What happens when two combatants of a massive conflict are isolated from their reasons for fighting each other? The idea that soldiers on opposite sides could find common ground because of an abrupt change of context is, by no means, a new idea. It wasn’t new in 1985, and it’s not new now. However, what the film Enemy Mine did was to bring this trope to science fiction in a way that was both startlingly new and paradoxically timeless.
Based on a 1979 novella of the same name by Barry B. Longyear, Enemy Mine remains, four decades later, a fantastically simple sci-fi film. Here’s why it’s still worth watching today.
