When it comes to science fiction films, the first productions that come to our minds are the films that have produced great scenes with the high technology produced in recent years. However, fans of the genre know that the history of science fiction in cinema dates back to much older times, even a hundred years ago. Although science fiction films made in the past years could not present high-tech scenes like today, it is certain that they tell much stronger subtexts.
On the Rotten Tomatoes website, which has a structure similar to IMDb, movies are voted by critics, that is, by the masters of the business. As a result of these votes, we come across the best quality science fiction movies ever. We have listed 9 productions that are considered by critics as the best science fiction films in the history of cinema, which fans of the genre must watch, and we briefly talked about the stories of the films.
Metropolis
- Genre: Sci-Fi, Drama
- Year: 1927
- Director: Fritz Lang
- Cast: Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel, Gustav Fröhlich
- IMDb: 8.3
- Rotten Tomatoes: 97%
Metropolis, which is the oldest movie in the list of the best science fiction movies according to critics, stands out for being a black and white and silent science fiction movie. The film depicts a world in the distant future where the lives of employees and bosses are cut by sharp boundaries. All the workers of this world are waiting for a savior for them. When the Savior comes, we witness wonderfully designed scenes according to the technology of the period.
Them!
- Genre: Sci-Fi, Horror
- Year: 1954
- Director: Gordon Douglas
- Cast: James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn, Joan Weldon
- IMDb: 7.2
- Rotten Tomatoes: 97%
Tests of atomic, nuclear and similar substances dangerous to humanity are carried out either in the open oceans or in desert areas such as New Mexico. People are not harmed, ants or something in the region mostly die. But Them! In the movie, these ants don’t die, they turn into giant man-eating monsters. The US army will do its best to eradicate these terrible ants, who are chasing after people as if to avenge nature.
Brazil
- Genre: Sci-Fi, Drama
- Year: 1985
- Director: Terry Gilliam
- Cast: Jonathan Pryce, Kim Greist, Robert De Niro
- IMDb: 7.9
- Rotten Tomatoes: 98%
After Brazil, the first of Terry Gilliam’s dystopian trilogy, the series, completed with 12 Monkeys and Gilliam films, tells the story of a creepy dystopian future. Brazil, the first film in the series, clearly bears traces of George Orwell’s 1984. In the movie Brazil, which is about a disturbing state system, we are watching the story of a bureaucrat who finally rebels against this world.
A Quiet Place
- Genre: Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
- Year: 2018
- Director: John Krasinski
- Cast: Emily Blunt, John Krasinski, Millicent Simmonds
- IMDb: 7.5
- Rotten Tomatoes: 96%
A Quiet Place, one of the two newest movies on the list of best science fiction movies according to critics, also has a sequel in 2020. The film tells a story in a post-apocalyptic world where predatory monsters have extremely sensitive hearing. The handful of people who managed to survive by escaping from these monsters now have to be as quiet as they have ever been heard. In this world, sound means death.
Mad Max: Fury Road
- Genre: Sci-Fi, Action, Adventure
- Year: 2015
- Director: George Miller
- Cast: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult
- IMDb: 8.1
- Rotten Tomatoes: 97%
Mad Max: Fury Road, the second of the two newest movies on the list of best science fiction movies according to critics, is considered one of the most successful films of the long-standing Mad Max legend. The movie, like all the movies in the series, takes place in a dehydrated future. In this post-apocalyptic story, of course, there is a very cruel and at the same time perverted leader. The one who will stop this leader is a hero we all know closely.
Repo Man
- Genre: Sci-Fi, Action, Comedy, Crime
- Year: 1984
- Director: Alex Cox
- Cast: Harry Dean Stanton, Emilio Estevez, Tracey Walter
- IMDb: 6.9
- Rotten Tomatoes: 98%
Our character, one of the classic teen punks of the 1980s, takes a job at a strange car revitalization company after being fired from his job. This world, which he did not like at first, becomes more and more fun for him. Our science fiction story begins when a beautiful woman comes to the shop and tells that there is an extraterrestrial object in the trunk of a car. This young man who has given up on everything now has a goal that he is fully devoted to.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
- Genre: Sci-Fi, Drama, Horror
- Year: 1956
- Director: Don Siegel
- Cast: Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter, Larry Gates
- IMDb: 7.7
- Rotten Tomatoes: 98%
The doctor, who works in a small town called Santa Mira in California, becomes suspicious when many patients come with a similar complaint. The applicants themselves are not sick, but each of their favorite relatives has turned into emotionless robots. As the story progresses, in which one of humanity’s greatest fears is successfully told about the transformation of a person we know into an alien, we come across invading aliens from Mars.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
- Genre: Sci-Fi, Family
- Year: 1982
- Director: Steven Spielberg
- Cast: Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore, Peter Coyote
- IMDb: 7.8
- Rotten Tomatoes: 98%
Especially in the 1980s, when aliens were portrayed as terrifying creatures, Steven Spielberg introduced this taboo to E.T. washes it with the Extra-Terrestrial film. In the movie, we watch the story of a little boy who befriends a cute and friendly alien who somehow finds himself on our Earth. The film, in which the fear of aliens is eliminated and even different species can be friends, turns into a fun adventure when the child helps the alien to escape from here.
Alien
- Genre: Sci-Fi, Horror
- Year: 1979
- Director: Ridley Scott
- Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt
- IMDb: 8.4
- Rotten Tomatoes: 98%
Alien, one of the films that best reflects the alien fear of the 1970s, reminds us that the aliens we should be afraid of can be in the depths of space. Traveling through deep space for a special mission and sleeping in sleep pods, the crew receive a distress signal from a nearby ship. Immediately after this signal, our team finds an egg on the ship where the signal came from. Through terrifying experience, they will learn that this egg contains an organism unlike any known creature.
