Few film genres spark the imagination quite like science fiction. From soaring space adventures to chilling dystopian futures and mind-bending thrillers, sci-fi consistently pushes the boundaries of storytelling and visual effects. It offers a unique lens through which to explore complex ideas about humanity, technology, and what lies beyond our current understanding.
For those keen to explore the genre’s best, we’ve compiled a definitive list. Our selection features the top 20 sci-fi movies, ranked by their IMDb scores, ensuring you’ll find quality viewing whether you’re after a classic or something more recent. Blast-off into some truly unforgettable cinematic experiences with these 20 movies!
What are the best sci fi movies?
When curating a list of the best sci-fi movies, a clear and consistent approach is essential. Our ranking system prioritises IMDb rating as the primary factor, ensuring a data-driven foundation for our selections. But we understand that a truly comprehensive guide requires more than just a score, which is why we’ve also included key details for each film.
Every entry in our top 20 features its title, the year it was released, the director at the helm, and a summary of the main cast. We also note where you can find each movie by listing the streaming service available in Australia. For those who value critical acclaim, we’ve added information on awards won, alongside the age rating and a brief synopsis to help you choose your next watch. This detailed breakdown ensures you have all the necessary information at your fingertips.
Man of Steel
Action •Adventure •Sci-fi
Overview
A young boy learns that he has extraordinary powers and is not of this earth. As a young man, he journeys to discover where he came from and what he was sent here to do. But the hero in him must emerge if he is to save the world from annihilation and become the symbol of hope for all mankind.
Director
Zack Snyder
Cast
Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Diane Lane, Russell Crowe
Duration
137 minutes
Interstellar
Sci-fi •Drama
Overview
The adventures of a group of explorers who make use of a newly discovered wormhole to surpass the limitations on human space travel and conquer the vast distances involved in an interstellar voyage.
Director
Christopher Nolan
Cast
Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Ellen Burstyn, John Lithgow
Duration
169 minutes
Looper
Sci-fi •Action •Thriller •Drama •Adventure •Mystery
Overview
In the year 2044, time travel has not yet been invented but in 30 years it will have been. When the mob wants to get rid of someone, they will send their target into the past where a looper, a hired gun, like Joe is waiting to mop up. Joe is getting rich and life is good until the day the mob decides to close the loop, sending back Joe’s future self for assassination.
Director
Rian Johnson
Cast
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, Piper Perabo, Noah Segan
Duration
119 minutes
Palm Springs
Romance •Comedy •Fantasy •Sci-fi
Overview
When carefree Nyles and reluctant maid of honor Sarah have a chance encounter at a Palm Springs wedding, things get complicated when they find themselves unable to escape the venue, themselves, or each other.
Director
Max Barbakow
Cast
Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti, J.K. Simmons, Peter Gallagher, Meredith Hagner
Duration
90 minutes
Brazil
Comedy •Sci-fi •Drama •Mystery •Thriller
Overview
Low-level bureaucrat Sam Lowry escapes the monotony of his day-to-day life through a recurring daydream of himself as a virtuous hero saving a beautiful damsel. Investigating a case that led to the wrongful arrest and eventual death of an innocent man instead of wanted terrorist Harry Tuttle, he meets the woman from his daydream, and in trying to help her gets caught in a web of mistaken identities, mindless bureaucracy and lies.
Director
Terry Gilliam
Cast
Jonathan Pryce, Robert De Niro, Katherine Helmond, Ian Holm, Bob Hoskins
Duration
143 minutes
Limitless
Thriller •Sci-fi •Mystery
Overview
The life of an unsuccessful writer is transformed by a top-secret ‘smart drug’ that allows him to use 100% of his brain and become a perfect version of himself. His enhanced abilities soon attract shadowy forces that threaten his new life.
Director
Neil Burger
Cast
Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro, Abbie Cornish, Andrew Howard, Anna Friel
Duration
100 minutes
The Hunger Games
Sci-fi •Action •Adventure •Thriller •Mystery
Overview
Every year in the ruins of what was once North America, the nation of Panem forces each of its twelve districts to send a teenage boy and girl to compete in the Hunger Games. Part twisted entertainment, part government intimidation tactic, the Hunger Games are a nationally televised event in which “Tributes” must fight with one another until one survivor remains. Pitted against highly-trained Tributes who have prepared for these Games their entire lives, Katniss is forced to rely upon her sharp instincts as well as the mentorship of drunken former victor Haymitch Abernathy. If she’s ever to return home to District 12, Katniss must make impossible choices in the arena that weigh survival against humanity and life against love. The world will be watching.
Director
Gary Ross
Cast
Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks
Duration
143 minutes
The Invisible Man
Horror •Thriller •Drama •Mystery •Sci-fi
Overview
When Cecilia’s abusive ex takes his own life and leaves her his fortune, she suspects his death was a hoax. As a series of coincidences turn lethal, Cecilia works to prove that she is being hunted by someone nobody can see.
Director
Leigh Whannell
Cast
Elisabeth Moss, Aldis Hodge, Storm Reid, Michael Dorman, Harriet Dyer
Duration
119 minutes
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Action •Adventure •Sci-fi •Drama
Overview
Following the events of Captain America: Civil War, Peter Parker, with the help of his mentor Tony Stark, tries to balance his life as an ordinary high school student in Queens, New York City, with fighting crime as his superhero alter ego Spider-Man as a new threat, the Vulture, emerges.
Director
Jon Watts
Cast
Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Robert Downey Jr., Marisa Tomei, Jon Favreau
Duration
128 minutes
Elevation
Action •Adventure •Sci-fi •Mystery •Thriller
Overview
A single father and two women venture from the safety of their homes to face monstrous creatures to save the life of a young boy.
Director
George Nolfi
Duration
91 minutes
Inception
Action •Sci-fi •Adventure •Mystery •Thriller •Drama
Overview
Cobb, a skilled thief who commits corporate espionage by infiltrating the subconscious of his targets is offered a chance to regain his old life as payment for a task considered to be impossible: “inception”, the implantation of another person’s idea into a target’s subconscious.
Director
Christopher Nolan
Cast
Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ken Watanabe, Tom Hardy, Elliot Page
Duration
148 minutes
Totally Killer
Comedy •Horror •Sci-fi
Overview
When the infamous “Sweet Sixteen Killer” returns 35 years after his first murder spree to claim another victim, 17-year-old Jamie accidentally travels back in time to 1987, determined to stop the killer before he can start.
Duration
105 minutes
Stargate
Sci-fi •Adventure •Action
Overview
An interstellar teleportation device, found in Egypt, leads to a planet with humans resembling ancient Egyptians who worship the god Ra.
Director
Roland Emmerich
Cast
Kurt Russell, James Spader, Jaye Davidson, Viveca Lindfors, Alexis Cruz
Duration
121 minutes
Godzilla
Sci-fi •Action •Adventure •Thriller •Mystery •Drama
Overview
Ford Brody, a Navy bomb expert, has just reunited with his family in San Francisco when he is forced to go to Japan to help his estranged father, Joe. Soon, both men are swept up in an escalating crisis when an ancient alpha predator arises from the sea to combat malevolent adversaries that threaten the survival of humanity. The creatures leave colossal destruction in their wake, as they make their way toward their final battleground: San Francisco.
Director
Gareth Edwards
Cast
Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Juliette Binoche, Bryan Cranston, Ken Watanabe
Duration
118 minutes
Justice League
Action •Adventure •Fantasy •Sci-fi
Overview
Fuelled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman’s selfless act, Bruce Wayne and Diana Prince assemble a team of metahumans consisting of Barry Allen, Arthur Curry and Victor Stone to face the catastrophic threat of Steppenwolf and the Parademons who are on the hunt for three Mother Boxes on Earth.
Director
Zack Snyder
Cast
Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Gal Gadot, Ezra Miller
Duration
115 minutes
The Dead Zone
Drama •Thriller •Mystery •Fantasy •Horror •Sci-fi
Overview
Johnny Smith is a schoolteacher with his whole life ahead of him but, after leaving his fiancee’s home one night, is involved in a car crash which leaves him in a coma for 5 years. When he wakes, he discovers he has an ability to see into the past, present and future life of anyone with whom he comes into physical contact.
Director
David Cronenberg
Cast
Christopher Walken, Brooke Adams, Tom Skerritt, Herbert Lom
Duration
103 minutes
Arrival
Sci-fi •Drama •Mystery •Thriller
Overview
Taking place after alien crafts land around the world, an expert linguist is recruited by the military to determine whether they come in peace or are a threat.
Director
Denis Villeneuve
Cast
Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, Michael Stuhlbarg, Tzi Ma
Duration
111 minutes
Alien: Rubicon
Sci-fi •Action •Adventure •Mystery •Thriller •Horror
Overview
An alien spacecraft lands near New York and destroys everything as it heads toward Washington D.C. If it reaches the capital, it will trigger an invasion. Scientists and the military must stop it before it’s too late.
Director
Adrian Avila
Cast
Michael Paré, Preston Geer, Paul Logan, Neeley Dayan, Vinney Pugliese
Duration
90 minutes
Spider-Man
Action •Sci-fi •Adventure
Overview
After being bitten by a genetically altered spider at Oscorp, nerdy but endearing high school student Peter Parker is endowed with amazing powers to become the superhero known as Spider-Man.
Director
Sam Raimi
Cast
Tobey Maguire, Willem Dafoe, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Cliff Robertson
Duration
121 minutes
The Assessment
Drama •Sci-fi •Mystery •Thriller
Overview
In a climate change-ravaged world, a utopian society optimizes life, including parenthood assessments. A successful couple faces scrutiny by an evaluator over seven days to determine their fitness for childbearing.
Director
Fleur Fortuné
Duration
114 minutes
Frequently asked questions
Science fiction films typically explore speculative concepts, often involving advanced technology, future societies, space travel, or extraterrestrial life. They use these elements to tell engaging stories, frequently examining what it means to be human, the impact of scientific progress, or challenging our understanding of reality. You’ll find a blend of imagination and thought-provoking ideas.
While many top-tier sci-fi films are available to stream in Australia, availability can vary. Streaming services regularly update their libraries, so a movie might be on one platform today and another tomorrow, or even rotate off services entirely. Our list aims to provide current availability, but it’s always a good idea to double-check.
Our selections are carefully made using a clear methodology. For this sci-fi list, we focused on films with high IMDb ratings to ensure popular and critically acclaimed choices. We then cross-referenced these with Australian streaming availability to offer you genuinely streamable recommendations.
The sci-fi genre is incredibly diverse! You’ll often come across space opera, with its grand adventures and epic conflicts, like Star Wars, while dystopian futures, showing bleak societies, are another common theme, as are mind-bending thrillers that play with perception and reality. Other popular types include cyberpunk, alien invasion stories, and time travel narratives.
Our list embraces a wide range of sci-fi films, spanning various eras. You’ll find beloved classics that have stood the test of time alongside more recent blockbusters. The aim is to give you a well-rounded selection of the genre’s best, regardless of their release year, all ranked by their IMDb scores.
The IMDb rating is a widely recognised and respected metric, reflecting a large audience’s collective opinion on a film’s quality. By using it as our primary ranking factor, we aim to provide a credible and objective foundation for our “best of” list, making it easy for you to identify highly regarded movies.
Some of the films on our list might occasionally be available on free streaming services in Australia, particularly those with ad-supported models. However, the majority of the top-rated sci-fi movies typically reside on subscription-based platforms. We’ll always indicate which service hosts each film.
We strive to keep our content current and relevant. Streaming availabilities and IMDb ratings can shift, so we regularly review and update our “best of” movie lists. This ensures that the information you find here is as accurate and helpful as possible for your next sci-fi movie night.
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