Top 10 Sci-Fi Movies That Will Become Classics

Expertly juggling multiple storylines, including the corruption of power, and the theme of freewill vs. fate, “Minority Report” is a neo-noir that’s got it all. Almost. Doug Liman’s “Edge of Tomorrow” has an edge on Steven Spielberg’s flick by taking a well-worn premise - time loops - and making it fresh for modern audiences. Though Tom Cruise is great in both, the latter movie - with its thrilling action - is where he really shines. Telling the story of a public relations officer who’s forced to relive the same day that he battles aliens and dies in the hopes of preventing his death and saving the world, “The Edge of Tomorrow” brings humor, a badass Emily Blunt, and stunning visuals to this sure-to-be sci-fi classic.

Sci-fi and horror often go hand-in-hand, but that doesn’t mean that they always pair well together. In the case of this Alex Garland-directed tale featuring a perplexing realm filled with animal and plant mutations and the scientists who enter it, those genres most certainly do. Not only that, but you might also call “Annihilation” a smart adventure thriller, what with its stirring themes and puzzling mysteries. One critic even called it “too intellectual” - but we think that should be taken as a compliment! With shimmering visuals and masterful direction, “Annihilation” has all the qualities of a sci-fi flick that will go down in history: it’s ambitious, strange and engrossing.

Forget Area 51, it’s District 9 that holds all the alien secrets. Redefining the classic alien invasion story, it’s the humans that are the villains in this one. After a spacecraft landed in Johannesburg back in the ‘80s, the South African government interned the refugee aliens and stole their technology. Decades later, a company agent, Wikus, accidentally exposes himself to a fluid that alters his human DNA and begins to transform him into an alien. Watching his plight after he begins to see things from the alien’s perspective couldn’t be more captivating or emotional, while the movie itself is action-packed, entertaining and thought-provoking.

Though traveling to Mars is still in our future as of 2019, our children’s children will probably look back on this movie with a wink and a smile. Astronaut Mark Watney is thought dead after his team must hastily escape a storm on the Red Planet. Realizing they left him behind, his team turns back to rescue him. In addition to being highly entertaining and even humorous, the film is also a testament to human will. Watney must survive for years on his own, creating oxygen and growing food on a dead planet, until his team can bring him home. Luckily for him, he’s a botanist.

Joel wants to forget Clementine ever existed, so he hires Lacuna, Inc. to erase his memory of her. However, Joel realizes too late that he'd rather keep the painful memories as long as he can have the good ones too. Interestingly, Joel and Clementine’s story is told inside Joel’s mind, so we never get to see the truth, only the way Joel remembers it. Linking parallel storylines of the Lacuna workers and the nonlinear storytelling of Joel’s vanishing memories, the film explores the subjectivity of memory, and the way certain impulses still linger long after our memory fades. That, plus the bonus of Jim Carrey killing it in a dramatic role, secures this one in history.

Forget future classic, try instant classic. It’s hard to pick just one Christopher Nolan film to represent his sci-fi genius. His 2014 space-time drama, “Interstellar,” is definitely a contender, but claiming this spot is “Inception.” This visually stunning film about planting ideas in people's minds through their dreams uses the ways that our dreams influence our real lives, and the ways that our real lives influence our dreams as its landscape. As the dependency on visual effects in film will undoubtedly continue to grow, “Inception” will be remembered for its impressive use practical effects in some of its most iconic scenes, such as the tilting bar and, of course, the hallway scene.

This prediction of the near future of technology tells the story of Theodore, an antisocial man who falls in love with Samantha, his operating system. Though the narrative follows Theodore, he is not alone. He learns from Samantha that hundreds of others have fallen in love with their OSes. Even his neighbor, Amy has befriended hers. Theodore’s substitution of human interaction with that of an adaptive AI foreshadows our growing dependence on technology in real life. As our smartphones grow smarter, we grow more socially detached and this movie brings up some very real and very relevant questions.

Though there have been many modern sci-fi incarnations of the man creates monster, monster destroys man story, they usually culminate in a grand and violent revolt of man versus machine. But here, Ava overcomes her human oppressors with a gentle touch. The humanoid robot uses her womanly form to manipulate Caleb, whose purpose was to test her intelligence. Well, he did his job a little too well, as Ava’s intelligence, though artificial, surpasses actual intelligence. We not only see her study her human counterparts and learn their weaknesses, but also see her turn them against each other. The future is female, so let’s all hope that future audiences will look back on this classic wondering why a female-driven movie was such a big deal.

In one of several hard sci-fi flicks on this list, the quite possible near future is a disaster. War has broken out across the world and governments have toppled. No babies have been born for 18 years, and the earth’s population is in serious danger. Upon discovering Kee, a pregnant woman, Theo, a hardened former activist, is tasked with bringing her and her baby to safety. In a mesmerizing and unforgettable scene, Theo walks Kee, and her baby through a building under fire, and for a brief moment, the war stops so that they can escape. Though set in the future, this film is very grounded in reality and foreshadows a scary, yet hopeful fate.



Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.



“Looper” (2012)





“Star Trek (2009)



“Moon” (2009)







“War for the Planet of the Apes” (2017)







“Gravity” (2013)

With “Blade Runner 2049” director Denis Villeneuve at the helm, this movie couldn’t go wrong. A contender for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Picture, and Best Director at the Oscars, this film is not only spectacularly written, but also cinematically beautiful. As aliens come to Earth, linguist Louise Banks is tasked with discovering their intentions. If you were expecting your typical alien invasion action movie, you came to the wrong place: “Arrival” is a timely story of communication and understanding. Told through linear timelines, as well as flashbacks, or flash forwards, the film’s use of time as a thematic element allows for one of the greatest twists in modern sci-fi history.