Best Science Fiction Movie - All Time

Black Hole (1979) was a childhood favorite.

Tron (1981) Was another. Such a unique idea especially considering the infancy of computers at the time and no CGI available. Pretty incredible they were able to pull off the visual effects that they did.

1. BladeRunner (1982 - Ridley Scott)
"All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die...."

2. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968 - Stanley Kubrick)
"I know I've made some very poor decisions recently, but I can give you my complete assurance that my work will be back to normal."

3. A Boy & His Dog (1975 - L.Q. Jones)
"Lack of respect, wrong attitude, failure to obey authority. The Farm, immediately."

4. Solaris (1972 - Andrei Tarkovsky)
"Science? Nonsense. In this situation, mediocrity and genius are equally helpless. We don't want to conquer space at all, we want to expand Earth endlessly."

5. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956 - Don Siegel)
"I never knew fear until that moment I kissed Becky."

6. 12 Monkeys (1995 - Terry Gilliam)
"Wiping out the human race? That's a great idea, that's great. But more of a long-term thing. I mean first, we have to focus on more immediate goals."

7. Alien (1979 - Ridley Scott)
"I admire its purity, its sense of survival, unclouded by conscience, remorse or delusions of morality."

8. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977 - Steven Spielberg)
"I just want to know that it's really happening"

9. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951 - Robert Wise)
"I'm impatient with stupidity. My people have learned to live without it."

10. The Thing (1982 - John Carpenter)
"I know you men have been through a lot, but if it's all the same to you I'd rather not spend the rest of this winter TIED TO THIS FU*KING COUCH!"

11. Akira (1988 - Katshuhiro Otomo)
"Amoebas don't make motorcycles and atomic bombs."

12. The Hidden (1987 - Jack Sholder)
"I guess a career in the Police didn't really prepare you for this, did it?"

13. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978 - Philip Kaufman)
"Well why not a space flower? Why do we always expect them to come in metal ships?"

14. The Terminator (1984 - James Cameron)
"You still don't get it, do you? He'll find her, that's what he does, that's all he does! You can't stop him! He'll wait for her, reach down her throat, and pull her fu*king heart out!"

15. The War of the Worlds (1953 - Byron Haskin)
"If they're mortal, they have mortal weaknesses. They'll be stopped, somehow."



As for what "makes" Science Fiction, that's really up to each person to interpret. Some don't consider Star Wars, Superman, Brazil or A Clockwork Orange Sci-Fi, others do. I guess like good art or good pornography: you know it when you see it.

As for Science Fiction that is truly dreadful, that's a more painful list, and one I feel no need to devote a lot of time and effort to. But as always, I nominate Highlander 2: The Quickening as maybe the worst ever. I'd certainly rank it as the worst sequel ever, one of the worst mainstream Sci-Fi pics too, and its just generally awful in every way. Tons of others, including recent entries such as Battlefield Earth, Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes re-make, Supernova, Red Planet, The Astronaut's Wife....unfortunately, a never-ending list.


How about a sub-category: comedy Science-Fiction? The best for me...

1. Ghostbusters (1984 - Ivan Reitman)
"Why worry? Each one of us is carrying an ulicensed nuclear accelerator on his back."

2. Men in Black (1997 - Barry Sonnenfeld)
"We're not hosting an intergalactic kegger down here."

3. Back to the Future (1985 - Robert Zemeckis)
"The way I see it, if you're going to build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?"

4. Galaxy Quest (1999 - Dean Parisot)
"I'm not even supposed to be here. I'm 'crewmember #6', I'm expendable! I'm the guy in the episode who dies to prove how serious the situation is! I've gotta get outta here!"

5. What Planet Are You From? (2000 - Mike Nichols)
"I hear they perform those anal probes. How primitive is that technology? 'Hello, we've come six-trillion miles to study your ass! We're proctologists from space.'"