My Top 100 Space/Sci-fi/Fantasy Movies

Hot Tub Time Machine - faultless time travel theory

eXistenZ could easily bump out Strange Days, since you appreciate Brazil, and wanted 12 Monkeys to be weirder. eXistenZ explores an ultimate fantasy of VR, to live in dreams, without leaving behind the weird flavor of actual dreams, and without going much into horror, like Croenenberg’s other films.

I am fairly senior in years.. okay, I'm old! Happy? There aren't many really old movies on the list. You have "The Thing", but I imagine that it is the remake and not the original, the full title of which was "The Thing from Another World". Perhaps you haven't seen the original. I think it is superior to the remake, and is much closer to the story "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell. "Forbidden Planet" also comes to mind, which was very clever for it's time, and "Them", with delightfully huge mutant ants. The latter is not as silly as that premise might sound. I know, I know. It's YOUR LIST, and you can write it however you want. I gave up having a top 100 anything a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... I like way too many things way too much for 100 to be enough....

NO SPACEBALLS!!!!! That makes me sad :( A few others you should check out if you haven't... Blue Thunder (1983) Enemy Mine (1985) Explorers (1985) (One of my favorite jokes is in there, its a rollscanhardly, rolls down one hill, can hardly get up the next) Flight of the Navigator (1986) Logan's Run (1976) Lucy (2014) Oblivion (2013) Project ALF (1996) (If you seen the original TV show of ALF that ran for 4 seasons, you might get a kick out of this movie) Soldier (1998) The Abyss (1989) (for the time it was made and even today the CG for the water was really well done) The Final Countdown (1980) (Interesting concept, modern (at the time) aircraft carrier goes back in time to just before Pearl Harbour) The Last Starfighter (1984) The Philadelphia Experiment (1984) War of the Worlds (1956) (For its time it is really well done, they even made a TV show of it in the 80s that lasted 2 seasons) These are all the ones off the top of my head that I can think of. Some of them are better than others, some are just turn off your brain and enjoy. Other than Spaceballs, its hard to pick which ones I might like the most.

Which "Thing"? I like both "The Thing From Another World" and John Carpenter's "The Thing". Also: "The Day the Earth Stood Still", "A Trip to the Moon" (1902), "The Time Machine" (1960), "First Men in the Moon" (1964), etc.

Logan's Run...? Anybody? (crickets....)

Great list. Also, Starman. Independence day (I know but still). Another vote for Dark Star and Silent Running. Predator is a classic - so sad it didn't make the cut.

To consider... Dark Star Hot Tub Time Machine Planet of the Apes (1968) Pleasantville

Thank you for putting together this list. I find reading through it fun since I can see many of my favorites and every so often, find a gem which somehow I missed knowing about. Question: On a recent podcast, you mentioned you were looking at ways to better automate and manage ongoing changes to the list. As you explore that, have you explored https://letterboxd.com/ ? I use this site to track my movie lists (what I watch, what I want to watch, to review currated movie lists by other users). Thought: With whatever tool(s) you use to create your own movie list management, perhaps including an export to Letterbox where you can show your list to there? Regardless of you direction, thank you for this list :).

Great list! Only a couple I have not seen, including Redline, which actually shows 5 different films when I search, so hard to tell which one you're referring to? I would add the original Solaris, though.

Lots of great stuff. One thing worth considering is turning it into an IMDb list because you can add reviews explaining your reasoning, you can reorder and edit as you like, and visitors can click directly to the movie pages. For example, here is my curated list of Good Time Travel Movies: https://www.imdb.com/list/ls005280256/

No Kin-dza-dza! Kidding. That's peculiar selection of European movies: 28 Days Later, Brazil, Children of Men, Ex machina, Mars Express, Stalker, The Fifth Element, Time Bandits. Nothing German.

I'm almost embarrassed to say that I kinda hated "Interstellar." It started out promisingly, with high production values (the wormhole sequence was truly awesome), yet it got increasingly ridiculous, with inexplicable tidal waves, giant chunks of ice floating in the sky, Anne Hathaway getting all weepy about how love transcends time and space, and some truly eye-rolling dialogue.

I would put a strong recommendation in for something called Time of EVE, which is a very Asimov inspired piece of anime. At the broadest level, it's about a world where androids are required to display a holographic halo over their head, and the stories that unfold in a cafe that has found a loophole that causes the androids to turn the halos off.

Have to add: Dark Star & Silent Running…deffo classics!

Forbidden Planet - a bit surprised this didn't make it. Such a wonderful classic that really set the standard for science fiction movies to be more than just B-grad horror. As another what do you think of the Time Machine? Edit: Sorry. I meant to say thanks for doing this. Great list. Looking forward to getting deeper into it myself.

Ready Player 1

wait wait wait, I’ve only just noticed no Big Trouble in Little China, I’m not sure we can be fake internet friends any more!

Project Hail Mary

My favorite of the classic Star Trek collection is IV, The Voyage Home. So many funny bits in it even if the time travel angle is prihhhhhty hokey. "Can you tell me, please, where are nuclear wessles?"

I was convinced I had watched all good sci-fi movies and then there is this list, thanks Fraser!!! Balde runner and blade runner 2049 are both great but are they really that different? Maybe I got it wrong. Everything Everywhere All At Once was really good but when I saw it, it struck me as not so new, that idea had been around far too long before that movie.

Although 2001 is the classic, ive probably watched 2010 more times. Its just an easy watch, and had those beautiful shots of jupiter, its moons, the Leonov etc. Ditto for "Ad Astra".. I think it was _almost_ a classic.. if it had just trimmed some hard to swallow explanations. Better to leave stuff unexplained. Put in some more stunning, silent space vistas. Call it a movie. Would have been in my top 10. Gravity was another one that was just pretty to me, and lets me look past its orbital mechanics implausibilities. Maybe it could have made more sense in an alternative history where we crowded a particular orbit so we could hop between stations with minimal deltaV.

Here are a few I'd add to make the list longer! A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) Donnie Darko (2001) E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) Idiocracy (2006) Men in Black (1997) Predator (1987) Soylent Green (1973) Total Recall (1990)

There was a Kiwi movie made in the 80's that has been lost in time. "THE QUIET EARTH" Not an A Grade starter but definitely worth a watch.

Save the Green Planet!

The Matrix is far too low

Yup, that's a list I like 🙂

Great list except "Avengers Infinity War" is 3 hours of my life I'll never get back and I'm still angry about it..

I second the 'Ender's Game' recommendation, and would also add 'The Last Starfighter'

Dang, how could you ignore Damnation Alley?

No "Predestination" - that one had me thinking for years after.

Great list, Rons Gone Wrong needs adding, also Forbidden Plant

I think "Starship Troopers" was about 30 points too high. The book was great, but the movie was just really bad.

Good selection except for the X-Men First Class. Being Animated Series fan, I consider Fox X-Men movies as total trash. I'd swap it Robocop 2 instead.

Cant find Dark star Phase 4 Quiet earth On the list? Cheers! Love your content, great Interviews!

Great list, but leaving off a A Boy and His Dog...?

Total Recall (1990) , Ender's Game (2013), 2010 The Year We Make Contact (1984)... but also found plenty of my favourites on your list.

Wow! I've seen 93 of those titles and definitely have about four more of them on my watch list. 🎬

I really like this list! However, I think Wall-E definitely deserves a spot on the main 100 list. Ratatouille was great, but I’m not sure it quite fits the sci-fi theme; frankly, if we're including that one, I’d love to see Up on there too!

Mickey 17 maybe?

Hell yes to ex machina! I vote for including anther great Alex Garland film: Annihilation. You could jettison Everything Everywhere All At Once, which I found annoyingly cutesy. But of course it's YOUR list. May I also suggest David Cronenberg's eXistenZ, which is thematically similar to The Matrix but (again imo) a far better film.

did you forget hail Mary or haven't you been able to see it yet? or didn't it make the to the list?

Not to make your list any longer, but totally to make your list longer: La Jetée is a 1962 French film that inspired 12 Monkeys. Alphaville is a French New Wave sci-fi film noir. And though I’m not sure it qualifies as sci-fi, I really enjoyed Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.

Hot Fuzz? does that even fit into any of the categories? It may be fantasy to you lot over the pond but it’s real life here. Anyway, it’s your list, some surprises there for sure. Conan but no Arnie Total Recall? Stardust I’d probably add as well. My list would be films I could happily watch several times, there’s a quite a few on yours I wouldn’t, maybe around 20 I’d cut.

Some of these have remakes, you might want to put a year next to those (although I may know which version you mean anyways LOL)