Existentialism
Philosophy emphasizing individual existence, freedom, choice, and the search for meaning in an indifferent universe
Primary Examples(20)
A Clockwork Orange
Free will vs. state conditioning
A Serious Man
Search for meaning in absurd suffering
Before Sunrise
Connection and impermanence
Before Sunset
Regret, time, and choices
Blade Runner
What does it mean to be human?
American Beauty
Midlife search for authentic existence
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Memory, identity, and authentic experience
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Meaning in infinite meaninglessness
Stranger Than Fiction
Living authentically facing death
Anomalisa
Profound loneliness and disconnection
Taxi Driver
Alienation and urban loneliness
Apocalypse Now
Heart of darkness; confronting moral void
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
What does it mean to be real/human?
The Truman Show
Authentic existence; choosing freedom
I'm Thinking of Ending Things
Mortality and regret
Ikiru
Finding meaning before death
Inside Llewyn Davis
Artistic struggle and failure
Interstellar
Love as transcendent force
White Noise
Fear of death
2001: A Space Odyssey
Human evolution and cosmic insignificance
Secondary Influences(25)
The Shawshank Redemption
Freedom as inner state
The World's End
Nostalgia and moving on
Toy Story 3
Purpose and obsolescence
Up
Purpose after loss
Whiplash
Cost of greatness
The Wild Robot
Adaptation
Artist's crisis of meaning and identity
Amadeus
Salieri's crisis of faith and meaning
Asteroid City
Processing grief through artifice
Barbie
Discovering mortality and meaning
Barton Fink
Writer's block as existential crisis
Citizen Kane
Search for meaning in a life
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Wild nature vs. domestic life
Greenberg
Midlife paralysis
Heat
Men defined by their work
Lawrence of Arabia
Identity crisis in colonial context
Midnight in Paris
Golden age fallacy; living in present
Munich
Moral cost of violence
No Country for Old Men
Fate and moral obsolescence
Oppenheimer
Prometheus and moral burden
Prisoners
How far for family?
Raging Bull
Self-destruction and redemption
Rope
Nietzschean superman delusion
Swiss Army Man
Connection and meaning
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Midlife crisis and purpose