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The science fiction genre has been one of the most consistently thrilling to explore throughout the history of cinema. The way a visual medium like film can depict futuristic worlds or alternate realities means that almost anything that can be imagined can be depicted on-screen. Since the silent era, filmmakers have been using the medium to their advantage, commenting on humanity’s present and hypothesizing about its future through the science-fiction genre.
There are countless great sci-fi movies that have been released since the birth of cinema as an art form, and it’s ultimately futile to try and name every single amazing one. There are simply too many top sci-fi movies, and it’s a genre that’s still thriving, with new potential classics released seemingly every year. The following are among the best of the best from the sci-fi genre, being classics for their entertainment value, excellent technical qualities, and historical significance, and are ranked below in order from great to greatest.
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‘The Prestige’ (2006)
Before he really established himself as one of the modern kings of Hollywood blockbusters with The Dark Knight, the legendary Christopher Nolan made The Prestige. Still one of Nolan’s best films to date, this steampunk psychological thriller is one of those mystery movies that are amazing from start to finish, the work of an auteur at the very top of his game.
The Prestige‘s science fiction elements are relatively understated, all in service of an engrossing story about rivalry, obsession, and the cost of artistic greatness. Complete with an exceptional cast and a brilliantly mind-bending narrative that itself feels like one big magic trick, it’s one of the greatest films ever made about artistic obsession. —Diego Pineda Pacheco
59
‘The Iron Giant’ (1999)
One of the best movies of 1999, The Iron Giant tells a familiar sort of story, but does so with style, heart, and beautifully simple animation. It’s about a giant robot who befriends a young boy, with the story going from humorous to somewhat more serious when others start fearing the titular iron giant, leading to persecution and misunderstandings.
Still, The Iron Giant never gets too heavy, owing to it being a family movie and all. But it’s one of those winning family movies that doesn’t feel like it’s catering just towards kids, at the expense of adults being able to enjoy it. Regardless of one’s age, it’s an enjoyable and easily approachable film, and one that likely led to its director, Brad Bird, going on to make some more great animated movies — this time at Pixar — during the 2000s.
58
‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’ (2004)
There’s an argument to be made that Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is more of a romantic drama than a full-on science fiction movie, but those sci-fi elements are still there and important for the character study the film ultimately is. At its core, this one is all about the painful process of moving on — or failing to move on — from a relationship, with its two main characters both using a service that wipes memories of their ex from their respective minds entirely.
However you want to classify it, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is an overall excellent movie, proving to be clever, unpredictable, surreal, and heartbreaking, all in equal measure. It’s a novel idea for a film executed with creativity and two knockout lead performances, courtesy of Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet, both of them arguably being at their very best here.
57
‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ (2018)
Arguably more than any other Spider-Man movie released before it, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse pushes sci-fi elements to the forefront, in turn functioning as a great animated movie, a great superhero film, and a strong piece of science fiction, all at once. The Multiverse is a focus here, but so too is Into the Spider-Verse a compelling origin story for Miles Morales, having him come to terms with his powers while meeting various foes and potential allies.
It’s a big movie, a flashy one, and also a strikingly intimate/personal one, with the core emotions shining through and proving just as satisfying as all the spectacle. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was one of the greatest movies of the whole 2010s, and stands to date as one of the very best movies that deals with the idea of universes colliding.
56
‘Threads’ (1984)
Threads might be a made-for-TV movie, but it stands tall above the vast majority of them, and is pretty much on equal footing with any theatrically released movie about a nuclear apocalypse. With a mortifying attention to detail and an uneasy sense of realism, Threads documents what would happen if a nuclear war broke out, with a particular emphasis on how anyone who survived the initial blasts would struggle to stay alive in a world gone to hell.
There’s some fun to be found in the nuclear wastelands of Mad Max and Fallout, but nothing that’s very fun in Threads. It’s a miserable, haunting, and strikingly effective condemnation of war, and while it’s not a sci-fi movie in an escapist or typically enjoyable way, it’s so powerful, simple, and unapologetically confronting that it deserves to be praised as an all-time great feel-bad classic.
55
‘Paprika’ (2006)
While it’s comparable to The Iron Giant and Into the Spider-Verse in the sense that it’s also a great animated science fiction movie, Paprika stands apart from those in the sense that it’s not really family-friendly. It’s not quite as dark as one of Satoshi Kon’s other acclaimed films, Perfect Blue, but it does go to some confronting places with its exploration of the subconscious, much of it revolving around a machine that lets therapists view the dreams of their patients.
Reality and dreamscapes combine and collide, with Paprika proving deliberately difficult to wrap one’s head around at times. But there is so much being said here that even if one’s overwhelmed by most of it, other parts will inevitably make sense, or prove striking in some kind of way. It’s absolutely one of the greatest anime films ever made, looking consistently beautiful and proving to be a uniquely dizzying and thought-provoking watch.
54
‘The Abyss’ (1989)
If you want to talk about great science fiction movies, bringing up the works of James Cameron is going to be as inevitable as Thanos; the guy just understands how to make films of this kind. In fact, it’s somewhat rare to find a James Cameron movie that doesn’t have science fiction elements (though he can still do those well, as films like True Lies and, of course, Titanic demonstrate).
The Abyss might not quite be one of his very best films overall, but it still has a ton to offer and feels distinct from his other sci-fi movies, owing to it not really being focused on action like many of his other sci-fi movies are. It follows a group of people undertaking a dangerous deep-sea mission regarding the recovery of a sunken nuclear submarine, only to find unexpected phenomena while down there. It’s a slow burn to some extent, but a successful one, and has some jaw-dropping effects by late 1980s standards.
Robert Zemeckis has, in more recent times, been behind a somewhat divisive run of animated movies, but he also made some groundbreaking live-action movies that shouldn’t be overlooked. Admittedly, it can sometimes feel easy to overlook something like Contact, though, what with its fairly generic title, the fact it came out in a crowded year for movies, and because it’s something of a slow burn with a runtime that clocks in at 2.5 hours.
But Contact shouldn’t be overlooked, because it’s a uniquely quiet and character-focused piece of science fiction, containing some prominent mystery elements and taking its time to build up to a final act, whereupon some answers are finally given. It’s intriguing and very well-made from a technical perspective, and also features a typically great lead performance from Jodie Foster.
52
‘Total Recall’ (1990)
With a bold central performance by Arnold Schwarzenegger, typically wild direction from Paul Verhoeven, and plenty of memorably strange special effects, Total Recall is a classic piece of 1990s sci-fi. It’s got a decent amount of camp and intentional humor, but there’s also enough here that can be taken somewhat seriously; it rides a fine — and interesting — line between being thought-provoking and being a bit of a joke.
It’s hard to totally recall the strange plot of Total Recall, but at its core, it’s about a man getting an implanted memory that begins to cross over with his reality, sending him on a wild and violent mission to get answers and make sense of the messiness going on around him. It’s a strange ride, but also an exceedingly entertaining one, with Verhoeven and Schwarzenegger both giving it 110%, which is always great to see.
51
‘Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes’ (2020)
Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes is one of the best Japanese movies of the last few years, and also stands as one of the most entertaining and rewatchable sci-fi films in recent memory. It deals with an initially limited form of time travel that involves a screen that shows footage from two minutes in the future, which leads to wonder, fortunes, and eventual chaos for the people who discover this strange phenomenon.
Made on a limited budget and filmed in a way that makes it appear like a single take, Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes is quite dazzling for such a small-scale movie, and endlessly inventive/clever. It’s got an infectious spirit and is overall the kind of movie that will provide significant entertainment value for just about anyone who seeks it out.
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Jeremy Urquhart
Almontather Rassoul
