We took a trip through decades of the genre and came up with a list of the most important and best hard science fiction movies of all time. They are the essence and the foundations of the book of sci-fi rules that’s still being written as we, the audience, become much more self-aware of our relationship with technology, the future, and whatever those two will bring.
I know Internet lists and opinions and all that, but I’m sorry but any list that puts 2001 behind Interstellar is one to ignore, at least the rankings.
All good movies on the list, though.
Their list:
15 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) 14 Interstellar (2014) 13 Gattaca (1997) 12 Solaris (1972) 11 Ex Machina (2015) 10 Coherence (2013) 9 Sunshine (2007) 8 Primer (2004) 7 Stalker (1979) 6 Gravity (2013) 5 THX 1138 (1971) 4 Ad Astra (2019) 3 Contact (1997) 2 The Martian (2015) 1 Blade Runner (1982)doesn’t contain Arrival (2016) wtf.
Conspicuous in its absence: anything animated, like Ghost in the Shell (1995), which I’d argue is harder than quite a few things on this list.
Great movie, but I’m not sure it’s considered “hard SF.” There’s no real basis to anchor much of the science in it.
I’d say the same thing about “Sunshine” and “Interstellar”.
Some movies I might consider including, in no particular order:
- Moon (2009)
- 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984)
- Silent Running (1972)
Both the book and the screenwriting required the invention of a form of alien linguistics which recurs in the plot. The film uses a script designed by the artist Martine Bertrand (wife of the production designer Patrice Vermette), based on scriptwriter Heisserer’s original concept. Computer scientists Stephen and Christopher Wolfram analyzed it to provide the basis for Banks’s work in the film.[32][33] Their works are summarized in a GitHub repository.[34] Three linguists from McGill University were consulted. The sound files for the alien language were created with consultation from Morgan Sonderegger, a phonetics expert. Lisa Travis was consulted for set design during the construction of the scientist’s workplaces. Jessica Coon, a Canada Research Chair in Syntax and Indigenous Languages, was consulted for her linguistics expertise during the review of the script.[35]
If you’re trying to say that the fact that they invented a realistic language for the film makes it hard SF, I think that’s quite a stretch. What’s the basis for
spoiler
a language changing a human’s concept of time and allowing them to remember the future
?
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, though decades old & sounding like it’s from Star Trek, is the basis, from actual linguists. Highly implausible for humans & long outdated, but as the film’s linguist consultant quips, “for aliens, all bets are off.”
what’s the basis for
fiction
I don’t think we’re connecting here. Hard science fiction is science fiction with an emphasis on scientific accuracy or plausibility. It’s sort of a subgenre, and this list is about movies in that subgenre. It doesn’t mean that there aren’t great SF movies outside of that subgenre, but this isn’t about those.
Although now I have to question the inclusion of Interstellar on this list, because it gets pretty far out there as well, especially at the end.
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Okay, your comment is at the top, so here is my take on the list:
There is a lot of overlap on this list and other “best (whatever) scifi” that pop up every so often. Yes Blade Runner was iconic and influential, but I already knew that.
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) | Good start. great visuals. lacks some context in the ending that are half explained in interviews and such. Personally, I like the book’s take on it more.
- Interstellar (2014) | A Nolan film. Also great visuals. This is one of the first movies I saw that somewhat accurately portrays what black holes are supposed to look like. It has a bunch of scenes where space or relativity or physics, etc, things are explained to experts that should already know what is being said. It works to get that info the viewer, but I found it a bit jarring
- Gattaca (1997) | Anything produced by Danny DeVito (yes that one) gets my money. This is a big “What If” movie where the question is “In a world where most everyone can select the genetic makeup for their children, how does someone born naturally fit in and live?”.
- Solaris (1972) | Never seen it, but I’ve heard good things. I tried to watch the remake with George Clooney, but I couldnt get in to it.
- Ex Machina (2015) | Great movie on the idea of an actual concept call the “Turing test”. I will point out there are some trigger warnings
- Coherence (2013) | never seen it. I added it to my list
- Sunshine (2007) | I couldnt get in to this one. It may be because I just wasnt in the mood for some hard space scifi (They are trying to re-start the sun, how cool does that sounds?), or it could be because of the content. I’ve heard of a lot of people liking it, so check it out if it sounds interesting to you.
- Primer (2004) | This is a great take on how suddenly having the ability to time travel might affect someone. There are some nested time line stuff that could be hard to follow, but overall great
- Stalker (1979) | Haven’t seen. it sounds intriguing though
- Gravity (2013) | This is science fiction in the sense that this story is fictional and takes place in space. Without being a nasa expert, everything seems to be within today’s level of technology. You could think of it as a disaster movie, but set in space. Overall fun, but in a different way than some of the other movies on this list
- THX 1138 (1971) | I hated this movie. I find it derivative of Ayn Rand’s Anthem, or Ray Bradbury’s Farenheit 451. Those books, plus THX 1138 feature a protagonist who is a cog in their own dystopia who breaks free and goes on a massive escape, eventually finding that the world is not as destroyed as they were told to believe. I felt like it suffered from all the same criticisms that George Lucas was given during the original star wars trilogy, but without anyone to refine his idea into something more unique or appealing.
- Ad Astra (2019) | Great visuals, boring story about a man who cant move on from his deadbeat dad
- Contact (1997) | Carl Sagan’s story about humanity being contacted by an alien race and given further instructions. It does an interesting exploration of science vs faith when confronted by aliens
- The Martian (2015) | Silly space action where a botanist figures out how survive on Mars and contact Nasa who have no idea that he is alive
- Blade Runner (1982) | Humans have created manufactured clone robot people. they dont like being slaves by default and revolt. Now they are hunted to extinction. Harrison Ford is the type of officer assigned with tracking down some on Earth. Amazing visuals, weird narrative. There are like, 5 different cuts of this movie and I dont find any of them particularly good. I like the sequel more.
Sounds like you’re interested in sci-fi movies with a deeper philosophical story to tell. For that reason, definitely watch Tarkovsky’s Solaris. From what I understand, it bears literally no resemblance to the ‘remake’.
I know Stalker often gets put in the sci-fi category, but I’m not sure it will satisfy someone setting out with typical expectations of the genre. It’s a great film though, and the dream sequences are peerless in film history.
Tarkovsky’s films very much run against the grain of Western cinema - they are often experimentally slow, to offer an extended exploration of a philosophical or aesthetic idea. They’re extremely strange and unique movies. I would say, essential viewing, when you have the time and mindset to be taken on a journey that at times will feel painful. Though, I think that’s Tarkovsky’s intent to some degree.
Hard to define ‘hard’, a few more I liked: (no ranking)
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The Time Machine (both the Pal and the Wells films; quite different)
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Dark City (1998, Pryas)
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Forbidden Planet (1956, Wilcox)
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The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951, Wise)
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Fifth Element (hilarious, Besson, 1997)
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Alien (Scott, 1979)
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13th Floor (Rusnak, 1999)
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Stargate (1994, Emerich)
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Steamboy (2004, Otomo)
Movies made from famed series I’d REALLY LIKE to see:
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Ringworld (Niven, a crime noone’s DARED to try).
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Some setting of Riverworld. (Farmer)
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ANY of Neal Stephenson’s SF books, esp. Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, Diamond Age, Anathem.
(Not even the BBC? I mean, who expected Doctor Who to get THIS far?!)
There’s too much kinky sex in Ringworld to be accepted by puritanical audiences.
Ringworld has an adaptation! It’s one of the most popular video games.
What? Where? What’s it called?
I have no idea what they’re talking about. The only Niven “Known Space” Ringworld games are all DOS based from decades ago.
However, Halo and Outer Wilds have both taken shots at ringworlds, but they are not Known Space universe.
Yeah I was talking about Halo.
I read Ringworld after playing Halo, thinking “haha I’ll check out this thing that looks like it influenced this game that I enjoyed” but then it turns out Bungie just lifted a bunch of stuff wholesale.
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Gravity is on this list? That movie had the most ridiculous physics.
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it. I don’t remember loving the movie, but I thought it got kudos for getting the physics right. No?
They flew from the Hubble Space Telescope to the ISS using a Manned Maneuvering Unit, nothing about that is “getting the physics right”.
The part that had me screaming at the TV was where George clooney’s character and Sandra Bullock’s character were tethered together. There are attached to the space station via straps. George Clooney releases the clip and immediately goes flying off into space. There’s no spinning, nothing at all pulling him away. If he unclipped, he would just hang there.
I’m not trying to be a stickler here, but if you’re making a movie about space following the basic details of how things move around in space is kind of important.
This is just a SciFi Movie list rather than a hard SciFi one.
I agree that The Martian is hard SciFi tho.
Solid first few, then it went to kid’s films? Really not impressed by the list at all, like the furthest they reached back was Blade Runner and only mentioned it because it’s popular, not because it was a genre defining film.
Blade Runner absolutely brought cyberpunk to the big screen, it was absolutely genre defining for a lot of people. Prior it was just Neuromancer that imagined it.
Plus they had “Metropolis” from 1927, did you read the whole list? Lol
Gravity and Ad Astra don’t belong on this list. Also they suck.
That’s very subjective. I hate Interstellar because I think it’s laughably dumb but many other people have a raging hard-on for that shitty movie. Ad Astra was very weird and very boring, but I liked the interesting visuals.
