1984 was a huge year for Hollywood movies, rivaled perhaps only by 1982. Like the toys, comics, cartoons, and music of that year, so many of the ’84 films have a staying power that’s simply uncanny.

In 1949, George Orwell’s 1984 was published, and given it helped codify so many dystopian conventions, it’s pretty easy to call it one of the most important works of science fiction ever written. It’s ...