Popular Films with Women Scientist Characters

 

Popular Films Featuring Female Scientist and Engineer Primary Characters, 1991-2001

 

Name of Film (Genre, Year, Rating)

 

Please note rating of films as some films may contain content not suitable for all audiences. This list is not an endorsement of these films, but a list based on the search criteria given below.

 

Baby Geniuses (Comedy, 1999, PG)

Batman and Robin (Action/Adventure, 1997, PG-13)

Contact (Drama, 1997, PG)

Eve of Destruction (Action/Adventure, 1991, R)

Evolution (Comedy, 2001, PG-13)

Hollow Man, The (Horror, 2000, R)

Junior (Comedy, 1994, PG-13)

Jurassic Park (Horror, 1993,PG-13)

Lost World, The: Jurassic Park (Horror, 1993, PG-13)

Love Potion No. 9 (Comedy, 1992, PG-13)

Medicine Man (Action/Adventure, 1992, PG-13)

Mummy Returns, The (Action/Adventure, 2001, PG-13)

Nell (Drama, 1994, PG-13)

Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (Comedy, 2000, PG-13)

Outbreak (Action/Adventure, 1995, R)

Red Planet (Science Fiction, 2000, PG-13)

Rocket Man (Comedy, 1997, PG)

Saint, The (Action/Adventure, 1997, PG-13)

Space Cowboys (Action/Adventure, 2000, PG-13)

Species (Drama, 1995, R)

Sphere (Science Fiction, 1998,PG-13)

Twister (Action/Adventure, 1996, PG-13)

Volcano (Action/Adventure, 1997, PG-13)

 

Movies on this list have been identified from movie reviews indexed in the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature from 1984 to 1997 and Microsoft Word’s Cinemania CD ROM from 1984 to 1996. To identify movies featuring scientists in the Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature, the following key words were used: "movie and scientist," "film and scientist," "movie and woman scientist," "film and woman scientist," "movie and physicist," "movie and space scientist," "movie and biologist," "movie and chemist," and "movie and geologist" and “movie and researcher.” Duplicate listings of movies and movies that did not feature scientists were removed from the list. To identify movies featuring scientists on the Cinemania CD ROM, the key words: “scientists,” “woman scientist,” “physicist,” “space scientist,” “biologist,” “chemist,” “geologist,” and “researcher” were used. This search was further limited to the following genres listed in Cinemania: action, adventure, biography, children’s, comedy, crime, disaster, drama, horror, mystery, political, prison, religious, romance, science fiction, sports, spy, thriller, war, western. The Cinemania database was not available for films from 1997-2001. A list of films from 1998-2001 was acquired from the “Movie Box Office Reports” at wysiwyg//51/http://movieboxoffice.about…s/movieboxoffice/library/b1/blist01a.htm. In order to determine which films featured a scientist, a keyword search using the word “scientist” was used for http://www.imdb.com. The plot summaries and character lists for each movie listed was read to find mention of scientist characters and then women scientist characters. Duplicate listings of movies were removed from the list.

 

Compiled by: Jocelyn Steinke

Western Michigan University

3/23/04