7 eclipse-themed movies to get you ready for the big solar event

A total solar eclipse is one of those rare, almost once-in-a-lifetime, primarily visual spectacles that must be seen to be believed. What better way to get in the mood than by taking pleasure in another visual spectacle – the art of cinema – with these eclipse-themed movies?

A total solar eclipse is one of those rare, almost once-in-a-lifetime, primarily visual spectacles that must be seen to be believed. What better way to get in the mood than by taking pleasure in another visual spectacle – the art of cinema – with these eclipse-themed movies? The below list includes films that feature eclipse sequences, or those that are thematically connected to eclipses. Feast your eyes on this. Most likely the only movie musical to feature a song lyric with the words, “total eclipse of the sun,” this Frank Oz-directed cinematic confection starring Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene and Steve Martin is the type of film that’s just as gleeful the more times you watch it. Moranis plays Seymour Krelborn, a down-on-his luck plant store salesman who finds a rather special, and lethal, sapling after an eclipse. The rest is a bloody good time. One of the few early sci-fi entries that more than stands up a half century later, Stanley Kubrick’s “2001” features one of the most iconic openings ever, set to the incredible tone poem “Also Sprach Zarathustra” by Richard Strauss. So iconic, of course, that it was the inspiration for a prominent sequence in last year’s $1 billion blockbuster “Barbie.” Naturally, the first image in “2001’s” intro is a solar eclipse, which more than sets the epic tone. Far out. This third installment of the “Twilight” film franchise is a fantasy/romance epic so near and dear to Millennials’ hearts that it doesn’t even matter that the movie doesn’t technically have anything to do with an actual eclipse. The celestial event instead has a rather symbolic meaning as it pertains to a love triangle between a human (Kristen Stewart), a vampire (Robert Pattinson) and a werewolf (Taylor Lautner). If you’re looking for an otherworldly escape, this is the movie to sink your teeth into.