Best Sci-Fi Films of All Time

Planet of the Apes (1968)

Oh how the tables have turned.

The legendary Charlton Heston who plays George Taylor is at his best in this cult classic. A spaceship crash lands in what seems like the middle of no where. The astronaut crew survive the crash and end up wandering through the desert planes. 

They stumble on a savage, almost prehistoric human tribe, where nobody appears to have the ability to talk. All of a sudden they encounter a hoard of annoying apes, which hunt humans for sport. 

Hot shot lawyers with over-inflated egos, much like today

These apes are able to speak much like modern man. In fact they behave like our modern society, and treat the humans as their slaves, and toys. They also conduct medical experiments on them much like we do on animals today. The film shows everything from a point of view of us being in the place of a chimp locked away at a zoo. We are nothing but wild animals to the borderline civilized apes.

I'm not crazy, seriously!

What the apes do not know though  is that George Taylor and his buddies are different to the tribal humans. The biggest difference is they are capable of speech, let alone common sense, and reasoning. The film progresses with the George desperately attempting to prove that he is an intelligent being, who should not be locked away like a savage animal. 

The savage tribal women have 
discovered makeup, and skimpy 
clothes

The films jumps to another level when we hear of the forbidden zone that the apes fear and must never venture out to. It is written in their spiritual texts that no ape shall go there. There is a rumour that other kind of creatures may live there, and that they only mean harm. I have to stop right here before I spoil the plot. If you haven't seen this film you haven't truly lived. This is a must see for everybody with half a brain. It is not just about apes and man, but it also questions what it is to be human, and who are we to define intelligence and morality.

Equilibrium (2002)

Christian Bale tries to look cool

Equilibrium stars the recent Oscar winning actor Christian Bale. It is set in a not too distant future where society has just survived what seems like World War III. 


A new world order has risen out of the ashes to trigger a new era in humanity. It develops a new drug, which numbs all human emotions, and consequently supposed to bring an end to all war waged by humanity. The government announces that the drug is compulsory for all of its subjects, where failure to comply will result in imprisonment, and sometimes death. 

He is so good he shoots to kill without taking aim

The film portrays Christian bale as a special forces officer who is in charge of suppressing any rebels who refuse to take the drug. He must also ensure that all man's creations such as art, music, books, and anything else which triggers humans to feel is destroyed on the spot. It feels a bit low budget, but not too much so. 


This film has fantastic atmosphere of the ruthless, post apocalyptic society, and deeper more disturbing underlying themes. All of the actors play their characters very convincingly, lifting this movie to levels above a typical Sci-Fi action flick.

Moon (2009)

Astronaut Sam Bell loosing the plot

There are not enough words to describe how much I love this movie. Arguably the best Sci-Fi movie of all time the Moon brings out disturbingly realistic and plausible future where huge corporations readily fuck with people's minds for the sake of unimaginable profits.  

The film is set on of course on our one and only Moon in the near future, I'd say probably 100 years from now. Astronaut Sam Bell is the soul occupant of the Lunar Industries mining base. He is in charge of mining the moon for precious minerals, which are than flown to Earth where it is processed to generate electricity. 

The barren and lonely landscape will turn man insane

Sam occasionally sends his video messages to Earth to his beloved Wife and daughter as he is counting down the days until he can fly back home. Towards the last few days on the Station he begins to have strange hallucinations. From here on in the film transcends into a dreamlike feel, making the audience drift into a constant state of wander. 


Coupled with this is the superb computer generated moon landscapes, which actually make you feel and realise just how lonely and deserted the Moon is. As soon as Sam begins to hallucinate things take on a new twist, which I cannot write about without spoiling the plot. Just watch it!

12 Monkeys (1995)

Bruce Willis contemplates beeing in a Nuthouse

The 12 monkeys is not your conventional Sci-Fi Film. It is a twisted, brutally violent, and thought provoking film well worth the applause it has been getting. The Film is set in the present USA metropolis. Bruce Willis plays a test subject sent from the future to the present where he must warn man-kind and some how stop the spread of a deadly virus outbreak, which destroys society as we know it.

Brad Pitt with the crazy eyes

Of course majority of the people that he tells this story to in the present think this guy is a complete loony toon. The film also introduced the entertaining wacko superbly played by Brad Pit. This wacko seems to be somehow connected with the virus outbreak. Bruce Willis must do all he can to save humanity, but things are made worse when he is deemed insane and thrown into a nuthouse.

Space Odyssey (1968)

The realisation that thinking computers was a bad idea

To this day many people are still puzzled when trying to figure out some of the deeper hidden meanings of this film. I still haven't quite figured it out myself. To tell you the truth I believe the creators of this film don't fully know either and wound up cooking up a half baked, crackpot, psychedelic ending.

Non the less the film is a must see for all die hard Sci-Fi fans who have a brain. The movie is filmed like a slow opera, which explains the rise of man from ape to advanced civilisation capable of sending people to the outer reaches of our solar system. 

Ape-man disovers tool, now he will rule the world!

The film also introduces what we are bound to see in the near future, a computer who's head is full of artificial intelligence, HAL. HAL has been programmed to run the operation of a ship, which is destined for Jupiter. The mission is triggered when man stumbles on a weird black, rectangular object on the moon, which was seemingly buried on purpose. The find is covered in secrecy and claimed to be the greatest discovery in history of mankind. 

HAL9000 quietly plotting to kill

Anyways the mission to Jupiter is also plagued by secrecy to an extent that even the astronauts don't know what they are heading for. The crew go about their day until one day HAL makes a mistake. A mistake HAL claims was due to human error. The crew's trust in the computer's ability quickly diminish. Out of paranoia they propose to turn HAL off. At this point HAL looses the plot and turns into a psycho. 


I don't want to say anything further as I would reluctantly spoil the film for you. If you have 3 hours of time and some really good weed, I suggest you watch this film. 

The Matrix (1999)

Neo masters mind over matter

The Matrix is cult classic, which will be known by generations long after we have passed. This film questions reality to an extent that it will make you wander if everything around is nothing but a hologram, fake and artificial world fed to the electrical signals inside your brain leading you to believe that what we see is what we get.The film starts with Neo played by Keanu Reeves, an average Joe who works at a large IT company. 

That Neo. He makes me so angry!

I would normally frown upon any movie with Keanu Reeves, but for the Matrix it worked out perfectly, provided he doesn't talk too much. At his spare time Neo secretly searches for an answer. He does not know exactly what he is searching for, but somehow he wants to unlock the secret to life. 


Eventually he stumbles on a couple of characters Morpheus and Trinity. His new companions reveal the truth to him, that the world around him is nothing but a computer generated world built by machines to fool humanity. This brings on a whole wave of interesting possibilities. If the world around us is fake, the rules of physics can be broken. 

Gravity defying moves. Just awesome

As Neo is brought out of the fake world and into reality he quickly learns how to break those rules and defy conventional physics. He learns to jump from building to building, dodge bullets, and fight like a possessed ninja. 


As he masters his skills he joins the fight against the machines which have caused the destruction of man. If you haven't seen this film by now you must be living under a rock in the mountains. Simply go see it! Its food for the mind and just pure eye candy.

A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)

Queued for termination. He's in a bit of a pickle.

A.I. is an extremely realistic film based on our obsession with creating robots that behave like us. The frightening aspect of this movie is how realistic the movie is. It is set in the future where robots that look like humans are as common as cars on the road. A pioneer designer of these robots decides to create the unthinkable, a robot that is capable of love.

This robot boy played by Haley Joel Osment, the kid from The Sixth Sense, is brought out from a factory into the house of a couple that are on verge of loosing their  real child to a horrible decease. 

Jude Law as a stylish sexbot

As their child continues to suffer in the hospital, the thought of loosing him compels the couple to adopt this robot boy. Once initiated the robot boy begins to show sign of human like affection towards the mother, creeping the big Jesus out of her. 


The film plot develops slowly until the couple's real child recovers and returns back home from the hospital. With one event leading to another the robot boy winds up drifting through the city in search for his mother. On the way he becomes friends with another robot, a sexbot played bey Jude Law. On their journey together they encounter all types of obstacles in a world where defected robots are hunted for sport. 

The stark reality of being a robot

This brings a whole new meaning to what it is to be human. When a robot who looks and talks like a real boy is positioned for brutal execution in-front of a huge crowd of people, it evokes a tremendous outrage. 

Once you look past the sulky performance by Haley Joel Osment you find that this movie is a bit of a gem, portraying a realistic depiction of a not too distant and controversial future. 

The Fifth Element (1997)

Milla Jovovich scared shitless

The Fifth Element is to put it blatantly, brilliant. The sheer variety and imagination put into the film environments, characters, and the grotesque aliens make it feel more like outrages fantasy.

The movie is set in the far out future where the cities are filled with flying cars and plagued by over-population, probably 200 years from now. An evil 'thing' is heading towards Earth. The only weapon that can stop it the 'fifth element', which is somehow tied with a seemingly clueless and curious alien creature played by Milla Jovovich. 

Marvel at the chaos of future New York City

Bruce Willis plays a strung out cop who is trying to earn enough for his rent by doing rounds as a cab driver. With events spiralling out of control in his life he somehow gets entangled in the epic quest to save humanity. 


This a great movie to watch even for those who couldn't care less about sci-fi. The movie is a tasty treat for our eyes to feast on. I would watch this movie just because it is full of Bruce Willis hard ass tough nut goodness.

Terminator (1984)

Mean machine bent on killing you! 

The movie that launched Arnie towards international stardom, and elevated his status as some kind action film god. Even though Arnold played the bad guy, he played it so well that the film became an instant timeless classic.

The movie is set in the retro 80s when a naked Terminator robot arrives from the future in a electrified plasma ball. He strolls along in search for supplies like clothes and  guns while keeping his creepy robot mind fixated on one goal; kill Sarah Connor. 

Can you spot Bill Paxton?

Sarah Connor is not yet pregnant but in the future she's destined to give birth to a boy John Connor, who is hurled towards a path where he becomes the leader of the human resistance against the Terminator army. While Terminator continues his mindless search for Sarah a human is sent from the future by the resistance to protect Sarah from the crazy Terminator machine. 


This movie is fantastic in portraying the Terminator as a mindless creepy, emotionless killing machine, while foreseeing a grim future for mankind. I first watched this film when I was 7ish and it captivated me for years during my childhood years.

Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)

Arnie is programmed to be bad ass

In Terminator 2 Arnie is back and this time he is miraculously transformed into a good guy. In reality James Cameron came up with this convenient explanation simply because he wanted to have Arnold star in the second film.

The film is set several years later after Sarah Connor has given birth to her son John. The Humans reprogram the Terminator (Arnie) to become John's protector and send him to the past. 

If we keep still maybe he won't see us

Meanwhile the machine army send one of their own, a new type of 'liquid metal' terminator to hunt down and kill John. This film was ground breaking in terms of the computer graphics and special effects for its time. The liquid metal terminator is played by some skinny white dweeb, who's performance was pretty two dimensional. But that's ok because the remainder of the characters performances are enough to keep the audience interested.  

I must have watched this film like a 100 times and still never get sick of it. This film is the height of Arnie's career, which spawned a whole generation of 90s kids wanting to be action heroes. 

Aliens (1986) 

It's a hard job beeing a mother

Ellen Ripley is back after her first encounter and this time she is stuck on some god forsaken planet together with a special forces team sent to put down the alien outbreak. Nobody knows where the aliens have come from, or why they are here. All that is clear is that they're hard to kill, and are extremely violent. 

Ellen Ripley once again finds her self in a sticky situation where the people around keep dropping like flies, and things getting desperate. As their ammo runs out, every man is left to fight on his own. 


She somehow carves her way through a massive hoard of savage aliens beasts while trying desperately to save a girl she treats like her own daughter. She ends up confronting the alien QUEEN, a monstrous creature, which is running the whole operation. 

Maybe I should have taken another route

James Cameron successfully creates a chilling, intense, and tense atmosphere that at times will make you stare at the tv screen with eager anticipation. 

This is a great movie with not much plot but loads of aliens exploding action, not made for the squeamish. Never the less I'm sure every kid saw this when there were only like 7 years old, and it was just awesome!

Solaris (1972) 

You look real enough to me

Solaris the original Russian film is a masterpiece in its own class. What ever you do stay the HELL away from the remake modern film starring George Clooney. The remake is so awful its a total insult to the original.

Solaris is a mysterious planet covered by an enchanting blue ocean, which seems to be turning people insane. The space agency is set to pull the plug on the Solaris mission but before doing so they decide to send a Psychiatrist to the space station to investigate the psychological effects the blue ocean planet has been causing to it's crew. 

What is it, and what does it mean?

Kris is not fully aware of the planet's power to mess with the human mind. Kris's life is haunted by a dark and damaging secret, which is not revealed to the audience until something at the Solaris space station happens that triggers all of his painful memories to return. 

I do not want to say much more because undoubtedly I will spoil the plot. Solaris is a mind trip that will make you question your reality and your emotions on very deep level that will probably screw with your head for days to come after you've seen the move. It questions many philosophical questions that have been bugging society since the dawn of civilisation.