Exoplanets, the interior of the universe. There are new worlds. New technological frontiers. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a term that refers to The best science-fiction films transport us to worlds beyond our wildest dreams, imagining inconceivable futures that inevitably affect our own technological advancements. Great science fiction combines mind-blowing images with mind-blowing ideas, investigating everything from the human experience to humanity’s destiny. From rapid, humorous, colourful space adventures to gloomy dystopian dramas set in the present, far future, or even a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, it’s a genre that encompasses a wide range of topics.
We’ve gathered from the cloud to compile a list of the most iconic sci-fi films, ranging from modern classics to game-changing classics.
1. Children of Men (2006)
Director- Alfonso Cuarón
With this dystopian society ravaged by war, paranoia, and man’s disappointments, the totalitarian future of Orwell’s 1984 is now complete and among us. Man has been unable to reproduce since female fertility has become outdated. No kid has been born on the face of the Earth in eighteen years. Mankind and his future are on the verge of extinction. He’ll be extinct in no time. Unwittingly, Theo, the battered, downtrodden, and middle-aged ex-political activist, will become embroiled in an underground revolution. He’s back in action, this time on a risky voyage across England’s home counties with a young girl named Kee. She’s pregnant, much to Theo’s surprise.
For the first time in over eighteen years, a woman is pregnant. This information must be kept secret at all costs. Mother and child must flee across the seas to the strange and enigmatic Human Project. Their flight is a never-ending battle for survival.
2. Arrival (2016)
Director- Denis Villeneuve
During an unprecedented worldwide occurrence of simultaneous first contact with extraterrestrial life forms, an ominous alien pod, out of a total of twelve. It comes to a halt in the clear skies of Montana, hovering barely a few feet above the verdant plains. As panic spreads, Colonel G.T. Weber assembles a team of experts, including renowned linguist and dialectologist Professor Dr Louise Banks and theoretical physicist Dr Ian Donnelly. Assigns them the impossible task of deciphering a coded dialogue with the extraterrestrial visitors. But, if all attempts at communication fail, a practical but crucial question will arise. Does humanity have enough vocabulary to comprehend the aliens’ response before a new global conflict breaks out?
3. Inception (2010)
Director- Christopher Nolan
Dom Cobb is a master thief. The best in the deadly art of extraction, stealing priceless information from deep within the subconscious during the dream state. Especially, when the mind is at its weakest. Cobb’s exceptional ability has made him a sought-after participant in this perilous new world of corporate espionage. But it has also turned him into an international fugitive and cost him everything he has ever cared about. Cobb is now being granted a second shot. Only if he can pull off the impossible, conception, would he be able to reclaim his life. Instead of pulling off the perfect robbery, Cobb and his team of experts must do the exact opposite. They must plant an idea rather than steal one. It may be the ideal crime if they succeed.
However, no amount of meticulous planning or knowledge will be enough to prepare the team for the hazardous enemy that appears to anticipate their every move. Cobb was the only one who could have foreseen the threat.
4. Gravity (2013)
Director- Alfonso Cuarón
Explorer, the inexperienced biomedical engineer Dr Ryan Stone, and the seasoned astronaut Matt Kowalski, on their last trip before retirement. They come face to face with an irreversible calamity on their very first mission to deep space aboard the NASA space shuttle. During a routine spacewalk, deadly space debris from a disabled Russian satellite strikes the American shuttle. Therefore, causing terrible damage and leaving Stone and Kowalski scrambling to survive in deep space. The two stranded cosmonauts must face the empty abyss to return to Mother Earth. Before they are marooned eternally in orbit, completely cut off, unprotected, and without enough air.
5. 28 Days Later… (2002)
Director- Danny Boyle
When animal rights activists liberate a chimp infected with a virulent, genetically engineered plague from a Cambridge research centre, the illness spreads throughout the community. It just takes seconds for the uncontrollable infection to lock those afflicted into a permanent state of deadly wrath, and it’s highly transmissible. As a result, the dreadful virus has overrun the entire country in just 28 days, and a few of survivors, cut off from all sources of knowledge, begin their attempts to salvage a future, unaware that the lethal virus is not the only threat they face.
6. The Martian (2015)
Director- Ridley Scott
The brave crew of the Ares III expedition safely lands on the parched red terrain of the faraway planet Mars in the year 2035. When a violent space storm forces them to abandon the ambitious expedition, the injured botanist Mark Watney is left for dead on Mars by friends and colleagues. The stranded astronaut, alone on a desolate asteroid 140 million miles from Earth and with few resources, must do everything in his ability to survive, while surprising satellite photographs indicate Mark is still alive. Now it’s up to NASA’s creative minds to come up with a viable answer.
7. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Director- George Miller
Max Rockatansky, a lone post-apocalyptic survivor, fights to keep one step ahead of the water-controlling tyrant Immortan Joe’s marauding gangs, the Wild Boys, after a close escape in the arid deserts of the dystopian Wasteland. Max, on the other hand, will soon meet one of Joe’s most trusted lieutenants, the courageous warrior Imperator Furiosa, who has just departed the Citadel in her heavily armoured War Rig truck, absconding with an irreplaceable quintet of women. Now, the mighty ruler and his legion of insane zealots are on the hunt for Max and Furiosa, an unlikely duo.
8. District 9 (2009)
Director- Neill Blomkamp
In 1982, a gigantic star ship emerged over Johannesburg, South Africa, carrying a bedraggled alien population known as “The Prawns.” The initial reception by the human population has diminished after twenty-eight years. The aliens’ refugee camp has devolved into a militaristic ghetto known as District 9, where they are imprisoned and exploited in misery. Multi-National United, a weapons company, is hired in 2010 to forcibly evacuate the inhabitants, with operator Wikus van der Merwe in command. Wikus is exposed to a weird alien substance during this surgery and must rely on the assistance of his only two new ‘Prawn’ friends.
9. Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
Director- Doug Liman
Mankind lies defenceless in the face of the almighty extraterrestrial threat known only as the “Mimics'” numbing technical superiority, doomed to an ignoble fate. The armies of the vicious alien race are nearly indestructible, having acquired an incomprehensible ability; unless we, humans, come up with an unexpected and severe counter-attack. When Major William Cage, an inexperienced officer, witnesses the scope of the problem firsthand with his own life, he quickly realises that death is only the beginning—each bloody battle with the formidable foes returns him to square one, albeit with a smidgeon of improvement in his fighting ability. Cage, his renowned brother-in-arms, Rita Vrataski, and the rest of the Earth may finally have a chance against the otherworldly foe.
10. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)
Director- Matt Reeves
Caesar leads a large colony of apes and chimps living in the forests outside of San Francisco several years after escaping captivity. A depleted group of Simian Flu survivors struggles to survive in the city, with their best hope being the revitalization of a hydro-electric dam that will restore their power. They must, however, pass through Caesar’s dominion to get there. The restoration is possible because group leader Malcolm and Caesar have mutual respect, but Caesar’s enraged lieutenant Koba, a victim of animal experimentation, has no such faith in humans and usurps Caesar, leading a full-scale attack on the city, where the majority of the inhabitants regard the apes as savages, and a fierce battle ensues. Caesar and Malcolm must unite the voices of reason in order to re-establish a peace that benefits both factions.
Hopefully we’ve inspired you to go out and find a few more of these best Sci-FI films, as they’re a perfect escape from our own reality! Just remember that they don’t need quite so much suspension of disbelief…unless you want them to.
