Reviewing Aliens and hearing from folks who remembered it fondly got me thinking about what readers here consider the best sci-fi movies. So, of course, I went to YouTube. And here’s the list.
- The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
- Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)
- Aliens (1986)
- Jurassic Park (1993)
- The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
- The Matrix (1999)
- Children of Men (2006)
- Planet of the Apes (1968)
- The War of the Worlds (1953)
Now, right off the bat, I disagree with several of the picks. Neither “Planet of the Apes” or “The Day the Earth Stood Still” would be on my top ten movies list. Planet of the Apes isn’t my idea of a sci-fi movie. And The Day the Earth Stood Still is commie propaganda. So, there’s that.
Some of the other movies are pretty good ones. Now as for the order and any additional movies to pad out the top ten I’ll have to give it some thought. But I think it’s a good talking paper to inspire discussion of what each of us considers to be good sci-fi movies.
Now here’s another list (see below). This is IMDB’s “TOP 100 Sci-Fi Movies of All Time.” There are a few commonalities between the top ten of this list with the former list. But one interesting thing I noticed is that once you get past the top of the list the sequels start piling up. Between sequels to “Back to the Future,” “Planet of the Apes,” “Predator,” “Jurassic Park,” “Star Trek” “Alien,” “Terminator” and “Star Wars” we’re looking at a lot of retreads.
What it made me think was that there really aren’t that many really good science fiction movies. There are definitely a lot more good science fiction books than there are good movies. Which I guess is kind of hopeful if you’re an optimist. For instance, I saw that they’ve made a movie out of Asimov’s Foundation stories. I saw the coming attractions. Honestly, I couldn’t tell anything about it at all. It could be great. It could be awful. But at least it’s a new movie. It’s not a sequel.
So, I guess being a science fiction movie fan is all about being an optimist. And in the larger world of science fiction/fantasy movies we were rewarded in the early 2000s with the Lord of the Rings movies. So that tells me miracles can happen. Maybe one day a true fan of Heinlein will reboot “Starship Troopers” without the nazi iconography or might even film “Have Spacesuit Will Travel.”
So, this will be an open thread to get some comments. If you’d like to give your top sci-fi movie list or what story you’d like to see filmed in the future put it in the comments. Later on, I’ll add some more of my own thoughts on what is a proper science fiction movie and what isn’t.
A last question for the audience. Is “Escape from New York” really science fiction?
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- The Terminator
- Planet of the Apes
- Alien
- Blade Runner
- Terminator 2: Judgment Day
- The Matrix
- Back to the Future
- Aliens
- Interstellar
- Contact
- Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back
- The Road Warrior
- Predator
- The Thing
- The Man from Earth
- Edge of Tomorrow
- District 9
- Dark City
- Blade Runner 2049
- A Clockwork Orange
- Gattaca
- Jurassic Park
- Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
- Mad Max
- Starship Troopers
- Minority Report
- 12 Monkeys
- Inception
- Back to the Future Part II
- Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope
- The Abyss
- Looper
- T. the Extra-Terrestrial
- Star Trek: First Contact
- Stargate
- Ex Machina
- Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
- The Truman Show
- Children of Men
- The Martian
- Avatar
- Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi
- The X Files
- Close Encounters of the Third Kind
- Rise of the Planet of the Apes
- Cube
- Star Trek
- RoboCop
- The Time Machine
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers
- War for the Planet of the Apes
- Prometheus
- Total Recall
- They Live
- Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
- Sunshine
- Moon
- Super 8
- I Am Legend
- Signs
- The Fly
- Escape from New York
- Pacific Rim
- Dredd
- Oblivion
- Cloverfield
- Pitch Black
- Godzilla
- Back to the Future Part III
- Limitless
- Deja Vu
- War of the Worlds
- The Matrix Reloaded
- Elysium
- Enemy Mine
- The Butterfly Effect
- Predestination
- I. Artificial Intelligence
- Logan’s Run
- Another Earth
- Independence Day
- The Arrival
- Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
- Predators
- Outlander
- John Carter
- Alien³
- The Lost World: Jurassic Park
- Phenomenon
- Predator 2
- Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones
- Riddick
- Cloud Atlas
- Armageddon
- The Running Man
- The Fifth Element
- Waterworld
- The Day After Tomorrow
- Mimic
Two that are notably absent from both lists: Destination Moon and Forbidden Planet.
The fact that both are missing probably tells us more about who assembled the list and who they asked than about the movies themselves. Both are historically important to this whole movie genre. And both have more right to be on this list than a number of movies that are on it. I mean Waterworld? The Day After Tomorrow? Please!
Forbidden Planet is a good catch! It’s a bit Freudian but I always enjoyed the movie.
I know this will make me look low brow before the world’s sophisticated critics but I never cared for “2001: A Space Odyssey.” As a teen I saw the movie and the ending confused me so I read the book and that confused me too. Looking back on it I now recognize the mystical themes present and would probably understand the ending much better now. I’m not sure I care enough to read it again. I always thought the original Star Wars movie (A New Hope) was the best of the bunch. I don’t understand why “Star Wars: Episode V… Read more »
Glenn, I also saw 2001 as a teen. The psychedelic light show scene is inhumanly long and boring. As far as I can tell, the aliens who left the monolith seem to be a bunch of jerks. I also agree that the original Star Wars movie, whatever they decide to rename it, was the only one that needed to be made. If George Lucas had had any creativity at all he should have taken all the money he made on it and done a few completely different movies. As far as what gets to be called a sci-fi movie it… Read more »
Awesome list, photog! I’ll count _Escape from New York_ as sci-fi.
I picked _The Empire Strikes Back_ as my best film of all time: https://theportlypolitico.com/2023/03/27/monday-morning-movie-review-portlys-top-ten-best-films-1-the-empire-strikes-back-1980/
If I redid the list, it would not be #1, haha, but it’s definitely a great film. Seeing this list, though, I’m realizing there are tons of better films.
Tyler, I think these things are somewhat based on our personal experience. So I won’t claim that my opinion is any more authoritative than the next guy’s but it is interesting what is and isn’t on the list. For instance, “I, Robot” is definitely a science fiction story and I imagine it was quite popular but it’s nowhere to be seen. And yet Waterworld which was an enormous bust monetarily and not some huge artistic success either is on the list. So I guess sci-fi is in the eye of the beholder.
You’re absolutely right about the subjective nature of these lists; I’m just realizing how many classics I forgot in the process!
I have always had a soft spot for Waterworld. It’s such a fascinating concept.
Exactly. And it’s even more complicated than that. I can like a movie and yet be unable to stand a particular scene. Or I can hate amovie but love a single shot in the movie. And there are even movies that I loved then hated and then loved again. We are strange creatures.
I’ll probably get booed off stage for this, but I think “John Carter” belongs on the list.
Yes, it bombed at the theatre – but it was a good story, well told and the visuals were beautiful!
I honestly think that Disney failed in the marketing of the movie. Everyone heard “John Carter” and thought – Oh, another John Wick.
Had they called the movie “John Carter of Mars”, I think they would have done far better.
Also note – there is no wokeness inserted into John Carter.
John Carter was good. These production teams need to hold down production costs so that these movies can earn a profit. How can it cost $400 million dollars to make a movie and $300 million to advertise it? It’s crazy.
1. Metropolis, 1927
2. Godzilla, 1956 Japanese language version
3 Lost World, 1925
4. Forbidden Planet, 1956
5. War of the Worlds, 1953
6. First Men in the Moon, 1964
7. Destination Moon, 1950
8. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, 1954
9. Them!, 1954
10. One Million Years B.C., 1966 (fur bikinis rock!)
10a. Any of the Professor Quartermass movies by Hammer films.
Honorable Mention:
1. Dinosaurus! 1960, it was so bad it was good, hilarious in spots
2. Reptilicus, 1963, a Danish (!) monster movie, again so bad it was hilarious
Thanks for the list, War Pig. Good data.
I would love to see someone make a go at (in no particular order) -The Mote in Gods Eye, Niven & Pournelle -Lucifer’s Hammer, Niven & Pournelle -Anything by Peter F Hamilton -Lord Valentine’s Castle- Robert Silverberg -The Forge of God & the followup book, The Anvil of Stars, Greg Bear -I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, short story, Harlin Ellison -Hyperion, Dan Simmons -Dune, yeah, yeah, I know, it’s been attempted. But I have no idea how to capture the complexity of that book in the context of a movie and apparently neither does anyone else. -A… Read more »
Nice list Tom. Have you seen the 2013 movie version of Ender’s Game
A Niven fan it seems. Anything in Known Space universe would be tempting. Seems a wealth of material there. Lucifer’s Hammer is one of my favs, and would be great. Did you not like Ender’s Game movie? I didn’t think it was too bad.
I somehow missed the existence of the movie version of Ender’s game but now I’m on it.
After you watch it I’d be interested to hear whether you think the movie did justice to the book. It’s funny nowadays the special effects stuff isn’t the problem. It’s finding a director who doesn’t want to reinterpret the story all out of recognition.
It’s a rare movie that can come close to what runs through my head as I read. Notable example: Peter Jackson’s take on Lord of the Rings.
Yes, Jackson did the impossible. He got almost 90% of it just right.
And left out the most important part at the end.
The Scouring of the Shire?
On the money. Of course he totally left out the adventures with Tom Bombadil too.
The new Rings of Power gets a lot of grief, but I actually didn’t think it that bad.
Instead of the three movies he made out of the Hobbit, I would have preferred if he had gone back and finished off the Scouring of the Shire and Tom Bombadil. Even if he didn’t release them in the theater, he could have sold another hundred million new sets of expanded dvds to the hundred million rabid fans. But such is life. I still think of the movies as a miracle of sorts.
Yeah, that would have been cool. Though I do appreciate the efforts he has made in both the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, so not really complaining to much. “Arise, arise, Riders of Theoden!Fell deeds awake: fire and slaughter!spear shall be shaken, shield be splintered,a sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises!Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!” “Sons of Gondor! Of Rohan! My brothers! I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me! A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all… Read more »
Yes. There are places in the action where the film-makers have captured the very heart of the story. One of my favorite scenes is Boromir and Faramir together at Osgiliath. And it’s not even an actual scene from the Lord of the Rings. But the relationship of the brothers rings absolutely true. On the other hand, Denethor is all wrong.