From Star Trek to Guardians of the Galaxy, lovable space crews are a popular trope in sci-fi movies, because they allow the filmmakers to come up with an ensemble of colorful characters. There’s the captain, who’s usually a charming renegade like James T. Kirk or Peter Quill or Malcolm Reynolds. The captain has a loyal but free-thinking sidekick, like Spock or Rocket Raccoon, and a crew made up of iconic characters like Kane from Alien, C-3PO from Star Wars, and Trinity from The Matrix. Together, these crews bring a lot of humor and personality to the sci-fi worlds they inhabit.
Forbidden Planet created the template for the kinds of space crews seen in Star Trek and Alien. The interstellar pirates of Firefly made their way to the big screen in the movie adaptation, Serenity, and the crew of The Martian’s Ares III put their own welfare at risk to go back for the botanist they left behind. In Galaxy Quest, the space crew is made up of TV actors who have been mistaken for their spacefaring characters by real-life aliens who have built a working replica of their fictional mothership. There are plenty of lovable space crews in sci-fi movies.
10
The Lewis & Clark
Event Horizon
With its story of an unsuspecting space crew encountering demonic forces outside a portal to Hell in deep space, Event Horizon is essentially The Evil Dead in space. After the titular missing starship magically reappears in Neptune’s orbit, the rescue vessel Lewis and Clark is sent to investigate. They have no idea what kind of monsters they’ll awaken by investigating the Event Horizon.
It’s established early on that the crew has a lot of trust in each other, but that trust is jeopardized when demonic spirits make their way onboard. Once the demons get their hooks in the ship and its inhabitants, no one knows who they can trust. Iconic actors like Laurence Fishburne and Sam Neill bring this ensemble to life, rounding out their characters as three-dimensional human beings so that the horror they face is even more devastating.
9
C-57D
Forbidden Planet
Fred M. Wilcox’s Forbidden Planet was a real trailblazer in the science fiction genre. It was the first movie to take place entirely on a distant alien world, the first movie to depict faster-than-light space travel, the first movie with a fully electronic musical score, and one of the first movies to give its robot character a distinctive personality. In a loose sci-fi retelling of The Tempest, Forbidden Planet sees the crew of the starship C-57D landing on a distant planet and encountering a mad scientist.
Commander John J. Adams became Captain James T. Kirk. The United Planets became the United Federation of Planets. The Cruiser C-57D became the U.S.S. Enterprise. It’s easy to trace the camaraderie of the Enterprise crew in Star Trek back to the camaraderie of the C-57D crew in Forbidden Planet.
8
Serenity
The Firefly movie
Joss Whedon made his feature directorial debut with Serenity, a movie adaptation of his short-lived but widely acclaimed sci-fi western series Firefly. Serenity is the titular Firefly-class spaceship led by rancher-turned-gunslinger Malcolm Reynolds. Both the series and the movie take place in the year 2517, but it’s closer to a western than a typical sci-fi story. It sees the galaxy torn apart by a civil war, with pioneers rebuilding civilization on the fringes of a war-torn society.
As with Whedon’s other shows, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the ensemble cast of Firefly is full of lovable supporting characters, from husband-and-wife team Zoë and Wash to 26th-century courtesan Inara. Mal pulls the whole team together with his Han Solo-esque scoundrel charm. It’s a shame the series only lasted for one season – and the movie never got a sequel – because this is an endlessly watchable group of characters.
7
NSEA Protector
Galaxy Quest
Galaxy Quest is the definitive self-aware spoof of the sci-fi genre. It tells a wholly satisfying sci-fi story about a wayward space crew following their captain into a battle against evil aliens and triumphing over the enemy. But it’s also a delightfully meta parody of the Star Trek franchise. Galaxy Quest is an in-universe TV show starring a bunch of Hollywood divas. When some aliens in trouble mistake their broadcasts for historical records, they abduct the cast and put them at the helm of a working replica of the ship from their show, the NSEA Protector.
Despite just being a troupe of actors who make pretend, the Galaxy Quest cast steps up to fight the war on these aliens’ behalf. There are some petty rivalries between the actors – especially Shakespearean thespian Alexander Dane, who thinks he’s above doing his silly sci-fi shtick – but they stick together when it counts. Galaxy Quest is a rare example of a great parody that also functions as a great straight sci-fi narrative.
6
The Nebuchadnezzar
The Matrix
When Neo is awakened from the titular computer program in The Matrix and brought into the real world, he’s introduced to the crew of Morpheus’ ship, the Nebuchadnezzar. The crew of the Nebuchadnezzar is a scrappy resistance force desperately trying to reclaim their world and their free will from their robotic overlords. Morpheus becomes Neo’s watchful mentor, while Trinity becomes his love interest.
Everyone on the Nebuchadnezzar crew is a lovable renegade fighting the good fight – except for Cypher, who turns out to be a double agent. But even he is a fascinating character, and he has a point. As it turns out, Cypher doesn’t mind living in the Matrix, where he can eat steak every day instead of the slop they serve in the real world. As far as he’s concerned, if it looks like steak and it tastes like steak, who cares if it’s real or not?
5
Ares III
The Martian
At the beginning of The Martian, the crew of the Ares III mission unwittingly leaves behind their botanist and mechanical engineer, Dr. Mark Watney, on their way off the red planet. Mark got swept away in a brutal storm, so they assumed he died. But as soon as they learn that he’s still alive and he’s worked out a way to communicate with NASA, they start figuring out a way to turn around and go back for him.
There’s a lot of good-natured ribbing between the Ares III astronauts – like the constant mockery of Commander Lewis’ love of disco music – but they’re all ride-or-die best friends. There’s nothing they wouldn’t do for each other, including directly disobeying the orders of the Administrator of NASA. This feels realistic, given that real space crews have to spend years at a time together.
4
The Nostromo
Alien
The genius of Ridley Scott’s direction of Alien is that he took his time getting to the terror. He doesn’t introduce the facehugger and the xenomorph it births right away; he spends the first hour of the movie letting the audience get to know the crew of the Nostromo. Ellen Ripley and her crewmates aren’t big-brain geniuses who represent the best that humanity has to offer – they’re the futuristic equivalent of truckers, lugging cargo across the galaxy.
By the time Scott gets to the horror and unleashes a bloodthirsty E.T. on the Nostromo, the audience has gotten to know and care about Ripley and Dallas and Parker, so they have a vested interest in whether or not the characters survive. It’s not just a mindless intergalactic slasher; the audience is rooting for everyone to make it.
3
Guardians Of The Galaxy
Marvel Cinematic Universe
When Marvel Studios first announced a Guardians of the Galaxy movie, it was expected to be the MCU’s first box office bomb. But James Gunn brought a refreshing sincerity to his portrayal of this ragtag band of space vigilantes, treating them as real people with real feelings and real problems, and they ended up becoming globally recognizable icons. Characters like Groot, Rocket, and Nebula now rank among the most popular superheroes in Marvel’s roster.
Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy focused on the theme of found family. These characters come together and forge a familial connection with each other because they have no one else. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in particular highlighted just how far the Guardians would go to protect one of their own as they set out to save Rocket’s life.
2
The Enterprise
Star Trek
The crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise was first introduced to audiences on the small screen before boldly going to the big screen with 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture. While a big-budget movie allowed the Star Trek team to max out the spectacle, the focus remained on the crew’s camaraderie. The unwaveringly loyal crew under the leadership of roguish Captain James T. Kirk would follow him to the end of the universe.
Kirk is closer friends with some of his crewmates than others – particularly his half-Vulcan, half-human science officer Spock and his chief medical officer “Bones” McCoy – but he values and respects everyone under his command. The Enterprise has changed hands between a few captains over the years, but Kirk’s crew is still the most iconic. The rebooted series managed to recapture the crew’s iconic camaraderie.
1
The Rebel Alliance
Star Wars
Easily the most iconic crew in sci-fi cinema is the Rebel Alliance in the Star Wars saga. The Rebels are a plucky band of resistance fighters putting their own lives on the line to liberate a galaxy far, far away from the tyrannical rule of the Empire. This tale of courageous underdogs setting out to topple a dictatorship has been used as a blank canvas for writers to tell powerful stories, like Tony Gilroy’s story of a revolutionary rising up in Andor. This series highlighted the way that monolithic forces like the Empire create their own rebels.
The Rebellion’s roster includes some of the most beloved characters in science fiction. They’re led by Princess Leia Organa and Mon Mothma, who consistently show strength and resilience in the face of immeasurable evil. Luke Skywalker, the savior of the entire galaxy, started his journey with the Rebellion. Even narcissistic maverick Han Solo gave up his selfish ways to serve the Rebellion.
