The Best Science Fiction

by mikejohnston-550-64597 | created - 09 Sep 2016 | updated - 29 Jan 2022 | Public

Space travel, exploration and AI. Exploring the unknown. Seen through the filters and lens of those who have written and directed some of the best science fiction on screen.

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1. The Magical World of Disney (1954–1997)
Episode: Earth Star Voyager: Part 1 (1988)

Unrated | 240 min | Adventure, Drama, Family

A select group of young cadets in the twenty-first century is sent off on a spaceship to find a new home for humanity when Earth is deteriorating.

Director: James Goldstone | Stars: Duncan Regehr, Brian McNamara, Julia Montgomery, Jason Michas

Votes: 655

2. The Magical World of Disney (1954–1997)
Episode: Earth Star Voyager: Part 2 (1988)

Unrated | 115 min | Adventure, Drama, Family

Along the way, they happen on an old, failed world's fair, Expo Tomorrow, where they learn that their foe is the Outlaw Technology Zone, or OTZ, a band of criminals.

Director: James Goldstone | Stars: Brian McNamara, Duncan Regehr, Ric Reid, Jason Michas

Votes: 143

3. Blade Runner (1982)

R | 117 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi

84 Metascore

A blade runner must pursue and terminate four replicants who stole a ship in space and have returned to Earth to find their creator.

Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Edward James Olmos

Votes: 823,640 | Gross: $32.87M

4. Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)

PG | 121 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy

90 Metascore

Luke Skywalker joins forces with a Jedi Knight, a cocky pilot, a Wookiee and two droids to save the galaxy from the Empire's world-destroying battle station, while also attempting to rescue Princess Leia from the mysterious Darth Vader.

Director: George Lucas | Stars: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Alec Guinness

Votes: 1,450,855 | Gross: $322.74M

5. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

PG | 124 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy

82 Metascore

After the Rebel Alliance are overpowered by the Empire, Luke Skywalker begins his Jedi training with Yoda, while his friends are pursued across the galaxy by Darth Vader and bounty hunter Boba Fett.

Director: Irvin Kershner | Stars: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams

Votes: 1,380,996 | Gross: $290.48M

6. Tron (1982)

PG | 96 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

58 Metascore

A computer hacker is abducted into the digital world and forced to participate in gladiatorial games where his only chance of escape is with the help of a heroic security program.

Director: Steven Lisberger | Stars: Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, David Warner, Cindy Morgan

Votes: 129,377 | Gross: $33.00M

7. Tron: Legacy (2010)

PG | 125 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

49 Metascore

The son of a virtual world designer goes looking for his father and ends up inside the digital world that his father designed. He meets his father's corrupted creation and a unique ally who was born inside the digital world.

Director: Joseph Kosinski | Stars: Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, Bruce Boxleitner

Votes: 356,053 | Gross: $172.06M

8. Dark City (1998)

R | 100 min | Fantasy, Mystery, Sci-Fi

66 Metascore

A man struggles with memories of his past, which include a wife he cannot remember and a nightmarish world no one else ever seems to wake up from.

Director: Alex Proyas | Stars: Rufus Sewell, Kiefer Sutherland, Jennifer Connelly, William Hurt

Votes: 212,426 | Gross: $14.38M

9. Gattaca (1997)

PG-13 | 106 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller

64 Metascore

A genetically inferior man assumes the identity of a superior one in order to pursue his lifelong dream of space travel.

Director: Andrew Niccol | Stars: Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Jude Law, Gore Vidal

Votes: 323,466 | Gross: $12.34M

10. The Fifth Element (1997)

PG-13 | 126 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

52 Metascore

In the colorful future, a cab driver unwittingly becomes the central figure in the search for a legendary cosmic weapon to keep Evil and Mr. Zorg at bay.

Director: Luc Besson | Stars: Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Gary Oldman, Ian Holm

Votes: 506,783 | Gross: $63.54M

11. Minority Report (2002)

PG-13 | 145 min | Action, Crime, Mystery

80 Metascore

John works with the PreCrime police which stop crimes before they take place, with the help of three 'PreCogs' who can foresee crimes. Events ensue when John finds himself framed for a future murder.

Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton, Max von Sydow

Votes: 584,709 | Gross: $132.07M

12. Elysium (I) (2013)

R | 109 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi

61 Metascore

In the year 2154, the very wealthy live on a man-made space station while the rest of the population resides on a ruined Earth. A man takes on a mission that could bring equality to the polarized worlds.

Director: Neill Blomkamp | Stars: Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley, Alice Braga

Votes: 471,271 | Gross: $93.05M

13. Transcendence (I) (2014)

PG-13 | 119 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi

42 Metascore

A scientist's drive for artificial intelligence takes on dangerous implications when his own consciousness is uploaded into one such program.

Director: Wally Pfister | Stars: Johnny Depp, Rebecca Hall, Morgan Freeman, Cillian Murphy

Votes: 238,940 | Gross: $23.02M

14. The Zero Theorem (2013)

R | 107 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy

50 Metascore

A hugely talented but socially isolated computer operator is tasked by Management to prove the Zero Theorem: that the universe ends as nothing, rendering life meaningless. But meaning is what he already craves.

Director: Terry Gilliam | Stars: Christoph Waltz, Lucas Hedges, Mélanie Thierry, David Thewlis

Votes: 49,684 | Gross: $0.22M

15. Interstellar (2014)

PG-13 | 169 min | Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi

74 Metascore

When Earth becomes uninhabitable in the future, a farmer and ex-NASA pilot, Joseph Cooper, is tasked to pilot a spacecraft, along with a team of researchers, to find a new planet for humans.

Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Mackenzie Foy

Votes: 2,103,220 | Gross: $188.02M

16. Ex Machina (2014)

R | 108 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller

78 Metascore

A young programmer is selected to participate in a ground-breaking experiment in synthetic intelligence by evaluating the human qualities of a highly advanced humanoid A.I.

Director: Alex Garland | Stars: Alicia Vikander, Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac, Sonoya Mizuno

Votes: 590,497 | Gross: $25.44M

17. Tomorrowland (2015)

PG | 130 min | Action, Adventure, Family

60 Metascore

Bound by a shared destiny, a teen bursting with scientific curiosity and a former boy-genius inventor embark on a mission to unearth the secrets of a place somewhere in time and space that exists in their collective memory.

Director: Brad Bird | Stars: George Clooney, Britt Robertson, Hugh Laurie, Raffey Cassidy

Votes: 191,480 | Gross: $93.44M

18. The Martian (2015)

PG-13 | 144 min | Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi

80 Metascore

An astronaut becomes stranded on Mars after his team assume him dead, and must rely on his ingenuity to find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive and can survive until a potential rescue.

Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Kate Mara

Votes: 926,408 | Gross: $228.43M

19. The Time Machine (2002)

PG-13 | 96 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

42 Metascore

Hoping to alter the events of the past, a 19th century inventor instead travels 800,000 years into the future, where he finds humankind divided into two warring races.

Director: Simon Wells | Stars: Guy Pearce, Yancey Arias, Mark Addy, Phyllida Law

Votes: 130,482 | Gross: $56.68M

20. Westworld (2016–2022)

TV-MA | 60 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi

At the intersection of the near future and the reimagined past, waits a world in which every human appetite can be indulged without consequence.

Stars: Evan Rachel Wood, Jeffrey Wright, Ed Harris, Thandiwe Newton

Votes: 533,311

21. Arrival (II) (2016)

PG-13 | 116 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi

81 Metascore

A linguist works with the military to communicate with alien lifeforms after twelve mysterious spacecraft appear around the world.

Director: Denis Villeneuve | Stars: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, Michael Stuhlbarg

Votes: 772,250 | Gross: $100.55M

22. Prometheus (I) (2012)

R | 124 min | Adventure, Mystery, Sci-Fi

64 Metascore

Following clues to the origin of mankind, a team finds a structure on a distant moon, but they soon realize they are not alone.

Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Noomi Rapace, Logan Marshall-Green, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron

Votes: 644,643 | Gross: $126.48M

23. Altered Carbon (2018–2020)

TV-MA | 60 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi

Set in a future where consciousness is digitized and stored, a prisoner returns to life in a new body and must solve a mind-bending murder to win his freedom.

Stars: Chris Conner, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Dichen Lachman, Will Yun Lee

Votes: 188,894

24. Lost in Space (2018–2021)

TV-PG | 60 min | Adventure, Drama, Family

After crash-landing on an alien planet, the Robinson family fight against all odds to survive and escape, but they're surrounded by hidden dangers.

Stars: Toby Stephens, Molly Parker, Maxwell Jenkins, Taylor Russell

Votes: 105,816

25. Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

R | 164 min | Action, Drama, Mystery

81 Metascore

Young Blade Runner K's discovery of a long-buried secret leads him to track down former Blade Runner Rick Deckard, who's been missing for thirty years.

Director: Denis Villeneuve | Stars: Harrison Ford, Ryan Gosling, Ana de Armas, Dave Bautista

Votes: 666,223 | Gross: $92.05M

26. Foundation (2021– )

TV-14 | 60 min | Drama, Sci-Fi

A complex saga of humans scattered on planets throughout the galaxy all living under the rule of the Galactic Empire.

Stars: Jared Harris, Lou Llobell, Leah Harvey, Terrence Mann

Votes: 96,486

27. Raised by Wolves (2020–2022)

TV-MA | 55 min | Drama, Fantasy, Sci-Fi

Androids are tasked with raising human children on a mysterious planet.

Stars: Travis Fimmel, Amanda Collin, Abubakar Salim, Winta McGrath

Votes: 86,662

28. Dune (2021)

PG-13 | 155 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

74 Metascore

A noble family becomes embroiled in a war for control over the galaxy's most valuable asset while its heir becomes troubled by visions of a dark future.

Director: Denis Villeneuve | Stars: Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Zendaya, Oscar Isaac

Votes: 859,352 | Gross: $108.33M



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