Paste's the 100 Best Sci-fi Movies of All Time
Created by Panunzio.
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Much like its close genre cousin (nephew/niece?) the superhero film, the potential of cinematic science fiction exploded in the latter part of the 20th century thanks to technological advances that transformed special effects. Unlike superhero films, which were so stunted for so long that almost every new one makes it onto our updated 100 Best Superhero Films of All Time list, science fiction proved fertile ground for filmmakers before the likes of Industrial Light & Magic supercharged a director’s ability to exceed our imagination. Thus, this list, while filled with films from the ’80s onward, has its fair share of older films. Before we dive into it, though, let’s discuss a few things this list will not have (or at least, not have many of).
Superhero films are for the most part absent. Though so many superhero stories involve the stuff of science fiction—aliens, high-tech and strange worlds—there are plenty of great sci-fi movies to include on this list without bumping 20 of them off for DC and the MCU. (We’ve made an exception for one entry because the space opera underpinnings were too strong to ignore.) We’ve also left off, for the most part, the traditional giant monster/kaiju movie for the same reason. If you want a nice roundup of Godzilla’s greatest hits, check out our own Jim Vorel’s ranking of Godzilla’s cinematic oeuvre. (For the real kaiju rank-o-phile, Jim has also taken the measure of every Godzilla monster.) Finally, joining superheroes and kaiju on the sidelines, are the post-apocalyptic (and a few mid-apocalyptic) films. Though, again, there are a few exceptions, for the most part you will not find Mad Max here, or Eli, or even that guy who is Legend. (I see you frowning—“But will there be dystopias,” you ask? Hell yeah, we got dystopias.)
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1 -
2001: A Space Odyssey
1968, in 45 top lists Check -
2 -
Blade Runner
1982, in 36 top lists Check -
3 -
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back
1980, in 25 top lists Check -
4 -
Aliens
1986, in 24 top lists Check -
5 -
Star Wars
1977, in 40 top lists Check -
6 -
Stalker
1979, in 22 top lists Check -
7 -
Under the Skin
2013, in 10 top lists Check -
8 -
Brazil
1985, in 23 top lists Check -
9 -
Alien
1979, in 30 top lists Check -
10 -
La jetée
1962 — a.k.a. La Jetée, in 19 top lists Check -
11 -
The Matrix
1999, in 30 top lists Check -
12 -
RoboCop
1987, in 15 top lists Check -
13 -
The Day the Earth Stood Still
1951, in 12 top lists Check -
14 -
Back to the Future
1985, in 25 top lists Check -
15 -
Back to the Future Part II
1989, in 6 top lists Check -
16 -
Back to the Future Part III
1990, in 6 top lists Check -
17 -
WALL·E
2008, in 26 top lists Check -
18 -
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
1991, in 27 top lists Check -
19 -
Solyaris
1972 — a.k.a. Solaris, in 28 top lists Check -
20 -
Metropolis
1927, in 36 top lists Check -
21 -
Jurassic Park
1993, in 23 top lists Check -
22 -
The Iron Giant
1999, in 14 top lists Check -
23 -
The Terminator
1984, in 24 top lists Check -
24 -
Her
2013, in 10 top lists Check -
25 -
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
1977, in 23 top lists Check -
26 -
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2004, in 28 top lists Check -
27 -
Akira
1988, in 22 top lists Check -
28 -
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
1982, in 31 top lists Check -
29 -
The Fly
1958, in 4 top lists Check -
30 -
The Fly
1986, in 11 top lists Check -
31 -
They Live
1988, in 7 top lists Check -
32 -
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
1982, in 6 top lists Check -
33 -
Je t'aime, je t'aime
1968, in 3 top lists Check -
34 -
The Thing
1982, in 20 top lists Check -
35 -
A Clockwork Orange
1971, in 37 top lists Check -
36 -
La planète sauvage
1973 — a.k.a. Fantastic Planet, in 10 top lists Check -
37 -
Total Recall
1990, in 8 top lists Check -
38 -
Forbidden Planet
1956, in 9 top lists Check -
39 -
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
1978, in 3 top lists Check -
40 -
The Fifth Element
1997, in 7 top lists Check -
41 -
Seconds
1966, in 10 top lists Check -
42 -
Predator
1987, in 9 top lists Check -
43 -
Welt am Draht
1973 — a.k.a. World on a Wire, in 2 top lists Check -
44 -
Ex Machina
2014, in 5 top lists Check -
45 -
Planet of the Apes
1968, in 16 top lists Check -
46 -
Starship Troopers
1997, in 9 top lists Check -
47 -
Blade Runner 2049
2017, in 9 top lists Check -
48 -
Arrival
2016, in 11 top lists Check -
49 -
Primer
2004, in 6 top lists Check -
50 -
Annihilation
2018, in 3 top lists Check
Last updated on Jan 29, 2022 by Panunzio; source