8 Most Universally Acclaimed Sci-Fi Movies of All Time, Ranked

There have been an overwhelming number of science fiction movies released throughout the course of cinema history, and so highlighting the best of the best is always going to be difficult. To emphasize this, here are some honorable mentions that have not made it onto the following ranking: The Matrix, all the Star Wars movies except for one, Arrival, Children of Men, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

And a bunch of other movies that are all universally acclaimed, but this intends to highlight the super acclaimed and beloved ones. They might not even be the very best, or among your personal favorites, but they’re all classics in one way or another, and each has a place in cinematic history because they’re well appreciated by almost everyone… especially critics, though that doesn’t mean some of these aren’t crowd-pleasers, too.

8

‘Alien’ (1979)

Image via 20th Century Studios

Alien ended up being the starting point for a surprisingly long-lived franchise, and it’s accurate to call it a franchise, rather than a movie series, because Alien has been continued or spun off in other mediums. That’s somewhat surprising when you look back on the first film and think about how self-contained and simple it is, as it’s essentially like a sci-fi slasher movie, set technically in space, but mostly contained to a single spaceship.

Also, Alien is quite slow by modern standards, though the pacing here ends up working well and making the climax feel more thrilling once it does finally come around. Aliens is worthy of an honorable mention, for doing something a little different genre-wise (lots more action in that one) while still maintaining certain elements from the original that worked within that new context, but Alien feels like the “more” perfect of the two, and it’s held in slightly higher regard on a critical front, too.

7

‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’ (2004)

Image via Focus Features

Technically, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind can be called a romantic science fiction movie, but it’s the kind of romantic movie that’s more about breaking up than getting together and falling in love in that nice sort of ordinary romance movie way. The sci-fi elements come about because it’s about a technology that lets people forget all memories associated with an ex-partner.

Two people who used to be in love do this, and then Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind explores the immediate consequences of such a procedure, or maybe even pre-immediate consequences, as much of the film takes place within memories as they’re being wiped, one by one. It’s all psychologically devastating, sometimes harrowing, and ultimately quite intense throughout, but all in purposeful and brutally effective ways. The sadness of it all is the point, and it’s executed in a fashion that does prove simultaneously cathartic and upsetting.

6

‘Metropolis’ (1927)

Image via Parufamet

There are only so many ways to talk about Metropolis and what it means for the science fiction genre, so if you know even a little about movie history, nothing that can be said here within 150-ish words will seem very insightful or fresh. This film’s possibly the first feature-length undisputed masterpiece, at least among sci-fi movies, and then if you’re comparing it to all movies made approximately a century ago, it’s also about as good as they get.

What it does as a movie about a city that’s a utopia for some and a dystopia for others might seem a bit blunt and simplistic by modern standards, but Metropolis is also so far from a modern movie. Check the year of release. That’s a century ago. It’s easy to appreciate this film paving the way for so many to follow, and then further a surprise (of the pleasant variety, of course) how much of Metropolis genuinely just holds up and proves compelling, even if you’re not the sort of person who usually finds cinema history (or silent films generally) particularly interesting.

5

‘Stalker’ (1979)

Image via Goskino

Stalker is very much an arthouse science fiction film, so if you go into it expecting something thrilling or traditionally exciting/explosive, you might be disappointed. But it has a reputation for being slow and thought-provoking, and the kind of thing you have to concentrate on pretty significantly to fully appreciate, and that’s also the sort of thing that can be expected from any title found in the filmography of Andrei Tarkovsky.

Also, that means that summarizing the plot feels a bit pointless, but Stalker is technically about something simple: three men traveling into an area known as the Zone, and questioning various things about reality and existence as they go deeper. That means there’s a good deal more to it than “just” the process of seeing characters go on a physical journey. It’s a sometimes challenging but ultimately rewarding film, and it does ultimately stand out for how singular/distinctive it is, atmospherically.

4

‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ (2015)

Image via Warner Bros. Pictures

For more than 30 years, the second Mad Max movie stood as the ultimate and best one, and also felt about as good as post-apocalyptic action movies could ever get, and then Fury Road came around and sort of felt like The Road Warrior 2.0. And The Road Warrior was already Mad Max 2.0 on top of literally being Mad Max 2, so maybe Fury Road was, like, Mad Max squared.

It’s a lot. It was a lot of movie packed into just two hours, but in the best of ways. People have gone on and on about how thrilling, exciting, and overall spectacular Mad Max: Fury Road is for the entirety of its runtime, and yes, it is all those things. Also, if you felt it was a bit light on character development, story, and world-building, the underrated Furiosa (2024) works as an excellent companion piece, impressing a little less with its action, but thankfully containing all those aforementioned things some people (not all) might’ve felt were lacking in Fury Road.

3

‘The Empire Strikes Back’ (1980)

Image via Lucasfilm

As promised, or mentioned before, here’s the one Star Wars movie that stands out as the very best of the bunch: The Empire Strikes Back, which was the second one to be made, but chronologically, it takes place right in the center of the Skywalker Saga. It’s Episode 5 out of 9, and even if the whole saga is flawed and uneven in quality, it’s nice that, for now, the literal centerpiece is as strong and narratively important as The Empire Strikes Back.

Basically, everything that the first movie in 1977 did well (lots of things; maybe even most things) gets done even better here. There’s more emotional complexity here, the story gets more interesting, and then it’s also arguably more successful in terms of spectacle, too. The Empire Strikes Back gets everything right, and the only reason one could argue that it should be disqualified here is that it (and most Star Wars movies) are science fantasy, or at least not really hard sci-fi, so purists might raise an eyebrow at the suggestion of any episode in the saga being considered alongside other sci-fi classics.

2

‘Blade Runner’ (1982)

If not for Blade Runner, the previously mentioned Alien might well be considered Ridley Scott’s magnum opus, unless you want to go with something else altogether, like one of his action movies with a historical setting. They’re usually pretty great. Gladiator is pretty great. But… sticking to Blade Runner, this one would be the easiest to pick, for the crown of Scott’s best movie. It’s a difficult one to fault.

Like with Stalker, the premise is very simple, as Blade Runner is more or less just about a man (seemingly a man, at least) tasked with tracking down and killing a bunch of rogue replicants that already have shortened lifespans. It’s what it does with that premise that makes it special, because there’s so much else to unpack here thematically, on top of the film also feeling timeless as a purely cinematic experience. In terms of how it looks, sounds, and feels, it really hasn’t aged a day.

1

‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ (1968)

Image via Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

It’s not easy to argue that many sci-fi movies might well be even better than the aforementioned Blade Runner, but with 2001: A Space Odyssey, such an argument could potentially be mounted with something approaching ease. This is perhaps the quintessential sci-fi epic, with Metropolis maybe tying with it, owing to that silent film’s age and the extent to which it was forward-thinking, but 2001: A Space Odyssey was also incredibly ahead of its time and ultimately influential.

The premise here is about evolution, and while lots of epics span years, and slightly fewer span decades, 2001: A Space Odyssey stands out for spanning more time than just about any other movie out there, beginning in the distant past and ending in the (somehow) even more distant future. It’s also one of the definitive “gets better the more you watch and think about it” movies, representing cinematic science fiction at its most enduring and continually rewarding.

2001: A Space Odyssey

Release Date

April 10, 1968

Runtime

149 minutes

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  Keir Dullea

  Dr. David Bowman

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  Gary Lockwood

  Dr. Frank Poole