LOS ANGELES >> In a presidential election year, the only real “October surprise” from Hollywood would be a complete absence of films with political tinges. But don’t worry. It won’t happen. Already, release schedules for the months preceding Nov. 8, Election Day, are peppered with movies that have partisan potential, whether overt or covert.

Sometimes, of course, films are subversive in approach. Who knew (other than its devilishly clever writer-director, Joss Whedon) that “Avengers: Age of Ultron” would be read as a parable about the National Security Agency and drone strikes?

Other movies wear politics on their sleeves, and baseball caps. Michael Moore knew exactly what he was doing in 2004, when he opened the contemporary era of partisan filmmaking with his “Fahrenheit 9/11,” a documentary assault on George W. Bush.

Schedules will shift. New films will surface. But these movies are already a fair bet to touch the political conversation.

>> “Independence Day: Resurgence”

Release: June 24

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Roland Emmerich — writer, director, producer and pot-stirrer — is big on Apocalyptic moments, as in the original “Independence Day,” wherein aliens destroyed Washington. But he is even bigger on the sort of political messaging that underscored his “The Day After Tomorrow,” which was released by Fox about five months before the 2004 election. That one, about a global freeze, purported to deliver lessons about the dangers of climate-change denial.

“Independence Day: Resurgence” brings back the aliens, this time squared off against the first female president of the United States, played by Sela Ward. “She’s strong, decisive and not afraid to kick ass!” Ward told People last year. That could help Hillary Clinton, as she heads toward a convention that may nominate her as the Democratic presidential candidate. Either way, Fox can reprise a film whose original took in more than $817 million at the worldwide box office.

>> “The Purge: Election Year”

Release: July 1

Studio: Universal Pictures

This one, too, might score points for Clinton. It’s the third installment in writer-director James DeMonaco’s social-horror series about an annual, supposedly cathartic, government-sanctioned crime spree: “The Purge: Election Year” features a female presidential candidate.

Universal last month added the magic words “Election Year” to the title of a film that was previously called just “The Purge 3.” Clearly, the studio plans to trade on electoral energy, and it has already made its intentions clear by running an advertising spot for the film during Democratic and Republican debates.

It will stay ahead of the unforeseen or unpredictable — like a triumph by Clinton’s Democratic rival Bernie Sanders — by opening before the convention.

>> “The Founder”

Release: Aug. 5

Studio: The Weinstein Co.

“The Founder,” based on the story of the McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc, might be politically neutral. Or it might bounce against, say, Donald Trump, the Republican businessman who for the moment is leading the race for the party’s nomination. Harvey Weinstein, one of the wiliest political progressives in a movie industry filled with them, recently moved “The Founder” from a planned postelection release to early August.

In explaining the shift, Weinstein — who backed “Fahrenheit 9/11” — said he meant to show that awards-worthy movies could be released at any time of year, not just in the crowded fourth quarter. But Kroc, like Trump, opposed an increase in the minimum wage. It is the sort of thing that seems sure to spark debate, especially if the film, directed by John Lee Hancock and starring Michael Keaton, wades into the politics behind a donation by Kroc to Richard Nixon in the early 1970s, when the minimum-wage issue, as now, was on the table. (Assuming, of course, that Trump emerges victorious from the July 18 Republican convention.)

>> “Southside With You”

Release: Aug. 19

Studio: Miramax and Roadside Attractions

Well-received at the Sundance Film Festival in January, Richard Tanne’s “Southside With You,” about the beginning of a love affair between young Barack Obama, played by Parker Sawyers, and his future wife, Michelle Robinson, played by Tika Sumpter, is certain to play as a mildly inspirational, get-out-the-vote call for Democrats. That the film “has meticulously reverse-engineered our knowledge of the Obamas into a sweet, sexy, highly flattering youth portrait is less a criticism than a simple statement of fact,” wrote Justin Chang, in his review for Variety.

But in politics, every action has an opposite and sometimes even stronger reaction, noted veteran consultant Christopher Lehane. In an email almost three years ago, he warned of a downside to the planned release of an indie film titled “Rodham,” a love story about young Hillary Rodham and Bill Clinton that didn’t come together in time for the election cycle.

“Of course, the political world (beyond fair time issues) will extrapolate deep political significance around whether it does or does not have commercial success,” Lehane wrote. The same caution may now apply to the gently partisan “Southside With You”; large or small, the box-office results may be seen as a gauge of political enthusiasm.

For Miramax, which was sold this month to the beIN media group, the film underscores a commitment to backing fresh material, not just remakes and sequels from the library.

>> “Sully”

Release: Sept. 9

Studio: Warner Bros.

In Clint Eastwood’s “Sully,” Tom Hanks plays Chesley Sullenberger, the pilot who in 2009 saved US Airways Flight 1549 with an emergency landing in the Hudson River.

That is not an inherently political story. But it is not hard to imagine political operatives, in the heat of a presidential campaign, trying to appropriate it.

On the surface, at least, Sullenberger’s stalwart, old-fashioned competence and grit seem to align with those who, like Trump, talk of “making America great again.” Indeed, in 2009, the Republican Party tried to recruit Sullenberger as a candidate for a congressional seat in California, but he declined.

Recall, too, that Eastwood spoke (to that empty chair) at the Republican convention in 2012, and delivered one of 2014’s surprise hits with the overtly patriotic “American Sniper.”

“Sully” will most likely not do much for any candidate arriving on the left. But, given Eastwood’s strong record, it could land Warner in the next awards race.

>> “Snowden”

Release: Sept. 16

Studio: Open Road Films

Oliver Stone’s “Snowden,” by contrast, will most likely outflank the mainstream presidential candidates on both sides, left and right.

Trump has called on Apple to help law-enforcement authorities by unlocking its iPhones in a terror investigation, so a sympathetic cinematic look at Edward Snowden’s assault on government cyberintrusion won’t help him.

But Clinton, defending against those who say she violated cybersecurity rules while secretary of state, is in no position to buck Obama, who wants Snowden, played here by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, to return from Russian exile and stand trial for theft of secrets.

One thing seems certain: Stone, who has become a fierce critic of Republicans, Democrats and general overreach by the federal government, will use “Snowden” and its promotional track to force candidates into a confrontation with his own considerable libertarian streak.

>> “The Birth of a Nation”

Release: Oct. 9

Studio: Fox Searchlight Pictures

Politically speaking, this is the big one: a brutal, anger-inducing drama about the Nat Turner slave rebellion.

Written and directed by Nate Parker, who also stars, “The Birth of a Nation” played at Sundance and was immediately acquired by Fox Searchlight, for distribution in the heat of not just the presidential campaign but also the coming Oscar season.

In Hollywood, the whispers say that Parker’s film — given the critical acclaim it has already received, and the backlash against this year’s nearly all-white Oscars — is sure to figure among the next wave of best picture nominees.

On the political circuit, it will become as unavoidable as the torture debates around “Zero Dark Thirty” or the good governance talk that accompanied “Lincoln,” as candidates field questions about race relations in America.

… Then there’s Election Day.

Nov. 8 will also bring final box-office results for a Nov. 4 weekend whose big openers promise to be decidedly less political: “Bastards,” from Warner Bros.; “Trolls,” from DreamWorks Animation and Fox; and “Doctor Strange,” from Walt Disney.