Top 10 Sci-Fi Movies
Spanning nearly a century of cinematic sci-fi, our list spotlights the robots, aliens, dinosaurs, and dystopias that have widened our eyes and freed our minds. Share your thoughts with us at heycinemasugar@gmail.com!
10. WALL-E
Define iconic: two robots meet-cute on an abandoned garbage-choked Earth and form an unlikely partnership. Define chutzpah: making the first 25 minutes of a kids movie virtually wordless yet riveting for all ages. Define stakes: defeating a sinister AI-fueled corporate overlord to redeem humanity and terrestrial life itself. However you define it, WALL-E remains a revelation (not to mention Pixar's first Criterion Collection entrant), biting with its cultural criticism but winsome and hopeful at the core. Dystopia has never felt so sweet. –Chad
9. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Without a doubt one of the most excellent sci-fi flicks to come out of the 1950s, eschewing some of the more average tropes found in other films amid that era. It’s nevertheless quite considerably of its time and, while there are a few bits that have not aged pleasantly, the melancholy cinematography and atmosphere of paranoia linger efficiently to this day. You would assume witnessing hordes of civilians rushing and pursuing our protagonists would just appear absurd, but there’s a bizarre conformity about it that is somewhat disturbing. The practical effects also hold up nicely and it still makes me flinch to watch a pitchfork taken to the seed-pod duplicates. The conclusion is a bit hurried and convenient, but it’s nonetheless moderately more pessimistic than one would anticipate for the time period. In general, the 1978 remake might be better in its own right, but it’s really apparent that Don Siegel’s variant was a critical bedrock. —Natalie
8. E.T.
A relic of imagination and sentimentality long lost to movies as we know them today, Steven Spielberg’s E.T. the Extra Terrestrial is still a shot to the heart. John Williams’ iconic score, the ruckus of youth, the way E.T. and Gerdie scream when they first see each other, the very sight of the poster (the only movie poster I have hanging in my house, might I add)—this film tethers me to my childhood in a way that few films do. On a rewatch in 2023, viewers might be turned off by the special effects, but the practical effects are welcome in an age where everything looks like a video game. Perhaps most importantly, it’s the heart of this movie that makes it timeless and keeps me phoning home to it year after year. —Kevin
7. Children of Men
It’s not a stretch to suggest that Alfonso Cuarón’s 2006 dystopian sci-fi thriller Children of Men predicted the future. While we aren’t faced with mass infertility, the images of a society ravaged by war, terrorism, xenophobia, and human rights violations are striking against the events of recent years. But through every explosive and tumultuous scene this film delivers, it somehow never stops feeling intimate. This is best demonstrated in the film’s emotional climax involving a crying newborn, an African mother, a fumbling anti-hero, and a gripping and powerful ceasefire. Throw in a goofy Michael Caine who really wants you to pull his finger and you’ve got yourself a miracle of modern cinema. —Kevin
6. The Matrix
The power and beauty of The Matrix is that, like the titular simulation itself, it can become whatever you want it to be. A archetypal hero's journey and messiah story. An argument for (or against) religion, gun control, virtual reality, and capitalism. And an allegory for damned near everything: transgenderism, political radicalization, media criticism, and on and on. It’s a tabula rasa tailor-made for our postmodern meaning-starved age that this 1999 flick helped kicked off—not to mention a kickass neo-noir action movie with a committed cast and singular creative vision from the Wachowskis. Dodge this movie at your peril. –Chad
5. Terminator 2: Judgement Day
Over three decades after its release, James Cameron’s Terminator 2: Judgement Day is still irresistible. The quintessential sequel, leveling up not only on its predecessor but filmmaking as a medium—this film warped my world like T-1000’s body after taking a shotgun hit. Some might argue we’re in the midst of a war with machines, but should it ever happen in the form of a shapeshifting android sent from the future to terminate me, I’ve seen this gem enough times to know when to cry, when to get a grip, and when to get on my motor bike and book it. —Kevin
4. Metropolis
Theatrical as well as stylistic, momentous and perceptive, Fritz Lang’s Metropolis is a wonder of antiquated motion pictures. It’s a science-fiction legend that looks toward the past in addition to the future for its insight, while also narrating a story that feels as contemporary now as it would have 100 years ago. A chronicle of an apocalyptic time to come where large towns are materially and socially divided by societal groups who labor and societal groups who contemplate, Metropolis hinges on the turmoil that takes place when representatives of those social classes blend. The story is an irresistible and dense composite of theoretical drama, moral and social parable, and mortal melodrama. Its ideas of social strife, science, and the essential features that influence civilization are clear-cut. It is a filmmaking original whose effect has been recognized in the cumulative fabric of cinema since its inception. —Natalie
3. Jurassic Park
There were movies before Jurassic Park and there were movies after. It changed the game, not only for the industry—by being the first film to fully incorporate computer generated imagery (CGI)—but for my little world as well. Never again will I be a kid glaring up at the big screen watching dinosaurs come to life. To this day the tension, craftsmanship, and pure Spielbergian magic of the T-Rex attack make it the single greatest scene not only in the movie itself but, from my view, in film history. Groundbreaking in its execution and timeless in its reach, the one and only Jurassic Park will forever have me holding onto my butt. —Kevin
2. Back to the Future
Based on what we know about this movie's tumultuous production and journey to the screen, it very easily could have been called Space Man From Pluto, featured a refrigerator as the time machine, and starred Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly. Instead, it's called Back to the Future (an all-time great movie title), made a time machine out of a DeLorean (an all-time great look), and starred Michael J. Fox in a charismatic, career-defining performance as everyone's favorite time-traveling teenager. All of its elements met at the exact right moment for lightning to strike and send it into the pantheon of perfect movies. –Chad
1. Alien
Immediately starting with the early tone set by Jerry Goldsmith’s disturbing musical arrangement, the movie establishes a continuous but rising feeling of fear, curling the mundane in toward something astonishing and very strange. It’s amazingly and deeply engaging amidst a slow-burn manner, excellently drumming up mental stress from start to finish. This means that it takes a little bit of time to launch, influencing the momentum some, but this introductory preparation without a doubt further lays the landscape, building a clearly confined ambience that evolves into something progressively more overwhelming as time goes on. It could have been effortless to bend toward the schlockier edge of things, but Ridley Scott absolutely devoted himself to the fabric of the story, lending to the whole movie a morbid, nearly grotesque glaze that works so well with the clearly antagonistic modern aspects, mixing the two to conceive an amazingly unique visual style that has me fascinated from the start. Lurking, essentially animalistic angles between clammy, hazy hallways intensify that terror impact, embellished by H.R. Giger’s creative and frequently chilling configurations to form the type of extraordinary imagery that holds up today. —Natalie