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The 100 Best Sci-Fi Movies of All Time
Cinema exists to project our dreams. Science-fiction cinema exists to project our most creative dreams—time-travel, alternate worlds, expanded consciousness, and more. That's why we're science-fiction maniacs and why we gathered up our top 100 movies. And if your favorite isn't on here, we want to hear about it. (Warning: Here be spoilers.)
BY JORDAN HOFFMAN 100. Escape From New York (1981)
A cheery blend of anti-government paranoia, haywire sociology, and good old-fashioned grindhouse sleaze, Escape From New York takes the famous New York Daily News headline, "[President ] Ford to City: Drop Dead," and goes crazy with it.
The year is 1997 and crime is so rampant that the island of Manhattan has been declared a federal prison. Recidivism rates are low considering the philosophy is taken straight from the Roach Motel: Prisoners go in but they don't come out. When a band of terrorists hijack the president's plane and the president winds up trapped in the walled-off 212 area code, only Kurt Russell's eye-patched Snake Plissken can save him.
Past the initial premise and some cool-for-its-day opening computer graphics, Escape From New York is a film that's actually better in your memory than in reality—though nothing can take away from the chandeliers fixed to the hood of Isaac Hayes's car.
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99. Splice (2009)
Does scientific research have boundaries? When is it moral to play God? And under what circumstances is it okay to have sex with your adoptive killer cross-species mutant child? (I can't answer the first two, but I think I have a pretty good answer for number three.)
If only all bioethics debates were this gruesome and perverse.
98. Attack the Block (2011)
Joe Cornish's funny, poignant, and slick film about killer blue things from outer space dropping in on the wrong British housing project goes to some unexpected places. It is secure enough in its own storytelling to introduce its heroes in an unflattering light, knowing that you will come to grow and love them by the movie's climax. And just when Attack the Block is in danger of getting too poignant for its own good, Cornish introduces slow-motion shots of dudes blasting away at sharp-toothed creatures.
If you happen to be from somewhere other than the U.K., Attack the Block has the added benefit of introducing you to an entirely new form of verbal communication. Trust, bruv.
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97. City of Lost Children (1995)
Jean-Pierre Jeunet's second feature collaboration with Marc Caro was, in many ways, what brought the steampunk aesthetic into the mainstream—as much as any film in which Ron Perlman battles a kidnapping mad scientist, mechanical Cyclopes, and a brain in a vat can be considered mainstream.
The villain can achieve immortality, but has lost his ability to dream, which is essential for staying young. He must therefore steal the dreams of children but since they are all scared, they provide him only with nightmares. Despite the clear good-versus-evil nature of the story, this movie is extremely French, so the kids are a little more sinister than the usual movie moppets, and the baddies are a tad seductive.
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96. Westworld (1973)
If you thought that the episode of The Simpsons in which the robots of Itchy and Scratchy Land go on a killing spree was ripped from the TV movie Kiss Meets the Phantom, I'm afraid you were incorrect. It was ripped from the surprisingly good Richard Benjamin vehicle Westworld.
Written and directed by Michael Crichton, Westworld recognizes that its own premise is a little goofy, but it still has some legitimately frightening moments. At the "adult" Disneyland, vacationers can live out their Roman, Medieval, or Old West fantasies with none of the risk—until a malfunction sends a cyber Yul Brenner on a relentless path of destruction.
Westworld offers up a mixture of early ‘70s pop psychology and a jaundiced view of unchecked technology. Between this film and The Stepford Wives, it's surprising that the animatronics industry didn't go under.
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95. Serenity (2005)
Joss Whedon's wonderful coda to the cult show Firefly probably wouldn't exist if that show hadn't been prematurely canceled—a layer of irony that seems to fit the always jocular but never sarcastic tone of the film. The movie works for those new to the franchise, though, succinctly introducing all the major characters and themes in a tour-de-force opening.
Whedon's futuristic wild West of space pirates and psychic ingénues shows how an ostensibly benevolent government can transform into an evil empire. Despite the will of the entire Internet, there will never, ever be a sequel, even though Orson Scott Card has called this the best science-fiction film ever.
94. The Black Hole (1979)
A difficult film that still rides waves of backlash and reverse-backlash, The Black Hole was Disney's costly attempt to make its own Star Wars. But back then Disney had no idea how to make live-action movies, and the result is a strange hodge-podge of kid-friendly robots, awesome special effects, 2001-esque psychedelic freak-out (see video above) and Ernest Borgnine in zero gravity.
Those of us who are old enough to have seen this in the theater may recall an afternoon of equal parts joy, boredom, and terror—and an annoying feeling when later reading 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and realizing that it's missing a giant red robot named Maximilian.
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93. Escape From the Planet of the Apes (1971)
You'd think that blowing up the entire planet at the end of Beneath the Planet of the Apes would mark the conclusion of the series—but never underestimate the power of a money-making franchise.
Without question the most droll of the Apes cycle (perhaps the most droll in this entire list), Escape yanks two of our favorite ape characters (Kim Hunter's Dr. Zira and Roddy McDowell's Dr. Cornelius) and a new one played by Sal Mineo and shoots them back to our time. Here they take the concept of the original Planet of the Apes and spin it on its head, and inadvertently set the whole series in motion.
In between all the time paradoxes and social commentary, there's also plenty of room for fun, like a montage including a very ‘70s shopping spree and Zira's introduction to "grape juice plus."
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92. Silent Running (1972)
A cri de coeur for environmentalists, this take on interstellar preservation manages to be both whiz-bang fun and an early appearance of what would become sci-fi tropes. While protecting the last surviving plant life, Bruce Dern scoots around a giant spacecraft and plays cards with fun helper robots. Silent Running's adorable bots came years before Star Wars, and the massive "last chance for humanity" ships predate Battlestar Galactica.
The film was co-written by Michael Cimino, who would later make The Deer Hunter, and Steven Bochco, who'd later make, among other things, Hill Street Blues. The director, Douglas Trumbull, is one of the most respected special-effects wizards out there, getting his start with short films for the 1964 World's Fair and still working on projects such as Tree of Life. I mention all this so you'll keep your mind off the dreadful Joan Baez song that nearly ruins the entire film.
91. They Live (1988)
John Carpenter's They Live may seem like science fiction, but many of us know it to be documentary truth: Advertising is actually the work of belligerent space aliens intent on subduing and exploiting the populace. Oops! I've said too much.
If we were ranking the top sunglasses-related, never- ending fight scenes, we'd list this film much, much higher.
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90. War of the Worlds (1953)
H.G. Wells's 1898 novel is perfect source material for a paranoid 1950s technicolor adventure. Yes, the filmmakers bleached most of the social commentary from the novel in favor of simple thrills. For sequences of pure earth annihilation, though, few films from the era can compare. The organic-looking ships and laser sound effects set the aesthetic tone for many films to come.
There are many different iterations of this Wells text, from Orson Welles's radio play to the esoteric 1978 rock opera featuring members of the Moody Blues to Spielberg's 9/11-informed film version. But this one is still the best.
89. Galaxy Quest (1999)
Although Galaxy Quest received the forceful endorsement of none other than George Takei, who called it "a powerful piece of documentary filmmaking," I was at first resistant to see the film because I was afraid it would be another "get a life" pop-culture wedgie for sci-fi fans. In truth, Galaxy Quest proved to be a loving, if lovingly tongue-in-cheek, ode to Star Trek and its fandom.
Yet even with Tim Allen's Shatner bravado and Alan Rickman's Patrick Stewart/Leonard Nimoy superciliousness, it is hard not to get caught up in the actual space adventure behind the satire. That's this film's true magic: Behind all the geek-culture sarcasm, it's still a ripping good yarn.
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88. eXistenZ (1999)
The last truly whacked-out film from the master of body horror (please, please come back to us and leave the Jung biopics to someone else!), David Cronenberg's eXistenZ was a prescient look at the way role-playing video games will take over our culture. Okay, so the immoral side-missions in Grand Theft Auto aren't quite of this life-altering nature, but I do think there are gamers out there who would manipulate their nervous systems if it meant a more immersive environment.
eXistenZ is icky and gooey in just the right places, featuring a lot of gross stuff going into and coming out of Jude Law's mouth. It is certainly of a piece with Cronenberg's earlier Videodrome even if I'm not completely sure what happens at the end of either.
87. The Fountain (2006)
From one angle The Fountain is historical fiction. From another, it is a medical drama. A third of it, however, is some far-out heavy sci-fi as a bald Hugh Jackman floats through nebulae in a translucent sphere on his way to chat with God. Or something.
I can't sit you down and explain to you what The Fountain is about, I only know that between the music, gorgeous photography and deeply heartfelt performances I end up a blubbering mess by the time the movie is over. If Rachel Weisz were my lost wife I'd sit under a tree and mediate for a thousand years, too, if it meant I'd get her back.
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86. Starman (1984)
Infamously chosen over Spielberg's E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial by Columbia Pictures, Starman may've been an unwise business move, but it was hardly a creative disaster. This touching love story between Jeff Bridges and Karen Allen is like E.T. for grown-ups, but mixed with notes that later show up in Contact, Ghost, and maybe Rain Man.
Starman is a prime example of sci-fi that even people who don't like sci-fi will love. Once past the premise (dude from space looks like dead husband) it's hard not to cheer along as our heroes embark on a road trip to safety with the big bad government in hot pursuit. The follow-up TV series with Robert Hays may not have been the best idea, however.
85. Sleep Dealer (2008)
The difficult issue of migrant labor gets a dystopian spin in this not-that-unbelievable tale of capitalist power.
A young man from rural Mexico goes to Tijuana to find work and get vengeance against those who destroyed his family. In the city, if he can find a "coyotek," he can have his nervous system hacked to gain the ability to plug into a grid that will use him as a suspended virtual-reality drone. In the cyber sweatshops, young Mexicans dangle and make robotic motions as actual machines build things in El Norte.
Despite a microbudget and some special effects that, to put it politely, cut corners, Sleep Dealer is an effective piece of agitprop that also has a number of well-developed ideas about future tech.
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84. Men in Black (1997)
Few movies have captured the fun, zany spirit of 1950s pulp while also managing to be so, well, good. The groundbreaking effects, sharp script, and solid performances from Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith made Men in Black an instant classic.
This movie is also great for anyone who has ever driven into Manhattan from Long Island. It's hard to look at those dilapidated structures from the 1964 World's Fair in Flushing Meadows, Queens, and not laugh, knowing what squiggly, slobby aliens are lurking among them.
83. Stalker (1979)
Back in the '90s when life coaches like Tony Robbins started telling people to get "in the zone," I had to laugh. Surely they must have known that it isn't that easy to get in the Zone.
In Andrei Tarkovsky's trippy film Stalker, the Zone is a forbidden wasteland where the usual rules of perception and physics are not sacrosanct. In the heart of the Zone is "the Room," and inside the Room is where, so it is said, one's deepest wish becomes a reality.
To get there, a person must hire a guide (called a Stalker), and the road is fraught with endless long takes of slowly moving rivers laden with symbolic iconography. Tarkovsky's deliberate camerawork and evocative tone creates some weird, moody cinema.
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82. Dreamscape (1984)
In Dreamscape, Dennis Quaid has the ability to enter other people's dreams, and at first it seems like he'll be able to help them combat their psychological issues in a series of cool color-saturated fantasy sequences. Then he uncovers a plot to start World War III and must stop the evil powers the only way he knows how: by taking a nap!
Here's one thing I know: All movies could use a dash of David Patrick Kelly as a lizard monster.
81. Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)
One the newest entrants on our list, Rise is a remarkable essay on the elasticity of consciousness, evolutionary thresholds, medical ethics and oh-my-god-did-you-see- what-that-monkey-did moments.
In all seriousness, though, Andy Serkis's performance may well be remembered as the tipping point at which motion-captured performance was elevated to the level of true dramatic art. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to watch the scenes on the Golden Gate Bridge—the part where Buck sacrifices himself makes me cry every time.
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80. Cube (1997)
This film about life-threatening puzzles and traps takes something like Saw and improves it to the third power.
In Cubea group of people wake up inside a strange room. There are portals on all four walls, the ceiling, and the floor. Each of these take them to... a similar room. On the surface, this sounds like a play, and an obnoxious one at that. Yet somehow it stays cinematic. Maybe it has something to do with all the gross ways in which people get killed.
Cube gets bonus sci-fi points for having Ezri Dax in its cast. The movie spawned two sequels, both of which are decent but not essential.
79. Fantastic Planet (1973)
A mix of disturbing Czech animation and French despair, Fantastic Planet portrays a world where human beings are kept as the pets of gigantic blue aliens. We follow the life of a baby born in captivity as he tries to find his place either in domestic safety or with his own kind in the wild. The massive blue Draags have their own bizarre culture, based on meditation and shared thought. In time, our hero grows to become a revolutionary in an interspecies war. The film features hideous beasts, massacres, and loads of nudity.
A very cool flick—but perhaps it was misfiled in the children's section. My mother certainly wasn't impressed.
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78. Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
One of the French new-wave master's few work-for-hire films (and his only one in English), Francois Truffaut's very mid-'60s take on Ray Bradbury's fascist parable is far better than it seems on the surface.
The premise, that firemen are tools of the state used to destroy books, works well enough to show the dangers of an illiterate populace. Anything printed—even signs—are outlawed, keeping the citizenry completely reliant on ephemeral images and sounds. Under Truffaut's influence, Bradbury's metaphor for social control packs a real visual punch; to actually see the post-literate society function so close to normally is really quite jarring.
Truffaut upped the ante, too, by keeping the credits audio-only.
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77. Scanners (1981)
"All right. We're gonna do this the Scanner way. I'm gonna suck your brain dry."
Those who go into this film thinking it's going to be nonstop exploding heads can sometimes be a little disappointed. (And there I go perpetuating the problem with the clip above.) But if you are looking for a creepy tale about the military industrial complex using psychic powers to breed a new race of... wait... what is Scanners actually about, again?
The script doesn't actually survive too much scrutiny, admittedly. But considering that this movie was made with last-minute tax-shelter money and literally written on the spot in some cases, one shouldn't be too critical. From a distance, it is one of the more evocative paranoid sci-fi horror flicks of the early digital age.
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76. Outland (1981)
You can imagine the lunchtime pitch session. "I want to make High Noon in space starring Sean Connery." I imagine Peter Hyams had a green light before the salad got there.
Outland adds some great sci-fi grit to the classic good-versus-evil showdown, and it's one of the best movies ever to show what an average working man can expect should we ever find ourselves mining on distant satellites. (The same hardships as on Earth but with less air.)
Outland was in the vanguard for its use of layered front-screen projection. Plus, it has one of the first gruesome images in mainstream film of a man popping like a tomato in space.
75. Dark Star (1974)
Sharing a title with the Grateful Dead's most legendary jam is no coincidence, I'm sure. John Carpenter's Dark Star is the closest thing we'll get to a "Cheech and Chong in Space," telling the story of longhair dopes punching the clock as they destroy planets.
The clip above shows a much-loved moment in which a crew member, seeking to diffuse a bomb, drops a philosophical bomb upon the computer system that controls it. Another sequence features a creature that resembles a beach ball causing trouble in the air vents. If that seems familiar, there's a reason: The film's co-author and star, Dan O'Bannon, took that side plot and ran with it, later creating the Alien franchise.
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74. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
The Star Trek movie for people who think they hate Star Trek (though, admittedly, not the favorite of my people who love the franchise).
Captain Kirk and a reborn (kinda) Mr. Spock have their trip back to Earth blocked by a planet-destroying probe. The only solution is to go back in time and rescue humpback whales. (Just go with it.) Their journey to 1980s San Francisco afforded audiences the chance to see their own culture through the eyes of Trek's heroes from the utopian future.
It's a masterpiece of fish-out-of-water storytelling, as well as a good time-travel mind scrambler. Plus, DeForest Kelley gets to show off his remarkable comic timing.
73. Ikarie XB-1 (1963)
After attending a rare public screening of the complete Czech version of Ikarie XB-1 at the Museum of Modern Art, I overheard this conversation in the lobby and it stuck in my memory: Who ripped off more from this movie, Stanley Kubrick or Gene Roddenberry?
I'll stay out of that quarrel, but I encourage everyone to check this Eastern-bloc tale of deep space travel, even if it means seeing the cut-up American version known as Voyage to the End of the Universe. It is a gorgeous film that offers some trailblazing imagery of interstellar life that may look familiar to fans of some other, better-known sci-fi properties.
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72. Day of the Triffids (1962)
"All plants move—they don't usually pull themselves out of the ground and chase you!"
The great American mid-century paranoid sci-fi thrillers involve saucer men coming to blow up the Capitol. But in Great Britain, plants were the menacing villains.
And The Day of the Triffids adds a second element of horror beyond killer vegetation: A meteor shower leaves a large part of the population blind. The film works best in detailing the breakdown of society following a widespread calamity.
Bonus: If you want to watch this one legally, for free, right now, you can.
71. Rollerball (1975)
Yes, midnight-movie maniacs love Rollerball because it has James Caan killing people with a spiked glove in a psychotic roller derby. But beyond the popcorn spectacle, the movie is actually a well-thought-out (and wonderfully shot) dystopian film with great performances and fantastic interior spaces.
The future is owned by corporations (naturally), and to keep the populace amused, the cities have their champions fight one another to the death. The true centerpiece to Rollerball is a decadent party where the proletarian gladiators are allowed a night to mingle with the ruling class. It's like a '70s sci-fi Rules of the Game.
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70. Alphaville (1965)
Only a provocateur like Jean-Luc Godard could get away with simply shooting the modern buildings of Paris and calling it the future or another galaxy and get away with it.
This tribute to cheap pulp may seem like all style on the surface, but once the rugged secret agent Lemmy Caution goes up against Dr. von Braun and the Alpha 60 computer, it segues into a poetic struggle about man against oppression. While certainly not to everyone's taste, Alphaville is essential to those looking to see what a jazz-inspired riff on a classic science-fiction film looks like.
69. Inception (2010)
When you wake from a dream, further analysis always shows that everything that seemed to make perfect sense is actually hogwash. After watching and comtemplating Inception, however, all the perplexing narrative actually starts to come together.
Inception's reliance on high concept gets a little tedious after repeat viewings, but this splendidly shot and original tale of corporate espionage is a crafty gem of a picture. And Joseph Gordon-Levitt's zero-g fight was the coolest sequence of 2010.
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68. Sleeper (1973)
Hey, who says we can't have a few laughs on this list?
Woody Allen's early funny ones took the nebbish persona and dropped it into some unexpected places, but other than Love and Death's Tsarist Russia, none worked so perfectly as Sleeper's future.
Most of Sleeper is just a setup for gags, but between the cracks some genuine sci-fi concepts sneak in, such as domestic robots, cloning, and the state-run "telescreen." And then there are the giant, mutated fruits and vegetables, leading to the cinema's greatest slip-on-a-banana-peel gag.
67. THX-1138 (1971)
One of the greatest visual leaps forward made by a first-time filmmaker since Citizen Kane (yeah, that's right, I said it), George Lucas's dystopian nightmare with the bizarre name is still something to celebrate. Even though '70s fetishists are about the only ones who would still appreciate the tech on display, there's a relentlessness that pummels the senses: white on white, cold lighting, negative space and screens within screens within screens. The story is completely secondary to the aesthetic, but as an individualist manifesto it is hardly a slouch.
There are those, of course, who'll argue that this is George Lucas's only science-fiction film. More on that later.
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66. Repo Man (1984)
Harry Dean Stanton should have been named Emperor of Los Angeles for life after this film.
Alex Cox's tale of L.A. punks and low-lifes would have been good enough if it were just about the cutthroat world of automobile repossession. But when a missing Chevy Malibu with corpses of space aliens in the trunk enters the picture, it really starts to sing.
Repo Man has nothing to do with Repo Men or Repo! The Genetic Opera (both crappy) but it did spawn Cox's 2008 sequel, Repo Chick (shot on green screen), which no one has actually seen.
65. Them! (1954)
Giant radioactive ants.
I don't think I really need to say much more.
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64. Destination Moon (1950)
Produced at the dawn of the '50s era of great pulp sci-fi, George Pal's Destination Moon was among the first to give interplanetary travel a somewhat serious cinematic rendering.
Destination Moon was forward-thinking in its depiction of a U.S.-USSR space race and the involvement of private industry in technological advancement. It's also the only collaboration between Robert Heinlein and Woody Woodpecker.
63. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
Hear me out here: I'm going to go with the 1978 version over the 1956 Don Siegel one, though I know the '56 is the quintessential anti-communist paranoia flick, for a few reasons.
(1) Leonard Nimoy as a touchy-feely new-age author/psychologist/celebrity. (2) The Transamerica Tower is really ominous from certain angles. (3) Tons of nudity and gore for a PG rating. What's up, 1978? (4) Jeff Goldblum runs a holistic mud-bath parlor. (5) Donald Sutherland's freaky shriek, for your viewing pleasure embedded above.
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62. Altered States (1980)
What happens when you drop Latin American insanity herbs into a sensory deprivation tank and mix it all with William Hurt and every bearded character actor you can find? Apparently, you take a trip into the untapped sections of the brain that store our imprinted memory of primordial existence.
It's all very heavy but if nothing else, it will give you flashbacks to your college years, when every discovery of the flesh was imbued with great existential meaning. Also: Great to know what really goes on in the basement of Columbia University's labs. I always knew it was something that involved interdimensional portals.
61. 12 Monkeys (1995)
Based on oddball artist and documentarian Chris Marker's landmark short film of still photographs La Jetée, 12 Monkeys has all the mind-blowing fun of Philip K. Dick with maximum visual impact from director Terry Gilliam.
Bruce Willis is sent from a post-human future not to correct the past but to understand it. Grandfather paradoxes abound, as they usually do in such scenarios. 12 Monkeys was also our first intimation that maybe, in time, pretty-boy Brad Pitt would actually become a genuine actor.
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60. Frankenstein (1931)
The classic Frankenstein may be a horror movie if you want to get technical about it, but if this story of a man who uses laboratory gizmos to cheat death isn't sci-fi, I don't know what is.
Those who think Frankenstein is just a cheese-fest may come away surprised. A little girl gets tossed to her death in a lake, Colin Clive's manic mad scientist has a crisp energy, and Boris Karloff's poor reanimated sop will break your heart.
59. The Last Starfighter (1984)
When I was a kid and my mom wanted me to put down those video games, I always had the greatest comeback: "But what if Robert Preston shows up and needs me to defend Rylos against the Ko-Dan Empire?"
It did not work.
Nevertheless, this lighthearted early gamer's space adventure did work—and still does. It has wide-eyed wonderment in spades, plus a terrific B-story in which an android clone must stay behind on Earth to "cover" for the missing trailer-park boy in his quest for heroism and glory.
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58. When Worlds Collide (1951)
Beneath this technicolor adventure lurks a doomsday scenario that put this writer in a three-day existential funk as a kid. What would happen if a giant rock were careening toward Earth? In When Worlds Collide, the lucky few get a ride on the habitable satellite Zyra—assuming the ark can be built in time. As for the other 99 percent of humanity? Well, we know what usually happens to the 99 percent.
There's no shortage of loose ends in When Worlds Collide (whatever happened to the ships the other countries were building?), but for scenes of 1950s America in pure panic mode, this one is top-notch.
57. 1984 (1984)
Imagine a culture in the midst of permanent distant war, with secret prisons where torture is allowed. Throw in ubiquitous, desensitizing media ceaselessly promoting the interests of the state, plus a culture actively dumbing itself down through a reduction of its vocabulary and an intentional sublimation of its history.
Now put it all to a Eurythmics soundtrack. That's how you do dystopian.
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56. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
"Technically it is brain damage," Tom Wilkinson warns Jim Carrey, "but no more than a night of heavy drinking." If that's all it takes to have the painful memories of a busted-up romance removed, then I'm sure many of us would go through with it. But is it possible that some people are just meant to be together?
The ephemeral qualities of memory, love, and hair color are mixed up in Michel Gondry and Charlie Kaufman's kaleidoscopic, bittersweet romantic comedy that takes a push from science fiction to get its motor running.
55. Contact (1997)
Based on a Carl Sagan novel, Robert Zemeckis's Contact takes a formidably realistic look at what would actually happen if we received signals of extraterrestrial origin.
Starring Jodie Foster and a bunch of satellite dishes, Contact didn't just make SETI cool for a while, it floated the prescient idea of private billionaires funding their own space exploration. Contact also pulled a neat trick of being a mainstream film with a sympathetic atheist in the lead (who, of course, gets a little comeuppance when she has to admit faith in experiences of her own that cannot be scientifically proven.)
In addition to William Fichtner playing an awesome blind radio scientist, Contact featured some revolutionary trick photography, such as the famous slow-motion take that travels up a staircase then out through a mirror and the opening tour of the known universe, seen in this clip.
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54. Predator (1987)
What looks like a typical CIA in Latin America adventure gets derailed when everyone starts dying. Then what looks like a typical survival film gets all heat-visiony and translucent until we learn this is actually a film about an interstellar hunter collecting a new roomful of trophies.
But woe to any Predator that tries to push around a band of badasses with not one but two future state governors and Apollo Creed. Now get to the choppah!
53. Abre Los Ojos (1997)
A Spanish head-scratcher that's a little Total Recall meets John Frankenheimer's Seconds, Abre Los Ojos is one of those movies that you immediately must rewatch once you know the ending.
If Abre Los Ojos has any flaw, it's that it inspired Cameron Crowe to attempt a remake, which resulted in the unfortunate Tom Cruise vehicle Vanilla Sky.
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52. The Andromeda Strain (1971)
The Andromeda Strain features a 20-minute sequence of people taking a bath. And it's riveting.
A detail-oriented, by-the- numbers procedural about a crack team of scientists trying to isolate a biological threat (space flu, basically), this film is also proof that a talented filmmaking team can make anything feel adventurous. I say this because only after repeated viewings did I realize that nothing happens in this movie. Nothing. Even the plague basically fixes itself. Strangely, this fact just makes me love this one even more.
51. The Time Machine (1960)
Once again George Pal takes on H.G. Wells, but this time, instead of a war between the worlds, we're taking a trip to the distant future.
A Victorian Rod Taylor gets a glimpse at the two world wars and a high-tech future before nuclear destruction reboots Earth into a planet divided between the blasé Eloi aboveground and the savage (but cunning) Morlocks below.
One could make a strong case for The Time Machine being the ur-text for the steampunk aesthetic, although 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea's Captain Nemo may have a thing or two to say about that.
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50. Avatar (2009)
You know that part when Jake Sully is making a deal with Col. Quaritch to be his eyes and ears as he works with Dr. Augustine and her avatars? Col. Quaritch says "You get me what I need, I'll see to it you get your legs back. Your real legs." When he says that last part, he's pointing to Jake Sully's legs, and because he's actually inside a mech suit, a giant robotic arm comes out and also points at Jake Sully's legs.
I love that part.
49. A Scanner Darkly (2006)
A perfect blend of artist and repertoire, it's hard to imagine a version of this story working that doesn't involve the Bob Sabiston rotoshop technique.
Keanu Reeves is an undercover detective rooting out abusers of "substance D," a drug so intoxicating it can create intense hallucinations and split personalities. The lead suspect in his investigation: himself.
The police procedural is just one aspect of this terrific film, in which Richard Linklater casts a frank and unfiltered light on drug culture. There's also plenty of room for the director's breezy, spotlight approach to peripheral characters. Yes, that's the real Alex Jones screaming about government surveillance—or, I should say, a fluid, dreamlike animation version of Alex Jones.
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48. Starship Troopers (1997)
No one knew what to make of Starship Troopers when it came out. Robert Heinlein fans were outraged at how little it shared with the celebrated novel, and those looking for family fun were disgusted by the brutality and violence. And some people were understandably uncomfortable with what, from certain angles, sort of looked like Nazi propaganda.
Some of us, however, knew that Paul Verhoeven, despite making his share of awful films, has the potential to be brilliant, especially when teamed with screenwriter Ed Neumeier. Today Starship Troopers is recognized as a brilliant piece of trashy satire that's funny, poignant, and gleefully disgusting. Frankly, people should've known to applaud once they heard Michael Ironside's deadly earnest delivery of the mournful line, "they sucked his brains out!"
47. Moon (2009)
Good news about the future: We'll be able to harvest helium-3 that's just sitting up there on the moon. Bad news about the future: Unfortunately, corporations still won't treat their employees with respect.
Duncan Jones's sterling debut feature, starring Sam Rockwell (and Sam Rockwell), gets the ethics 101 conversation going in a unique and slightly scary way. And you thought your job had a lousy benefits program.
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46. Soylent Green (1973)
The future: An over-crowded hellhole where the populace are choking on greenhouse gases, the old are led to euthanasia clinics, the rich keep women as "furniture," and everyone else is eating green protein wafers.
Unless you've been living under a pop-culture rock for 40 years, you probably know that Soylent Green isn't made out of plankton.
45. Enemy Mine (1985)
Loosely based on the John Boorman film Hell in the Pacific, with Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune, Enemy Mine could be called "Hell in the Galaxy."
A warring Terran (Dennis Quaid) and reptilian Drac (Louis Gossett Jr.) are stranded on a none-too- hospitable planet. In time, they learn to trust one another for their mutual survival, eventually becoming friends. When Gossett asexually reproduces, Quaid agrees to care for the infant, leading to some tough decisions once the cavalry finally comes.
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44. The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)
I'm still not entirely sure this movie was meant for us. I think it was made for the people on whatever planet David Bowie came from, as his travelogue for the time he spent here.
A surreal and hypersexual fantasia shot by Nicolas Roeg at the top of his image-making game, The Man Who Fell to Earth is a weird, wonderful look at our culture from an outsider's point of view. If one wants to find deeper meaning, one could perhaps say that it's about how the trappings of success can lead us astray from our original, noble goals. Or you could also say it's about a space alien who uses his tech powers to get rich and become a rock star before he has to ship precious water back to his home.
43. Back to the Future (1985)
A fantastic child-is-father- to-the-man story that also delves into timeline paradoxes. Take 1.21 gigawatts of power, a slick- looking (if shoddily made) car, and three glowing tubes forming a Y-shape and you're off to either negate your own existence or give birth to rock-and-roll.
Some critcs heap praise on the entire BTTF trilogy, but while the second one is goofy and fun, the third one is beyond awful, IMO. The original film's essential 1985-ness will, I hope, prevent this franchise from bloodthirsty reboots.
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42. Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
Picard deserved more movies like First Contact. Consider it the next-generation crew's version of the original crew's Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home: less preaching, more raucous time traveling.
The gimmick is juicy—the Enterprise goes back in time, but to a period in Earth's history that's still in our future. (Read that again if you need to. I swear it makes sense.) The pesky Borg are going to prevent a key incident, the first contact between Earth and extraterrestrials, which would alter the timeline so that the Federation will never become a threat. Our heroes stand in the way, however, and, grandfather paradoxes be damned, they're going to make sure everything goes according to plan.
41. Donnie Darko (2001)
Donnie: Why do you wear that stupid bunny suit? Frank: Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?
Teen angst—it's a killer. In Richard Kelly's world, it involves more than just moping around listening to music on headphones. There are time loops, alternate dimensions, killer metal bunnies, and weird liquid-like stuff emerging from your stomach.
This cult classic is a prime example of leaving a project alone once you're done with it. The original opaque version is miles more interesting than the director's cut that foolishly tries to explain everything.
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40. Gojira (1954)
It is a little strange that Japan's definitive text about being the target of the atomic bomb involves a man in a rubber suit stomping on a miniature cardboard city, but hey, we don't always get to plan the way the world will turn out.
There are several different cuts of this film, as well as remakes, reboots, sequels, and parodies, but ultimately the message remains the same: unchecked technological advancement has repercussions. And sometimes those repercussions are a murderous, godlike sea beast with a bone-chilling screech.
39. Brazil (1985)
All it takes to change the world is for one squished bug to fall into a machine at the wrong time. And that's not even a metaphor!
Set in a dystopian future best described as Kafka on speed, Brazil tells the story of Sam Lowry, a government cog whose Walter Mittyesque fantasies of adventure become direct action against the heartless state.
Terry Gilliam's bureaucratic horror–comedy nightmare is a labyrinthine bit of world-building with its own aesthetic. Dreamers face off against paperwork, enlisting the aid of vigilante air-conditioning repairmen and necrophiliacs. It's a big, bold, opinionated film that isn't afraid of being unsubtle. "We're all in it together."
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38. Solaris (1972)
Cooped Cosmonauts go crazy! Sounds action-packed, yes? Well, no, but that doesn't mean the movie isn't fantastic.
Psychologist Kris Kelvin leaves Earth and his family behind to investigate the silence from a space station orbiting an ocean planet. After cinema's most unceremonious deep-space arrival (anyone home?), Kelvin learns that the planet (or something) is taking the desires of the visitors and bringing them to life.
37. Ghost in the Shell (1995)
The film the Wachowskis pointed to and said, "We want to do that for real." The result was The Matrix.
Besides being a source of inspiration, Ghost in the Shell is a good gateway drug to the world of anime. Featuring hackers, rival police squads, meticulous cityscapes, cyborgs, and spider tanks, the blend of computer and cel animation is just as eye-popping today. Intrepid fans can go further with the numerous TV sequels, books, and video-game tie-ins.
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36. E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial (1982)
Scary, funny, sad, and uplifting, E.T. was some heavy stuff to drop on a little kid in 1982. Suburbia is shown warts and all, and the government is exposed as dangerous and unfeeling.
I like to think that Elliot grew up to become a great inventor. If he built an interstellar radio device from a Speak & Spell, imagine what he could do with the open-source Android platform.
35. Primer (2004)
Typically, if your movie requires fan-sourced infographics and lengthy Wikipedia entries to explain what exactly happened, then your movie was a failure. But when I think about how cool Primer is, I remember that this rule has its exceptions.
Primer is a bold take on time manipulation from the point of view of garage scientists. It is at times frustrating, but bursting with creative ideas and twists. The time machine isn't a spinning Victorian chair but a magnetized box that requires its user to stay in for as long as he wants to go back. These rigid rules mean that one screwup (and there's always a screwup) becomes harder and harder to correct.
Famously shot for less than $10,000, Primer takes a precise, workmanlike aesthetic to all this madness, a rich feat for a first-time filmmaker. The fact that Shane Carruth never created a followup does nothing to dispel the theory that he's not really from our time period at all.
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34. Idiocracy (2006)
The fact that its studio gave this film basically no distribution or marketing push only goes to further prove the film's premise of human foolishness.
A so-good-it's-depressing satire of the increasing vapidity of our culture, Idiocracy's premise is simple: Someday humanity will be so stupid that a dope from today will seem like an absolute genius.Watching Idiocracy can be dangerous, however. It may radically color your perception of reality television and cable news. No one said science-fiction satire came without repercussions.
33. Jurassic Park (1993)
It never fails to shock me that Universal Studios has a Jurassic Park ride. Have these people never seen the movie?
Michael Crichton, Steven Spielberg, and lifelike (or so we assume) dinosaurs make a pretty good team in this '90s adventure classic. Amber- trapped DNA can bring back the beasts of the past and the beasts of the past, so it's thought, can bring in some mad tourist dollars. But for all the big-budget special effects, the greatest joy for me will always be listening to Jeff Goldblum mumble about chaos theory.
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32. The Thing (1982)
I've watched the blood-testing scene about 345 times and I still find myself screaming.
A master class in contained horror, this tale of an alien infection amidst long-john- wearing scientists in the snow is not for the weak of heart. Beyond the gory grossness, it's unsettling because you never quite know who to trust. The Thing's characters are each a little loathsome, further disorienting our sympathies.
Luckily, the recent reboot/prequel was so bland it left almost no mark on my memory, leaving this original masterpiece unscathed.
31. Mad Max (1979)
It's a classic Western seen through the lens of post-apocalyptic Australia. The gonzo cinematography still gets your blood pumping, yet the film is just impressionistic enough to rev up your imagination's engine. And it's hard to overemphasize the effect of Mad Max's style on other genre films, rock videos, and advertising.
There's been talk of a fourth installment for years. I, for one, would really like to see it happen.
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30. Sunshine (2007)
On one level, it's The Poseidon Adventure in space, but on another, it's a beautiful tone poem on humanity's timeless force of will. Sunshine is also impeccably designed, without one image that isn't worthy of a frame.
Cillian Murphy and a starship crew are mankind's last chance for survival. They must drop a great big macguffin to reignite the dying sun or else all is lost. Despite action and adventure, Sunshine is still the type of film that inspires deep questions in its audience. How can one keep fighting in the face of insurmountable odds? What, and whom, are you willing to sacrifice in support of the greater good?
Sunshine isn't just a dynamite science-fiction film; it is a marvelous look at a group of desperate people coming together to face an impossible challenge. The score by John Murphy and Underworld is absolutely what I want to be playing when my body is liquefied by solar flares.
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29. Tron (1982)
Tron was a milestone not only in computer effects, but also in the mainstream acceptance of video games and basic cyberpunk concepts. Hacker/slacker Jeff Bridges gets zapped "inside" a mainframe computer system, where programs are represented as enslaved people. Information should be free, and so a Spartacus-like rebellion begins, which involves playing fluorescent digital jai alai. Crazier things have happened.
A box-office disappointment, Tron nevertheless gathered enough of a cult following that Disney decided to make a sequel a generation later with Tron Legacy. It too was a box-office disappointment but at least inspired a Daft Punk soundtrack.
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28. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
A Clockwork Orange has been so deeply woven into our pop culture that we don't even recognize its effects. Ironic, considering it was banned in Britain for decades.
There are some who argue that the exciting imagery and sympathetic voice-over makes an inadvertent recruitment film for hooliganism. Other detractors feel its political subtext is about as subtle as having one's head shoved in a tub of water while someone wails on one's back with a stick. And Anthony Burgess, who wrote the novel upon which the film is based, eventually dismissed it as one of his lesser works.
But this darkly comic take on crime, punishment, and social control is one of the most important films of the last half-century. One of my favorite details: The brutalist architecture on display, striking a counterpoint to Wendy Carlos's moog synthesizer version of the classics.
27. District 9 (2009)
Originally, Neill Blomkamp was the director Peter Jackson picked to adapt the Halo video game franchise for the screen, and when that project was nixed, it was a sad day for nerds around the globe. But Blomkamp's fall-back project, District 9, turned out to be not only a thinking person's sci-fi but a mech-suited punch to the gut.
Energetic and explosive, District 9's whiff of South African apartheid commentary gave it just enough heft to garner a surprise Academy Award nomination for best picture.
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26. Minority Report (2002)
Spielberg's riff on a Philip K. Dick story offers a sterling blend of paradoxical head-scratchers and bleeding-edge technology. Tom Cruise is the head of the precrime police force, working in consultation with mutants who can predict when and where a crime is about to take place. Just as Cruise is poised to bring the program national, a new target's name pops up: his own.
A decade later, the jaw-dropping future tech seen in 2002 seems more commonplace than far-fetched: CNN anchors shove data around on oversized screens every election night, and we do it every day on our phones. Today a person can go to Polo Ralph Lauren stores to buy goods direct from the windows. We don't put our Supreme Court justices in floating milk baths just yet, but, hey, a few votes in the right direction might change that.
25. The Matrix (1999)
Not even the overblown pomposity of its own sequels can detract from the importance of The Matrix.
While most of us were still using dial-up Internet, the Wachowskis created two layers of alternate realities. In one, humans scurry through a phony 1999, while in the other we lay in sacks of goo as robo-insects suck our life force for food. (I'll take the former, thank you.)
Let's face it: Hacker/messiah in cool shades with limited vocabulary was the part Keanu Reeves was born to play.
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24. Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope (1977)
I'm expecting a flood of messages reminding me that reasonable nerds everywhere have agreed: The Star Wars films fall under the rubric of mythological fantasy, not science fiction. Valid point you have there, angry fan. But lots of sub-fields fall under my definition of sci-fi, and I'll include anything with spaceships, hyperdrive, blasters, and Wookies.
At this point, after special editions, atrocious prequels, and 35 years under the heat of the cultural spotlight, it's impossible to disentangle Star Wars the film from Star Wars the inescapable cultural phenomenon. But I know in my marrow that this movie is still amazing.
23. Total Recall (1990)
Based on a Philip K. Dick very short story, Total Recall may appeal to those who like to deconstruct puzzles as well as to those who like to watch Ahhhhnold deconstruct a villain's face.
This one features some of the future Governator's classic lines like "consider that a divorce," "get your ass to Mars" and, my favorite, "agggghhgblllughghaggghhh!"
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22. A Trip to the Moon (1902)
At 12 minutes, A Trip to the Moon isn't much in length compared to the many epic movies that make up this list. Yet it belongs here not only because it was the first science-fiction movie ever made but because it is one of the first movies whose reason for being was not to try to represent an event that actually had happened. This is the first motion picture representation of a ship in flight and of aliens from a distant world.
Perhaps our hearts beat a little faster for this 12-minute film now that we've all seen Martin Scorsese's Hugo. It's important to show respect to your elders.
21. The Fly (1986)
"Drink deep, or taste not, the Plasma Spring! Y'see what I'm saying?"
You would expect David Cronenberg's take on teleportation and emerging species to look cool and gross, but the most shocking thing about The Fly is just how touching it is. There's plenty of screaming and technobabble, but the Jeff Goldblum–Geena Davis love story will rip your heart out, vomit on it, and then chew it up.
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20. Children of Men (2006)
Most films are lucky if they contain one sequence so gripping that you sit at the edge of your seat and wonder how they pulled it off. Alfonso Cuaron's Children of Men has about three before you even get to the final half-hour.
Visual pyrotechnics aside, this bleaker-than-bleak look at a future where procreation is suddenly impossible forces us to wonder just how secure we would be in case of a cataclysmic event.
19. Dark City (1998)
Plato's cave allegory meets Detective Comics, Alex Proyas' Dark City is one of the best noir-informed sci-fi movies of the modern age.
Wholly original and presented as a complex onion of revelatory layers, the dream state of the characters lends the production an eerie, nightmarish quality. This paranoid, interplanetary mystery gets the comic- book-movie vibe more right than most movies actually based on comic books.
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18. Akira (1988)
Even if you are the type of person who thinks you don't like anime, do yourself a favor and check out Akira. Biker gangs, ESP, cryonics, noncorporeal life forms, and a bulging blob of telekinetic mass that destroys Neo-Tokyo's Olympic Stadium are just some of the delights that kept our dorm room up and arguing until dawn.
Luckily, it looks like we dodged another dopey American remake. But if Akira does nothing else, it keeps us ever-suspicious of powerful forces.
17. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1992)
Shaking the dust off a timeline that didn't much make sense in the first film, T2 blasted on to the screen with a liquid- silver confidence that's rarely been matched. In T2 the Terminator is back, but this time he and his absurd accent are the good guys and a new, more streamlined version is coming for Sarah Connor.
With nonstop action, groundbreaking effects, breezy dialogue, and great performances from Schwarzenegger, Hamilton, and, yes, even Furlong, this was the one that took Arnold from being the titan of action cinema to the god-king of the entire universe. (Until Last Action Hero.)
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16. Logan's Run (1976)
In the future, we'll all live in a giant shopping mall, beam to one another's quarters for cheap sex and, when we turn 30, be euthanized by the state unless we achieve "renewal on Carousel." (Spoiler alert: no one actually achieves renewal on Carousel.)
Logan's Run might seem hopelessly dated to some, but those of us who grew up with it as an afternoon-television staple will not rest until everything around us is white and plastic and we travel around town by monorail. Then we'll know we've made it to the future. (Of course, by then the lifeclock on our hands will have turned black.)
15. Wall-E (2008)
Despite the fact that, on one level, it's a long nag to clean your room and get more exercise, Wall-E garnered a worldwide box-office take of over half a billion dollars. Witness the power of cute robots.
Starring an adorable, wide-eyed, and clunky cleaner bot, this Pixar picture opens with a solid 30 minutes of silent comedy before blasting off into an interstellar love-and-morality tale. The future will be difficult for humanity, which is destined to become bloated and atrophy in hoverchairs. But if we're wise enough to build caretakers as spirited as Wall-E and the sleek, botany-loving EVE, we'll ultimately be okay.
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14. Forbidden Planet (1956)
"My evil self is at that door. And I have no power to stop it!"
Take a relatively mature attitude toward interstellar travel, animation effects mixed with gorgeous color matte paintings, detailed props, an all-electronic score, and a rudimentary understanding of Freudian principles. Then set it down on a distant space colony. What you'll get is the source for many of the base-level science-fiction tropes that dominated the second half of the 20th century.
Forbidden Planet is no museum piece, though. It still engages the audience enough that you'll quickly forget it's the guy from The Naked Gun in the captain's seat.
13. RoboCop (1987)
In Paul Verhoeven's desperate future Detroit, the task of maintaining order is handed over to Omni Consumer Products. Only in science fiction would we consider the privatization of our basic civic infrastructure, right?
RoboCop is a ripping action film and an invigorating police story and is politically nimble enough to be embraced by both the left and the right. Despite its brutal violence and subversive sarcasm, it was a huge mainstream success, spawning toys, cartoons, and, decades later, a campaign to get a statue of Robocop in real-life Detroit. I'd buy that for a dollar.
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12. Alien (1979)
Maybe the greatest monster movie ever made. (Unless you consider sharks to be monsters, in which case it is second only to Jaws.) Alien is also one of the first films to treat working in space in a downbeat manner. From the opening dissolves of the crew awakening from cryosleep to the final airlock suck of the beastie, Ridley Scott plays us like a fiddle.
Still scary and shocking, Alien is gorgeous and taps into deep wells of audience dread. Every member of the cast is outstanding, and it's no surprise that Sigourney Weaver became a star after this one.
11. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
A man known as Carpenter has a message of peace for all mankind. (Okay, no one accused this film of being subtle.)
His sermon comes not on a mount but on the rim of his sleek, silver space saucer, and behind him is a giant robot that can shoot a ray beam from its eye-visor. Unless the people of Earth stop with the Cold War arms race and its mutually assured destruction, the more advanced cultures of the galaxy are going to have to intervene. And we do not want that to happen.
The Day the Earth Stood Still is dripping in iconic imagery and classic lines, but one of its most pleasing aspects is that the title of this mid-century classic is actually meant to be taken (somewhat) literally. When the aliens force all mechanical activity to halt as proof of their power, the people of the Earth really do stand still.
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10. Planet of the Apes (1968)
There are a few things from history I wish I could witness with my own eyes: The Norman Conquest in 1066. Stravinsky's first performance of "The Rite of Spring." Being in an audience to discover that the Planet of the Apes was actually Earth.
But knowing the twist ending doesn't dull any of the delights of this science-fiction masterpiece. It still has all the thrills, social commentary, and talking apes that made it a hit in the first place.
One thing I always forget is how strange the opening is. The survivors of the Icarus don't really get along too well, and it's never quite explained if everything was aboveboard with their female crew member. One thing is certain: keep your stinking paws off Charlton Heston.
9. The Terminator (1984)
The Terminator married thought-provoking sci-fi to brutal action in an unprecedented fasion. Both Cameron and Schwarzenegger had cut their teeth in B-pictures, but Terminator showed they could keep their grindhouse cred while still telling an engaging story.
Yeah, there are some who say the timeline doesn't quite work out, but to those who complain too loudly I say: I'll be back!
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8. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
Spock: "I have been, and always shall be, your friend." Nerds everywhere: "There's —sniff—something in my eye."
So many of the movies on this list are set on spaceships, but Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is one of the few that makes these star vessels feel alive.
Wrath of Khan has cool sci-fi premises coming out of (and going into) its ears, mixing genetic engineering, cryogenics, mind-control, terraforming, and consciousness planting. It also has some of the most beloved characters in all of pop culture rising to the occasion of a great story. Kirk's at his most Kirk, Spock's at his most Spock.
Wrath of Khan has forever changed our vocabulary, with "Kobayashi Maru" standing in for "no-win scenario" and "the good of the many outweighing the good of the few or the one" now attributed to a "true" Vulcan philosophy of thought. And then there's the battle cry when facing your foe: "Khaaaaaaaaaaaan!"
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7. Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
The most audacious independent film production ever mounted, Empire picked up where the first Star Wars film left off, adding ice planets, sky cities, swamp-dwelling Muppet sages, and, most importantly, darkness.
Empire is the odd one out in the original Star Wars trilogy, heavy on the brooding and the desire to avoid one's own destiny. It ends with the galaxy in disorder and Darth Vader seemingly unstoppable. And there's that whole father business.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm needed on a message board that's trying to rate the bounty hunters in order of awesomeness (from lowest to highest it's IG-88, Dengar, Bossk, 4-Lom, Boba Fett, and Zuckuss, obviously.)
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6. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Of the big ideas that saturate Steven Spielberg's richest film, I'm most taken with this: the unknown is both equal parts exhilarating and terrifying.
Close Encounters is more surreal than you remember (the sculpture, the potatoes, the music) and features rather raw moments of domestic unrest. But fundamentally, this is a movie about going with your gut. Not a whole lot is explained to you along the way, and it's an adventure that's bigger than any one person's understanding.
And I don't know about you, but every band instructor I've ever had loved to point to Close Encounters and remind me "music is the universal language, man."
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5. Metropolis (1927)
A masterpiece of expressionism and art deco design, Metropolis is a none-too-subtle Marxist text set in a future world emerging from Germany, created before its descent into National Socialism in real life.
Some sprinkles of The Time Machine and Frankenstein can be felt here, but what's kept Metropolis a classic all its years is its definitive visual mark. So much of what "the future" is supposed to look like made its first appearance here.
For a silent film, this one is watchable for a modern audience. If you'd rather spruce it up, though, you can check out the 1980s version with Giorgio Morodor's score or luck into a road show with a live accompanying performance with the Alloy Orchestra.
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4. Aliens (1986)
Ridley Scott's original was a monster movie, but James Cameron's followup is all-out war.
A team goes up against the acid-bleeding, air-duct- crawling beasties from last time, only now there's a little girl to save and a queen to destroy. The clock is ticking, the terrain is hostile, the android's good this time, but the Company still doesn't have your best interest at heart. Aliens is pure catnip for dudes who like explosions, with an arsenal of big guns lovingly photographed (and assembled in near-fetishist montages.)
This is ultimately a film about seeing your nightmare then running right towards it. Alas, it is the last in the series really worth your time—at least until Prometheus comes out. The other sequels and the "vs." films are pure game over, man.
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3. Gattaca (1997)
Where does preventative medicine end and playing God begin? Is it wrong to distinguish among people when one group is, in spite of fairness, clearly less advanced in a scientifically measurable way? Is it true that in the future we'll all start wearing sharp suits and hats and have art deco furniture?
Andrew Niccol's impeccably designed morality play about the indomitable human spirit is uplifting. Yet it's also a little sad. Whether we like it or not, society appears to be pushing unstoppably in the direction Gattaca predicts. Can we pursue excellence without losing everything?
Props go to all the performers, particularly Jude Law as the fallen superman who helps Ethan Hawke "pass" as a genetically advanced citizen. Gattaca also wins the award, behind only Doctor Who and the oddball indie The American Astronaut, for least likely interior of a spacecraft.
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2. Blade Runner (1982)
Metropolis laid the foundation for what all movies in the future were supposed to look like—until Ridley Scott came along in 1982 with Blade Runner. No one's given us a paradigm shift yet.
Blade Runner is a meticulously crafted film bursting with creativity. Beneath all its shimmer and gloss is a very simple message: nobody wants to die.
Despite being Philip K. Dick's most famous film adaptation, it is probably the most straightforward of all the stories. Yes, you can argue about whether Deckerd is a Replicant (personally, I don't think so), but what's important about Blade Runner is tone, not plot. This is what a true nightmarish future will be like: Ruled not by a singular, villainous dictator who keeps the world in his grip but by gutted, overpopulated landscapes and an endless night sky that darkens all hopes and dreams.
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1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
"Here you are, sir. Main level, please." This is the first line of spoken dialogue, which comes close to thirty minutes into 2001.
I'm willing to hear arguments about the order concerning the rest of this list—which we shuffled and reshuffled. But with this entry, there's no debate—2001: A Space Odyssey isn't just the best science-fiction film of all time, it is one of the most remarkable achievements in art.
Okay, I may be going a little overboard, but what makes 2001 such a unique enterprise is that the form matches the content a little too well. Kubrick's film is a tale of evolutionary advancement presented in a style that doesn't seem to fit in with any filmmaking (or film-watching) norm we're accustomed to. It's as if this movie about other planets and the future was sent to us from other planets and the future.
For a film so rooted in the hard SF of Arthur C. Clarke, whose most celebrated work thrives on verisimilitude, responses to 2001: A Space Odyssey come from a place of instinct. But Kubrick's attention to detail allows you to get in the necessary headspace to tackle the questions presented. It's the ultimate simultaneous assault on both the left brain and the right brain. It is, as they say, the ultimate trip.
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