1972

This was a year of mixed sci-fi offerings. There were a few notable movies, but many more obscure B-grade films. 1972 was the year Nixon announced the Space Shuttle program, and the year he visited China. This was also the year of the movie: The Godfather that started a long franchise. This year marked the last manned Apollo mission to the moon, and the introduction of Atari's "Pong" arcade game. Below are the sci-fi movies of 1972, is fairly chronological order.

Silent Running -- Bruce Dern plays the lone (crazed) environmentalist willing to kill in order to save the last earth forests being stored in space.

Slaughterhouse Five -- Kurt Vonygut's story of a man "unstuck from time", living his life non-sequentially.

Z.P.G. -- "Zero Population Growth": a dystopian tale of earth's future when overpopulation makes babies illegal.

Beware The Blob -- A fragment of the original blob is brought back and causes similar mayhem.

The Groundstar Conspiracy -- A lone survivor from an exploded secret government lab. Is he a victim or a saboteur?

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes -- Caesar, adult son of Cornelius and Zira, leads the apes in a rebellion that overthrows human rule.

Octaman -- A legendary octopus-man is found in a remote jungle lake. It kills a few people, but is beguiled by the pretty scientist.

The Cremators -- A fragmented meteorite "seeks" out lost bits of itself, burning anything (or anyone) that gets in the way.

The Thing With Two Heads -- The head of racist Ray Milland is grafted on the very black body of Rosey Grier. Absurdity ensures.

Blood Freak -- Bizarre film with anti-drug message. Man turned on to drugs eats experimental turkey meat and becomes a ludicrous were-turkey that drinks the blood of addicts.

The Doomsday Machine -- A chinese bomb blows up the earth, but seven astronauts escape to Venus…maybe.

The MInd Snatchers -- A sinister and shadowy Army hospital experiments with electronic probes and mind control.

Solaris -- A Soviet film about contact with a sentient "ocean" on the distant planet Solaris, which communicates via hallucinations.