One of my favorite movie genres of all-time is Sci-Fi and with Interstellar being released this weekend, I thought it would be fitting to bring you my top 10 sci-fi films of all-time part 2. I did my first top 10 last year and you all responded well to it so I figured I would bring my #11-20 films. So without further ado...
10 (20). Total Recall (1990)
This film is amazing and the story is just so unique that it really set the bar high. Douglas Quaid (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) a 21st-century construction worker who discovers that his entire memory of the past derives from a memory chip implanted in his brain. Quaid learns that he's actually a secret agent who had become a threat to the government, so those in power planted the chip and invented a domestic lifestyle for him. Once he has realized his true identity, he travels to Mars to piece together the rest of his identity, as well as to find the man responsible for his implanted memory. Total Recall was nominated for 3 Academy Awards including Best Sound Mixing, Best Visual Effects and Best Sound Editing , while winning the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and it has a rating of 84% on rottentomatoes.com.
9 (19). RoboCop (1987)
The film has a lot of over-the-top action, but it was just so original and it is so much fun. Set in Detroit sometime in the near future, the film is about a policeman (played by Peter Weller) killed in the line of duty whom the department decides to resurrect as a half-human, half-robot supercop. The RoboCop is indestructible, and within a matter of weeks he has removed crime from the streets of Detroit. However, his human side is tortured by his past, and he wants revenge on the thugs who killed him. RoboCop was nominated for 3 Academy Awards including Best Sound Editing, Best Sound and Best Film Editing, while winning the Academy Award for Best Sound Editing and it has a rating of 88% on rottentomatoes.com.
8 (18). The Fifth Element
This film has an all-star cast and it is just a fun, exciting action sci-fi film. In the movie's prologue, which is set in 1914, scientists gather in Egypt at the site of an event that transpired centuries earlier. Aliens, it seemed, arrived to collect four stones representing the four basic elements (earth, air, fire and water) - warning their human contacts that the objects were no longer safe on Earth. A few hundred years later (in the 23rd century), a huge ball of molten lava and flame is hurtling toward Earth, and scientist-holy man Victor Cornelius (played by Ian Holm) declares that in order to prevent it from destroying the planet, the same four elemental stones must be combined with the fifth element, as embodied by a visitor from another world named Leeloo (played by Milla Jovovich). However, if the force of evil presents itself to the stones instead, the Earth will be destroyed, and an evil being named Zorg (played by Gary Oldman) will trigger the disaster. Despite her remarkable powers, Leeloo needs help with her mission, and she chooses her accomplice, military leader-turned-cab driver Korben Dallas (played by Bruce Willis), when she literally falls through the roof of his taxi. The Fifth Element was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Sound Editing and it has a rating of 71% on rottentomatoes.com.
7 (17). Planet of the Apes (1968)
This film really helped the sci-fi genre get off the ground and it really presented a lot of new ideas and had a lot of similarities with what was going on in the world at that time. George Taylor (played by Charlton Heston), one of several astronauts on a long, long space mission whose spaceship crash-lands on a remote planet, seemingly devoid of intelligent life. Soon the astronaut learns that this planet is ruled by a race of talking, thinking, reasoning apes who hold court over a complex, multilayered civilization. In this topsy-turvy society, the human beings are grunting, inarticulate primates, penned-up like animals. When ape leader Dr. Zaius (played by Maurice Evans) discovers that the captive Taylor has the power of speech, he reacts in horror and insists that the astronaut be killed. But sympathetic ape scientists Cornelius (played by Roddy McDowell) and Dr. Zira (played by Kim Hunter) risk their lives to protect Taylor -- and to discover the secret of their planet's history that Dr. Zaius and his minions guard so jealously. In the end, it is Taylor who stumbles on the truth about the Planet of the Apes: "Damn you! Damn you! Goddamn you all to hell!" Planet of the Apes was nominated for 2 Academy Awards including Best Costume Design and Best Original Score and it has a rating of 89% on rottentomatoes.com.
6 (16). Back to the Future
This film is just flat out fun, it introduced a lot of brand new ways to use visual effects and it is one of the greatest films of all-time. Contemporary high schooler Marty McFly (played by Michael J. Fox) doesn't have the most pleasant of lives. Browbeaten by his principal at school, Marty must also endure the acrimonious relationship between his nerdy father (played by Crispin Glover) and his lovely mother (played by Lea Thompson), who in turn suffer the bullying of middle-aged jerk Biff (played by Thomas F. Wilson), Marty's dad's supervisor. The one balm in Marty's life is his friendship with eccentric scientist Doc (played by Christopher Lloyd), who at present is working on a time machine. Accidentally zapped back into the 1950s, Marty inadvertently interferes with the budding romance of his now-teenaged parents. Our hero must now reunite his parents-to-be, lest he cease to exist in the 1980s. It won't be easy, especially with the loutish Biff, now also a teenager, complicating matters. Back to the Future was nominated for 4 Academy Awards including Best Original Screenplay, Best Sound Mixing, Best Original Song and Best Sound Editing, while winning the Academy Award for Best Sound Editing and it has a rating of 96% on rottentomatoes.com.
5 (15). Moon
This movie is fantastic, vastly underrated and it is Sam Rockwell's best performance and he was robbed of an Academy award nomination as well as the entire film. For three long years, Sam Bell (played by Sam Rockwell) has dutifully harvested Helium 3 for Lunar, a company that claims it holds the key to solving humankind's energy crisis. As Sam's contract comes to an end, the lonely astronaut looks forward to returning to his wife and daughter down on Earth, where he will retire early and attempt to make up for lost time. His work on the Selene moon base has been enlightening -- the solitude helping him to reflect on the past and overcome some serious anger issues -- but the isolation is starting to make Sam uneasy. With only two weeks to go before he begins his journey back to Earth, Sam starts feeling strange: he's having inexplicable visions, and hearing impossible sounds. Then, when a routine extraction goes horribly awry, it becomes apparent that Lunar hasn't been entirely straightforward with Sam about their plans for replacing him. The new recruit seems strangely familiar, and before Sam returns to Earth, he will grapple with the realization that the life he has created may not be entirely his own. Up there, hundreds of thousands of miles from home, it appears that Sam's contract isn't the only thing about to expire. Moon has a rating of 89% on rottentomatoes.com.
4 (14). Tron
The film is visually stunning and it is just so original and fun and he film was just so ahead of it's time. Kevin Flynn (played by Jeff Bridges) a computer programmer that is transported inside the software world of a mainframe computer, where he interacts with various programs in his attempt to get back out. Tron was nominated for Best Costume Design and Best Sound Mixing and it has a rating of 70% on rottentomatoes.com.
3 (13). E.T. the Extra Terrestrial
This film is just spectacular and it has so many different tones that blend so well togehter. Elliott (played by Henry Thomas), a young boy living with his single mother (played by Dee Wallace), his older brother Michael (played by Robert MacNaughton), and his younger sister Gertie (played by Drew Barrymore). Elliott often seems lonely and out of sorts, lost in his own world. One day, while looking for something in the back yard, he senses something mysterious in the woods watching him. And he's right: an alien spacecraft on a scientific mission mistakenly left behind an aging botanist who isn't sure how to get home. Eventually Elliott puts his fears aside and makes contact with the "little squashy guy," perhaps the least threatening alien invader ever to hit a movie screen. As Elliott tries to keep the alien under wraps and help him figure out a way to get home, he discovers that the creature can communicate with him telepathically. Soon they begin to learn from each other, and Elliott becomes braver and less threatened by life. E.T. rigs up a communication device from junk he finds around the house, but no one knows if he'll be rescued before a group of government scientists gets hold of him. E.T. the Extra Terrestrial was nominated for 9 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing and Best Visual Effects, while winning 4 (Best Original Score, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing and Best Visual Effects) and it has a rating of 98% on rottentomatoes.com.
2 (12). Innerspace
This film is so underrated and I honestly have no idea why. A rambunctious Navy test pilot (played by Dennis Quaid) undergoes a top-secret miniaturization experiment and is accidentally injected into the body of a hypochondriac clerk (played by Martin Short). Innerspace won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and it has a rating of 81% on rottentomatoes.com.
1 (11). Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
As you all know I'm a huge Star Wars fan and this while it is apart of one of the greatest trilogies of all-time it is the worst, but by far not the worst in the franchise. In the final episode of the Star Wars saga, Han Solo (played by Harrison Ford) emerges intact from the carbonite casing in which he'd been sealed in The Empire Strikes Back. The bad news is that Solo, together with Luke Skywalker (played by Mark Hamill) and Princess Leia (played by Carrie Fisher), is prisoner to the grotesque Jabba the Hutt. But with the help of the charismatic Lando Calrissian (played by Billy Dee Williams), our heroes and our heroine manage to escape. The next task is to rid the galaxy of Darth Vader (played by David Prowse, voice by James Earl Jones) and the Emperor (played by Ian McDiarmid), now in command of a new, under-construction Death Star . On the forest moon Endor, the good guys enlist the help of a feisty bunch of bear-like creatures called the Ewoks in their battle against the Empire. Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi was nominated for 4 Academy Awards including Best Art Direction, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing and Best Original Score and it has a rating of 79% on rottentomatoes.com.
So ladies and gentlemen what are some of your favorite sci-fi films, are you excited for Interstellar and what did you think of my list? Let me know in the comments section below and let your voice be heard.
Jonah Sparks
10 (20). Total Recall (1990)
This film is amazing and the story is just so unique that it really set the bar high. Douglas Quaid (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) a 21st-century construction worker who discovers that his entire memory of the past derives from a memory chip implanted in his brain. Quaid learns that he's actually a secret agent who had become a threat to the government, so those in power planted the chip and invented a domestic lifestyle for him. Once he has realized his true identity, he travels to Mars to piece together the rest of his identity, as well as to find the man responsible for his implanted memory. Total Recall was nominated for 3 Academy Awards including Best Sound Mixing, Best Visual Effects and Best Sound Editing , while winning the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and it has a rating of 84% on rottentomatoes.com.
9 (19). RoboCop (1987)
The film has a lot of over-the-top action, but it was just so original and it is so much fun. Set in Detroit sometime in the near future, the film is about a policeman (played by Peter Weller) killed in the line of duty whom the department decides to resurrect as a half-human, half-robot supercop. The RoboCop is indestructible, and within a matter of weeks he has removed crime from the streets of Detroit. However, his human side is tortured by his past, and he wants revenge on the thugs who killed him. RoboCop was nominated for 3 Academy Awards including Best Sound Editing, Best Sound and Best Film Editing, while winning the Academy Award for Best Sound Editing and it has a rating of 88% on rottentomatoes.com.
8 (18). The Fifth Element
This film has an all-star cast and it is just a fun, exciting action sci-fi film. In the movie's prologue, which is set in 1914, scientists gather in Egypt at the site of an event that transpired centuries earlier. Aliens, it seemed, arrived to collect four stones representing the four basic elements (earth, air, fire and water) - warning their human contacts that the objects were no longer safe on Earth. A few hundred years later (in the 23rd century), a huge ball of molten lava and flame is hurtling toward Earth, and scientist-holy man Victor Cornelius (played by Ian Holm) declares that in order to prevent it from destroying the planet, the same four elemental stones must be combined with the fifth element, as embodied by a visitor from another world named Leeloo (played by Milla Jovovich). However, if the force of evil presents itself to the stones instead, the Earth will be destroyed, and an evil being named Zorg (played by Gary Oldman) will trigger the disaster. Despite her remarkable powers, Leeloo needs help with her mission, and she chooses her accomplice, military leader-turned-cab driver Korben Dallas (played by Bruce Willis), when she literally falls through the roof of his taxi. The Fifth Element was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Sound Editing and it has a rating of 71% on rottentomatoes.com.
7 (17). Planet of the Apes (1968)
This film really helped the sci-fi genre get off the ground and it really presented a lot of new ideas and had a lot of similarities with what was going on in the world at that time. George Taylor (played by Charlton Heston), one of several astronauts on a long, long space mission whose spaceship crash-lands on a remote planet, seemingly devoid of intelligent life. Soon the astronaut learns that this planet is ruled by a race of talking, thinking, reasoning apes who hold court over a complex, multilayered civilization. In this topsy-turvy society, the human beings are grunting, inarticulate primates, penned-up like animals. When ape leader Dr. Zaius (played by Maurice Evans) discovers that the captive Taylor has the power of speech, he reacts in horror and insists that the astronaut be killed. But sympathetic ape scientists Cornelius (played by Roddy McDowell) and Dr. Zira (played by Kim Hunter) risk their lives to protect Taylor -- and to discover the secret of their planet's history that Dr. Zaius and his minions guard so jealously. In the end, it is Taylor who stumbles on the truth about the Planet of the Apes: "Damn you! Damn you! Goddamn you all to hell!" Planet of the Apes was nominated for 2 Academy Awards including Best Costume Design and Best Original Score and it has a rating of 89% on rottentomatoes.com.
6 (16). Back to the Future
This film is just flat out fun, it introduced a lot of brand new ways to use visual effects and it is one of the greatest films of all-time. Contemporary high schooler Marty McFly (played by Michael J. Fox) doesn't have the most pleasant of lives. Browbeaten by his principal at school, Marty must also endure the acrimonious relationship between his nerdy father (played by Crispin Glover) and his lovely mother (played by Lea Thompson), who in turn suffer the bullying of middle-aged jerk Biff (played by Thomas F. Wilson), Marty's dad's supervisor. The one balm in Marty's life is his friendship with eccentric scientist Doc (played by Christopher Lloyd), who at present is working on a time machine. Accidentally zapped back into the 1950s, Marty inadvertently interferes with the budding romance of his now-teenaged parents. Our hero must now reunite his parents-to-be, lest he cease to exist in the 1980s. It won't be easy, especially with the loutish Biff, now also a teenager, complicating matters. Back to the Future was nominated for 4 Academy Awards including Best Original Screenplay, Best Sound Mixing, Best Original Song and Best Sound Editing, while winning the Academy Award for Best Sound Editing and it has a rating of 96% on rottentomatoes.com.
5 (15). Moon
This movie is fantastic, vastly underrated and it is Sam Rockwell's best performance and he was robbed of an Academy award nomination as well as the entire film. For three long years, Sam Bell (played by Sam Rockwell) has dutifully harvested Helium 3 for Lunar, a company that claims it holds the key to solving humankind's energy crisis. As Sam's contract comes to an end, the lonely astronaut looks forward to returning to his wife and daughter down on Earth, where he will retire early and attempt to make up for lost time. His work on the Selene moon base has been enlightening -- the solitude helping him to reflect on the past and overcome some serious anger issues -- but the isolation is starting to make Sam uneasy. With only two weeks to go before he begins his journey back to Earth, Sam starts feeling strange: he's having inexplicable visions, and hearing impossible sounds. Then, when a routine extraction goes horribly awry, it becomes apparent that Lunar hasn't been entirely straightforward with Sam about their plans for replacing him. The new recruit seems strangely familiar, and before Sam returns to Earth, he will grapple with the realization that the life he has created may not be entirely his own. Up there, hundreds of thousands of miles from home, it appears that Sam's contract isn't the only thing about to expire. Moon has a rating of 89% on rottentomatoes.com.
4 (14). Tron
The film is visually stunning and it is just so original and fun and he film was just so ahead of it's time. Kevin Flynn (played by Jeff Bridges) a computer programmer that is transported inside the software world of a mainframe computer, where he interacts with various programs in his attempt to get back out. Tron was nominated for Best Costume Design and Best Sound Mixing and it has a rating of 70% on rottentomatoes.com.
3 (13). E.T. the Extra Terrestrial
This film is just spectacular and it has so many different tones that blend so well togehter. Elliott (played by Henry Thomas), a young boy living with his single mother (played by Dee Wallace), his older brother Michael (played by Robert MacNaughton), and his younger sister Gertie (played by Drew Barrymore). Elliott often seems lonely and out of sorts, lost in his own world. One day, while looking for something in the back yard, he senses something mysterious in the woods watching him. And he's right: an alien spacecraft on a scientific mission mistakenly left behind an aging botanist who isn't sure how to get home. Eventually Elliott puts his fears aside and makes contact with the "little squashy guy," perhaps the least threatening alien invader ever to hit a movie screen. As Elliott tries to keep the alien under wraps and help him figure out a way to get home, he discovers that the creature can communicate with him telepathically. Soon they begin to learn from each other, and Elliott becomes braver and less threatened by life. E.T. rigs up a communication device from junk he finds around the house, but no one knows if he'll be rescued before a group of government scientists gets hold of him. E.T. the Extra Terrestrial was nominated for 9 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing and Best Visual Effects, while winning 4 (Best Original Score, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing and Best Visual Effects) and it has a rating of 98% on rottentomatoes.com.
2 (12). Innerspace
This film is so underrated and I honestly have no idea why. A rambunctious Navy test pilot (played by Dennis Quaid) undergoes a top-secret miniaturization experiment and is accidentally injected into the body of a hypochondriac clerk (played by Martin Short). Innerspace won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and it has a rating of 81% on rottentomatoes.com.
1 (11). Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
As you all know I'm a huge Star Wars fan and this while it is apart of one of the greatest trilogies of all-time it is the worst, but by far not the worst in the franchise. In the final episode of the Star Wars saga, Han Solo (played by Harrison Ford) emerges intact from the carbonite casing in which he'd been sealed in The Empire Strikes Back. The bad news is that Solo, together with Luke Skywalker (played by Mark Hamill) and Princess Leia (played by Carrie Fisher), is prisoner to the grotesque Jabba the Hutt. But with the help of the charismatic Lando Calrissian (played by Billy Dee Williams), our heroes and our heroine manage to escape. The next task is to rid the galaxy of Darth Vader (played by David Prowse, voice by James Earl Jones) and the Emperor (played by Ian McDiarmid), now in command of a new, under-construction Death Star . On the forest moon Endor, the good guys enlist the help of a feisty bunch of bear-like creatures called the Ewoks in their battle against the Empire. Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi was nominated for 4 Academy Awards including Best Art Direction, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing and Best Original Score and it has a rating of 79% on rottentomatoes.com.
So ladies and gentlemen what are some of your favorite sci-fi films, are you excited for Interstellar and what did you think of my list? Let me know in the comments section below and let your voice be heard.
Jonah Sparks
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