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Science fiction is inherently speculative, an imagination’s attempt to make sense of the vast, unmapped territories of outer space, technology, and human consciousness. Curiosity is woven into the fabric of its stories, an earnest desire to wrestle with philosophical questions about mankind’s relationship to God, artificial intelligence, and the unknown. As computers and AI thrust themselves ever deeper into our daily routines, it’s perhaps more vital than ever that we ask the weightier questions about what it means for humanity.
This list compiles some of cinema’s scariest, funniest, and most provocative stabs at those deeper musings. Perhaps it’s a fool’s errand to try and pinpoint the best sci-fi movies of all time, but the 31 films listed below encompass a multitude of options — comedy, drama, horror, noir, crime, action, and more — that represent everything weird and wonderful about one of fiction’s most satisfying (and challenging) genres.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Warner Bros. Pictures
Like so many of the best films on this list, 2001 feels alien. It has shape, weight, and a clear sense of itself. We leave it knowing we’ve seen something truly awesome, even if we can’t quite articulate what exactly we saw. Stanley Kubrick‘s dizzying achievement towers in the pantheon of film like the monolith that beguiles its cast, a lush and indelible exploration of ideas that, more than a half-decade later, continue to fascinate: artificial intelligence, space exploration, the evolution of consciousness. So, too, do its audio and visual elements: The awe-inducing blare of “Thus Spoke Zarathustra,” the space station’s humbling grandeur, and the lonely drift of an unleashed astronaut, lost to the cosmos. One of a kind in any genre.
Where to watch 2001: A Space Odyssey: HBO Max
Alien (1979)
Everett Collection
It’s the endless expanse that sets the stage, the sense that, despite being surrounded by so much open space, there is absolutely nowhere to run. There’s no dialogue for the first six minutes of Alien, nor is there music. It’s just ambient sound, as cold and alienating as the crowded, grimy halls of the Nostromo, cinema’s most notorious intergalactic haunted house. All the crew members — an out-of-this-world ensemble consisting of Tom Skeritt, John Hurt, Yaphet Kotto, and, of course, Sigourney Weaver — have are each other, so when a worm bursts from their buddy’s stomach and begins picking them off one by one, the ugly, pipe-strewn walls close in. Director Ridley Scott embraces the claustrophobia, embedding his Xenomorph into the fabric of the ship and, by extension, our nightmares.
Where to watch Alien: Hulu
Back to the Future (1985)
Ralph Nelson/Universal
It’s wild that Back to the Future is one of the most beloved movies of all time, one that families still gather around the TV to watch, given that its story centers on a teenager who unwittingly travels back in time only to threaten his existence after his mother gets intensely horny for him. On the other hand, the discomfort would overwhelm, but Robert Zemeckis‘ clever, fleet-footed direction and Bob Gale’s inventive yet impeccably structured script endear us immediately to this world and its eccentric characters. It’s a shockingly emotional movie, using its time-hopping adventure to witness that pivotal moment when a child learns to see their parents as, well, people. And, like any time travel narrative, it touches on the fragility of our realities, the notion that our fates hinge on the smallest of moments. One small move and the entire house of cards collapses.
Where to watch Back to the Future: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)
Blade Runner: The Final Cut (1982)
Everett Collection
Pluck any quote from the mouth of Rutger Hauer‘s Roy Batty and you’ll land upon a classic. “It’s not an easy thing to meet your maker,” for instance. He speaks as a human-engineered replicant, of course, but try turning that concept back on ourselves — what would we do if we met our creator? The ideas overflow in Ridley Scott’s sci-fi masterpiece, a flop upon its release that, after receiving numerous director’s cuts, has firmly planted itself in the cultural consciousness. But it’s not all philosophy; Blade Runner is a spectacle, its choked, dystopian, post-capitalist cityscapes growing more and more familiar as the years pass. The film’s exquisite clutter extends to its eccentric ensemble, a collection of enigmas that brim with weariness and wonder.
Where to watch Blade Runner: The Final Cut: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Everett Collection
There are plenty of jokes to be made at the expense of Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss), the UFO obsessive in Steven Spielberg‘s Close Encounters of the Third Kind. He abandons his wife and family for aliens! What a s—ty dad! But isn’t this what makes Spielberg’s movie so interesting, the idea that mysteries are sometimes so compelling that one can’t help but chase them to the outer reaches? Like so many films on this list, it’s a testament to the lure of science fiction, to a reality that exists outside society’s portrait of a life well lived.
Where to watch Close Encounters of the Third Kind: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)
Contact (1997)
Everett Collection
Robert Zemeckis’ ambitious adaptation of Carl Sagan’s 1985 novel is that rarest of films: a philosophical blockbuster. Jodie Foster is steely yet open-hearted as Ellie Arroway, a scientist who discovers schematics for a single-occupant space vessel buried in transmissions from a distant star system. As the vessel is constructed and Ellie prepares for first contact, a stacked ensemble — Matthew McConaughey, Angela Bassett, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt — navigates the tensions between science and faith with charm and nuance. Zemeckis, meanwhile, balances the script’s bigger questions with white-knuckle awe.
Where to watch Contact: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)
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