The best sci-fi movies on Netflix that you absolutely must watch

Netflix

Spiderhead is the latest film since Top Gun: Maverick directed by Joseph Kosinski and also starring Miles Teller, who starred in the same film.

Spiderhead isn’t quite on the same level as the excellent Top Gun: Maverick, but it’s still worth a watch. Based on a dystopian story published in The New Yorker, Spiderhead is set in a modern prison where drug experiments are conducted on the inmates.

Columbia Pictures

Men in Black is currently on Netflix. You know that movie, everyone has seen that movie. It’s good. You should watch it.

Warner Bros.

Blade Runner 2049 really has no right to be good. A sequel to perhaps the most beloved and critically acclaimed sci-fi film of all time, it’s odd that Denis Villeneuve somehow manages to live up to that legacy while carving out one of his own. Spectacular movie.

Looper is the movie that helped get Rian Johnson the Star Wars gig, which led to my personal favorite Star Wars movie, The Last Jedi.

But other than that, Looper is just fantastic sci-fi. It’s bold with its time travel capabilities and is just an incredibly stylish film. Be careful.

Netflix

An Australian-made sci-fi thriller starring Hilary Swank and Rose Byrne, I Am Mother tells the post-apocalyptic story of Daughter, a character raised by Mother, a robot tasked with helping repopulate Earth. Very tense, very strange, very good.

Netflix

I recently watched The Colony. It’s surprisingly good!

It follows a very familiar trope: rich people return to Earth years after abandoning it to find it overrun by new, unknown threats. Colony subverts some of these clichés, however, and has some surprisingly powerful things to say about the ways in which we depersonalize each other. It’s worth a shot.

Warner Bros. Pictures

Look, I’ll level with you: I pretty much hate Inception. I think it’s a cold, pretentious movie about people who are really trying to pretend to be smart.

But most people like it, so I’m putting it on the list. Each to his own. Please enjoy this movie!

Netflix

The Mitchells vs. The Machines is one of the smartest and most accessible children’s movies of the last few years. This is the kind of movie that kids and parents can watch together and both have fun.

I should know, my kids made me watch this…eight times so far? Sweetie.

MGM

The fog is great. A sci-fi horror film based on Stephen King’s story that has some brilliantly executed horror elements. Just be aware that there is an ending that will suck the oxygen from your lungs. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

Tristar

I love this movie. This is great science fiction.

An often misunderstood parody of chauvinism, Starship Troopers has aged tremendously. On a surface level, it’s also a really fun and easy watch. Get stuck.

Netflix

The Adam Project isn’t a perfect movie, but it is is perfect for those looking for an easy watch for family movie night. Ryan Reynolds does his Ryan Reynolds thing as a time-traveling pilot working with his 12-year-old self on a mission to save the future.

Look, it’s a crowd pleaser!

Video screenshot by Amanda Kooser/CNET

Is this science fiction? I think it’s science fiction.

It’s science fiction. End of discussion.

Don’t Look Up is far from a perfect movie. It smacks of Hollywood fake activism and is too long and too unpleasant. But it still feels important and also… pretty funny?

I think that regardless of its flaws, Don’t Look Up is a film that has an overall positive impact on the world and is well worth seeing.

Sony Pictures

Gattaca is a true science fiction film as it grapples with real scientific ideas and their potential impact on the human race. It’s a eugenics film, essentially, but it also poses big questions about predestination and how we can push back against determinism. Very cool, very interesting. A must watch.

Netflix

Apollo 11 1/2 is based on director Richard Linklater’s childhood. An animated tale set around the time of the Apollo moon landings, starring Glenn Powell, Jack Black, Zachary Levy and Josh Wiggins and featuring a beautiful cartoon aesthetic.

This is a beautifully made film that you cannot afford to miss.

New line

Blade is iconic. It hardly got a good review when it first came out in 1998, but this vampire superhero movie became almost a prototype for where we are right now, with Marvel movies dominating the spotlight.

This one is slippery. It deserves attention.

Paramount Pictures

This remake/reinterpretation of War of the World is directed by Steven Spielberg and stars Tom Cruise in the title role. In my humble opinion, it’s a bit underrated! It features some really cutting-edge, well-integrated CGI and is just furiously paced. I like.

Netflix

The Platform is a Spanish sci-fi horror film with a terrifying high concept. Inmates in a correctional facility are fed in a very unique way: the people upstairs eat a ridiculous amount of food, the people downstairs get their leftovers. Chaos ensues.

It’s not perfect, but it’s still worth a watch.

Is there a more critically acclaimed sci-fi film than Blade Runner? If there is, I can’t remember. Maybe the original Alien or The Thing?

Either way, none of those are currently on Netflix, so Blade Runner probably is on you must watch a sci-fi movie on the service.