Wired's The Best Sci-fi Movies Everyone Should Watch Once
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Aliens, astronauts, time travel – you name it, there’s a dazzling sci-fi film about it. That makes compiling a list of the best sci-fi nigh on impossible. For one, where do you start?
To understand where sci-fi films came from, you need to head back to the dawn of the cinema age. Right at the start of it all, Metropolis, released in 1927, used groundbreaking visuals to create a reference point for all future urban dystopias – it’s no fluke, for example, that the aesthetic of Blade Runner bares more than a passing resemblance to Fritz Lang’s prophetic urban hell-scape.
Then along came War of the Worlds (1953), a gripping tale of alien invasion adapted from H.G. Wells’ classic novel. In 1964, Dr. Strangelove did more than most films before or since to ossify the fear of a nuclear holocaust. Then, in 1968, perhaps the most influential sci-fi film of them all: 2001: A Space Odyssey. Say no more.
This is Wired's ever evolving selection of the sci-fi movies everyone should watch, starting with something a little obscure but hugely influential.
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2 new
A Clockwork Orange
1971, in 37 top lists Check -
13 new
Blade Runner
1982, in 36 top lists Check -
10 new
Alien
1979, in 30 top lists Check -
15 new
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
1982, in 30 top lists Check -
30 new
The Matrix
1999, in 30 top lists Check -
35 new
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2004, in 28 top lists Check -
4 new
Solyaris
1972 — a.k.a. Solaris, in 28 top lists Check -
41 new
WALL·E
2008, in 26 top lists Check -
19 new
Back to the Future
1985, in 25 top lists Check -
17 new
The Terminator
1984, in 24 top lists Check -
18 new
Brazil
1985, in 23 top lists Check -
8 new
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
1977, in 23 top lists Check -
57 new
Mad Max: Fury Road
2015, in 23 top lists Check -
21 new
Akira
1988, in 22 top lists Check -
9 new
Stalker
1979, in 22 top lists Check -
45 new
Inception
2010, in 21 top lists Check -
14 new
The Thing
1982, in 20 top lists Check -
1 new
La jetée
1962 — a.k.a. La Jetée, in 19 top lists Check -
20 new
RoboCop
1987, in 15 top lists Check -
29 new
The Truman Show
1998, in 14 top lists Check -
23 new
Twelve Monkeys
1995 — a.k.a. 12 Monkeys, in 14 top lists Check -
55 new
Interstellar
2014, in 13 top lists Check -
37 new
Children of Men
2006, in 12 top lists Check -
51 new
Gravity
2013, in 12 top lists Check -
22 new
Kôkaku Kidôtai
1995 — a.k.a. Ghost in the Shell, in 12 top lists Check -
32 new
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
2001, in 11 top lists Check -
58 new
Arrival
2016, in 11 top lists Check -
43 new
District 9
2009, in 10 top lists Check -
50 new
Her
2013, in 10 top lists Check -
52 new
Under the Skin
2013, in 10 top lists Check -
60 new
Blade Runner 2049
2017, in 9 top lists Check -
33 new
Minority Report
2002, in 8 top lists Check -
25 new
The Fifth Element
1997, in 7 top lists Check -
28 new
Men in Black
1997, in 6 top lists Check -
34 new
Primer
2004, in 6 top lists Check -
11 new
Altered States
1980, in 5 top lists Check -
53 new
Ex Machina
2014, in 5 top lists Check -
26 new
GATTACA
1997 — a.k.a. Gattaca, in 5 top lists Check -
56 new
The Martian
2015, in 5 top lists Check -
42 new
Moon
2009, in 5 top lists Check -
16 new
Tron
1982, in 5 top lists Check -
6 new
Logan's Run
1976, in 4 top lists Check -
12 new
Scanners
1981, in 4 top lists Check -
36 new
Serenity
2005, in 4 top lists Check -
5 new
Westworld
1973, in 4 top lists Check -
3 new
The Andromeda Strain
1971, in 3 top lists Check -
61 new
Annihilation
2018, in 3 top lists Check -
40 new
Cloverfield
2008, in 3 top lists Check -
54 new
Edge of Tomorrow
2014, in 3 top lists Check -
31 new
eXistenZ
1999, in 3 top lists Check
Last updated on Aug 28, 2020; source