Recommendations of the Editorial team
Somewhere, in a galaxy far, far away, Georges Méliès never sends a group of people on a trip to the moon. The adventures of space explorers and time travelers, androids and alien races never excite a generation of children. Who munch on popcorn at the Saturday matinee.
The name Luke Skywalker means nothing to anyone. Neither do Marty McFly, “Mad” Max Rockatansky or Godzilla. Huge prehistoric monsters do not awaken from their centuries-long slumber and do not destroy a single metropolis. ET never arrives on Earth. So he never has to go home. Thomas “Neo” Anderson is just another computer programmer. HAL 9000 iis just a calculating machine.
Today, the genre is broad enough to include everything from “Ad Astra” to “Zardoz.”
How boring the films would be – and how deprived we viewers would be – if science fiction didn’t exist. Or it would never have progressed beyond the “This is only for academics” stage of development. Since the spherical rocket gave the moon a black eye in 1902 and added an element of fantasy to a very young art form, these speculative and imaginative stories set in the far reaches of space and/or on our own scorched Earth have been a staple of a balanced cinema diet. These films gave us visions of utopias and dystopias. Asked deep questions about the human experience and the pros and cons of artificial intelligence. Excited us and made us think. Science fiction was once considered just a niche for nerds. Today, the genre is broad enough to include everything from “Ad Astra” to “Zardoz.”
When it came time to rank the best sci-fi movies of all time, we couldn’t stop at 100. Instead, we expanded the list with 50 additional entries. To also give a good shout out to the pulpy, poppy and perverted entries – not to mention some of our personal favorites – that don’t normally get a mention in such lists. There was more than a little debate when it came to the selection. (It was also decided early on that superhero films as a whole do not typically fall into the realm of science fiction, so the MCU and other films do not appear on this list. With one very notable exception). Here are our picks for the best the genre has to offer. Live long and in peace. May the force be with you.
Additional reporting by: AA Dowd, David Fear, Elisabeth Garber-Paul, Andy Greene, Tim Grierson, Kory Grow, Brian Hiatt, Joseph Hudak, CT Jones, Noel Murray, Jason Newman, Keith Phipps, Rob Sheffield, Mosi Reeves, Katie Rife, Scott Tobias, Esther Zuckerman.
The 150 Best Science Fiction Films of All Time (149): The Omega Man
Biological warfare has wiped out the human race, leaving only one man. Charlton Heston is the sole survivor of the plague and fights against a cult of killer mutants in the deserted streets of Southern California.
This film adaptation of Richard Matheson’s groundbreaking 1954 novel “I Am Legend” is a paranoid pandemic nightmare that turned out to be far too prophetic. For some of us, it was the movie we couldn’t stop watching in the theater.
The 150 Best Science Fiction Films of All Time (149): The Omega Man
Director Boris Sagal gives The Omega Man an authentic, gritty atmosphere in which 1970s LA is a sun-drenched wasteland. At one point, Heston hides in an empty theater where the Woodstock documentary is being shown.
He watches the hippies dance and recites the dialogue verbatim as a flower child enthuses, “If we can’t all live together and be happy… what kind of way is this to go through life?” Heston just chuckles: “Films like that don’t get made anymore.” We have all experienced this in the 2020s.