many filmmakers trying to channel Spielberg’s audience love, Anderson is able to conjure true wonders with his version of sci-fi. But like Spielberg, his work resonates because it doesn’t neglect the empty spaces that are left in our lives, no matter how much wonder we experience.