Best Sci-Fi Movies: Visionary, Complex, Genuinely Thought-Provoking

The best science fiction movies ask big questions about technology, humanity and the future – and answer them in unexpected ways. This page shows picks that impress through ideas, not just effects: from classic sci-fi to modern genre masterpieces that deserve far more attention.





(Streaming availability may change.)

Show random movie

Ex Machina

2015
108 Min
MOVIE
DramaScience Fiction
Caleb, a coder at the world's largest internet company, wins a competition to spend a week at a private mountain retreat belonging to Nathan, the reclusive CEO of the company. But when Caleb arrives at the remote location he finds that he …

Interstellar

2014
169 Min
MOVIE
AdventureDramaScience Fiction
The adventures of a group of explorers who make use of a newly discovered wormhole to surpass the limitations on human space travel and conquer the vast distances involved in an interstellar voyage.

Predestination

2014
98 Min
MOVIE
Science FictionThriller
Predestination chronicles the life of a Temporal Agent sent on an intricate series of time-travel journeys designed to prevent future killers from committing their crimes. Now, on his final assignment, the Agent must stop the one criminal …

Edge of Tomorrow

2014
114 Min
MOVIE
ActionScience Fiction
Major Bill Cage is an officer who has never seen a day of combat when he is unceremoniously demoted and dropped into combat. Cage is killed within minutes, managing to take an alpha alien down with him. He awakens back at the beginning of …

Elysium

2013
109 Min
MOVIE
Science FictionActionDramaThriller
In the year 2159, two classes of people exist: the very wealthy who live on a pristine man-made space station called Elysium, and the rest, who live on an overpopulated, ruined Earth. Secretary Rhodes, a hard line government official, will…
Netflix

Oblivion

2013
124 Min
MOVIE
ActionScience FictionAdventureMystery
Jack Harper is one of the last few drone repairmen stationed on Earth. Part of a massive operation to extract vital resources after decades of war with a terrifying threat known as the Scavs, Jack’s mission is nearly complete. His existenc…

Total Recall

2012
118 Min
MOVIE
ActionScience FictionThriller
Factory worker Doug Quaid takes a virtual mind-trip vacation with the Rekall company, opting for implanted memories of being a spy. When the procedure goes wrong, Quaid becomes a wanted man by the police and joins forces with a rebel fight…

The Avengers

2012
143 Min
MOVIE
Science FictionActionAdventure
When an unexpected enemy emerges and threatens global safety and security, Nick Fury, director of the international peacekeeping agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D., finds himself in need of a team to pull the world back from the brink of disaste…
Disney+

Iron Sky

2012
93 Min
MOVIE
ActionComedyScience Fiction
In the last moments of World War II, a secret Nazi space program evaded destruction by fleeing to the Dark Side of the Moon. During 70 years of utter secrecy, the Nazis construct a gigantic space fortress with a massive armada of flying sa…
Prime Video

The Hunger Games

2012
142 Min
MOVIE
Science FictionAdventureFantasy
Every year in the ruins of what was once North America, the nation of Panem forces each of its twelve districts to send a teenage boy and girl to compete in the Hunger Games. Part twisted entertainment, part government intimidation tactic,…
Netflix

Chronicle

2012
84 Min
MOVIE
Science FictionDramaThriller
Three high school students make an incredible discovery, leading to their developing uncanny powers beyond their understanding. As they learn to control their abilities and use them to their advantage, their lives start to spin out of cont…
Disney+

Limitless

2011
106 Min
MOVIE
ThrillerMysteryScience Fiction
The life of an unsuccessful writer is transformed by a top-secret 'smart drug' that allows him to use 100% of his brain and become a perfect version of himself. His enhanced abilities soon attract shadowy forces that threaten his new life.
Prime Video

Inception

2010
148 Min
MOVIE
ActionScience FictionAdventure
Cobb, a skilled thief who commits corporate espionage by infiltrating the subconscious of his targets is offered a chance to regain his old life as payment for a task considered to be impossible: "inception", the implantation of another pe…

Surrogates

2009
89 Min
MOVIE
Science FictionActionThriller
Set in a futuristic world where humans live in isolation and interact through surrogate robots, a cop is forced to leave his home for the first time in years in order to investigate the murders of others' surrogates.
Disney+

Gamer

2009
95 Min
MOVIE
ActionThrillerScience Fiction
Mind-control technology has taken society by a storm, a multiplayer on-line game called "Slayers" allows players to control human prisoners in mass-scale. Simon controls Kable, the online champion of the game. Kable's ultimate challenge be…

Watchmen

2009
163 Min
MOVIE
MysteryActionScience Fiction
In a gritty and alternate 1985, the glory days of costumed vigilantes have been brought to a close by a government crackdown. But after one of the masked veterans is brutally murdered, an investigation into the killer is initiated. The reu…
HBO Max

WALL·E

2008
98 Min
MOVIE
AnimationFamilyScience Fiction
After hundreds of years doing what he was built for, WALL•E— a robot designed to clean up the earth—discovers a new purpose in life when he meets a sleek search robot named EVE. EVE comes to realize that WALL•E has inadvertently st…
Disney+

I Am Legend

2007
101 Min
MOVIE
DramaScience FictionThriller
Robert Neville is a scientist who was unable to stop the spread of the terrible virus that was incurable and man-made. Immune, Neville is now the last human survivor in what is left of New York City and perhaps the world. For three years, …

The Prestige

2006
130 Min
MOVIE
DramaMysteryScience Fiction
A mysterious story of two magicians whose intense rivalry leads them on a life-long battle for supremacy -- full of obsession, deceit and jealousy with dangerous and deadly consequences.

Children of Men

2006
109 Min
MOVIE
DramaActionThrillerScience Fiction
In 2027, in a chaotic world in which humans can no longer procreate, a former activist agrees to help transport a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea, where her child's birth may help scientists save the future of humankind.

Idiocracy

2006
84 Min
MOVIE
ComedyScience FictionAdventure
To test its top-secret Human Hibernation Project, the Pentagon picks the most average Americans it can find - an Army private and a prostitute - and sends them to the year 2505 after a series of freak events. But when they arrive, they fin…
Disney+

V for Vendetta

2006
132 Min
MOVIE
ActionThrillerScience Fiction
In a world in which Great Britain has become a fascist state, a masked vigilante known only as “V” conducts guerrilla warfare against the oppressive British government. When V rescues a young woman from the secret police, he finds in her a…

The Island

2005
136 Min
MOVIE
ActionThrillerScience FictionAdventure
In 2019, Lincoln Six-Echo is a resident of a seemingly "Utopian" but contained facility. Like all of the inhabitants of this carefully-controlled environment, Lincoln hopes to be chosen to go to The Island — reportedly the last uncontami…

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

2005
109 Min
MOVIE
AdventureComedyScience Fiction
Mere seconds before the Earth is to be demolished by an alien construction crew, Arthur Dent is swept off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher penning a new edition of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."

Primer

2004
77 Min
MOVIE
Science FictionDramaThriller
Two fledgling inventors discover a complex method to manipulate reality. At first, they successfully game the stock market with it, but the consequences of the invention start to catch up with them.

I, Robot

2004
115 Min
MOVIE
ActionScience Fiction
In 2035, where robots are commonplace and abide by the three laws of robotics, a technophobic cop investigates an apparent suicide. Suspecting that a robot may be responsible for the death, his investigation leads him to believe that human…
Disney+

The Butterfly Effect

2004
113 Min
MOVIE
Science FictionThriller
A young man struggles to access sublimated childhood memories. He finds a technique that allows him to travel back into the past, to occupy his childhood body and change history. However, he soon finds that every change he makes has unexpe…
HBO Max

Equilibrium

2002
107 Min
MOVIE
ActionScience FictionThriller
In a dystopian future, a totalitarian regime maintains peace by subduing the populace with a drug, and displays of emotion are punishable by death. A man in charge of enforcing the law rises to overthrow the system.

The Adventures of Pluto Nash

2002
95 Min
MOVIE
ActionComedyScience Fiction
The year is 2087, the setting is the moon. Pluto Nash, the high-flying successful owner of the hottest nightclub in the universe, finds himself in trouble when he refuses to sell his club to lunar gangster Mogan, who just happens to be hel…

Vanilla Sky

2001
136 Min
MOVIE
MysteryRomanceScience Fiction
David Aames has it all: wealth, good looks and gorgeous women on his arm. But just as he begins falling for the warmhearted Sofia, his face is horribly disfigured in a car accident. That's just the beginning of his troubles as the lines be…

Evolution

2001
102 Min
MOVIE
ComedyScience FictionAction
A comedy that follows the chaos that ensues when a meteor hits the Earth carrying alien life forms that give new meaning to the term "survival of the fittest." David Duchovny, Orlando Jones, Seann William Scott, and Julianne Moore are the …

TV-Shows 2026 - Impressum | Data Protection
Update cookies preferences