Richard Nixon was the President of the United States from 1969 to 1974. For some, he’s a bold president who worked to improve relations with China and oversaw the first successful moon landing. For others, Nixon is a symbol of corruption for his role in bugging political opponents, and covering up a break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at Watergate. He died from a stroke in 1994, but his legacy lives on. Here are five sci-fi movies where Nixon played a vital role.
1. X-Men: Days of Future Past
In Days of Future Past, Wolverine travels back to 1973 to change history and prevent the rise of mutant hunting robot Sentinels. It’s Nixon who sets the Sentinel program into action and unveils the Sentinel prototypes at the White House. But when Magneto takes control of the Sentinels, the Xmen have to save Nixon from assassination.
2. Watchmen
In an alternate 1980’s, costumed superheroes change the course of history. Dr. Manhattan single-handedly wins the Vietnam War, giving Nixon enough support to get elected for four more years. Nixon’s reign of terror continues unabated, the Watergate scandal is never exposed, and his nose is even bigger.
3. Doctor Who
In the two-part episode, “The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon,” the Doctor travels to the 1970’s to investigate the mysterious Silence. There, he enlists the help of President Nixon, who’s been getting mysterious calls from a little girl. Nixon sends an FBI agent to investigate and even brings in Area 51.
4. Transformers: Dark of the Moon
So it turns out that the Moon landing in 1969 was really just a cover-up to investigate a crashed Autobot ship on the dark side. Yeah, that makes sense in Michael Bay’s world. Nixon is there to congratulate the astronauts, and set the mission into motion. It’s a brief but memorable scene for the fact we see a live Nixon in the same shot of stock footage of the real Nixon, and their movements don’t match. Bay spared no expense on this one.
5. Futurama
In the year 2999, Earth has the technology to revive the dead or at least their heads. That’s how Nixon ended up in a museum of presidential heads, and managed to steal Bender’s body so he could get elected president of Earth. But he’s gone ruthless and crazy, and continues his madness in the year 3000 with his headless vice president, Spiro Agnew. He is not a crook’s head!
Which was your favorite Nixon?
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<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="34131 ">4 Comments
The Futurama one is awesome. It seems hard for movies to use Nixon and it not ending up looking silly. Poor guy can't get a break even after death.
Out of those, Futurama. Overall, Frost/Nixon had the best Nixon in Frank Langella.
Lest we forget "Nixon" from Oliver Stone, which absurdly postulates the guy might be sympathetic after all. But I agree with Alex and Pat, "Futurama" easily tops its competition.
Wonder if the there's a watergate thing in any of the top sci-fi shows to watch these days. hehe