What Are the Best Sci-Fi Movies of All Time?

How did we choose these sci-fi movies?

Every film on this list meets at least one outside benchmark, checked in Wikidata ^[1]: it was selected for the Library of Congress National Film Registry, which chooses films for preservation ^[2], or it won or was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. From that pool, we chose 25 films that cover a range of styles and audiences. The benchmarks decide who qualifies; the final 25 is our editorial choice, not a ranking. We do not use review scores, and the list is in order of release, not quality.

Of our 25 picks, 18 are on the National Film Registry ^[3], 1 won Best Picture, and 10 others were nominated for Best Picture without winning; some films hold more than one honor. Years are each film's earliest release year in Wikidata ^[1].

Golden age to the space race (1951 to 1971)

1. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). An alien visitor lands in Washington with a warning for humanity. National Film Registry.
2. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). A small town's residents are replaced by emotionless duplicates. National Film Registry.
3. Forbidden Planet (1956). A starship crew finds a scientist and his daughter alone on a distant planet. National Film Registry.
4. Planet of the Apes (1968). Astronauts land on a planet ruled by intelligent apes. National Film Registry.
5. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Stanley Kubrick's journey from prehistory to a mission toward Jupiter. National Film Registry.
6. A Clockwork Orange (1971). Kubrick's dystopian story of a violent youth and a behavior-control experiment. Best Picture nominee; National Film Registry.

Blockbuster era (1977 to 1999)

7. Star Wars (A New Hope) (1977). A farm boy joins a rebellion against a galactic empire. Best Picture nominee; National Film Registry.
8. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). Ordinary people are drawn toward a meeting with UFOs. National Film Registry.
9. Alien (1979). The crew of a commercial spaceship is stalked by a deadly creature. National Film Registry.
10. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). A boy befriends an alien stranded on Earth. Best Picture nominee; National Film Registry.
11. Blade Runner (1982). A detective hunts escaped artificial humans in a future Los Angeles. National Film Registry.
12. The Terminator (1984). A cyborg assassin is sent back in time to 1984 Los Angeles. National Film Registry.
13. Back to the Future (1985). A teenager is accidentally sent back to 1955 in a time-traveling DeLorean. National Film Registry.
14. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). A cyborg from the future targets young John Connor, and another is sent to find him. National Film Registry.
15. Jurassic Park (1993). Dinosaurs cloned for a theme park break loose. National Film Registry.
16. The Matrix (1999). A hacker is drawn into a war over the nature of reality. National Film Registry.

Modern sci-fi (2008 to 2022)

17. WALL-E (2008). A trash-compacting robot works alone on an abandoned Earth. National Film Registry.
18. District 9 (2009). Stranded aliens are confined to a slum in Johannesburg. Best Picture nominee.
19. Avatar (2009). A former Marine is sent to the moon Pandora and comes to know its people. Best Picture nominee.
20. Inception (2010). A team of thieves steals and plants ideas inside people's dreams. Best Picture nominee; National Film Registry.
21. Her (2013). A lonely writer falls in love with an artificial intelligence. Best Picture nominee.
22. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). A desert chase across a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Best Picture nominee.
23. Arrival (2016). A linguist tries to communicate with mysterious alien visitors. Best Picture nominee.
24. Dune (2021). A young heir is drawn into a struggle over the desert planet Arrakis. Best Picture nominee.
25. Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022). A laundromat owner leaps across parallel universes. Won Best Picture.

Quick facts for all 25 picks

Directors and runtimes come from Wikidata ^[1]. Runtimes can differ by a few minutes between versions.

Film	Year	Director	Runtime (min)
The Day the Earth Stood Still	1951	Robert Wise	92
Invasion of the Body Snatchers	1956	Don Siegel	80
Forbidden Planet	1956	Fred M. Wilcox	99
Planet of the Apes	1968	Franklin J. Schaffner	112
2001: A Space Odyssey	1968	Stanley Kubrick	143
A Clockwork Orange	1971	Stanley Kubrick	136
Star Wars (A New Hope)	1977	George Lucas	121
Close Encounters of the Third Kind	1977	Steven Spielberg	134
Alien	1979	Ridley Scott	117
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial	1982	Steven Spielberg	115
Blade Runner	1982	Ridley Scott	116
The Terminator	1984	James Cameron	107
Back to the Future	1985	Robert Zemeckis	115
Terminator 2: Judgment Day	1991	James Cameron	137
Jurassic Park	1993	Steven Spielberg	127
The Matrix	1999	Lilly Wachowski, Lana Wachowski	136
WALL-E	2008	Andrew Stanton	98
District 9	2009	Neill Blomkamp	112
Avatar	2009	James Cameron	162
Inception	2010	Christopher Nolan	148
Her	2013	Spike Jonze	126
Mad Max: Fury Road	2015	George Miller	120
Arrival	2016	Denis Villeneuve	116
Dune	2021	Denis Villeneuve	155
Everything Everywhere All at Once	2022	Dan Kwan, Daniel Scheinert	139

What connects these sci-fi films?

The list traces a clear line from Cold War anxiety in The Day the Earth Stood Still and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, through the space-race wonder of 2001, to blockbusters and, more recently, quieter films about communication and identity such as Arrival and Her. Science fiction has also become a regular Best Picture contender, and Everything Everywhere All at Once won, according to Wikidata ^[1].

Several picks begin series covered on this site, including the Star Wars watch order, the Alien watch order, and the Jurassic Park watch order. If you came here looking for space epics, our list of movies like Interstellar goes deeper into that corner of the genre.

Which notable sci-fi films did not make the cut?

Several Registry science-fiction films are not in our 25, including Frankenstein (1931), The War of the Worlds (1953), and The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) ^[1]. Interstellar is not on the list because it meets neither benchmark, which is why we cover it separately in our movies like Interstellar guide.

Which directors appear more than once?

• Steven Spielberg: Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Jurassic Park
• James Cameron: The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Avatar
• Stanley Kubrick: 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange
• Ridley Scott: Alien, Blade Runner
• Denis Villeneuve: Arrival, Dune

Repeat appearances come from the benchmarks, not from favoritism: each of these films qualified on its own.

How should you watch these sci-fi movies?

A good way in is to pair an older film with a newer one that asks a similar question: 2001: A Space Odyssey with Arrival for first contact and big ideas, Blade Runner with Her for artificial life, and The Day the Earth Stood Still with District 9 for visitors who are not welcome. Each pair shows how science fiction keeps returning to the same questions with new tools.

Which of these sci-fi movies should you watch first?

For space adventure: Star Wars, Dune, or Avatar. For big ideas: 2001: A Space Odyssey, Arrival, or Inception. For action: Terminator 2, The Matrix, or Mad Max: Fury Road. For families: E.T., WALL-E, or Back to the Future.

Some of the films on this list are rated R, and films from before 1968 were released before the modern rating system, so check each rating before watching with younger viewers.