There have been an overwhelming number of science fiction movies released throughout the course of cinema history, and so highlighting the best of the best is always going to be difficult. To emphasize this, here are some honorable mentions that have not made it onto the following ranking: The Matrix, all the Star Wars movies except for one, Arrival, Children of Men, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
And a bunch of other movies that are all universally acclaimed, but this intends to highlight the super acclaimed and beloved ones. They might not even be the very best, or among your personal favorites, but they’re all classics in one way or another, and each has a place in cinematic history because they’re well appreciated by almost everyone… especially critics, though that doesn’t mean some of these aren’t crowd-pleasers, too.
8
‘Alien’ (1979)
Alien ended up being the starting point for a surprisingly long-lived franchise, and it’s accurate to call it a franchise, rather than a movie series, because Alien has been continued or spun off in other mediums. That’s somewhat surprising when you look back on the first film and think about how self-contained and simple it is, as it’s essentially like a sci-fi slasher movie, set technically in space, but mostly contained to a single spaceship.
Also, Alien is quite slow by modern standards, though the pacing here ends up working well and making the climax feel more thrilling once it does finally come around. Aliens is worthy of an honorable mention for doing something a little different genre-wise (lots more action in that one) while still maintaining certain elements from the original that worked within that new context, but Alien feels like the “more” perfect of the two, and it’s held in slightly higher regard on a critical front, too.
7
‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’ (2004)
Technically, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind can be called a romantic science fiction movie, but it’s the kind of romantic movie that’s more about breaking up than getting together and falling in love in that nice sort of ordinary romance movie way. The sci-fi elements come about because it’s about a technology that lets people forget all memories associated with an ex-partner.
Two people who used to be in love do this, and then Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind explores the immediate consequences of such a procedure, or maybe even pre-immediate consequences, as much of the film takes place within memories as they’re being wiped, one by one. It’s all psychologically devastating, sometimes harrowing, and ultimately quite intense throughout, but all in purposeful and brutally effective ways. The sadness of it all is the point, and it’s executed in a fashion that does prove simultaneously cathartic and upsetting.
6
‘Metropolis’ (1927)
Image via Parufamet
There are only so many ways to talk about Metropolis and what it means for the science fiction genre, so if you know even a little about movie history, nothing that can be said here within 150-ish words will seem very insightful or fresh. This film’s possibly the first feature-length undisputed masterpiece, at least among sci-fi movies, and then if you’re comparing it to all movies made approximately a century ago, it’s also about as good as they get.
What it does as a movie about a city that’s a utopia for some and a dystopia for others might seem a bit blunt and simplistic by modern standards, but Metropolis is also so far from a modern movie. Check the year of release. That’s a century ago. It’s easy to appreciate this film paving the way for so many to follow, and then further a surprise (of the pleasant variety, of course) how much of Metropolis genuinely just holds up and proves compelling even if you’re not the sort of person who usually finds cinema history (or silent films generally) particularly interesting.
5
‘Stalker’ (1979)
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