Top 15 Sci-Fi Movies of All Time

Greetings, reader!

My dive into the best of various genres continues with this week's edition, concerning a genre very dear to me - these are the greatest science fiction movies ever made. Like my previous best-of-genre lists, it's not exactly a list of the greatest overall movies that happen to fall under the sci-fi genre, but rather a ranking of how good they are as sci-fi movies. I hope you enjoy!

Here are my honorable mentions: 12 Monkeys (1995), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Gravity (2013), Looper (2012), Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023).

15. Planet of the Apes (1968)

Exploration has always played a big part in the science fiction world, and this 60's classic begins in a way that leans heavily into that plot device: a group of astronauts, having been traveling from Earth nearly at light speed for over a year, wake up from hibernation as they descend on a new planet. The exploration of this world leads to some startling discoveries and surreal moments, in the very vein of the genre.

Planet of the Apes is best remembered for its twist ending, and rightfully so - don't worry, I won't spoil it here for those who have been meaning to catch this flick for the last 56 years but just haven't gotten around to it yet. However, without spoiling the twist, I will say that it serves the core tenants of the genre: it isn't just mind-blowing fictional storytelling on its own, but what it has to say about humanity is a perfect example of how science fiction can be used to make some serious points and ask important questions about the real world, via the lens of imaginative stories.

14. Arrival (2016)

Directed by Denis Villeneuve, a modern filmmaker with one of the deepest senses of understanding the sci-fi genre among his kind, Arrival is one of the best films to show to someone who doesn't like sci-fi because they think the genre is limited to films like Independence Day and the MCU. As a fan of the genre, I often hear self-proclaimed movie enthusiasts dismissing sci-fi because "it's just lasers and aliens and space fights so it's hard to relate to / care about what's happening", and fellow sci-fi enthusiasts who know what the genre has to offer will know how infuriating that is.

With a film like Arrival, you get a story that really makes us humans look in the mirror, pondering on borderline existential topics while also taking a fascinating look at language and communication. It's a slow-paced and philosophical take on the first-encounter-with-aliens premise, equipped with an ending that is devastating (or endearing, depending on your viewpoint) and will leave you with many interesting thoughts running through your head.

13. Blade Runner (1982)

With this Ridley Scott classic, you get an absolute staple of the genre. A must-see for people getting into sci-fi, Blade Runner introduces an imaginative view of what our future might look like, with a semi-dystopian and very cyberpunk tone and some extremely cool concepts in the plot. Chief among them is the idea of replicants, bio-engineered synthetic humans who serve as cheap labor for actual humans, as well as blade runners, the humans sent to hunt down any replicants gone rogue.

Like any good sci-fi, Blade Runner doesn't stop with the neat premise, but uses it to take a deep look at humanity itself: when the rights of the replicants are called into question, the philosophical side of the genre is on full display. Blade Runner offers food for thought, some thrilling action sequences, a memorable aesthetic and one of cinema's prime ambiguous endings.

12. Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

As was the case with my list of the greatest adventure films a few weeks ago, it was pretty clear that a Star Trek movie would make it onto the list, but it was very difficult to decide which one I'd choose to represent the franchise. My ranking of the Star Trek movies overall is clear, but which is the best as a sci-fi movie? Arguments could be made for several: Star Trek VI: The Voyage Home has the most fun with the genre's entertaining tropes, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country has some of the most fascinating and creative worldbuilding, Star Trek (2009) writes concepts like time travel and parallel universes in a clever manner, et cetera.

But I went with First Contact, first in the trilogy of direct sequel films to the Next Generation TV series. The very premise of the Star Trek franchise, ever since the original series from the 60's, has been one of science fiction's most powerful ideas: what if humanity were to achieve a semi-utopian future, not through spending millions of dollars and all of our fossil fuels on expensive space programs amidst all our warmongering military spending, but rather through first getting our shit together as a species by realizing how much we have in common and how pointless our patterns of hatred are (all while stopping our greedy destruction of the environment), and then figure out a way to reach the stars in a sustainable manner?

The premise may seem naive to many, but in Star Trek's defense, the utopia envisioned by Gene Roddenberry is way more mature than any of the more shallow sci-fi stories out there, because what's truly naive is thinking that humanity at its current state would explore enough to find other planets and life forms out there, without it leading to us enslaving and oppressing the hell out of everything we find (or dying in the attempt), as well as destroying the beautiful nature of every planet we find just like we've done with our own. So, if we want to explore the stars and all that, it'll have to be Roddenberry's way in order for it to work, and we have a lot of work to do to get there.

Anyhow, back to my original point. I chose Star Trek: First Contact because it takes us back in time (well, back from the point of view of when most of Star Trek is set, but still forward from our current present-day situation) to a critical moment in Star Trek lore, concerning how this utopian future came to be. Humanity's first contact with aliens is a common topic in science fiction, and rarely has it been handled in a manner as beautiful and inspiring as it is here. Sci-fi can be a powerful genre, and what this film has to say about humankind's potential is pretty much as powerful as it gets.

11. Back to the Future (1985)

After my bordering-on-elitist rants about films like Arrival proving that sci-fi can be as slow and somber as any Oscar-winning period drama, I want to make one thing clear: sci-fi doesn't always need to be that. Sometimes, sci-fi can be fun, and when done right, it can make for some of the biggest amounts of fun found in any corner of the cinematic world. A prime example of the zany and entertaining dimensions of science fiction is the Back to the Future trilogy, especially the first and best film.

Time travel is definitely one of the coolest and most mind-boggling concepts in science fiction, and while many stories have dealt with it in a manner more complex and mind-boggling than Back to the Future, I don't think any movie in history has had as much fun with it. Back to the Future is funny, heartfelt and entertaining, and while that is thanks to many things (such as Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd having the arguably best on-screen chemistry ever recorded between two actors), it's the utilizing of sci-fi conventions for maximum cool that really seals the deal. I mean, really, out of all the possible ways in which to write a time machine, can anything beat the DeLorean?

10. The Martian (2015)

Based on one of modern sci-fi's best books by Andy Weir, this one leans heavily into the 'science' part of science fiction. I'm not one of those sci-fi geeks who demand realism from everything, as the very point of fiction is that things could happen that could not happen in this real world of ours, and a lot of good sci-fi has come from writers whose science doesn't exactly check out (looking at you, Doctor Who). However, I have always appreciated the sort of fiction where the writer decides to make things as grounded, realistic and explainable as possible, and it takes some genius to apply these principles to the premise of "stranded on Mars".

However, following in the footsteps of the brilliant book it's adapted from, The Martian goes out of its way to back all of its events up with real science - now, I know far too little about physics (not to mention botany) to make this point on my own, but I know that this is what tons of real-life science nerds complimented The Martian on in contrast to most sci-fi works. So, if you're the kind of sci-fi fan who can't suspend your disbelief for the more far-out physics-defying wing of the genre, then this is the film for you.

9. Jurassic Park (1993)

With Jurassic Park, you get quite a bit of what I described above with The Martian, as Spielberg and company definitely did their research on DNA sequencing in order to explain their wild premise. Obviously, the film where dinosaurs are brought back isn't exactly realistic full stop, but it's certainly more credible than one might expect. Additionally, it's just a great film, where the talented cast, magical score and thrilling plot all make the sci-fi element stand out even more.

Also, visual effects have always played a major part in this genre, and hardly any film has aged better in terms of visuals than Jurassic Park. For a film from 1993, it's staggering how well the imagery still holds up.

8. Inception (2010)

A good premise alone is enough for a decent sci-fi film - but in order to make a great sci-fi film, you need to go several steps beyond, and really stretch out your imagination on how to best utilize this premise. I've seen countless sci-fi flicks that had the potential to be masterpieces but ended up being only okay because the writers didn't utilize the cool premise to its full potential: Triangle (2009), Lucy (2014) and District 9 (2009), to name a few.

With Christopher Nolan's Inception, you get a great initial premise (what if we had the technology to enter peoples' dreams?), but it doesn't stop there - what if, in this world, there's a team of people who use the dream technology to steal ideas from peoples' subconscious? And what if they're now asked to, for the first time, insert an idea into someone's subconscious? What if this takes place in dreams within dreams within dreams, with time moving at different speeds on the different levels? And what if there's this concept called limbo that you can fall into and then that's a whole thing? And what if we utilize the loose relationship that our dreamscapes have to the laws of physics in order to create some mind-bending action sequences? The list goes on...

7. Metropolis (1927)

An absolute pioneer of the genre, and a prime example of the beauty of early German cinema (man, those guys would've out-Hollywooded Hollywood if it hadn't been for Hitler's eradication of the creative arts industry - as if there weren't enough reasons to despise Hitler already, that's certainly one more). Directed by the visionary Fritz Lang, this two-and-a-half-hour epic tackles class, industrialism and romance in the framework of a wildly creative and revolutionary sci-fi tale, one whose messages are every bit as relevant today as they were when Metropolis was released nearly a century ago.

6. Interstellar (2014)

Contrasted to The Martian, this Chris Nolan masterpiece is one that the "all of the science must check out" wing of sci-fi fans are very critical of - and I can see why. It's not their cup of tea, but oh man, it sure is mine - for a film like this, I'm very willing to go into the mode of slightly suspending my disbelief in order to enjoy a great story, one that couldn't have been told if every storyteller restricted themselves to pure realism (and really, how f**king stupid would that be?).

With awe-inspiring visuals, a dramatically adventurous story, neat technology and a Hans Zimmer score that isn't just musically great but also feels like the very embodiment of the sci-fi genre in musical form, Interstellar is fully immersed in the genre's conventions at their most beautiful even before the mind-bending final act rolls around. All in all, it's a modern classic, worth watching and re-watching.

5. Dune: Part Two (2024)

I know, it's a tad bold to put a movie from this year at #5 on an all-time list - but really, does anyone who loves sci-fi and has seen Dune: Part Two have a quarrel with this placement?

The genre has always evolved, with the constant advancement of visual effects in cinema allowing for more and more that you can do, and as of now, Dune: Part Two is the epitome of how far we've come. Denis Villeneuve's first Dune (2021) was already a massive landmark, being the first successful adaptation of what is often considered the Lord of the Rings of the sci-fi genre, after decades of people saying that Frank Herbert's book 'could not be adapted to the big screen'.

The sequel takes things even further, and mind you, it's definitely not just about the visuals - the unique sci-fi concepts from the book translate beautifully into the dialogue, themes and story of the film. But yeah, the visuals play a massive part - not just the CGI (something that many modern sci-fi flicks over-rely on), but rather how CGI is utilized to make the immaculate set design and expert cinematography look even greater, truly perfecting the aesthetic of what the world in the gem of sci-fi literature was always supposed to look like.

4. The Matrix (1999)

In a genre full of wild and creative storytelling premises, this masterpiece by the Wachowski sisters looms large even in the company of giants. The sheer amount of imagination that went into this film is something that most creative storytellers can only dream of, so it's no wonder that The Matrix became such a modern classic of the genre, inspiring countless copycats riding off its coattails.

The crazy thing about the central premise in The Matrix is how it could all be real and we would have no way of knowing: what if the machines have already taken over, and have enslaved humanity into working for them, but we have no idea because they've programmed us into a simulation where we think we're living our lives dictated by our own free will? The idea is frightening, thought-provoking, and in this film, utilized for some philosophical dialogue, moments of Keanu Reeves saying "woah", and ultimately, some of sci-fi's greatest action set pieces. It doesn't get much better than this.

3. Tenet (2020)

Sure, in a ranking of Chris Nolan's filmography as overall pieces of cinema, Tenet would be slightly behind Inception and Interstellar (as well as some non-sci-fi films like Oppenheimer and Memento). But purely as a sci-fi filmmaker, I think Nolan made his magnum opus with Tenet.

The idea of time travel has always been fascinating, but because it is so fascinating to storytellers, it has been very chewed up and spit out in countless different forms, with greats from H.G. Wells and Stephen King to Gene Roddenberry and Steven Moffat all having put their own twists on it. In the Lord's year 2020, it would have taken a next-level creative genius to come up with a fresh and new way of writing time travel, as opposed to repeating the same old narrative tropes - and being an absolute madman of clever storytelling, the bastard did it.

In Tenet, we get an entirely new approach to time travel: what if we came up with the technology to travel through time, not via jumping from point A to point B, but by reversing the course of time, so that time resumes to continue at the same pace for you, but in a different direction than it does for others? This would be an easy premise to screw up, as it begs hundreds of questions of its implications and how it could possibly be written without major plot holes or continuity errors, but Nolan had it all figured out, making for cohesive in-universe rules that the film stays loyal to, with every possible factor taken into account. The end result is crazy, hard to follow, and absolutely magnificent.

2. Star Wars (1977)

And then for something very different from the type of sci-fi described above. The original Star Wars film is in many ways a simple movie, one that doesn't bother too much with the implications of its in-universe rules and other canonical factors, but simply uses the creative shit that George Lucas' mind came up with in order to tell a cool adventure story. This works: the Star Wars series has been popular enough to spawn the rest of the trilogy, a prequel trilogy, a legacy sequel trilogy, two spin-off films, several spin-off TV shows (and let's not forget the Holiday special), with myriads of theories, fan art, semi-canon literature and information-filled websites, all of which exists simply because the world created for this film was so cool and interesting that people have kept wanting to explore it more and more. That's quite the legacy.

While much of the franchise's expansion has worked in fleshing out this fictional universe and taking it in interesting directions with neat worldbuilding and story additions, nothing beats the original in terms of fresh, new and fascinating ideas. It's so amazing that an individual human mind came up with the planet of Tatooine with its binary suns, the Death Star with its planet-destroying capabilities, the Wookie species, the tactics and secret bases of the Rebel Alliance, the mythical Force, and the design for characters like Darth Vader and C-3PO, all for an individual film in a time when people didn't take science fiction seriously.

Watching this film at a young age changed my entire relationship to movies, instantly becoming one of my all-time favorites and essentially making me fall in love with science fiction, all because everything in this movie is so cool and intriguing. In a genre filled with writers who have come up with their own fictional planets and alien races and spaceship types, I can't really explain why the ones created by George Lucas are so good that they've caused more fascinated obsession in me and millions of other geeks than any other - they just hit different, for whatever reason.

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

SPOILER ALERT: No exact plot turns are given away, but I must warn you that if you haven't seen the film and want to watch it, it should be watched while knowing as little about it as possible, so reading the following text is not advised.

Yeah, this is the gold standard right here. 2001 may not be for everyone, but I think most sci-fi fans will agree that in the context of the genre, Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece went further, tested the limits of creativity more, broke more narrative storytelling rules and experimented more boldly than any other. I recently watched the film for the fourth time, and I can still remember the exact feeling of watching it for the first time as a teenager: delightfully not knowing anything about the plot beforehand, the opening act had me bewildered (it's just monkeys? For how long? What are the monkeys about? What does this all mean?), and for the entire two-and-a-half-hour runtime, that feeling didn't stop.

Many viewers have issues with the slow pace, but for a viewer like me, who likes to explore and be bewildered by the wonders of the world, it didn't feel one bit boring, as the steady feeling of "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT IN THIS THOROUGHLY UNPREDICTABLE RABBIT HOLE, JESUS CHRIST, I UNDERSTAND NOTHING THAT'S GOING ON BUT I DON'T EVER WANT IT TO END" was just so dominant. The final act especially always gets to me, as I love the idea that if you were to travel far enough in space, it wouldn't just be cool new planets and stars et cetera, but rather the entire constructs of how time and space and reality work would alter, making us humans learn that our way of viewing and understanding reality is surprisingly narrow.

However you interpret the mind-bending ending (and the narratively outrageous and gloriously, unapologetically interpretational "plot"), and there are many great interpretations out there, there's no getting away from the fact that it all feels larger than life, and thus like sci-fi at its purest.

Thank you for reading! Tune in next week for a big one - Halloween falling on a Thursday in the middle of my genre project felt too good to be true, and since I've already done "Top 10 horror movies of all time" some years ago, next week's list will expand upon that, with a ranking of my top 50 horror movies of all time.