36 best sci-fi films for 10/10 escapism
Robots and artificial intelligence. Far-flung galaxies and planets. Futuristic realms and alternate universes. Anyone craving a round-up of the best sci-fi films?
Science fiction is a genre that ignites our imaginations and transports us from our normal lives to mind-bending worlds. And given the pretty bleak state of the world we're in right now, a good immersive sci-fi flick is just what we need.
Our fascination with what the future might look like launched the sci-fi genre way before our technology-obsessed age, with authors such as Isaac Asimov and H.G. Wells writing fantastical adventures and dystopian tales in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Their classic novels even inspired some of the best-loved sci-fi films of our generation (I, Robot; The War of the Worlds; and more recently, The Invisible Man starring one of our all-time faves, Elisabeth Moss).
You're welcome.
Hit shows such as Stranger Things have reignited our love of science fiction and fantasy, giving a fresh take on dark underworlds and ghoulish otherworldly monsters – something once associated with teenage boys reading comic books. Did Millie Bobby Brown make sci-fi cool again? Or are all now just embracing our inner nerd with pride?
Whatever you think, there's never been a better time to delve into the world's offering of sci-fi flicks from Interstellar to Jordan Peele's Nope and AI classic Her. Read on for our pick of the best sci-fi films around.
If you love a good watch check out the other best Netflix documentaries, true crime documentaries and date night movies, or our ultimate roundup of the best tv series in the meantime.
The Bride!
Maggie Gyllenhaal's glorious take on the story of Frankenstein's Bride – starring Jessie Buckley, Christian Bale and Jake Gyllenhaal –is a bit of sci-fi, bit of romance, bit of horror, bit of everything. And we can't wait to see it.
The Bride! is out in cinemas on 6 March.
©MGM/Courtesy Everett CollectionProject Hail Mary
In this three-hour movie romp, Ryan Gosling plays a science teacher who wakes up finding himself light years from Earth in outer space. He eventually figures out that he must stop a substance from destroying the Sun and therefore the Earth. We are here for Ryan in sci-fi hero mode.
Project Hail Mary is out in cinemas on 20 March.
Frankenstein
Jacob Elordi (arguably the man of the moment) plays Frankenstein's monster in Guillermo del Toro's reimagining of Mary Shelley's classic novel. The main takeaway? The discovery that the movie set off a trend of lusting after monsters.
Watch on: Netflix
™/© 2024 Netflix. Used with permission.The Electric State
Millie Bobby Brown plays an orphaned girl in search of her brother, setting out on a mission to find him in a futuristic world with the help of a robot named Cosmo. She ends up joining up with a smuggler named Keats (Chris Pratt) in order to survive the crumbling society as they search for her remaining family. We're getting slight Star Wars vibes.
Watch on: Netflix
Mickey 17
Parasite director Bong Joon Ho's latest project, starring Robert Pattinson, tells the story of Mickey, who joins a space colony as an "expendable", who is cloned each time he dies.
Magnus Jønck/Magnolia PicturesThe Assessment
Starring a whole host of Hollywood talent – Elizabeth Olsen, Alicia Vikander, Charlotte Ritchie, Himesh Patel, Minnie Driver and Indira Varma – The Assessment takes us to dystopian world where parenthood is so tightly controlled that would-be parents have to pass an assessment to achieve the right to have a child.
Watch on: Amazon Prime Video
New Line PicturesCompanion
Starring Sophie Thatcher and Jack Quaid, Companion sees a group of friends' weekend getaway descend into chaos after it's discovered that one of the guests is a (malfunctioning) companion robot. Eeek.
Watch on: Amazon Prime Video
©Netflix/Courtesy Everett CollectionUglies (2024)
Based on the novel of the same name, Uglies – starring Joey King and Laverne Cox – tells a dystopian story of a society divided into Uglies and Pretties, with everyone enduring mandatory cosmetic surgery to make themselves “pretty” at the age of 16.
Watch on: Netflix
Courtesy Everett CollectionEverything Everywhere All At Once (2022)
Seriously clever, and seriously (wonderfully) weird. Michelle Yeoh plays a Chinese immigrant who must connect different versions of herself through various bizarre parallel universes to stop someone (who we won't name, because spoilers) from harming the multiverse. Also starring Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu and Jamie Lee Curtis.
Watch on: Amazon Prime Video
Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett CollectionDune: Part Two (2024)
In the second Dune instalment, we see Timothée Chalamet reunite with Zendaya's Chani on a mission to seek revenge on those who destroyed his family. He ends up having to choose between the love of his life and the fate of the universe – compelling stuff.
Watch on: Amazon Prime Video
Amazon/Everett CollectionFoe (2023)
Based on the psychological thriller novel of the same name by Iain Reid, Foe – starring Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal – tells the story of a young couple living in isolation, whose lives and relationship are thrown into turmoil when a strangers comes to visit with a strange, life-changing proposition.
Watch on: Amazon Prime Video
20th Century Fox/Everett CollectionAlien (1979)
A spacecraft crew encounter a “deadly lifeform” while investigating a mysterious transmission. The first in Ridley Scott's terrifying Alien movie series, we see our protagonists woken up from their cryo-sleep capsules because a of a distress call from an alien vessel. Once on board, they find true horrors inside.
Watch on: Amazon Prime Video
Everett CollectionHigh Life (2018)
Starring Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche and Mia Goth and directed by Claire Denis, the movie is set in a place beyond our solar system and in the future. After a space mission goes horribly wrong, a father and daughter must try to survive living in isolation.
Watch on: Apple TV+
Warner BrosDune
Arguably, it is one of the most epic science fiction films of the century. It's the first part of an adaptation of the 1965 novel of the same name, which is all about a noble family at war on a deadly planet named Arrakis – set in the future, of course. Dune boasts a mammoth cast, including Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Chang Chen, Jason Momoa, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin and Rebecca Ferguson.
Watch on: Amazon Prime Video
SonyBlade Runner 2049 (2017)
A new take on the 1982 classic, this next Blade Runner instalment is set in the future (2049, obviously) and explores K (Ryan Gosling)'s search for a former, missing blade runner (Harrison Ford), in the hope for answers after discovering a threatening secret that could cause chaos.
Watch on: Amazon Prime Video
Twentieth Century FoxSunshine (2007)
Directed by Danny Boyle (who also led The Beach, starring Leonardo DiCaprio), Sunshine looks at what happens with a team of astronauts go on a mission to reignite a dying Sun with a nuclear bomb. It's set in 2057 and stars Cillian Murphy and Michelle Yeoh.
Watch on: Disney+
NBC UniversalNope (2022)
Jordan Peele's sci-fi smash stars Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer as horse wranglers who are attempting to capture evidence of UFOs on camera. It is SO weird, but very compelling. Also look out for The Walking Dead and Beef's Steven Yeun and Barbie Ferreira in supporting roles.
Watch on: Amazon Prime Video
Cinematic / Alamy Stock PhotoHer (2013)
In quite an interesting look at romance in a digital age, Her sees a man (Joaquin Phoenix) develop a relationship with an “operating system” (with the voice of Scarlett Johansson) that is designed to meet his every need. Having just come out of a marriage, what starts as a friendship with the “programme” becomes much deeper.
Watch on: Amazon Prime Video
Jonathan OlleyRogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
A female-fronted prequel to the original Star Wars movie, Rogue One stars Felicity Jones as Jyn Erso, whose father is taken by the evil Empire to help complete what will become the Death Star. So we see Jyn join a group of rebels who want to steal the blueprints.
Watch on: Disney+
WARNER BROTHERSInterstellar (2014)
Christopher Nolan's HUGE film about a NASA quest to find a planet outside of our solar system for Earth's residents to inhabit is a must-watch for any sci-fi enthusiasts. The cast is unforgettable, including Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Mackenzie Foy, Timothée Chalamet, Matt Damon and Michael Caine. Need we say more?
Watch on: Amazon Prime Video
©Twentieth Century FoxNever Let Me Go (2010)
Starring Andrew Garfield, Keira Knightley and Carey Mulligan and based on a novel of the same name by Kazuo Ishiguro. It tells the story of three boarding school children, a love triangle and the medical experiments that they must endure in the service of human cloning.
Watch on: Amazon Prime Video
© MomentumEternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Though we sometimes think of this classic as a rom-com, a drama or a tearjerker, it's also undoubtedly sci-fi. It follows what happens when Jim Carrey's character Joel finds out that his ex-girlfriend Clementine (Kate Winslet) has had her memories of him erased as part of a clinical procedure.
Watch on: Amazon Prime Video
NetflixExtinction (2018)
Starring Michael Peña and Lizzy Caplan, Extinction centres on a man plagued by dreams of an alien invasion and losing his family – whose nightmares suddenly become a reality when the planet is ravaged by an extraterrestrial force, and he must suddenly fight to keep his family alive.
Watch on: Amazon Prime Video
The Terminator (1984)
You don't get much more classic sci-fi than The Terminator, James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger's breakthrough film. In a post-apocalyptic 2029, Arnold Schwarzenegger is a cyborg assassin (natch) sent back to 1984 to kill a woman whose unborn son will be John Connor, who will lead the human rebels against the machines that have taken over the Earth.
Watch on: Amazon Prime Video
Ex Machina (2014)
One for the fans of more cerebral, psychological sci-fi flicks, Ex Machina follows Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson), a young coder at a tech company who participates in a ground-breaking experiment, where he must investigate the human qualities of Ava (Alicia Vikander), a remarkably advanced robot.
The film picked up the Academy Award for Best Achievement in Visual Effects at the 2016 Oscars, so you know this is an AI movie worth your time.
Watch on: Amazon Prime Video
Inception (2010)
An absolute must if you've never seen it, and a cult classic that's definitely worth a revisit on movie night. Directed by Christopher Nolan (plus a score by Hans Zimmer), Inception stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Cobb, a thief who runs an espionage business in 'extraction', whereby he enters a target's dreams to steal valuable information and plant ideas.
Inception was a massive cinematic success, winning over critics and raking in four Oscars at the 2011 Academy Awards.
Watch on: Amazon Prime Video
Children of Men (2006)
If you're after the dark, gritty dystopian kind of sci-fi, this critically acclaimed film should definitely be on your list.
In 2027 (which now doesn't seem that far away, hey), things are looking bleak for humanity as women are rendered infertile and can no longer reproduce. Until one woman miraculously falls pregnant. Now a former activist must fight to protect her, and help her reach sanctuary at sea.
With Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Michael Caine, this should definitely be at the top of your 'to-watch' list.
Watch on: Amazon Prime Video
Looper (2012)
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is Joe, a hired killer for the mob known as a ‘looper’, whose job it is to assassinate people who are sent back 39 years from the future.
The 'loop' is eventually closed when an assassin's future self is sent back to be killed, but when Joe is confronted with future Joe (played by Bruce Willis), he fails to finish the job, and future Joe escapes.
For the fans of Inception and other time-warping, mind-bending sci-fi movies.
Watch on: Amazon Prime Video
District 9 (2009)
You can't call yourself a fan of the genre until you've seen District 9. Forced to live in slums and undertake forced labour, a stranded race of aliens find an unlikely ally in a rogue government agent who, once exposed to their families and biotechnology, helps them to revolt.
It brilliantly balances the typical gory special effects and gun-toting action of sci-fi with social commentary and themes of prejudice and segregation.
Watch on: Amazon Prime Video
A Quiet Place (2017)
This edge-of-your-seat dystopian thriller follows a family living in an adapted bunker, where terrifying alien creatures track the human race by sound.
The film stars real-life couple John Krasinski and Emily Blunt.
Watch on: Amazon Prime Video
The First Purge (2018)
This one is perfect for sci-fi fans looking for a suspenseful horror movie to scare themselves witless.
America's third political party, the New Founding Fathers of America, are in power and make all crime legal on Staten Island for 12 hours. Anyone who stays on the island receives $5000, which is what a drug kingpin decides to do.
Watch on: Amazon Prime Video
Annihilation (2018)
Annihilation stars Natalie Portman as Lena, a biologist and former soldier, who is desperate to find out what happened to her missing husband.
Her longing leads her on a secret and dangerous mission into Area X, a mysterious zone where the laws of nature don't apply. A smart psychological sci-fi film that'll stay with you long after the credits roll.
Watch on: Amazon Prime Video
The Cloverfield Paradox (2018)
With an impressive cast including Chris O'Dowd, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Elizabeth Debicki and David Oyelowo, The Cloverfield Paradox follows a group of scientists at The Cloverfield Station who test a particle accelerator device with the hope of solving the energy crisis on Earth. But the experiment goes horribly wrong, instead opening a portal to another dimension parallel with Earth.
Watch on: Netflix
Oblivion (2013)
After decades of war with aliens known as Scavs has left Earth ravaged and desolate, Jack (Tom Cruise, natch) must extract the planet's last remaining resources. But when he discovers a crashed spacecraft, everything he thought he knew about the war, his mission and the entire fate of mankind is thrown into question.
Watch on: Amazon Prime Video
Super 8 (2011)
From J.J. Abrams – the director behind hits such as Mission Impossible, Star Trek and Lost – Super 8 is set in '70s small town Ohio, where a group of friends witness a train crash. But when strange events start to unfold following the crash, they begin to suspect it wasn't an accident.
Watch on: Amazon Prime Video
NetflixProspect (2018)
Prospect is the stylish sci-film set on a forest planet. Starring Nacos and Game Of Thrones star Pedro Pascal, this fresh take on futurism is about a father and daughter learning to survive on the fruits of an unknown world.
Watch on: Apple TV+
