Embedded Philosophy

There are many films which, if you look closely, have philosophical questions and themes embedded with the storyline. Everything from the Socratic method to Metaphysics to Ethics is covered in films that are not necessarily "about" philosophers or philosophy. Here are a few examples of this.

The Socratic Method:

In the film, Dead Poet's Society, Robin Williams plays an energetic English teacher at an all-boys Preparatory school. In his first day of class, when teaching poetry, he instructs his students to rip out the introductory pages of the text. He believes that one cannot learn poetry by reading a text but rather by experience. Throughout, he instructs the students to think for themselves both in class and in their lives, landing him in hot water with the administration of the school, who would prefer that the power structure of the school not be questioned. To those who know the narrative of the life of Socrates, this film and Robin Williams' character, model Socrates' teachings and life quite closely!

Metaphysics:

I have heard it said by individuals after hearing a joke that was a bit cryptic, with details that they had to sort through, that the joke was "very meta". While these jokes and references do not represent what metaphysics as such, they point to a truth about this facet of philosophy: It can indeed be cryptic. Metaphysics deals with what is, in a sense, "really real". It points to the illusions that we face and beckons at us to find what reality is! The film most often in use for this idea is The Matrix. In this film, the lead role Neo is offered one of two pills: The first would allow him to go on living in the illusion that he has been so used to and the other would introduce him to actual reality! Now that's "meta"! There are other films that blur the lines of reality and illusion as well, such as Inception. Both are excellent examples of Metaphysics in film!

To find yet another link to Ancient Philosophy; you could also link these metaphysical storylines to Plato's Allegory of the Cave found in Republic. 

Ethics:

There are many films which deal with ethics. And it must be said that ethics has many categories and many of which are seen in various movies and theatrical productions. When the mathematician Alan Turing discovered how to break the Nazi enigma code, he had to make the difficult decision of who to save and who to let die so that it would not be obvious that they had broken the code. Perhaps that is easy when you are dealing with lives miles away. But what do you do when the brother of one whom you know will die in moments is there, in the same room with you? You have the power to save him and perhaps end the usefulness of having broken Enigma or to let him die and preserve the secret. These are the decisions in which questions of ethics must be asked. These are the questions being asked in The Imitation Game. 

Sources Cited: 

Honderich, Ted. 1995. The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.