Try watching 55 space movies in a row and not feeling a little short of breath. It's not the most hopeful genre, as filmmakers grapple with the existential dread inspired by the endless vacuum of the cosmos. It's almost as if, when screenwriters turn their imaginations to the heavens, they're overwhelmed by all that nothing staring back.
At least that's how space thrillers tend to go; typically, there aren't many survivors. Fantasy space operas like "Star Wars" are more chipper, and space films based on Cold War adventures can be downright optimistic. Given that the subgenre is usually just retelling the facts of history, at least that feels like a hopeful foundation.
Space can kill a hero in many ways. There are asteroids, aliens, sub-zero temperatures, a lack of oxygen, and nowhere good to eat. But, for the most part, what happens in space movies is that, despite a myriad of practical dangers, humans turn on one another and make an already strenuous situation far, far worse. If you think of Earth as one big spaceship, then it makes sense that, as humans reach for the stars, we pack all our heaviest baggage for the trip.
Ad Astra
Brad Pitt just photographs better than other humans, especially when he's tormented and hurtling through space. In "Ad Astra," Pitt plays a perfectly emotionless astronaut who's sent to a remote base off Neptune sometime in the near future to investigate a mysterious power surge that threatens humanity. It turns out that his father is the head scientist, but the old man has gone all Colonel Kurtz on the crew in this "Heart of Darkness"-like odyssey. Pitt is all stoicism and gloom in this gorgeous space drama, which critics enjoyed more than audiences. If you like the pacing and gravitas of "2001: A Space Odyssey," this movie is your speed.
• Starring: Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Ruth Negga
• Director: James Gray
• Year: 2019
• Runtime: 124 minutes
• Rating: PG-13
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 83%
Apollo 13
No space movie has better captured the tin-can-in-orbit hardships of mid-20th century moon missions. Tom Hanks leads this tale about astronauts who get their chance to follow in Neil Armstrong's footsteps just as the public has developed a serious been-there-done-that attitude towards space exploration. That all changes, though, when a small explosion makes a moon landing impossible and a return trip to Earth improbable. As the NASA ground crew in Houston scrambles to MacGyver a solution with only the supplies available on board the craft, this charismatic crew of American astronauts is put to the ultimate test.
• Starring: Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon
• Director: Ron Howard
• Year: 1995
• Runtime: 140 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%
Aliens
"Aliens" is a triumph. Just ask Quentin Tarantino, who recalls seeing the film the day it opened at a Los Angeles theater, where director James Cameron was personally on hand to make sure the screening went smoothly. Tarantino was just a video store clerk in 1986, but he was also a notable local cinephile. As such, he had sky-high expectations for Cameron's sequel to Ridley Scott's masterpiece. They were met, and then some. "We were expecting so much and it's giving us more!" he recalled. "This is as good an experience for an action movie as you can ever have in a theater."
In "Aliens," Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) returns to face the Xenomorphs again in a rescue mission that goes awry. Cameron's script and suspenseful set-pieces make for a creature feature sequel that rivals the original for sheer space movie terror.
• Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn, Michael Biehn
• Director: James Cameron
• Year: 1986
• Runtime: 137 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97%
Alien
Sigourney Weaver really is the archetype of the badass female protagonist. She's not the only member of the Nostromo's crew with smarts and guts, but she is the ultimate survivor. What director Ridley Scott accomplished in "Alien" is immortal; a deep space industrial crew accidentally brings aboard the perfect extraterrestrial killing machine, and movie history is made. It's not that Weaver's Ripley is fearless. We sympathize with her terror as the monster stalks her, but we really marvel at her ability to keep moving and keep fighting. If the terrible CGI often found in space movies has made you sick of the genre, revisit the real sets and practical effects of this timeless sci-fi horror masterpiece.
• Starring: Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, John Hurt
• Director: Ridley Scott
• Year: 1979
• Runtime: 116 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 98%
Armageddon
Depending on your tastes, "Armageddon" is either a blockbuster spectacular or one of the more vacuous efforts from cinema's most superficial action director, Michael Bay. I tend to side with critics who were bored by the melodramatic TV-ad sheen, but hey, the rest of my high school voted it "movie of the year."
Now that I've outed myself as a time traveler, let me say this movie about deflecting an extinction-level asteroid has a similar nostalgic glow as other so-bad-they're-awesome '90s disaster movies ("Twister," "Dante's Peak," etc.). "Armageddon" radiates the escapist charm of an American era when things were so good that Hollywood was forced to imagine that Earth's most pressing problems were giant rocks hurtling through space.
• Starring: Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Liv Tyler
• Director: Michael Bay
• Year: 1998
• Runtime: 116 minutes
• Rating: PG-13
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 38%
Aniara
The passengers of the massive Mars-bound Aniara expected a three-week pleasure cruise. When their ship is struck with space junk, however, it becomes rudderless, and the only hope to get back on course is to run across a celestial body and use it as a gravity slingshot. As the passengers and crew realize there are no suitable spheres in their path, they begin to fear that this ark may end up just like the crumbling planet they left behind. As the years drag on, "Aniara" proposes that hopelessness might be as deadly as the void of infinite space.
• Starring: Emelie Garbers, Arvin Kananian, Bianca Cruzeiro
• Director: Hugo Lilja, Pella Kagerman
• Year: 2018
• Runtime: 106 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 71%
Arrival
"Arrival" is admittedly sparing when it comes to space scenes, but that's where the slightly elephantine aliens come from in this thoughtful and gripping sci-fi thriller. Besides, dealing with these extraterrestrials requires a full-on weightless space-walk in quarantine gear.
"Arrival" argues that we humans might not be able to handle a collision with a well-intentioned and peaceful space-faring civilization. Amy Adams shimmers as a linguist brought on board by some government spooks to traverse the language barrier between the two species. "Arrival" is a puzzle-based procedural, but if this professorial protagonist gets lost in translation, the dangers of jumping to conclusions could be fatal for us all.
• Starring: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker
• Director: Denis Villeneuve
• Year: 2016
• Runtime: 116 minutes
• Rating: PG-13
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%
Avatar
"Avatar" haters like to point out the story of the Na'vi tribe's plight to save their sacred tree from greedy industrialists is basically space "Pocahontas." Visually, it has aged too, like any film with this many effects. Back in 2009, though, I dragged every earthling I knew to see "Avatar" in a theater, hypnotized by these blue aliens. I felt like an overwhelmed Joe Biden in this viral clip trying to sum it up: "This new program ... You watch this science fiction thing unfold in front of you." Exactly!
James Cameron's enormous custom 3D cameras created an immersive experience that unfortunately looks like a video game when viewed on 2D monitors. "Avatar" is pure visual wizardly, but only when you see it in the appropriate venue.
• Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver
• Director: James Cameron
• Year: 2009
• Runtime: 162 minutes
• Rating: PG-13
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 82%
Avengers: Endgame
A few years back, Martin Scorsese infamously scorched the Marvel Cinematic Universe, declaring that it is "not cinema." That's because nothing unexpected really happens. Immortal, sexless superheroes smash each other over and over in an infinite multiverse that has consequences. Spider-Man is incinerated by a cosmic snap of the fingers in one movie, and his next solo film is one of his biggest hits.
But "Avengers: Infinity War" has a spectacular vision of the cosmos as Thanos assembles the ultimate bejeweled MacGuffin — one Nintendo power-glove to rule them all! Josh Brolin elucidating this villain's logic of doom as he wipes out all consciousness transcends ordinary Marvel fare. His musings are staged in epically rendered CG environments, and he seems almost depressed by his own nihilistic reasoning.
• Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo
• Directors: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
• Year: 2018
• Runtime: 149 minutes
• Rating: PG-13
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 85%
Contact
The famous astronomer Carl Sagan is the greatest science communicator who ever lived. Neil deGrasse Tyson did yeoman's work following in his footsteps — he even remade Sagan's famous TV series, "Cosmos" — but it's not possible to replace the OG celebrity scientist and his ponderous yet dulcet tones. Sagan also put his passion for thought experiments into "Contact," a novel about an encounter with advanced aliens that was adapted for the screen by Robert Zemeckis.
When a young astronomer (Jodie Foster) finds a strange signal in the sky, it's actually a code containing instructions on how to assemble a mysterious machine. "Contact" wonders if humanity could handle an extraterrestrial awakening, but ultimately embodies Sagan's optimism about the human project.
• Starring: Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, James Woods
• Director: Robert Zemeckis
• Year: 1997
• Runtime: 150 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 67%
Don't Look Up
"Don't Look Up" is ostensibly another "Deep Impact," a film about a big bad rock on a collision course with Earth. In reality, it's a global warming parable starring notable climate activist Leonardo DiCaprio. When DiCaprio's wonky astrophysicist tries to explain the Earth-shattering news, his dire prophecy is greeted as another piece of infotainment by two manic morning news buffoons.
"Don't Look Up" has its politics, but spares neither side. MAGA stand-ins devolve into a conspiracy cult, while a seemingly left-leaning American president (Meryl Streep) cares only about her cratering poll numbers. Jonah Hill is also priceless as a patronizing chief of staff who you'll want to throttle with his own lanyard.
• Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep
• Director: Adam McKay
• Year: 2021
• Runtime: 138 minutes
• Rating: PG-13
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 55%
Dune
Seeing "Dune" in 2021 was like reading an official press release claiming that Denis Villeneuve had supplanted Christopher Nolan as Earth's best big-budget filmmaker with a knack for magisterial sci-fi. Look, David Lynch was never the right choice to adapt Frank Herbert's brilliant and expansive 1965 novel. The failure of that first attempt partially explains why George Lucas has been so deified, perhaps without deserving it; Lucas has named checked "Flash Gordon" as an inspiration for "Star Wars," but has avoided crediting the novel from which he clearly cribbed the whole evil space empire versus psychic savior premise. As such, Villeneuve's task was to remake "Dune" for a post-"Star Wars" world. Through visual innovation and his genius for portentous storytelling, he pulled it off.
• Starring: Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac
• Director: Denis Villeneuve
• Year: 2021
• Runtime: 156 minutes
• Rating: PG-13
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 83%
Event Horizon
If you like space horror, "Event Horizon" is one intense trip to Hell. Ignore the god-awful critic's score. This movie isn't metaphysically any dumber than "The Shining." Here, Laurence Fishburne plays an astronaut tasked with investigating the incredibly Gothic Event Horizon, a mysterious spacecraft that has re-emerged from a black hole. He taps the craft's eccentric creator (Sam Neil) to help explore this eerie ghost ship, and a sinister story soon emerges: Something sentient has come back from the beyond, and its malevolence unleashes a stylish flurry of terrors. The phrase "event horizon" refers to the point of no return that surrounds a black hole. Maybe evil is like that, too.
• Starring: Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill, Kathleen Quinlan
• Director: Paul W. S. Anderson
• Year: 1997
• Runtime: 96 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 29%
The Fifth Element
The ad campaign for "The Fifth Element" suggested that it would be a serious space opera, so it was disappointing when this goofy blockbuster premiered in 1997. Bruce Willis is great, though, as an NYC cab driver who gets an odd fare: a superhuman savior of the universe (Milla Jovovich). She's the elemental key to keeping at bay a dark force that's a lot like the Nothing from "The NeverEnding Story." Gary Oldman is at his scenery-chewing best as the corrupted industrialist Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg, who works in service of the darkness. At the time, "The Fifth Element" was the most expensive movie in European history, and the 4K version really brings out the crisp cinematography.
• Starring: Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, Ian Holm
• Director: Luc Besson
• Year: 1997
• Runtime: 126 minutes
• Rating: PG-13
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 70%
First Man
If Hollywood had been as quick to make this biopic as Neil Armstrong was to the actual moon, it might be considered the greatest space movie ever made. In "First Man," Ryan Gosling plays Armstrong as the ultimate strong, silent type. He's a fearless, laconic test pilot tapped by NASA for its maiden voyage to the moon. Damian Chazelle's stirring tribute to one of the greatest-ever Americans explores the astronaut's grief over the loss of his young daughter and his coping mechanism: the most daring adventure in history. Chazelle's camera mimics the look of real film and caps the picture with stunning IMAX vistas at the climactic moment. This is an astounding achievement fully worthy of the history it commemorates.
• Starring: Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Jason Clarke
• Director: Damien Chazelle
• Year: 2018
• Runtime: 141 minutes
• Rating: PG-13
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 87%
Forbidden Planet
"Forbidden Planet" was made only 13 years before NASA landed on the moon, but the film predicts this feat will take place in the "final decade of the 21st century." Soon after, "hyperdrive" will allow the colonization of deep space. It's interesting to see how wrong sci-fi was on that first count — and likely the second, given that physicists are pretty sure that light moves at the universal speed limit.
Still, this is a great-looking color movie for 1956, shot in Cinescope. "Forbidden Planet" is basically like an episode of "Star Trek" with more romance and a less memorable cast, following an American crew as it investigates the mystery of a scientist and his beautiful daughter, long since missing on a far-flung alien colony.
• Starring: Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen
• Director: Fred M. Wilcox
• Year: 1956
• Runtime: 98 minutes
• Rating: G
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%
Galaxy Quest
There have been a number of attempts to make satirical versions of "Star Trek." Seth MacFarlane's "The Orville" comes to mind, as does the Steve Carrell vehicle "Space Force." Nothing, though, has been as successful as this loving yet sardonic homage to the compelling, campy goof of Gene Roddenberry's original late 1960s sci-fi space series.
"Galaxy Quest" works by getting meta. The washed-up cast of a "Star Trek"-like show gets picked up by actual aliens who think their long-canceled series is a historical document, and that only this intrepid crew of TV actors can save them. It's a hilarious premise executed with a lot of affection for sci-fi fandom.
• Starring: Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman
• Director: Dean Parisot
• Year: 1999
• Runtime: 102 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%
Gattaca
What was once a far-fetched sci-fi premise just keeps growing in plausibility. When "Gattaca" was released in 1997, Dolly the sheep had been cloned just one year earlier, so bio-hacking hijinks were at the top of everyone's mind. With later innovations like CRISPR, a genetically segregated human society like the world of this stylish art-deco thriller is suddenly feasible.
In "Gattaca," Ethan Hawke plays an aspiring astronaut who borrows the genetic identity of an elite (Jude Law) to reach the stars. Before he can launch, however, an inconvenient murder brings extra scrutiny and means that he must face must down his biologically superior brother. "Gattaca" is a classic of the individual-versus-dystopian-oppression genre as it vividly imagines the cost of a world where DNA is destiny.
• Starring: Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Jude Law
• Director: Andrew Niccol
• Year: 1997
• Runtime: 112 minutes
• Rating: PG-13
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 81%
Gravity
"Gravity" is like a 90-minute free-fall turned into a movie. Director Alfonso Cuarón and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, both of whom won Oscars for the film, use long takes and cleverly hidden cuts to make this film feel like it was filmed in very few shots, ramping up the anxiety surrounding its central orbital mishap. Sandra Bullock plays an engineer sent to fix the Hubble Space Telescope when space junk slams into her craft. A chain reaction turns her ship into a deadly debris field as she and a fellow space-ace (George Clooney) orbit the Earth at unimaginable speeds. "Gravity" is the most imaginative and exciting lesson on Newtonian physics ever even attempted, and will have you kissing the ground as the credits roll.
• Starring: Sandra Bullock, George Clooney, Ed Harris
• Director: Alfonso Cuarón
• Year: 2013
• Runtime: 91 minutes
• Rating: PG-13
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%
Guardians Of The Galaxy
The Guardians of the Galaxy are a close-knit team both on camera and off of it. After fans launched a campaign to boot Chris Pratt from the MCU, making assumptions about the actor's religious beliefs — which the star himself has never explicitly shared — director James Gunn jumped to his defense. Gunn, of course, was briefly fired from the franchise himself over some old, off-color tweets, and the "Guardians" cast similarly rallied behind him in the aftermath.
That's somewhat ironic, as Gunn's irreverence is what has made him the most reliably ribald director in Marvel's stable — and DC's, too ("The Suicide Squad" and "Peacemaker" also stem from the auteur's twisted mind). Still, that sense of found family translates to the final production. "Guardians of the Galaxy" is full of '70s flair, including a great vintage soundtrack. The lighter tone helps ease the visuals' inherent silliness, and totally works for this colorful crew of space-faring heroes. This is a Disney product that grown kids can enjoy, too.
• Starring: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista
• Director: James Gunn
• Year: 2014
• Runtime: 121 minutes
• Rating: PG-13
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%
Hard To Be A God
"Hard to Be a God" is the best movie on this list you probably haven't seen. It's kind of a cross between the alternate medieval universe of "Game of Thrones" and a familiar concept from "Star Trek." On a distant planet, the city of Arkanar is a highly authoritarian society that persecutes intellectuals. Earth scientists are dispatched to study the situation and rescue the elites. This is an extremely long film, it's in black and white, and it will be subtitled if your Russian is rusty. Oh, also, despite the premise, there are zero shots that actually take place in space. Still, "Hard to Be a God" is a stark and unsettling film worthy of galaxy-brain contemplation.
• Starring: Leonid Yarmolnik, Valentin Golubenko, Yuriy Tsurilo
• Director: Aleksei German
• Year: 2013
• Runtime: 177 minutes
• Rating: PG-13
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%
High Life
"High Life" seems like a space thriller, but it's French — very French — so it's arty and ponderous, but does not deign to be beautiful. The sets and cinematography are ugly, but so is the situation trapping our space-faring friends. Robert Pattinson plays a convicted killer in a dystopian future who is sentenced to be a part of a human experiment in space. The con-air crew turns on each other as their situation comes to light, but not to thrill the audience. This is a film about the human need for choice and autonomy, even in the face of annihilation. Claire Denis' strange and often grotesque film will make more sense if you watch it with that in mind.
• Starring: Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche, André Benjamin
• Director: Claire Denis
• Year: 2018
• Runtime: 110 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 82%
Ikarie XB-1
"Ikarie XB-1" is the most important space movie you haven't seen, and that's too bad, because it predates all the genre's definitive works, including the "Star Trek" franchise and Stanley Kubrick's immortal "2001: A Space Odyssey." This 1963 space thriller was critically acclaimed, but it's in black and white and entirely in Czech, and so it never got the global audience it deserved.
In 2163, the titular spaceship sets out at light speed to explore a strange planet orbiting Alpha Centauri. The large crew soon confronts all the familiar perils of space travel, but that's because "Ikarie XB-1" is part sci-fi, part film noir, and one of the most influential movies in the genre.
• Starring: Zdenek Stepanek, Frantisek Smolík, Dana Medrická
• Director: Jindřich Polák
• Year: 1963
• Runtime: 86 minutes
• Rating: NR
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%
Interstellar
The critical consensus around "Interstellar" seems to be that Christopher Nolan took a slightly clunky kitchen-sink approach to his otherwise stunning space movie. More charitably, it's the closest modern swing at the ambition of Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey." In the film, Matthew McConaughey plays a family man on a dying Earth who is picked to pilot a last-ditch mission to find a backup planet. The physics of space travel give Nolan the opportunity to further flesh out his favorite theme: time.
It's true that "Interstellar" has an unfortunate monologue by Anne Hathaway in which she just straight-up explains one of the film's major themes, but otherwise, this is a masterful work. Nolan's poetic yet epic filmmaking style perfectly collides with the mind-bending paradoxes of space-time.
• Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain
• Director: Christopher Nolan
• Year: 2014
• Runtime: 169 minutes
• Rating: PG-13
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 73%
Independence Day
"Independence Day" might have been the greatest popcorn blockbuster of the '90s, but if you ask zennial movie fans about it, they've heard of it, but assume it's moldy cheese and have taken a hard pass. The thing is, they're not totally wrong. This effect-driven spectacular about a devastating alien invasion that levels Earth's major cities has all the problems of a decades-old movie that's heavily reliant on vintage computers for many of its most famous images. The survival story, though, still works, as a pilot (Will Smith) and a scientist (Jeff Goldblum) team up to take down the invading force. From Smith brazenly cold-cocking an alien to the president of the United States (Bill Pullman) joining the fight in an F-14, this is still effective feel-good movie-making.
• Starring: Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum
• Director: Roland Emmerich
• Year: 1996
• Runtime: 145 minutes
• Rating: PG-13
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 67%
The Martian
If "The Martian" feels more thoughtful and methodical than any previous stranded-in-space movie, that's because it absolutely is. Andy Weir's sci-fi novel started out as a self-published PDF that was available for free, and then sold for just $1 on Amazon. As its reputation grew, so did the plot. Weir is mostly interested in well-researched and scientifically plausible ideas about surviving in space, and Ridley Scott brought that vision to the big screen with fidelity. If Elon Musk's Mars mission ever actually takes off and the harshness of space begins to encroach on human lives, we can only hope an astronaut like Mark Watney is around to "science the s*** out of this."
• Starring: Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig
• Director: Ridley Scott
• Year: 2015
• Runtime: 132 minutes
• Rating: PG-13
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91%
Moon
In "Moon," Sam Rockwell plays Sam Bell, a corporate astronaut who's working a three-year gig on a highly-automated moon base that mines Earth's main energy source. For some reason, this crucial job is also a solo mission, but just as Sam's time away from his wife and new child nears an end, he begins to suffer hallucinations and crashes his lunar rover. When Sam wakes up in the infirmary and travels back to the crash site, he discovers what appears to be himself, still in the rover. No further spoilers are appropriate. Suffice it to say that "Moon" deploys the space-thriller genre's cabin fever paranoia with creative tension, but soon dives into a grander mystery as Sam becomes the solar system's most far-flung detective.
• Starring: Sam Rockwell, Dominique McElligott, Kaya Scodelario
• Director: Duncan Jones
• Year: 2009
• Runtime: 97 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%
Mr. Nobody
In "Mr. Nobody," Jared Leto plays the last living mortal. He's extremely old and suffering from amnesia as he bounces through time, waking up in his own body at different points in his life, unclear how he got there or even who exactly he is. This is an incredibly ambitious effort from auteur Jaco Van Dormael that's interested in both pop-physics-inspired philosophy and the non-linear storytelling fad that was popular in 2009. To that end, the film is cut like a disorienting montage and doesn't make complete sense, but maybe that's how space-time works without human memory to piece it all together.
• Starring: Jared Leto, Sarah Polley, Diane Kruger
• Director: Jaco Van Dormael
• Year: 2009
• Runtime: 141 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 68%
On The Silver Globe
"On the Silver Globe" is a spectacular and incredibly trippy other-world epic. This 1988 film was over a decade in the making, but was never actually finished because of interference from the Polish government. Despite the difficulty, after a beautiful 2016 restoration it looks like something "The Revenant" cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki would have shot in 2020. The plot is set in the far future, and follows a group of astronauts who flee a dystopian Earth and form a colony on a far-flung planet. A strange cult arises as this new society awaits its next messiah.
• Starring: Andrzej Seweryn, Jerzy Trela, Iwona Bielska
• Director: Andrzej Zulawsky
• Year: 1988
• Runtime: 157 minutes
• Rating: NR
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%
Outland
If you grew up on '80s and '90s movies, you're forgiven for thinking that exposure to outer space makes your face explode. "Outland" also hails from an era when permanent commercial space mining must have felt inevitable, as it borrows the dingy set designs from "Alien" to stage an action-oriented thriller. Sean Connery plays a security marshal on a Martian mining colony who discovers that a drug is circulating that increases productivity, but that also causes horrifying accidents. The company wants him to look the other way and his family wants him home, but he's decided to make a stand. This isn't a metaphorically deep space movie, but "Outland" is a good reminder that model miniatures and meticulous sets make the best sci-fi movie settings.
• Starring: Sean Connery, Peter Boyle, Frances Sternhagen
• Director: Peter Hyams
• Year: 1981
• Runtime: 109 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 56%
Oxygen
Normally, I would avoid movies where the hero is trapped in a tiny box, like Ryan Reynolds was for 95 tedious minutes in 2010's "Buried." "Oxygen" has the same premise, but this French film is given just enough breathing room to work as "Liz" (Mélanie Laurent) wakes in a cryogenic chamber with no memory of who she is or how she got there. The difference here is that Liz has a deadpan AI-powered touchscreen to help her solve the mystery before she runs out of air. The film's placement on this list gives away a great twist, but that doesn't ruin it. "Oxygen" has moments that will test your patience, but also a breathless climax that's worth the wait.
• Starring: Mélanie Laurent, Mathieu Amalric, Malik Zidi
• Director: Alexandre Aje
• Year: 2021
• Runtime: 101 minutes
• Rating: PG-13
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%
Pitch Black
"Pitch Black" is what sold studios on Vin Diesel, and I'd argue that this critically underrated and intensely suspenseful sci-fi gem remains the brawny action star's best film — apologies to fans of those car movies. Here, Diesel plays Riddick, a muscle-bound badass on a prison transport ship who's heading off to do some hard time. He has surgically-enhanced eyes that make him look super cool, but that also let him see in the dark. That comes in very handy when the ship crashes on a mysterious planet full of screeching, winged monsters that only come out at night.
• Starring: Radha Mitchell, Vin Diesel, Cole Hauser
• Director: David Twohy
• Year: 2000
• Runtime: 108 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 59%
Planet Of The Apes
"You damn dirty apes!" It's easy to laugh at Charlton Heston and this retro sci-fi film about an astronaut gone from Earth for thousands of years, only to crash on a planet inhabited by actors in plastic ape costumes. In fact, you might need a similar time travel method to understand how awesome this movie was in 1968; "Mad Men" provided one in season 6, when Don Draper takes his son Bobby to see this movie. The credits roll, and their minds are blown. Don asks a wide-eyed Bobby if he wants to see the film again, right then and there, and the normally distant duo lock in for back-to-back screenings.
• Starring: Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter
• Director: Franklin J. Schaffner
• Year: 1968
• Runtime: 112 minutes
• Rating: G
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 86%
Prometheus
Director Ridley Scott has admitted that he missed the mark with "Prometheus," echoing some of the audiences' and critics' sentiments about this 2012 prequel to his 1979 sci-fi masterpiece, "Alien." It feels like it's time for some backlash to the backlash, though, because "Prometheus" is also full of big ideas, great visuals, and even better performances, like Michael Fassbender's turn as one of the franchise's notoriously untrustworthy white-blooded androids. "Prometheus" doesn't just want to backfill details about those killer aliens, but about the human race, too. Maybe this creature feature bites off more than a monster movie can chew, but we ought to applaud Hollywood any time it goes big and tries to steal fire from the gods.
• Starring: Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron
• Director: Ridley Scott
• Year: 2012
• Runtime: 123 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 73%
Proxima
In "Proxima," the always-radiant French star Eva Green plays Sarah, an equally French astronaut picked at the last minute for a year-long practice mission aboard the International Space Station. She's also a single mom who must navigate difficulties related to both her irritated ex-husband and a misogynist American astronaut played with macho verve by Matt Dillon. As Sarah slowly wins over the boy's club, this space drama's feminist messaging is sometimes less than aerodynamic, maybe because the real heart of Alice Wincour's intimate and ultimately touching film is the gravity of motherhood.
• Starring: Eva Green, Matt Dillon, Zélie Boulant-Lemesle
• Director: Alice Winocour
• Year: 2019
• Runtime: 107 minutes
• Rating: NR
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 84%
The Right Stuff
Based on the book by Tom Wolf, "The Right Stuff" is the incredible true story of the daredevils who became NASA's first astronauts. This three-plus-hour space film eventually gets into orbit, but the best section is the lengthy opening act, which follows a group of future astronauts working as test pilots at an air base in California. A quarter of these men were killed as they pushed the limits of physics. During an unfathomable stretch in 1952, seven pilots a month were lost as these fearless flyers broke first the barrier, and then the very grasp of Earth itself. "The Right Stuff" is a moving and exciting tribute to a kind of bravery you have to see to believe.
• Starring: Sam Shepard, Scott Glenn, Ed Harris
• Director: Phillip Kaufman
• Year: 1983
• Runtime: 193 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%
Salyut 7
In 1985, the actual Russian space program lost contact with the very real Salyut 7 space station when it powered down and began to drift. The rescue mission that followed was daring, and would be the first time in history a "dead" station was revived. "Salyut 7," which tells that story, made a big splash in Russia in 2018, picking up several awards. It's a fantastic-looking adventure best seen in 3D, but it's a thrill in any dimension and a good reminder that American movies and American space sagas aren't the whole story – after all, it was a Russian astronaut who was the first human in space.
• Starring: Vladimir Vdovichenkov, Lyubov Aksyonova, Pavel Derevyanko
• Director: Klim Shipenko
• Year: 2017
• Runtime: 118 minutes
• Rating: NR
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%
Silent Running
'70s sci-fi movies could be their own genre: the shaggy mullets, the mid-century sets, and the costumes that fluctuate between leisure-style jumpsuits and hippy-commune sacks of cloth. The best feature of this era, though, was the model miniatures, which remain way more convincing than CG spaceships. "Silent Running" doesn't have the realistic, motivated lighting of films made later in the decade like "Alien" or "Star Wars," but it does feature familiarly charming robots.
Inside a model of a base sits a botanist played by Bruce Dern. Earth has become uninhabitable, and he's the only remaining environmentalist. When he's ordered to destroy his greenhouse ark, Dern and his robot besties become the last tree-huggers in the galaxy.
• Starring: Bruce Dern, Cliff Potts, Ron Rifkin
• Director: Douglas Trumbull
• Year: 1972
• Runtime: 89 minutes
• Rating: G
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 72%
Solaris
Steven Soderbergh's 2002 remake of "Solaris" is underrated and beautiful, but this 1972 original is such a visual feast that it didn't need a style upgrade. This is another great Russian space adventure held back in the U.S. only by the language barrier. The story follows Kris Kelvin, an aptly named psychologist who is tapped for an interstellar mission to the Solaris research station, from where mysterious reports have been emanating. Kris finds that the crew has gone insane and soon begins having visions himself as this Soviet-era film delves into a metaphysical mystery with lots of moody, existential philosophy. Like a Russian winter, "Solaris" is long-winded, but it's one of the truly essential space movie classics.
• Starring: Natalya Bondarchuk, Donatas Banionis, Jüri Järvet
• Director: Andrei Tarkovsky
• Year: 1972
• Runtime: 169 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%
Space Cowboys
Let's hear it for the old guys. The sheer longevity of Clint Eastwood's career has led him into a heretofore unknown genre: the nonagenarian adventure. Well into his 90s, Eastwood was still making action-oriented movies starring himself; 2021's "Cry Macho" is hard to watch, as Eastwood shuffles around chasing a rooster in a plodding western. However, way back in the year 2000, a spry 70-year-old Eastwood played Frank Corvin, a former test pilot who missed his chance to go to space when early NASA replaced his team with chimps. When an aging satellite of his own design needs repairs, Corvin insists on getting the old band back together. These crotchety rocketeers are feeling no pain at zero Gs.
• Starring: Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland
• Director: Clint Eastwood
• Year: 2000
• Runtime: 130 minutes
• Rating: PG-13
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 79%
Starship Troopers
"Starship Troopers" comes off as campy and ridiculous if you don't connect it to the larger canon of Hollywood's most peculiar sci-fi-action auteur, Paul Verhoeven, who's infamous for blending social commentary with gross-out effects and cartoonish violence. This Casper Van Dien-led space drama about a war between humanity and giant sentient bugs oozes blood and guts, but sends up military life as much as the director's "RoboCop" skewers dystopian policing. In his blonde, granite-jawed glory, Van Dien is like a street artist's caricature of a Hollywood leading man, and everything in this filmmaker's world is a gag.
• Starring: Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards
• Director: Paul Verhoeven
• Year: 1997
• Runtime: 129 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 66%
Sputnik
During the early years of the Cold War, the Soviet Union was doing a lot of winning in space. Sputnik 1, the first satellite to orbit Earth, was a total coup. A nuclear-armed Russia was flying over U.S. soil and there wasn't anything NASA or the Pentagon could do about it.
"Sputnik" has almost nothing to do with this bit of regional pride, other than being set in the later Cold War of 1983. In the film, two astronauts fall to Earth, but one has brought something back. There's a creature in the hero's body, and it only comes out at night.
• Starring: Pyotr Fyodorov, Oksana Akinshina, Fedor Bondarchuk
• Director: Egor Abramenko
• Year: 2000
• Runtime: 107 minutes
• Rating: NR
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%
Stowaway
Two thriller subgenres are famous for embroiling characters in brutal moral dilemmas: zombie movies and space movies. Here, Anna Kendrick leads a cast of three astronauts who are traveling to Mars when they discover the titular stowaway. As technical problems mount, you'd be forgiven for suspecting this surprise new crew member of sabotage. But "Stowaway" goes in a different direction: With oxygen running low, one person must be sacrificed.
Netflix originals are largely bad, as the company all but acknowledged in 2022 as it rethought its largely low-budget content strategy. "Stowaway," though, is a great-looking and suspenseful gem. It may have been made on the cheap, but it'll have you fully onboard from start to finish.
• Starring: Anna Kendrick, Daniel Dae Kim, Toni Collette
• Director: Joe Penna
• Year: 2021
• Runtime: 116 minutes
• Rating: NR
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 76%
Star Trek: Into Darkness
Captain Kirk is a little like Superman in that he has to be distanced from his powers to get the plot going. Appropriately, when Chris Pine's Kirk violates the Prime Directive in "Star Trek: Into Darkness" and interferes with an alien society, he loses his command. Fear not, as a young Khan emerges (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Kirk is reinstated.
Two scenes in this film really stand out. Kirk and Khan do a space jump between ships, and it's one of the best green screen stunts you'll see. The other is Spock's hand-to-hand showdown with the super-abled Khan, once again proving Vulcan supremacy. J.J. Abrams really lands what his likely last turn in the captain's chair of this franchise.
• Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban
• Director: J.J. Abrams
• Year: 2013
• Runtime: 132 minutes
• Rating: PG-13
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 84%
Star Trek: The Wrath Of Khan
In 1982's "The Wrath of Khan," the original "Star Trek" cast is aging, and so William Shatner's Captain Kirk wrestles with his mortality. In truth, the USS Enterprise's crew is far more compelling as a team of elder statesmen than they were 16 years prior, when they debuted on NBC. In their second feature film, Kirk and his crew run into the genetically engineered superman commander Khan Noonien Singh. He's gotten his hands on a fancy Federation ship and is out for vengeance after being exiled years earlier. Every good "Star Trek" story comes down to Kirk's wit and bravado, which is tempered by his deep friendship with the ship's sage logician, Spock. This film is the lovable zenith of that dynamic.
• Starring: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Ricardo Montalban
• Director: Nicholas Meyer
• Year: 1982
• Runtime: 113 minutes
• Rating: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 86%
Star Trek
As mad as we all were at J.J. Abrams for wantonly wasting our time with years of red herrings that went nowhere on "Lost," the man has a Midas touch for retro sci-fi vibes, and his 2009 reboot of the "Star Trek" franchise is a stellar explosion of anamorphic lens flares and nostalgia. It's also arguably the best movie in the franchise. Chris Pine is the only actor of his generation who could've pulled off the cocksure moxie of a young Captain James T. Kirk. The plot includes some time travel gimmicks to revive Leonard Nimoy as Spock, but really this is a USS Enterprise origin story that serves die-hard Trekkies and newer recruits alike.
• Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Leonard Nimoy
• Director: J.J. Abrams
• Year: 2009
• Runtime: 126 minutes
• Rating: PG-13
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%
The Original Star Wars Trilogy
George Lucas may have cribbed many of his ideas from "Dune," but he did such archetypical worldbuilding in his original "Star Wars" trilogy that, for true fans, these works are not even really films. They're more like quasi-religious texts, and every subsequent sequel and spinoff is judged upon its adherence to these three volumes of dogmas. Like any massive fantasy franchise, "Star Wars" is an information cult where the point of fandom is the collection and preservation of the canon. Thanks to a small but incredibly loud minority, the discourse surrounding these movies can easily turn toxic, but their ability to transcend cinema like this is a testament to the power of the universe that Lucas created.
• Starring: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher
• Directors: George Lucas, Irvin Kershner, Richard Marquand
• Years: 1977, 1980, 1984
• Runtimes: 121, 124, 132 minutes
• Ratings: PG
• Rotten Tomatoes Scores: 93%, 94%, 83%
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
King of the sci-fi reboot J.J. Abrams strikes again here with "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." Abrams was the obvious choice to fix the franchise after George Lucas' dopey digital prequels. The ironic thing is those Lucas films had little of the look that made his original trilogy great. Abrams revived the use of real sets (when possible) and of course, leaned into his love of vintage widescreen lenses. "Star Wars" regained a cool just by looking like itself again. Add some ok new characters and the sheen of updated CG blending seamlessly with practical FX and this long moribund franchise once again conquered the galaxy.
* Starring: Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaac, John Boyega
* Director: J.J. Abrams
* Year: 2015
* Runtime: 136 minutes
* Rating: PG-13
* Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
The most noxious "Star Wars" fanboys hated this movie, so you know it must have some redeeming qualities. Rian Johnson dared to add just a little style to the Skywalker saga and instantly became public enemy number one as the unelected keepers of the Jedi flame self-immolated in a panic over that scene of Princess Leia floating in space. In the aftermath, Johnson's own "Star Wars" trilogy was (perhaps not coincidentally) indefinitely delayed by Lucasfilm. However, if the quality of the moviemaking matters more to you than the law of canon, this is the best of the modern Star Wars spin-offs, sequels, or prequels. The image of a monkish Luke being absolutely blasted by Imperial Walkers and then brushing dust off his shoulder outshines all supposed blasphemies.
• Starring: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver
• Director: Rian Johnson
• Year: 2017
• Runtime: 152 minutes
• Rating: PG-13
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91%
Sunshine
"Sunshine" is really the only good space movie focused on the unfathomable raw power of our solar system's star. Acclaimed "Slumdog Millionaire" director Danny Boyle has made better films, but he brings his signature kinetic energy to this extremely thermal story about a crew that's sent to revive a dying sun and save Earth from turning into a lifeless ball of ice. As a series of calamities pile up, the film starts to feel like an argument for letting robots handle crucial space missions. Human error gives way to paranoia and moral dilemmas as the crew members weigh their lives against the future of humanity. It's familiar territory, but "Sunshine" has something more sinister in store, too.
• Starring: Cillian Murphy, Chris Evans, Rose Byrne
• Director: Danny Boyle
• Year: 2007
• Runtime: 107 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 76%
Thor: Ragnarok
It makes sense when human cartoons like Will Ferrell or Jim Carrey are the funniest actors in Hollywood. It's more surprising when a guy who can plausibly portray an actual god is this hilarious. The MCU's playfully fake-looking effects and colorful palette really work for this fish-out-of-water hero saga. Here, we find the God of Thunder taken prisoner and forced into gladiatorial combat against an amnesiac Hulk. Chris Hemsworth is every bit the specimen of earlier muscle-bound stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger, but he also has a range that turns every Marvel movie into a nail screaming for a little of Thor's hammer.
• Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett
• Director: Taika Waititi
• Year: 2017
• Runtime: 130 minutes
• Rating: PG-13
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%
Total Recall
Do yourself a favor and binge all of Paul Verhoeven's movies. "Total Recall" is definitely the sci-fi auteur's best film — he brings his usual love of gross-out gags to this thrilling Mars mystery adventure. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays an ordinary construction worker who discovers a secret identity as an off-world super-spy. His amnesia-driven investigation takes him to the heart of a conspiracy to control Mars, and gives Arnold a great chance to rack up a body count and deliver some of the best one-liners of his career. "Total Recall" received a remake starring Colin Farrell in 2012, which was both bad and also totally superfluous; the original is still totally radical.
• Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin, Sharon Stone
• Director: Paul Verhoeven
• Year: 1990
• Runtime: 113 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 82%
A Trip To The Moon
"A Trip to the Moon" is all of 14 minutes long, and is available for free — the copyright for this 1902 experiment in silent cinema expired long ago. Don't let either of those things take away from its importance. Director Georges Méliès was one of the first true filmmakers, and he created this moon-landing adventure story using the skills he picked up as a stage illusionist. Méliès was the great innovator of early special effects, and noticed that cutting film is a great way to make things disappear like magic. The general story is summed up in the title, but in Méliès' day the moon was often imagined as an alien world with oceans and native tribes of its own. The entire space film genre started here.
• Starring: Jeanne d'Alcy, Georges Méliès, Victor André
• Director: Georges Méliès
• Year: 1902
• Runtime: 14 minutes
• Rating: NR
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%
2001: A Space Odyssey
"2001" is the best sci-fi film ever made, unless you don't like arty ruminations with ambiguous conclusions. Stanley Kubrick is just as methodical with Newtonian physics in this visual spectacular as he is with the classic story that pits man (a team of astronauts investigating an alien object in space) against machine (a malevolent AI named HAL that turns on its human masters). Kubrick actually explained this film's famously enigmatic ending in lost footage that was unearthed in 2018. It's more literal than you'd expect, but if you just accept that alien minds are behind that strange obelisk, the trippy conclusion makes much more sense.
• Starring: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester
• Director: Stanley Kubrick
• Year: 1968
• Runtime: 139 minutes
• Rating: G
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%
Wall-E
"Wall-E" has grown so vastly in reputation that it now sits alongside "Snow White" and "Beauty and the Beast" as one of the most beloved Disney animations ever created. Wall-E the robot even has some of Snow's innocence. In the 29th century, Earth has become one hideous landfill. As a result, an Amazon-like corporation has taken the whole human race to space to enjoy lives of weightless sloth. Back on Earth, only one robot remains. Wall-E scavenges for parts to extend his life, and has been alone so long that he's become sentient. When he falls in love with a probe named EVE, he follows her back to the human mothership, where hopefully the power of their bond will save the world.
• Starring: Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Jeff Garlin
• Director: Andrew Stanton
• Year: 2008
• Runtime: 97 minutes
• Rating: G
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%
Read this next: Every Star Trek Show And Movie In Chronological Order
The post The 55 Best Space Movies Ever appeared first on /Film.