Empire Magazine's "50 Greatest Sci-Fi Movies"
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- DirectorRidley ScottStarsHarrison FordRutger HauerSean YoungA blade runner must pursue and terminate four replicants who stole a ship in space and have returned to Earth to find their creator.What sci-fi film can best Ridley Scott's genre classic Alien? His other genre classic, the unbeatable Blade Runner – an initially misunderstood masterpiece that, over multiple decades and several recuts, stands as the pinnacle of cinematic science fiction. Based on Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, Blade Runner conjures a bleak vision of a then-future 2019 Los Angeles – an imperious flame-belching hellscape in which Harrison Ford's 'blade runner' cop Rick Deckard is tasked with tracking down a group of human-engineered Replicants who have escaped back to Earth from a working colony. As he 'retires' them one by one, he comes to question his own humanity, both literal and metaphorical. With its ruminations on what it means to be human, Blade Runner is ideas-driven sci-fi all the way. But it's a visual feast too, its interpretation of a futuristic urban landscape – with giant video screens, glowing neon lights and bustling city streets – still jaw-dropping to behold. Coupled with a haunting Vangelis synth score, and Rutger Hauer's arresting turn as Replicant leader Roy Batty (whose "time to die" speech is a total spine-tingler), it's nigh-on untouchable.
- DirectorRidley ScottStarsSigourney WeaverTom SkerrittJohn HurtThe crew of a commercial spacecraft encounters a deadly lifeform after investigating a mysterious transmission of unknown origin.It's fitting that, of all things, Ridley Scott's Alien feels in many ways unknowable, filled with elements that feel genuinely, well, alien. As the Nostromo touches down on the ravaged surface of LV-426 and discovers a mysterious hall filled with extra-terrestrial eggs, it's clear the human crew is well out of their depth – and once their quarantine measures are broken, all hell breaks loose. There's a warning in there somewhere. From the dark, dank corridors of its space-freighter ship, to the unmistakable nightmare imagery of H.R. Giger, to the arrival of Sigourney Weaver's heroic Ripley, the original Alien remains a landmark piece of science-fiction, let alone its innovations in horror. If it's essentially a slasher in space, it's full of reproductive ideas and phallic imagery, all penetration and impregnation and blood-spewing birth. Some science fiction makes us dream of the stars. Alien warns us of the sheer violent chaos awaiting us in the vast reaches of outer space.
- DirectorIrvin KershnerStarsMark HamillHarrison FordCarrie FisherAfter the Rebel Alliance are overpowered by the Empire, Luke Skywalker begins his Jedi training with Yoda, while his friends are pursued across the galaxy by Darth Vader and bounty hunter Boba Fett.If Star Wars gave us a whole new cinematic galaxy, Empire made that galaxy feel so much larger, deeper, and richer. Bolstered by the original's success, George Lucas shot for the moon a second time around, teaming up with director Irvin Kershner to tell the story of Luke training under Master Yoda, Han and Leia heading to Cloud City, and Darth Vader dropping the daddy of all twists. Episode V ramped up the scope with more astonishing model work, dizzying dogfights, the snowy Hoth battle, and a ferocious lightsaber duel between Luke and Vader. It is, simply, bigger and better than the original Star Wars, influential in its own right with its downer-ending and game-changing familial revelations. As far as sci-fi goes, it's not the cinema of ideas – but its blockbuster spectacle is near-unmatched.
- DirectorLana WachowskiLilly WachowskiStarsKeanu ReevesLaurence FishburneCarrie-Anne MossWhen a beautiful stranger leads computer hacker Neo to a forbidding underworld, he discovers the shocking truth--the life he knows is the elaborate deception of an evil cyber-intelligence.At the dawn of the Internet age, the Wachowskis gave Hollywood science fiction a major upgrade. Drawing from cyberpunk anime, philosophy, and religion, the sisters cooked up an era-defining tale that spoke to generational malaise, the rise of technology, and a pre-millennial society ready to break out of its long-held programming. Keanu Reeves is hacker Neo, who comes to learn that the world isn't real – he and the rest of humanity are living in a computer simulation called the Matrix, while being harvested as fuel for sentient machines. But in learning about this unreality, he also comes to know how to break it – bending the laws of physics, seeing through the code, and uploading kung-fu moves directly into his brain. It's one of the coolest films ever made, deeply stylish and incredibly visionary (particularly the invention of bullet-time and the static camera rig that made it possible). Plus, it has a whole new layer of meaning in its reassessment as a piece of blockbuster queer cinema, a story exploring the idea that internal and external realities may be different, coming from a pair of Trans creators. In a word: woah.
- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsKeir DulleaGary LockwoodWilliam SylvesterAfter uncovering a mysterious artifact buried beneath the Lunar surface, a spacecraft is sent to Jupiter to find its origins: a spacecraft manned by two men and the supercomputer HAL 9000.Talk about scope. Stanley Kubrick's monolithic work of sci-fi might not have much in the way of a tangible linear plot, and yet it covers so much – the dawn of man, the space race, the arrival of artificial intelligence, greater space exploration, and a journey into the cosmic unknown. It's dizzying stuff, realised with technical bravado by Kubrick, open to endless interpretation and with just enough narrative to remain compulsively watchable. From its gigantic rotating sets, to its use of Strauss's The Blue Danube, to its extraordinary climactic light show, 2001 is an audio-visual marvel – while its explorations of human evolution and where it might go next have already proved prescient. An extraordinary piece of work, deeply influential on decades of cinema since, and one that entrusts the viewer to follow along on an instinctual, sensory level.
- DirectorGeorge LucasStarsMark HamillHarrison FordCarrie FisherLuke Skywalker joins forces with a Jedi Knight, a cocky pilot, a Wookiee and two droids to save the galaxy from the Empire's world-destroying battle station, while also attempting to rescue Princess Leia from the mysterious Darth Vader.Yes, it's more space opera than hard sci-fi. But where would the genre be without the impact and influence of Star Wars, of that opening moment in which the Star Destroyer looms over the camera for a seeming infinity? Bursting with iconic aliens, hyper-space travel, and galactic overlords, George Lucas transplanted the classic hero's journey narrative (Mark Hamill's Luke Skywalker is the simple farm-boy who discovers he's got a much bigger destiny out in the world) into a boundlessly imaginative galaxy far, far away, with laser-swords and mystical religions, space-princesses and loveable rogues. From its incredible model work, to its cosmic dogfights, to the look of the opening crawl as it drifts off into the stars, the original Star Wars changed everything – and science-fiction at large has felt the Force ever since.
- DirectorJames CameronStarsArnold SchwarzeneggerLinda HamiltonEdward FurlongA cyborg, identical to the one who failed to kill Sarah Connor, must now protect her ten year old son John from an even more advanced and powerful cyborg.After establishing a smart time-loop scenario in the original Terminator, James Cameron cranked everything up for this sequel – introducing a new liquid-metal android foe, reprogramming Arnie as the good guy, and plotting a new plan to disrupt the future and halt the impending nuclear 'judgment day'. The result is one of the all-time great sequels, delivering incredible action, a thrilling transformation from Sarah Connor as a hardened hero, and a formidable villain in Robert Patrick's shape-shifting T-1000. Beyond the spectacle there are more ideas at play – notably around machine learning, as Schwarzenegger's nice-guy T-800 forms a bond with Edward Furlong's young John Connor and begins to evolve through their interactions. Thumbs up.
- DirectorRobert ZemeckisStarsMichael J. FoxChristopher LloydLea ThompsonMarty McFly, a 17-year-old high school student, is accidentally sent 30 years into the past in a time-traveling DeLorean invented by his close friend, the maverick scientist Doc Brown.Time travel and the ripples that spread out from someone changing the past are concepts that are incredibly hard to pull off. Yet few films are as perfectly constructed as the first Back To The Future. Certainly some try to pick plot nits, but there are few to find. Robert Zemeckis and co-writer Bob Gale conjured up a tale that's so satisfying to watch, even if chunks of it had to be re-shot when original star Eric Stoltz didn't work out. Replacement Michael J. Fox rode the role to movie star status, bolstered by a great ensemble, and gave the movie the core it required to work like a well-wound watch. Crucially, it cemented the most widely-understood model of fictional time-travel, even if later time-twisting films have sought to debunk it.
- DirectorJames CameronStarsSigourney WeaverMichael BiehnCarrie HennDecades after surviving the Nostromo incident, Ellen Ripley is sent out to re-establish contact with a terraforming colony but finds herself battling the Alien Queen and her offspring.It can't be easy to take over a film series that has been kicked off by so seminal a film as Alien, and yet James Cameron makes it look simple. Aliens expands and deepens the universe of the human vs. Xenomorph conflict and finds brand new ways to make the creatures terrifying. Body horror and war combine with ease – this is yet another intergalactic Vietnam allegory – and the idea of the beasts as a hive is a metaphor ripe with possibility, one that Cameron channels easily. Building on the promise of Sigourney Weaver's Ellen Ripley, it upends her experience by marooning her with a group of marines on a colony world riddled with the slavering beasts. The tension is razor-wire sharp and Cameron never forgets to make a variety of the troopers into something more than forgettable alien-fodder.
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsHenry ThomasDrew BarrymorePeter CoyoteA troubled child summons the courage to help a friendly alien escape from Earth and return to his home planet.The polar opposite of The Thing in every sense, Spielberg's coming-of-age tale about a young boy and his alien friend is pure cinema magic. Suburban American youngster Elliott becomes best pal to an intergalactic being accidentally left behind on Earth by his family in a parable about lonely children and outsiders that tackles the emotional fall-out of divorce. While there's the looming threat of nefarious government authorities and the eventual need for E.T. to go home (after phoning first), it's foregrounded by childhood joy as Elliot and his siblings get up to mischief with their botanical buddy. Its soaring imagery of Elliot and E.T. flying in front of the moon on his bike is one of the most unmistakable cinematic sci-fi moments, while the stellar John Williams score remains incredibly emotional.
- DirectorJohn CarpenterStarsKurt RussellWilford BrimleyKeith DavidA research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims.
- DirectorChristopher NolanStarsLeonardo DiCaprioJoseph Gordon-LevittElliot PageA thief who steals corporate secrets through the use of dream-sharing technology is given the inverse task of planting an idea into the mind of a C.E.O., but his tragic past may doom the project and his team to disaster.A filmmaker ever-fascinated by the architecture of the human mind, Christopher Nolan externalised the human subconscious into physical environments for a Bond-inspired heist-movie blockbuster. Taking place across multiple levels of malleable reality, Inception imagines the possibility of dream-tech that allows Leonardo DiCaprio's Dom Cobb and his team to infiltrate sleeping marks and extract information from their unconscious minds – until he's given the altogether harder job of implanting an idea into his next target. Through dizzying setpieces and narrative convolutions, Nolan embraces dream-logic, subverts physics, and orchestrates collapsing realities, creating a psychological sci-fi spectacular that's sure to boggle minds for decades to come.
- DirectorDenis VilleneuveStarsAmy AdamsJeremy RennerForest WhitakerA linguist works with the military to communicate with alien lifeforms after twelve mysterious spacecraft appear around the world.A time-twisting short story by Ted Chiang. A script from Eric Heisserer. Denis Villeneuve in the director's chair. It's a combination, allied to top work from Jeremy Renner and Amy Adams that delivers the knockout punch that offers both brainfood and a heart-breaking through-line. Aliens arrive in giant ships and humans must figure out how to communicate with the strange creatures, expanding on the first contact idea that has fascinated humanity for years, but with extra layers. Time becomes flexible and you'll want to revisit it more than once to steep in both the atmosphere and the story.
- DirectorJames CameronStarsArnold SchwarzeneggerLinda HamiltonMichael BiehnA human soldier is sent from 2029 to 1984 to stop an almost indestructible cyborg killing machine, sent from the same year, which has been programmed to execute a young woman whose unborn son is the key to humanity's future salvation.Eclipsed only slightly by its sequel (read on for more on that), James Cameron's breakout killer cyborg thriller announced his intention to rock the genre with a relatively — by today's standards, at least — low budget and some real invention, even layering in a complicated rumination on time and how the future can be altered for good and ill, which is not the usual subject you expect for such action fare. Arnold Schwarzenegger's man-mountain presence is the threat, but Michael Biehn's future soldier and Linda Hamilton's harassed Sarah Connor are the heart of the story. Cameron keeps the story taught and the action inventive, and there's a pulsing score from Brad Fiedel that has long since entered our collective brains.
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsRichard DreyfussFrançois TruffautTeri GarrRoy Neary, an Indiana electric lineman, finds his quiet and ordinary daily life turned upside down after a close encounter with a UFO, spurring him to an obsessed cross-country quest for answers as a momentous event approaches.
- DirectorDuncan JonesStarsSam RockwellKevin SpaceyDominique McElligottAstronaut Sam Bell has a quintessentially personal encounter toward the end of his three-year stint on the Moon, where he, working alongside his computer, GERTY, sends back to Earth parcels of a resource that has helped diminish our planet's power problems.
- DirectorRian JohnsonStarsJoseph Gordon-LevittBruce WillisEmily BluntIn 2074, when the mob wants to get rid of someone, the target is sent into the past, where a hired gun awaits - someone like Joe - who one day learns the mob wants to 'close the loop' by sending back Joe's future self for assassination.Following high school noir Brick and sibling conmen story The Brothers Bloom, Rian Johnson surprised with this time-crossing assassin story. Joseph Gordon-Levitt's titular "Looper" is a hired killer for the mob, who kills victims sent back in time so they can disappear from 39 years in the future. But when Joe's next target is his own older self — closing the loop is the fate of all Loopers, who are paid well for their trouble — he's thrown off his game and future Joe (Bruce Willis) escapes. The ensuing cat and mouse chase takes further twists, but Johnson keeps it all juggled like a pro. The choice to make Gordon-Levitt (in prosthetics) and Willis play the same character is a risky one, but it works, and Johnson injects the movie with plenty of invention.
- DirectorAlex GarlandStarsAlicia VikanderDomhnall GleesonOscar IsaacA young programmer is selected to participate in a ground-breaking experiment in synthetic intelligence by evaluating the human qualities of a highly advanced humanoid A.I.
- DirectorFritz LangStarsBrigitte HelmAlfred AbelGustav FröhlichIn a futuristic city sharply divided between the working class and the city planners, the son of the city's mastermind falls in love with a working-class prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.
- DirectorPaul VerhoevenStarsPeter WellerNancy AllenDan O'HerlihyIn a dystopic and crime-ridden Detroit, a terminally wounded cop returns to the force as a powerful cyborg haunted by submerged memories.Paul Verhoeven arrived in America with a European aesthetic and kicked the doors down with this satirical sci-fi that, with its vision of a corporation effectively owning a city, comes scarily close to reality. But it's also the story of a cop slain in the line of duty who is brought back as a cybernetic officer tortured by visions of a past life his owners tried to wipe from him. There's real horror to be found in the feeling of man becoming product, but it never becomes po-faced. There is blood and brutality, humour and humanity, all brought together by a slick visual style that belies its 1980s origins.
- DirectorChristopher NolanStarsMatthew McConaugheyAnne HathawayJessica ChastainWhen Earth becomes uninhabitable in the future, a farmer and ex-NASA pilot, Joseph Cooper, is tasked to pilot a spacecraft, along with a team of researchers, to find a new planet for humans.
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsSam NeillLaura DernJeff GoldblumA pragmatic paleontologist touring an almost complete theme park on an island in Central America is tasked with protecting a couple of kids after a power failure causes the park's cloned dinosaurs to run loose.By the '90s, the prospect of animal and human cloning seemed so passé. How about… dinosaur cloning? Adapting Michael Crichton's novel into a game-changing, groundbreaking blockbuster about a prehistoric theme park gone wrong, Steven Spielberg delivers dino-spectacle while keeping the story's sci-fi credentials – man messes with forces of nature and reaps the unpredictable ramifications of chaos theory – intact. The result is an endlessly thrilling adventure movie that springs from some surprisingly plausible cod-science, with Spielberg himself the master creator at the heart of it all, somehow conjuring big-screen beasts that still look and feel incredibly real. Clever guy.
- DirectorJames GunnStarsChris PrattVin DieselBradley CooperA group of intergalactic criminals must pull together to stop a fanatical warrior with plans to purge the universe.The MCU has always made a virtue of using characters that hadn't conquered the mainstream, but eyebrows were raised even further when Marvel announced that a music-loving space slacker, a green assassin, a hulking warrior, a talking tree and a raccoon (who isn't a raccoon) would enter the fray. And with James Gunn, best known for his Troma background, horror scripts, Scooby Doo films and odd movies such as Slither? Turns out it was a fantastic decision, Gunn's sensibility breathing comic life into the cosmic characters. The tone works perfectly, there's an emotional gut punch at the end and it smoothly births a franchise, with the Guardians an integral part of future movies, both their own and others. Sci-fi is rarely this much fun, or downright colourful, and we can't wait to see Vol. 3 whenever Gunn can make it.
- DirectorFranklin J. SchaffnerStarsCharlton HestonRoddy McDowallKim HunterAn astronaut crew crash-lands on a planet where highly intelligent non-human ape species are dominant and humans are enslaved.Long before Rupert Wyatt and Matt Reeves happened along to explore how the world got to the point of simian domination, Planet Of The Apes introduced audiences to the concept of a planet (spoiler: it's Earth!) taken over by our hairy brethren. Adapted from Pierre Boulle's novel by Michael Wilson and, tellingly, The Twilight Zone's Rod Serling, it's a little campy in places, but features some prime Charlton Heston gruffness as he battles those damn dirty apes. The idea of another species taking over has always haunted us, and this was impactful enough to impress audiences and launch a franchise (of varying quality) And, of course, it has one of the most memorable final twists in cinema history. All together now: "You maniacs!"
- DirectorAndrei TarkovskyStarsNatalya BondarchukDonatas BanionisJüri JärvetA psychologist is sent to a station orbiting a distant planet in order to discover what has caused the crew to go insane.
- DirectorMizuho NishikuboMamoru OshiiStarsAtsuko TanakaIemasa KayumiAkio ÔtsukaA cyborg policewoman and her partner hunt a mysterious and powerful hacker called the Puppet Master.
- DirectorDenis VilleneuveStarsHarrison FordRyan GoslingAna de ArmasYoung Blade Runner K's discovery of a long-buried secret leads him to track down former Blade Runner Rick Deckard, who's been missing for thirty years.If trying to sequelise Ridley Scott's all-time science-fiction classic about advanced 'Replicants' being hunted down in a future LA seemed foolhardy, that didn't stop Denis Villeneuve – and in a cinematic miracle, he pulled off a follow-up that somehow lives up to the original. That's partly thanks to cinematographer Roger Deakins, in charge of framing some of the most stirring sci-fi imagery of the last several decades – the image of Ryan Gosling's Replicant blade runner K confronted by a giant pink projection of Ana de Armas' wish fulfilment android Joi is an all-timer. But elsewhere, Villenueve continues to delve into what makes us human in a narrative that expands the original story without contradicting or disrespecting it, all while providing a subversive spin on the usual 'chosen one' narrative. 2049's greatest triumph is that it invokes the inimitable spirit of the original while becoming its own fully realised work. Bravo, Villenueve.
- DirectorAlex GarlandStarsNatalie PortmanJennifer Jason LeighTessa ThompsonA biologist signs up for a dangerous, secret expedition into a mysterious zone where the laws of nature don't apply.
- DirectorNicholas MeyerStarsWilliam ShatnerLeonard NimoyDeForest KelleyWith the assistance of the Enterprise crew, Admiral Kirk must stop an old nemesis, Khan Noonien Singh, from using the life-generating Genesis Device as the ultimate weapon.Shaking off the shackles of its chilly sci-fi start on the big screen, Star Trek found the fun by remembering to make it more about the characters. And what a story — digging back into the series' past, Nicholas Meyer brings a tense, personal tale of revenge to the screen as Ricardo Montalban's crusading, enhanced ego Khan Noonien Singh seeks to punish William Shatner's James T. Kirk for their troubled history. It might not quite be the santised, perfect utopia that Gene Roddenberry envisioned, but that rarely leaves room for great drama, which Khan has in spades. It's everything Star Trek can be while never forgetting what it was. And the main clash happens without the main pair ever sharing the same room. Now that's an impressive trick...
- DirectorAndrew StantonStarsBen BurttElissa KnightJeff GarlinIn the distant future, a small waste-collecting robot inadvertently embarks on a space journey that will ultimately decide the fate of mankind.Team Pixar was already on a golden streak, and then Wall-E arrived – the brainchild of veteran creative type Andrew Stanton, a futuristic satire about how we treat the planet and each other, but, you know, for kids. It was a risk that paid off beautifully, beginning as a near-silent film on the bleak, trash-filled remains of Earth before blasting into an intergalactic adventure to save the last remaining piece of viable plant life. Wall-E's stark opening astonishes, and it doesn't pull its punches when it comes to dire eco-warnings, and skewering humanity's recklessly consumptive consumerist ways. Wall-E's story goes straight for the heartstrings too with a swooning robo-romance, musical sequences and a still-pertinent message for all of us, delivered in digestible form.
- DirectorDavid CronenbergStarsJeff GoldblumGeena DavisJohn GetzA brilliant but eccentric scientist begins to transform into a giant man/fly hybrid after one of his experiments goes horribly wrong.
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsTom CruiseColin FarrellSamantha MortonJohn works with the PreCrime police which stop crimes before they take place, with the help of three 'PreCogs' who can foresee crimes. Events ensue when John finds himself framed for a future murder.Philip K. Dick's cerebral sci-fi sometimes proves a challenge to adapt, but Steven Spielberg brought one of his most cinematic works to the screen without worrying about being totally faithful. Tom Cruise is future cop John Anderton, part of the pre-crime unit in which psychics can predict crimes before they occur – until they predict Anderton himself committing a murder. Spielberg paints a vision of the future where intrusive ads follow us around (not really science fiction anymore), self-driving cars abound (increasingly plausible), and police officers zoom around on jetpacks (probably a few decades off yet). Full of action and smarts in equal measure, it's a thought-provoking blockbuster – and it basically invented gesture-control touch-screens. Nifty.
- DirectorRobert WiseStarsMichael RenniePatricia NealHugh MarloweAn alien lands in Washington, D.C. and tells the people of Earth that they must live peacefully or be destroyed as a danger to other planets.
- DirectorJames CameronStarsSam WorthingtonZoe SaldanaSigourney WeaverA paraplegic Marine dispatched to the moon Pandora on a unique mission becomes torn between following his orders and protecting the world he feels is his home.Iconic sci-fi films conjure up distinctive new worlds – and few are as retina-dazzlingly vibrant as Pandora, Avatar's planet of bioluminescent flora, bright blue fauna, and giant floating rock formations. Taking the mech-suits from Aliens, the colourful creatures of The Abyss, the epic scope (and central love story) of Titanic, and the groundbreaking technological leaps of, well, everything he's ever done, James Cameron's record-breaker is none-more-JC. There's a knowing B-movie quality to the cheesy dialogue and Dances With Wolves-inspired plot, but everything else is A-movie blockbuster, in a tale where humans are the alien invaders, consciousness is transferable, and science and nature are equal and opposite forces. It's rare to see an entire cinematic world so fully realised – and while the Avatar backlash continues in some corners, it would be foolish to bet against Cameron's slew of upcoming sequels.
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsHaley Joel OsmentJude LawFrances O'ConnorA highly advanced robotic boy longs to become "real" so that he can regain the love of his human mother.
- DirectorDanny BoyleStarsCillian MurphyRose ByrneChris EvansA team of international astronauts is sent on a dangerous mission to reignite the dying Sun with a nuclear fission bomb in 2057.
- DirectorJonathan GlazerStarsScarlett JohanssonJeremy McWilliamsLynsey Taylor MackayA mysterious young woman seduces lonely men in the evening hours in Scotland. However, events lead her to begin a process of self-discovery.
- DirectorKatsuhiro ÔtomoStarsMitsuo IwataNozomu SasakiMami KoyamaA secret military project endangers Neo-Tokyo when it turns a biker gang member into a rampaging psychic psychopath who can only be stopped by a teenager, his gang of biker friends and a group of psychics.
- DirectorTerry GilliamStarsBruce WillisMadeleine StoweBrad PittIn a future world devastated by disease, a convict is sent back in time to gather information about the man-made virus that wiped out most of the human population on the planet.
- DirectorPhilip KaufmanStarsDonald SutherlandBrooke AdamsJeff GoldblumWhen strange seeds drift to earth from space, mysterious pods begin to grow and invade San Francisco, replicating the city's residents one body at a time.
- DirectorAndrei TarkovskyStarsAlisa FreyndlikhAleksandr KaydanovskiyAnatoliy SolonitsynA guide leads two men through an area known as the Zone to find a room that grants wishes.
- DirectorJohn McTiernanStarsArnold SchwarzeneggerCarl WeathersKevin Peter HallA team of commandos on a mission in a Central American jungle find themselves hunted by an extraterrestrial warrior."If it bleeds... We can kill it". '80s machismo meets alien invasion tropes in John McTiernan's pumped-up actioner, with Arnold Schwarzenegger's tough commando Dutch and his military team facing an invisible enemy with advanced weaponry and heat-vision. With its sweltering jungle location and American soldiers falling to an unseen enemy, it's a thinly-veiled genre-fied Vietnam allegory – with a wish-fulfillment twist that ultimately sees military might overcome the enemy. This is Arnie's film, but the iconic Predator design – with its creepy mask, dreadlocks and snarling jaws – proved enough to fuel a bunch of sequels, reboots, and franchise crossovers without the man-mountain present. Predator went through a torturous development and a wild, location-shifting shoot, but in the end John McTiernan's film speaks for itself – mostly in one-liners and soldier speak until things get spectacularly, spine-rippingly gory.
- DirectorMichel GondryStarsJim CarreyKate WinsletTom WilkinsonWhen their relationship turns sour, a couple undergoes a medical procedure to have each other erased from their memories forever.Memory-tampering is a genre staple often reserved for amnesiac thrillers and mind-bending actioners. Not so with Eternal Sunshine, director Michel Gondry and writer Charlie Kaufman instead using it to explore the nature of the human condition – in particular heartbreak. What happens when love goes sour? And what if you could erase the memories — both bad and good — from your mind? Would you go through with that? After learning his ex, Clementine (Kate Winslet) already has, Jim Carrey's Joel decides he will too. But as he explores what made them meld together and then fall apart, he starts to realise that he still has feelings for her. If its tech is fictional, the emotions in Eternal Sunshine are completely real.
- DirectorRichard KellyStarsJake GyllenhaalJena MaloneMary McDonnellAfter narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, a troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a man in a large rabbit suit who manipulates him to commit a series of crimes.Proving that ideas-driven sci-fi could thrive without a blockbuster budget, Richard Kelly's distinctive indie debut plays with time and malleable reality as he puts Jake Gyllenhaal's depressed high schooler through the wringer. With its time-looping narrative, suburban wormhole, and apocalyptic visions of a glowy-eyed bunny-man, Kelly fuses none-more-sci-fi elements into a low-key character drama, with head-scratching talking points and a killer soundtrack that made it a total cult hit. Trippy, atmospheric, and boasting the impressive screen arrival of Gyllenhaal, Donnie Darko leaves you wanting more – just, don't go tracking down the odd non-Kelly sequel, S. Darko.
- DirectorAlfonso CuarónStarsJulianne MooreClive OwenChiwetel EjioforIn 2027, in a chaotic world in which women have somehow become infertile, a former activist agrees to help transport a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea.
- DirectorJames CameronStarsEd HarrisMary Elizabeth MastrantonioMichael BiehnA civilian diving team is enlisted to search for a lost nuclear submarine and faces danger while encountering an alien aquatic species.Most sci-fi films look to the cosmos for signs of new life. Trust James Cameron, then – long before Avatar – to look to the other inky-black instead, the mysterious ocean depths. With its sub-aquatic entities (rendered with then-cutting-edge VFX that still looks good today) and a Jules Verne-ian sense of deep-sea exploration, The Abyss feels distinct from the usual space-bound sci-fi. At the heart of it is a team of expert divers who are hired to look for a missing nuclear submarine and find something much more fascinating. Cameron's love of diving and his environmental side are on full display here, laying the groundwork for much of what he's gone on to since – from the waterworks of Titanic, to Avatar's bioluminescent planet, and the long-promised oceans of Pandora in the upcoming Avatar sequels. It didn't have the box office impact of Cameron's big-hitters, but it's still worth submerging yourself into.
- DirectorNeill BlomkampStarsSharlto CopleyDavid JamesJason CopeViolence ensues after an extraterrestrial race forced to live in slum-like conditions on Earth finds a kindred spirit in a government agent exposed to their biotechnology.
- DirectorBong Joon HoStarsChris EvansJamie BellTilda SwintonIn a future where a failed climate change experiment has killed all life except for the survivors who boarded the Snowpiercer (a train that travels around the globe), a new class system emerges.
- DirectorClaire DenisStarsRobert PattinsonJuliette BinocheAndré 3000A father and his daughter struggle to survive in deep space where they live in isolation.
- DirectorDouglas TrumbullStarsBruce DernCliff PottsRon RifkinIn a future where all flora is extinct on Earth, an astronaut is given orders to destroy the last of Earth's botany, kept in a greenhouse aboard a spacecraft.