It’s not that all the best sci-fi movies are rated R, but it is one of those genres that, like horror, thrives when its given permission to get down and dirty. Which makes sense, considering sci-fi is all about ideas, and ideas are at their best when they’re given room to push the boundaries of comfort. While the realm of family-friendly sci-fi has delivered some of the best entertainment of all time, when you take the brakes off, you end up with some of the most vital filmmaking in the history of cinema.
As I testament to how rich this particular subgenre is, this list just kept spilling out in new directions. I’d cement my picks and remember a fantastic film that slipped me by, only to rearrange the list and remember yet another gem. As far as the ranking… I mean, forget it. There are, in my estimation, no less than fifteen of the best films ever made on this list. I tried to consider all angles when lining up the ranking – storytelling, direction, technical invention, impact, influence, the list goes on – but ultimately, it’s going to come down to a bit of personal preference.
A few notes on the films you won’t find below. This list is restricted to live-action films, so there’s noAkiraorGhost in the Shell(but you can check out Dave’s kick-ass list of cyberpunk animated movies here). It’s also restricted to films that are technically R-rated, so Unrated or NR classics likeBattle RoyaleandUpstream Color. I also tried to restrict the choices to films where the sci-fi element has a major bearing on the plot, message, or form of the film so some beautiful films that are only tangentially sci-fi didn’t make the cut.
For the curious, here’s the breakdown of the directors with the most hits on the list:Paul Verhoeven(3),David Cronenberg(2),Ridley Scott(2),John Carpenter(2),Terry Gilliam(2), andGeorge Miller(2). But the biggest winner?Alex Garland, with a grand total of 4 movies between his screenwriting and directorial credits.
Check out the full list below, and be sure to sound off in the comments with your favorites, and like I said, don’t get hung up on the rankings. It’s an impossible task, and this is really just about celebrating one of the best and most fruitful subgenres in cinema. Enjoy!
38. Perfect Sense
Where most sci-fi takes aim at the mind,Perfect Sensedirectly targets the heart with a lusty love story set against the backdrop of the apocalypse. Directed by genre chameleonDavid McKenzie(Hell or High Water), the film centers on a chef (Ewan McGregor) and an epidemiologist (Eva Green) who meet and fall in love in a sleepy Glasgow suburb as an unprecedented plague sweeps the world, slowly depriving humanity of its senses. The loss of each sense is preceded by a flurry of emotion. The first assault of the virus takes the sense of smell in a wave of deep despair, then goes taste in a wash of ravenous hunger. So it goes until humanity is completely upended, left on with sight and the promise of looming darkness.
The end of the world shares the spotlight with Michael and Susan’s love story. Both are self-involved emotionally distant lovers, only half joking when they dub themselves Mr. and Mrs. Asshole. Were it not for the end of the world, they almost certainly would never have come together so fiercely and so intimately. Theirs isn’t a love for the ages; it’s a love for the end of days. Fitting to the subject matter,Perfect Senseis a perfectly sensual experience as McKenzie explores the wonders of human perception through the heightened awareness of two people falling in love. A bit bleak, but ultimately a movingPerfect Senseis soft where most sci-fi is hard, swapping bedrooms for battlefields and lovers quarrels for explosions, but hitting hard all the same as we see the world reach its end through the eyes of two lovers who wish they had an eternity.
37. Timecrimes
The first of many time travel mind-benders on the list,Nacho Vigalondo’s spanish language feature debut will run your mind into the ground with logic loops if you think about it too hard. The events inTimcrimeshappen because the events inTimcrimeshappen. Once you get past that,Timcrimesdelivers a bounty of causal loop time travel deliciousness. The film follows Hector (Karra Elejalde), a married man who glimpses a nude young woman in the woods. After his wife heads out, he ventures out to investigate when he signs of distress and stumbles upon a time machine that sets him on a deadly, cyclical course. Well executed time loop movies are always a delightful puzzle, and director/writer/co-star Nacho Vigalondo concocts a tight time travel puzzle box that finds its protagonist caught in a web of his own design. And perhaps most importantly in these kinds of entertainment-centric mind-benders, he ultimately finds a satisfying resolution.
36. Upgrade
35. Under the Skin
Jonathan Glazer’sUnder the Skinis a peculiar viewing experience of existential horror. It’s oblique, droning, repetitive and meandering, and yet, there’s a persistent eeriness that lingers long after the movie is over. The film stars Scarlett Johansson as Laura, an alien without empathy for human life who seduces men for unknown reasons, taking them to a pitch black room where they wade into a mysterious pool of liquid that sucks them down, leaving behind floating sacks of skin. When she meets and attempts to seduce a meek disfigured man, she decides to change her path and take agency over her own body, but tragically discovers the body she inhabits exists only as a lure to men, offering her no satisfaction, and ultimately no defense against the carnal desires of others.Under the Skinuses science fiction to tell a horror story about gender dynamics and otherness, and while it can be frustratingly difficult to engage with at moments, it has a staying power that scratches at uncomfortable regions of the mind by exploring objectification, identity and body ownership.
34. Never Let Me Go
Based on the shattering novel of the same name byKazuo Ishiguro,Never Let Me Gois one of those barely-there genre films that uses the slightest sci-fi construct for an intensely intimate emotional character drama. A subtle alternate history, the story follows a trio of friends maturing into adulthood at an idyllic boarding school in the mid-20th century where they must learn to accept their role as clones, brought into existence for the sole purpose of providing organ transplants. It’s uncomfortable and ponderous subject matter that forces us to ask what we’d be willing to sacrifice to prolong our own lives and how dark we might go once we’ve made that decision, but ultimatelyNever Let Me Gois much more spiritual than it is intellectual.
As two of the friends, deeply in love but kept separate from each other for a tragic amount of their short lives,Carey MulliganandAndrew Garfieldare the soul of the film, giving tender performances that claw at your heart with innocence and earnestness. Adapting Ishiguro’s infinitely layered novel is no easy task, but sci-fi legend in the makingAlex Garlandsuccessfully distills the story down to its essence, and directorMark Romanekmakes it as beautiful as possible, with major assists from cinematographerAdam Kimmeland composerRachel Portman. It’s stunning, stripped-down sci-fi that uses the trappings of the genre to shine a light on what it means to be human, to have a soul, and to make the most of our time on earth.
33. Snowpiercer
In an attempt to fix global warming, humanity dooms earth to a new ice age where a high-speed train runs on an infinite loop, shepherding the last remnants of the human race through the deadly cold. Such is the set up forBong Joon-ho’sSnowpiercer, adapted from the French comic bookLe Transperceneige, which stages a violent revolution in the passenger cars of the ever-moving trains. The passengers who had economy tickets are stuck in a cabin of squalor, starving and desperate, while the first class passengers live in opulent indulgence. When the starving masses reach their breaking point, as starving masses tend to do, they stage a ferocious revolt, hacking their way through the train cars in the hopes of toppling the unjust post-apocalyptic class system.
Chris Evansis cleverly cast as the anti-Captain America, Curtis, the man leading the charge. He’s a reluctant revolutionary with a skeleton in his closet so grim it’s downright audacious, and he’s eager to pass leadership off to his wizened mentor (John Hurt). But once the tide is unleashed, it can’t be turned back, and though the people may be pitiful and broken down, they’re a force when they’re moving together. Each new train car brings a new threat and wild surprises, like one long house horrors, each more visually stunning and outlandish than the last.
32. Sunshine
Sunshineis half of one of the best sci-fi movies of all time and half of an OK space horror. It’s all to do with that unfortunate third act twist, which spins an impeccably articulated hard-sci-fi-meets-blockbuster film into a flashy slasher pic, but nonethelessSunshineis a triumph of the genre. Director Danny Boyle assembled a first-rate cast for his space-bound crew, includingRose Byrne,Cillian Murphy,Michelle Yeoh,Cliff Curtis,Benedict Wong,Hiroyuki Sanada, andChris Evans(in the first pre-Captain Americarole that gave him credit for his range of talent). And he puts them to great use in a pulse-pounding, legitimately science-based space adventure for adults that was ever so slightly ahead of its time.
Somewhat of a precursor to hyper-realistic space sagas likeGravity,Interstellar,andThe Martian,Sunshinetakes the utmost care to endow its characters and circumstances with believability and weight that makes each feel like a piano wire. The greatest strength of that tension comes from the sequences that pit the expert crew against the frivolity of nature and the imperfection of human nature, and while the final act ultimately undermines some of the peak sci-fi that elevates the bulk of the film, it’s still a remarkable achievement that helped chart the course for the future of big-budget sci-fi.
31. They Live
One of the finest works of subversion in a decade full of them,John Carpenter’s 1988 cult classicThey Liveis a scathing takedown of yuppie culture and Reaganomics dressed up as an alien invasion actioner. The set up is simple, a boldly cast RowdyRoddy Piperslips on a pair of special sunglasses and discovers that the world has been overrun by WASPish aliens poisoning the masses with subliminal messages of submission. Then he kicks the shit out of them withKeith David. Along the way, there’s an iconic eight-minute back alley brawl, some utterly classic one-liners, and plenty of Carpenter’s sharply directed action. They Live is a fantastic combination of clever commentary and low-brow fun, a gutsy anthem to the working man, and downright entertainment.
30. Attack the Block
The 2011 feature film debut from writer-directorJoe Cornishis so good it will make you upset Cornish hasn’t directed anything in the years since. Set in a shady South London neighborhood,Attack the Blockpits a team of teenage hooligans against “big alien gorilla wolf motherfuckers,” follows the adrenaline-fueled fight for survival that follows. Moses (John Boyega) and his gang are in the middle of mugging a young woman (Jodie Whittaker) when big, furry, neon-toothed aliens start crashing down around them and they take it upon themselves to become the protectors of their neighborhood. TheEdgar Wright-produced flick is a pure kinetic rush from beginning to end, Boyega is the find of a decade, and while the phrase “Amblin-esque” gets thrown around a lot, Cornish manages to capture that slippery magic and modernize it.
While most superhero movies technically fall into the realm of science fiction, there’s usually a sheen of high fantasy that keeps them from truly feeling like part of the genre. Ultimately, they make up a genre of their own, something born out of sci-fi but distinct from it.James Mangold’s stunning, heartbreaking Wolverine send-offLoganbreaks that mold with a grounded approach to genetic mutation, cloning, and Alzheimer’s that genuinely pulls the science into the fiction (however far-reaching that science may be). Set in a time long after the heroic antics of the previousX-Menfilms, Logan finds our titular hero in theChildren of Menof mutants, a future where the superpowered genetic anomalies have simply stopped being born. A fantastic and unprecedented genre hybrid, Logan is a sci-fi western superhero movie for adults that takes an unadorned look at the nature and value of heroism, sacrifice, and finding a reason to stay in the fight.
