Steve’s sci-fi movie picks
These are some of my favorite science-fiction films, by decade. There are several I could add… but I picked what I thought were very best, ones I wouldn’t mind watching again, ones I regard as must-see, for those who want to know sci-fi films.
Please, do not provide any suggestions: these are my picks. (Look in the main pages to see if I haven’t reviewed a film you liked!)
This list is short on monster movies, as they are usually weak sci-fi. There aren’t any superheros at all, because they’re never really sci-fi. I list very few sequels or re-makes, because they rarely contain new ideas.
1920s
- The Lost World
- dinosaurs discovered
- Metropolis
- future class society & android
-
Frau im Mond
[Woman in the Moon] - intrigue & moon flight
1930s
- Frankenstein
- scientist brings the dead to life
- King Kong
- dinosaurs-n-giant ape
-
Космического рейса
[Cosmic Journey] - rocket flight to the Moon
-
Гибель сенсации (Робот Джима Рипль)
[Loss of Sensation, or Jim Ripple’s Robots] - robots make nobody happy
1940s
- Krakatit
- ultimate-weapon tragedy
1950s
- The Man in the White Suit
- comic economics of science
- The Day the Earth Stood Still
- space alien arrival; scary robot
- War of the Worlds
- Martians on the rampage
- ゴジラ
[Godzilla] - gigantic dinosaur stomps Tokyo
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers
- alien seeds copy sleepers
- Forbidden Planet
- the Tempest + long-dead aliens
- The Incredible Shrinking Man
- guy shrunk by radiation
- The Fly
- transporter accident horror
-
Небо зовёт
[The Sky Beckons] - splendid man-in-space
1960s
- Village of the Damned
- aliens arrive as unexpected births
-
Планета bурь
[Planet of Storms] - cosmonauts and robot on Venus
-
Мечте навстречу
[Toward Meeting a Dream] - proper man-in-space
- Doctor Strangelove
- nuke obliteration; bodily hygiene
- Fantastic Voyage
- shrinking for medicine
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- man’s destiny steered; AI loses cool
1970s
- The Andromeda Strain
- extraterrestrial bug gets loose
- Silent Running
- eco-disaster & robots in space
- Slaughterhouse-Five
- time travel social commentary
- Солярис
[Solaris] - alien sentience deep encounter
- Soylent Green
- dystopian future cop whodunit
- Sleeper
- dystopian future spoof
- Dark Star
- interstellar spaceflight spoof
- A Boy and His Dog
- apocalyptic tongue-in-rosy-cheek
- The Rocky Horror Picture Show
- thorough musical look at sci-fi
- Star Wars
- space action
- Close Encounters of the Third Kind
- alien arrival
- Alien
- monster in space
1980s
- Lathe of Heaven
- reality drifting
- Quest for Fire
- cave-man action-adventure
- Blade Runner
- dystopian future, cloned humans
- The Thing
- shape-shifter horror from space
- Repo Man
- alien-assisted black comedy
- The Terminator
- monster android from the future
- Brazil
- ducted dystopian future satire
- Enemy Mine
- space aliens social commentary
- Cocoon
- aging, death, happiness & aliens
- Back to the Future
- time travel alla DeLorean
-
Hombre mirando al sudest
[Man Facing Southeast] - mental patient or space alien?
- Kin-dza-dza!
- space travel social comedy
1990s
- Total Recall
- memory swap/Mars action
- Delicatessen
- post-apocalyptic fine dining
- Jurassic Park
- dinosaurs revived for fun!
- 12 Monkeys
- paranoid time-looping
- La cité des enfants perdus
- gothic struggle for dreams
- Moebius
- metro mystery, mysticism & math
- Men in Black
- aliens-as-aliens spoof
- Contact
- —by aliens; rationality in question
- Gattaca
- genetic perfection & disaffection
- The Truman Show
- your world isn’t what you think
- Galaxy Quest
- space TV show spoof
2000s
- Pitch Black
- badass vs. horror in space
- Donny Darko
- paranoid time-looping
- Minority Report
- prescient paranoid whodunnit
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
- memory wipe romantic comedy
- Serenity
- space cowboys-n-bad-guys
- A Scanner Darkly
- dystopian drug psychosis
- Children of Men
- post-apocalypse action, politics
- WALL·E
- eco-crash + animated robots
- Moon
- isolation on the Moon. maybe.
- Avatar
- colonialism in deep space
2010s
- Robot & Frank
- robots, memory loss, and crime
- Cloud Atlas
- interacting life-lines
- Her
- artificial intelligence and love
- Ex Machina
- robot artificial intelligence
- Advantageous
- body swap personal economics
- The Martian
- space survival adventure
- Arrival
- —by aliens; conversation hitch
- Passengers
- space voyage misadventure
- Annihilation
- alien arrival gets psychological
- I Am Mother
- can you trust robot-mom?
2020s
- Oxygène
- paranoid claustrophobic whodunnit
- After Yang
- family robotics