This is a list of my 100 favorite science-fiction films of all time. This is an ever changing list, but this is the list as of October 2025.
I made some subjective judgement calls in regards to what I consider science-fiction since the Letterbox genre tags are always really messed up. For example, it is very inconsistent when it comes to which superhero movies are considered science-fiction and which are not. Into the Spider-verse is Sci-Fi but Across the Spider-Verse is not apparently.
So, I will be considering a film science-fiction if some manner of advanced technology, scientific principle, or otherworldly entity is involved, where it can be explained using the internal scientific logic of the film. If it cannot…
This is a list of my 100 favorite science-fiction films of all time. This is an ever changing list, but this is the list as of October 2025.
I made some subjective judgement calls in regards to what I consider science-fiction since the Letterbox genre tags are always really messed up. For example, it is very inconsistent when it comes to which superhero movies are considered science-fiction and which are not. Into the Spider-verse is Sci-Fi but Across the Spider-Verse is not apparently.
So, I will be considering a film science-fiction if some manner of advanced technology, scientific principle, or otherworldly entity is involved, where it can be explained using the internal scientific logic of the film. If it cannot be explained this way, it's magic and is excluded. I will not be including cosmic horror on this list, unless the horror is distinctly alien or has a scientific explanation such as in The Thing. When it comes to superheroes, I will be including them if their powers come from a clearly defined scientific principle, such as technological heroes (Batman, Iron Man), radiation heroes (Spider-Man, The Hulk), or aliens (Superman, Megamind).
This list was first made in October of 2024. For this revision of the list, a total of 13 films dropped out from the original. The highest ranking film to drop was Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga from 19. Of the films that joined in, the highest ranking one is Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion (7). 10 of the 13 films to join the list were first time watches since October 2024.
The newest film on this list is Lost in Starlight (68). The oldest film on this list is Metropolis (34).
8 films have kept their placement with the highest being The Empire Strikes Back (1) and the lowest being Total Recall (87). The film that moved down the most spots was Mad Max: Fury Road (93) which moved down 36 spots. The film that moved up the most spots was Jurassic Park (38) which moved up 25 spots.
Every decade starting from the 1920's is represented on this list:
1920's: 1
1930's: 3
1940's: 1
1950's: 5
1960's: 4
1970's: 8
1980's: 17
1990's: 11
2000's: 13
2010's: 14
2020's: 23
Along with this, 2023 is the most represented year with 8 films.
17 countries are represented on this list:
USA: 79
Japan: 16
UK: 14
South Korea: 4
Hong Kong: 2
Canada: 2
Germany: 2
Australia: 2
Italy: 2
France: 2
Ireland: 2
New Zealand: 1
South Africa: 1
Czech Republic: 1
Denmark: 1
Sweden: 1
Spain: 1
87 directors are represented on this list. The following are directors with multiple films on the list:
Zack Snyder: 5 (Zack Snyder's Justice League, Watchmen, Rebel Moon: Part Two - Curse of Forgiveness, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Man of Steel)
Steven Spielberg: 4 (Jurassic Park, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, A. I Artificial Intelligence, E.T Extraterrestrial)
James Cameron: 4 (Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Aliens, Avatar: The Way of Water, Terminator)
Bong Joon-Ho: 3 (Snowpiercer, The Host, Mickey 17)
Mamoru Hosoda: 3 (Digimon Adventure: Our War Game, Belle, Summer Wars)
Paul Verhoeven: 3 (Starship Troopers, Total Recall, Robocop)
Christopher Nolan: 2 (The Dark Knight, Interstellar)
Stanley Kubrick: 2 (2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange)
James Whale: 2 (The Bride of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man)
Ishirō Honda: 2 (Godzilla, Mothra vs Godzilla)
George Lucas: 2 (Star Wars: Episode II - Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars)
Denis Villeneuve: 2 (Dune: Part Two, Dune)
Robert Wise: 2 (The Andromeda Strain, The Day The Earth Stood Still)
Ridley Scott: 2 (Alien, Blade Runners)
These films earned a total of 163 Oscar nominations and won 61 of them. These nominations include 8 for Best Picture, only 1 of which won, that film being Everything Everywhere All at Once (49).
The average length of the list is 117.35 minutes with the longest film being Zack Snyder's Justice League (6) at 242 minutes and the shortest being Digimon Adventure: Our War Game (50) at 41 minutes.
The average letterbox score of the list is 3.78 with the highest rated film being The Dark Knight (3) with a 4.5 and the lowest rated film being Rebel Moon - Part Two: Curse of Forgiveness (17) with a 1.9. I personally gave the top 12 of these films 5 stars and the rest 4.5.
