Image credit: Warner Bros., A24, CPTC, Columbia Pictures, MPC, 21 Laps Entertainment, Constantin Film, Twentieth Century Fox, Focus Features, Universal Pictures, Dimension Films, Walt Disney Pictures, Canal+, CJ Entertainment, TriStar Pictures, ARD Degeto Film, Paramount Pictures, Stage 6 Films
No need for a time machine to see the future of storytelling; it's all here, in these 25 sci-fi masterpieces, proving this century's got game.
Sci-fi in the 21st century? It's not just about aliens and spaceships anymore. Think groundbreaking visuals that make your old sci-fi DVDs look like they're from another century.
The storytelling? It's on another level – mixing human emotions with tech in ways that'll have you rethinking your relationship with your smartphone. And the special effects, they're not just there for show; they're integral, pushing the plot in directions that old school sci-fi could only dream of.
1. "Gravity" (2013) Rotten Tomatoes score: 96%
A medical engineer and an astronaut work together to survive after an accident leaves them adrift in space, facing the vast void and challenges of survival.
2. "Wall-E" (2008) Rotten Tomatoes score: 95%
A small waste-collecting robot inadvertently embarks on a space journey that ultimately decides the fate of mankind in a distant, polluted future Earth.
3. "Arrival" (2016) Rotten Tomatoes score: 94%
A linguist is recruited to communicate with extraterrestrials who have arrived on Earth, leading to a profound understanding of their language that challenges her perception of reality and time.
4. "Her" (2013) Rotten Tomatoes score: 94%
In a future where technology permeates daily life, a lonely writer develops an unexpected relationship with an artificially intelligent operating system designed to meet his every need.
In a future where a failed climate-change experiment kills all life except for the inhabitants of the Snowpiercer, a train that travels around the globe, a class system emerges.
6. "Looper" (2012) Rotten Tomatoes score: 93%
In a future where time travel is used by the mob to dispose of people, a hitman recognizes his latest target as his future self and must confront the reality of his actions and their consequences.
7. "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" (2004) Rotten Tomatoes score: 92%
After a painful breakup, a couple undergoes a procedure to erase each other from their memories, only to rediscover what they had and lost.
8. "Ex Machina" (2014) Rotten Tomatoes score: 92%
A young programmer is selected to participate in a groundbreaking experiment in synthetic intelligence by evaluating the human qualities of a highly advanced humanoid A.I.
9. "Children of Men" (2006) Rotten Tomatoes score: 92%
In a dystopian future where humans have become infertile, a disillusioned bureaucrat becomes the unlikely protector of a miraculously pregnant woman, navigating a chaotic world on the brink of collapse.
10. "The Martian" (2015) Rotten Tomatoes score: 91%
An astronaut, presumed dead and left behind on Mars, must rely on his ingenuity and humor to signal Earth that he is alive and struggle to survive until a possible rescue.
11. "Edge of Tomorrow" (2014) Rotten Tomatoes score: 91%
A soldier fighting aliens gets to relive the same day over and over again, the day restarting every time he dies, leading to him becoming skilled in combat.
12. "Moon" (2009) Rotten Tomatoes score: 90%
A solitary astronaut working on a lunar base begins to unravel the unsettling truth about his work, his health, and his life on the Moon as his three-year contract comes to an end.
In Johannesburg, an extraterrestrial race forced to live in slum-like conditions on Earth suddenly finds a kindred spirit in a government agent who is exposed to their biotechnology.
A young blade runner's discovery of a long-buried secret leads him to track down former blade runner Rick Deckard, who's been missing for thirty years, unveiling deeper mysteries about society and himself.
A biologist signs up for a dangerous, secret expedition into a mysterious zone where the laws of nature don't apply, following her husband's disappearance.
17. "The Lobster" (2015) Rotten Tomatoes score: 87%
In a dystopian near future, single people, according to the rules of The City, are taken to The Hotel, where they are obliged to find a romantic partner in forty-five days or are transformed into animals.
18. "Inception" (2010) Rotten Tomatoes score: 87%
A skilled thief uses dream-sharing technology to implant an idea into a target's subconscious, leading to a complex and layered journey through various dream levels and personal revelations.
19. "Avatar" (2009) Rotten Tomatoes score: 82%
On the alien world of Pandora, a former Marine becomes torn between following his orders and protecting the world he feels is his home.
20. "Sunshine" (2007) Rotten Tomatoes score: 76%
A team of international astronauts is sent on a dangerous mission to reignite the dying Sun with a nuclear fission bomb in 2057.
In a futuristic world, a highly advanced robotic boy embarks on a journey to become "real" so he can regain the love of his human mother.
22. "The Road" (2009) Rotten Tomatoes score: 74%
In a post-apocalyptic world, a father and his son walk alone through burned America, heading to the coast while surviving on what they can scavenge, and avoiding roaming gangs.
In a future where Earth is becoming uninhabitable, a group of astronauts travels through a wormhole in search of a new home for humanity, confronting the vastness of space and the limits of time.
An exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present, and future, as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries.
25. "Pandorum" (2009) Rotten Tomatoes score: 30%
Two crew members of a spaceship wake up from hypersleep to discover that all their colleagues are missing and that they must fight against a terrible reality of the spaceship's horror.
