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The 30 best space movies

Head to infinity and beyond with the greatest intergalactic odysseys of all time

From the time the movies were invented, filmmakers have been dreaming of outer space. Mankind hadn’t even figured out how to get off the ground yet when Georges Méliès imagined voyaging to the moon, and in the century-plus since, many other directors have taken audiences on trips far deeper into the cosmos. To infinity and beyond, you might say.

It’s no wonder, really. The concept of space is vast enough to allow for the exploration of all sorts of big ideas. What is mankind’s place in the universe? What lies outside our tiny little rock – and do we really want to know what’s out there? For that reason, the ‘space movie’ exists as its own genre beneath the wider umbrella of science fiction. And so, we’ve decided to rank them. Here are our picks for the 30 best movies about that big, overwhelming, sometimes frightening, sometimes beautiful void above our heads.

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The best space movies

1.  2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

• Science fiction

Director: Stanley Kubrick 

Cast: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood

Many argue that this film is cinema’s GOAT – us, among them – and its enduring status is partly down to ideas around artificial intelligence and technology that have only become more prescient with every passing year. But few sci-fi films have embraced the look, feel and experience of space travel with this level of baked-in, world-building cool. Kubrick had three production designers on the case and got big brands like IBM, Dupont and Nikon to imagine what their products might look like in an interstellar future. Major props, too, to Douglas Trumbull’s eye candy stargate sequence, which helped ensure that late-‘60s stoners were the first audiences to take it all to their hearts.

2.  The Martian (2015)

• Action and adventure

Director: RIdley Scott

Cast: Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Chiwetel Ejiofor

After dividing audiences with Prometheus , Ridley Scott’s return to space was a heel-turn from his previous horrors. Thanks in huge part to a script by The Cabin in the Woods writer Drew Goddard and an endearing performance by Matt Damon as a marooned astronaut, The Martian is a bracing survivalist yarn with a reliable charm. In fact, Damon’s affability scored it an unlikely Best Comedy nod at the Golden Globes. And those laughs are vital in a film detailing a scientist slowly starving himself on a distant planet as his friends risk their lives to rocket through space to save him. 

3.  WALL-E (2008)

Director: Andrew Stanton

Cast: (voices) Jeff Garlin, Fred Willard, Ben Burtt

Only half of Pixar’s environmentalist parable-slash-intertechnological love story actually takes place in space, and most of those scenes are set aboard the galaxial Noah’s Ark keeping mankind alive after destroying the planet. But its moment among the stars is an absolute stunner. After breaking out of the spaceship’s airlock, the titular sentient trash compactor – aided by a fire extinguisher – and his Alexa-esque paramour twirl, spin and criss-cross each other in a zero-gravity Astaire-Rogers ballet that jerks tears and raises goosebumps in equal measure.    

4.  Star Wars (1977)

Director : George Lucas

Cast : Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, Alec Guinness

Has any film more perfectly channelled our fascination with space? It’s easy to forget how truly mesmerising A New Hope is when it ditches its fantastical planets and takes to the sky. It’s not just the dogfights of the climax, either. Much of the film plays out as an intergalactic road trip at warp speed, but it also slows down for a quick game of chess as stars drift past the window. By the end, you find yourself looking skyward, imagining the possibilities – not unlike Luke Skywalker himself, as he stares out beyond Tatooine’s twin suns and dreams of his destiny.

5.  The Right Stuff (1983)

Director: Philip Kaufman Cast: Sam Shepherd, Ed Harris, Dennis Quaid, Scott Glenn

Philip Kaufman’s boy’s own adaptation of Tom Wolfe’s nonfiction classic is every bit as stirring as Top Gun , though the tale of the US Mercury’s astronauts seldom gets its due. It also begs the question: how is it that movie astronauts are so often depicted as introverted nerds when we’ve seen Sam Shepard’s wildchild Chuck Yaeger breaking the sound barrier and the other Mercury astronauts strutting like the rock stars of their day? Truly, our understanding of space – and the cocksure punks who sought to tame it – remains woefully out of touch.

6.  A Trip to the Moon (1902)

Director: Georges Méliès

Cast: ​ ​Georges Méliès

All sci-fi movies – hell, pretty much all of modern effects-led cinema in general – begins here. But we don’t include Georges Méliès’s groundbreaker out of historical obligation. Well over a century later, the film displays an imagination in both storytelling and effects that wows even today, especially when you consider that not even the aeroplane existed yet. Surely, when the first astronauts made it to that big rock in the sky, they half-expected to find harpoon-wielding insectoids there to greet them.  

7.  Outland (1981)

Director : Peter Hyams

Cast : Sean Connery, Peter Boyle, Clarke Peters 

Essentially High Noon in space – but with 100 percent more splattered heads, thanks to the wonders of explosive decompression – this Sean Connery-starring space western unfolds above and below one of Jupiter’s moons, where a mining operation becomes the nucleus of a drug-fuelled mystery full of violence and depravity. The film shares a lot of DNA with Alien  thanks to its advanced effects and claustrophobic sets; only here, it’s humans doing the eviscerating... and a lot of it. 

8.  Galaxy Quest (1999)

Director: Dean Parisot

Cast: Tim Allen, Alan Rickman, Sigourney Weaver

A comedy is often only as strong as its reverence toward what it’s lampooning. A love of Star Trek ’s Gene Roddenberry shines through in every moment of this corker about the cast of a  Trek knockoff enlisted to save the denizens of a faraway planet. The plot is essentially a sci-fi version of  Three Amigos! , but the game cast – particularly Alan Rickman and a young Sam Rockwell – sell every uproarious gag, while the effects work updates the ‘60s camp while keeping the cartoonish charm front and centre. 

9.  Moon (2009)

Director: Duncan Jones

Cast: Sam Rockwell

While much of Duncan Jones’s ( Source Code ) meditative sci-fi takes place on the lunar surface, Moon  spends plenty of time with Sam Rockwell’s spaceman gazing at the stars and to the distant Earth like a blue-collar Major Tom. Rockwell has never been better in this small-scale tale of space madness (or is it?) about a helium farmer on a three-year lunar stint, accompanied only by his own personal HAL. Jones’s quiet gem embraces the all-engulfing nature of space, crafting something of a desert-island movie in the cold black void. 

10.  Event Horizon (1997)

Director: Paul WS Anderson

Cast: Sam Neill, Laurence Fishburne, Kathleen Quinlan

Derided for its relentless sadism upon release, Paul ‘Not PT’ Anderson’s trippy space saga has had an overdue reassessment and is emerging from the wormhole as a certified cult film. Part ‘ The Shining in space’, part ‘ Interstellar in hell’, Event Horizon ’s tale of misbegotten astronauts transported straight into the seventh circle isn’t for the squeamish. But for those who can stomach the viscera, it’s a wild ride through the gore-spattered corridors of an extremely haunted space station. Never has the cold vacuum of space seemed more welcoming than the supposed sanctuary of an airlock. 

11.  Treasure Planet (2002)

• Family and kids

Director: Ron Clements & John Musker

Cast: (voices) Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emma Thompson, Martin Short

Disney dared to do something different with its sci-fi take on Robert Louis Stevenson’s pirate classic ‘Treasure Island’. Audiences didn’t respond to its hybrid of hand-drawn and CG animation, or storytelling that ditched princesses in favour of something a little more space-age and weird, but Treasure Planet is full of gorgeous celestial flair. The juxtaposition between old-school tall ships and cutting-edge interstellar animation remains dreamlike in its beauty. Plus, it beats the hell out of Mars Needs Moms . 

12.  Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

Director: Nicholas Meyer

Cast: William Shatner, Ricardo Montalbán, Leonard Nimoy

The eye-popping space battles and serene galactic imagery. The mind-controlling space eels. The introduction of the Kobayashi Maru test. The tear-soaked space funeral. The goddamn mind-controlling space eels . The Wrath of Khan stands tall above all the USS Enterprise’ s cinematic adventures for many reasons, but chief among them is its deference to space itself – the franchise’s spiritual home. The reboot might have more advanced ships and shinier effects, but this was the moment Trek matched Star Wars in terms of pure awe in the abyss. 

13.  Starship Troopers (1997)

Director: Paul Verhoeven

Cast: Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards, Jake Busey

For millennia, humankind has gazed to the heavens and wondered what life exists beyond the stars. Paul Verhoeven has an answer, and it’s a horde of vengeful, snot-spewing insectoids. The Total Recall director’s return to space is a feature-length satire of fascist propaganda films that also plays like a stunning action spectacle, goopy horror romp and white-knuckle actioner. Verhoeven spends considerable time above the battlefield as a fleet of space cruisers discovers rather quickly that their ships are no match for bug bogeys and the unforgiving vacuum of space in graphic detail. 

14.  Interstellar (2014)

Director : Christopher Nolan

Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Jessica Chastain, Anne Hathaway

There’s a lot going on both above and below the ground in Christopher Nolan’s heady but divisive space odyssey, but this is a film that’s done its homework. And once Matthew McConaughey’s astronaut-farmer takes to the skies, all the film’s whiteboard-scribbling science lessons pay off with the most dazzling – and scientifically backed – renderings of space travel since 2001: A Space Odyssey . Say what you will about the film’s father-daughter narrative (Muuuuuurph!!!!), but even the most ardent detractor will be floored by Interstellar ’s cosmic imagery.

15.  Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

Director: James Gunn

Cast: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista

The MCU’s first proper trip to the cosmos takes its cues from Star Wars and The Ice Pirates in equal measure. But it also carves a unique impression into cinematic space lore thanks to its fantastic worlds and gleeful depiction of space travel. The sequel arguably nails the sensation of gravity-defying antics better, capping things off with a space funeral that trounces The Wrath of Khan . But director James Gunn’s original is the kind of film that knows damn well that a scene of eye-popping space psychedelics all but demands to be scored to Bowie’s ‘Moonage Daydream’ (of course), then delivers in kind.

16.  Alien (1979)

Director: Ridley Scott

Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Ian Holm

No other film captures the contradiction of space being at once infinitely vast and frighteningly claustrophobic than Ridley Scott’s sci-fi horror masterpiece. It’s an oddly small picture, given its influence and iconic special effects, but the movie’s true genius is in how it maximises its small budget, turning a spaceship into a haunted house and the infinite void of the universe into a deep, dark wood. And the big, bad wolf has never been this terrifying. 

17.  Apollo 11 (2019)

• Documentaries

Director : Todd Douglas Miller

Strap yourself to the side of the thundering Apollo 11 rocket as it careers into, and beyond, the Earth’s atmosphere in a spectacular doc that makes great use of hitherto unseen Nasa footage. The mission, of course, successfully plonked two Americans on to the Moon’s surface and then unplonked them again, thereby winning that bit of the space race with the Soviet Union, but there’s nothing triumphalist in director Todd Douglas Miller’s thrilling recreation – just a lot of quiet professionalism, teamwork and fearless men in helmets. When it gets into space and the 70mm footage does its thing, it makes you wish you’d actually followed up on that childhood ambition to become an astronaut.

18.  Gravity (2013)

Director: Alfonso Cuarón

Cast: Sandra Bullock, George Clooney

Some were disappointed when Alfonso Cuarón followed up 2006’s Children of Men – a masterpiece of dystopian world-building with big ideas about hope, faith and the future of humanity – with the simple story of an astronaut marooned in space. Of course, there’s nothing all that simple about poor Sandra Bullock’s situation. With her craft destroyed by orbiting debris and her partner (George Clooney) having floated off into the void, home appears both tantalisingly close and unimaginably far away. The movie is a technical marvel, but even on the small screen, it’s breathlessly tense – not since Alien has the infinite expanse of the universe felt so claustrophobic.

19.  First Man (2018)

Director: Damien Chazelle

Cast : Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Kyle Chandler A true-life astronaut drama that soars for the heavens but finds its deepest emotions at the kitchen table, this reimagining of what Neil Armstrong was contending with at the time of the Apollo 11 mission will have you ugly crying before anyone can so much as bob across that lunar surface. Ryan Gosling reunites with his La La Land director, Damien Chazelle, to humanise the now almost mythical Armstrong in his grief for his young daughter, with a just-holding-it-together Claire Foy as the moonwalker’s wife. For the majority of its runtime, First Man is earthbound. But when it finally touches down on the moon, it’s cinematic magic: a moment of wonderment, solitude and an overwhelming sense that you’re right there too.

20.  Ad Astra (2019)

Director : James Gray

Cast : Brad Pitt, Ruth Negga, Tommy Lee Jones Directed with a lust for adventure by The Lost City of Z ’s, James Gray,  Ad Astra (‘to the stars’) follows Brad Pitt’s spaceman across the galaxy to track down his ornery dad (Tommy Lee Jones), who may or may not be trying to wipe out humanity from a space station near Neptune (spoiler: he is). The journey sits somewhere between the old Star Trek movies in its stargazy philosophising and the rebooted ones in some of zero-g action sequences that suck the air from your lungs. There’s also an awesome space-buggy chase across the moon and a bit with psychotic space baboons. We are here for them both.   

21.  Forbidden Planet (1956)

Director : Fred M Wilcox

Cast : Leslie Nielsen, Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis It’s Shakespeare in space – this iconic sci-fi is an intergalactic take on The Tempest – as a group of galactic travellers led by a straight-shooting Leslie Nielsen fall into the lap of megalomaniac boffin (Walter Pidgeon) on the remote planet of Altair 4. Cutting-edge effects presented in widescreen CinemaScope – the flying saucer remains cool AF – make this a true landmark not just in space flicks, but sci-fi genre as a whole. Don’t take our word for it: Gene Roddenberry cites it as a major influence on Star Trek .

22.  Silent Running (1972)

Director: Douglas Trumbull

Cast : Bruce Dern, Cliff Potts A direct inspiration for WALL-E and about as eco-conscious as science-fiction can get, this enduring classic shows that 2001: A Space Odyssey SFX maestro Trumbull could tell his own stories too. And this one follows a single astronaut (Bruce Dern) and his three adorbs robot pals, Louie, Huey and Dewey, as they drift through space, doing a spot of gardening and trying to stay sane in the face of mankind’s extinction. Heavy themes, sure, but treated with loads of heart and a philosophical spirit that echoes especially loudly in an era of climate crisis. 

23.  Solaris (1972)

Director : Andrei Tarkovsky

Cast : Donatas Banionis, Natalya Bondarchuk

Since remade by Steven Soderbergh, the original Tarkovsky Solaris is definitely the place to start when it comes to enigmatic, brainy affairs set in the far reaches of the universe. A cosmonaut (Lithuanian actor Donatas Banionis) is haunted by his dead wife as his spaceship orbits a mysterious planet. But is the planet creating embodiments of the ghosts haunting the poor man’s subsconscious, a bit like when Ray Stantz accidentally summons the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man in Ghostbusters ? With its eerie visuals, it makes for a dreamlike journey to the far reaches of the human psyche.

24.  First Men in the Moon (1964)

Director : Nathan Juran

Cast : Edward Judd, Martha Hyer, Lionel Jeffries This monster-filled space adventure came out five years before man actually set foot on the moon and you can only hope Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong weren’t watching, because the moon landing itself is a trainwreck. The ‘in’ part of the title is key: this is a Journey to the Centre of the Earth -style caper that has a crew of heroically under-prepared Brits discovering all sorts of things that don’t want to be discovered beneath the lunar crust. You will learn nothing at all about space but the giant stop-motion critters, animated by the great Ray Harryhausen, are a lot of fun.

25.  For All Mankind (1989)

Director : Al Reinert Six moon landings are ticked off in Al Reinert’s iconic doc, all accompanied by Brian Eno’s cosmic score (if space had sound, it’d definitely sound like Brian Eno). It makes the perfect non-fiction double bill with the more recent Apollo 11 – a window into the experience of being on the moon and looking back at earth. ‘A spiritual presence was there,’ says one NASA astronaut of those lunar vibes. ‘We were not alone.’ Haunting and hard to shake, this is proof that sometimes real life can be as spectacular as science fiction.

26.  Sunshine (2007)

Director: Danny Boyle

Cast: Cillian Murphy, Rose Byrne, Michelle Yeoh Director Danny Boyle positions his mindtrip space flick as a midway point between 2001: A Space Oydssey and Alien – a fusion of thrills and thinky bits that culminates in a third act that gets close to melting down as it draws close to the sun. You could probably throw Armageddon into that mix – a self-sacrificing crew of astronauts heads into space to save humanity from annihilation – although it’s a lot more believable (Boyle put his cast through astronaut training) and a lot less tub-thumping. The vast planetary vistas glimpsed from the decks of the Icarus II make a suitably awe-inspiring backdrop from its stellar cast (Cillian Murphy, Rose Byrne, Chris Evans et al) to come apart at the seams.

27.  Apollo 13 (1995)

Director: Ron Howard

Cast: Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinese

So much more than its famous ‘Houston, we have a problem’ catchphrase, Apollo 13 harkens back to the glory days of white-knuckle, PG-rated entertainment. An ensemble tribute to the power of group problem-solving, it has Howard fully embracing a ‘70s aesthetic and the storytelling of the era to craft a timeless middlebrow crowd-pleaser with an almost surgical focus on the imperiled mission at hand. 

28.  Contact (1997)

Director: Robert Zemeckis 

Cast: Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, John Hurt

We’d have loved to include Denis Villeneuve’s magical, melancholy Arrival  on this list but it takes place entirely within Earth’s atmosphere. Instead, try this big, ambitious drama from Back to the Future ’s Robert Zemeckis based on a book by sci-fi seer Carl Sagan. Contact ’s heart is in a similar place, and like Arrival ’s protagonist played by Amy Adams, it is female-led, steers clear of macho ideas of hostile aliens and cocks an ear to new voices from far beyond our solar system. Zemeckis, who loves to push visual boundaries, images space travel as a dizzying acid trip full of wormholes, whirlpools and mind-bending geometries. It’s one of those rare movies that should come with motion sickness tablets.

29.  Dark Star (1974)

Director : John Carpenter

Cast : Dan O'Bannon, Dre Pahich, Brain Narelle

There’s no film version of The Muppet’ s ‘Pigs in Space’ sketch, but John Carpenter’s debut, set during the 22nd century, delivers the next best thing: A hippie movie hopped up on its own counter-cultural sense of the absurd (there’s a talking bomb) and a pisstake-y irreverence. It’s the perfect antidote to bombastic science-fictions that get lost in their own self-importance – a lo-fi whoopie cushion that invites you aboard its titular spacecraft to hang out with four fargone astronauts and indulge in a little space surfing.

30.  High Life (2018)

Director : Claire Denis

Cast : Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche, André Benjamin Myriad mysteries abound in this deliriously bonkers space oddity from French auteur Claire Denis ( White Material ) that co-stars Robert Pattinson and Juliette Binoche as an interstellar inmate and his scientist jailer. The human body and its function gets a rare exploration in this context – space flicks rarely spend this much time over their characters’ sexual needs in zero gravity ( 2001: A Space Odyssey does not have a Fuckbox) – and its themes of reproduction, incarceration and experimentation play out in a space with its own realities. Go with it, in other words, and be rewarded with a space journey unlike any other.

The 100 best sci-fi movies

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The 47 Best Space Movies of All Time

To infinity and beyond.

The film industry has long been obsessed with outer space—even before men walked on the moon. In fact, the first film on space dates all the way back to 1902 with the French silent film, A Trip to the Moon . Since then, we’ve come a long way from the days of outerwordly black-and-white movies made with cardboard cutouts. Nowadays, the best movies about space travel push the boundaries of special effects and the human imagination, which is why we love them so much. 

Now, let’s get one thing straight about space movies: You don’t have to be a sci-fi fan to enjoy them. While some films take us Earthlings to new planets inhabited by new creatures (I’m looking at you Star Trek !), other films are no work of fiction at all— First Man and Apollo 13 are based on very real stories and will leave you shook to the core. 

So the next time you’re in need of a little escape from the issues that plague our world, look no further than this list of the best space movies. Each film on this list will take you somewhere you’ve never been before, all without leaving your couch. These films all reference space in some shape or form, but they also range in subject matter and genre—so whether you prefer a comedy or drama, we’ve got you covered. Ahead in no particular order, are 47 films that will take you to a galaxy far, far away. 

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2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

In 1968, Stanley Kubrik's  2001: A Space Odyssey  debuted to underwhelming reviews. Years later, the film became a cult-classic for cinephiles and sci-fi fanatics.  2001  takes you on the ultimate trip. I'm not saying you should be stoned while watching this, but I'm not  not  saying that.

WATCH IT 

Interstellar (2014)

Christopher Nolan's  Interstellar , which features a star-studded cast — Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Casey Affleck, Michael Caine, and a young Timothée Chalamet, to name a few — is easily one of the most successful space movies of the decade. The film follows Cooper (McConaughey) who's on a journey through the galaxy to find a potential new home for humankind.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005)

Planning a trip that's out of this world? Don't panic.  The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy  (2005) has you covered. Martin Freeman, Mos Def, Zooey Deschanel, and Sam Rockwell make this hilariously dysfunctional cast heroes of the galaxy. This movie has everything: singing dolphins, a two-headed president, and the answer to the eternal question—what is the meaning of life?

WALL-E (2008)

WALL-E  tells the story of the last robot left on an uninhabitable Earth filled with trash. Relatable, no? Though dialogue is limited, the film is visually stunning and a sentimental. Come for the Pixar animated cuteness, stay for the feels. 

Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century (1999)

Zetus Lapetus! This Disney Channel Original Movie is a standout in the collection of space cinema. Zenon (Kristen Storm) has been grounded by her parents...to Earth. When trouble strikes on the space station, Zenon has to save her parents and best friend Nebula (Raven-Symoné) before it's too late. Let us not forget the  special performance  by intergalactic superstar Prota Zoa.

Space Jam (1996)

NBA legend and one of the greatest athletes of all time, Bugs Bunny, stars opposite Michael Jordan in this 1996 sports cinematic masterpiece. Bunny and his cartoon comrades take Jordan out of basketball retirement to defeat theme park owner, Swackhammer (Danny freakin' DiVito!).

WATCH IT  

Alien (1979)

From the space auteur Ridley Scott, this first film in the  Alien  franchise is as gripping as it is visually captivating. Ellen Ripley (Madame Sigourney Weaver) and her copilots attempt to escape an extraterrestrial who's boarded their spacecraft. The film's biggest takeaway? Always listen to a woman when she has a plan!

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

When this movie debuted, everyone thought  Chris Pratt is...hot?  In this Marvel film, Star-Lord (Pratt) joins fellow convicts Rocket the Raccoon (Bradley Cooper), Drax, Gamora (Zoe Saldana), and Groot (Vin Diesel) to return a stolen orb to safe hands and, well, save the galaxy.

The Star Wars Franchise

Jedis, Droids, Wookiees, oh my! The 9+ films in the  Star Wars  franchise are the most successful in the galaxy, so we are contractually obligated* to put them on this list. If you haven't seen any of them by now, what asteroid have you been living under?

*Not obligated whatsoever

Hidden Figures (2016)

Hidden Figures  tells the story of unsung NASA heroes Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe)—three Black women who fast-tracked the space race and helped launch man into orbit for the first time. Are we surprised women were behind one of NASA's most successful events? Absolutely not...but we love to see it!

Arrival (2016)

Amy Adams is a linguistics professor called to lead a team of scientists attempting to communicate with an alien spaceship that landed on Earth. Her performance is breathtaking (talk about Oscars  robbery ), especially considering her main co-star was...an alien.

Moon (2009)

If you love Sam Rockwell,  Moon  is a slow-burn movie you'll need to see. Did I fall asleep midway? Sure. But when I woke up and restarted, I was glad I did. Astronaut Sam Bell (Rockwell) is finishing up a three-year assignment when an accident causes him to see double. Trouble ensues when Rockwell faces a clone of himself onboard. I hate when that happens!

Men in Black (1997)

Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are the secret agents sworn to keep the Earth safe from all things extraterrestrial. Man vs. alien, what could possibly go wrong? A lot! Only thing this movie is missing? Sigourney Weaver!

Blade Runner (1982)

The original  Blade Runner , another Ridley Scott classic, follows Deckard (Harrison Ford) who's sent to Earth on the hunt for escaped Replicants. When he falls in love with a Replicant woman, things will never be the same.

Ad Astra (2019)

Did I watch this movie just to see Brad Pitt look like a disgruntled hot zaddy in a space uniform? Maybe, what of it?  Ad Astra  follows Pitt's character as he searches for an answer for his missing astronaut father. It's gripping and beautiful. Brad Pitt's best performance? No, but what compares to Brad  Burn After Reading  Pitt?

Solaris (1972)

This Russian film in which Kris Kelvin starts seeing his late wife aboard the space craft is a cult-classic. This psychological thriller was later remade in 2002 starring George Clooney. I watched the remake; stick to the original. 

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

Rogue One  could be grouped in with the  Star Wars  franchise, but Felicity Jones is just too badass in this movie to not recognize it on its own!  Rogue One  is set just before  A New Hope  and follows Jyn Erso (Jones) as she leads the rebel alliance to steal plans to the Death Star. We love to see galactic feminism!

Gravity (2013)

Director Alfonso Cuarón's cinematic masterpiece,  Gravity ,   is awe-inspiring and  completely unrealistic . The film stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney in my worst nightmare—alone and floating aimlessly in outer space. You'll be on the edge of your seat the whole time riding that anxiety high.

First Man (2018)

First Man  is the story of Neil Armstrong's (Ryan Gosling) journey to space with the support of his wife (Claire Foy). The film depicts Armstrong's spacewalk and the advancements of mankind. It's...slow, but Foy's performance is gripping and Gosling is not too bad to look at! 

The Martian (2015)

If you thought the world was short on films about white male astronauts, think again!  The Martian ,   based on the best-selling novel, follows an astronaut (Matt Damon) stranded on Mars as he attempts to stay alive. Think  The Circle  except its Damon talking to his webcam about his plants. 

High Life (2018)

From director Claire Denis,  High Life  is trippy masterpiece. Robert Pattinson attempts to survive an endless mission in outer space. It's artistic and definitely not made for the faint of heart.

Star Trek (2009)

Based on the hit 1960s TV series, the first  Star Trek  movie in the 2000s trilogy follows James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto) on a journey to the final frontier. If you watched the show, it's nostalgic glory. If not, sit back and watch sexy Pine take control.

Apollo 13 (1995)

Based on the true story of the Apollo 13 mission, Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, and Kevin Bacon's characters fight to stay alive when malfunctions take place mid-mission.

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

One of the best films in the Marvel franchise (@ me, I dare you!),  Thor: Ragnarok  finds Thor (Chris Hemsworth) on a junk planet, the name of which I honestly can't remember. He tries to save Asgard alongside Hulk (hot daddy Mark Ruffalo!), Loki, and Valkyrie. Directed by Taika Waititi ( JoJo Rabbit, What We Do in the Shadows ), this movie will make you laugh out loud.

Lucy in the Sky (2019)

Lucy in the Sky  follows astronaut Lucy Cola (Natalie Portman) on her mission to space. The film is a slow-burn, but visually stimulating and a cult favorite.

Prometheus (2012)

Another Ridley Scott sci-fi thriller!  Prometheus  stars Charlize Theron and Michael Fassbender as they search for other sentient beings in the universe. What could possibly go wrong?

Treasure Planet (2002)

Based on  Treasure Island , this animated film is about a treasure hunt across the galaxy in a space ship. Sails included.

The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)

This indie-flick stars David Bowie as an extraterrestrial who's found his way to Earth and falls in love with a human while trying to save his home planet. The '70s weren't necessarily the prime decade for cinema, but Bowie is iconic in this film. It will make you think,  What did I just watch?

Armageddon (1998)

When an asteroid is destined for Earth, who better to save the day than Billy Bob Thorton and Bruce Willis? Also starring Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler,  Armageddon  is one of sci-fi's favorite space movies. The best part of the film? Aerosmith's original song, "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing."

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

One of the original space films,  The Day the Earth Stood Still  is an essential watch for sci-fi cinephiles. Chaos ensues when an alien, alongside his large robot, visits Earth to deliver a message that will change all of humankind. This movie was remade in 2008 with a young Keanu Reeves. Still, watch the original.

Galaxy Quest (1999)

Tim Allen, Alan Rickman, and yes, Madame Sigourney Weaver star in this 1999 space comedy about TV astronauts forced by aliens to help save their planet. It's funny in the "you had to see it in the '90s" sort of way.

I Am Mother (2019)

I Am Mother  is the story of a young girl raised by a robot. When an outsider (Hilary Swank) arrives, the girl is forced to decide between who to believe: her robotic caretaker or a fellow human.

Avatar (2009)

When James Cameron's  Avatar  came out in 2009 ,  did I see it in 3-D IMAX? Yes. Does it need five sequels and a Disney World Theme Park? Absolutely not. Let me sum up this film in a few words: war, blue, alien sex. Still, it was nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars.

Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959)

Californians are under attack by flying saucers in this 1959 cult classic. Their plan? Resurrect corpses of a Hollywood cemetery in a Frankenstein-style fashion.

A Wrinkle in Time (2018)

In  A Wrinkle in Time , based off the beloved Madeleine L'Engle novel, two young kids travel the universe in search of their missing father. Mindy Kaling, Reese Witherspoon, and Oprah help the children on their mission. The film itself is a visual marvel, hair and makeup are iconic to say the least, but the performances fall flat and it doesn't match the hype.

Spaceballs (1987)

For those who loved the '80s,  Spaceballs , the famous parody of  Star Wars,  pokes fun at every sci-fi movie made. It's okay to love it—even not ironically.

Jupiter Ascending (2015)

If you haven't seen  Jupiter Ascending , now is not the time. Mila Kunis is Jupiter Jones, an alien, opposite Channing Tatum, who is half canine, half human. (I wish I could make this up.)

Coneheads (1993)

From the  SNL  sketch to the big screen,  Coneheads  follows a family of aliens who've found a home in Jersey and try to live a normal life. Another film with a cult-following, this movie caters to lovers of old  SNL  and Dan Aykroyd .

It Came from Outer Space (1953)

The 1953 classic film depicts an alien invasion. Townspeople begin to disappear and are replaced by alien versions. Think:  Invasion of the Body Snatchers  meets  The Twilight Zone . An essential watch for space cinephiles.

The Astronaut's Wife (1999)

A former astronaut (Johnny Depp) returns to Earth after a mission but isn't quite the same. His wife (Charlize Theron) begins to notice his strange behavior, and drama ensues.

LIFE (2017)

LIFE  stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Renolds in this sci-fi thriller in which a new life form begins to develop aboard the International Space Station. 

October Sky (1999)

Jake Gyllenhaal has weirdly been in a lot of movies about space. In October Sky, he plays the real NASA scientist Homer Hickham, who was inspired to go into rocketry after the Sputnik launch. 

Dune (2021)

Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya make this movie worth the watch alone, but the action in this sci-fi flick is pretty cool, too. We couldn't tell you exactly what goes down in the movie (the plot is a tad complicated) but think of it as Game of Thrones set across the universe. Instead of fighting over the Iron Throne, the warring families are fighting over... spice? 

Contact (1997)

There's nothing like watching a badass woman lead in a male-dominated field. Jodie Foster stars as Ellie, a scientist who uncovers an intergalactic message and has to work to discover its meaning. It's an eerily creepy watch, but one that will have you questioning what exactly is beyond our planet. 

Adapted from Iain Reid’s 2018 novel of the same name, this movie is a bit like an extended episode of Black Mirror : It tells the story of a married couple, Hen and Junior—played by Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal—who learn that Junior has been chosen to travel to space for a trial run of a new space colony. In his place, Hen will have a robot who looks and acts like Junior to keep her company. It’s as much a portrait of a complicated marriage as it is an unsettling sci-fi tale, and Ronan’s quiet performance bridging the two is particularly perfect.

Passengers (2016)

If you can get past the murky morality of this movie’s premise—a man (Chris Pratt) who wakes up on a spaceship traveling to a new planet proceeds to wake up a fellow traveler (Jennifer Lawrence) after becoming smitten with her video profile, essentially condemning her to die with him before the ship arrives at its destination—it’s essentially a tale of finding love in a (truly) hopeless place, as the great prophet Rihanna foretold.

Lightyear (2022)

This 2022 Pixar flick took a very meta approach to the “origin story” trend. It’s not, as you might expect, the story of the toy Buzz Lightyear before he met Woody and the gang. Instead, it’s the story of the fictional human astronaut Buzz Lightyear (voiced by Chris Evans), who was the subject of a kids TV series in the Toy Story universe, after whom Andy's beloved Buzz Lightyear action figure was modeled. Confused yet?

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The Best Space Movies of the 21st Century (So Far)

Let's head to the cosmos.

It’s impossible to say when, exactly, mankind first dreamed of traveling into outer space, but ever since we got the idea in our heads we never let it go. We’ve been telling stories about alien worlds for longer than anyone has been alive, and we’ve been making movies about flying to the moon since practically the dawn of cinema.

As visual effects expanded and space travel itself became a reality, movies have become more and more obsessed with sci-fi stories about star treks, star wars, and just about anything star-related. In the 21st century, those films are often big, giant blockbusters but visual effects technology has also reached the point where small, independent comedies and dramas can also realistically take place on space ships, space stations, and other planets.

When it came time to curate a list of the best space movies of the century (so far), we knew that we had to limit ourselves somewhere. What’s the point of a “Top 20” list if most of the entries are sequels or prequels to Star Trek and Star Wars ? How many Guardians of the Galaxy films do we really need to write about before you get the general idea that they’re good?

So, to free up space (all puns intended) for underrated and underappreciated films, we’re limiting ourselves to one film per franchise and spreading the love in our list of the best space movies of the 21st century, so far! Put on your helmets, strap in, and get ready to venture into the farthest reaches of the galaxy in pursuit of action, adventure… and ennui.

RELATED: The Best Sci-Fi Movies of the 21st Century So Far

Titan A.E. (2000)

The last feature film, so far, from animation icon Don Bluth , co-directed by Gary Goldman , the ambitious Titan A.E. sought to build a massive Star Wars -esque universe in the world of feature animation. Audiences balked, but the results are exciting, with sparkling dialogue and unexpected turns courtesy of writers Ben Edlund ( The Tick ), John August ( Go ) and Joss Whedon ( Buffy the Vampire Slayer ).

Matt Damon and Drew Barrymore lend their voice talents to an imaginative outer space adventure, set in a future where humans have been displaced throughout the galaxy and no longer have a homeworld. When our heroes discover the key to locating a second Earth, it’s up to them to save their species. Clever and unusual, Titan A.E. warrants rediscovery.

Solaris (2002)

Steven Soderbergh ’s remake of Andrei Tarkovsky ’s Solaris might not stand up to the sprawling original, but for a condensed version of a trippy, thoughtful sci-fi narrative, it’s impressively complete. George Clooney stars as a grieving psychologist sent to investigate a faraway space station, in which the crew members all refuse to come home. When he gets there he finds all but two of the crew are dead, but the space station isn’t empty… it’s filled with the dead loved ones they left behind.

Using the furthest reaches of space to examine figurative and literal concepts of the infinite has been the ambition of many great science fiction stories, and Soderbergh’s Solaris is an excellent example. Clooney abandons his superstar halo and gives one of his most humane performances, and Soderbergh’s insistence on keeping this high-concept sci-fi story grounded in character is noble, and affecting.

Treasure Planet (2002)

It’s bizarre to imagine that Treasure Planet , one of Disney animation’s last great 2D masterpieces, was such a monumental flop on its original release. Perhaps people still had/have trouble accepting animation as an action-packed thrill ride. Perhaps “steampunk” was still too esoteric back in 2002 to be understood by the mainstream. But whatever the reason, audiences missed out.

Treasure Planet is a futuristic adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson ’s classic novel, about a boy who finds a treasure map, only to bond with and later make an enemy of a bloodthirsty pirate. The relationship between Jim ( Joseph Gordon-Levitt ) and the cyborg John Silver ( Brian Murray ) is as rich and complicated as any in the Disney canon, and the animation is jaw-droppingly stunning. Directors Ron Clements and John Musker ( Moana ) reimagine space flight as romantically soaring on solar sails, and successfully ignite the sense of awe and wonder than many sci-fi tales are missing.

Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005)

Jon Favreau ’s first foray into pop filmmaking, and the film that got him the gig directing Iron Man , is this wonderfully creative adaptation of Chris Van Allsburg’s Zathura . Ostensibly a companion piece to Jumanji , the story once again revolves around bored children playing a board game that unexpectedly flings into larger-than-life adventure. Except this time, it literally shoots their suburban house into the farthest reaches of space.

Zathura is full of offbeat sci-fi imagery, and Favreau wisely pulls his VFX way back, and lets much of the film appear handmade. The alien monsters are impressively scary creations, the sets believably practical. It doesn’t send the protagonist careening into a virtual reality world, it brings a very real world of spacemen and space aliens into their house, where the unknown is just as tangible as anything else in their living room. It’s a breathlessly creative motion picture.

Sunshine (2007)

The sun is dying, and the only way to reignite it is to send a team into space and hurl a nuclear bomb into it. In the hands of a mainstream Hollywood filmmaker, Sunshine would probably have been dumb as hell, but director Danny Boyle ( Slumdog Millionaire ) and writer Alex Garland ( Ex Machina ) aren’t nearly that boring. They fill Sunshine with big ideas, rich characters and a sense of existential menace that beautifully amplifies this story of outer space survivalism.

And what a cast: Chris Evans , Cillian Murphy , Michelle Yeoh , Rose Byrne , Benedict Wong , the list goes on, and they’re all trapped in a powder keg together, waiting to go off. It’s a piercing sci-fi adventure, and although some might argue that the film’s third act goes off the rails, maybe - just maybe - it’s what the movie was really about all along.

WALL-E (2008)

In the distant future mankind has abandoned the planet Earth, leaving behind only trash compactor robots to clean up their mess and make the environment inhabitable again. It may not have worked. There’s only one robot left, his name is WALL-E , and all he really cares about is that he’s very, very alone.

Until one day, another robot lands on Earth, and all that changes. Directed by Andrew Stanton , WALL-E successfully spans the whole galaxy, taking an unlikely hero on a seemingly impossible adventure, and throwing a vital chaos element into a drudging society that has all but given up on improving its circumstances. It’s cynically apocalyptic but argues, successfully, that hope eventually wins out. Inventively presented, adorably designed, with a great sense of humor and a visceral sense of awe, WALL-E doesn’t feel like just another a major studio product. It was an instant classic right out of the gate.

Star Trek (2009)

The Star Trek universe got even bigger with J.J. Abrams ’ impressive 2009 reboot, which smartly created an alternate reality, preserving all the precious continuity from the original shows and movies while striking out in an all-new direction. A perfectly cast crew - featuring Chris Pine , Zoe Saldana , Zachary Quinto , Simon Pegg , John Cho and Anton Yelchin - find themselves thrust into a life-or-death mission with a vengeful Romulan travel into the past to take his revenge on the planet Vulcan.

Die-hard Trekkies may quibble about the film’s approach to production design (and sure enough, Abrams’ signature lens flares are everywhere ), but this first rebooted outing successfully marries spot-on character work with an exciting storyline, and manages to tell that rare prequel story in which literally nothing is preordained. Anything can happen, and although not everyone likes where the series went from here, 2009's Star Trek quickly cemented itself as one of the best films in a beloved franchise.

Moon (2009)

The debut feature from Duncan Jones is a quirky, lonely sci-fi story about Sam (Sam Rockwell), a miner who’s running a space station on the moon all by himself, with only an artificially intelligent smiley face to keep him company. The ennui is overpowering and vaguely funny, until he makes a shocking discovery that puts everything about his mission into question.

Jones demonstrates a canny sense of tone in his directorial debut, crafting a tale that’s vaguely absurdist but frustratingly plausible. But the glue holding Moon together is Rockwell’s astounding performance as a man whose routine gets thrown into utterly unexpected disarray and is forced to confront the tragedy of his own existence in a nearly unthinkable way.

Pandorum (2009)

Christian Alvari ’s Pandorum is one of the most criminally underseen and underappreciated sci-fi thrillers of the century (so far). The film stars Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster as astronauts who wake up in the middle of hypersleep, in a cavernous spaceship that needs fixing. The sudden removal from hibernation leaves them without memories and possibly suffering from serious psychosis, and when they run across man-eating creatures on the ship it seems like their situation can’t get any worse. (Spoiler alert: it can.)

Pandorum mines the isolation and infinite void of space for an almost Lovecraftian atmosphere, kind of like Event Horizon if the filmmakers weren’t trying to impress you with how cool the ship looks, and instead focused all their energy on freaking you out. The surprising storyline keeps the suspense shifting throughout the film, and the ending is a real stunner.

Gravity (2013)

It’s hard to make deeply personal films on a gigantic budget, but that’s just what Gravity is. Sandra Bullock stars Ryan Stone, as a rookie astronaut who gets sent soaring into space when a debris field obliterates her ship and her co-pilot, played by George Clooney . Breathtakingly realized by director Alfonso Cuaron (who won an Oscar for this), much of the film appears to take place in long takes that emphasize just how completely screwed our hero is. Maybe more than any other movie character in history.

With no villains to face and already suffering from an overwhelming sense of despair, it falls to Stone to try to save herself for the sake of saving herself, because life is worth it no matter how desperate the situation seems. Cuaron’s masterful, handsomely realized VFX masterpiece gradually reveals itself to be not just a thrill ride but an exhilaration intervention, a call to everyone in the audience to keep striving against the desire to give up and let life end. It’s one of the ultimate examples of cinematic inspiration, and it’s teeth-shatteringly exciting to boot.

Space Station 76 (2014)

It’s hard to imagine why, exactly, people thought all of our problems might be solved by going into space. In Jack Plotnick ’s deliciously droll Space Station 76 , we’ve brought all our suburban plights with us, and transformed a fantastical sci-fi environment into a depressing non-stop social call with friends we don’t like, and spouses who are all sleeping together behind each other’s back.

The dry humor of Space Station 76 stems from the wonderfully unhappy characters, played by the likes of Patrick Wilson , Liv Tyler , Matt Bomer and Jerry O’Connell , and the way that all our scientific progress has done absolutely nothing to save them from their own pathetic choices. It’s a classic 1970s character-drama that just happens to look like an offshoot of 2001: A Space Odyssey , and the clash between tones is always hilarious.

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

The Marvel Cinematic Universe was always a little kooky, but it took a turn towards the monumentally bizarre with Guardians of the Galaxy . A ragtag group of bounty hunters and thieves band together to steal an all-powerful space rock, and along the way they get in all kinds of action-packed adventures. But that’s just the window-dressing. The plot isn’t what’s great about James Gunn ’s film, it’s the off-the-wall characters, like a raccoon with a mean sense of humor, a tree who only knows one sentence, and a human who tries to act like Han Solo without realizing he’s the dude Ice Pirates at best.

Gunn presents it with all the visual wonder of a Star Wars movie, but with all the acerbic wit of a low-budget indie comedy. And in a medium practically defined by the majesty of a John Williams soundtrack, Guardians of the Galaxy reimagines an outer space defined by Bowie tunes, and songs about piña coladas. But the music isn’t just for fun, it’s the most important character of all, messages from a mother who can’t be there to support her son but who helps tell his story anyway. Guardians of the Galaxy tugs at your heartstrings, when it’s not making you chortle.

High Moon (2014)

Nobody said the best space movies of the 21st century had to debut in theaters. The failed pilot for an ambitious TV series, High Moon , debuted on SyFy Channel as a standalone movie, and it’s a bizarre oddity, as inspired by half-forgotten 1960s sci-fi westerns like Moon Zero Two as it is by its source novel, The Lotus Caves , by John Christopher .

Half a century into the future, the moon has been colonized by corporations and governments all over the world, and the old rivalries are alive and, sadly, well. When a flower is discovered on the lunar surface it leads to a massive cover-up and mind-blowing revelations. High Moon doesn’t get to resolve every thread but the world it establishes is gorgeous and hyper-stylized, just the kind of sci-fi kitsch you’d expect from producer Bryan Fuller , who also gave you Hannibal and Pushing Daisies .

Interstellar (2014)

Cinematic wunderkind Christopher Nolan is an intellectual filmmaker, whose films tend to rely on big ideas more than interpersonal emotional drama. So although the big emotional beats often fall flat in his ambitious space epic Interstellar they are rescued by the film’s astounding realization of space flight, conflicting timelines, black holes, and bizarre robots.

The future of mankind is looking grim and traveling into outer space is the only viable option for humanity. But only a few planets within range have the capacity to sustain life, and it’s up scientists and astronauts played by Matthew McConaughey , Anne Hathaway , David Oyelowo and Wes Bentley to travel to the stars and back in time to save the species, while Jessica Chastain and Michael Caine struggle to solve the mathematical problems of our survival back on Earth. The suspense is dense, the imagery absolutely incredible. The intellect is undeniably palpable. Ironically, it’s the film’s heart that’s academic.

Jupiter Ascending (2015)

Absolutely bonkers but absolutely on purpose, The Wachowski ’s directed a gleefully subversive would-be blockbuster with Jupiter Ascending . The film stars Mila Kunis as a housemaid who discovers that, due to a quirk of genetics, she’s just inherited the planet Earth. But the Earth is so valuable that her fellow royals will stop at nothing to get it, whether that means destroying her or, worse, marrying her.

Jupiter Ascending smartly transforms the old-fashioned princess fantasy of discovering you were born special, inherited great wealth and power, and then undermines it at every turn. By achieving greatness, Jupiter enters into a complex and disturbing world of capitalistic excess and fascistic control, and only with the aid of her loyal dogman with flying sneakers, played by a bemused Channing Tatum , will she be able to save herself from becoming a cog in the machine. Fantastical imagery and a wonderfully camp performance from Eddie Redmayne make Jupiter Ascending one of the most underrated sci-fi films of the last two decades.

The Martian (2015)

“In the face of overwhelming odds, I'm left with only one option… I'm gonna have to science the @#$% out of this.” That’s Mark Watney for you. Ridley Scott ’s wonderfully hopeful sci-fi epic The Martian stars Matt Damon as an astronaut marooned on Mars, applying logic and good humor to every impossible problem that arises, and somehow transforming radically complicated scientific ideas into clear, exciting problem-solving strategies.

The Martian , not unlike Gravity , is about perseverance in the face of astounding odds. But unlike Gravity it’s a film about unerring positivity and the confidence that sheer, unbridled logic has the power to overcome any problem. The surface of Mars may be unable to support life but it’s home to one of the most wonderfully vibrant and inspiring characters in sci-fi movie history.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is, with no hyperbole, the most visually stunning science fiction film so far this decade. It’s a fabulously gorgeous spectacle, set in a future where alien societies have merged their space stations together into one incredible mega colony, and where political intrigue attracts dashing intergalactic heroes Valerian ( Dane Dehaan ) and Laureline ( Cara Delevingne ).

Along the way, they force their heads into deadly psychic squids, race for their lives from enemies chasing them in a parallel dimension, and plow through multiple worlds on foot. There’s no shortage of eye-popping wonders in Valerian , and although Dane Dehaan is almost indisputably miscast as a charming ladies man, the rest of the movie is so charmingly bizarre that it compensates. We don’t go to other worlds to see the same old aliens and action sequences over and over again, and Valerian has more daring and wonder than any of the modern Star Wars movies (which is pretty ironic, since it was based on a comic that inspired Star Wars in the first place).

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

That’s no sleight to Star Wars , of course. The motion picture series that made sci-fi action stories mainstream has been going strong throughout the last two decades, to the extent that picking only one film to represent the franchise was very difficult. But in the end, the narrative innovation and stunning locales won out: Star Wars: The Last Jedi expands on the Star Wars universe in every conceivable way, breaking out of old conventions and visualizing strange new worlds filled with strange creatures and incredible new developments.

It’s actually strange just how different The Last Jedi feels, since on paper Rian Johnson ’s film rigidly follows the original formula. The cast splits up, with the novice Jedi getting trained by the master Jedi who fled from the fight years ago, and the pair with romantic chemistry traveling to a society where moral compromise has led to dangerous dealings with the Empire. There’s even a big twist that sends the whole saga into a new, unexpected direction. But The Last Jedi doesn’t feel as beholden to the past as every other Star Wars film since the prequels began, and that sense of extempore - that anything can and will happen - makes it more faithful to the original, unpredictable spirit of George Lucas ’s first, classic film than practically any of the other follow-ups.

First Man (2018)

Oscar-winning director Damien Chazelle seems obsessed with the idea of exceptionalism, as all the characters in his movies push themselves beyond reason to accomplish incredible deeds. Unlike the protagonists of Whiplash and La La Land , Neil Armstrong’s pursuits aren’t artistic, they’re scientific and exploratory. But his incredible journey to become the first human being to step foot on the moon has just as much intense focus and vision.

First Man refreshingly portrays the space program not as a heroic endeavor that changed the course of history, but as the accomplishment of people who put themselves at unbelievable risk. Most of the space flights are shown from inside the cockpit, reminding us that as cool as space travel looks from the outside, from the inside you’re just stuck in a rattling canister with only a thin sheet of metal between you and certain death. The change of perspective is exhilarating, and the impeccable sound design puts you right in the middle of the shuttle, holding on for dear life.

High Life (2019)

What kind of sci-fi epic would the director of the disturbing dramas White Material and Trouble Every Day direct? It’s as unexpected as you’d expect. Robert Pattinson stars as a convict shot into space with other felons, never to return, on a mission towards a black hole. Along the way, a scientist played by Juliette Binoche performs acts of mad science in an attempt to impregnate the crew and create life in outer space.

Bitterly desperate and yet, in the scenes with Robert Pattinson caring for a baby in outer space, all by his lonesome, utterly beautiful, Claire Denis ’ High Life imagines a future of space travel led not by our best and brightest, but by the people Earth can most afford to lose, who are forced to justify their existence to a computer every single day just to keep the life support on. That path leads to madness, usually, but possibly a form of enlightenment we cannot understand.

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10 great films about space travel

To infinity and beyond... Celebrate 60 years of human spaceflight with our countdown of awe-inspiring space movies.

By  Brogan Morris

Since its earliest days, cinema has been fascinated by the idea of space travel. Some 67 years before Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, Georges Méliès took audiences there with 1902’s Le Voyage dans la lune. Considered cinema’s first sci-fi, Méliès’ film sees explorers crash into Earth’s closest neighbour in a rocket shot out of a cannon, and then proceed to do battle with the insectoid inhabitants.

Today, with the benefit of another century-plus of scientific understanding, the space film looks very different. Space travel in the movies is constantly evolving. In the space race era, space movies looked forward to a utopian future. In the 70s, a murkier vision reflective of growing real-world social and political distress took hold. And then, post-Star Wars, a more fantastical and action-packed take on life in space became the norm.

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In the last decade, cinema’s view of space travel has shifted again. While the Guardians of the Galaxy movies and reboots of the Star Trek and Star Wars franchises have emphasised the adventure, many others, including Gravity (2013) and The Martian (2015), have addressed the potential perils of space travel becoming more commonplace in an age of renewed exploration. Meanwhile, an increasing number of films, among them Interstellar (2014) and this year’s upcoming Voyagers, are asking whether, if humankind exhausts the Earth, we might find a new home on a planet B.

The same basic curiosity, however, endures from the days of Méliès: what are we going to find out there among the stars? And how might the answers change the way we see the world – or ourselves?

Ikarie  XB -1 (1963)

Director: Jindrich Polák

Made in a period when a limitless future was typically imagined for extraterrestrial travel, one in which food would be magically plentiful and no star system would be too distant, Ikarie XB -1 injected some scientific and psychological realism into the space film. Adapted from Stanislaw Lem’s novel The Magellanic Cloud, Czech director Jindrich Polák’s film finds a crew travelling at light speed to a potentially life-harbouring white planet orbiting Alpha Centauri.

Although resources and leisure time are ample aboard the Ikarie, the journey is not without consequence. The trip will seem like 28 months to the crew, but the nature of relativity means their loved ones will be 15 years older when they return to Earth. Meanwhile, cabin fever (and a heavy dose of space radiation) brings some crew members to the edge of sanity. Ikarie XB -1 was a clear influence on 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), with Stanley Kubrick calling it “a half step up from your average science fiction film” – which amounts to a ringing endorsement from the perfectionist filmmaker.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Director: Stanley Kubrick

A film that showed what was possible in sci-fi cinema, Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 continues to be a touchstone for any picture that deals in space exploration. The story was a result of almost two years of intensive discussions between Kubrick and his co-writer, sci-fi novelist Arthur C. Clarke, and it took even longer to execute, with the director beginning filming in December 1965 and only finalising the film’s effects in March 1968.

Whether it’s a commercial flight to the moon or a classified long-range mission to Jupiter, 2001 luxuriates in its space sequences, majestic ballets of sound and movement set to classical music. Stanley Kubrick might famously never have won a best director Oscar, but he did take home one Academy Award, for 2001’s visual effects – and rightfully so. More than half a century on, the film’s depiction of space travel – realised practically through a combination of model work, huge sets and precise photographic projection – remains flawless.

Silent Running (1972)

Director: Douglas Trumbull

Some time in the future, Earth has become a climate-controlled utopia, free of disease and poverty. But it’s one which apparently has so little use left for nature that its last forests are now kept in geodesic domes orbiting Saturn. On the ship Valley Forge, botanist Freeman Lowell (Bruce Dern) obsessively tends to three of these vast gardens when the order comes in to destroy them – an order Lowell disobeys by murdering the rest of the crew and piloting the ship out into deep space.

There’s a hangover of 1960s idealism to Silent Running. 2001 effects supervisor Douglas Trumbull’s directorial debut includes flower-power interludes featuring music by Joan Baez, while a multicoloured trip through Saturn’s rings has shades of an acid experience. The overriding tone, though, is one of new 1970s pessimism. Ultimately, Lowell‘s environmentalist dream sours, the peace he initially finds out in the cosmos soon giving way to loneliness and guilt over his killing for a fruitless ‘greater good’.

Star Wars (1977)

Director: George Lucas

Although sci-fi cinema generally went in a more mature direction in the 1970s, George Lucas’s empire-building third feature took a refreshingly opposite approach. Opening on an epic battle among the stars and climaxing with an even bigger one, Star Wars would present a universe where man (and Wookiee) has mastered space travel, with a quick leap from one habitable planet to the next possible at the mere push of a button.

Taking inspiration from pre-space race pulp sci-fi comics and film serials, Star Wars pays no mind to real physical or existential concerns about space travel. “Star Wars is a fantasy, much closer to the Brothers Grimm than it is to 2001…The word for this movie is fun,” said Lucas at the time. Still, not even this proto-blockbuster could totally escape the influence of the 70s, with its beat-up freighters and junky ship interiors suggesting a more hardscrabble life in space than Flash Gordon ever knew.

Alien (1979)

Director: Ridley Scott

By the time Ridley Scott made this landmark sci-fi horror, space travel had become so routine in the movies it seemed almost anyone could do it. In Alien, the astronauts are blue-collar types complaining about bonuses and food. Their latest job is towing 20 million tonnes of mineral ore back to Earth. It’s only the threat of suspension of wages that convinces the crew of the Nostromo to make their fateful detour to a nearby ‘primordial’ moon, from which they unwittingly bring back to the ship the universe’s deadliest apex predator.

From there, Scott’s film becomes a spacebound haunted house picture, as H.R. Giger’s nightmarish xenomorph eliminates the crew one by one. Alien would be followed by a number of sequels, prequels and regrettable franchise crossovers, with all but one of them set primarily on terra firma. What makes the original so uniquely frightening is how impossible escape seems for its protagonists: what awaits the crew beyond the confines of the ship is no less hostile to them than their ravenous intruder.

Apollo 13 (1995)

Director: Ron Howard

Released in a fallow period for the space movie, Apollo 13 is itself about a period in which, post-Neil Armstrong, space travel had suddenly become passé to a world preoccupied with problems on the ground. In Ron Howard’s telling of 1970’s doomed Apollo 13 adventure, it isn’t until astronauts Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks), Fred Haise (Bill Paxton) and Jack Swigert (Kevin Bacon) find themselves in mortal danger on their way home from an aborted moon landing that the TV networks even start giving the mission any airtime.

Made just years before CGI would become de rigueur for the space movie, Apollo 13 is an impressively practical spectacle. Bolstered by digital effects, the film makes extensive use of spacecraft miniatures and replica sets. Most impressively, to achieve scenes of weightlessness, Howard shot aboard the so-called ‘Vomit Comet’, a modified NASA training aircraft that – for 20 seconds at a time – would place the actors in a simulated zero-G environment.

Sunshine (2007)

Director: Danny Boyle

To save Earth from the chill of a solar winter, a crack team of scientists are despatched to the heart of our solar system on a flying bomb named Icarus II (the first Icarus having become lost after it flew literally too close to the sun). Their mission: to nuke our dying star back to life. Sunshine may have the absurd premise of a Michael Bay movie, but it also has the combined scientific and philosophical imagination of screenwriter Alex Garland and science advisor Brian Cox.

What happens when a crew of diverse credos and fallibilities embarks on a long-distance space voyage? A clash of passion and pragmatism leads to regular fights between sensitive physicist Capa (Cillian Murphy) and surly engineer Mace (Chris Evans). A miscalculation by navigator Trey (Benedict Wong) destroys biologist Corazon’s (Michelle Yeoh) precious oxygen garden, leaving him suicidal and her bereft. Faced with the desolate blackness of endless space, some crew members fall under the spell of the blazing sun. But where one sees a merciless, overwhelming celestial body, another finds God.

First Man (2018)

Director: Damien Chazelle

Following Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling) from his days as a test pilot through NASA training to his historic walk on the moon, First Man is a twofer: a dramatisation of the space race from the American side as well as a revisionist biopic of a mythical figure. Here the Apollo astronauts are portrayed as everyday suburban joes – husbands and fathers whose unique attributes allowed them to do remarkable things in their time, with Armstrong the most ordinary of the bunch.

Similarly deglamorised are the recreations of historic NASA space flights, which situate the viewer inside the cockpit from Armstrong’s point-of-view and depict early spacecraft as shockingly primitive, all creaking metal and analogue tech. The docu-style brings verisimilitude, but Justin Hurwitz’s ghostly score and some fluid space scenes see there’s also a musical grace to La La Land filmmaker Damien Chazelle’s fourth feature. It’s a poetic film about unpoetic men.

Aniara (2018)

Directors: Pella Kagerman and Hugo Lilja

Released the same year as Claire Denis’ unsettling space oddity High Life, Aniara is that film’s somehow even more despairing cousin. Adapted from Harry Martinson’s epic poem, Pella Kagerman and Hugo Lilja’s film traps the viewer inside a luxurious civilian transport meant for Mars but which – following an accident – is left cruising through space, rudderless and without any way to turn around.

In time, the micro-society on board the Aniara disintegrates, High-Rise-style, with passengers first embracing hedonism and cultish new religions. Then, as resources and hope of salvation both dwindle, they succumb to despair. This is one of a number of sci-fi films this century to depict mass space transportation gone horribly awry, but where Aniara differs from the likes of Pandorum (2009) or Alien: Covenant (2017) is that its horror is entirely existential. So many films about space travel end with characters triumphing over harsh odds and ultimately finding meaning in the void. Not this one.

Ad Astra (2019)

Director: James Gray

Ad Astra is a sci-fi Heart of Darkness that is, in essence, another contemplative drama about one of director James Gray’s trademark troubled men. In this case, the customary angst and father issues go to an astronaut in the shape of a never-more-fragile Brad Pitt. On a mission from US Space Command, Pitt’s Major Roy McBride planet-hops through a solar system in the early stages of colonisation to track down daddy Tommy Lee Jones, a brilliant scientist last heard from 16 years prior, circling Neptune.

Gray’s lonely, cynical vision of late 21st-century space as a commercialised wild west makes for a spectacular backdrop to a tale of familial discord. In this future, you’ll find a branch of Subway on the moon and audiovisual displays made to simulate the wonder of Earth inside Mars’ underground bunkers. You’ll also find warring tribes figuring out new ways to kill each other in a low-gravity environment. On Earth or in space, in Ad Astra humans continue to be stubbornly human.

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The 12 Best Space Movies You Can Watch On Netflix Right Now

If Hollywood has taught us anything, it's that humanity is destined to venture among the stars. Whether as an act of exploration or defense against global disaster, interstellar travel remains the great fantasy of both big-budget blockbusters and inexpensive science fiction films alike. So, where better to start your space travel movie marathon than Netflix, especially since the streaming giant has made our solar system — and the stars beyond — the basis of several of its original features? 

Whether your ideal space movie is a family-friendly starship adventure or a rocket trip straight to the outer layers of Hell, you can probably find something on this list to satisfy your mood on any movie night. But be warned: the crews in these movies may be small, but the body counts are disproportionately high. In space, the odds of survival are despairingly low.

Indian science fiction film Cargo finds the joy in living — and in dying

The best way to describe "Cargo," the debut feature from Indian filmmaker Arati Kadav, is "Pushing Daisies" on a spaceship. Prahastha, a demon astronaut who helps process humans for reincarnation, has spent a century alone on his spacecraft, speaking only with his handlers back on Earth. When he is assigned a new demonic assistant near the end of his campaign, Prahastha is forced to reintegrate himself into society. He must also address the loneliness that bubbles just beneath his unflappable exterior. Think a workplace comedy with a heavy layer of fantasy, and you're right there.

This premise might've ended up too cute by half in the hands of a lesser filmmaker, but Kadav quickly proves herself a masterful hand at comedy. We never tire of watching Prahastha and Yvishka process new souls — as well as the charming cutaways depicting the moments leading up to the new arrivals' deaths — but, thankfully, Kadav keeps coming back to the demons' individual growth. Space is a lonely place, and even friendly demons are not meant to spend this much time away from their loved ones.

When to Watch : You need a little brightness in your space movies, and are okay with having a movie's theme song — in this case, "Forget Me Not" by Megha Ramaswamy — stuck in your head for days.

Doom: Annihilation is an earnest attempt at recreating a blockbuster video game franchise

There are two kinds of people in this world: those who prefer Andrzej Bartkowiak's 2005 "Doom" and those who prefer Tony Giglio's 2019 "Doom: Annihilation." The former has a reputation as one of the all-time biggest video game movie disappointments, wasting a cast that included Karl Urban, Rosamund Pike, and Dwayne Johnson, the ultimate space marine. By contrast, Giglio's adaptation's limited budget may be obvious, but the movie also comes with lower expectations, delivering for audiences who prefer flawed passion projects over middling studio fare.

All of the pieces necessary for a "Doom" adaptation are in place: soldiers, monsters, and the dark void of space. In its best moments, "Doom: Annihilation" recalls some of Neil Marshall's best work , with inventive creature designs that will remind you of films like "Dog Soldiers" and "The Descent." And when Giglio goes for broke in the final minutes, dumping his main character onto a planetary hellscape that puts her in direct contact with the monsters of "Doom," we get a glimpse of what someone with real vision could bring to this franchise. 

When to Watch: You have a fridge full of beer and a Friday night to kill, and you're ready to make some questionable movie-watching decisions in the name of curiosity.

Thanks to Melanie Laurent, Oxygen is claustrophobic science fiction at its finest

French director Alexandra Aja made his name on gory horror fare like "High Tension," "The Hills Have Eyes," and "Crawl," but he doesn't need blood to tell a thrilling story. Nowhere is this more evident than in 2021's "Oxygen," a claustrophobic horror film starring Mélanie Laurent ("Inglourious Basterds") about an amnesiac trapped in a cryogenic pod that is quickly losing air.

"Oxygen" may not offer many surprises — once the puzzle pieces start coming together, it only takes a small leap of the imagination to see the film's ultimate destination — but that's part of the movie's appeal. The real intrigue comes in watching how Aja and Laurent build a cohesive story out of only a few elements, and in enjoying the craft of a simple concept executed to perfection. Laurent's performance and Aja's direction make it look deceptively easy to build narrative momentum in a set devoid of physical space. Even in 2021, there's nothing quite as satisfying as a simple idea done right.

When to Watch: You are curious to know how a simple writing prompt — "woman trapped in a box" — can succeed as 101 thrilling minutes of science fiction.

Prospect is a science fiction standout in desperate need of rediscovery

If you prefer your space movies with more of a lived-in feel, then you should consider Christopher Caldwell and Zeek Earl's "Prospect". The film stars Sophie Thatcher and Pedro Pascal as a pair of prospectors stuck on an alien planet. After a gunfight leaves each person without their crew, the two must learn to work together to secure off-world passage or risk being stranded when the orbiting transport heads home.

For most people, seeing Pedro Pascal do his best Han Solo impersonation is enough of a sales pitch. But once you dive into the worldbuilding proper, the film's production design makes "Prospect" singularly memorable. "Prospect" is the perfect example of retrofuturism on the big screen, a mode of science fiction that takes inspiration from the '50s' dated visions of what the future might look like. What seemed revolutionary then is cheekily archaic now. Thanks to production designer Matt Acosta, however, "Prospect" offers its audience a uniquely low-fi future, one that will stay on your mind long after the credits roll (or the next Netflix auto-play feature starts).

When to Watch: You are working on your Pedro Pascal backlog and are in the mood for a science fiction romp that would feel at home in the "Star Wars" universe.

Skylines proves that, against all odds, the Skyline franchise just keeps getting better

Sometimes, noteworthy franchises come from the most peculiar places. "Skyline," a 2010 film from special effects gurus The Brothers Strause, might have been a modest success, but no one could've expected that it would spawn two sequels that, incredibly, push the franchise into new and exciting directions. Surprise Netflix hit "Beyond Skyline" added action stars Frank Grillo and Iko Uwais to the series and brought an intergalactic war to the mix. 2020's "Skylines" upends the formula again, maintaining continuity with the previous two films but skipping a few years into the future, riffing more heavily on James Cameron's "Aliens" than established alien invasion tropes.

If anything, it seems like franchise co-creator Liam O'Donnell has started to use the "Skylines" films as his private sandbox, making his directorial debut with the second installment and ramping up the action in the third. And with a scrappy cast — star Lindsey Morgan is a smart piece of casting — and a knack for production design that keeps these movies punching above their weight class, the Skyline films promise to keep the good times coming for years to come.

When to Watch: You are in the mood for something action-packed and aren't afraid to spend a few minutes on Wikipedia getting up to speed on the previous films.

Space Sweepers is the South Korean answer to Star Wars

Have filmmakers forgotten that space can be funny? Many science fiction films use the crushing void of space to play up existential dread of what it means to be human, but sometimes, you just want a movie with talking robots and thrilling starship chases. South Korean filmmaker Jo Sung-hee isn't afraid to get silly, peppering "Space Sweepers" with quips and slapstick comedy, and giving his godlike Steve Jobs analogue a few fart jokes.

Equal parts "Star Wars" and "Elysium," "Space Sweepers" follows a group of destitute freelancers tasked with cleaning up the debris that orbits our dying planet. When they stumble across a young robot with a bounty on her head, their get-rich-quick scheme gets them stuck in the middle of a battle between a group of rebellious climate activists and a government that's building a new utopia for the super-rich on Mars. Goofy and more than a little broad at times, "Space Sweepers" is a grand space opera for fans of all ages. It's also an excellent introduction to international cinema for people who might be reluctant to watch a subtitled feature.

When to Watch: You want something filled with heart that the entire family can enjoy, and you absolutely, positively cannot watch "Star Wars" one more time.

Stowaway is the epitome of science fiction for grown-ups

In most space movies, humankind's trips to the stars are cautionary tales. Every once in a while, though, science fiction comes with a dash of humanism, telling stories about people coming together to solve impossible problems through collaboration and ingenuity. These days, the world may be too cynical for a film like "Apollo 13," but the success of Joe Penna's "Stowaway" shows we still have an appetite for uplifting space stories.

In that way, this 2021 feature is something of a throwback: a film centered on a deadly space catastrophe without any of the infighting or backstabbing we often see in similar movies. Anchored by a standout cast, including a much-deserved leading role for Daniel Dae Kim, "Stowaway" is more interested in humankind's tenacity than its failures. Sure, the science might be a little suspect at times, but Penna and his cast create a group of survivors you want to root for — especially during one of the most anxiety-inducing spacewalks you'll ever see on film.

When to Watch: It's been a few years since you watched "Gravity," and you've deluded yourself into thinking that you don't stress cry during space dramas anymore.

The Cloverfield Paradox is so much more than just its Super Bowl release date

Most of the time, it's hard to identify cult classics when they first arrive, but every now and then, the future seems obvious. Such is the case with "The Cloverfield Paradox," a movie that might have generated a more positive fandom if not for Netflix's gimmicky launch strategy.

"The Cloverfield Paradox" will always be remembered as the film dumped on Netflix as part of a wild Super Bowl LII promotional campaign . But given the film's talented cast and outrageous premise — a series of fusion particle tests accidentally knock an international space station into a parallel universe — there is also plenty of time for the next generation of horror and science fiction fans to rediscover Julius Onah's bizarre little movie. By accident or intent, "The Cloverfield Paradox" operates entirely on its own goofy wavelength; give it a few years, and those scenes with sentient arms and oddball quantum physics will feel right at home within the broader "Cloverfield" cinematic universe .

When to Watch: To recreate the authentic experience, you can only watch "The Cloverfield Paradox" immediately following a major sporting event.

The Midnight Sky finds grace in humanity's final hours

In the hands of anyone else, "The Midnight Sky" might be tossed aside as an expensive mess. In the hands of star director (and star-director) George Clooney, "The Midnight Sky" is, well, still a mess, but one that refuses to be forgotten. When an ecological disaster wipes out humanity, a dying scientist races against time to warn an interstellar survey team not to return home from their mission. Meanwhile, the crew of the ship must survive an increasingly dangerous route back to Earth in order to have a chance to learn the truth.

Not everything in "The Midnight Sky" lands, but when it works it's an effective elegy for both humankind and the planet we have thus far failed to protect, and as a director, Clooney manages to tap into some of our biggest existential fears . In addition, "The Midnight Sky" finds a tiny shred of hope as it honors both those the characters lost and those who go on, adding a welcome note of optimism to an otherwise heavy feature.

When to Watch : You want a space movie with some Oscar vibes ("The Midnight Sky" was nominated for Best Visual Effects, and was projected to be competitive in several categories, although that didn't exactly pan out).

The Wandering Earth is Chinese blockbuster filmmaking at its finest

In the future, the sun has begun to expand. So, the world's governments come together to build giant rockets inside the Earth's crust in order to fly the planet to another solar system. Still with us? Then you might be the target audience for Frant Gwo's "The Wandering Earth," a 2019 Chinese blockbuster that thrives by building a series of escalating disasters for humanity to escape. Light on plot but long on spectacle, "The Wandering Earth" feels like a love letter to Hollywood of the '90s , when producers like Jerry Bruckheimer ushered in an era of big-screen splendor that would set the standard for event movies for years to come.

If you've developed a healthy skepticism of second-tier Chinese blockbusters and worry that the visual effects in "The Wandering Earth" won't carry the monumental story, you have nothing to fear. Even on his best day, Michael Bay would need to work hard to top something like this. If you are the sort of person who likes to bring up that "Armageddon" is in the Criterion Collection, then you would do well to seek "The Wandering Earth" out immediately, ideally on the biggest screen available to you.

When to Watch: Your life has taken on a little too much stress, and you need to retreat to the organized chaos that only a big-budget space spectacle can offer.

Total Recall is a timeless treatise on corporate greed and chest people

At this point, what is there to say about Paul Verhoeven's science fiction masterpiece that hasn't already been said? With "Total Recall," "RoboCop," and "Starship Troopers" on his filmography, Verhoeven's reputation as one of our great sci-fi satirists is forever secure. Besides, you know the broad points by now: memory wipes, armed revolution, and more Arnold Schwarzenegger one-liners than any single film can hope to contain. Even those with only a passing knowledge of "Total Recall" could probably pick Kuato out of a lineup, thanks to three decades' worth of pop culture references and loving spoofs.

Unsurprisingly, time has been kind to "Total Recall" — maybe a little  too kind. With water futures now being actively traded on Wall Street, it seems like Verhoeven's only mistake was to pretend that the conservation of natural resources would be overtly evil instead of just blandly capitalist. At any rate, "Total Recall" remains a highlight in a career of highlights for both its star and its director. And the 2012 remake (which, sadly, isn't on Netflix) has its moments too, if we're being perfectly honest with each other.

When to Watch : You are ready to get your ass to Mars.

Zathura is the kid-friendly science fiction you've been looking for

From the original film to its two surprisingly successful video game-inspired sequels, no franchise continues to surprise as much as "Jumanji." And although "Zathura" is more overtly a children's movie than its predecessor — Robin Williams had a habit of aging up his projects — it comes packing a pretty heartfelt message of brotherly love. We never split the party, no matter how frustrating its members might be.

Those who appreciate director Jon Favreau's place as the next Robert Zemeckis — they're both directors with an eye for family entertainment and an appetite for technology — will find a lot of value in "Zathura." In terms of Favreau's career, the film serves as the pivot point between "Elf" and "Iron Man," and similarities to both movies can be seen throughout. For everyone else, the film is a solid entry in the loosely-defined "Jumanji" universe, with admirable pre-fame roles performances from both Josh Hutcherson and Kirsten Stewart. Just shrug off some of the weird reveals regarding Dax Shepard's character (you know the ones).

When to Watch: You need something for the entire family but still want a little bit of space adventure on your Thursday evening.

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From Interstellar to Hidden Figures: 12 of the best space movies

Interstellar, Moon, Proxima, Alien, Hidden Figures... From science fiction to biographical drama, does your favourite movie about space make our list?

By Simon Ings

3 August 2021

Matthew McConaughey in Interstellar

Melinda Sue Gordon/©Paramount/c

There are so many great movies about space that it’s hard to choose between them all, but that won’t stop us. We’ve got some in our selection that will keep you on the edge of your seat while others will keep you hidden behind the sofa. Here are 12 of the best space movies.

Interstellar (2014)

Explorers arrive on a world covered in knee-high water. Distant “mountains” come sweeping towards them: a planet-spanning kilometres-high killer tide. They escape, only for an unhinged astronaut to maroon them, a little later, on a solid airborne cloud of exotic ice.

Often silly, sometimes truly visionary, Interstellar is the best rejoinder the 21st century has yet made to Stanley Kubrick’s seminal 2001: A Space Odyssey . Matthew McConaughey plays Joseph Cooper, a widowed NASA pilot who is called upon to journey into interstellar space to find an Earthlike “Planet B” for us to move to, now that the Earth’s food system is collapsing. Jessica Chastain plays his grown-up daughter, haunted by her father’s ghost.

Their performances carry real conviction, but it is the set pieces that matter. Gargantua, a spinning black hole that provides the film with its climax, is a visual effect calculated so accurately by physicist Kip Thorne and rendered so meticulously by London effects studio Double Negative, it ended up in a paper for the journal Classical and Quantum Gravity .

Years earlier, Thorne and film producer Lynda Obst had conceived of a movie exploring what, in an interview with Science magazine , Thorne called “the warped side of the universe – black holes, wormholes, higher dimensions, and so forth”. They’re the subject of Thorne’s very entertaining book The Science of Interstellar .

Nolan, meanwhile, has gone on to make movies of increasing complexity. Tenet is his latest, doing for time what Interstellar did for space.

Moon (2009)

Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) is preparing to leave the moon at the end of his three-year stint as sole supervisor of a helium-3 mine. (Robert Zubrin’s book Entering Space gave Duncan Jones the film’s industrial premise.) But Sam is also trapped in the carcass of a crashed lunar ore conveyor. And as Sam and Sam wrestle with their inexplicable meeting, they must solve an obvious and pressing puzzle: just how many more Sams might there be?

Offered a low-budget British sci-fi movie by a first-time director , Rockwell left things until the last minute, then grabbed at the chance of playing against himself. Once on board, his commitment was total: riffing and extemporising off memories of his own performance, he insisted on distinguishing the two Sams more by demeanour than by costume changes. The result is a compelling, emotionally charged thriller, spiked with an inventive mix of effects (from CGI to model work to simple, deft editing) that keeps the audience off-balance throughout the movie. Jones has yet to top his debut work, and Rockwell, for all his subsequent successes, will forever be remembered as the Moon guy(s).

Proxima (2019)

Shot in the European Space Agency’s training facilities in Germany, and in the complex outside Moscow that is home to the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center , Alice Winocour’s third feature Proxima never leaves the ground, and yet it remains an out-of-this-world experience.

Cinematographer Georges Lechaptois brilliantly captures these rarely glimpsed spaces in all their strangeness, banality and occasional dilapidation. One can’t help but think, watching this, that being an astronaut must be like being a professional athlete – one’s glamorous career being conducted, for the most part, in smelly changing rooms.

Plaudits also to Eva Green for her portrayal of Sarah Loreau, a single mother given a last-minute opportunity to join a mission to the International Space Station. Green conveys wonderfully Sarah’s conflicted state of both wanting to go to space but not wanting to be separated from her daughter. The solution is there but it’s going to be hard to forge, and Green’s performance is heart-rending.

Alien (1979)

Sigourney Weaver plays Ripley, member of a sensible and resourceful space-going cargo crew whose capabilities are going to prove of no use whatsoever as they confront a predatory, stowaway alien.

Critics loved Alien : they said it would change how we thought about science fiction. It also, for some of us who caught it at the right age, changed how we thought about biology.

We have been an apex predator for so long, we have forgotten the specialness of our privilege. Alien reminds us of what the natural world is really like. It locates us in the middle of things, not without resources but most definitely not at the top of a food chain. It reminds us that living processes are predatory – that life is about tearing living things apart to get at their raw material.

Alien in Alien

AA Film Archive / Alamy

The clumsily named “xenomorph” of the Alien movies has an infamous life cycle, loosely based on those of certain parasitic wasps, but with the added ingredient of plasticity. A hugged human brings forth a humanoid alien. A hugged dog produces a canine. (Where the aquatic aliens of Alien: Resurrection (1997) spring from is anyone’s guess.)

If you want to know what Darwin said, read On the Origin of Species . But if you want to know how it must have made its original readers feel – go watch Alien .

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

When Stanley Kubrick suggested a movie idea to British writer Arthur Clarke, Clarke responded enthusiastically. “The ‘really good’ science-fiction movie is a great many years overdue,” he wrote.

The question – which the two never really resolved – was which really good movie to make. A film about the triumph of science and technology? Or a film about the timeless yearnings of the human spirit?

While Kubrick, a student of human nature, director of searing and discomforting films like Paths of Glory and Lolita , mined Japanese sci-fi movies for special effects, Clarke, a communications satellite pioneer as well as a writer, worked up a script centred on what he later dubbed “the God concept”.

Encompassing everything from the dawn of man, the space race, artificial intelligence, space exploration and trans-dimensional travel, 2001 centres on the duel between David Bowman (Keir Dullea) and the inadvertently-designed-to-be-murderous HAL, a computer that is guiding his ship to Jupiter. We tend to assume Clarke provided the film’s gosh-wow factor and Kubrick provided the unease. Not so: his 1960 story, The Challenge of the Spaceship shows Clarke already painfully aware of the challenges faced by a “little, self-contained community floating in vacuum millions of miles from anywhere, kept alive in a bubble of plastic and metal” with “absolutely nothing” happening.

The boredom and incipient madness that haunt both Bowman and the ship’s poor, boxed-in AI are the film’s chief point: that we cannot live by reason alone. We need something more.

Hidden Figures (2016)

At NASA’s Langley Research Center in 1961, three Black female mathematicians, Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughn (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe) , contribute their considerable mathematical ability to the agency’s efforts to launch white men into space. The unit they work in is segregated by gender and race but the difficulties they face are ignored by many of their colleagues. Their boss, Al Harrison, (a composite fictional character played by Kevin Costner), feels otherwise and proceeds to desegregate NASA single-handedly, armed only with an acid tongue and a sledgehammer.

The film is loosely based on 2016 book of the same name by Margot Lee Shetterly, although it takes a less factual approach. For example, the film delays Johnson’s pioneering work by a good decade so that she can share feel-good moments with the other female cast members .

Whether that matters comes down to personal taste. It is no small thing that, thanks to this film, we now know Johnson, Vaughn and Jackson by name .

Apollo 13 (1995)

On 11 April 1970, a seventh crewed mission in the Apollo space programme launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It was due to land in the Fra Mauro crater, and help establish the early history of both the moon and Earth.

Two days into the journey, an oxygen tank in the spacecraft’s service module exploded, and their flight path was changed to loop them around the moon and bring them back to Earth on 17 April. Dizzy from carbon dioxide levels in the air, mounting at a rate they thought would kill them, soaking wet from all the condensation, cold because power was now severely limited, and with only plastic bags of their own urine for company they couldn’t jettison for fear this would alter their course, commander Jim Lovell, command module pilot Jack Swigert and Lunar Module pilot Fred Haise uttered hardly a word of complaint. Incredibly, they survived.

For his script, director Ron Howard has added one argument between Swigert (Kevin Bacon) and Haise (Bill Paxton) and otherwise changed barely a word of the official Apollo 13 transcript. Tom Hanks plays Lovell as a capable man dealing with a crisis. There are no epiphanies. Souls aren’t searched. For some, this might make for a slightly muted experience. But this painstakingly accurate film (the sets included bits of the Apollo 13 command module; even the actors’ pressure suits were airtight) remains peerless, utterly convincing in every shot and every gesture .

First Man (2018)

As if landing on the moon wasn’t enough, Neil Armstrong spent the rest of his life having to describe the experience to the world’s media. No wonder he became something of a recluse – which of course only served to generate even more media interest.

Armstrong, an aeronautical engineer and university professor, was a man who enjoyed his privacy. Cornered, what could he do but tell the same story again and again and again? Disappointed, their curiosity unslaked, people called him dull.

Two years after hurling a vocally challenged Ryan Gosling into his musical La La Land , Damien Chazelle cast him as Neil Armstrong, in a movie that promised to locate Armstrong’s beating heart and rich emotional life. As such, First Man is a triumph.

Gosling is the film actors’ film actor, capable of expressing deep emotion with astounding economy. Playing “buttoned up” hampers him hardly at all. And he is given plenty to work with. Josh Singer’s ingenious script gives Armstrong a profound and personal motivation for wanting to reach the moon that in no way interferes with the historical record, or trivialises its celebrated subject. As for the moon landing itself, it represents a milestone in cinematic technique. You’ll believe you were there, and you’ll wonder, deeply, why Armstrong, or anyone else for that matter, ever went.

The Right Stuff (1983)

Anchored by powerful performances by Sam Shepard as Chuck Yeager and Ed Harris as John Glenn, Kaufman’s 3-hour-13-minute epic loosely follows Tom Wolfe’s book of the same name: a heart-thumping yet critical account of the earliest US efforts to send humans into space.

What is needed for that is, of course, “the right stuff”: a combination of skill, bravery and a somewhat blood-curdling fearlessness in the face of death. They are qualities superbly embodied in Shepard’s performance as test-pilot Chuck Yeager, the first man to break the sound barrier (and, incidentally, a consultant on the film).

Leaving Earth also needed collaboration, organisation, even – heaven help us – publicity. Ed Harris is the squeaky-clean Glenn, destined to be the first American in space, whose “right stuff” has had its rough edges shaved off by endless classes, tests, magazine profiles and media events.

Historically, The Right Stuff isn’t especially accurate. In particular, Mercury astronauts Wally Schirra, Gordon Cooper and Alan Shepard were critical of the way the film short-changed their compatriot Gus Grissom, who died in the Apollo 1 fire.

Still, it is a thoughtful and intelligent movie, as well as a thrilling one, and it captures very well the moment space travel became a serious, and corporate, enterprise.

The Martian (2015)

Premised on a single, staggering inaccuracy (a Martian storm could never get up the energy to blow a spacecraft over) The Martian is an otherwise cleverly figured-out tale of how an astronaut (Mark Watney, played by Matt Damon), left for dead on the surface of Mars, might survive for four years on a diet of potatoes grown in recycled faecal matter .

Based on a book (by Andy Weir) that itself began life as a series of blog posts, Scott’s film retains an endearing, cobbled-together quality, which neatly (and by the end, really quite movingly) reflects Watney’s scrabble for survival.

Boasting habitat, spacesuit, spacecraft and launch vehicle designs that all carried NASA’s stamp of approval, The Martian flits between Watney’s Martian base, the ship in which his crew mates are returning home, and the offices and control rooms on Earth where everybody is frantically trying to do the right thing, as their chances of saving Watney narrow to a point.

An unashamed advertisement for NASA’s plans for Mars, and a celebration of its crewed programme’s rebirth after the Challenger disaster in 1986, The Martian already feels slightly dated. But its invention and good humour are timeless.

Gravity (2013)

When a cloud of debris travelling faster than a speeding bullet collides with the space shuttle, mission specialist Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) must make their way across gulfs of space on dwindling supplies of air and propellant in search of a vehicle that will take them home; soon the debris cloud will return on its inexorable orbit.

As likely to scare someone off a space career as inspire them to pursue one, Gravity is premised on the idea that low Earth orbit is so crowded with hardware and discarded junk that a collision could initiate a chain reaction known as the Kessler syndrome, and destroy every satellite.

For all that, Gravity is less a science fiction film than a survival film (think Open Water or Touching the Void , both from 2003), and is the last place you would go for a lesson in orbital mechanics. While not quite as egregiously silly as 2019’s Ad Astra (in which Brad Pitt literally leaps through Saturn’s ice rings, using a hatch-cover for an umbrella) Gravity is no 2001 , no Apollo 13 , no First Man .

But while accuracy is one thing; truth is quite another. With Gravity , director Cuarón triumphantly realised his ambition to make the first truly weightless-seeming film, conveying the environment and sensation of zero gravity more powerfully, immediately (and, yes, accurately) than any film-maker, before or since.

October Sky (1999)

NASA engineer Homer H. Hickam Jr.’s autobiography provided the seed for this drama about a teenager coming of age at the dawn of the space race. A 17-year-old Jake Gyllenhaal (he was still taking school classes during the filming) plays Homer, a high school student in Coalwood, West Virginia, when, in 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first human-made satellite.

Inspired by the Soviet achievement, and encouraged by his teacher (Laura Dern), Homer and his fellow “rocket boys” start building their own homemade missiles. Chris Cooper finds gold in the somewhat thankless role of Homer’s father, conscientiously pouring cold water on his son’s dreams: what’s wrong with working in the local coal mine, he’d like to know?

Director Joe Johnston is better known for his rather more gung-ho approaches to heroism and rocket flight. (1991’s Rocketeer is a cult classic; Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) needs no introduction here.)

October Sky is an altogether more contained achievement: the touching story of imagination awakened by the possibilities of rocketry, space travel, and a world beyond Earth.

What do you think of this list? Think there are better space movies out there that deserve a coveted spot? We have review lots of sci-fi films, books and TV shows  but we can’t watch them all so let us know your favourite on  Twitter  and  Facebook . If you enjoyed this you might also want to see what we think are the  best science documentaries ,  top popular science books  and even  video games set on Mars .

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The 30 Best Space Movies of All Time

Leave the science to the geniuses. Leave the kitschy, nausea-inducing space flicks to us.

That leads us to this: a roundup of the best space movies of all time. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind, but did they walk an animal cracker up and down Liv Tyler's stomach? I think not. Leave the science to the geniuses. Leave the kitschy, nausea-inducing space flicks to us.

This tense Swedish drama, based on a 1968 epic poem, follows a huge space freight carrying human refugees from an Earth destroyed by climate change—which suddenly veers off course with no hope of reaching its destination. Fair warning: don’t expect much optimism here, but it’s still a profoundly beautiful and sweeping film.

Andrei Tarkovsky’s science fiction masterpiece was overshadowed by 2001: A Space Odyssey upon its initial 1972 release, but it’s a beautiful film in its own right, with many poignant things to say about humanity. The film follows a psychologist who comes to observe a small crew of a space station orbiting the planet Solaris, and begins to experience the supernatural phenomena that have been driving all the crew members into emotional disarray.

Prospect came and went with little fanfare, which is unfortunate—because audiences missed a gripping thriller anchored by excellent lead performances from Pedro Pascal, Jay Duplass, and newcomer Sophie Thatcher. This indie feature made great use of Washington’s Olympic National Park to replicate the environment of a hostile alien moon.

This campy and imaginative '60s space romp starring Jane Fonda was panned upon its premiere, but has earned a well-deserved critical reevaluation in recent years after attaining cult-classic status. A remake starring Sydney Sweeney is reportedly in development at Sony Pictures, but it’ll take a miracle to reproduce the unique vibe of the original.

Gattaca is a stone-cold classic with a dystopian setting and themes that still feel relevant today. Ethan Hawke plays a man who dreams of going to space, but faces discrimination in this futuristic society because he was born outside of a widely-accepted eugenics program, where parents select children’s ideal hereditary traits.

If you want an interstellar psychological thriller with a fantastic ensemble cast including Cillian Murphy, Michelle Yeoh, Rose Byrne, and Chris Evans, Sunshine — from director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland—still holds up. Our stars play a small crew tasked with revitalizing the Sun from its impending heat death in the year 2057.

The Right Stuff

This historical drama, based on the Tom Wolfe book of the same name, dramatizes the first United States spaceflight mission Project Mercury. Its release in 1983 was a whiplash, bombing at the box office but lighting critics ablaze, later winning four Academy Awards out of eight nominations—including Best Film Editing and Best Original Score.

Don’t go into this film if you aren’t ready for a challenging (and staggering) experience, but Claire Denis’s slow-burn science fiction horror is worth experiencing. In a nonlinear narrative, criminals aboard a spaceship heading for a black hole are forced to be guinea pigs to a scientist’s experiments. Physicist Aurélien Barrau, an expert in black holes, consulted on the film, adding a shade of authenticity to this chilling movie.

This cerebral and gorgeously-shot survival adventure features a small, but stellar cast including Anna Kendrick, Daniel Dae Kim, Toni Collette and Shamier Anderson. Anderson plays an accidental stowaway on a Mars spaceflight mission, immediately endangering the crew—as their vessel is only equipped to support three people.

Muppets From Space

Of course we’re serious! The first non-musical Muppets film was a touching tale of Gonzo finally finding out where he came from... space, of course! This film was full of hilarious moments and had a surprising amount of celebrity cameos. Remember Hulk Hogan and Ray Liotta’s bit parts?

Whether you’re a Wrath of Kahn purist or you can get behind the Chris Pine -fronted reboot series as well, the Star Trek universe has a solid place in film, not just TV! There’s so much great material in the Trek -verse to make a movie from, and both the classic films and new series continue to impress, with rock-solid visuals and excellent performances from their ensemble casts.

Hardly any other film out there captures the space western idea as well as Serenity and its preceding Fox series, Firefly . It stands on its own if you haven’t seen the series, but you’ll be much more invested in these fantastic characters if you watch the show. Plus, Firefly is only fourteen episodes total, so it’s worth your time.

Lilo & Stitch

Some of you may be questioning this inclusion, but here’s our argument that this Disney animated classic deserves a mention. There’s a lengthy intro of the film set in the spaceship Stitch escapes from—and from his perspective, Earth is actually an alien planet that he touches down on for the first time. We rest our case!

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Sure, some may prefer to read the book instead, but this hyperactive space comedy is still damn good fun. Even for 2005, the direction is especially strong, and the Jim Henson’s Creature Shop renditions of characters from the books, such as Vogons, Marvin the Paranoid Android, and The Whale are incredibly memorable.

Treasure Planet

This fun, swashbuckling space adventure is often overlooked when remembering classic Disney animations—but Treasure Planet certainly deserves more love. At the time, this film’s blending of 3D backdrops with traditional 2D characters, sets, and props was revolutionary.

This is the absolute best of the worst space movies. When a giant asteroid is headed for Earth, Billy Bob Thornton enlists the drilling expertise of Bruce Willis because the only way to stop this bad boy of a space rock is to drill a giant hole into it, drop in a bomb, and blow it up in space . Why not just teach astronauts how to drill? Who knows!? At least there’s also a strangely erotic scene where Ben Affleck runs an animal cookie across Liv Tyler’s body while explaining space.

Independence Day

Independence Day is America wrapped right up in a movie. There’s not a lot that happens in actual space—a knock that keeps it from ranking higher—but it does involve Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum going to space to fight aliens who are looking to destroy humanity and the world they inhabit, so it tracks.

The Martian

Ah, the 127 Hours of space movies. Matt Damon gets left behind on Mars after a giant space storm in The Martian , leaving him to fend for himself. Like many space films, this one hones in on human resilience and also shines a wonderful musical spotlight on “Don’t Leave Me This Way.”

Interstellar

Christopher Nolan's visually-stunning space epic follows Matthew McConaughey as a pilot tasked with finding a new home for the human species. His character sets off into the unknown leaving his family on a dust-filled Earth that's rapidly becoming unable to support life. Prepare to bend your brain trying to understand the concept of relativity as McConaughey races against the clock in an extremely sci-fi way.

Galaxy Quest

On paper, Galaxy Quest sounds like just a throwaway space comedy about a group of washed up sci-fi actors who accidentally get embroiled in a real intergalactic battle. But with a brilliant cast that consists of Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Tony Shalhoub, and Sam Rockwell— Galaxy Quest goes well beyond its expectations. In hindsight, this might be the greatest sci-fi comedy this side of Spaceballs .

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Best time travel movies of all time

Journey through cinema and science fiction history as we run down the best time travel movies of all time, from simple trips to other eras to time loops.

Mankind has been fascinated by the possibility of travelling to a different age for over a century. This hypothetical activity, now widely recognized in philosophy and fiction, was popularized by H.G. Wells’ 1895 novel The Time Machine. But it was cinema that made it a recurring science fiction premise in mainstream works. Such movies have kept evolving and taking time travel in wildly different directions, so we have ventured across time and space to bring you our ranked list of the best time travel movies of all time.

A good time travel movie doesn’t need to try too hard to take the subject seriously, as the core concept itself and the mechanics surrounding it remain a mystery and purely hypothetical. Of course, there are stories that leave massive plot holes throughout, but even time travel movies which go for more “realistic” approaches have to make up their own sets of rules. As a result, our list covers both movies that are steeped in the science of the genre and those which simply use time travel as a vehicle for shenanigans. One-way trips through black holes ? Parallel timelines ? Mind-bending paradoxes? It’s got a bit of everything.

For other great sci-fi genres, check out our guides to the best alien invasion movies , the best zombie movies , the best disaster movies , and the best giant monster movies of all time. If you’re in the mood for hands-on time travel fun, our list of the best time travel video games you can play right now is a must-read too. 

15. The Time Traveler’s Wife 

• Release date: August 14, 2009
• Cast: Eric Bana, Rachel McAdams, Ron Livingston

The original marketing of The Time Traveler’s Wife, based on the novel of the same name, was billed as a sappy romance movie akin to anything from Nicholas Sparks. While it does have its romantic moments, the movie’s commitment to a deep, compelling story of a man who cannot control his own movements through time is a well thought out original take on the concept. Think of it more as a romantic sci-fi drama.

As Henry DeTamble (Bana) travels through time, he cannot control when or where he appears. Luckily, at least, he often is among the same people, specifically, his future/present wife, Clare Abshire (McAdams). Their relationship develops and is bruised by his time shifts, which creates strain as well as successes for both of them throughout the movie. 

The Time Traveler’s Wife takes its premise seriously. It allows for the concepts of paradoxes by only ensuring that he directly affects what would, in theory, already occur. Henry is more enacting a prescribed timeline, rather than trying to fight it. It works, and it’s great.

• Release date: October 8, 2004
• Cast: Shane Carruth, David Sullivan, Casey Gooden

Primer is the quintessential movie for any fan of time travel. With a low budget of only $7,000, it grossed over $800,000 at the box office, making it one of the most successful independent movies of all time. It deserves its success as well, as it brings hard science to audiences in a way that, at first, seems impenetrable, but worms its way into our minds and keeps us analyzing the movie long after it’s over. 

When two engineers accidentally create a time travel apparatus during their own experiments, they begin using it for personal gain. As their ideologies on the preservation of time begin to diverge, however, their relationship is pushed to its limits alongside the fraying timeline they alter. 

Primer demands multiple viewings, each one illuminating hidden moments throughout the movie that hint at its own finale. Audiences looking for a dense, no-frills look at what time travel would mean if given to an average (albeit genius) Joe, will find it in Primer.

• Rent or buy Primer on Amazon.

13. Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure

• Release date: February 17, 1989
• Cast: Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, George Carlin

The Bill and Ted franchise are considered family hits for a reason. With the charm of two goofy leads that bumble their way through major historical moments, the movies rely on the time travel conceit to build out and support their silly sense of humor. While the historical moments are considered overly cliché by some, and it’s true that they often misrepresent the moments they are based on, the point of the movie is not to relish in accuracy, but to parody those that try to stick to history all too closely. 

In order to ensure a future utopian society created by the titular characters, Rufus travels back in time to the 1980s to help Bill and Ted pass a history class. In order to understand the perspective of the historic figures they are supposed to be researching, the trio travel through time to meet each of them. 

Without going into spoilers, decisions made by the pair of heroes as well as Rufus would, if not for the movie completely ignoring them, destroy history as it is known. While this is frustrating for anyone looking for a movie that takes paradoxes seriously, that doesn’t keep Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure from being a fun, engaging flick that should be watched with brains mostly turned off.

12. Deadpool 2

• Release date: May 18, 2018
• Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Morena Baccarin

While many movies are poorly received due to their failure to properly respect their own laws of time, Deadpool 2 was given generally positive reviews from critics for intentionally doing the same. In true fashion of the character, Deadpool 2 pokes fun at time travel clichés and tropes, finding ways to both incorporate as well as deride them. 

After Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool joins the X-Men they take a young mutant, Russell, under their care. However, his actions in the future lead the mutant cyborg Cable to travel back in time in order to kill Russell and prevent his own tragedy from occurring. 

Multiple fourth-wall breaking jokes are made about the villains striking similarities to a certain futuristic machine that is mentioned later in this list. And also similarly, the movie strikes a balance in approaching the anti-hero trope that is often associated with these androids from the future. We’re looking at you Dragon Ball Z.

11. Source Code

• Release date: April 1, 2011
• Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga

Source Code is an exciting sci-fi thriller which shows a lot of restraint despite the sheer audacity of its premise: Army Captain Colter Stevens finds himself in someone else’s body and quickly discovers he’s part of an experimental US government program that wants him to find the person behind the bombing of the train where he wakes up. The catch is that he can only be there for the last 8 minutes before the bomb goes off, being stuck in that loop until he can catch the bomber.

Director Duncan Jones had already wowed sci-fi aficionados with the remarkable Moon (2009), so expectations surrounding Source Code were quite high. While the final result might not be a masterpiece, it ranks easily among the most interesting time travel flicks in recent times. It’s also relatively easy to follow despite its kooky premise thanks to its limited scale.

10. 12 Monkeys

• Release date: January 5, 1996
• Cast: Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe, Brad Pitt

Let’s be honest, if someone were to run up to you on the street and say they were from the future and had come back to stop a society-destroying virus, would you believe them? Well, at this point, we probably would too. But, that certainly wasn’t the case when 12 Monkeys came out in the 90s. 

When James Cole (Willis) is sent back in time from 2030 to stop a devastating virus from ever being spread, he is immediately captured and committed to an insane asylum, because that’s what would realistically probably happen. There he meets Brad Pitt’s Jeffery Goines, who is a staunch anti-corporate activist and an environmentalist. You can see where this is probably going.

With plenty of back and forth time travel for Cole, and a sincerely harrowing story about the dangers of trying to intervene in the development of a horrific future, 12 Monkeys creates a narrative that looks at the actual implications of time travel. It’s a must see for any action-thriller science-fiction fan.

9. Groundhog Day

• Release date: February 12, 1993
• Cast: Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, Chris Elliott

There’s always been discussion surrounding Groundhog Day and whether it’s really a time travel movie, but you know what? It doesn’t really matter. A simple time loop can be more interesting than a straight-up time-travelling odyssey. In fact, this movie is more of a fantasy comedy that poses the question of what would a regular person do if trapped inside a time loop they cannot explain nor fix.

It's an endearing movie that, despite many creative differences behind the scenes, ended up resonating with audiences thanks to its smaller scale and impeccable comedic timing, all built around a script which is undoubtedly clever, but lacks pretension. Many movies in this list are downbeat or serve as cautionary tales, so we thought it’d be great to inject a healthy dose of optimism.

8. Predestination

• Release date: August 28, 2014
• Cast: Ethan Hawke, Sarah Snook, Noah Taylor

Predestination might be one of the most overlooked sci-fi movies in recent years, mainly because it didn’t get a very wide international release following its global premiere at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas. Fanatics of time travel movies and loopy sci-fi thrillers made sure as many people as possible heard about it though.

The movie is based on the 1959 short story “All You Zombies” by Robert A. Heinlen, and follows a temporal agent as he pursues one criminal that has eluded him throughout time. The chase quickly turns into a mind-bending exploration of love, fate, and identity that questions the very foundations of time travel as explained in-universe. This one’s a big head-scratcher that requires your full attention, but it’s also far from a slog due to its (mostly successful) action thriller ambitions.

7. Tenet 

• Release date: August 26, 2020
• Cast: John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki

We’re still trying to wrap our heads around some of the wilder mechanics featured in Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi thriller, so that alone gives Tenet some weight among the genre’s best. It’s true that some of the character arcs aren’t as fleshed out as they could’ve been, plus its spy-movie villain – played by Kenneth Branagh – can often be unintentionally funny, but it’s hard to find a bolder big-budget action thriller in recent times.

The story follows a former CIA agent who must learn to master “time inversion” and prevent a renegade Russian oligarch from starting World War III. The problem is the attack will come from the future. As the plot unfolds, weirder concepts come into play, and everything isn’t what it seems at first glance. This is a time travel movie unlike anything we had seen before, mainly because it takes a while to adjust to the mind-bending mechanics of its universe and how they play out in parallel to regular action.

6. Edge of Tomorrow 

• Release date: June 6, 2014
• Cast: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton

Edge of Tomorrow was one of the biggest surprises of 2014 thanks to a tight, action-packed script which masterfully mixed the alien invasion subgenre with time-travel shenanigans, so you’re killing two birds with one stone if you choose to watch this banger for the first time.

Based on Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s novel All You Need Is Kill, Edge of Tomorrow presents a near future in which most of Europe has been taken over by a hostile and unstoppable alien species. Major William Cage, a PR officer, is forced to join an operation against the aliens, only to end up experiencing a time loop that could be the key to defeating the invaders if he can convince the right people. Edge of Tomorrow is both funny and dark, but above all, a true rollercoaster ride.

5. Interstellar

• Release date: November 7, 2014
• Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain

Written and directed by Christopher Nolan, the man behind other “I lost my wife” movies such as Inception, The Prestige, and the more recent Tenet, Interstellar is a time travel movie that uses theoretical laws of physics to alter the perception of time for its protagonists. While Tenet may be a more direct time travel movie, Interstellar surpasses it in its writing, emotional character beats, and the spectacle of its space travel. 

After food sources on Earth have been depleted, Cooper (McConaughey) and a team of astronauts go out in search of a habitable planet beyond the solar system. During their journey, time shifts with them depending on the planets they are on, or how close they are to the black hole at the center of their travels. 

While none of the characters go back in time, they do experience time travel by how fast or slow their own perception of time is compared to the characters back home. And a particularly interesting point using the black hole does allow information and communication to be sent backwards, which we think totally counts.

• Release date: September 28, 2012
• Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt

Bruce Willis’ most recent foray into time travel, Looper is a mind-bending movie that attempts to tackle the grandfather paradox. Although it falls a bit short of this lofty goal, it still maintains a good narrative that builds to an intense climax that uses the universe’s rules against the main villain in unique ways. 

Time travel is ubiquitous in the world of Looper. Unfortunately, a crime syndicate has figured out a way to use this to “lose bodies” by sending their victims back in time to be killed by employees working in the past (or present, if you’re the employee). When Joe, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, is hired to kill his older self, played by Bruce Willis, he fails to do so, setting off an intense chase for JGL to correct his mistake.

Ultimately, the movie sets out its own rules for time travel. When young Joe gets a cut, a scar appears on old Joe. This concept progresses through the movie to an ending that may not be temporally possible, but that works to bring closure to the loop.

• Rent or buy Looper on Amazon.

3. Avengers: Endgame

• Release date: April 26, 2019
• Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo

As the culmination of a storyline spanning over 20 movies, Avengers: Endgame had a serious amount of great moments to look back on in its finale of the Avengers’ stories. After having gone through far-flung cosmic adventures, as well as into subatomic realms, there was only one novel place the Avengers could go: Back in time. 

After Thanos wipes out half of all life in the universe with the Snap (or the Blip) in Infinity War, he destroys the Infinity Stones before being killed by a vengeful Thor. With the stones destroyed, the remaining Avengers travel back in time to collect them from various points in the timeline, so that they may restore the universe to what it once was. 

During their travels, the Avengers are met with spectacular fight scenes, heart-wrenching deaths, and great callback moments that reward long-time fans of the series. While it can be viewed just alongside Infinity War as a sequel, it needs to be seen after having watched all of the MCU in order to appreciate just how far the Avengers have come.

2. Terminator 2: Judgment Day

• Release date: July 3, 1991
• Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong

When it comes to famous time travel action movies,  Terminator 2: Judgment Day is the best of them all. With cutting-edge effects for the time that still hold up today, James Cameron’s sequel took what made the original great and expanded on it in ways that only few other sequels have ever managed to do. 

When a new Terminator, the T-1000, is sent back in time to kill John Connor, the one person responsible for protecting humanity’s future, the futuristic resistance also sends back Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator to protect him. Now there’s a great premise.

Schwarzenegger was able to bring humanity and empathy to the cruel, menacing robot that he had characterized in the first movie. Plus, Robert Patrick’s T-1000 became a villain that, to this day, is synonymous with the idea of unrelenting pursuit. The movie is pure blockbuster thrills bookended by a time travel story that could change the future of all humankind.

• Watch Terminator 2: Judgment Day free on Pluto TV.

1. Back to the Future

• Release date: July 3, 1985
• Cast: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson

We gotta go back! Back to when time travel as a concept was still fresh in popular cinema. Back when it hadn’t yet become a TV and movie trope that is often used as a plot device when all other options have been exhausted. Back to when the concept was held with reverence as well as with glee. 

Robert Zemeckis’ 1985 classic follows Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) as he travels back in time to the 1950s in order to rescue his mentor, Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd). After Marty is accidentally rescued by his own mother in her teenage years, he has to work to ensure that not only can he make it back to the present, but that his parents get together so he’ll even exist. 

Back to the Future is full of time travel twists that wind their way into a viewer’s brain and beg to be dissected. This is a movie that’ll appeal to everyone – it has a nostalgic pull for older adults and it’s a great, fun way for a younger generation to connect to the sci-fi genre.

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30 Most Underrated Space Movies You Need To Watch

Ever since the 1902 short film "A Trip To The Moon" saw a rocket smash into the face of the lunar surface, Hollywood has been enamored with stories set amidst the stars. While science fiction movies can encompass many different kinds of remarkable stories, from time travel tales to futuristic dystopian post-apocalypses, stories set in outer space hold a special fascination for the audience and are a touchstone of the genre. Whether they're grounded tales of astronauts seeking out intelligent life or fantastic alien battles between good and evil, some of the biggest films of all time have taken place far from Earth among the vast and endless reaches of the cosmos.

But for every "Star Wars," there's a forgotten, underrated space movie that was swallowed up by the bigger box office hit. For ever "Interstellar," there's another unheralded independent drama about an astronaut that deserves more attention. You've seen "Guardians Of The Galaxy" and "The Martian," and now it's time you take a look at some more movies you may have missed, overlooked because they weren't lighting up the box office charts, or buried in an avalanche of streaming titles. From a 1972 ecological sci-fi thriller to a 2021 Netflix original, here are underrated space movies that you need to watch.

1. Sunshine

The 2007 sci-fi thriller "Sunshine" was directed by Danny Boyle ( "28 Days Later" ) and features one of the best casts on this list. The story chronicles the crew of the starship Icarus II, who've departed a devastated Earth on a critical mission to reignite the sun, which is dying and has left the planet slowly withering away in increasing darkness. A previous mission to save the world had been tried and failed under mysterious circumstances, but when this new crew find the abandoned starship Icarus I along the way, they go aboard to salvage supplies. Looking to find out what went wrong the first time, they bring back a bigger mystery, and soon new problems begin to plague their own ship. It quickly becomes clear that someone is trying to sabotage their mission to save the sun — and doom Earth forever.

A haunting science fiction thriller with a heartbreaking climax, it takes a shocking turn midway through the film that will leave you on the edge of your seat. Largely overlooked on its release, it was  a flop at the box office in the middle of a crowded blockbuster summer , but eventually gained some attention after its home video release and later on streaming sites like Netflix. Cillian Murphy and Michelle Yeoh headlined the cast, while a pre-MCU Chris Evans and Benedict Wong appeared alongside Hiroyuki Sanada and Rose Byrne.

2. 2010: The Year We Make Contact

The 1984 sci-fi sequel "2010: The Year We Make Contact" has long lived in the shadow of its predecessor, the groundbreaking science fiction epic "2001: A Space Odyssey." This sequel, released 15 years after the original, and based on Arthur C. Clarke's sequel novel, "2010: Odyssey II," picks up nearly a decade after Dave Bowman's disastrous showdown with the artificially intelligent computer called HAL 9000. 

The film sees the launch of second expedition into space, this time a joint effort between American and Soviet space programs, to determine what happened aboard the Discovery before the ship's orbit decays and it collides with one of the planet's many moons. Finding both Discovery and the mysterious monolith that was at the center of its earlier mission, Discovery Two uncovers the truth behind HAL 9000's behavior, and gets closer to the secrets of the monoliths. Their mission is complicated by events back on Earth, where relations between the United States and the Soviet Union have begun to break down. 

Despite a stellar cast that includes Roy Scheider and Helen Mirren, the film can't quite live up to the 1969 classic that preceded — but if we're honest, few science fiction films do. On its own merits, though, "2010: The Year We Make Contact" is a less cerebral sequel that might even satisfy those who felt the first film was a bit too slow. In some respects, it could even be seen as more effective sci-fi mystery with a clearer message and a warning about our own future, in the truest tradition of the genre.

3. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

The sixth and final "Star Trek" film to feature the cast of "The Original Series," "The Undiscovered Country" brings Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and the rest of the crew back to the bridge of the Enterprise for one last adventure. Ready for retirement, the destruction of a Klingon moon draws them back out into space, with Kirk reluctantly leading a diplomatic mission to escort the Klingon Chancellor to Earth. With their bitter rivals in crisis, there are calls for peace, and the Federation hopes to negotiate a once unthinkable alliance. But when the Chancellor Gorkon is assassinated and Kirk is blamed, he and McCoy are put on trial. 

The chancellor's daughter goes forward with the peace talks, but Spock — now in command of the Enterprise — believes her father's death was part of a bigger plot to sabotage the coming treaty. While "The Undiscovered Country" is recognized as one of the better "Trek" films, it's often overshadowed by "The Wrath Of Khan" and the more crowd-pleasing "Voyage Home." But the sixth film is more than just a space adventure, and it rarely gets the recognition it deserves as a first-rate political thriller that was intended as an allegory for the fall of the Berlin Wall . 

Impeccable direction, nail-biting suspense, and a chilling performance by actor Christopher Plummer — not to mention a climactic starship confrontation — help make it the franchise's most underrated film.

A terrifying psychological thriller, the 2009 film "Moon" is another movie that received more recognition after its original theatrical release, though it proved short-lived. Since that brief window when it was the talk of sci-fi circles, the movie has fallen back into the pack of underrated sci-fi classics, and deserves to be brought back out for another viewing. Essentially a one-man play, Sam Rockwell ("Iron Man 2") stars as engineer Sam Bell, an astronaut assigned to an extended solitary mission aboard a lunar-based mining installation. 

For three long years, Sam has had no company aboard the station but for a robotic assistant named GERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey). But as his rotation on the moon draws to a close and he prepares to head home, he suddenly begins to lose his grip on his sanity. Seeing visions of a strange woman and a young girl, Sam is forced to question reality itself. Is what he seeing a hallucination or a nightmare, and what is his real mission? These are the questions that Sam and the audience must ponder, and the answers will shock you. Carried solely by Rockwell's powerful singular performance, "Moon" proves a story about a lonely man searching for his soul. A stunning debut for writer and director Duncan Jones, the filmmaker has struggled to live up to his opening masterpiece.

5. Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension

Before he had his career-defining turn as Alex Murphy in "Robocop," star Peter Weller took the title role in W.D. Richter's 1984 cult classic "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai in the 8th Dimension." As weird as you'd expect from the title, the eclectic title hero is a scientist/doctor/rock star/test pilot turned dimension-hopping superhero crimefighter. It all starts when Banzai and his scientist mentor Dr. Tohichi Hikita create a device that sends him and his jet-powered Ford F-350 briefly into another dimension. But while there, he draws the attention of alien overlords who are building an army and plan on attacking New Jersey.

Alongside his bandmates in the Hong Kong Cavaliers, Banzai has to save the Garden State from being overrun by warriors from another dimension. While the movie's plot is needlessly complicated, that's part of the zany, off-the-wall fun of it. Dismissed in its day for being too ridiculous even for the '80s, it proved well ahead of its time , where with more modern SFX it would fit right in today alongside colorful comic book comedies like "Guardians Of The Galaxy," "Thor: Ragnarok" or DC's "Peacemaker." Its all-star cast included Weller, Clancy Brown, Jeff Goldblum , Christopher Lloyd, Ellen Barkin, Carl Lumbly, and John Lithgow, too. If you can get past the dated visuals, "The Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzai In The 8th Dimension" delivers a raucously silly good time.

6. Screamers

Also starring Peter Weller, the 1995 film "Screamers" was based on a story by Philip K. Dick (whose others works were adapted into  "Blade Runner," "The Man In The High Castle," "Total Recall," and "Minority Report"), and was written by Dan O'Bannon (who wrote the original "Alien"). Appearing in a more serious action thriller this time around, Weller plays Commander Joseph Hendricksson, leader of a group of former laborers on a distant colony who are embroiled in a brutal war with the mining company. The mining union have fought back and created an army of robotic sentries called "screamers" to hunt and kill the mercenaries the company brought in to crack down on labor strikes.  

But when a company soldier arrives with an offer of peace — and is gunned down by a screamer before he can deliver it — Hendricksson must figure out if the message is true. Does the company really want to end the war? Meanwhile, screamers themselves seem to be growing minds of their own, and have gained a shocking new ability that adds a new dimension to the conflict. A creepy, action-packed thriller that not-so-coincidentally recalls the gritty tone of "Alien," "Screamers" deserves to be dusted off and watched again in the 21st century.

7. High Life

When Robert Pattinson was still struggling to be taken seriously as an actor post-"Twilight," he took a turn in a sci-fi horror film to show his chops in a more cerebral setting. With French filmmaker Claire Denis in the director's chair, the 2018 film "High Life" follows an astronaut named Monte. He is all alone on a journey through deep space aboard an otherwise empty starship, with only what appears to be his infant daughter as company. Told in a nonlinear fashion, the movie flips back and forth from the past and the present as we learn more about what brought him aboard, what caused the loss of the rest of the ship's crew, and where he is headed with a baby in tow.

As the film peels back the layer's of Monte's past, we discover not all is as it seems, and a larger tapestry is at play. An understated performance from Pattinson helps focus the film, which earned it good reviews on its release. Unfortunately, it came and went quickly from theaters. But with Pattinson ascending to Hollywood heavyweight in the aftermath of "The Batman," this is one film that deserves to be given new life, and should be appreciated as one of the most underrated sci-fi films of the decade.

8. Enemy Mine

A science fiction drama from 1985, Dennis Quaid ("Inner Space") and Louis Gossett Jr. ("Iron Eagle") starred in "Enemy Mine," a story of two men — one human, the other alien — who must overcome their biases and distrust of each other's peoples in order to survive on a desolate world in the far reaches of outer space. As the film opens, we find Earth at war with a deadly alien race of reptile-like humanoids called the Dracs some time in the late 21st century. The war has been devastating for both sides, and each has developed a violent intolerance of the other. Fighter pilot Will Davidge (Quaid) has an almost blind hatred for the Dracs, and during a brutal outer space battle, finds himself and an enemy soldier both crashed on a nearby planetoid.

While they at first try to kill one another, it becomes clear that to survive, they'll have to put aside their hatred and work together. As Davidge and the alien attempt to communicate, they learn about each other, and find that they are not so different after all. Using science fiction the way the genre intended, the film provides a social and moral message about looking past our differences to find common ground. Directed by Wolfgang Petersen ("Das Boot"), it's criminally overlooked, and one of the best forgotten sci-fi films of the '80s.

9. Pandorum

Speaking of Dennis Quaid, years after his '80s hayday he would star in "Pandorum," an independent horror movie released in 2009, set aboard a mysterious interstellar starship. Quaid co-stars with Ben Foster ( "X-Men: The Last Stand" ) as Peyton and Bower, a pair of astronauts who awaken from cryogenic stasis and find themselves aboard what seems to be a empty starship. They have no memory of who they are, why they are there, or what the purpose of the vessel might be. As they begin to explore the ship, they realize that they are not alone: they are being stalked by a bizarre and deadly alien creature. But the bloodthirsty beast may or may not be real, as they could be suffering from pandorum — a form of space psychosis — as a result of their extended time in stasis.

But the stakes are raised when they learn that their mission is nothing less than the preservation of the entire human race itself: The ship hauls the last vestiges of mankind on an voyage to a new world after the devastation of Earth. Though the film was barely seen when released in theaters, it garnered a cult following when it found a home on Netflix not long after. Newly discovered by horror and sci-fi enthusiasts who passed it around as a hidden streaming gem, it saw new life, but remains an underrated sci-fi "never-was."

10. Solo: A Star Wars Story

A "Star Wars" movie that's underrated? Look no further than the prequel film "Solo: A Star Wars Story." Savaged by its critics and called the spin-off nobody asked for, the film gives admittedly unnecessary backstory to  the lovable thief Han Solo, once played by Harrison Ford. 

Set some 15 years before the original "Star Wars," it finds the young wayward Han on the run from a criminal syndicate. Separated from the woman he loves, Han joins a group of smugglers led by a seasoned gangster named Tobias Beckett. Taken under the wing of a notorious scoundrel, Han becomes a crafty young hustler himself. But when a job goes wrong and Han finds himself on the wrong end of intergalactic kingpin Dryden Voss, he'll have to get help from a former Wookie slave and a charismatic rogue if he wants to stay alive and reunite with his lost love. 

Though it may not have been a story that needed to be told, and it's certainly not a perfect movie — bogged down by some bizarre attempts at political commentary — it's a high class, glossy spectacle of an adventure that deserves to be appreciated for its own unique charms. With top notch, awe-inspiring action, and some impressive performances from its cast — including star Alden Ehrenreich and renaissance man Donald Glover — it's definitely the most underrated "Star Wars" story, one that doesn't deserve the hate it often gets.

11. Silent Running

Science fiction of the 1970s before "Star Wars" was harder on the science, and in 1972 Douglas Trumball, VFX supervisor on the landmark "2001: A Space Odyssey" three years earlier, took the helm of one of the most under-appreciated hard science fiction films of the decade, "Silent Running." The film opens in a future where Earth has been devastated by environmental disaster and unable to maintain lush plant life. As a result, large space cruisers have been converted to carry massive bio-domes that contain the last remnants of the planet's florae and fauna. Aboard one such vessel is Freeman Lowell (Bruce Dern), a man who believes in their noble mission, and who is stunned when they are ordered to jettison the forests and return home.

Unwilling to go along with his orders, Lowell rebels and kills the rest of his crew, intent on saving the bio-domes from destruction. Now on the run from the authorities, it's up to him — and a trio of service robot assistants — to preserve the last remnants of Earth's once beautiful environment from annihilation. An outer space ecological adventure with a powerful environment message, it shows one man's sacrifice and conviction, who is willing to stand up and to do what's right, no matter the cost.

12. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy

Based on the sci-fi radio play-turned-novel series of the same name, "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" may have upset longtime fans of the books who preferred the faithful — if low budget — BBC TV series from the early 1980s. Released in 2005, this big budget Hollywood production deviated from the source material in places, but original creator Douglas Adams co-wrote the screenplay, making it tough to complain. 

Featuring a cast full of big names, some before they were stars, Martin Freeman ( "Sherlock" ) played bumbling everyman Arthur Dent, Zooey Deschanel ( "New Girl" ) was quirky space girl Tricia "Trillian" McMillan and Sam Rockwell ("Iron Man 2") was the President Of The Galaxy Zaphod Beeblebrox. Rapper Mos Def and actors Bill Nighy, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, and Alan Rickman rounded out the all-star cast. Like the original, it introduced Dent as perpetually beleaguered man whose house is being bulldozed to make way for a highway when he learns aliens are about to blow up Earth for an interstellar bypass. Dent becomes an unwitting adventurer aboard a bizarre spaceship called the Heart Of Gold, alongside a depressed android called Marvin.

A strong adaptation — faithful in tone and spirit if not entirely in story — its very British sense of humor may have put off wider audiences, leaving it to languish in theaters, never receiving its promised sequels . But on its own, it's a big budget sci-fi laugher worthy of becoming a comedy classic.

13. Dark Star

The debut film from celebrated horror director John Carpenter ("Halloween"), it's long been overshadowed by his bigger and better films. Like "Screamers," the 1974 film "Dark Star" was written by Dan O'Bannon, but this one was before his breakout script "Alien" made him a name in Hollywood. Sure to evoke the look and feel of bigger films you've seen many times before, this forgotten cult classic predates them all. It became incredibly influential in the genre, with a style and tone that can still be felt in sci-fi film's today: its gritty, workman-like visual aesthetic, and grounded realism that made space men more like cynical, exhausted blue collar workers than dashing, brave heroic figures. 

Set aboard the exploratory vessel Dark Star, the worn-down crew has been in space for decades, searching for rogue planets that might cause trouble for Earth's interplanetary colonization efforts. Long since settled into their humdrum daily life aboard the broken down starship, their long journey has left Lieutenant Doolittle and his crew with not much to do but continually make repairs thanks to increasingly common maintenance problems. Their situation get worse, though, when the ship is hit by an electromagnetic storm that causes their artificially intelligent weapons to malfunction. Surprisingly sardonic and bitterly acerbic, "Dark Star" is a clever science fiction workplace adventure that may not be the best on this list, but deserves to be better remembered than it is.

14. Galaxy Quest

The third film on this list to include Sam Rockwell, "Galaxy Quest" was a loving homage and quasi-parody of the original "Star Trek" series. Instead of being about a futuristic starship and its crew though, it tells the story of a group of actors form a popular sci-fi television series. Said cast gets mistaken for their characters by a group of alien refugees attempting to escape from an army of insidious villains. Now, thanks to a case of mistaken identity, the cast of eccentric Hollywood thespians finds themselves battling real-life monsters from outer space, and they might just be the only hope of turning the tide of an interstellar struggle.

Often seen as merely a mockery of "Star Trek," the truth is that "Galaxy Quest" is that and so much more. A razor sharp comedy with one of the finest casts a '90s comedy could assemble, it starred Tim Allen as the William Shatner-esque hero (two years before he'd voice the heroic space man Buzz Lightyear ), Sigourney Weaver as his bombshell castmate and fictional first officer, plus Rockwell, Tony Shalhoub ("Monk"), Alan Rickman ("Harry Potter"), Justin Long ("Live Free Or Die Hard"), and Rainn Wilson in his pre-"The Office" days. The truth is, "Galaxy Quest" works as a hysterical sci-fi romp even if you don't get all the "Star Trek" jokes, and it deserves to be ranked among the best '90s comedies.

Though it was heavily marketed as a big budget sci-fi drama — with a big name cast that included Ryan Reynolds and Jake Gyllenhaal – the 2017 film "Life" came and went quickly, and was unfavorably compared to classics like "Alien." But come at it with different expectations — or, better yet, no expectations — and you'll find a compelling science fiction thriller all its own. The sci-fi horror film begins aboard an International Space Station, where a crew of astronauts has just received soil samples from Mars that may contain living organisms. But the crew is unprepared when the organism grow at an exponential rate, and start attacking and feeding off them.

But when the creature damages the station, causing its orbit to decay, it becomes a race against time to destroy it before it can reach Earth. A tense, action-packed horror movie set in space, early promotion included a cryptic first trailer , leading to speculation that it might somehow be tied to the "Spider-Man" franchise of all things . This confusion led to people misjudging it, and ultimately overlooking it when it turned out to be something else. A victim of lofty expectations, it was quietly buried after  disappointing somewhat at the box office, but in many ways is a better "Alien" sequel than anything produced since James Cameron's first sequel.

16. Final Voyage (Das letzte Land)

"Das letzte Land" ("Final Voyage") is a German science fiction drama from 2019 that's never really made its way stateside. Thanks to streaming, though, it's available for those interested in dark psychological sci-fi. If you can track it down, you're in for a treat — especially if you like your space movies slow, dreary, haunting, and enigmatic. At its heart, "The Final Voyage" is a mystery, beginning with an escaped prisoner who discovers an abandoned, run-down space vessel. Paired with one of the prison's former guards, he gets it up and running to escape the hellish planetoid.

But out in deep space, it becomes a ceaseless struggle to keep the craft up and running. Described by Rabbit Reviews  as "atmospheric and immersive," the film finds the two desperate explorers on a search for a safe harbor. Drawing inspiration from films like "Dark Star" and "Alien," this modern international sci-fi indie movie deserves a look. Though not a perfect movie, its use of practical effects and its sweeping cosmic vistas make it a visual treat, while its tone and story are a fresh take on the genre that still evoke the look and feel of older classics.

17. Solaris

Starring George Clooney, the 2002 sci-fi drama "Solaris" was based on a classic novel by legendary Polish author Stanislaw Lem. A remake of the previous adaptation, a 1972 Russian film of the same name, it was a passion project of co-producer James Cameron, and was ultimately written and directed by Stephen Soderbergh. The film tells the story of Dr. Chris Kelvin, a psychologist brought in by a corporation that runs a deep space orbital station above the planet Solaris. The crew onboard suffered a series of bizarre mental breakdowns and since disappeared. Kelvin is tasked with investigating and ultimately determining if the station's mission should continue.

But once there, Kelvin himself begins to succumb to the same strange phenomenon, including receiving visions of his long-dead wife. After learning that something similar had happened to the crew, Kelvin must figure out if the visions of their loved ones are real, and if they could in fact be some form of alien contact.

Fresh off their collaboration on the previous year's remake of "Ocean's Eleven," Soderbergh and Clooney made "Solaris" a prestigious, high profile project, but it failed to deliver at the box office . Though recognized by critics for its stirring drama and thought provoking ideas, "Solaris" unfortunately had to contend with the specter of the pioneering original version, which still holds up today. But this new version is more than a retread — it forges its own path, and is sure to impress fans of contemplative science fiction psycho-dramas.

18. Event Horizon

Director Paul W.S. Anderson may be known as a purveyor of schlock action movies — producing the "Resident Evil" series, "Alien Vs. Predator," and the first "Mortal Kombat" film — but in 1997, he made arguably his best work with the sci-fi horror movie "Event Horizon." Assembling a stellar cast that included Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill, Kathleen Quinlan, and Jason Isaacs, the film is about a starship called the Event Horizon that disappeared in deep space, and the crew of a second exploratory vessel sent to investigate it when it suddenly reappears a decade later. 

The mission is led by Miller (Fishburne), a military commander and pragmatist, and Weir (Neill), the inventor of the starship's power drive that supposedly folds space time, and who is obsessed with finding the truth. But as the crew begins looking for clues, they realize that the horror isn't over, and that the disaster that killed the crew of the Event Horizon may soon consume them too. Given Anderson's later catalog of disappointing flicks, it's easy to dismiss "Event Horizon," but with an strong cast and some clever concepts, it's a joyous guilty pleasure sure to satisfy anyone who loves science fiction, action, and horror.

19. Black Hole

After the success of "Star Wars," everyone was looking for the next big sci-fi blockbuster, and the Walt Disney Company was no exception . Nearly 35 years before they'd simply buy the whole enterprise, Disney tried their hand at their own outer space adventure, and the result was the 1979 adventure "Black Hole." Starring Maximillian Schell, Joseph Bottoms, Anthony Perkins, and Robert Forster, the movie follows the crew of the USS Palomino, on a deep space exploratory mission when they encounter an older starship, the USS Cygnus, thought lost 20 years before. 

Now orbiting a black hole, they find one man aboard: Dr. Reinhardt, one of Earth's most brilliant minds, who says he's the last man alive after the ship became damaged. Along with a crew of human-like robot drones he claims to have built himself, he has continued to study the titular black hole. But while exploring the Cygnus, the crew of the Palomino realizes that Reinhardt is hiding something, and there's more to his robot army than meets the eye. A surprisingly disturbing sci-fi adventure for a Disney picture, never became as well known as "Star Wars," nor did it ever become it spawn a franchise, but — thanks to its impressive special effects and intriguing story — it has since become a cult classic.

20. Zathura: A Space Adventure

The 2005 family film "Zathura: A Space Adventure" has been largely forgotten, but in retrospect, it's an important stepping stone on a number of Hollywood journeys. Directed by Jon Favreau just before "Iron Man," the film was also a quasi-sequel to "Jumanji," and there have been calls more recently to reincorporate it back into that franchise. The movie follows a pair of brothers who leave home alone and try to pass the time by playing space adventure board game called Zathura. But every move they make and every situation they encounter in the game comes to life, sending them on an incredible journey into space.

With the help of a heroic astronaut, the two brothers — and their older sister, who becomes trapped with them — must find a way to use the game to make their way back to Earth. A fun family adventure, its lack of success was blamed on poor promotions  that confused audiences. But with Favreau at the helm, and a cast that included a young Josh Hutcherson ("The Hunger Games") and Kristen Stewart before "Twilight," the first "Jumanji" sequel is an underrated outer space adventure.

International sci-fi films are easy to miss in the States, where some of the best gems receive little promotion and can disappear on sites like Netflix or Hulu, buried under mountains of bigger titles. One such gem that shouldn't be miss is the 2018 Swedish science fiction dystopian drama "Aniara" from co-directors Pella Kågerman and Hugo Lilja. Set in the not-too-distant future, the Earth has become nearly uninhabitable, devastated by climate change that has seen non-stop natural disasters and rising ocean levels. Humanity is colonizing Mars and has begun a mass migration, with massive vessels regularly ferrying large numbers of colonists to the Red Planet. 

One such vessel is the Aniara, a large cruise-liner equipped with a Mima — an artificially intelligent, virtual reality simulator — that provide immersive experiences for the migrants during their long journey. But when the ship is struck by space debris, it loses navigation and may no longer be able to reach Mars. As the journey is extended by years, and the Mima breaks down, the delicate balance of society aboard the star-liner breaks down. Chaos erupts. A wave of despair sweeps the ship, and as chances for rescue dwindle, all hope may rest with the Mimarobe, the Mima's engineer who has been trying to recreate the Mima's functions. A bleak, haunting drama in space, it's not for the faint of heart, but comes highly recommended if you can track it down. 

22. The Last Starfighter

Another attempt to capture the sci-fi adventure of "Star Wars," this time by Universal Studios, the 1986 film "The Last Starfighter" similarly a teenaged boy fulfill his dreams of going into outer space after he is recruited fight in an interstellar war. Alex Rogan (Lance Guest) is a high school kid on Earth who becomes the highest scoring player of an arcade game called The Last Starfighter, which he learns was secretly designed to find the best pilots in the cosmos. Brought into outer space and trained by an alien fighter named Grig (Dan O'Herlihy), Alex learns about the war between the Rylan Star League and the Ko-Dan Empire.

The Star League's home planet Rylos has successfully fended off an invasion, but the Ko-Dan's leader, a vicious tyrant named Xur, has a new weapon that can breach their defenses. Now Alex must find the courage to join the war and stop an invasion that threatens to engulf Earth, as well. Criminally under-seen, "The Last Starfighter" is a memorable sci-fi actioneer that any child of the '80s likely has fond memories of, even if it hasn't become a classic.

23. Europa Report

Another sci-fi movie about an exploratory mission that proves a disaster from almost the moment it leaves Earth's atmosphere, the 2013 indie drama "Europa Report" used a mix of found footage, fictionalized news reports, documentary interviews, and gonzo style filmmaking. The end result? A grounded, realistic look at what a real space mission to search for life among the stars might be like. It follow the crew of a privately funded space flight to Europa, a moon of Jupiter, to search for evidence of life. But even before the vessel arrives at its destination, they lose a crew member, who sacrifices himself to save their mission after pass through devastating solar storm.

When they finally get to Europa, they encounter more problems drilling through the moon's icy shell, with their first probe mysteriously lost. A series of unexplained occurrences rattle the group, before disaster strikes, and their entire mission is in jeopardy. Will they discover life on Europa, and if they do, will it be more than they bargained for? An intense and gripping tale of scientific discovery, its unique filmmaking style brought something fresh to the genre that made it worth the watch, even if the story itself wasn't anything groundbreaking.

24. Ad Astra

The thoughtful character drama "Ad Astra" was an ambitious and high profile project for star Brad Pitt, but was mostly seen as a disappointment . It wasn't a flashy sci-fi epic like "Interstellar" nor a dramatic survival story like "The Martian." Instead, "Ad Astra" was a thoughtful, introspective character drama about a family, faith, and legacy. Pitt stars as Roy McBride, commander of SpaceCom, whose father Clifford had manned a mission to Neptune years before, but had been lost somewhere in out there along the way. Now, with a series of unexplained power surges on Earth that are traced back to his father's last known location in deep space, Roy is sent on a mission to find his father and discover the cause of the phenomenon that threatens to destroy the world.

Set in a future world where humanity's obsession with technological progress has led to disaster, the film is sci-fi at its finest, taking a hard look at today's problems through the lens of tomorrow. Punctuated by impeccable performances from its all-star cast — which also includes Tommy Lee Jones, Liv Tyler, and Donald Sutherland — "Ad Astra" does more than look great, it explores real issues both broadly profound and intensely personal. Seldom cited as one of Pitt's best, it deserves attention, and remains one of his strongest, most understated performances, despite the movie's lower profile.

Another lesser-seen international standout, the innovative Netflix original "Cargo" from 2019 comes courtesy of Indian writer and director Arati Kadav. A disturbing space-based tale, it explores the prospect of reincarnation and the afterlife — not to mention other-worldly deities — being discovered in the depths of outer space. It introduces us to scientist Prahastha (Vikrant Massey), who works for a company that runs post-death transition, where — in an orbital station — he prepares recently deceased people for a new life. His monotonous job is just fine as far as he's concerned, and he seems to enjoy his solitary duties. But his routine is disrupted when he's assigned a new assistant.

With the arrival of the young and beautiful Yuvishka (Shweta Tripathi), Prahastha finds his job and life becoming far more complicated. We also learn that Prahastha is something much more than a mere scientist. A compelling and unique blending of Hindu faith and high concept science fiction, "Cargo" impresses with a rare new take on a classic idea: the lone astronaut on a tedious, prolonged mission. Though there are some common themes and ideas at play, "Cargo" at least gives them a sardonic twist with a religious bent, making the film an innovative and imaginative offering that deserves the spotlight.

26. Treasure Planet

When someone mentions an excellent Disney sci-fi film, you probably think of Pixar's "WALL-E," but there's another that's almost entirely forgotten today: the 2002 outer space adventure "Treasure Planet." One of their rare forays into the genre, the film was a clever twist on Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island." It focuses on Jim Hawkins, who runs an inn on the planet Montressor. All his life, he has heard stories of intergalactic treasure hunter Nathaniel Flint and his search for the fabled "Treasure Planet." When a starship crash lands nearby, and its pilot leaves him with a mysterious star map, Hawkins discovers that Treasure Planet is no fable, and sets out to find the greatest prize in the galaxy.

A mix of sci-fi, fantasy, and steampunk before it was popular, "Treasure Planet" may just have been a little too ahead of its time. Full of fun visuals, likable heroes, and dastardly villains, it's everything you could want from a Disney animated feature, and it's a real shame it hasn't become a classic. As a good old pulp adventure in space, it succeeds, and deserves to be remembered alongside the best the animation giant has to offer.

27. Stowaway

With a flood of movies landing every month on any number of streaming sites, it's easy for some films to get lost in the crowd. One such movie that disappeared was "Stowaway," a 2021 Netflix original starring Anna Kendrick ("Pitch Perfect"), Daniel Dae-Kim ("Hawaii Five-O") and Toni Collette ("Knives Out"). Despite the cast, it came and went with little fanfare. It's a shame, because it's a first rate space movie about a mission to Mars whose crew runs into a complicated moral dilemma. 

Embarking on a multi-year journey to the Red Planet, three space-faring scientists are thrown for a loop when they discover an unintended stowaway aboard, trapped in the module before takeoff. He's also damaged the ship's CO 2 scrubber, making it impossible for the crew to survive. With an unintended companion and malfunctioning equipment that can't sustain so many passengers, the mission seems doomed, and the crew are forced to improvise. But with time running out, and mission control offering no solution, they decide one of them may have to die for the rest to survive. A surprising psychological thriller packed with compelling characters forced into impossible decisions, it's a tense personal drama in outer space that provides some of the best sci-fi suspense on this list.

28. Explorers

The 1985 film "Explorers" featured a surprisingly star-studded cast for a movie with child actors. The film starred Ethan Hawke ( "Moon Knight" ) and River Phoenix ("Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade") in their movie debuts, and also co-starred James Cromwell ("Babe") and Robert Picardo ( "Star Trek: Voyager" ). Directed by Joe Dante ("Gremlins"), with special effects by Industrial Light & Magic and a score by "Star Trek" composer Jerry Goldsmith, it has a classy pedigree in all facets of the production, yet is somehow hardly remembered.

A classic childhood adventure, the film centers on three friends — Ben, Wolfgang, and Darren — who are obsessed with outer space. When Ben receives a vision of a circuit board in a dream, he and his friends use it to build a small spacecraft in their backyard. Against all odds, the ship flies and takes them on a journey, where they meet a pair of aliens much like them: youngsters looking for adventure. Think of it as "The Sandlot" in space. Unfortunately, the movie was swallowed up in a busy summer that included "Back To The Future" and "Goonies," but if you love those movies, or the similar "Flight Of The Navigator," check out their lesser-seen cousin "Explorers."

29. Space Station 76

What "Austin Powers" did for '60s spy movies, the R-rated 2014 outer space comedy "Space Station 76" does for '70s sci-fi. A retro send-up that mocks classic science fiction films and tropes, including a couple from this list, the film stars Patrick Wilson ("Watchmen"), Liv Tyler ("The Incredible Hulk"), Matt Bomer ("Doom Patrol") and Jerry O'Connell ("Star Trek: Lower Decks"). Set aboard the Omega 76 space station, we meet Jessica Marlow (Tyler), the incoming first officer of the Omega 76 space station. She arrives at her new assignment and clashes with the oddball crew, each dealing with their own personal issues.

Captain Glenn Terry (Wilson) is forced to hide his sexuality in the repressed retro future, while Ted (Bomer) struggles with being a single father who wants nothing more than to get back together with his unstable ex-wife Misty (Marisa Coughlan). A delightful throwback that is as much a '70s comedy as it is an homage to the era, it boasts appropriately primitive VFX and is full of clever sight gags, incisive social commentary, and big laughs mined from the oddity of disco sci-fi. Whether you love that decade's best or just enjoy seeing someone poke fun at them, "Space Station 76" will leave you laughing all the way to Alpha Centauri and back.

The directorial debut of filmmaker William Eubank (whose further science fiction films "The Signal" and "Underwater" also come highly recommended), the curiously titled 2011 space drama "Love" once again tells a tale of loneliness and madness in space. It focuses on a singular astronaut, Lee Miller, who has been sent on a one-man mission to the previously abandoned International Space Station in the year 2039. After he arrives however, a massive global war breaks out on Earth, devastating the planet and leaving him all alone in orbit, possibly the last man alive.

As he deals with both a physical and existential crisis, Miller slowly begins to lose his grip on his sanity. But while trying to stay alive, he discovers a strange and antiquated journal aboard the station. Written during the Civil War by a Union captain, it recounts the soldier's fantastic journey to investigate a strange, unearthly object that had been reported during the conflict. Miller will soon discover that he and the Union captain have more in common than he ever could have imagined. Though "Love" explores common themes the genre has touched on before, the low-budget indie film embraces them with a certain spirituality that makes it unique, and should appeal to fans of more thought-provoking space-based science fiction.

32 sci-fi movies that deserve a sequel

From space travel to time travel, these are the sci-fi movies begging to tell more stories

Science fiction is one of the oldest genres in movie history, dating back to Georges Méliès’s 1902 film A Trip to the Moon. But because sci-fi asks so much more from its audience to suspend disbelief, and more out of filmmakers to execute on their visions more precisely, a lot of sci-fi classics go underappreciated and under the radar. Some, however, are deserving of more sequels.

Whether they’re based on comics or cartoons, or completely original ideas from writers and directors, sci-fi tentpoles tend to be the riskiest investments in the modern movie business. While hits like Star Wars, Avatar, and Avengers: Endgame are seismic hits that make billions of dollars around the world, some sci-fi movies have a harder time making any noise before it’s too late.

To mark the genre’s continued relevance and to bring attention to some overlooked gems, here are 32 sci-fi cult classic movies that actually deserve a sequel. 

32. Titan A.E. (2000)

In what is currently the last theatrical feature from legendary animator Don Bluth, the remnants of mankind live among hostile alien species all throughout the galaxy. A young man, voiced by Matt Damon, discovers he holds the key to humanity’s new home. Released during a transitional period when Hollywood animated movies were still mostly drawn by hand, Titan A.E. memorably combined Bluth’s beloved style with sophisticated CGI. Decades later, Titan A.E. remains attractive not only for its unusual artistic style, but because of its original story that felt so much bigger than one movie ought to contain.

31. Godzilla Minus One (2023)

One of the most unexpected hits of 2023, Godzilla Minus One from Takashi Yamazaki is a breathtaking, mesmerizing monster horror epic that re-instilled our fear for kaiju terrors. While not a traditional remake or reboot of the original 1954 movie, Godzilla Minus One takes place in Japan’s turbulent postwar recovery period when Godzilla rises from the seas for the first time. With its touching story about community, family, bravery, and sacrifice, Godzilla Minus One shook audiences when they least expected. While Yamazaki has publicly commented on his own ideas for a sequel, producer Minami Ichikawa told GQ Japan in November 2023 that any sequel will be shepherded at a snail’s pace, believing Toho is in no rush to get another hit out the door.

30. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005)

While fans of Douglas Adams’ book series aren’t such big fans of Garth Jenningers’ Hollywood film version, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy maintains a devout following who still appreciate its humor, special effects, and delightful performances from a strong cast. (Martin Freeman stars, alongside Mos Def, Sam Rockwell, Zooey Deschanel, and the late Alan Rickman in a voiceover capacity.) The movie tells of a man from Earth, living in the UK, whose house is being demolished for a highway, only to find that all of Earth is slated for demolition for a space highway. While the complete Hitchhiker’s franchise consists of several different books, the 2005 version simply didn’t make enough bank to warrant sequels based on them. That’s a shame, because it sure would be a treat to finally visit The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

29. Flash Gordon (1980)

The sci-fi comic and movie serial that inspired George Lucas to create Star Wars got a more authentic blockbuster film adaptation in 1980. From director Mike Hodges came Flash Gordon, with Sam J. Jones in the title role, that of a football star who becomes Earth’s hero against the terrifying Ming the Merciless (Max von Sydow). Although the movie earned solid reviews and a strong box office showing, Jones reportedly did not get along with producer Dino De Laurentiis. Their disagreements prohibited a sequel from going forward. A shame, considering just how expansive Flash Gordon’s adventures are that are begging to be enjoyed by a wider audience. Since 2014, there have been attempts at a reboot, including an animated movie from Taika Waititi that was canceled in 2019. 

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28. Upgrade (2018)

Leigh Whannell’s sci-fi thriller Upgrade is basically, “What if Venom was a thousand percent darker and more violent?” Logan Marshall-Green stars as a paralyzed widower who is implanted with a cutting-edge computer chip. The chip not only allows him to walk again, but infects him with a super intelligent A.I. alter ego with its own motivations. Viciously violent and tonally bleak, Upgrade isn’t necessarily franchise friendly. But it’s just too good to not want more of Leigh Whannell and Logan Marshall-Green together raising more hell.

27. The Black Hole (1979)

Emerging during Disney ’s flop era, The Black Hole is an original science fiction movie about space explorers who find a lost spaceship floating dangerously close to a black hole. At the time the most expensive live-action movie from Disney and the first to be rated PG, The Black Hole did not win favorable reviews - the late Roger Ebert panned it as “[taking] us all the way to the rim of space only to bog us down in a talky melodrama” - but remains infamous for showing Disney’s willingness to experiment during a prolonged drought. The Black Hole may not be begging for a spot in the Disney parks, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t try again.

26. Jumper (2008)

After the dust settled on the Star Wars prequels, Hayden Christensen appeared in Jumper, based on the 1992 novel and directed by Doug Liman. An original superhero movie concept that hit before the critical mass popularity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Jumper leaps free from restrictive IP parameters and burdensome expectations for shared universe worldbuilding. Still, a sequel could do wonders to make Jumper into something more than a forgotten, one-off production. Even after all these years, Jumper feels like it’s still got places to go.

25. Real Steel (2011)

At first glance, it’s a little hard to believe that a movie about robotic boxers would have a soul. But through some genuinely impressive VFX craftsmanship, the star power of Hugh Jackman, and strong direction from Shawn Levy - since having gone on to direct Free Guy, The Adam Project, and Deadpool & Wolverine - Real Steel packs a wallop as an authentic sports drama about fighting against one’s own limits. Talks of a sequel and even a Disney+ series version have been discussed, but for now, Real Steel remains down for the count.

24. Shin Kamen Rider (2023)

As part of Hideaki Anno’s “Shin” cinematic anthology, Shin Kamen Rider sees the celebrated animator and filmmaker put his own stamp on a Japanese tokusatsu icon. In this reimagining of the original 1971 series Kamen Rider, motorcyclist and college student Takeshi Hongo (Sosuke Ikematsu) confronts his newfound inhumanity and works to destroy the evil organization SHOCKER. While the other movies in the Shin series - Shin Godzilla (2016) and Shin Ultraman (2022) - are equally deserving of sequels, Shin Kamen Rider is singularly great, with so many years of Kamen Rider history to draw further from.

23. A Wrinkle in Time (2018)

In 2018, Ava DuVernay took on adapting Madeleine L’Engle’s seminal 1962 sci-fi novel A Wrinkle in Time, about a young girl who embarks on a journey across the multiverse in search of her father. (Ask Trent Crimm from Ted Lasso about it.) While it had an appealing all-star cast of Chris Pine, Reese Witherspoon, Oprah Winfrey, Mindy Kaling, and Zach Galifianakis, A Wrinkle in Time was just too expensive for its total gross of $133 million to make sequels worthwhile. Still, DuVernay demonstrated a strong grasp of L’Engle’s work via gorgeous renderings of its cosmic spiritualism, which would have made for killer movies based on the rest of the series. For now, A Wrinkle in Time seems lost in a black hole.

22. Serenity (2005)

While its story acts as a conclusion to the beloved sci-fi series Firefly, Serenity is still so singularly great that it makes sequels still fun to think about. Despite a passionate fanbase who rallied behind the movie’s release in 2005, disinterest of regular moviegoers who hadn’t seen Firefly meant Serenity was never going to be a box office smash. Creator, director, and writer Joss Whedon went on to direct billion-dollar hits like The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron, and later suffered a career collapse after allegations of misconduct came to light. But with or without Joss Whedon, some fans still believe that no one can stop the signal.

21. Hancock (2008)

In a time before Marvel amassed powerful influence over the movie industry, there occasionally came more off-beat superheroes who strayed away from paved roads. In 2008, Will Smith used his own proven star power for Hancock, in which Smith plays a crude, alcoholic superhero whose discovery of another like him complicates everything. While the movie ends up too overcooked plot-wise, nothing is better than Smith drunkenly flying around L.A. and making a mess of rush hour traffic. If the superhero genre is all about sequels, there’s no superhero more deserving of another chance at redemption than Hancock.

20. Oblivion (2013)

Based on Joseph Kosinski’s own unpublished graphic novel, Oblivion takes place in a futuristic Earth devastated by intergalactic war. A maintenance technician, played by Tom Cruise, is on the verge of finishing a job when he encounters a mysterious woman (Olga Kurylenko) seemingly from his own dreams that leads him to discover the truth about what happened on Earth. While Oblivion is appealing as a stylish standalone movie that admirably told a complete story, it still left enough threads loose for a continuation. And who doesn’t want to see more of Tom Cruise in space?

19. Underwater (2020)

The last theatrical release from 20th Century Fox before it was renamed by Disney, the 2020 sci-fi horror Underwater is a muscular monster feature with one of the most famous literary creatures of all time waiting at the end of it. Kirsten Stewart leads a cast that also includes Vincent Cassel, Jessica Henwick, and John Gallagher Jr., all playing scientists and engineers who live and work deep in the Mariana Trench. As earthquakes destroy the facility, the team tries to make a desperate escape. Despite the widespread influence of H.P. Lovecraft in modern pop culture, there still aren’t that many faithful adaptations of the famous author’s works. But being one of the first original universes in pulp literary fiction, movies like Underwater could, and should, be the first to spawn a franchise featuring all the Great Old Ones.

18. Innerspace (1987)

One of the most inventive and playful sci-fi movies of the 1980s, Innerspace from Joe Dante is basically Fantastic Voyage reimagined as a contemporary romantic comedy. Dennis Quaid plays a handsome but down-on-his-luck Navy aviator who submits to a top secret experiment that shrinks subjects to microscopic size. Somehow, the experiment places the pilot in neurotic grocery clerk Jack (Martin Short), kicking off a kooky buddy comedy where Quaid basically tells Martin Short how to man up. While too much time has passed to really follow any of its characters, it’s hard not to vibe with a modern retelling of the same premise.

17. The One (2001)

Before Spider-Man and The Flash flung through the multiverse, Jet Li fought his way through it. In this vastly underrated sci-fi kung fu movie from 2001, Jet Li plays both hero and villain: noble cop Gabe Law and outlaw Yulaw, who aspires to traverse all parallel dimensions and kill his other selves to gain their strength and become “The One.” The One is easily one of Jet Li’s most ridiculous (and most fun) movies in his career, staying fresh decades later. Now that audiences are more familiar with the multiverse theory, it would be quite something for Jet Li to reclaim his dominance and show all the fancy superheroes that there can still only be “one.” (Cue Papa Roach.)

16. Chronicle (2012)

Before Josh Trank suffered a career downfall after his 2015 Fantastic Four, he was a hotshot up and comer with his remarkable found-footage thriller Chronicle. Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell, and Michael B. Jordan all play high school teenagers who suddenly possess telekinetic superpowers, which they use for fun until the powers dangerously corrupts one of them. Emotional, harrowing, and inventive with its unique touchstones - with visible influences from the likes of The Blair Witch Project, Akira, and X-Men - Chronicle is too astonishing for just one movie.

15. Alita: Battle Angel (2019)

A passion project of producer James Cameron based on his own anime fandom, Alita: Battle Angel was an immediate cult favorite when it opened to relatively little fanfare in 2019. Based on Yukito Kishiro’s manga, Alita tells of a cyborg who awakes in a new body but lacks any memory of her past. Directed by Robert Rodriguez and starring Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein, and Jackie Earle Haley, Alita’s fans still love it for its impressive visual effects, sympathetic characters, and unique sense of sci-fi. While James Cameron believes more Alita movies are possible, it is unknown if the movie is to stay doomed to the scrap heap. 

14. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)

Renowned comics author Alan Moore quite famously wants nothing to do with movie versions of his works. This extends to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, with Moore having more or less ignored its existence; artist Kevin O’Neill also expressed in a 2009 interview with The Times UK that he found the script lacking the source material’s spirit. Still, it says a lot that moviegoers who caught the movie back in 2003 have expressed wanting more of it. Basically an “Avengers”-like team-up of public domain figures - we’re talking Allan Quartermain from King Solomon’s Mines, Mina Harker from Dracula, Dorian Gray, and Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde - The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen really lends itself to more, or at least just adapting Volume II of the book. 

13. Jupiter Ascending (2015)

Other than The Matrix, the Wachowskis’ works as filmmakers are only really loved long after the fact. That includes movies like Speed Racer, Cloud Atlas, and especially 2015’s Jupiter Ascending. An epic space romance, Mila Kunis plays a cleaning lady who is informed by a handsome warrior (played by Channing Tatum) that she has a greater destiny beyond the stars. While the movie earned polarizing reviews and an underwhelming box office upon release, the movie has slowly earned positive reappraisal as a modern classic full of imagination. The movie ends on a positive note that leaves open the possibility for sequels, but it’s unknown if more is written in the stars for Jupiter Jones.

12. Galaxy Quest (1998)

By Grabthar’s Hammer… there shall be a sequel! In this laugh riot comedy, former sci-fi TV stars are recruited by aliens to save their species. Predictive of the rise of fandom culture but never belittling it, Galaxy Quest could easily make for a great franchise of its own in the modern era. (Although it would be devastating to reunite with these characters without the late, great Alan Rickman.) There has been some traction regarding a sequel, including rumors of a series for the Paramount+ streaming service. But that a sequel didn’t happen immediately after the original movie’s release speaks to how hard it is for anything in Hollywood to blast off.

11. The Rocketeer (1991)

Before Disney had the keys to the Marvel kingdom, the studio had its own superhero in The Rocketeer (created by Dave Stevens as an indie comic). From director Joe Johnston, Billy Campbell plays the title character, a washed-up pilot who puts on a jet pack and adopts the name The Rocketeer to fight Nazis. Beloved today as a cult classic, The Rocketeer’s lukewarm box office intake meant it did not take off as a franchise for Disney. While there was finally an expansion to The Rocketeer, in the form of a childrens’ cartoon in 2019 and various attempts at sequels and remakes, The Rocketeer has been left dangling instead of flying like it should.

10. Brightburn (2019)

What if Superman were evil? That’s hardly a new idea, but the original superhero horror Brightburn dared to explore that idea, and it did so with flying crimson colors. Produced by James Gunn and helmed by David Yarovesky, Brightburn basically tells an off-brand version of Superman’s origin story - alien child adopted by a kind Kansas couple - but instead of the child growing up into a Man of Tomorrow, he grows into a nightmare incarnate. Elizabeth Banks and David Denman co-star in his overlooked horror movie that shows just how much we as humans are at the mercy of a cruel, indescribable universe.

9. District 9 (2009)

A searing sci-fi with deep-rooted political themes, District 9 marked the feature film debut of Neill Blomkamp who explored his native South Africa’s history of segregation and xenophobia via space aliens as a metaphor. In an alternate 1982, aliens arrive in Johannesburg and are quickly quarantined in the internment camp District 9. The movie picks up 20 years later, with a bumbling bureaucrat (Sharlto Copley in his feature acting debut) slowly turning into one of the aliens. While hope for a District 10 has lingered in the ether, Blomkamp put such hopes on ice, telling The Hollywood Reporter in 2023 that progress has stalled indefinitely. 

8. Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

Unofficially one of the greatest video game movies ever made, Doug Liman’s sci-fi blockbuster Edge of Tomorrow is a time loop thriller that takes Groundhog Day and cranks it up to aggressive extremes. An adaptation of Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s All You Need is Kill, the movie stars Tom Cruise as a U.S. Major with limited combat experience who is forced onto the battlefield. His death ignites a time loop, allowing him to gain the experience he needs to survive and to team up with a more capable war hero (Emily Blunt). Talk of a sequel has been murmured for years; in 2024, Tom Cruise’s partnership with Warner Bros. led to loose talks of an overdue sequel.

7.  Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)

A passion project of writer/director Luc Besson, who funded a large portion of its extravagant $223 million production budget himself, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets adapts the French comics Valérian and Laureline (a childhood favorite of Besson’s). Both the movie and its original source comics tell of two futuristic space explorers who encounter various galactic challenges with equal parts humor and heroism. The film starred Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevigne, and while they lacked chemistry as actors, the rest of the movie made up for it with impeccable and eye-popping sci-fi magnificence. While Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets was just too expensive for any reasonable box office gross to even out, there has still been enough fans of the movie to generate interest in a sequel. 

6. Saban’s Power Rangers (2017)

The coolest heroes of Saturday mornings, the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, got the dark PG-13 reboot treatment back in 2017. Its brooding tone and overall angsty emo vibe reminiscent of The CW shows didn’t win over critics, nor did the movie crush its billion-dollar hit rival Beauty and the Beast like a Megazord. But Dean Israelite’s Power Rangers keeps a loyal following who heap it retrospective appreciation for its boldly un -affectionate treatment of ‘90s nostalgia. While its cast of twenty-something actors, including Naomi Scott, Dacre Montgomery, RJ Cyler, Ludi Lin, and pop star Becky G have aged past the point of playing teenagers, there are still those who wish for a sequel to finally bring the iconic Green Ranger to the big screen.

5. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004)

A throwback to sci-fi pulp with innovative VFX filmmaking, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is a cult classic still loved for its arresting art deco visual design and unfulfilled potential as a franchise starter. Set in an alternate 1930s, a reporter (Gwyneth Paltrow) hires an old flame, the dashing “Sky Captain” (Jude Law) to investigate the whereabouts of kidnapped scientists. Clearly primed for more stories to tell, it’s bewildering that Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow failed to fly at the box office. The movie remains director Kerry Conran’s one and only theatrical film to date.

4. Event Horizon (1997)

Paul W.S. Anderson is synonymous with below average video game movies. But once, in 1997, Anderson swung for the fences with his own original story in Event Horizon. Starring Laurence Fishburne, Event Horizon takes place in the year 2047 and follows astronauts on a rescue mission to investigate a spaceship that has suddenly resurfaced by Neptune. A moody sci-fi horror in the spirit of Ridley Scott’s Alien, Event Horizon is now enjoyed as a cult classic that is still largely overlooked. A solid sequel could not only bring more deserved attention to the original, but possibly create a brand new franchise out of old parts.

3. Dark City (1998)

After The Matrix blew up in 1999, sci-fi enthusiasts were quick to point out the thematically similar and little-seen movie Dark City, released a year prior in 1998. Directed by The Crow’s Alex Proyas, Dark City follows an amnesiac (Rufus Sewell) who is suspected of murder and works to clear his name and find out his real identity. Characterized by startling and striking visuals and an abundantly bleak atmosphere, Dark City earned positive reviews but fared poorly commercially. Years after its release, Dark City enjoys cult status, though a sequel, great as it might be, still feels way out of reach.

2. Dredd (2012)

Long after the polarizing 1995 movie Judge Dredd with Sylvester Stallone, director Pete Travis gave the world the hard-R treatment the original Judge Dredd comics deserve. In Dredd, Karl Urban stars as the relentless, square-jawed super cop Judge Dredd - part of an order of law enforcers in crime-riddled Mega-City One - with a rookie partner (Olivia Thirlby) caught in a hostile environment. While critics raved over Dredd during its release in September 2012, the movie’s anemic marketing kept audiences from flocking to theaters, cementing its future as a cult classic to be discovered later on. At one point in 2017, Dredd was to expand as a television series, with Karl Urban reprising his role. 

1. John Carter (2012)

In the same year that Disney won big with The Avengers, it also lost big with John Carter. Still one of the biggest box office bombs of the 21st century, Andrew Stanton’s John Carter strove to adapt Edgar Rice Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars into the next big cinematic franchise. While reviews were lukewarm, erring towards favorable, John Carter has since found a more devoted following due to its crowd-pleasing story and sense of spectacle. While Disney had hopes for John Carter to start a franchise, its failure was so disastrous that by January 2013, Disney owned a far safer bet in Star Wars. But that doesn’t stop John Carter fans from wondering what the next movie could have been.

Eric Francisco is a freelance entertainment journalist and graduate of Rutgers University. If a movie or TV show has superheroes, spaceships, kung fu, or John Cena, he's your guy to make sense of it. A former senior writer at Inverse, his byline has also appeared at Vulture, The Daily Beast, Observer, and The Mary Sue. You can find him screaming at Devils hockey games or dodging enemy fire in Call of Duty: Warzone.

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ISS review – Ariana DeBose is ace as third world war sparks space station survival race

DeBose’s brilliant rookie astronaut navigates this moderately tense thriller about US and Russian crew fighting as Earth blazes below

A t first, the crew on board the International Space Station (ISS) mistake the tiny dot of fire on Earth for a volcano. But look: there’s another, and another. In fact, these astronauts have got a bird’s eye view of a nuclear tit-for-tat between the Russian and American governments that by the end of the movie turns the planet into a great glowing ball of fire. But for the six-person crew – three Americans and three Russians – nuclear Armageddon is only the start of their problems.

A lowish-budget, slightly muted survival thriller – moderately tense, with too few ideas to qualify as actively cerebral – what the movie does have is a brilliant performance by West Side Story ’s Ariana DeBose as biologist and rookie astronaut Kira. Like all the characters here, she’s a bit too thinly sketched, but DeBose brings real warmth and likability to the part, making Kira easy to root for. And there are some interesting moments as she adjusts to zero gravity.

The film’s director, Gabriela Cowperthwaite, made her name with the killer whale documentary Blackfish , and brings her documentary-maker’s curiosity to the mechanics of living in space. Sleep is the trickiest thing to acclimatise to, Kira quickly learns; one of the Russians, Nika (Masha Mashkova), shows her how to strap in to a harness at night. (Warning: some scenes are not suitable for claustrophobics.)

There’s a “no politics” rule on board the ISS – and the vibe is chummy and collegiate. But within minutes of the third world war breaking out, both the American and Russian crews get orders to seize control of the station “by any means necessary”. (Naturally, the villainous Russkies stick the knife in first.) And here’s where it gets implausible. Earth is burning below, but mostly these astronauts act as if there is something to play for: a government to report to, or a life to return to. No one seems to have an existential freakout about what awaits them if they survive: starvation, thirst, anarchy and a slow death.

Of course, the carnage on board is meant to be a microcosm of the mutual destruction below. One killing leads to another; it just doesn’t make much sense. Still, ISS does deliver one knock-out terrific death in space: a screwdriver to the neck, perfect little bubbles of blood floating prettily away in zero gravity.

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The Best '60s Space Movies

Venturing back into the realm of 1960s cinema, a momentous era stands out - the golden age of space movies. The 1960s birthed a rich tapestry of interstellar thrillers and cosmic dramas that continue to inspire filmmakers today. This epoch, characterized by a strong sense of curiosity and a desire for exploration, offered a unique blend of innovative storytelling and technological advancement, which is distinctively seen in the famous space movies of the time.

The essence of the Space Age lies in the intricate narratives of these old space movies that seamlessly blend science fiction with a captivating depiction of the future. Noteworthy for their groundbreaking approach to both plot and technological nuances, these cinematic gems portray a fascinating intersection of reality and imagination. A compelling portrayal of human interaction with extraterrestrial elements weaves through each movie, setting a benchmark for subsequent films in the genre.

Taking center stage in this notable array is 2001: A Space Odyssey , a cinematic marvel that paints a chilling yet mesmerizing picture of mankind's evolution against the backdrop of space exploration. Next in line is Planet of the Apes , a thought-provoking narrative replete with stunning makeup effects and an unforgettable conclusion. The list further includes masterpieces like Fantastic Voyage , an audacious journey into the human body, and Barbarella , a psychedelic ride carried by Jane Fonda's stellar performance. For each entry, there's the added convenience of accessible streaming buttons for platforms including Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Max, and Paramount+, ensuring a seamless viewing experience.

These powerful narratives, fueled by relentless human curiosity and technological prowess, have immortalized the 1960s as a pivotal period for space age movies. Each film serves as a testament to the boundless creative ventures of the time, teetering between humanity's realities and the realm of the unknown. Immerse yourself in the compelling plots and inspirational cinematography that these best 60s space movies offer, each telling a unique story while leaving an indelible mark on the canvas of classic cinema.

2001: A Space Odyssey

In this iconic science-fiction masterpiece, director Stanley Kubrick explores the possibilities of extraterrestrial life and artificial intelligence, taking viewers on an unforgettable cosmic odyssey. Groundbreaking visual effects, a classical music score, and a mysterious monolith combine to create an awe-inspiring, enigmatic journey through time and space. The movie's abstract nature encourages interpretive analysis, ensuring its status as an all-time great transcending its era.

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Planet of the Apes

This thought-provoking film delves into themes of humanity, morality, and societal structure, depicting a world where apes rule and humans are mute, oppressed beings. Featuring groundbreaking makeup effects, a memorable score, and Charlton Heston's intense performance, it captures audiences with its chilling portrayal of a future Earth turned upside down. The film's shocking conclusion, with the realization that humanity destroyed itself, remains one of the most unforgettable moments in cinematic history.

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Thunderbirds Are Go

Combining the unique charm of marionettes with an exciting plot, this film adaptation of the popular British television series takes International Rescue to new heights. Featuring innovative model designs, an engaging soundtrack, and a plot centered on the crew's efforts to launch a manned mission to Mars, the film manages to capture the spirit of its source material while offering a fresh perspective. The underlying themes of teamwork and global unity add depth to this enjoyable and imaginative adventure.

First Men in the Moon

Adapting H.G. Wells' novel, this fascinating adventure follows an eccentric inventor and his companions as they journey to the moon and encounter its underground-dwelling inhabitants. Utilizing innovative stop-motion animation techniques by effects legend Ray Harryhausen, the film immerses viewers in a fantastic lunar landscape. The movie's blend of whimsy, humor, and thought-provoking commentary on colonialism and human nature make it a notable entry in the era's science fiction offerings.

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This campy, colorful, and psychedelic adaptation of the French comic book series stars Jane Fonda as the titular space-traveling heroine. Set in an imaginative and risqué vision of the far future, the film embraces its offbeat humor and sexual innuendo, making it an enduring cult classic. Its stylish visuals, memorable characters, and tongue-in-cheek charm ensure its lasting appeal among fans of retro futurism.

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Robinson Crusoe on Mars

This inventive reimagining of Daniel Defoe's classic novel transports the marooned protagonist to the desolate Martian landscape, where survival becomes an even more daunting task. Striking visual effects, a haunting score, and Paul Mantee's earnest performance as the titular character create an engaging science fiction take on the classic tale of isolation and self-reliance. The film's exploration of themes such as resourcefulness, human ingenuity, and the importance of companionship elevate it beyond mere novelty status.

Fantastic Voyage

A pioneer of the "inner space" subgenre, the film follows a team of scientists who are miniaturized and injected into a dying man's body in order to save him from a life-threatening blood clot. The groundbreaking special effects and imaginative sets effectively transform the human body into an alien landscape filled with wonder and danger. Its thrilling blend of suspenseful action, scientific intrigue, and thought-provoking themes make it a standout entry in the realm of science fiction.

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Journey to the Far Side of the Sun

Also known as "Doppelgänger," this intriguing science fiction thriller presents the discovery of a previously unknown planet located directly opposite Earth, hidden from view by the sun. Thoughtful pacing, intelligent writing, and compelling performances build tension and mystery as the astronauts embark on a perilous mission to investigate the newfound world. Its eerie, disorienting atmosphere and thought-provoking exploration of duality make it an underappreciated gem of the era.

Dr. Who and the Daleks

In this colorful big-screen adaptation of the popular British television series, Peter Cushing stars as the time-traveling Doctor on a mission to save a peaceful planet from the ruthless Daleks. Featuring eye-catching production design and the iconic villainous aliens that have since become a staple of the franchise, the film aims to entertain both fans and newcomers alike. While not part of the show's official canon, its light-hearted charm and sense of adventure make it an enjoyable romp through time and space.

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As a precursor to films like "Apollo 13" and "Gravity," this thrilling drama focuses on three astronauts trapped in Earth's orbit, racing against time to figure out how they can return home safely. The impressive ensemble cast, which includes Gregory Peck and Gene Hackman, delivers top-notch performances that convey the desperate urgency of their dire situation. With its impressive attention to detail and adherence to the technical aspects of space travel, it offers a realistic and tension-filled depiction of the perils of space exploration.

Mutiny in Outer Space

This low-budget independent science fiction film centers on a crew aboard an international space station who must deal with a dangerous and rapidly spreading fungus. Though hindered by its budget constraints and limited special effects, the movie distinguishes itself through its tense atmosphere and well-developed characters. Its themes of loyalty, duty, and self-sacrifice add depth to this suspenseful, claustrophobic tale of survival in the face of an otherworldly threat.

Before he became a beloved filmmaker, Robert Altman directed this suspenseful drama, which revolves around a race against time to reach the moon before the Soviet Union. The film features a strong cast, including James Caan and Robert Duvall, who help to create a palpable sense of tension and urgency. While dated in some aspects, it remains a fascinating time capsule of Cold War-era anxieties and the competitive spirit surrounding the Space Race.

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians

In this holiday-themed oddity, Martians kidnap Santa Claus to bring joy to their children and inadvertently set off a series of comic misadventures. Though widely regarded as one of the worst films ever made, it has since gained a cult following for its campy charm, offbeat humor, and memorable characters. Its sheer absurdity, endearing handmade quality, and almost avant-garde approach to storytelling make it an idiosyncratic curiosity worth revisiting.

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Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D.

In the second big-screen adventure featuring Doctor Who, Peter Cushing reprises his role as the time traveler, this time to save a post-apocalyptic Earth from the Daleks' sinister machinations. Boasting a larger budget than its predecessor, the movie delivers more ambitious action sequences, colorful sets, and engaging storytelling. Though not part of the official TV show's canon, it still provides a fun, spirited adventure that fans and newcomers alike can enjoy.

Planet of the Vampires

Directed by Italian horror maestro Mario Bava, this atmospheric sci-fi film follows a group of astronauts who become trapped on a treacherous and eerie alien planet. Boasting visually stunning set design and stylish cinematography, the movie delivers a palpable sense of isolation and dread. This influential cult classic brilliantly combines elements of science fiction, horror, and gothic mystery, creating a unique and unnerving cinematic experience.

Nude on the Moon

This cheeky and innocent sexploitation film centers around two scientists who discover a race of telepathic, topless women living on the moon. With its tongue-in-cheek humor, kitschy set design, and catchy theme song, it stands out as a light-hearted and playful entry in the annals of space-themed cinema. Far from a serious examination of space exploration, the film is best enjoyed as a campy, nostalgic romp through the more risqué side of 1960s filmmaking.

The Phantom Planet

In this imaginative B-movie, an astronaut is stranded on a mysterious planet that causes him to shrink in size, forcing him to adapt to a strange new way of life. Though hampered by a low budget and hokey special effects, the film's unique premise and engaging story manage to create a captivating world. Its exploration of themes like identity, humanity, and love are surprisingly deep for what would otherwise be a standard sci-fi adventure.

Destination Inner Space

This deep-sea thriller combines underwater adventure with extraterrestrial menace as an ocean research team discovers a submerged alien spacecraft. With its innovative low-budget special effects and strong performances, it delivers an engaging blend of action, suspense, and otherworldly terror. Its premise of exploring the uncharted depths of Earth's ocean as a stand-in for outer space creates a refreshing and intriguing change of pace within the genre.

Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women

This unique mashup of American and Soviet filmmaking chronicles the story of Earth astronauts discovering an oceanic planet inhabited by telepathic, beautiful women. The film's combination of surreal visuals, Frankenstein-like editing, and striking narrative makes it a fascinating fusion of artistic styles. Despite its low budget and sometimes disjointed storytelling, it remains a compelling glimpse at the possibilities of international collaboration in cinema.

Queen of Blood

In this eerie and atmospheric horror-sci-fi hybrid, astronauts on a mission to Mars find themselves rescuing an enigmatic alien woman who harbors a dark secret. The film's tension-filled premise and unsettling tone are bolstered by strong performances, particularly from genre veteran John Saxon. Its blend of cosmic terror and vampire mythos make it a uniquely spine-chilling cinematic journey into the unknown.

Mission Stardust

This campy and tongue-in-cheek adaptation of a popular German pulp novel series follows secret agent Perry Rhodan on an interstellar quest to save a dying alien race. With its outlandish premise, over-the-top action, and kitschy charm, the film is a delightful time capsule of 1960s pop culture and genre sensibilities. Though hardly a high point in cinematic history, it provides a fun and colorful cosmic adventure that entertains audiences with its sheer inventiveness.

Journey to the Seventh Planet

In this eerie and atmospheric Danish-American production, astronauts exploring Uranus encounter a mysterious force that can manifest their deepest fears and desires. Combining striking visuals, a haunting score, and psychological horror elements, the film crafts a unique and unsettling cinematic experience. Its exploration of the human mind and the perils of unchecked desire set it apart from more conventional space adventures.

The Green Slime

In this vividly colorful and campy Japanese-American co-production, a group of astronauts unwittingly brings a dangerous alien lifeform back to their space station following a mission to destroy an asteroid. Featuring bizarre, blob-like monsters and over-the-top action, the film revels in its own absurdity and kitschy charm. Despite its low budget and dated special effects, it has earned a cult following for its unique blend of sci-fi tropes and infectious energy.

The X from Outer Space

This kaiju-infused space adventure follows a group of astronauts who unwittingly bring back a destructive, Godzilla-like creature after investigating a mysterious UFO sighting. Loaded with colorful special effects, rubber-suited monster mayhem, and a catchy theme song, the film is a delightful throwback to the classic days of Japanese giant monster movies. Despite its somewhat derivative nature, it stands as a fun and entertaining entry in both the space and kaiju subgenres.

This cerebral Soviet sci-fi masterpiece, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, explores deep philosophical concepts of consciousness, memory, and human emotion through its story of a psychologist sent to a distant space station. Known for its slow, hypnotic pace and mesmerizing visuals, the film masterfully constructs an unsettling atmosphere that lingers long after the credits roll. Widely regarded as one of the greatest science fiction movies of all time, it truly stands apart with its introspective and transcendent approach to storytelling.

They Came from Beyond Space

In this British sci-fi thriller, a scientist discovers that a series of meteorites are actually a cover for an alien invasion, forcing him to take action to save humanity. Featuring a suspenseful plot, solid performances, and a tense atmosphere, the film successfully melds elements of horror and science fiction into a gripping tale. Though not as well-known as other entries on this list, it remains a worthy and engaging example of 1960s space-themed cinema.

Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet

This inventive reworking of a Soviet sci-fi film adds new footage to create a unique hybrid, telling the story of a group of astronauts who encounter strange creatures and ancient ruins on the surface of Venus. Boasting impressive set design and special effects for its time, the film creates a fascinating and visually striking alien landscape. The blend of Eastern European and American filmmaking sensibilities adds a unique flavor to this curiosity of cinema.

Women of the Prehistoric Planet

Employing an intriguing blend of space adventure and prehistoric Earth-set action, this low-budget feature follows two groups of stranded astronauts who discover a mysterious planet inhabited by primitive humanoids. Despite its shoestring budget and occasionally lackluster special effects, the film benefits from a genuinely interesting premise and engaging storytelling. Its creative fusion of space opera and prehistoric fantasy make it an entertaining entry in the annals of 1960s science fiction.

This British sexploitation sci-fi comedy centers on a secret agent's investigation into a race of scantily-clad alien women who are targeting Earth's male population. Rife with tongue-in-cheek humor, colorful visuals, and risqué situations, the film is a decidedly lighthearted and campy addition to the space genre. Though far from a serious examination of extraterrestrial life, it provides a fun and titillating diversion for fans of both science fiction and sexy spy spoofs.

Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster

In this bizarre B-movie mashup, an android named Frank and his creator must save Earth from an invasion force of alien Martians. Though limited by its low budget and often laughable special effects, the film has found a cult following due to its outlandish concept and haphazard storytelling. Its unforgettable mix of science fiction, horror, and camp ensures its status as a unique and entertaining curio of 1960s cinema.

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‘challengers’ director luca guadagnino explains origins of the ‘spider-verse’ reference, breaking news.

Josh Appelbaum & André Nemec Scripting ‘Space Mountain’ Movie For Disney

By Matt Grobar

Matt Grobar

Senior Film Reporter

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Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec ( Citadel ) have been tapped to script a live-action Space Mountain movie for Disney , Deadline can confirm.

While details as to the plot of the film are under wraps, it’s based on the theme park attraction first introduced to Disneyland on January 15, 1975. Jonathan Eirich will produce for Rideback, alongside Joby Harold and Tory Tunnell for Safehouse, with Rideback’s Ryan Halprin is exec producing. Harold also completed a previous draft of the script.

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Known for their work on series like Citadel and Cowboy Bebop , Appelbaum and Nemec have also previously scripted Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol , a pair of live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films for Paramount, and other feature projects.

Certainly, Space Mountain isn’t the only Disney film to have drawn inspiration from a theme park ride. Previously making a major franchise out of Pirates of the Carribean , the studio last year enlisted Bert & Bertie to direct a Big Thunder Mountain movie , to be produced by LuckyChap and Scott Free, as we were first to report.

News of the scribes set for Space Mountain was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter.

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Science | April 26, 2024

Ten Amazing Facts About Tornadoes, Explained

To prepare you for the movie “Twisters,” we’ve compiled some jaw-dropping details about the powerful phenomenon

Catherine Duncan

Staff Contributor

As looming thunderstorm clouds spit out baseball-sized hail and torrential rain, a narrow whirlwind of air stretches its way toward the ground, signaling the arrival of one of nature’s most violent phenomena: a tornado.

Also known as twisters, these violent cyclones can reach wind speeds of 300 miles per hour and blaze a path of destruction that can last from mere seconds to several hours . While most people flee or take shelter at the sight of these alarming conditions, others dive headfirst into them. Storm chasers, people who get dangerously close to extreme weather events, sometimes for scientific research, jump at the chance to pursue the ever-unpredictable tornado.

The 1996 disaster classic Twister follows a group of these daring storm chasers, a university professor and her team of students who rush toward an outbreak of severe twisters sweeping Oklahoma. Their goal: deploy a revolutionary weather alert device, aptly named “Dorothy,” within the heart of multiple tornado systems to track and possibly tame the forces of nature. After a series of disastrous attempts to deploy their invention within multiple cyclones, a final, massive tornado rips through the area. In the nick of time, the team successfully sets up their device in the twister’s center and collects crucial data.

The highly awaited sequel Twisters sees the continuation of this research nearly two decades later, with a new generation of storm chasers and technology. The story’s hesitant protagonist Kate Cooper, played by Daisy Edgar-Jones, joins forces with adrenaline junkie Tyler Owens, played by Glen Powell, as twin twisters ravage the plains of central Oklahoma. The pair races against a rival team and devastating weather conditions to conduct groundbreaking analysis. Though the film is fictionalized, its overarching circumstances—the treacherous nature of twisters and the difficulty of predicting their arrival—ring true.

In anticipation of the July 19 release of Twisters , we contacted three scientists to unravel some of the secrets wrapped within these catastrophic cyclones. Here are a few of the coolest finds we uncovered.

Supercell thunderstorms are responsible for creating tornadoes

Tornadoes are born within supercell thunderstorms , an anvil-shaped cloud with a rotating updraft called a mesocyclone. As an extremely rare weather event, only one in thousands of storms yields a supercell thunderstorm. One in five or six supercells , though, produces a tornado.

“To get a thunderstorm, we have to have an unstable atmosphere, and generally, for a tornado, we need the thunderstorms to rotate,” says William Gallus, a meteorologist at Iowa State University. “That happens if we have wind shear, which means that the wind speed and wind directions are changing as you go up.”

Warm air rises, cold air falls, rough winds whip within the storm system, and an updraft occurs. If this rotating updraft descends toward the ground, lowering itself below the storm, a tornado can emerge from the chaos.

The tornado forms as the mesocyclone accelerates from the bottom up—and the feature intensifies its rotation, in a way similar to an ice skater who pulls her arms into her body to spin faster, says Jana Houser , a supercell thunderstorm and tornado radar analysis expert at Ohio State University.

The strongest winds of the tornado are closest to the ground

In the atmosphere, the winds get stronger the higher up you go. Tornadoes reverse these conditions, with their strongest winds appearing at the lowest points. This powerful rotation starts at the ground and then floats its way upward to converge into the visible funnel cloud.

“This process happens very quickly,” says Houser, who, alongside her team and National Geographic cameras, captured the very tornadoes set to appear as background footage in the upcoming film Twisters . “In under a minute, you can go from a weak rotation to, all of a sudden, a full tornado.”

According to Gallus, computer models of tornadoes have shown that the strongest winds could lie just 15 feet above the ground—their most brutal region lining up with the height of homes and buildings.

“That’s pretty unfortunate for all of us who live on Earth, because that means that in a tornado, unlike any other weather system, the very worst winds are impacting buildings, people and trees down near the ground,” says Gallus.

Tornadoes can form anywhere, anytime

Most tornadoes are formed in the Great Plains of the United States, in an area deemed “Tornado Alley.” Flat terrain combined with unstable conditions—warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico collides with dry winds drifting in from the Rocky Mountains—provides the ideal breeding ground for twisters to spawn. But tornadoes can happen almost anywhere. They have been reported in all 50 states and all continents except Antarctica, and they’ve struck major urban areas , such as Dallas, Miami and Minneapolis.

But cyclones don’t follow any sort of pattern or path, contrary to popular misconceptions. “It doesn’t matter if you’re in a downtown part of the city, in a hilly area or even a mountainous area,” says Houser. She adds that some terrain may reduce or increase the probability of tornadoes, but complete protection from the twisters can’t be guaranteed.

Similarly, while peak tornado season ranges from May to July depending on location, tornadoes can hit at any month and any time, both day and night.

Tornadoes have uniquely powerful upward motion

In most weather phenomena, the most aggressive winds blow horizontally, directing their potency outward toward the north, south, east and west, rather than upward and downward. Tornadoes defy these expectations. Things resting in the tornado’s path—the roofs of homes, cars, animals—can be suddenly whisked straight up and into the whirl of debris, victim to the sheer power of the tornado’s upward winds. According to Gallus, the strength of a tornado’s upward motion is comparable to the speed at which it moves along terrain, with 100- or 200-mile-an-hour winds shooting up toward the sky.

“That’s why the damage that a tornado does to buildings is very different than if you have the exact same mile-per-hour wind from just a thunderstorm,” says Gallus. “It’s also why you hear these stories of people or things getting picked up and seeming to levitate or fly up into the air—it’s because the tornado has such strong upward motion.”

The air pressure inside a tornado can cause just as much damage as the wind itself

When visiting the site of a Missouri hospital ravaged by a tornado, Gallus recalls, a nurse he spoke with had to tilt her head a certain direction to hear. Due to the intense air pressure change caused by the tornado, her eardrum ruptured. The air pressure in the middle of a tornado can drop suddenly and strongly, as if you were riding on a plane flying up into the air extremely fast. Many people near tornadoes have reported their ears “popping” during the phenomenon. “That change in pressure is almost like nature’s way of giving you a very last warning by having your head experience this strange rapid adjustment and popping going on in your head,” says Gallus.

The change in air pressure can also create an additional force on buildings that, along with the strong winds, can intensify and quicken their destruction.

Terrain can change a tornado’s behavior

Researchers have a difficult time predicting when a tornado will form—and where it will go. Changing winds and differing terrain can make it hard for meteorologists chart the exact path of a twister.

“Tornadoes are incredibly susceptible to very small nuances in the land cover, in the environment, in the storm itself, and it’s very difficult, I would say impossible, to account for every single factor that could possibly go into changing what a tornado is doing,” says Houser. “They defy generalization.”

While predicating a storm is hard, meteorologists say that some features of terrain may enhance the conditions needed for a twister to form. For example, sprawling urban areas can affect thunderstorms, which, in turn, can affect tornadoes. Since cities have more precipitation on their downwind side because of the way water systems interact with urban structures, they produce more rain and more hail, and can be warmer, helping set up an environment that’s more likely for a tornado to form.

“Sometimes urban areas are warmer than rural areas due to the urban heat island. What happens if a tornado goes over a warmer city?” says Jason Naylor, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Louisville. “It looks like the urban heat island could potentially enhance the low-level updrafts in the storm and may help instigate tornadoes in a theoretical way.”

Tornadoes usually rotate counterclockwise, but they can switch directions

In the Northern Hemisphere, about 98 percent of tornadoes spin counterclockwise , which meteorologists label as cyclonical. However, a clockwise-swirling tornado is not out of the question—just much less common.

The counterclockwise motion of most tornadoes has long been attributed to the Coriolis effect, the force caused by the Earth’s rotation. But, according to Houser, this is merely a myth. Tornadoes exist on “too small a space scale and time scale for the Coriolis force to affect it,” she says. Rather, the counterclockwise motion results from how vertical winds change in speed and height within the storm.

Meteorologists call clockwise tornadoes anti-cyclonic. “You get an anti-cyclonic tornado when you have a very strong surge of air within the storm,” says Houser.

Storms can produce more than one tornado at a time

Twisters sees two groups of storm chasers unite as two different tornadoes converge over a small town in central Ohio. This event isn’t just movie magic: The same storm system can really eject multiple tornadoes at once. As winds change, the storm itself can begin to form a new tornado in a slightly different location from the original tornado—with the fledgling rotating updraft gaining power as the other twister slowly dies down. Or, if the original tornado is particularly violent , the level of agitation can churn out smaller whirlwinds that extend toward the ground.

And Houser says that other freak circumstances, such as extremely strong rotation along the edges of a storm, can also produce multiple tornadoes. A clockwise and counterclockwise tornado can even appear in the same storm system.

Tornadoes themselves can’t be forecast—only the conditions that produce them can

The 1996 film Twister and its 2024 companion Twisters center around the same key issue: the frustrating impossibility of forecasting tornadoes. “We don’t even really try to forecast exactly when and where a tornado would hit, because we simply cannot do that ahead of time,” says Gallus.

Warnings for tornadoes are only issued when a twister is already forming and has been sighted—or indicated by weather radar—and the alerts cover an area that may be impacted.

Scientists are able to predict, however, the conditions favorable for supporting thunderstorms that spin and would be more likely to produce tornadoes. Up to a couple of hours ahead of time, when increased weather severity is detected, local television and radio news stations issue a tornado watch.

But a tornado’s intensity can’t be determined until after its wake. Scientists determine a tornado’s level of destruction by using the Enhanced Fujita Scale . The scale assesses the damage a tornado does to trees, buildings and homes. Scientists then use that information to calculate its probable wind speed. The rating system ranges from F0, the weakest cyclone, to F5, a vicious, deadly tornado, which a character in Twister deems the “finger of God.”

Climate change is affecting tornadoes

Tornado Alley is moving eastward . In the past decade, twisters have been inching their way into the Midwest and hitting states such as Missouri in record-breaking severity . Meteorologists attribute this shift to climate change.

“Now, with climate change, places that were normally too cold in the winter are finding themselves with days warm enough that you’re starting to see tornadoes at times of year, parts of the country, where they didn’t used to happen,” says Gallus.

This is caused by climate change’s impact on weather. Gallus says that climate change is making conditions warmer and more humid near the ground, which is increasing the level of instability that leads to stronger, tornado-producing storms.

According to Gallus, we may see more days that meteorologists call tornado outbreak days, where five to ten tornadoes crop up. But climate change could also decrease the frequency of days where one or two tornadoes crop up. Essentially, the number of tornadoes could be concentrated on fewer days.

“We can’t say that tornadoes are going to become stronger. We can’t say that we’re going to have less,” says Gallus. “But what we do know is, because of how the temperature is changing, we are going to start finding them in weird times of the year and places where it always used to be too cold to have a tornado.”

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Catherine Duncan is an intern with  Smithsonian magazine.

Ukraine-Russia war latest: Tajikistan issues temporary travel ban to Russia; 'well-provisioned' Ukrainian troops could see off summer offensive

The foreign office in Tajikistan advises all citizens to "temporarily refrain" from travelling to Russia - while a thinktank says Ukrainian forces will likely be able to prevent Russian advances in an expected summer offensive. Listen to our latest Sky News Daily podcast as you scroll.

Sunday 28 April 2024 14:17, UK

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• Live reporting by Lauren Russell

Fighting in eastern Ukraine has worsened, with troops falling back to new positions in at least three places along the frontlines, Ukraine's top general has said.

Oleksandr Syrskyi said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app that his troops had taken up new positions west of the villages of Berdychi, Semenivka and Novomykhailivka in order to conserve their forces. 

All three villages are in the Donetsk region of Ukraine. 

Earlier, we reported that the Russian defence ministry claimed that they had taken the village of Novobakhmutivka which is in the same region.

Led by a 68-year-old commander known as Grandpa, Ukraine's Steppe Wolves unit, is made up of volunteers who are considered too old to fight - but still want to.

Staying behind the front line, the mobile artillery unit use truck-mounted rocket launchers, take orders from field commanders and work with other troops, contributing to the war effort despite lacking official support from the military.

"We... get by thanks to the pension fund," commander Oleksandr Taran said.

The unit also depends on donations, in order to repair faulty rounds and capture weapons from the enemy. 

Mr Taran said his unit has been attempting to officially join Ukraine's armed forces to directly receive ammunition - and salaries - but has so far been unsuccessful.

Younger men who have been ruled unfit to fight have also joined Mr Taran's unit. 

Estimates by the UK's minister for the armed forces say 450,000 Russian military personnel have been killed or wounded in Ukraine.

Leo Docherty told the UK Defence Journal that in addition to those killed, tens of thousands of people have deserted the Russian military since the start of the war in February 2022.

He said he did not know the number of personnel that were killed serving in Russian private military companies like the Wagner Group.

Turning his attention to estimates on weapons, Mr Docherty said over 10,000 Russian armoured vehicles, including nearly 3,000 main battle tanks, 109 fixed wing aircraft, 136 helicopters, 346 unmanned aerial vehicles, 23 naval vessels of all classes, and over 1,500 artillery systems have been destroyed, abandoned or captured by Ukraine in over two years.

The bodies of two people have been discovered in the Tisa River near Ukraine's border with Romania, Ukraine's state border guard reported. 

"Despite the lowering of the water level in the Tisa, it is extremely dangerous to swim across it, especially at night," a statement by the border guard said.

"Sharp stones, roots, tree debris, and the swift and cold stream can pose danger to life and health."

The identities of the individuals are yet to be released. 

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, a total of 24 people have died trying to cross the river, according to the border guard. 

Law enforcement agencies have uncovered nearly 400 criminal networks that help individuals evade military service by helping them flee abroad, according to Andriy Demchenko, a spokesperson for the state border guard service.

Russian troops have taken over the village of Novobakhmutivka in Ukraine's Donetsk region, according to the Interfax news agency - citing Russia's defence ministry.

The village is close to the town of Ocheretyne which has become a focal point for fighting in recent days. 

Russian forces are also reported to have repelled a series of counterattacks from the Ukrainians near Chasiv Yar, Interfax reported the ministry saying.

This is another key point in the Donetsk region - lying less than 10km from the occupied city of Bakhmut - where the two sides have clashed repeatedly.

Russia's Immortal Regiment March - which takes place on Victory Day to celebrate the defeat of Nazi Germany during the Second World War - has been cancelled for the second year in a row. 

Due to take place on 9 May, the march usually sees thousands take to the streets with photographs of veterans, the UK's Ministry of Defence said. 

But this year the photographs will be displayed in cars and public locations from 1-11 May.

Victory Day parades in five Russian regions will also not go ahead due to security concerns, according to the MoD.

The regions of Bryansk, Pskov, Ryazan, Kursk and Belgorod are all in western Russia and are deemed vulnerable to Ukrainian uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) strikes.

The parade was cancelled last year due to a  UAV attack on the Kremlin .

On 7 May, a few days before the parade was scheduled to take place, the presidential inauguration of Vladimir Putin will be held in Moscow.

The MoD said the event may prompt protests.

Russian officials have this morning threatened the West with a "severe" response if frozen Russian assets are confiscated.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova added Russia would never give up territories seized from Ukraine in exchange for the return of frozen assets.

"Our motherland is not for sale," Ms Zakharova wrote on the Telegram messaging app. 

"All Russian assets must remain untouched because otherwise there will be a severe response to Western thievery. 

"Many in the West have already understood this. Alas, not everyone." 

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov added that there was lots of Western money that could be targeted in countermeasures put in place by Moscow. 

What assets have been frozen, and why sieze them now?

Today's comments from the Kremlin are the latest in a back-and-forth between Russia and the West after the US House of Representatives passed a bill allowing the Biden administration to confiscate Russian assets held in American banks and transfer them to Ukraine.

The assets - worth around $300bn - were frozen at the beginning of the war in Ukraine, as were transactions with Russia's central bank and finance ministry.

So far EU countries and the US have held off confiscating the assets for fears it could escalate tensions - or cause other countries like China and Saudi Arabia to fear for their own European assets.

Ukraine is very likely to stabilise the frontlines in the coming months, with the possibility of starting a counteroffensive later this year.

According to analysts from think tank, Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Russian forces are suffering from widespread tactical failures.

As long as the Russian military continues with these struggles, Ukrainian forces will be able to exploit them, especially with the help of military aid from the US.

If so, a counteroffensive later this year or early next could be possible, the ISW says.

A 57-year-old Russian national has been arrested in connection to the murder of two Ukrainians who died after being stabbed at a German shopping centre.

Upper Bavaria South Police said in a statement yesterday that a 36-year-old Ukrainian man died from his injuries near the Tengelmann Centre in the market town of Murnau, Bavaria.

The second Ukrainian man, 23, died in a nearby hospital later the same evening.

The suspect was arrested at his home, which police said was not far from the crime scene.

It is not clear if the suspect has been charged or not.

The foreign office in Tajikistan has advised all citizens to "temporarily refrain" from travelling to Russia.

The advisory was issued after officials expressed concerns about Tajiks being "unjustifiably" denied entry to Russia, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.

Human rights organisations have also reported rising levels of prejudice against people from Central Asia in Russia after the shooting at a concert hall in Moscow on 22 March.

Islamist terror group Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K) claimed responsibility for the attack in which at least 130 people were killed.

All four of the accused gunmen are from Tajikistan.

Yesterday, a 12th person - also a Tajik citizen - was detained in connection with the attack.

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