Science fiction has become one of the most prevalent genres in the film industry, and this is in part due to the iconic movies that have set the standard for this exciting category of entertainment. Many modern blockbusters, whether in or out of the genre, find their roots in the adventures through space and time that have landed on the big screen over the last century. With each, new techniques for wowing audiences are developed, grander concepts are explored, and the boundaries of reality expanded so that now, the possibilities are nearly endless.
The long-awaited Avatar: The Way of Water has once again reminded movie fans how far the science fiction genre has come. With its massive success, the Avatar sequel has proven that audiences are always eager to be wowed by the ever-advancing special effects. Still, such spectacles would not be possible without their important sci-fi predecessors– each of which brought something new for filmmakers to replicate and audiences to enjoy.
10 A Trip To The Moon (1902)
The century-old French film Le Voyage Dans La Lune (A Trip to the Moon in English) is credited for being the first ever science fiction movie. When this 15-minute film was created, humanity had not yet traveled to the moon. So, director (and star) Georges Méliès imagined that astronauts would reach their destination with a canon-like rocket and that once there, they would find comical moon men who could escape trouble in a puff of smoke.
The sci-fi staples of space travel and aliens contained within A Trip to the Moonmay be taken for granted by modern audiences, but in 1902, these were new ideas. Méliès discovered (accidentally) how to use jump cuts to make his moon men disappear and applied cross-dissolves and multiple exposures to bring his ideas to life— all of which are techniques still used today.
9 Metropolis (1927)
Though A Trip to the Moon is accepted as the first science fiction movie, Metropolis is credited with introducing the concepts that modern popular culture still associates with the futurism aesthetic. The titular city in the film was of a seemingly unimaginable scale and featured fantastically designed buildings with pointed tops and teetering levels. Flying cars and other mind-bending technologies brought the wow factor while striking violence kept the plot moving for the full-length film. It was a movie of an entirely new caliber.
Director Fritz Lang’s efforts with Metropolis would be considered ambitious even by today’s standards since successfully creating a silent science fiction movie using only practical filming techniques would be no easy task. He introduced a method of filming known as the Schüfftan process, which utilized camera angles and mirrors to place actors into small-scale sets to make it appear as if they were in a true metropolis. This innovation makes Metropolis a landmark in film as a whole, let alone science fiction.
8 Forbidden Planet (1956)
By 1956 audiences and filmmakers were ready to travel further than the moon. The years had already seen several science fiction films that brought aliens to Earth, but director Fred M. Wilcox was prepared to take humanity out of their own solar system. He was successful with his film Forbidden Planet, which showed audiences an entirely new, limitless world in full Technicolor and CinemaScope.
To travel so far away from Earth, Forbidden Planet needed to introduce a concept that any science fiction fan is familiar with: hyperspeed travel. Wilcox’s imaginings of what this would look like influenced future franchises like Star Wars and Star Trek and are unlikely to fade from popular culture anytime soon. Additionally, Forbidden Planet was the first film to feature an entirely electric musical score— something that would be associated with sci-fi for decades.
7 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
2001: A Space Odyssey is regarded today as one of the best films ever made– even outside the science fiction genre. It was the first film set in space that truly communicated the extreme vastness that is the universe. Stanley Kubrick imagined sets and spacecraft that look realistic even by today’s standards, so Space Odyssey is one of the few films to guess future technology fairly accurately.
Director Stanley Kubrick used a spinning set in 2001: A Space Odyssey, which is primarily credited for the fluid, surreal, and thoroughly space-like movement in the film. While this has been replicated in more modern sci-fi movies like Inception, it was the general concept of Space Odyssey that ensured its place in popular culture. The simple red-light design of HAL, the artificial intelligence gone rogue, has been reused across science fiction for generations – and it still proves terrifyingly effective.
6 Star Wars (1977)
It was tough to follow the success of 2001: A Space Odyssey and the prevalence of science fiction in Hollywood seemed to fade away for a time. However, this was changed forever in 1977 with the release of Star Wars – the start of one of the most iconic sci-fi franchises of all time. The film included many features that its predecessors had established: a “galaxy far, far away” setting, metallic robots, and hyperspeed travel. However, what really made Star Wars stand apart was the action and plot that all ages could enjoy.
This meant that Star Wars became a smash hit with adults and children alike and one of the first films to inspire a massively successful industry for licensed toys and memorabilia. Action figures meant that characters like Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Darth Vader became part of the household which solidified them in popular culture. In redefining the summer blockbuster, Star Wars cemented its status in movie history.
5 Blade Runner (1982)
While many sci-fi movies glorified the possibilities of evolving technology in the future, Blade Runner embraced the budding neo-noir genre and introduced a dystopian future that both wowed audiences and made them a little uncomfortable. Ridley Scott created a visually stunning world but filled it with grime and crime in a way that inspired the common idea that humanity is headed in a dangerous direction.
The beautiful yet disturbing visuals certainly made Blade Runner stand apart (alongside Harrison Ford’s unmatched ability to portray the perfect hero), but it was the questions asked that inspired a whole new world of film. For generations, science fiction explored how technology would evolve, but Blade Runner explored how this applied to the collective mind of society— and how that could combine with technology to move outside of humanity’s control. These existential questions elevated Blade Runner above many of its contemporaries.
4 Back to the Future (1985)
Time travel in science fiction movies is always a fun concept to explore, but Back to the Future did it in a genius way that guaranteed it would be fun to watch for decades. The first installment was especially unique from science fiction since it gave little imagination to future technology (just the Delorean). By going back to the 1950s and poking fun at obscure technology by comparing it to ’80s trends and pop culture, Back to the Future created a comedy that every age group could relate to.
Of course, Back to the Future could have stood on its own as an honorable mention in science fiction, but it’s the clever storytelling over all three parts that make it essential to the genre. Back to the Future Part II assimilated more with traditional sci-fi by going into Marty’s future and bringing in all those conventional futuristic elements. But, by repeating a similar plot formula to Part 1, it connected back to its same themes. Continuing this with Back to the Future III, this time going back to the 1880s, rounded the story out into a perfectly satisfactory saga.
3 Akira (1988)
Akira is an unexpected contributor to the western science fiction genre. The film is a staple for anime fans since it is hugely responsible for the emergence of Japanese animation in the United States. However, regarding sci-fi movies and television, Akira left a massive impact. First, it demonstrated that animation wasn’t only for children’s movies. It opened up endless possibilities for what a film could portray (without expensive special effects).
Of course, Japan had been creating massively popular animated films for adults for decades, but it’s no coincidence that it was Akira that gained traction with American audiences. The dystopian metropolis setting is similar to that that became popular after Blade Runner. Still, it established several unique plot points that would become familiar sci-fi tropes. For example, just like Eleven from Stranger Things is a supernatural child escaping government testing and torture, so is the Akira protagonist, Tetsuo.
2 The Matrix (1999)
As the turn of the century approached, society saw many science fiction concepts come to life with the ever-accelerating technological boom. Of course, every cautionary-tale film going back to 2001: The Space Odyssey had warned of what it would look like when machines got smarter than humans– and going into Y2K, anxiety was running high. This is poetically exemplified in yet another dystopian sci-fi, The Matrix, which established yet another subgenre of science fiction.
The Matrix movies had the gritty, oily, slightly uncomfortable feel of Blade Runner, but with the twist that characters would occasionally escape into a far more beautiful “real” world— but it was an illusion. The result of this was a Twilight Zone-like psychological thriller-meets-kung-fu sci-fi, and audiences were instantly hooked. Unlike Blade Runner, which taught viewers to be cautious of the future, The Matrix taught them not to trust their present reality— and it was a deliciously disturbing thought.
1 Avatar (2009)
While previous iconic science fiction movies introduced new plot concepts, Avatar brought a tale as old as time and applied it to a new planet. The storyline in Avatar explored how humanity would likely repeat its countless genocides to claim new resources until it wiped out not only the beauty of our world but that of others as well. It was an effective plotline in and of itself. However, to drive its point home that humans would destroy anything, no matter how beautiful, Avatar had to show audiences a whole new meaning of beauty.
Avatar combined the “anything is possible” nature of animation with the expressive capabilities of live action to create something that no longer felt like fiction. Director James Cameron used motion capture more effectively than it had ever been used before, resulting in a whole new benchmark for special effects. Since Avatar‘s release, several films have tried to do the same and failed, proving that there is a time and place for this kind of technology in movies— and another planet covered in harmonious science fiction wildlife is precisely it.
