Your Top 50 sci-fi films

I'm not sure they could do this George R.R. Martin story without Star wars/Wookie copyright owners' approval...

 

It looks like they're not gonna scratch the surface much anytime soon. If seems as if we're doomed to endless sequels of Star Wars, Alien, X-Men, and Super Friends.

 

I'm not sure who "they" might be, exactly, but Marvel/DC has been hot for several years now. The intensity of popularity will run its course. Star Wars and Star Trek are both in the mix as well. There have also been several young adult dystopian films (Hunger Game, etc).

Plenty of room for the likes of Arrival. Blade Runner sequel and perhaps Dune coming from Villeneuve as well.

 

cool cover.... I might have this, I have a lot of analogs from this period

 

Is "Hunger Games" sci fi, it seems to have some of the trappings, but I don't think of it that way (I don't really think of Star Wars as SciFi either, some of the Star Trek stories over the years though seem to have quite a bit of a sci fi element to the stories over the years).
When I am writing about this, I think sci fi is more than just setting something in the future and maybe in outer space, but contains a bit of a science element and thought to it (not just us vs them type of story line), I am sure not everyone agrees with this....

I am looking forward to see what they do with Blade Runner, one of the best scifi films in my opinion, and has a really good storyline...

 

I think you're trying to limit the parameters of sci-fi. I don't. Hunger Games is definitely sci-fi to me. Futures where politics have gone crazy is a popular backdrop for sci-fi. Sci-fi just requires some fiction that could be possible. In what galaxy is Star Wars not sci-fi? It's sci-fi in the Sol system! It might be a documentary in that galaxy far, far away....

 

It is probably the same universe where people think that global warming is a hoax..or evolution is just a theory....

 

Yeah! The planet of the apes....

 

My top 50 sci-fi moves are:

01 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
02 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
03 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
04 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
05 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
06 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
07 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
08 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
09 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
10 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

11 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
12 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
13 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
14 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
15 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
16 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
17 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
18 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
19 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
20 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

21 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
22 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
23 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
24 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
25 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
26 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
27 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
28 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
29 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
30 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

31 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
32 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
33 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
34 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
35 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
36 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
37 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
38 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
39 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
40 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

41 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
42 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
43 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
44 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
45 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
46 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
47 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
48 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
49 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
50 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

 

I need a few more years to adjust to recent sci-fi films. Or not. Meanwhile:


2014 Interstellar
1997 Starship Troopers
1991 Terminator 2: Judgment Day
1990 Total Recall
1986 Aliens
1985 Lifeforce
1982 Blade Runner
1980 Altered States
1979 Star Trek: the Motion Picture
1979 Alien
1978 Invasion of the Body Snatchers
1978 Close Encounters of the Third Kind
1977 Star Wars
1975 The Man Who Fell to Earth
1974 Zardoz
1972 Silent Running
1971 THX 1138
1971 The Hellstrom Chronicle
1971 The Andromeda Strain
1970 Colossus: The Forbin Project
1969 Journey to the Far Side of the Sun
1968 Planet of the Apes
1968 2001: A Space Odyssey
1967 Quatermass and the Pit
1957 The Power
1967 The Invaders -- TV series.
1967 Fantastic Voyage
1066 Star Trek TV series
1966 Fahrenheit 451
1965 Star Trek pilot The Cage
1964 Robinson Crusoe On Mars
1964 The Outer Limits -- TV series.
1963 Unearthly Stranger
1961 The Day the Earth Caught Fire
1960 The Time Machine
1960 Children of the Damned
1959 The Twilight Zone -- Rod Serling's rennaisance sci-fi series
1959 The Word, the Flesh, and the Devil
1959 Journey to the Center of the Earth
1958 the BBC live teleplay Quatermass and the Pit
1958 I Married a Monster From Outer Space
1957 The Incredible Shrinking Man
1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers
1956 Earth Versus the Flying Saucers
1955 the BBC live teleplay Quatermass 2
1955 This Island Earth
1955 Conquest of Space
1954 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
1953 The War of the Words
1953 the BBC live teleplay 1984 with Peter Cushing
1953 It Came From Outer Space 3-D
1951 The Thing From Another World
1951 When Worlds Collide
1951 The Day the Earth Stood Still
1949 Destination Moon
1936 Things To Come

 

50? Good grief. I love SF, but let me try to come up with a shorter list. In no particular order, and I'm sure I'm missing some:

Blade Runner (actually this really is #1, so deserves its spot at the top of the list)
Dark City
2001
Interstellar
Aliens
Star Wars
The Empire Strikes Back
The Last Starfighter
Guardians of the Galaxy
Gattaca
The Thing (d. Carpenter)
Escape from New York
District 9
Elysium
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Mad Max
Mad Max 2 (The Road Warrior)
Mad Max: Fury Road
Time Bandits
Phase 7 (this is the one film on my list that's not well known -- check it out: Phase 7 (2010) - IMDb )

Some more that I liked but can't quite consider favorites:
Children of Men
Solaris (d. Tarkovsky; haven't seen the Soderbergh remake)
Ex Machina
Moon

 

Terrific film!

 

additionally:

1993 Jurassic Park
1993 Fire In the Sky
1992 Intruders -- telefilm
1980 The Lathe of Heaven -- telefilm
1975 The UFO Incident aka Interrupted Journey -- telefilm
1974 The Terminal Man
1974 Phase lV
1973 Day of the Dolphin
1972 Slaughterhouse 5
1970 Hauser's Memory -- telefilm
1967 Countdown
1953 Invaders From Mars
1950 Atom Man vs Superman -- chapter serial
1936 Flash Gordon

 

Quite the best sci-fi / horror film I've seen in recent years is The Whisperer In Darkness (2011). It was produced low-budget and independently by one Sean Braney and his merry crew at the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society in Arkham, but it doesn't look cheap nor starved for anything it needs. It ha style and atmosphere to burn. Intellectually it outclasses nearly every big-budget studio sci-fi film I've seen in thirty years. Not only is it faithful to the letter and spirit of Lovecraft, it also captures a sense of his inspiration together with that hard-to-get The Outer Limits vibe, if anyone remembers that classic program. Just an amazing film.

Amazon.com: The Whisperer in Darkness [Blu-ray]: Barry Lynch, Stephen Blackehart, Annie Abrams, Matt Lagan, Andrew Leman, Sean Branney: Movies & TV

or you can order it directly from the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society:

HPLHS - The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society > HPLHS - The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society

 

Great review and recommendation, thank you for making me aware of this. 70 bucks for the Blu-ray on Amazon -- yikes! Does the HD format make a difference?

 

I'm sure the DVD looks excellent, but Blu-ray always makes a substantial difference.
You won't be disappointed either way.

Shop around -- ebay, the HPLHS website or email them.

 

Please try to stick to HARD Sci-fi for this thread per the original post.

There are so many interesting films in this sub-genre for many of us to discover.

Mad Max, for example, is an action film even though it takes place in a dystopian future. If anything, it's car crash exploitation more than anything resembling hard sci fi. Comics, Star Wars, and the like aren't applicable either.

 

Outland (1981) DVD.

Is the Blu Ray picture any better?

 

Yes. Warner Archive did a fine job with the transfer. It hasn't looked this good before.

 

Cool. Love the movie.