The best science fiction movies entertain us with their stories. They display originality and raise the level of characterization and storytelling. For many, they offer insights into who we are and into our culture. They reach beyond the impact they have on their genre to the effect they have on pop culture and even on our society.
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The movies below, in order, consistently rate among the top ten on multiple lists of best science fiction movies.
Back to the Future (1985)
At the top of our list of best science-fiction movies is Back to the Future. 17-year-old high school student Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) accidentally time-travels 30 years into the past in a DeLorean invented by his friend, scientist Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd). To ensure that he’s born, Marty must make sure his parents fall in love. Then, he has to return to his present to save Doc Brown’s life. Critics praise the spirit of the movie, its inventiveness, its humor, and its well-paced construction.
Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)
Set 11 years after terminator cyborg T-800 (Arnold Shwarznager) failed to kill Sarah Conner (Linda Hamilton), the more advanced, shape-shifting T-1000 terminator (Robert Patrick) is sent into the past to kill Sarah’s 10-year-old son John (Edward Furlong). John is the key to human civilization’s victory over a future robot uprising. Sarah, John, and T-800 flee, and John and T-800 unexpectedly bond. Critics call attention to the tight pacing, the CGI visuals, and the theme. But, the depth of the characterizations lifts the film above expectations for the genre.
The Matrix (1999)
Hacker Neo (Keanu Reeves) seeks to meet Morpheus (Lawrence Fishburne), thought to be the most dangerous man alive, because Neo believes Morpheus knows what the matrix is. Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) leads Neo into the underworld that Morpheus inhabits. Neo and Morpheus battle for their lives against vicious secret agents. Neo learns that his life is the creation of an evil cyber-intelligence. Critics laud the imaginative vision, musings about the illusion and reality, and the spectacular special effects of the choreographed, slow-motion, ballet-like battle scenes.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Initially, a Cinerama film, 2001: A Space Odyssey connects mankind’s evolutionary development to interaction with the periodic appearance of black monoliths. Much of the film relies on music and visuals with little dialogue.
The movie opens with dancers portraying ape-like early humans. Exposed to the monolith, the apes use bones for hunting and killing food and then to kill rival groups of apes.
The discovery of the second monolith, buried near the lunar crater Tycho, prompts secrecy on the part of the U.S. and suspicion on the part of Russians. When the monolith is struck by sunlight for the first time since it was buried it emits a radio signal aimed at the planet Jupiter.
Eighteen months later, scientists Dr. David “Dave” Bowman (Keir Dullea) and Dr. Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood) are bound for Jupiter onboard the spacecraft Discovery One. HAL 9000 (voice by Douglas Rain), a computer with a human personality, controls the spacecraft’s functions. HAL cannot accept that it malfunctioned, blames the humans, and attempts to kill them. After Dave pulls HAL’s circuits, a video explains that Dave is to investigate the signal the monolith sent to Jupiter.
Dave enters an EVA to investigate the monolith he finds at Jupiter. He’s pulled into a psychedelic vortex and finds himself in an all-white bedroom. There he lives out his life until he’s an old man lying on the bed. A fourth monolith appears. As Dave reaches for it, he becomes a wise-eyed, star-child fetus floating in a transparent embryonic sac above the earth.
The meaning of 2001: A Space Odyssey and the meaning and role of the monolith remain enigmatic and oft-debated. However, it has influenced many filmmakers and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry for its cultural, historical, and aesthetic significance.
