The 1980s saw an explosion of new and innovative sci-fi movies thanks to the impact of hits like Star Wars and Alien in the late ’70s, with the sequels to those movies proving to be as equally satisfying, if not more so.
Technology progressed leaps and bounds throughout the decade, with early digital effects at the beginning of the ’80s developing into the CGI that movie fans know today by the end. Each year had multiple sci-fi movies that are worth remembering today, but which are the very best of them all? These great sci-fi movies, chosen as the best of each year from the ’80s, show the progression of the genre throughout the decade whilst remaining as entertaining as they are thought-provoking.
1980: The Empire Strikes Back
● Available on Disney+
Still put forward to this day as potentially the greatest movie sequel ever made, The Empire Strikes Back made it clear that the cultural impact of Star Wars in the late 1970s was far from a passing fad. Setting the benchmark for darker and more complex sequels, this Star Wars movie delivered one of the best plot twists of movie history as well as one of the franchise’s most satisfying lightsaber fights.
Though the final part of the trilogy, Return of the Jedi, would never really be considered to be as crowd-pleasing, the pop culture of the early ’80s belonged to Star Wars thanks, in part, to Empire‘s daringness.
1981: Mad Max 2
● Available on HBO Max
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior continued the early-’80s trend of astonishing sequels that not only lived up to their original movies but expanded on their best qualities. The titular antihero finds themselves pitted against a marauding band of post-apocalyptic barbarians in the ongoing Mad Max series’ second installment, sparking a fascination with the movie’s wasteland aesthetic that has lasted to this day and can be seen in pop culture phenomenons like Rick and Morty.
The movie’s stunts also brought a much more grounded approach to increasingly outlandish action setpieces inspired by Star Wars, which has helped it age far better than most high concept sci-fi films of the era. The result is that Mad Max 2 still offers fascinating insights into how the simple manipulation of perspective can make a few cars driving on a highway seem as epic as a battle in an alien world.
1982: Blade Runner
● Available on HBO Max
1982 was truly an incredible year for sci-fi movies. It’s really too close to call when looking for an out-and-out champion, with iconic favorites like E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan rubbing shoulders with initially-overlooked masterpieces like John Carpenter’s The Thing and Disney’s cult classic, Tron. However, it’s ultimately Ridley Scott’s neo-noir detective story, about a man who hunts down rogue synthetic workers in the rain-soaked dystopian landscape of a future LA that has truly stood out across the years as the great pop culture influence to be reckoned with.
The movie’s mixture of Vangelis’ haunting score with the striking futurist designs of concept artist Syd Mead created an indelible atmosphere. That atmosphere has fuelled a fascination with the movie and its philosophical themes amongst sci-fi fans throughout all of its many cuts from across the decades, with the movie’s belated sequel, Blade Runner 2049, ensuring that fascination’s survival into the modern era.
1983: Videodrome
● Available for purchase on Prime Video
Director David Cronenberg had already made a name for himself as an important voice within the burgeoning genre of body horror, and the immense weirdness and grotesquery at the heart of Videodrome cemented his status.
Released the same year as Cronenerg’s much more mainstream The Dead Zone — a great Stephen King adaptation — Videodrome delves into ideas of organic matter and human life melding with technology, making it considerably ahead of its time. The search within the movie for the source of the titular TV channel fuels debates and discussions about identity within an increasingly digital world, many of which have only become more relevant to viewers over time.
1984: The Terminator
● Available on Prime Video and YouTube
Writer and director James Cameron made waves in the sci-fi genre with his second feature-length movie that can still be felt today. The story of a time-traveling robot assassin sent back to end the human resistance against the machines before it even begins was a revelation in relatively low-budget genre filmmaking back in the mid-1980s.
The movie demonstrated Cameron’s efficiency and ingenuity when it comes to mixing various effects and techniques to make something realistically modest seem truly epic in scale. This would, of course, be parlayed into Cameron’s future projects, which would only become bigger and bigger until he finally became the creator of two of the highest-grossing movies ever made.
1985: Back to the Future
● Available on Netflix
A perennial comedy movie favorite amongst fans of all ages, Back to the Future became a movie that was infinitely parodied and copied over the following decades — but never topped. The iconic adventure story sees high school slacker Marty McFly on a mission to get back to his own time period after accidentally traveling back to the 1950s.
The quintessential movie magic from executive producer Steven Spielberg and director Robert Zemeckis blended well with the film’s use of catchy pop music mixed with the unforgettable score from composer Alan Silvestri. Its subtler themes of self-determination fighting against the inevitability of fate have always struck a chord with movie fans, making it an infectiously upbeat slice of nostalgic pleasure that explores the idea of nostalgia itself. Marty’s friendship with the eccentric scientist Doc Brown would also become a major reference point for modern pop culture hits like Rick and Morty.
1986: Aliens
● Available on Prime Video
The first of numerous sequels to Ridley Scott’s seminal sci-fi horror movie Alien from 1979, Aliens saw writer and director James Cameron progress to the next stage of his career after the success of The Terminator, expanding on concepts and designs from the original movie and building an even larger and more detailed world around them.
Returning to the planet where it all went wrong in the first movie, Alien franchise lead Ellen Ripley delivers some payback against the terrifying xenomorphs with all the explosive glory and impressive detail that Cameron has since become famous for.
1987: Predator
● Available on Hulu
In what was only his second movie as director, John McTiernan redefined the action genre with the horror-tinged sci-fi movie, Predator, before redefining it again the following year with his third directorial effort, Die Hard.
Predator follows a team of heavily-armed commandos in a Central American rainforest who suddenly become prey to a technologically advanced and physically superior alien game hunter. The movie taps into more essential and intelligent sci-fi concepts than its machismo wrapping may initially imply whilst still giving star Arnold Schwarzenegger some of his best one-liners ever.
1988: They Live
● Available on Peacock
Iconic director John Carpenter created a decade-defining pop culture icon with the last movie of his unparalleled run in the 1980s. They Live is a darkly comedic satire of the greed culture of the 1980s in American society that follows a drifter who comes into possession of a pair of sunglasses that allow him to see the nefarious aliens controlling the human populace of Los Angeles through media manipulation and authoritarian rule.
Despite a deeply cynical shell, the movie is really remembered as a joyous experience by fans, allowing it to sit comfortably amongst the more mainstream movies of the decade, in no small part thanks to its all-time great fight sequence between Roddy Piper and Keith David.
1989: The Abyss
● Available on Prime Video and Paramount+
Writer and director James Cameron rounded out the decade with his game-changing underwater story about a team of soldiers and deep-sea oil drillers trying to uncover the truth about a sunken submarine.
Danger and drama lurk around every corner down in the depths but it’s really the movie’s Oscar-winning special effects that steal the show, as they introduced many audience members to computer-generated effects that would go on to become the normality of almost all big-budget filmmaking in today’s world.
