When it comes to science fiction, there's no shortage of thrills and chills on the big screen. But how do you narrow down your picks of the greatest sci-fi movies? Well, we've attempted to do just that. Spanning decades, we've gone back to the '60s and worked our way through to th🌱e present day, looking to Hollywood and beyond.
You'll find plenty of classics in this directed by the greats, from Stanley Kubrick to Steven Spielberg and Ridley Scott to the Wachowski sisters, but we've also looked further afield to releases that may have slipped under your radar. From alien invasions to space travel and time-hopping, 💙it's all here in our guide to the greatest sci-fi movies to grace our scr🧸eens.
32. The Fifth Element (1997)
Bruce Willis is a taxi driver with the fate of the planet in his hands in 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:The Fifth Element. After a mysterious young woman named Leeloo (Milla Jovovich) – literally – falls into Korben Dallas' cab, he joins forces with her to help find four mystical stones. Without these stones, there's no way to protect Earth against an imminent attack from a deadly, alien force led by the villainous Zor💃g (Gary Oldman). When it was released, The Fifth Element was the most expensive European movie ev🐷er made, and its campy, outlandish style won't be to everyone's tastes. If that sounds up your alley, though, it doesn't get better than this.
31. Attack the Block (2011)
If aliens were to ever invade Earth, Hollywood blockbusters would have us believe that New York City is likely to be the target. But, what if, alien invaders picked a south London council estate as their target instead? That's the premise of Joe Cornish's debut feature 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Attack the Block, which stars John Boyega in his breakout role. Putting a fresh spin on the genre, the movie follows a gang of teens who have to protect themselves – and thei🌠r community – from dangerous alien forces. It's funny, fresh, and features Jodie Whittaker fighting aliens almost half a decade before she became the Doctor.
30. Blade (1998)
Marvel movies wi⛄ll never get cooler than Blade. Wesley Snipes plays the titular character, a vampire hunter who also happens to be half-vampire himself. His mother was attacked by a vampire while in labor, which means that he has all the strengths of a vampire but none of their weaknesses. His path crosses with Karen (N'Bushe Wright), a hematologist searching for a cure for vampirism. It's bold, funny, and downright iconic. The rave scene at the start of the movie, where vampires dance while blood sprays from the ceiling? Chef's kiss.
29. 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)
Sci-fi sequel 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:10 Cloverfield Lane brings a claustrophobic twist to the world established in its predecessor, 2008's found-footage film Cloverfield. Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays Michelle, who crashes he🥀r car after fleeing an argument with her fiancé and wakes up in an underground bunker under the care of a man named Howard (John Goodman, serving up a chilling perf💃ormance). He tells her that he brought her to safety as the air outside had become poisonous and everyone else had died. Initially distrustful, Michelle discovers evidence to support Howard's theory, but not everything is as it seems.
28. The Invisible Man (2020)
Leigh Wannell's remake of the 1933 movie 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:The Invisible Man (based in turn on HG Wells' novel) puts a modern sci-fi twist on a classic horror-tinged tale. Elizabeth Moss stars as Cecilia, a woman who escapes an abusive relationship but believes she's being stalked and harmed by her ex-boyfriend Adrian (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), who seemingly died by suicide shortly after her escape. As an optics engineerꦚ, Cecilia believes Adrian has found a way to make himself invisible. No one around her believes her, but when her loved ones start to suffer too, Cecilia must take it upon herself to stop Adrian once and for all. Moss gives a powerhouse performance as an abuse survivor taking her fate into her own hands.
27. The Host (2006)
Parasite director Bong Joon-ho's 2006 foray into sci-fi, The Host, takes the form of a monste꧋r movie epic. Song Kang-ho stars as Gang-du, a hapless slacker working in his father's shop, whose teenage daughter Hyun-seo (Go Ah-sung) is kidnapped by a monster that emerges from the Han River. The monster mutates from the river's wildlife as a result of the US military dumping bottles of formaldehyde ☂into the river, and Bong was inspired by a real-life scandal in South Korea in the early '00s. The movie was a hit at the box office upon its release, smashing South Korean records.
26. Fantastic Planet (1973)
Now for 𓆉something a little more experimental. Set in the distant future, the surreal, psychedelic Fantastic Planet is set on a planet where hu🧔mans (AKA Oms) are treated as animals by giant blue creatures called Traags – some are kept as pets, while others live in the wilderness and are occasionally hunted to control the population. When Terr, an Om, escapes from his Traag owner, he falls in with a band of radical Oms resisting their oppressors. The movie uses distinctive cutout animation techniques and incorporates an atmospheric jazz soundtrack that's been sampled by artists from Run the Jewels to Madlib.
25. 12 Monkeys (1995)
Set in the near future where humanity has been pushed underground due to a deadly virus, 12 Monkeys stars Bruce Willis as James Cole, a convict sent back in ti🍸me to find the disease's origin and help scientists find a cure in exchange for reduced jail time. A group known as the Army of the 12 Monkeys is thought to have engineered the virus, but Cole is drafted to find the truth. Directed by Terry Gilliam, the movie was inspired by La Jetée, a French short film from 1962. It also stars Christopher Plummer and Brad Pitt, the latter of whom was nominated for an Oscar for his performance.
24. Annihilation (2018)
Based on Jeff VanderMeer's bestselling novel of the same name, Annihilation follows biologist and former soldier Lena (Natalie Portman). After her husband Kane (Oscar Isaac), the only survivor of an expedition to 'the Shimmer', is taken sick, Lena is recruited to join another mission to explore the mysterious zone. While the cause of it is unknown, the Shimmer causes the animals and plants inside it to mutate – and Lena and he⛦r team are quick to find out that this often has dire consequences. As their expedition grows more and more treacherous, Lena is desperate to find out just what, exactly, happened to Kane.
23. Moon (2009)
Sam Rockwell stars in Moon, the directorial debut from Duncan Jones. He plays Sam, who's nearing the end of a three-year solitary stint on the moon mining helium-3, an alternative source of fuel. His communication channels to Earth are plagued by technical difficulties, so his main source of c꧑ontact is GERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey), his robotic companion. With only two weeks to go until he can return home, Sam starts to experience vivid hallucinations that prompt a personal crisis. Moon is a stark, thoroughly human film that's pretty impressive as 🥂far as directorial debuts go.
22. Ex Machina (2014)
Before Annihilation, Alex Garland made his directorial debut with AI psychological thriller 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Ex Machina. Domhnall Gleeson stars as Caleb, a search engine programmer who wins a competition to spend a week at the luxurious, isolated home of the company's CEO, Nathan (Oscar Isaac). Upon arrival, though, he learns that Nathan has bigger plans for Caleb, involving a humanoid robot named Ava (Alicia Vikander). As Caleb grows closer tꦗo Ava, he grows increasingly w𒅌ary of Nathan – and his plans for Ava. Garland's movie is genuinely chilling, with a closing scene that will leave you feeling positively queasy.
