If cinema is an invitation to escape the real world, there's no better place to go to then the stars. However, while there are p꧂lenty of movies about space travel 🔜circling the cosmos, which ones are actually worth watching?
Even befo꧟re the Space Race, which kicked off in 1961 after the Russians launched the Vostok 1 spacecraft, artists of all stripes were inspired by the endless expanse of outer space. It was the "next frontier" &nd🐠ash; a whole new road paved by the bricks of innovation and brilliance. Finally, in 1969, mankind took its giant leap when the Apollo 11 mission put the first-ever human beings on the Moon's surface.
Science fiction is a popular movie genre, as you might already know. But not all the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:best sci-fi movies venture into the great unknown. Similarly, not all "space movies" are science fiction. From period pieces set during the politically-cha♔rged Space Race to contemporary dramas that happen to deal with astronauts, some movies that take place lightyears away actually hit close to home.
If you're feeling stuck and wonder what it might be like to be in the vastness of the universe, here are the greatest 35 movies about 🐷space travel to get you there.
35. The Midnight Sky
Year: 2020
Director: George Clooney
In George Clooeny's seventh feature as a director, the actor/filmmaker/Nespresso salesman looked to the stars for Netflix's movie The Midnight Sky. Based on the 2016 novel by Lily Brooks-Dalton, Clooney stars as𝓰 an emotionally detached academic living in isolation in the Arctic in the aftermath of a widespread disaster that has poisoned Earth's atmosphere. But Clooney isn't actually alone, as he finds company in a stranded mute girl (C🦩aoilinn Springall) and tries to warn a spaceship from returning to Earth. Though Clooney's haunted protagonist doesn't really go into space himself, The Midnight Sky is a worthy slow ride through the stars.
34. Armageddon
Year: 1998
Director: Michael Bay
When Earth is in danger, who else ca🃏n save it but Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck? In Michael Bay's bombastic classic, all of Earth is in danger as an as🍰teroid is headed straight into the blue planet's path. The urgency compels NASA to recruit and train a team of rugged oil drillers to become astronauts and break up the rock before it's too late. While it saw heated competition with the similar sci-fi disaster epic Deep Impact, Armageddon is summer movie goodness that plays out like an arena rock anthem. It's silly, loud, and the peak of Michael Bay's awesome powers. Don't close your eyes, because you don't want to miss a thing.
26. Gravity
Year: 2013
Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Sandra Bullock goes where no man or woman has ever gone before – and no one in their right mind would ever want to. In Alfonso Cuarón's white-knuckle thrꦓiller Gravity, the Oscar-winning star plays an astronaut whose spacewalk around Earth's orbit ends in disaster, leaving her untethered to float in space. As Bullock's Dr. Ryan Stone tries to find pur🍷pose again, she endures psychological traumas and emotional distress beyond reason. Gravity makes the most of its A-list star, as if Bullock has her own gravitational pull that draws us in even closer.
25. Alien
Year: 1979
Director: Ridley Scott
What awaits us in the dark corners of space? Ridley Scott's sci-fi masterwork Alien shows precisely what terrors lurk beyond. Set aboard a commercial space tug ship, Scott's Alien sees the crew of the Nostromo answer a distress call only to inadvertently bring aboard an acid-spewing menace of unknown origin. Alien not only made Sigourney Weaver a star and launched a franchise but also redefined science fiction on the big screen with its mature approach to the genre and eye-popping production design. It's easy to see why this film kickstarted the澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询: Alien timeline and why it's an easy addition to 𝓡teh list of t꧃he best movies about space travel.
24. WALL-E
Year: 2008
Director: Andrew Stanton
Humanity has left Earth behind and, in the comfort of automation, has forgotten what it means to plant roots. In Pixar's celebrated family-friendly adventure, the humble little robot WALL-E is left behind to clean up a ravaged, devastated Earth. While falling in love with cutting-edge EVE, WALL-E's adventures slowly beckon the remnants of humanity back to Earth. A massive hit for both Pixar and Disney, WALL-E is an achievement of animated filmmaking, invitingဣ as it is foreboding in its warning that humanity really only has one planet to call ♊home.
23. Apollo 13
Year: 1995
Director: Ron Howard
Houston, we have a problem. In the shadow of the Moon landing came the Apollo 13 mission inꦅ 1970, where mankind's third visit to the Moon is interrupted by a harrowing explosion, thus turning a visit into a rescue mission. In 1995, the events of Apollo 13 were recounted and dramatized with director Ron Howard's critically acclaimed Apollo 13, which stars Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, and Bill Paxton as real-life astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise, respectively.🌺 Apollo 13 may not have led mankind further into the stars, but its legacy in inspiring one of the greatest NASA movies is undeniable.
22. Moon
Year: 2009
Director: Duncan Jones
Duncan Jones' acclaimed 2009 sci-fi Moon, which topped a list of most scientifically accurate movies in an October 2013 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Trends in Cognitive ꦡScience, follows an isolated and troubled space miner (Sam Rockwell) whose three-year job mining helium-3 on the Moon finally nears its end. But on the brink of his return home, an accident changes everything. Though produced on a minuscule budget, Jones' engrossing Moon makes the most of every penny, with a compelling Sam Rockwell as the movie's chief anchor that gives this zero-gravity drama all its weight.
21. Event Horizon
Year: 1997
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Although Paul W.S. Anderson has built his career with questionable video game adaptations, his few forays into original material have proved formidable, most especially with 1997's Event Horizon. Laurence Fishburne stars as a rescue crew captain whose team is dispatched to investigate Event Horizon, a previously missing spaceship that has suddenly reappeared near Neptune. B꧑ut something is aboard Event Horizon, and it doesn't come in peace. Easily one of Anderson's best movies as a director, Event Horizon endures as a cult classic whose legacy becomes more apparent with each passing turn around the sun.
20. Solaris
Year: 1972
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky
Conceived as a counter-argument to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, Andrei Tarkovsky's influential Russian sci-fi Solaris follows a psychologist (Donatas Banionis) who is sent to psycho-analyze a crew aboard a space station near the planet Solaris. However, the psychologist experiences some problems of his own when he sees visions of his deceased wife. While Kubrick's glossy sci-fi epic imagined the unspeakable horrors that await mankind's forward progress, Tarkovsky's Solaris looks inward, interrogating our collective erosion as we tread further into infinite spac🤡e and beyond.
19. Deep Impact
Year: 1998
Director: Mimi Leder
Michael Bay's Armageddon envisione🍷d the imminent disaster of something colliding with Earth as a rollercoaster spectacle, but Mimi Leder's Deep Impact saw it for the existential horror it really is. Where Armageddon had an asteroid to worry about, Deep Impact deals with an incoming comet big enough to wipe out all life on Earth. Humanity, united by Morgan Freeman as President of the United States, works to bunker down while a team of American and Russian astronauts head off to space to blow up the rock with nukes. Compared tღo the rollicking Armageddon, Deep Impact lives up to its very title as a surprisingly somber and serious disaster thriller that's light on laughs and heavy on the heart.
18. Star Trek
Year: 2009
Director: J.J. Abrams
Since 1966, the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Star Trek timeline has taken audiences worldwide to the farthest reaches of the final frontier. With over a dozen movies and counting, it's hard to pin down just one Star Trek movie that's worth hitching a ride onto. (And ask any Trekkie: Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan is untouchable.) But J.J. Abrams' 2009 reboot movie is something special, being an accessible adventure anyone can sink into regardless if they speak Klingon or not. In this cinematic remake of the original series, Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) and the crew of the USS Enterprise fly their maiden voyage, going up against an enemy from a much different time. 🐈While virtually any Trek movie can satisfy, Abrams' Star Trek goes to warp speeꦡd.
