The best sci-fi movies of all time span a wide variety of Earth-bound and space-based stories, taking in everything from dystopian futures to isolated crews aboard ships sailing through the universe. There are tales of social and environmental strife, epic battles, beautiful love stories, and introspective examinations of what it fundamentally means to be human. And, of course, aliens – lots of aliens.
From Signs to Star Trek, Independence Day to Star Wars, there is no shortage of otherworldly creatures waiting to reveal themselves. Ridley Scott’s original Alien movie features pretty highly, too. Which makes sense, considering we’re still getting movies from this enduring franchise today: director Fede Alvarez's newly released Alien: Romulus, is the latest entry to terrify audiences once again with face huggers and Xenomorphs galore.
So, before you head to see one of the most exciting new movies of 2024, why not delve into our list of the 30 best sci-fi movies of all time? And if you aren't interested in watching all the Alien movies in order, don't worry our ranking has a wide range of picks for the whole family. In fact, we recommend saving WALL-E as a wholesome little treat for when you’re ready to uncover your eyes from Alien: Romulus.
30. Brazil
Year: 1985
Director: Terry Gilliam
Dystopian science fiction is a great way to turn a lens on society and skewer those in power, and Terry Gilliam’s slapstick homage to George Orwell’s 1984 sticks two fingers up to The Man over and over, all while telling one of the wackiest sci-fi stories ever committed to celluloid.
Jonathan Pryce plays Sam Lowry, a dissatisfied worker at the Ministry of Education who’s desperate to break free from the shackles of a totalitarian regime. Repeatedly dreaming of coming to the rescue of a beautiful woman while trying to locate a suspected terrorist named Archibald Tuttle, Lowry comes up against a fantastical cast of characters. Much like his 1995 movie 12 Monkeys, Gilliam and his production design team imbue Brazil with a surreal, dreary near-future setting, which becomes as much a character as anyone in the movie. A true classic.
29. High Life
Year: 2018
Director: Claire Denis
Science fiction can deal with huge technological ideas like space missions, time travel and Artificial Intelligence while at the same time focusing on the subtle, intimate aspects of humanity, and with High Life, director Claire Denis does exactly this. The film follows a group of criminals sent into space towards a black hole while taking part in scientific experiments, centring on Monte (Robert Pattinson) and his daughter as they become the last survivors of this damned mission to the outer reaches of the solar system.
Pattinson is joined by Juliette Binoche, Mia Goth, and Andre Benjamin, who all turn in stunning performances under Denis’ direction. High Life is big, beautiful, complex, and at times extremely sexy. It’s a brilliant mix of sci-fi ideas with a lot of feels while remaining thoroughly entertaining, and it is well deserving of a place amongst the best.
28. Signs
Year: 2002
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
After exploding onto the scene in 1999 with the acclaimed ghost story The Sixth Sense and his stealth superhero movie Unbreakable the following year, writer/director M. Night Shyamalan turned his attention to sci-fi in 2002 with Signs, an alien invasion film that focuses on how one family copes when extraterrestrials land on Earth.
Mel Gibson plays a widowed former reverend living with his children (Rory Culkin and an adorable Abigail Breslin) and brother (Joaquin Phoenix) in rural Pennsylvania when the aliens arrive, and Shyamalan uses the invasion to explore themes of faith and family in the face of extraordinary circumstances. There may be criticism levelled at Signs for things like the aliens being allergic to water, but other than a couple of slightly daft details, it’s basically perfect and also includes one of the most effective jump-scares in sci-fi horror.
You can read more on this classic with our Signs review.
27. Stalker
Year: 1979
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky
In a totalitarian society, a shaven-headed guide known as Stalker (Aleksandr Kajdanovsky) escorts a writer and a scientist to the forbidden region of “The Zone”, where all one's wishes can allegedly be granted.
Made and set amid some of the most austere and industrially polluted Russian landscapes ever committed to celluloid, Andrei Tarkovsky's epic inquiry into freedom and faith presents an arduous journey for the spectator but conjures up its own mystical universe with majestic conviction. Since its release, Stalker has become a classic of the genre – and one worth seeking out immediately.
26. Star Trek: Wrath of Khan
Year: 1982
Director: Nicholas Meyer
Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the first big-screen adventure for the series, was an epic take on the Star Trek timeline – and one criticised for not featuring enough action. The producers took this to heart, as they hired Nicholas Meyer (Time After Time) to direct a feature film that doubles down on the thrills. Star Trek: Wrath of Khan makes for a warmer movie that still features huge amounts of drama.
Wrath of Khan reaches into the Original Series’ history to find a villain – Khan – who's more grounded and intimidating than the vast majority of Star Trek’s other antagonists. Ruthless and ferociously intelligent, Khan’s re-emergence forces the trainee Enterprise crew to rally harder than ever before, raising the personal stakes to new highs. And really, when is Star Trek better than when it puts the crew’s humanity front and centre?
25. District 9
Year: 2009
Director: Neill Blomkamp
Neill Blomkamp’s feature debut is a South African tale of conflict between aliens and humans after an extraterrestrial race is forced to live in townships on Earth. However, a greater understanding is formed after a government agent is exposed to alien biotechnology. Another potent example of sci-fi addressing deeper themes of humanity beyond its surface plot, District 9 uses its alien premise to skewer the segregation of Apartheid while telling a captivating tale of friendship and fatherhood.
By the time Blomkamp made District 9, found-footage movies had been regularly popping up in cinemas for about a decade. He expertly uses techniques like CCTV, fictional interviews, and news footage to meld the format with his science fiction narrative, creating an engaging and affecting sci-fi film for the ages.
24. Silent Running
Year: 1972
Director: Douglas Trumbull
Environmental concerns are something that sci-fi can explore perhaps better than any other genre, taking a leap forward in time to examine where humanity might be in the future if we continue down a particular path. What humans are doing to Earth may feel like a very modern anxiety, but issues like deforestation were being dealt with in science fiction in the early '70s with wonderful films like Silent Running.
Bruce Dern plays Freeman Lowell, a botanist carefully maintaining huge greenhouse domes on a spaceship, nurturing a variety of vegetation destined for reforestation of the planet. When the domes and his beloved plants come under threat, Lowell enlists the help of three little robots - Huey, Louie and Dewey - to save them. Cue lots of deep space drama and some moments of hilarity (especially when the robots are programmed to play poker) in one of the best sci-fi movies ever made.
23. Independence Day
Year: 1996
Director: Roland Emmerich
Big budgets! Big stars! Big explosions! Sometimes, with sci-fi movies, more is more, and there’s perhaps no better example of this than Roland Emmerich’s mid-90s blockbuster Independence Day.
Aliens have invaded Earth (again), and it’s up to Bill Pullman’s POTUS, Will Smith’s fighter pilot and Jeff Goldblum’s scientist nerd genius to work out a way to save humanity. This being the nineties, there’s plenty of heartfelt optimism and a fair bit of American flag-waving, but at the end of the day, it’s up to the whole planet to send these war-happy extraterrestrials packing. A massive supporting cast, an endlessly quotable script and some frenetic effects-laden set pieces make Independence Day one of the most thrilling sci-fi watches and best action movies of all time.
22. Dune: Part Two
Year: 2024
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Frank Herbert published the first Dune book in 1965. The '70s saw at least two stalled attempts to put his ‘unfilmable’ epic on the big screen, and visionary director David Lynch then made a decent stab at it in 1984. However, it took until 2021 for talents and techniques to catch up with what was needed to make a faithful adaptation worthy of the source material.
Off the back of two hugely effective and successful sci-fi bangers – Arrival and Blade Runner 2049 - Denis Villeneuve took on the challenge of Dune, working with a massive ensemble cast and somehow managed to portray the desert world of Arrakis with all the spectacle it warrants. Then, in 2024, the second part came out and blew audiences away even more. Dialling up everything to 11, Villeneuve delivers another sci-fi blockbuster that will no doubt be used as the yardstick for all similar movies to come, the way The Lord of the Rings is used for fantasy. This is how you do it, folks.
Read our Dune: Part 2 review for more information.
21. The Abyss
Year: 1989
Director: James Cameron
The first of four James Caremon movies on this list, The Abyss makes for an exciting – at times terrifying – underwater adventure. Upon release, behind-the-scenes difficulties overshadowed the movie’s actual content, and it was an initial box-office flop. Yet, look past the real-life drama, and The Abyss makes for a wonderful sci-fi movie that features Cameron’s recognisable flourishes – tough-talking military figures, world-leading (though now slightly dated) CGI, and a hugely heartfelt story.
The Abyss follows a crew of American roughnecks who are employed to help discover why a US submarine near the Cayman Trough mysteriously sunk. When they find the wreckage, they discover something truly unexpected. There are a few different cuts out there, and we recommend watching the Director’s Cut.
20. WALL-E
Year: 2008
Director: Andrew Stanton
Almost every original animation produced by Pixar has been a groundbreaking classic. Never has that been more true than with its film, WALL-E (aka one of the best Pixar movies ever made). It tells the story of an ordinary robot who ends up saving the human race.
WALL-E is a bold piece of filmmaking: the opening moments are dialogue-free; the distant future sees humankind becoming blobs of meat, unable to stand on our own two feet; and Earth is a desolate junkyard devoid of life. That’s all pretty heavy for a children’s movie. Yet, amid the bleak dystopian setting is a remarkably heart-warming tale of an innocent, simple droid finding love with a futuristic companion, EVE. There have been few sci-fi movies as oddly romantic.
19. Total Recall
Year: 1990
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Paul Verhoeven’s good at science fiction. A filmmaker of excess, his style seems to naturally lend itself to the high concepts and futuristic visuals of the genre. In 1987, he directed the ultraviolent RoboCop, and a decade later, he made the giant-alien-bug war satire Starship Troopers, but in between, he gave us perhaps his most successful sci-fi movie: Total Recall.
Based on legendary sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick’s novel We Can Remember It For You Wholesale, Total Recall tells the story of Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger), who visits a company that will implant a virtual vacation on Mars into his memory, but a lot of twists and turns arise when it appears that Quaid may, in fact, be a secret agent on a mission to bring down a Martian dictator. Sharon Stone, Michael Ironside and Rachel Ticotin co-star to help tell this story of espionage, corporate greed and social inequality that still packs a punch to this day.
18. Nope
Year: 2022
Director: Jordan Peele
Jordan Peele has made an incredible name for himself in recent years with his hugely successful and entertaining horror films, which deal with enduring Black issues through a genre lens. In 2022, he went bigger, bolder, and more sci-fi with his third film, Nope.
Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer star as a horse-wrangling brother and sister living in inland California who bear witness to a fascinating alien presence and set out to capture evidence of the UFO they name ‘Jean Jacket’. Peele has cited many classic science fiction films as inspiration for Nope, including Jurassic Park, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Signs, and his encyclopaedic knowledge of cinema is on show here for all to see. Nope is a smart and chilling look at Hollywood and exploitative power through a wondrous sci-fi lens.
If you are ready for thrills, read our Nope review.
17. Under the Skin
Year: 2013
Director: Jonathan Glazer
A cold, washed-out Glasgow is an unusual location for a cerebral sci-fi flick. But this is Jonathan Glazer's point: weird shit can happen anywhere, so why not there? Scarlett Johansson stars as a perplexed extraterrestrial disguised as a perplexed young woman who ambles around the Glaswegian streets, luring men into her Transit van.
This is a haunting exercise in painting a mood. Don't go in expecting a dense plot or a clearly outlined goal. This is a surreal, twisted, low-key flick that will gnaw at your brain long after you finish. It also birthed the Scarlett Johansson falling down meme and features the most bizarre response to carrot cake ever.
16. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Year: 2004
Director: Michel Gondry
Director Michel Gondry’s second feature collaboration with Being John Malkovich writer Charlie Kaufman is exactly what you expect from that combination of talent: a sweet, funny, heartbreaking, and maudlin wonder. The movie centres on Joel and Clementine, who meet on a train and are immediately drawn to each other. Turns out, they’ve been in a relationship before, but had their memories erased following a messy breakup.
Eternal Sunshine – which follows their history in reverse as Joel’s memories are torn down around him during the erasure process – is a warm, sad, intelligent, but ultimately hopeful examination of human nature and relationships. It also explores the potential of its concept further than its core story, making for a near-flawless sci-fi movie.
Read our Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind review.
15. Arrival
Year: 2016
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Remember when Hollywood made big-budget, epic sci-fi movies aimed almost exclusively at adults? Denis Villeneuve does. The second of the director’s output to appear on this list, Arrival blends the arresting spectacle of alien contact with the intelligent, distinctly personal story of a linguist recruited to find a way to communicate.
Favouring affecting, emotional drama and the discussion of big questions over lasers and explosions, Arrival’s maturity and sophistication – highlighted by some fantastic lead performances, namely Amy Adams (robbed of an Oscar nomination) – made it one of the best movies of 2016. It's also on our list of the best alien movies of all time because it's just that good.
14. Interstellar
Year: 2014
Director: Christopher Nolan
Christopher Nolan is a filmmaker who plays with big concepts: memory, dreams, time, love, and war. So it makes sense that he has made some of the most ambitious and fascinating science fiction movies of the last couple of decades. Interstellar is Nolan’s foray into 'hard sci-fi', seeing him heading into space with the crew of the spaceship Endurance as it searches for habitable planets as a new home for humankind.
Interstellar was nominated for five Academy Awards and won Best Visual Effects, recognising its extensive use of practical and miniature effects to create a vision of life beyond Earth. Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Ellen Burstyn, Matt Damon, and Michael Caine all star in this breathtaking exploration of space - and love and loss.
Read our Interstellar review for more insights.
13. Godzilla Minus One
Year: 2023
Director: Takashi Yamazaki
It has been 70 years since Godzilla first graced the big screen. Ishiro Honda’s 1954 classic is a wonderful, poignant, ahead-of-its-time masterpiece that spawned an entire genre of big Japanese monster movies and introduced us to one of the most enduring characters in science fiction.
With so many iterations of Godzilla out there to enjoy, including huge Hollywood productions currently wowing audiences, it’s truly remarkable that one movie should come along and stand out so far from the crowd. Takashi Yamazaki’s Godzilla Minus One goes back to its roots, pitting the big guy against Japan reeling from the nuclear attacks at the end of World War II and painting a picture of humanity’s enduring hope and persistence in the process. If you didn’t have been moved to tears by a Godzilla film on your bingo card, we’ve got news for you.
Are you a monster fan? Read our Godzilla Minus One review for more.
12. The Fly
Year: 1986
Director: David Cronenberg
The ‘80s were pretty good for sci-fi movie remakes. There was The Thing (spoilers, more on that later) and The Fly, the latter of which was redone by horror maestro David Cronenberg and stars Jeff Goldblum as a scientist attempting to crack a teleportation code. Naturally, things go wrong when his DNA becomes spliced with that of a fly, thanks to a problematic trial. It's not long before the fly DNA starts to take control.
The Fly is one of the best horror movies in terms of gore and shock value. Every stage of Goldblum's transformation into the fly is gross – and you'll never be able to look at a doughnut the same way ever again.
11. The Thing
Year: 1982
Director: John Carpenter
John Carpenter’s ultimate creature feature. The title might be hokey, but The Thing remains one of the most gloriously splattery and tense horrors of all time. A group of Americans (including Kurt Russell’s R.J MacReady) are stationed at an Antarctic research facility and take on an alien thing that infects blood.
There’s intense paranoia as the party begins to fall apart as the infection spreads, but it’s the very real, oh-so-touchable nature of the nasties at work here that’s so disturbing. The practical effects – the responsibility of a young Rob Bottin and uncredited Stan Winston – are the true stars as arms are eaten by chests, decapitated heads sprout legs, and bodies are elongated and stretched. The macabre vision of these murderous monsters at work is never anything less than true nightmare fuel.
10. Akira
Year: 1988
Director: Katsuhiro Otomo
Katsuhiro Otomo’s seminal 1988 anime film Akira combined groundbreaking animation and complex sci-fi storytelling that went on to help bring the medium to Western audiences and solidify a worldwide market for one of Japan’s most successful entertainment exports.
Based on Otomo’s manga of the same name, Akira is set in a dystopian 2019 Neo-Tokyo and follows Kaneda, the leader of a motorcycle gang whose childhood friend, Tetsuo, accidentally acquires telekinetic abilities and endangers the whole metropolis. Secret military projects, psychic powers, nuclear threats and body horror are all on show here in one of the best anime movies and sci-fi films ever made.
9. The Terminator
Year: 1984
Director: James Cameron
Low budget, high concept, The Terminator borrows from oodles of genres to tell a love story set in a world of machines. James Cameron’s 1984 flick cast Arnold Schwarzenegger as the eponymous character, a cyborg sent back in time to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), the mother of future resistance leader John. The resistance sends her a protector in the form of Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn), who will do anything to keep her safe.
The Terminator, of course, put James Cameron on the map, proving his skills at world-building, character development, and genre were exceedingly good. While its sequel had the bigger budget, it’s impressive to witness the ingenuity of the production, giving us a tightly-plotted thriller with some of the best ‘80s set pieces.
8. Back to the Future
Year: 1985
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Back to the Future remains the quintessential time-travel movie. The movie’s twisting, looping, self-aware causality is a fantastic feat of writing, pacing, and wit. But the high-concept is only part of what makes Back to the Future a classic.
Where other sci-fi movies will hinge everything on an intergalactic conquest or saving entire worlds, Back to the Future’s stakes never get bigger than Marty protecting his family. And with so much iconography crammed into its runtime, it’s hard not to have Robert Zemeckis’ movie on a list of best sci-fi movies of all time.
Read our five-star Back to the Future review for more on this classic.
7. The Empire Strikes Back
Year: 1980
Director: Irvin Kershner
It’s no overstatement to say the original Star Wars changed cinema forever – its mix of pulpy adventure, aliens, spaceships, robots, smugglers, “hokey religions and ancient weapons” was unlike anything we’d seen before. Needless to say, planet Earth was smitten. Luckily for us, George Lucas had plenty more story to tell.
The Empire Strikes Back isn't only the Best Star Wars movie (bar the original), but it also redefined what a sequel could do. Not only does the follow-up expand the galaxy Lucas built, but shockingly, for the time, it turned out to only be the middle part of a much wider story. Every Star Wars movie since has been measured up against Empire, but none have been as shocking or included such a phenomenal cliffhanger.
6. Alien
Year: 1979
Director: Ridley Scott
Ridley Scott’s horror/sci-fi mixing masterpiece centres on the crew of the Nostromo, who are sent to investigate a distress call from an abandoned alien spaceship. Things, as you would expect, go horribly wrong as a Xenomorph gets on board and the hunt begins.
The Giger-designed alien is as terrifying a monster as you could wish for. The dread goes much deeper than teeth and claws, though. This creature represents a multilayered, bottomless pit of psychosexual horror, its very form praying on a raft of primal terrors. Plus, the visual ambiguity of Scott's direction during the final act is an absolute masterclass in 'What's that in the shadows?' tension. A movie working on so many different levels.
5. Jurassic Park
Year: 1993
Director: Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg had already made two groundbreaking sci-fi movies, E.T. the Extraterrestrial and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which focused on visitors from other worlds. However, in 1993, he turned his attention to an adaptation of Michael Crichton’s novel Jurassic Park and more terrestrial concerns: namely, what would happen if humans existed on Earth at the same time as dinosaurs.
Thanks to a combination of massive, intricate puppets and CGI, unlike anything the world had seen before, Jurassic Park brought these prehistoric creatures to life before our eyes, and the special effects still feel like they haven't aged. Along with charismatic performances from the likes of Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Samuel L. Jackson and Richard Attenborough, a quote-laden script and an ear-worm worthy score, this jaw-dropping sci-fi picture broke records and continues to charm audiences to this day.
4. The Matrix
Year: 1999
Directors: Lana Wachowski and Lilly Wachowski
In 1999, the Wachowskis unleashed The Matrix onto the world, and we’ve never looked back. Groundbreaking action sequences, iconic world-building, legendary characters, mind-bending iconography, and a pumping soundtrack all added up to create one of the best sci-fi movies of all time.
The Matrix follows Neo (in a career-defining performance from Keanu Reeves) as a hacker who has his world turned upside down when he learns that humanity is actually living inside a simulation created by our machine overlords who harvest our physical bodies for electricity. Alongside Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Lawrence Fishburne and Hugo Weaving all turn in phenomenal performances in this phenomenal movie that bundles philosophical questions of identity, faith, purpose, reality and destiny into a sci-fi action masterpiece.
3. Blade Runner
Year: 1982
Director: Ridley Scott
Easily one of the most enduring and ambitious sci-fi movies ever made, Blade Runner uses its high concept – a man trying to discover whether other ‘people’ are actually androids known as replicants – to deliver a deeply moving tale that asks questions of humanity in a nihilistic, synthetic universe.
While at its core, Blade Runner is a noir detective story; the layers go so much deeper. In one of his greatest roles, Harrison Ford’s performance as Rick Deckard - our titular Blade Runner - anchors us in Ridley Scott’s futuristic world of skyscrapers, neon and rain, but it’s arguably Rutger Hauer’s on-the-run replicant Roy Batty who steals every scene. Add to this the fact that the whole thing is based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by science fiction legend Philip K. Dick, and it’s not surprising that Blade Runner appears so highly on our list of the best sci-fi movies of all time.
2. Star Wars
Year: 1977
Director: George Lucas
Star Wars, later given the subtitle A New Hope, changed the face of science fiction in 1977. A timeless tale of good versus evil, this movie inspired a generation of fans and filmmakers alike. Star Wars exists within a dirty, lived-in universe, which somehow feels so real.
Lucas weaves the hero’s journey into an intergalactic reality, making for an amazing watch that has spawned one of the most loyal fanbases of any intellectual property ever. It made icons of its stars - Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher, to name but a few - and catapulted the sci-fi genre beyond the stratosphere. Yes, there have been countless sequels, TV shows, comics, and video games set in the Star Wars timeline, but none of them can quite compare to the original.
1. 2001: A Space Odyssey
Year: 1968
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Released a full year before Neil Armstrong took one small step for mankind, 2001: A Space Odyssey took one giant leap for cinema. Stanley Kubrick’s seminal epic – an adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke’s short story The Sentinel – breaks down the barriers between lofty, cerebral sci-fi and more accessible mainstream fare. Simplifying the story is no easy task. On a basic level, the majority of 2001 centres on a team travelling through space, only for their robotic command centre to turn evil. Yet, around that, we also see the birth of mankind and our evolution into something greater.
One of the most iconic and influential sci-fi movies of all time, 2001 still feels incredibly modern today, thanks to its stunning cinematography and practical effects. Every frame is a wonderfully detailed painting, and you need to experience this cinematic spectacle on the biggest screen possible. Immerse yourself in Kubrick’s masterpiece and you’ll immediately understand why we’ve ranked 2001: A Space Odyssey the best sci-fi movie of all time.
Read our 2001: A Space Odyssey review for more details.
Want more best movie lists? Then check out our list of the best time travel movies of all time and all the movies to watch before Alien: Romulus.
