The Top 10 Sci-Fi Films of All Time

Photo Credit: Warner Bros.

It seems like sci-fi has been riding high at the cinema lately. In the past year we’ve seen such major releases as Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Star Trek Beyond, Arrival, and Passengers. With the highly anticipated Ghost in the Shell opening this weekend and movies like Blade Runner 2049 and Alien: Covenant scheduled to be released later this year I thought it was as good a time as any to list my favorite sci-fi films of all time. Here they are from number 10 to number 1.

10. Jurassic Park (1993)

Written by Michael Crichton, directed by Steven Spielberg, and featuring some of the coolest-looking dinosaurs you’ve ever seen, this one was bound to please and it didn’t disappoint. It’s spawned three sequels so far with more on the way, but this one starring Jeff Goldblum, Sam Neill, and Laura Dern is still the best of the bunch.

9. Interstellar (2014)

Matthew McConaughey stars as a single father and space traveler charged with leading a mission to save the Earth but torn by the fact his journey will likely result in never seeing his daughter grow up. Emotional, thought-provoking, and well written, this film is the best sci-fi Hollywood has produced in the last few years.

8. Moon (2009)

Sam Rockwell puts on a one-man show under the excellent direction of Duncan Jones and an assist from Kevin Spacey who voices his robot sidekick. There are no big action scenes or expensive CGI. This film is simply a magnificent study on what it is to be human and how easy it is for corporations to dehumanize us all.

7. Aliens (1986)

Sigourney Weaver proved guys weren’t the only badass sci-fi heroes in Ridley Scott’s Alien. In James Cameron’s 1986 sequel, she was even bigger and badder. This time she’s up against a whole slew of the space monsters and when she finally comes face to face with their queen, it’s a battle you won’t soon forget.

6. Gattaca (1997)

Ethan Hawke and Jude Law try to find their place in a future where your DNA determines your lot in life. Hawke plays a flawed young man willing to do anything to fulfill his dream of space travel while Law plays a genetically superior man that’s destroyed his potential but might just be able to help Hawke achieve his own.

5. Star Wars (1977)

The film that proved sci-fi could appeal to the cinematic masses and that hooked a certain seven-year-old boy in Ohio on the genre for life. As I sat in my parents’ car watching Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, and Darth Vader on the big screen at the drive-in I knew I was watching something special. Forty years later, it’s spawned a host of sequels, prequels, and spin-offs that show no sign of losing steam.

4. Inception (2010)

Christopher Nolen, director of the best superhero movie ever, also directed two of my favorite sci-fi films. Interstellar is great, this one is even better. Leonardo DiCaprio leads a fantastic cast deep into the mind of an industrial scion to complete a complex mission with one very simple goal: to plant an idea.

3. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Sequels rarely do the original justice, but this one did that and more. As great as Star Wars is, this follow-up is even better. Creator George Lucas handed over the director and screenplay reins to Irvin Kershner and Lawrence Kasden and those two men took Lucas’s vision to the next level. Boba Fett, the carbonite freeze scene, the lightsaber duel, the big reveal concerning the relationship between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader… simply awesome.

2. The Matrix (1999)

The Wachowski’s mind-bending film blew away audiences at the turn of the century with its excellent script, bullet-time cinematography, and iconic performances by Keanu Reeves, Lawrence Fishburne, and Hugo Weaving. The concept, the pacing, and the action in this film make it one you can enjoy again and again. The movie’s two sequels didn’t measure up, but this one is an all-time great.

1. Blade Runner (1982)

Simply the best sci-fi film ever made. It wasn’t a big hit when it was released, but over time it’s grown into a classic. Based on a novel by Philip K. Dick, this futuristic noir features stand-out performances by Harrison Ford and Rutger Hauer. It also includes a great cast of secondary characters played by Edward James Olmos, Sean Young, Daryl Hannah, and William Sanderson. In my opinion, it’s the masterpiece of director Ridley Scott’s long and stellar career.

And to avoid short-changing some other favorites, here are a dozen Honorable Mentions: Alien (1979), The Road Warrior (1981), Predator (1987), Total Recall (1990), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Stargate (1994), The Fifth Element (1997), Cube (1997), Contact (1997), Dark City (1998), Pitch Black (2000), Minority Report (2002)

Everything Old is New Again

Image Credit: Matt Handle

The travesty that was Sam Smith winning multiple Grammy awards last week for serving up a slowed down version of a song Tom Petty did much better 26 years ago reminded me of a well-worn saying. Everything old is new again. While this idea holds true in virtually all facets of life, it seems to be especially true in the world of entertainment. Reboots, remakes, sequels, prequels, and music sampling are just some of the ways artists (and non-artists) find a way to turn something old into something that people will happily plunk down their hard-earned cash for again.

One of the first times I ran across this trend was way back in 1983. I was still in grade school and too young to realize that everything fresh and new wasn't necessarily also original. I was singing along in the backseat to the band Naked Eyes' hit, Always Something There to Remind Me, when my mother sitting in the driver's seat explained that the song had been a hit 20 years earlier. It seemed some strange, ancient creatures named Burt Bacharach and Hal David had written it as a hit for a few different singers of the day, including Dionne Warwick, a woman I only knew from her appearance in the We Are the World video. I'll bet many of Sam Smith's young fans think of Mr. Petty in a similar fashion.

This trend hit me again today while in the Gap, of all places. While waiting for the film, Paddington, to start (a film based on a children's literature character that first appeared 57 years ago by the way) the clothing store of choice for suburbanites everywhere was playing a tune that sounded exactly like an up-tempo version of Lou Reed's Sweet Jane. Like Sam Smith's rip-off of Petty, the lyrics were different, but there was no mistaking the melody. And I'll bet none of the kids shopping there had any clue as to the song's obvious ancestor.

I hear this in music all the time these days and I'm sure this era isn't unique. My recollection of Naked Eyes on that car stereo is proof of that. Today it's Pitbull and Christina Aguilera sampling A-ha or Selena Gomez singing a tune such as Love You like a Love Song that would have sounded perfectly at home on one of Wham!'s mid-80s albums. Twenty years from now, some teenage pop-star will probably be rehashing old Taylor Swift tunes.

Earlier this weekend I saw two more family films on cable. Oz the Great and Powerful is a recent, but poor sequel to the classic 1939 film and Cheaper by the Dozen 2 is a sequel to the 2003 remake of a movie released in 1950. If that isn't enough for you, later this year we'll be treated to the big budget sequel to the original Star Wars trilogy, a reimagining of Mad Max and what I fear will be a terrible remake of the 1994 cult classic, The Crow.

Books aren’t immune to this phenomenon either. Stephen King released Doctor Sleep last year, a sequel to his excellent 1977 novel, The Shining. And that wasn’t the first time he revisited one of his earlier works. In 2001, he and Peter Straub wrote Black House, a follow-up with the protagonist from their 1984 collaboration, The Talisman. Of course, series are a literary staple as well. If we love a particular fictional world or set of characters, we’ll snap up book after book in order to keep up with their latest adventures. Some of the best known current series include George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire and E.L. James’ 50 Shades trilogy.

My own debut novel, a modern tale of the zombie apocalypse entitled Storm Orphans, was compared by many to the hugely popular, The Walking Dead. I've never seen the comic or an episode of the TV series, but just the fact that they both feature the undead hunting down a group of survivors in and around Atlanta suggests they at least tread on some similar territory. While pitching my current Young Adult work-in-progress to friends, I've heard comparisons to The NeverEnding Story, Spy Kids 3, and The Matrix.

I think what all this points to is that it's become extremely rare for any new work of art to be truly original. Whether intentional or not, an educated audience is going to recognize aspects of any new work as reminiscent of something that came before. Always something there to remind me, indeed.