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TOP SCIFI MOVIES
‘Time Bandits’ (1981)
What would you do if a group of fugitive little people burst through your wardrobe in the middle of the night, claiming that they can travel through time? You’d join them, of course. In Terry Gilliam’s fantastical masterpiece, a prepubescent named Kevin (Craig Warnock) and his new mates encounter Napoleon (Ian Holm), Robin Hood (John Cleese), King Agamemnon (Sean Connery), the Minotaur, and everyone on the Titanic before a final, terrifyingly surrealistic battle with the Supreme Being (Sir Ralph Richardson at his most menacing). It’s like Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure but funnier, more middlebrow, and a lot more madcap, thanks to Gilliam and cowriter Michael Palin’s roots in Monty Python. Its visuals laid the groundwork (pipework?) for Gilliam’s brilliant Brazil four years later. —KG
TOP SCIFI MOVIES
‘Pi’ (1998)
Darren Aronofsky’s cyberpunk debut not only fuses elements of David Lynch and David Cronenberg into an impressively realized whole, but also previews the kind of visual excesses that made the future Requiem for a Dream auteur one of the most controversial directors of the Aughts. The film centers on Sean Gullette’s brilliantly tortured number theorist and his futile quest to find a perfect number that encompasses the theory of life. A Wall Street management firm and a cabal of Hasidic Jews try to exploit him as he winds his way through New York’s subway system while suffering from hallucinations, headaches, and the effects of psychotropic medications. The late Mark Margolis of Better Call Saul fame lends crucial support as a mentor who tries Gullette away from the edge of madness. —MR
TOP SCIFI MOVIES
‘Dark City’ (1998)
Even in a decade stuffed to the gills with virtual reality sci-fi (The Matrix, Strange Days, eXistenZ, etc.), Alex Proyas’ strange nocturnal brew of Edward Hopper, German Expressionism and American detective fiction stands out. An alien race creates a nocturnal city that they use to observe humans in hopes of learning their ways, putting the inhabitants of the city to sleep every night and switching their identities. One man (Rufus Sewell) has the power to set humanity free. In its own way, the city of the title is every bit as New York as the Gotham of Batman and Co. Yet in the hands of Proyas it becomes a wonderful synthesis, an always-dark land of automats and murder and group memories of a beach that never existed. It’s the city that always sleeps. —CV
TOP SCIFI MOVIES
‘The Time Machine’ (1954)
Victorian-era tinkerer George (Rod Taylor) tempts the laws of providence by leaping into the future — first a dozen or so years, then a few decades, and finally to the year 802,701. There he finds humanity bifurcated into two species: the simpleton Eloi, fair-skinned and blonde-haired naifs; and the monstrous Morlocks, an underground ruling class who control and feed on the Eloi. H.G. Wells’ 19th century inequality parable got an Atomic Age tweak with director George Pal folding in the repercussions of an imagined soon-to-be nuclear war. He also pioneered the cinematic language of back-to-the-future visits with Oscar-winning special effects, including time-lapse photography, miniature sets, and makeup design that included the melting potato-face visage of the story’s stringy-haired oppressors. Wells first conjured up this classic O.G. time-travel cautionary tale featuring the title’s proto-steampunk device in 1895, but it’s this handsome ’50s movie adaptation that made it timeless. —SG
TOP SCIFI MOVIES
‘The Beast from 2000 Fathoms’ (1953)
Before there was Cloverfield — before there was even Godzilla — director Eugène Lourié’s adaptation of a Ray Bradbury short story gave birth to one of sci-fi cinema’s grand traditions: the spectacle of a towering reptilian beast wreaking havoc and leaving destruction in its wake. A scientist (Paul Christian) working at the North Pole, executing atomic-weapon tests that awaken a ferocious dinosaur that had laid dormant in the ice for millennia. Soon, the creature makes its way south, ready to release its rage upon Manhattan. You can feel the Nuclear Age anxieties of the 1950s pulsing through this epochal monster movie, and effects wizard Ray Harryhausen brings the beast to giddy, frightening life. —TG
TOP SCIFI MOVIES
‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ (2014)
You can find a lot of sci-fi flotsam and jetsam floating around Marvel movies, from technologically advanced supersuits to gamma-ray-generated monsters. James Gunn’s additions to the MCU, however, are arguably the only ones that are straight-up science fiction — and this initial entry in his trilogy of movies about a cosmos-hopping band of outlaws has both a sense of humor about and a keen understanding of the genre in the best possible ways. Led by the legendary (or rather, “legendary”) interstellar thief Jason Quill, a.k.a. Star-Lord, these misfits ended up becoming a sort of all-purpose comic relief for this cinematic universe’s connected story lines. But the original GotG takes its cues as much from the last 40 years’ worth of sci-fi movies as it does from the group’s comic books, with everything from Chris Pratt’s goof on the square-jawed anti-hero to the chemistry between a walking tree branch and a talking racoon somehow delivering a rock-’em sock-’em space adventure while also affectionately sending it up. We are all Groot now. —DF
TOP SCIFI MOVIES
‘The Vast of Night’ (2019)
Welcome to Cayuga, New Mexico, your typical 1950s Smalltown, U.S.A. hamlet likely located a stone’s throw from Roswell. Two alpha-nerd A.V.-club teens — Everett (Jake Horowitz), a tech whiz and late-night disc jockey, and Fey (Sierra McCormick), who connects folks at the local switchboard — find themselves dealing with an odd blast of sound coming over the airwaves. Fey fields a panicked phone call about … something that may or may not be of this Earth. The military seems to be involved as well. Then things get weird. The debut of writer-director-editor Andrew Patterson is chock full of virtuoso filmmaking (those long, serpentine tracking shots!) and enough sustained Spielbergasms that it technically qualifies as a close encounter of the fourth kind. But all of those chops and retro Twilight Zone stylings — down to a fake TV show paying homage to Rod Serlings’ landmark series — are put into the service of a slow-burn dread that lingers with you. Watch the skies, people. Watch the skies. —DF
TOP SCIFI MOVIES
‘Rogue One’ (2016)
The most somber of the Star Wars chapters, this spinoff builds a riveting adventure out of a throwaway line from the 1977 original — a brief mention of some rebel spies who stole the plans for the fearsome Darth Star, including the key to how to destroy it. Monsters director Gareth Edwards and Oscar-nominee Felicity Jones took it from there, dramatizing the spies’ dangerous mission and, in the process, crafting a Star Wars film that’s part heist picture and part legitimate war movie. A stellar international cast — including Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk, Jiang Wen and Forest Whitaker — adds to the movie’s gravitas and grit, leading to an epic ending that both acknowledges that some heroes’ sacrifices go uncelebrated and that the allure of George Lucas’ mythic franchise remains sterling no matter how many underwhelming sequels and TV series Disney keeps pumping out. —TG
TOP SCIFI MOVIES
‘Them!’ (1954)
The Manhattan Project might have left a hole in J. Robert Oppenheimer’s soul, but that’s nothing compared to its effect on the ants of the surrounding desert area. They’re big. Like, really big. And loud. Among the oddest things about this sci-fi B movie is just how much science is crammed into it — if you have a question about Formicidae behavior, there’s a good chance Them! has the answer. An Oscar nominee for special effects, Gordon Douglas’ creepy-crawly cautionary tale is one of those atomic-age spectacles that takes an indirect approach to the threat of post-Los Alamos extinction. If the bombs don’t get you, the insects surely will. —CV
TOP SCIFI MOVIES
‘Death Race 2000’ (1975)
This low-budget wonder from the Roger Corman factory is set in the then-distant year of 2000, after “the world crash of ’79.” It concerns the 20th annual Transcontinental Road Race, in which five teams of flamboyant drivers and navigators roar from coast to coast while racking up points for every pedestrian they mow down along the way. (Points are staggered based on age and mobility, resulting in dialogue like, “it’s euthanasia day at the local geriatric hospital!”) Director Paul “Eating Raoul” Bartel’s ‘70s kitsch vision of the future — all sterile interiors and delightfully fake matte paintings — is a hoot, the kills are gloriously grotesque, and you can hear the echoes of its cackling nihilism in everything from Robocop to The Hunger Games to the WWE. —Jason Bailey
TOP SCIFI MOVIES
‘Gattaca’ (1997)
The best thing about Gattaca is its quietly inquisitive tone, even as it navigates potentially controversial ideas. In a future where genetic makeup determines one’s station in life, Ethan Hawke toils as a janitor and nurtures dreams of joining the Gattaca Aerospace Corporation. He gets a break when Jude Law gives him enough genetic material to sneak into the Gattaca program, where he befriends and eventually romances Uma Thurman. As various antagonists attempt to unravel Hawke’s scheme, director Andrew Niccol explores how eugenics nurtures bigotry and whether human will can trump hereditary destiny. It’s set in a sci-fi landscape that may seem too uncomfortably white to some viewers, leading them to wonder if they’ll be genetically suppressed in the future, too. —MR
TOP SCIFI MOVIES
‘Serenity’ (2005)
Following the cancellation of the Fox series Firefly after a single season, folks assumed that Joss Whedon’s show about a ragtag group of space explorers — led by Nathan Fillion’s charming rogue of a captain, Mal Reynolds — would simply be relegated to the fondly remembered one-and-done wing of TV’s sci-fi canon. Thanks to the popularity of the series’ DVD release, however, the writer-director got to do a theatrical feature that reunited Fillion, Gina Torres, Alan Rudyk and the rest of Firefly‘s cast, proving to fanboys everywhere that if you complain long and loud enough, people will eventually listen. (As to whether that was ultimately a good thing… let’s say the jury is still out.) Luckily, this “final” adventure of the crew of the spaceship Serenity is one hell of a romp, with Mal & co. protecting Summer Glau’s fugitive psychic assassin from Chiwetel Ejiofor’s “operative,” tying up a lot of narratuve loose ends and scoring some genuine points about found family along the way. “We’ve done the impossible,” Mal says, “and that makes us mighty.” Truer words were never spoken. —CTJ
TOP SCIFI MOVIES
‘Existenz’ (1999)
“Death to the demoness, Allegra Geller!” In a classic case of movie-crushing bad Hollywood timing, David Cronenberg’s mind-bending, gloriously grimy, virtual-reality-themed low-budget micro-epic hit theaters just weeks after The Matrix — which delivered a far sleeker and more action-y take on the same “what is real”/plugging-your-spine-into-a-computer theme. But the dizzying worlds-within-worlds of Existenz — which offers an enjoyable pairing of leads Jennifer Jason Leigh (as superstar video-game designer Allegra Geller) and Jude Law (as her young employee) — offer a more cerebral and haunting brand of thrills that make it one of the most under-rated sci-films of its decade, echoing themes and new-flesh body-horror imagery from Cronenberg’s 1983 classic Videodrome along the way. The film deserves a slot on this list just for the bonkers-even-by-Cronenberg-standards scene where Law’s character assembles the slimy bones of his mutant dinner into a tooth-shooting gun and promptly murders a waiter. (“Just a little misunderstanding over the check,” he tells the other customers.) —Brian Hiatt
TOP SCIFI MOVIES
‘Barbarella’ (1968)
From the moment that a coquettish Jane Fonda does a zero-gravity striptease over the opening credits, Roger Vadim’s take on French writer-illustrator Jean-Claude Forest’s comic — about a cosmos-hopping, sexually liberated female answer to Buck Rogers — tells you exactly what to expect. The vibe is tres erotique. The production design is one part mondo futuro, and several parts space-age bachelor pad. There will be a lot of deep-space naughtiness and very little of this should be taken seriously. You can credit Vadim’s carnal cartoonishness for channeling both the source material and the era’s permissive ideas about intergalactic free love, and to the best of our knowledge, this is the only movie that features Anita Pallenberg, famed mime Marcel Marceau, the universe’s hottest angel (you go, John Philip Law!), killer dolls and a machine that induces mind-blowing orgasms. But Fonda is the reason this late ’60s blend of retro sci-fi serials and proto-softcore Skinemax remains an absolute joy to watch. The star later had complicated feelings about her involvement with the project, yet her wide-eyed, fully committed portrayal of Barbarella, “the queen of the galaxy,” remains a beloved cult classic. —DF
TOP SCIFI MOVIES
‘Invaders from Mars’ (1953)
The Martians have landed in our own backyard — and only 12-year-old David MacLean (Jimmy Hunt) knows that they’re hypnotizing local communities and ready to take over our planet! Director William Cameron Menzies went from imagining utopian futures with Things to Come to this paranoid view of a present day U.S.A. in which our friends and loved ones suddenly turn into different — read: dangerous — people under “foreign” influences. You might say it was prescient, given that Invasion of the Body Snatchers was still several years away from making that subtext more explicit. You could offer a counter-reading that it was already tuned in to what was going in the culture, given that McCarthyism was already in full swing. Or you could ignore the political readings and simply thrill to the site of the movie’s flying saucers, green and bug-eyed “synthetic humans,” and an alien overlord that simply a floating head in a fishbowl. As for the ending, whether you think David is dreaming or is finally wide awake says more about you than you might think. —DF
TOP SCIFI MOVIES
‘Colossus: The Forbin Project’ (1970)
“Obey me and live, disobey me and die.” Say what you will about HAL 9000, he never held the entire human race hostage by threatening to rain down an arsenal of nuclear weaponry upon us. Dr. Charles A. Forbin (Eric Braeden) designs a supercomputer — code name: Colossus — to control the entirety of the U.S. defense system. The irony is, by removing the possibility of human error in regards to rogue missile strikes, etc., Forbin and his government patrons have accidentally handed absolute power over to this A.I. And, well, you remember what absolute power does, right? Soon after Colossus links with its Russian counterpart, the two supercomputers decide that these pesky humans will no longer have the chance to destroy each other. They’ll do what they’re told by their new computerized masters, or else. The look and feel of director Joseph Sargent’s thriller clearly carbon-dates it to the beginning of the ’70s. As for everything else about its story of machines viewing man as inferior and obsolete? This could have been made yesterday. —DF
TOP SCIFI MOVIES
‘Jurassic Park’ (1993)
Michael Crichton’s 1990 novel about cloned dinosaurs running wild on an island theme park was destined for the big screen from the moment the concept entered his head. But it could easily have become a lame, paint-by-numbers thriller in the hands of anyone but Stephen Spielberg. The director not only assembled a killer cast that included Jeff Goldblum, Sam Neil, Richard Attenborough, and Laura Dern — he also infused the story with genuine heart and brought in a groundbreaking CGI team that created dinosaurs that still look realistic (and frightening) 30 years later. Don’t pay attention to any of the five sequels. None of them can remotely compare to the original. —AG
TOP SCIFI MOVIES
‘After Yang’ (2021)
Video essayist-turned-filmmaker Kogonada uses the death of a robot to consider the nature of loss, how memory works, and what it means to be human. A tea shop proprietor named Jake (Colin Farrell), is not sure what to do when Yang (Justin H. Min), the family’s in-house android, unexpectedly shuts down. While attempting to find a way to repair Yang, Jake finds himself as affected by the loss as he explores memories Yang recorded while “alive.” Or maybe that word doesn’t need quotation marks. Adapting a story by Alexander Weinstein, Kogonada offers a few suggestions of the broader near-future world in which the story takes place but keeps the focus on the emotions experienced by each family member in the wake of Yang’s seemingly permanent departure, a loss that becomes a mirror to how they view life and the meanings of endings. —Keith Phipps
TOP SCIFI MOVIES
‘Destination Moon’ (1950)
No less than Robert Heinlein cowrote this loose adaptation of his proto-YA novel Rocket Ship Galileo (the Hugo-winning legend also did double duty as a technical advisor), in which an airplane engineer (John Archer), a military man (Tom Powers), and a literal rocket scientist (Warner Anderson) form an American team of astronauts racing to beat the Russians to the moon. Yes, it’s a campy, boys-adventure type of take on space exploration aimed at the Saturday matinee crowd, complete a Woody Woodpecker cartoon explaining how rockets work (!) and a dem-dese-dose character from Brooklyn straight out of central casting. But it’s an early Hollywood attempt at bringing “serious” science fiction to screens, forgoing the typical man-versus-alien thrills and chills andfocusing more on the technical issues and real-world problem-solving that NASA’s own Apollo 11 mission would deal with nearly 20 years later. The final credit reads, “The End… of the Beginning.” Even producer George Pal and director Irving Pichel didn’t realize how prophetic that hyped-up statement would become in the years that followed. —DF
TOP SCIFI MOVIES
‘Space Is the Place’ (1974)
The avant-garde jazz legend Sun Ra always insisted he was an alien teleported from Saturn (not Alabama), traveling the spaceways and making his interstellar music with his Arkestra. Named after his most famous tune, this Afrofuturist space adventure is a freewheeling mix of fiery live performances, Afrocentric political prophecy and Seventies blaxploitation chic, directed by John Coney. Sun Ra’s spaceship touches down in Oakland circa 1974, where he uses his music to spread the word about his “Outer Space Employment Agency.” The Man tries to stop him, of course — but Ra aims to usher the local Black community off to the promised land in the stars. The Arkestra jazz footage is futuristic in itself, but Space Is The Place is a fittingly chaotic tribute to a true visionary. —RS
TOP SCIFI MOVIES
‘This Island Earth’ (1955)
A warning to all scientists who begin tinkering with a foreign-looking piece of technology that’s been sent to your lab: Be careful, it may be a test that will result in you be recruited by aliens to make weaponry for their interstellar war! This ’50s sci-fi staple of late, late shows (and fodder for a memorable MST3K episode) smuggles in a message underneath its pulpy exterior about the perils of scientific progress being used for destructive means; Rex Reason’s square-jawed hero is initially tempted by an advanced race’s knowledge before he and fellow eggheads Faith Domergue and Russell Johnson are whisked away to the purple-hued planet Metaluna. (Not to be confused with the extraterrestrials who’ve abducted them and literally have egg-shaped heads.) But if you remember this sci-fi thriller, it’s probably less for its cautionary-tale aspects and more for the guard who attacks Domergue — a bug-like mutant who immediately became one of the genre’s most iconic alien creatures. You don’t get those brainy Mars Attacks! bad guys without this monstrosity. —DF
TOP SCIFI MOVIES
‘Westworld’ (1973)
In the future, rich tourists tired of traditional vacations can visit three adult theme parks in which lifelike robots cater to their every need. But after a series of malfunctions, the androids begin murdering their guests, leading to a final standoff involving Yul Brynner as a surly, trigger-happy gunslinger. Michael Crichton’s 1973 film foresaw the rise of computer viruses and was one of the first to utilize CGI technology that would become commonplace years later. While the graphics may look dated now, the film remains a prescient look at the evil cinematic conglomerates found in everything from the Robocop to Blade Runner. Also, murderous cowboy robots will always be a sci-fi geek’s cinematic wet dream. —Jason Newman
TOP SCIFI MOVIES
‘Starman’ (1984)
It initially seems like we’re back in the territory of The Thing, as an outer-space shapeshifter slowly, strangely takes the form of an Earthling. But this alien comes in peace — and so did John Carpenter, trading arctic dread for the decidedly more Amblin-friendly story of an E.T. just trying to go home. As the widow who falls for the being borrowing her dead husband’s appearance, Karen Allen sells the emotional complexity of this close encounter, playing the unlikely love story as both an act of interspecies empathy and a therapeutic grasp for closure. And Jeff Bridges earned his Oscar nomination for a performance of otherworldly precision, every line and gesture a step in the Starman’s journey from humanoid to humanity. —AAD
TOP SCIFI MOVIES
‘Predator’ (1987)
“Get to the choppa!” One of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s most thrilling films, this tale of an extraterrestrial hunter and the band of special-ops commandoes it considers prey birthed a slew of epic Eighties catchphrases, from Arnie’s invocation to board a helicopter to scene-stealer Jesse Ventura’s casual dismissal of a flesh wound: “I ain’t got time to bleed.” But the John McTiernan-directed spectacle says the most with its quiet action sequences, including a climactic cat-and-mouse game between Schwarzenegger’s Dutch and the Predator that is as much about brains as it is about brute force. It spawned a bunch of sequels and spin-offs (2022’s Prey is a must-watch), but none provide the stalking suspense of the OG. —JH
TOP SCIFI MOVIES
‘Rollerball’ (1975)
The mid-1970s were a particularly fertile period for bleak, dystopian science fiction — and few films of that era were bleaker than this gnarly effort from director Norman Jewison. It’s a sci-fi movie and a sports movie, centering on the fictional futuristic game of the title — a violent mash-up of roller derby, hockey, and a 1 a.m. bar brawl. But the game itself barely matters; Jewison’s focus is on the mechanics of America circa 2018, a country not only owned but governed by a small group of corporate overlords. James Caan, full of ‘70s swagger, is the sport’s superstar, who discovers that even a face that moves magazines holds little power against the evil embedded in this society. —JB
TOP SCIFI MOVIES
‘Soylent Green’ (1973)
Charlton Heston read Harry Harrison’s 1966 novel Make Room! Make Room! on a flight, struck by its vision of a future society in which overpopulation and dwindling resources lead to global crisis and a rich elite walled away from the starving masses. From that kernel came one of the ’70s’ most indelible dystopias, its disturbing power summarized by a single line of dialogue that even those who have never seen the film know by heart. (You know the one.) But don’t let Heston’s infamously Heston-y delivery distract from a grim sci-fi thriller in which his tough New York cop tries to solve the murder of an influential board member at the Soylent Corporation, discovering the terrible truth about the company’s new foodstuff along the way. At a time when economic inequality is an urgent talking point and clashes over water rights escalate across the planet, this harrowing portrait of a world rapidly going to hell — and the lengths society goes to cannibalize the lower classes — will still stick in your craw. —TG
TOP SCIFI MOVIES
‘Another Earth’ (2011)
A mirrored version of our planet appears in the solar system one day. Rhoda Williams (played by cowriter Brit Marling) looks up at the sky for the new Earth while driving drunk and inadvertently injures a man, John Burroughs (William Mapother), and kills his pregnant wife. She tries to apologize after serving time for manslaughter but loses her nerve. Instead, she sparks a relationship with him, all while fantasizing about going to the other planet where she might not be so awful. She writes an essay and wins a contest to travel to Earth 2, but it’s only when she reveals her true self to Burroughs that worlds collide. Filmmaker Mike Cahill’s turns one headscratcher of an alternate-world premise into a mediation on regret, guilt, and atonement. And the finale is heartrending. —KG
TOP SCIFI MOVIES
‘Silent Running’ (1972)
The genre-defining visual effects that Douglas Trumbull created for 2001: A Space Odyssey allowed him to essentially write his own ticket in the years that followed, and he eased into directing with this low-key but affecting sci-fi drama. Bruce Dern stars as a botanist on a cargo spaceship orbiting Saturn; he spends much of his screen time alone (or in the company of his service robots, which would serve as key inspirations for Mystery Science Theater 3000). The picture’s eco-conscious messaging would only prove more prescient with the passing years, while its quiet, modest style and thoughtful approach takes its ties to 2001 beyond mere shared credits. —JB
TOP SCIFI MOVIES
‘The Iron Giant’ (1999)
A loose adaptation of Ted Hughes’ 1968 novel of the same name, Brad Bird’s directorial debut uses lovely, hand-drawn animation to revisit an Eisenhower-era America in the grips of Cold War tensions. In Maine, a boy named Hogarth (voiced by Eli Marienthal) discovers a robot (Vin Diesel) whose mammoth size does little to suggest his gentle nature. Hogarth keeps his discovery a secret as he tries to determine its origin and, above all, enjoy the company of a sweet new friend. But when rumors leak to the military, both boy and robot find themselves drawn into military machinations incapable of seeing the robot as anything but a threat to destroy or a weapon to co-opt. It’s at once a boys’ adventure tale about a sweet metal-man and a defiant rebuke to a way of thinking that pushed the globe to the point of destruction. —KP
TOP SCIFI MOVIES
‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ (2017)
Somehow, Rian Johnson’s 2017 entry became the most divisive title in the famed franchise. There were complaints about Luke being a quitter; about the seemingly extraneous side quest to the casino planet of Canto Bight; and about Johnson seemingly ignoring Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams’ plans for Rey’s origin (though it’s unclear if he had any). Most of us, however, walked out gobsmacked by some of the most stunning visuals and sequences of any Star Wars film — the throne room fight, Admiral Holdo’s kamikaze run against the First Order flagship, the desperate battle on the salt planet of Crait (including Luke’s most heroic moment of the entire series). All that, plus Johnson’s decision to democratize the Force, rather than treating it as a special power available only to a chosen few. You can probably guess which side we fall on. —AS