space travel movies

50 Best Space Movies Of All Time Ranked

Space is the final frontier, and, of course, the place where no one can hear you scream. As a setting for movies, space has provided endless opportunities for incredible films, ones that showcase humanity's fascination with places unknown, epic journeys, weird and wonderful creatures, and alien technology. Sitting within the realm of science fiction, it's a subgenre that continues to surprise and delight audiences.

As few of us will be able to experience the wonders of space for ourselves, movies are the thing that can transport us there. Some convey the awe and wonder of other worlds and planets, whereas others take a distinctly darker approach, portraying space as something to be feared, full of things that humans should perhaps not meddle with.

From a 1902 silent film about the moon to modern planet-hopping blockbuster behemoths, the genre has something to offer everyone, with possibilities almost as vast as the universe itself. While many of these films focus on people traveling to other planets –- both real and fictional –- or visitors from other worlds coming to Earth, others are much more grounded in reality, taking inspiration from real-life events and space missions. With a whole galaxy of films to choose from, these are the very best space movies. (Warning: There are spoilers below.)

Updated on July 6, 2022 : Space stretches on forever, which means there's plenty of room for more space movies. As otherworldly films take their place in the cosmos, we'll be sure to add any instant classics to our list.

50. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Based on the book of the same name by Douglas Adams, this 2005 film adaptation of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" certainly retains the offbeat (and very British) humor of the source material and boasts a starry cast that includes Martin Freeman, Zooey Deschanel, Bill Nighy, Sam Rockwell, and Stephen Fry, to name but a few. 

The film's hero is Arthur Dent (Freeman), who finds himself whisked away from Earth when an alien construction crew invades. At times, the film feels a little like a fever dream, and those unfamiliar with the tone of Adam's book may find themselves alienated by how madcap it feels. However, if you're a fan of stuff like "Monty Python," this film is a real treat and a palette cleanser to some of the more serious space movie offerings. As Peter Travers in his review for Rolling Stone puts it, "Adams would be pleased."

49. Elysium

Following the incredible "District 9" was no easy feat for director Neill Blomkamp, and while "Elysium" doesn't reach the heights of that film, it's still one that's worth a watch. "Elysium" continues some of the themes set out in Blomkamp's previous movie, particularly examining the idea of class inequality. Set in the year 2154, there are vast wealth divisions in humanity, with the mega-rich living on a luxury space station called Elysium and the rest living hand-to-mouth in what remains of the Earth. The future hangs in the balance as Max Da Costa (Matt Damon) seeks to bring equality between the groups, but Secretary Delacourt (Jodie Foster) stands in his way as she endeavors to protect the prosperous population of Elysium.

While the film performed well at the box office , Blomkamp himself had some regrets about its script, saying, "I just didn't make a good enough film is ultimately what it is" ( via Uproxx ). However, we think the guy is being a little hard on himself. After all, it was well-received by critics, including Amon Warmann for CineVue , who called it "one of those rare blockbusters that manages to be entertaining while also having something relevant to say."

48. Armageddon

It may have been critically panned, but "Armageddon" taps into exactly what makes space movies so entertaining, focusing on a catastrophic apocalyptic event, with Earth's only hope being a team of underdogs. When an asteroid the size of Texas is on course to destroy the world, NASA recruits a team of oil drillers to drill a hole in the asteroid and plant a bomb inside to break it apart. Heading up this team of unlikely heroes is blue-collar driller Harry Stamper (Bruce Willis), a guy who, rather than train the astronauts in how to drill, insists upon taking his own ragtag team into space to complete the mission.

Despite some scathing critic reviews — including Stephen Hunter for the Washington Post who said, "It leaves no stone unturned in its search for the perfect cliche" — the film pulled in huge numbers at the box office. Making over $553 million worldwide, "Armageddon" was the highest-grossing film of 1998 , ahead of big hitters such as "Saving Private Ryan" and Roland Emmerich's "Godzilla." And hey, it was good enough to find a place in the Criterion Collection , so it's good enough for us.

47. Europa Report

Our fascination about whether life exists on other planets is frequently the subject of movies, like this underrated 2013 film. Partially filmed in a found-footage style, "Europa Report" follows a group of astronauts as they embark on a mission to Europa –- one of the moons of Jupiter –- to search for signs of life. Using this filming technique helps to ground the film in a strikingly realistic way, as well as adding to the claustrophobic and tense atmosphere.

Space movies aren't often praised for their sense of realism, but "Europa Report" was an exception to this, with Space.com saying it "just might be the most realistic — and harrowing — depiction of space travel on the big screen in years." Without a major distributor behind it, the film had a limited release and even more limited box office takings, but it boasts an impressive 'fresh' rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics such as Michael D. Lemonick for Time calling it "brisk, thrilling and ultimately terrifying."

46. Serenity

Despite only running for one season, Joss Whedon's sci-fi series "Firefly" proved to be a huge cult hit, with a passionate fanbase who are still calling for its return. While Whedon might not have been able to get another season off the ground, he did manage to get the backing for a feature film as a continuation of the story, and in 2005, "Serenity" was released. The film –- which also marked Whedon's feature directorial debut –- saw the cast returning for a new adventure, as the crew of the Serenity spacecraft takes on two fugitives while the ominously named "The Operative" (Chiwetel Ejiofor) pursues them.

Of course, fans of "Firefly" absolutely adored "Serenity," and it proved to be the making of Joss Whedon's directorial career (for better and for worse), as his next feature film was 2012's "The Avengers." As for the film itself, in follows in the "Firefly" mold of making space like the landscape of the Wild West — grungy, dangerous, and untamed. "Serenity" was also favorably received by critics, with Nick Funnell of Time Out saying, "The settings and tone are hyper-real, yet the human behavior is grounded and credible, the moral conflicts complex and involving."

45. Deep Impact

While "Armageddon" –- the other  space-themed disaster movie that came out in 1998 -– eventually dwarfed "Deep Impact" in terms of overall box office, "Deep Impact" is arguably the stronger film, and it had a better opening weekend to its counterpart , beating it by just over $5 million . In the movie, an 11km wide comet is on course to collide with Earth with catastrophic consequences. While a heroic team of astronauts is sent out to try and decimate the comet in orbit, the film focuses more heavily on the human impact, as those on Earth face their possible extinction.

Unlike "Armageddon," "Deep Impact" has been lauded for being a much more realistic depiction of what would happen when a comet is on a collision course with Earth. For example, n an interview with BuzzFeed , astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson praised the film, saying that it "had really good science going there."

44. Zathura: A Space Adventure

A decade after the original "Jumanji," another board game-based adventure arrived in the form of "Zathura: A Space Adventure." With a considerable advancement in special effects from its jungle-themed counterpart, "Zathura" tells the story of two brothers who are transported into space by a game that they discover in their basement. As you might expect, the film follows a lot of similar beats to "Jumanji," but it's a thrilling and fun film in its own right, with a surprisingly touching story about two bickering siblings who eventually learn how to play nice.

With competition from Disney's latest animated film "Chicken Little," and "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," "Zathura" had a disappointing turnout at the box office . Despite this, the film was well-received by critics, including Desson Thomson for the Washington Post who said it "salutes the low-tech magic that lurks inside a board game -– that hidden ability to bring people together."

43. Event Horizon

Space frequently provides a terrifying backdrop for films that finely toe the line between sci-fi and horror, and one of the most nightmare-inducing examples is 1997's "Event Horizon." When a spaceship that previously disappeared into a black hole comes back into orbit, a rescue crew is deployed to investigate, unaware that something dark and sinister has found its way on board. "Event Horizon" plays out like a haunted house movie in space, with a certain debt owed to films such as "The Shining" and "Alien" in terms of creating that feeling of paranoia and claustrophobia.

"Event Horizon" was plagued by a troubled production, and upon its release, not only was it a box office flop but it was torn apart by critics like Jonathan Rosenbaum for Chicago Reader , who called it "the pits." However, in a similar trajectory to 1982's "The Thing," it became a cult hit following its release on home video and has subsequently been re-assessed as an underrated example of the genre.

42. Mars Attacks!

With a star-studded cast and Tim Burton at the peak of his powers, "Mars Attacks!" –- the director's loving homage to sci-fi B-movies –- proved to be divisive upon its release. It is, however, a film that's improved over time, and its cutting satirical anti-establishment themes mean it's remained surprisingly relevant. 

Based on the trading card series of the same name, "Mars Attacks!" sees hordes of little green men arrive on planet Earth, while the world's assembled powers wait to see if their intentions are peaceful. Whether it is the aliens' hilarious way of speaking or the femme fatale "Martian Girl" (Lisa Marie) with her iconic bouffant blonde wig, "Mars Attacks!" is packed with moments that make it unlike any other alien invasion film you'll see.

While the unique and zany nature of the film didn't necessarily connect with American audiences , it performed much better in Europe, cementing its status as a future cult classic. The mixed reactions of cinemagoers are also reflected in the critical reception , with Empire's Mark Salisbury praising the film , calling it "giddily madcap, surreal, sardonic satire," while Peter Stack for the San Francisco Chronicle said it "blows most of its inspired moments with its mean-spirited mentality." As for us, we definitely agree with Salisbury — "Mars Attacks!' just might be Tim Burton's most underrated movie.

The story may be a familiar one –- a crew on board a spaceship finds a rapidly evolving life-form that threatens their existence –- but 2017's "Life" proves that this oft-repeated concept is still one that can draw in an audience . Largely bolstered by a starry cast that includes Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, and Ryan Reynolds, "Life" focuses on a small crew on the International Space Station who uncover evidence of life on Mars. What's particularly terrifying about this film is we see the evolution of the life form –- which our heroes name "Calvin" –- as it adapts and changes into something that doesn't just pose a threat to the crew members but to all life on Earth.

While it treads familiar ground and instantly leads to comparisons with the much superior "Alien," "Life" has some well-timed and effective moments of body horror, with a particularly bleak twist ending that will haunt you as the credits roll. As with many of the films of this ilk, the characters aren't particularly well-developed, but the concept itself is scary enough to keep your interest.

40. Independence Day

"Master of Disaster" Roland Emmerich shamelessly borrows from pretty much every other alien invasion film in existence, but there's still something unabashedly entertaining about "Independence Day." With a cast that includes '90s movie stalwarts such as Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, and Bill Pullman, the film wears its patriotic heart on its sleeve –- the clue is in the title after all –- and for many, it has become the mainstay movie of the holiday, along with classics like "Jaws."

It may have been Steven Spielberg that invented the blockbuster with the aforementioned "Jaws," but Emmerich ushered in a new era, with movies featuring wanton destruction of major landmarks proving to be big business. Spielberg even reportedly said to Emmerich, "This movie will do more to change blockbuster summer movies than any movie before" ( via Deadline ). The numbers certainly reflect how huge "Independence Day" was, bringing in a whopping $817 million worldwide and becoming the highest-grossing film of 1996 .

39. Treasure Planet

Directors Ron Clements and Jon Musker had been floating the idea of "Treasure Island in Space" for almost two decades. While the directing duo enjoyed success in the meantime with films such as "The Little Mermaid" and "Aladdin," their passion project finally came to fruition in 2002, rebranded as "Treasure Planet." While the film was a huge flop for Disney, it's hugely imaginative and marked a big leap forward in terms of blending CGI animation techniques with the more traditional hand-drawn style.

The film focuses on Jim Hawkins (voiced by Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a rebellious teen who's bequeathed a treasure map, and along with a cyborg John Silver (Brian Murray) as his mentor, he embarks on the journey to find the hidden loot. Despite the poor box office takings, "Treasure Planet" received many positive reviews, including from critic Ed Gonzalez for Slant Magazine who said, "The film is alive with a rollicking sense of adventure." It may not match some of Disney's other films in terms of longevity, but based on sheer spectacle, it's one of the very best.

38. Contact

Movies about aliens tend to go one of three ways: over-the-top and explosive spectacle, horror and paranoia, or quiet and contemplative reflections about life on this planet. "Contact" fits into the latter, alongside films such as "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and "Arrival." The film focuses on scientist Dr. Ellie Arroway (Jodie Foster), who dedicates her life to listening for signs of life from other worlds. When a coded message is received from outer space, Ellie deciphers it and discovers it reveals the schematics for a single-occupant transporter, one that will later take her face to face with the aliens that sent the message.

The thing that stands out about "Contact" is that it isn't the sort of film you might expect it to be. Like 2016's "Arrival," "Contact" examines a character's personal and emotional journey as they seek to communicate with those beyond. Set against the backdrop of space, it probes into life's big unanswered questions and the role that religion and science perhaps play in our understanding of the wider universe. It's an undoubtedly powerful film and a truly underrated example of the genre.

37. Starship Troopers

Set in the 23rd century, "Starship Troopers" sees humanity locked in a brutal battle against giant alien bugs. And as this entertaining cult classic comes from director Paul Verhoeven ("RoboCop," "Total Recall"), you know it's going to be a truly wild ride. As well as some brilliantly brutal battle scenes, "Starship Troopers" satirizes extreme militarism through the bombastic, overly nationalistic propaganda news reports.

As is often the case with satire, "Starship Troopers" wasn't particularly well-received by critics when it was released. However, more recent reappraisals have seen a new appreciation for some of the film's evergreen themes and its biting wit. Writing for The Atlantic , Calum Marsh said, "If you're open and attuned to it ... you'll get the joke 'Starship Troopers' is telling. And you'll laugh." Slant Magazine also chimed in with the praise, labeling Verhoeven's misunderstood gem as "one of the greatest of all anti-imperialist films."

36. The Fifth Element

While they may not be the most practical fashion choices, '90s sci-fi films were almost unbeatable when it came to iconic looks, and just two years before Neo's long black coat made waves in "The Matrix," there was Milla Jovovich as Leeloo in her unforgettable "thermal bandages" in Luc Besson's ambitious 1997 film, "The Fifth Element." Beginning in Egypt in 1914 and rocketing ahead 300 years to a futuristic New York, the film sees Leeloo join forces with an unsuspecting cab driver, Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis), to protect the world from the Great Evil –- a giant sentient burning space sphere –- and the ruthless Zorg (Gary Oldman).

The film proved to be polarizing among critics when it opened the Cannes Film Festival, with Roger Ebert for the Chicago Sun-Times calling it "one of the great goofy movies," while Todd McCarthy for Variety said it was "ultimately a mess of diverse ingredients that sorely could have used a rigorous screening process to eliminate all the chaff." There's a strong argument on both sides for why this film could fall under the "so bad it's good category," but it is certainly one that needs to be experienced.

35. Silent Running

The theme of environmentalism crops up in space movies perhaps more often than you might think, and the idea that the fragility of life and Earth's ecosystem can so easily be disrupted by a catastrophic global event provides the perfect framing for a story. It's something that seems distant yet also completely possible — and certainly more believable than alien invaders. This idea is explored in 1972's "Silent Running," where ecologist and botanist Freeman Lowell (Bruce Dern) tends to what remains of Earth's plant life, now preserved in enormous domes in space.

With a scaled-back cast, the focus of the film is on the character of Lowell and his particularly charming relationship with two robots, Dewey and Louie. It wears its eco themes on its sleeve, yet it never feels condescending or preachy, and the influence of "Silent Running" is particularly clear in Pixar's "WALL-E," which came more than 35 years later. It isn't as flashy as a lot of other space films, and it lacks the technical prowess of films such as "2001: A Space Odyssey," but there's an undeniable charm to "Silent Running" and a potency to its themes that seems to become more and more relevant over time.

34. Prometheus

The sequels to 1979 classic "Alien" have varied in terms of quality, but one that was favorably received was 2012's "Prometheus." Serving as an origin story of sorts, the film sees a crew embark on a journey to the dark reaches of the universe, hoping to uncover the origins of humanity itself but instead discovering something terrifying. Seeking to answer some of the questions from "Alien" while still retaining enough suspense to keep things interesting, "Prometheus" works as both a highly effective prequel and an entertaining sci-fi horror film that's capable of standing on its own merit.

While it slots neatly into the timeline of the other films in the franchise, "Prometheus" has its own mythology, and it draws its thematic exploration of humanity's relationship with its creators from the Greek Titan that gives the film its name. Utilizing the body horror and well-executed scares that made the original film so iconic, "Prometheus" is a more than worthy inclusion in the franchise.

33. War of the Worlds

It may be a story that's been told over and over again, but Steven Spielberg's adaptation of the H.G. Wells classic retains the sense of paranoia and uncertainty from the source material while also delivering a fresh take in terms of action movie thrills and sheer drama. The destructive capabilities of the imposing alien structures are seen through the eyes of everyman Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise), who desperately tries to save his family from the threat.

Spielberg's previous dalliances with aliens in his films saw them depicted as passive and communicative in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and even downright lovable in "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial." It's particularly thrilling therefore to see him focus on a more powerful and violent alien race, while never losing the emotional resonance that made the aforementioned films so memorable. Speaking about his approach to the film, Spielberg said, "I wanted this to be a very personal story about a family fleeing for its life. And a father trying to protect his two kids" ( via USA Today ). With heart and undeniable spectacle, "War of the Worlds" proves once again that no one does it better than the man who invented the blockbuster.

32. Sunshine

The rug-pull of Danny Boyle's "Sunshine" from a relatively straightforward sci-fi epic to a slasher film in space is the thing that elevates it above other similar offerings, and it remains one of the best examples of genre-bending in cinema. The film is set in the year 2057, where the Earth is freezing due to the sun dying, and a group of astronauts is tasked with re-igniting the star and saving the world. While the "mission to save humanity" aspect of "Sunshine" is familiar, the turn that the film takes is what sets it apart.

This duality to the film was also something that turned some critics off, as they found the tonal shift jarring. San Francisco Chronicle critic Mick Lasalle  was particularly scathing, opening his review by saying, "After watching it for 20 minutes, you really don't care if the sun is cooling and all human life is doomed to destruction. Actually, it sounds like a great idea –- anything to end the movie." While the film may have been a difficult sell at the time –- something reflected in the box office takings –- the audacity of Boyle to make a film that sits closer to "2001: A Space Odyssey" than it does "Armageddon" has to be commended.

31. Super 8

This 2011 thriller from director J.J. Abrams lovingly pays tribute to nostalgic classics such as "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" and "Stand by Me," while also being a celebration of the art of moviemaking in itself. In the film, a group of friends are shooting their own zombie movie when they witness a horrific train crash and an alien creature emerging from the chaos. While the action in "Super 8" may take place on Earth, the focus is on the alien invaders and particularly how this is seen through young eyes.

With excellent performances from Elle Fanning and Joel Courtney in particular, "Super 8" evokes the feeling of some of Steven Spielberg's early work, (the director has a producer credit for this film) giving equal importance to blockbuster spectacle and genuine heart and warmth. The film proved to be a surprise commercial success, making over $260 million at the box office, and was praised by critics, including Total Film critic Jamie Graham who remarked, "Only a young Spielberg at the top of his game could beat it."

30. Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood

Few directors capture a moment in time as well as Richard Linklater, and in this charming animated film, he turns his attention to 1969's moon landing. Like most people of the time, Stanley (Milo Coy and Jack Black) is caught up in Apollo fever, and fantasizes about being trained by NASA for a secret lunar visit. Memories of his Houston childhood intertwine with his fanciful dreams of becoming a pint-sized astronaut, tied together by Jack Black's warm narration.

Stan's space adventures might be pure fantasy, but "Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood" taps into the very real wonder of space and this moment in time, which brought so many cultural and scientific possibilities to light. What results is a deeply personal, totally relatable, and wholly different space movie which speaks to universal fascination with worlds beyond our own and all that humanity might achieve.

29. Total Recall

From Paul Verhoeven, the director of "RoboCop" and "Starship Troopers," "Total Recall" is another brain-busting, brutal sci-fi epic. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a construction worker Douglas Quaid, who decides to have a virtual vacation to Mars by visiting the company "Rekall" -– a corporation that plants false memories into people. However, all does not go to plan, and Quaid discovers life as he knows it is false, and the people who put his memories there want him dead.

Based on the short story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" by Philip K. Dick, the film explores the themes of memory and identity and –- as all of the best sci-fi films tend to do –- leaves the audience with more questions than answers. The movie's ambiguous ending leaves us wondering if what we've seen is real or not, and this is just one of the many things that give the film its staying power. In the '80s and '90s, Schwarzenegger was one of the most bankable box office stars, and this was reflected in the numbers for "Total Recall," making an impressive $261 million worldwide.

28. Planet of the Apes (1968)

Not to be confused with the much-maligned remake , the 1968 version of "Planet of the Apes" stars Charlton Heston and sees a team of astronauts crash-landing on what appears to be a desolate planet. However, they soon discover a society of highly intelligent apes ... who've assumed dominance over the humans that also live there. With people at the mercy of their new ape overlords, the film offers a chilling vision of a future as the humans' fight to survive and escape. And without saying too much for those who've avoided spoilers, the film's now-iconic ending is one of the best movie moments of all time.

Critically acclaimed when it was released, "Planet of the Apes" was also nominated for two Oscars for Costume Design and Best Original Score, and it won an honorary award for John Chambers for Outstanding Make-up Achievement. The legacy and impact of the film were also recognized in 2001 when it was one of the 25 films inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress .

27. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Widely considered by many as the best "Star Trek" movie , 1982's "The Wrath of Khan" is also one of the rare movie sequels that manages to surpass the original. Retaining the spirit –- and the cast –- of the '60s TV show, "The Wrath of Khan" sees the return of an old nemesis who's escaped from exile to get revenge on Kirk (William Shatner). Previously appearing in "Space Seed" -– the 22nd episode of the first season of the original series –- Ricardo Montalbán reprises his role as the legendary villain Khan Noonien Singh. 

"The Wrath of Khan" saw a huge departure from 1979's slow-moving "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," which had not been well-received , and marked the beginning of a quasi-trilogy that concluded with 1986's "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home." The decision to make "The Wrath of Khan" more in tune with what made the original series so popular undoubtedly worked, and the film opened to a positive critical response and an impressive box office, earning $95 million worldwide. In a retrospective review for Empire, critic Angie Errigo credited "The Wrath of Khan" with being the film "that put the franchise on the right track."

26. First Man

Following up the multi-award-winning "La La Land" was no easy feat for Damien Chazelle, who became the youngest person to pick up the Best Director Oscar in the process. Before "First Man" in 2018, all of his films had also had a connection to music, but his biopic of astronaut Neil Armstrong saw him blasting off in a completely different direction. Chazelle's camera expertly captures the awe and quiet majesty of space, as well as the frightening, shaky, deafening realism of being an astronaut, putting us right in the throes of Armstrong and his colleagues. At the same time, it also zeroes in on Armstrong's very personal story, outside of the achievements everyone recognizes him for.

Neil Armstrong -– beautifully portrayed by Ryan Gosling –- is grief-stricken following the loss of his daughter, and this is something he carries with him to those memorable first steps. The film may not have enjoyed the same success that "La La Land" did, but critics raved about it, including Owen Gleiberman for Variety , who called it "revelatory in its realism, so gritty in its physicality, that it becomes a drama of hellbent danger and obsession."

25. Dune (2021)

Before adapting Frank Herbert's seminal sci-fi novel, director Denis Villeneuve had proven his credentials in the genre with "Arrival" and "Blade Runner 2049," making him more than qualified to tackle the gargantuan story –- previously adapted for the big screen by David Lynch in 1984. While 2021's "Dune" only tells half of the story -– the sequel is poised for release in 2023 –- it does a remarkable job of establishing the unique desert world of Arrakis and the importance of the central hero, Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet).

Paul is the heir to the noble House of Atreides, who's thrown into an interplanetary war centered around Arrakis –- the only place where the precious resource known as "spice" can be found. The scope of "Dune" is undoubtedly huge, and while the world-building is a little dizzying at times, the visual spectacle more than makes up for the dense plot. "Dune" proved to be a big box office success, making just shy of $400 million off a budget of $165 million, all while during the COVID-19 pandemic and as the film was simultaneously released on HBO Max. In other words, it's incredibly impressive that it only narrowly missing out on being in the top 10 highest-grossing films of 2021.

24. Ad Astra

Directed by James Gray, 2019's "Ad Astra" sees astronaut Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) embarking on a personal mission across the universe to investigate the source of mysterious power surges that are seemingly linked to the "Lima Project" –- started by his father almost 30 years previously to find intelligent life. While the title, which translates as "to the stars" in Latin, might suggest that the film is about an epic journey through space, it's instead about a much more internal and human journey, focusing on a man reconciling with his absent dad.

The tone of the film perhaps might've surprised some people, and while it hit the right notes critically, the moviegoing public wasn't so taken with it, resulting in a big discrepancy between the critic and audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes . However,  Peter Travers for Rolling Stone spoke particularly favorably about "Ad Astra," saying it has "a grand scope and intimate sense of empathy that is nothing less than enthralling."

Son of the "Starman" David Bowie himself, Duncan Jones made an instant impression on the film world with his impressive debut movie, "Moon," in 2009. Sam Rockwell stars as Sam Bell, a solitary astronaut working on the moon, with Kevin Spacey as the voice of his robot companion GERTY. Along with the astonishing practical effects and a haunting score from Clint Mansell, "Moon" is notable for effectively conveying the loneliness of space. Its focus on the "one man and his robot story" evokes the feeling of films such as "Silent Running," and the calming tones of GERTY call to mind the infamous HAL 9000 from "2001: A Space Odyssey."

While inspired by these space movie greats, "Moon" succeeds in its own way, anchored by a superb performance by Sam Rockwell, whom Jones wrote the part for . With a modest budget of just $5 million , it also proved that a highly effective and emotionally driven space film could be created without the need for a large ensemble cast or expensive special effects, and critic Roger Ebert called it "a superior example of that threatened genre, hard science-fiction."

22. A Trip to the Moon

The oldest film on the list by quite some way, 1902 French silent film, "Le Voyage dans la Lune" ("A Trip to the Moon") is considered by many to be the earliest science fiction film, and it remains one of the most singularly influential pieces of filmmaking to date. 

In part inspired by the writings of Jules Verne, Georges Méliès' 13-minute film sees a group of astronomers who launch themselves at the moon. The anthropomorphization of the moon and the iconic shot of the astronomer's capsule hitting him directly in the eye is perhaps the image most people associate with this film. It also appears to have provided direct inspiration for the character of "the Moon" in surreal British comedy series  "The Mighty Boosh," as well as appearing in Martin Scorsese's "Hugo."

The narrative may be simple, but the film's groundbreaking special effect techniques and its commitment to pure out-of-this-world fantasy are what we have to thank for the array of science fiction films we have today. In the book "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die," Chiara Ferrari says that the film "deserves a legitimate place among the milestones in world cinema history."

21. Galaxy Quest

While many space films bear a resemblance to their counterparts, "Galaxy Quest" wears its identity of a loving and hilarious pastiche of "Star Trek" proudly. In this meta sci-fi comedy, the cast of the canceled fictional TV show "Galaxy Quest" find themselves in a real intergalactic adventure when some visiting aliens believe their show is a documentary. "Galaxy Quest" is so closely aligned with "Star Trek" that in 2013, Trekkies voted it as one of the best "Star Trek movies, with IGN commenting , "While not technically a 'Star Trek' movie, one can certainly see how it could make the cut. It's more 'Star Trek' than a couple of the actual 'Star Trek' movies even."

With references to other movies such as "The Day The Earth Stood Still" and "Event Horizon," the film became a cult classic amongst sci-fi fans, making around $90 million at the box office . "Galaxy Quest" also received favorable reviews from critics including Joe Leydon for Variety , who said the film "remains light and bright as it races along, and never turns nasty or mean-spirited as it satirizes the cliches and cults of 'Star Trek.'"

20. The Martian

Stranded on the red planet, alone and with dwindling resources, botanist Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is forced to use all of his skills to survive while those back on Earth try to figure out a way they can bring him home. Grounded by a superb performance by Matt Damon , "The Martian" showcases the unshakable strength of the human spirit as we see Watney –- through a series of video diaries –- work out how to grow food, travel, and communicate with the limited things available to him on Mars.

What's perhaps surprising about "The Martian" is how funny it is. Experiencing the film largely through these diary entries allows the audience into the headspace of Watney, a character whose dry sense of humor makes him distinctly likable and engaging, with much of the film's focus on his solo survival mission. As well as being a hit with critics and audiences, "The Martian" also achieved recognition at the 88th Academy Awards, picking up seven nominations .

19. Guardians of the Galaxy

Compared to the big-hitters of the Hulk and Captain America, this obscure gang of space misfits wasn't as well-known in the Marvel Universe, and yet their debut big-screen adventure proved to be a huge hit. The motley crew that makes up the "Guardians of the Galaxy" consists of a half-human smuggler, a raccoon-like bounty hunter, and a living humanoid tree amongst others, but there was something about the strange dynamics and the retro space-opera adventure style of the film that just seemed to click.

One of the highlights of "Guardians of the Galaxy" was the killer soundtrack –- almost a character in its own right within the film and the perfect accompaniment to its offbeat tone. With its unique blend of zany humor and fun action set pieces, the Guardians easily slotted into the MCU, providing a refreshing palate cleanser for some of the more serious superheroes. As is to be expected with most Marvel films, "Guardians of the Galaxy" was a huge box office success , making more than $773 million worldwide and spawning a number of sequels and appearances for the characters in the wider MCU.

18. Solaris (1972)

Far superior to the 2002 Hollywood remake directed by Steven Soderbergh , the 1972 version of "Solaris" directed by Andrei Tarkovsky remains a benchmark of the sci-fi genre and one of the best space movies of all time. The film focuses on Kris Kelvin (Donatas Banionis), a psychologist who's tasked with exploring a space station above the planet Solaris and assessing the remaining crew members who've started to display erratic behavior.

While "Solaris" is frequently compared with "2001: A Space Odyssey –- with the two films being just four years apart –- there are vast differences between them, with "Solaris" favoring a more emotional and human approach. The film expertly tackles themes such as grief, loss, memory, and the nature of what it means to exist. This thematic existentialism, set against the backdrop of space, is somehow even more potent, and Tarkovsky masterfully directs his film with the time set aside to contemplate its weighty themes. The pace is slow, and while this may prove frustrating for some, if you have the patience for "Solaris," it's an incredibly rewarding experience.

17. Thor: Ragnarok

While you could make the case for any of Thor's big-screen adventures being included in this list, the spaciest of them all is undoubtedly "Thor: Ragnarok." With director Taika Waititi at the helm, "Thor: Ragnarok" seems to take its cues from "Guardians of the Galaxy" and successfully conveys the goofiness of the character. In a severe turn from the almost Shakespearean seriousness of the previous two "Thor" films, Waititi instead leans into the weirdness, and the result is a highly entertaining superhero flick.

Most of the film takes place on the planet Sakaar, where Thor (Chris Hemsworth) crash-lands after the arrival of his malevolent sister, Hela (Cate Blanchett), who quickly assumes power over Asgard. Described as a "garbage planet," Sakaar is ruled by the eccentric Grandmaster (the incomparable Jeff Goldblum), who forces Thor to compete in his Contest of Champions to earn his freedom. The change of direction from Waititi proved to be a hit with critics, including Sheri Linden for The Hollywood Reporter , who called it "engaging enough to hold the attention of even those uninitiated in the lore of the Nine Realms."

16. Hidden Figures

While almost none of this film takes place in space, it does however focus on the lesser-seen –- but equally important -– people working behind the scenes at NASA, who are just as deserving of the spotlight as the astronauts. The unlikely heroes at the center of "Hidden Figures" are three Black women working for NASA as mathematicians, and it's based on the book of the same name by Margot Lee Shetterly. Starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, and Janelle Monáe, the film is set in the 1960s, during the Space Race, and focuses on the women's struggles and challenges in dealing with racial and gender segregation, with every day a fight to prove themselves worthy.

"Hidden Figures" is a truly inspirational story, and while the film takes some artistic liberties with the true story , it remains a powerful tribute to these trailblazing women. The film proved to be a massive commercial success, making just under $236 million at the box office , and it was recognized at the 89th Academy Awards , with nominations for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress (for Octavia Spencer), and Best Adapted Screenplay.

15. Arrival

With a second entry for director Denis Villeneuve, 2016's "Arrival" is a film that focuses on Earth, yet it deals with the concept of an alien invasion in a way that feels so fresh and innovative that it is absolutely worthy of a place on this list. Based on "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang, the film sees 12 imposing extraterrestrial structures arrive at key locations across the globe. While the towering spacecraft look threatening, there's no immediate sign of attack from whatever is on board, so linguistics expert Louise Banks (Amy Adams) is one of the people enlisted to make contact with the creatures and establish their intent.

The film is also peppered with scenes of Louise and her daughter, who tragically dies from a terminal disease. However, as the narrative progresses, it becomes evident that the events we're witnessing aren't perhaps as linear as we had been lead to believe, with the cryptic opening line "I used to think this was the beginning of your story" suggesting that time is a fluid concept within the film. "Arrival" is a very different kind of alien invasion story, with a reflective, meditative, and existential tone in place of explosions and heavy action scenes. While Amy Adams' quietly devastating performance was unfortunately overlooked by the Academy, "Arrival" did pick up eight Oscar nominations and one win for Best Achievement in Sound Editing.

14. Star Trek (2009)

Under the watchful eye of director J.J. Abrams, 2009 saw the reboot of the "Star Trek" series with this new film version. Later going on to direct two of the movies in the "Star Wars" sequel trilogy, Abrams is one of the few to have dipped a toe in both of these major sci-fi universes, although he admits he was not a "Trekkie" growing up. Speaking to The Guardian , Abrams said, "['Star Trek'] always felt like a silly, campy thing. I remember appreciating it, but feeling like I didn't get it."

What Abrams does manage with his version of "Star Trek" is to offer an entry point for complete newcomers, resetting the timeline so that the existing, complex continuity doesn't need to come into play, all while staying true to the original series and movies –- even going as far to feature legendary cast member Leonard Nimoy as Spock Prime. As Abrams himself put it in the aforementioned interview, "I was trying to make a movie, not trying to make a 'Trek' movie." In doing so, he created arguably the best "Star Trek" movie, something that was formally acknowledged at the 82nd Academy Awards where it won the Oscar for Best Achievement in Makeup –- and in doing so, becoming the first "Star Trek" movie to win a golden statue.

13. The Right Stuff

While it may take dramatic deviations from the true story that inspired it, "The Right Stuff" tells the stirring tale of the Mercury Seven, the military pilots who trained as astronauts for the first human spaceflight. These seven men had a rough and ready approach, and their daring attitudes and significance in the early stages of the Space Race led to them being treated almost like rock stars. The film also doesn't shy away from the emotional and mental toll they experienced from being willing to risk their lives and the pressures that came from being thrust into the spotlight during an event in history that was as much about politics as it was technical innovation.

It seems surprising given the subject matter, but the film was a box office flop when it came out, making just over $21 million off a budget of around $27 million. It proved to be a hit with the critics, however, with Roger Ebert giving it a perfect four-star rating and naming it as one of the very best films of the 1980s . The movie also received eight nominations at the 56th Academy Awards , winning for Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Sound, and Best Sound Effects Editing.

12. Interstellar

If there's one director who can be relied upon to create a mind-blowing space epic, it's Christopher Nolan. "Interstellar" is set in a dystopian future where the crops are failing and drastic changes in the weather pose a real threat to the planet's survival. When Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) discovers some strange patterns –- which he deduces are coordinates -– in the dust in his daughter's bedroom, his life-altering journey begins. Following the coordinates, he finds Professor John Brand (Michael Caine), who heads up a secret facility trying to investigate wormholes in space that may provide the hope humanity needs to survive.

With a small crew, Cooper pilots the spacecraft Endurance to discover if a habitable planet exists beyond their own. Of course, this being a Christopher Nolan movie, there's a lot more going on besides this seemingly straightforward journey, and the film takes us to unknown dimensions and has us questioning the very nature of reality and time. Beyond the spectacle, "Interstellar" is also a highly emotional journey, with the oft-memed clip of Cooper breaking down in tears being one of the most devastating scenes in a sci-fi film. Accompanied by the unforgettable score by Hans Zimmer, "Interstellar" is a film like no other  and one that's incredibly rich in thematic content.

11. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

Alien invasion movies frequently depict the arriving creatures as menacing and a threat to humanity's existence. While there is a place for this sort of film –- and they are undeniably fun to watch –- there's also something to be said for films that take a much more peaceful approach, such as 1951's "The Day the Earth Stood Still." When humanoid extraterrestrial Klaatu (Michael Rennie) and robot Gort (Lock Martin) arrive on Earth, it's not with their weapons directed at the humans, but instead, they come with a cautionary message about the dangers of war and the threat humanity poses to itself if people don't heed their warning.

Set against the backdrop of the Cold War, "The Day the Earth Stood Still" speaks to the suspicion and distrust that existed between people at the time, while also providing a message that's surprisingly relevant to society today. The film's emphasis on receptiveness and the importance of speaking and listening to those who are perhaps different to us is also seen in films such as "Arrival" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," and despite its dated special effects, "The Day the Earth Stood Still" remains one of the greatest alien films of all time.

10. Gravity

Anchored by a powerful and committed performance from Sandra Bullock, "Gravity" is effectively a survival drama, expertly conveying the feelings of isolation and loneliness that are even more potent given the space setting. Bullock plays Dr. Ryan Stone, who -– in an astonishingly dramatic sequence -– is left adrift in space when some debris hits her shuttle during a routine spacewalk. At times, we see things directly from Dr. Stone's point of view, something that is highly effective, as well as occasionally nauseating and claustrophobic. Director Alfonso Cuarón crafts a singularly personal story, himself describing it as "a drama of a woman in space" ( via BBC ) more than a sci-fi film in the truest sense.

"Gravity" proved to be a huge box office success, earning more than $723 million worldwide , and it became one of the highest-grossing sci-fi films outside of a major franchise. At the 86th Academy Awards , "Gravity" had a staggering 10 nominations and won seven, including the coveted Best Director for Cuarón. "Gravity" remains one of the most visually stunning space movies, with its focus on a sole surviving character giving the film the emotional resonance it needs to stay with you for a long time afterward.

9. Forbidden Planet

There's something incredibly tactile about early science fiction, with the limited special effects, besuited actors in the place of robots and aliens, and elaborate and imaginative set designs. 1956's "Forbidden Planet" is one such film, a ground-breaking sci-fi masterpiece that's frequently cited as one of the most influential of the genre. The film has several "firsts" credited to it, including being the first film to be set entirely on a different planet and the first Hollywood film to have an all-electronic score ( via FilmSite ).

Loosely based on Shakespeare's "The Tempest," "Forbidden Planet" is set in the 23rd century, and the film depicts a team of astronauts sent to explore the planet Altair IV, where a colony was established 20 years prior. They discover only two humans remaining — a scientist and his beautiful daughter – plus Robby the Robot, a figure so significant in the film he's even credited as his character name. Robby marked a huge leap forward both in terms of the extortionate cost to build the prop and the distinct personality he was given. Reportedly costing around $125,000 to build , Robby ended up being a necessary cost as he became "the film's most memorable character and responsible for the cult status the movie enjoys" (via Robot Hall of Fame ). "Forbidden Planet" may look dated now compared to the slick space movies we are accustomed to, but it's campy fun and a must-watch for any fan of the genre.

8. Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Fresh off the back of their grueling shoot together on "Jaws," Steven Spielberg and Richard Dreyfuss teamed up once again for "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." Spielberg's fascination with worlds beyond our own was something that started from a young age and shaped many of his films, including "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," "War of the Worlds," and of course, this 1977 sci-fi masterpiece. In a 2005 interview, Spielberg said, "I first became aware of the sky when my father pointed out the Perseid meteor shower to me when I was about 6 years old. ... My father really held the key to the universe, which unlocked my imagination" (via The Spokesman-Review ).

Richard Dreyfuss plays Roy Neary, an everyman whose encounter with a UFO leads to an obsession that sees him willing to risk it all to pursue what he saw and make contact. Even at this early point, the music of composer John Williams was already becoming synonymous with Spielberg's films, with "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" marking the third collaboration between them. Not only is Williams' score as wonderful as you'd expect, but it plays an important part in the narrative itself during the memorable sequence when the aliens communicate with the humans through light and sound. Perhaps influenced by Spielberg's childhood fascination with the cosmos, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" refreshingly depicts the aliens as peaceful and benevolent, resulting in a film that's as optimistic as it is awe-inspiring. Spielberg has rarely been better than this.

7. Apollo 13

As this list proves, there's a huge amount of choice when it comes to films about humanity's desire for space exploration, with a number of them being based on true stories. Arguably the most well-known movie that falls into this category is "Apollo 13," based on the troubled mission of the same name in 1970. Directed by Ron Howard, the film stars Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, and Kevin Bacon as the team of astronauts whose lives are at risk when their spacecraft is damaged, forcing them to shift their focus to making it safely home rather than their original lunar destination.

While the film made some minor changes to the story, director Ron Howard was also determined to make the film as technically accurate as possible , including making an exact replica of the Mission Control room where the ground staff communicated with the astronauts. While this is a nitpick few people would ever realize, they did slightly alter the famous "Houston, we have a problem" line, with NASA records stating that what was actually said was, "Houston, we've had a problem." Semantics aside, "Apollo 13" proved to be a huge hit with critics and audiences , with the Rotten Tomatoes consensus saying, "Apollo 13 pulls no punches: It's a masterfully told drama from director Ron Howard, bolstered by an ensemble of solid performances."

6. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

There is considerable merit to the 1978 remake, but it's the original 1956 "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" that stands as one of the greatest space movies of all time, and it achieves this by never leaving the planet and hardly showing the invading alien forces at all (well, at least in their "true" form anyway). In the fictional town of Santa Mira, Dr. Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) is alerted to reports from people convinced that their relatives are imposters. As the number of reports grows, Dr. Bennell and his old flame, Becky (Dana Wynter), discover some mysterious seed pods, with each one holding the terrifying ability to produce an identical copy of the human they "invade."

While other films on this list involve traveling to different planets in search of alien life, "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" not only brings the discovery to Earth but adds a terrifying dimension with the concept that the "aliens" look exactly like humans. The film offers some timely commentary on the post-war paranoia that existed in America at the time, particularly the fear surrounding covert espionage from people planted with deliberate intentions of blending in while acting as enemy spies. The 1978 remake leans much further into body horror, but the 1956 version still blurs this line, expertly conveying a sense of dread and quiet horror. In the closing moments, Dr. Bennell runs hysterically along the highway before looking straight into the camera with an ominous warning, in one of the most chilling and effective movie moments of all time.

A sequel rarely manages to match its predecessor, but many consider 1986's "Aliens" to be the best example of this. And indeed, there's only 1% that separates their Tomatometer ratings on Rotten Tomatoes . Where "Alien" could be classed as science fiction horror, "Aliens" sits much closer to a science fiction action flick, with returning hero Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) joining forces with colonial marines on a mission to destroy the aliens who took the lives of the Nostromo crew. Along the way, Ripley encounters an abandoned young girl nicknamed Newt, (Carrie Henn), who she becomes fiercely protective of –- even stepping in to defend her against the ferocious alien queen, which is a scene that gives the film one of its most memorable quotes.

As well as the shift of genres from horror to action, "Aliens" saw a change in director as well, with James Cameron brought on board following his success with "The Terminator" in 1984. Like Cameron's other wildly successful films at the time, "Aliens" took the box office by storm, earning just over $131 million –- around $25 million more than "Alien" made. The success of "Aliens" even extended to the Oscars, where it was nominated for seven awards , including a Best Actress nomination for Sigourney Weaver when films of this genre were rarely recognized by the Academy. While she didn't win, it did pick up prizes for Sound Effects Editing and Visual Effects.

Released in 2008, Pixar's animated adventure about possibly the universe's most adorable robot has proved to be one of the studio's most enduring features. Set in the year 2085, the Earth has been abandoned, and all humans now reside on giant luxury starliners where their every need is catered for and they never need to lift a finger. In contrast, back on Earth, a small trash-compacting robot called WALL-E is tasked with the mammoth job of cleaning up the mess humans left behind after decades of consumerism depleted all natural resources. When another robot named EVE arrives, WALL-E becomes quite enamored with her and shows her a tiny green sapling he found -– something that provides the tiniest shred of hope that life may still be able to exist on Earth.

With the first part of the film largely silent, "WALL-E" relies on our wonderfully expressive robot duo to establish this world. According to the film's director Andrew Stanton, the team achieved this by watching "a [Charlie] Chaplin film and a [Buster] Keaton film and sometimes a Harold Lloyd film every day at lunch" ( via The A.V. Club ) as inspiration for how to tell their story visually. "WALL-E" succeeds in taking an idea that's familiar in the space movie genre and making it palatable enough for children while also engaging enough for adults, with the environmental message at its core being handled with such care that it is impossible not to be charmed by it.

Released in 1979, "Alien" has easily one of the greatest movie taglines, with this ominous warning: "In space, no one can hear you scream." To this day, "Alien" remains one of the best examples of movie genre hybrids, with its pitch-perfect blend of horror and science fiction being incredibly effective. Set on board the space tug Nostromo, a small crew faces unimaginable horror when an alien lifeform begins to attack. In one of the most memorable scenes in the film –- and one that has a certain degree of infamy based on audience reactions –- an alien bursts out of the chest of Kane (John Hurt), much to the surprise of even the cast members as they were deliberately kept in the dark about the effects until it came to shooting.

As well as this landmark, stomach-churning moment, "Alien" gave us one of the greatest screen heroines in the iconic Ripley, (Sigourney Weaver), who remained the lynchpin of the subsequent sequels, even as they began to decline in quality. Surprisingly, when "Alien" was first released, the critical reception was a little mixed, with legendary critic Roger Ebert calling it one of the few "real disappointments" of the genre on a 1980 episode of "Sneak Previews."  However, Ebert was one of the many who reassessed the film decades later, calling it one of "the most influential of modern action pictures" and saying it "still vibrates with a dark and frightening intensity."

2. Star Wars

"Star Wars" fans may continue to argue amongst themselves about the greatest film in the "Skywalker Saga," and while arguably "The Empire Strikes Back" is the best –- at least based on its critical consensus –- it's the first installment in the series that earns a place on this list. Without the original, later re-named as "Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope," there would be no other "Star Wars" films after all. As our first experience of "a galaxy far, far away," "Star Wars" is pretty much unbeatable, introducing us to plucky hero Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and his quest to save the galaxy from the formidable Darth Vader (voiced by James Earl Jones).

It's easy to forget given how huge the "Star Wars" universe now is, but this film operates effectively as a standalone space romp, wrapping things up neatly enough that it could've easily been the beginning and the end of the story. Of course, that wasn't to be the case, and "Star Wars" completely obliterated box office records, grossing more than $307 million on initial release, and it still stands as the second highest-grossing film of all time when adjusted for inflation. Luke's story is told across the nine-film "Skywalker Saga," but the "Star Wars" universe stretches far beyond this, encompassing books, television series, comics, merchandise, spinoff movies, and so much more. "Star Wars" as an entity is a genuine pop culture phenomenon — one that shows absolutely no signs of stopping anytime soon, and it all started here.

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey

When it comes to space movies, it's hard to find one better than Stanley Kubrick's 1968 magnum opus. Taking us from the dawn of time to "beyond the infinite," the film focuses on man's exploration further into the depths of space, accruing new knowledge about the universe and achieving huge advancements in technology. In what's now one of the most famous match cuts in cinema history, we are hurtled from our ancestors discovering how to use rudimentary tools into space, where people are now able to travel with relative ease across the cosmos. The most well-known segment of the film sees us on board the spacecraft Discovery One on their Jupiter mission. It's here that we meet HAL 9000, who's little more than a red light and a calming voice and yet is one of the scariest film villains –- hugely influential in other films such as "WALL-E" and "Moon."

It isn't surprising that the film was divisive when it was released. Some were quick to call it one of the best films ever made, while others simply didn't understand it. The film's star Keir Dullea said that 250 people walked out of the New York premiere ( via The Hollywood Reporter ). The ending may leave you scratching your heads, but there's no doubt that "2001: A Space Odyssey" is the greatest space movie ever made. Often imitated, frequently parodied, and still influential to this day, it's the film that many aspire to but few can surpass.

The Best Space Movies of the 21st Century (So Far)

Let's head to the cosmos.

It’s impossible to say when, exactly, mankind first dreamed of traveling into outer space, but ever since we got the idea in our heads we never let it go. We’ve been telling stories about alien worlds for longer than anyone has been alive, and we’ve been making movies about flying to the moon since practically the dawn of cinema.

As visual effects expanded and space travel itself became a reality, movies have become more and more obsessed with sci-fi stories about star treks, star wars, and just about anything star-related. In the 21st century, those films are often big, giant blockbusters but visual effects technology has also reached the point where small, independent comedies and dramas can also realistically take place on space ships, space stations, and other planets.

When it came time to curate a list of the best space movies of the century (so far), we knew that we had to limit ourselves somewhere. What’s the point of a “Top 20” list if most of the entries are sequels or prequels to Star Trek and Star Wars ? How many Guardians of the Galaxy films do we really need to write about before you get the general idea that they’re good?

So, to free up space (all puns intended) for underrated and underappreciated films, we’re limiting ourselves to one film per franchise and spreading the love in our list of the best space movies of the 21st century, so far! Put on your helmets, strap in, and get ready to venture into the farthest reaches of the galaxy in pursuit of action, adventure… and ennui.

RELATED: The Best Sci-Fi Movies of the 21st Century So Far

Titan A.E. (2000)

The last feature film, so far, from animation icon Don Bluth , co-directed by Gary Goldman , the ambitious Titan A.E. sought to build a massive Star Wars -esque universe in the world of feature animation. Audiences balked, but the results are exciting, with sparkling dialogue and unexpected turns courtesy of writers Ben Edlund ( The Tick ), John August ( Go ) and Joss Whedon ( Buffy the Vampire Slayer ).

Matt Damon and Drew Barrymore lend their voice talents to an imaginative outer space adventure, set in a future where humans have been displaced throughout the galaxy and no longer have a homeworld. When our heroes discover the key to locating a second Earth, it’s up to them to save their species. Clever and unusual, Titan A.E. warrants rediscovery.

Solaris (2002)

Steven Soderbergh ’s remake of Andrei Tarkovsky ’s Solaris might not stand up to the sprawling original, but for a condensed version of a trippy, thoughtful sci-fi narrative, it’s impressively complete. George Clooney stars as a grieving psychologist sent to investigate a faraway space station, in which the crew members all refuse to come home. When he gets there he finds all but two of the crew are dead, but the space station isn’t empty… it’s filled with the dead loved ones they left behind.

Using the furthest reaches of space to examine figurative and literal concepts of the infinite has been the ambition of many great science fiction stories, and Soderbergh’s Solaris is an excellent example. Clooney abandons his superstar halo and gives one of his most humane performances, and Soderbergh’s insistence on keeping this high-concept sci-fi story grounded in character is noble, and affecting.

Treasure Planet (2002)

It’s bizarre to imagine that Treasure Planet , one of Disney animation’s last great 2D masterpieces, was such a monumental flop on its original release. Perhaps people still had/have trouble accepting animation as an action-packed thrill ride. Perhaps “steampunk” was still too esoteric back in 2002 to be understood by the mainstream. But whatever the reason, audiences missed out.

Treasure Planet is a futuristic adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson ’s classic novel, about a boy who finds a treasure map, only to bond with and later make an enemy of a bloodthirsty pirate. The relationship between Jim ( Joseph Gordon-Levitt ) and the cyborg John Silver ( Brian Murray ) is as rich and complicated as any in the Disney canon, and the animation is jaw-droppingly stunning. Directors Ron Clements and John Musker ( Moana ) reimagine space flight as romantically soaring on solar sails, and successfully ignite the sense of awe and wonder than many sci-fi tales are missing.

Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005)

Jon Favreau ’s first foray into pop filmmaking, and the film that got him the gig directing Iron Man , is this wonderfully creative adaptation of Chris Van Allsburg’s Zathura . Ostensibly a companion piece to Jumanji , the story once again revolves around bored children playing a board game that unexpectedly flings into larger-than-life adventure. Except this time, it literally shoots their suburban house into the farthest reaches of space.

Zathura is full of offbeat sci-fi imagery, and Favreau wisely pulls his VFX way back, and lets much of the film appear handmade. The alien monsters are impressively scary creations, the sets believably practical. It doesn’t send the protagonist careening into a virtual reality world, it brings a very real world of spacemen and space aliens into their house, where the unknown is just as tangible as anything else in their living room. It’s a breathlessly creative motion picture.

Sunshine (2007)

The sun is dying, and the only way to reignite it is to send a team into space and hurl a nuclear bomb into it. In the hands of a mainstream Hollywood filmmaker, Sunshine would probably have been dumb as hell, but director Danny Boyle ( Slumdog Millionaire ) and writer Alex Garland ( Ex Machina ) aren’t nearly that boring. They fill Sunshine with big ideas, rich characters and a sense of existential menace that beautifully amplifies this story of outer space survivalism.

And what a cast: Chris Evans , Cillian Murphy , Michelle Yeoh , Rose Byrne , Benedict Wong , the list goes on, and they’re all trapped in a powder keg together, waiting to go off. It’s a piercing sci-fi adventure, and although some might argue that the film’s third act goes off the rails, maybe - just maybe - it’s what the movie was really about all along.

WALL-E (2008)

In the distant future mankind has abandoned the planet Earth, leaving behind only trash compactor robots to clean up their mess and make the environment inhabitable again. It may not have worked. There’s only one robot left, his name is WALL-E , and all he really cares about is that he’s very, very alone.

Until one day, another robot lands on Earth, and all that changes. Directed by Andrew Stanton , WALL-E successfully spans the whole galaxy, taking an unlikely hero on a seemingly impossible adventure, and throwing a vital chaos element into a drudging society that has all but given up on improving its circumstances. It’s cynically apocalyptic but argues, successfully, that hope eventually wins out. Inventively presented, adorably designed, with a great sense of humor and a visceral sense of awe, WALL-E doesn’t feel like just another a major studio product. It was an instant classic right out of the gate.

Star Trek (2009)

The Star Trek universe got even bigger with J.J. Abrams ’ impressive 2009 reboot, which smartly created an alternate reality, preserving all the precious continuity from the original shows and movies while striking out in an all-new direction. A perfectly cast crew - featuring Chris Pine , Zoe Saldana , Zachary Quinto , Simon Pegg , John Cho and Anton Yelchin - find themselves thrust into a life-or-death mission with a vengeful Romulan travel into the past to take his revenge on the planet Vulcan.

Die-hard Trekkies may quibble about the film’s approach to production design (and sure enough, Abrams’ signature lens flares are everywhere ), but this first rebooted outing successfully marries spot-on character work with an exciting storyline, and manages to tell that rare prequel story in which literally nothing is preordained. Anything can happen, and although not everyone likes where the series went from here, 2009's Star Trek quickly cemented itself as one of the best films in a beloved franchise.

Moon (2009)

The debut feature from Duncan Jones is a quirky, lonely sci-fi story about Sam (Sam Rockwell), a miner who’s running a space station on the moon all by himself, with only an artificially intelligent smiley face to keep him company. The ennui is overpowering and vaguely funny, until he makes a shocking discovery that puts everything about his mission into question.

Jones demonstrates a canny sense of tone in his directorial debut, crafting a tale that’s vaguely absurdist but frustratingly plausible. But the glue holding Moon together is Rockwell’s astounding performance as a man whose routine gets thrown into utterly unexpected disarray and is forced to confront the tragedy of his own existence in a nearly unthinkable way.

Pandorum (2009)

Christian Alvari ’s Pandorum is one of the most criminally underseen and underappreciated sci-fi thrillers of the century (so far). The film stars Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster as astronauts who wake up in the middle of hypersleep, in a cavernous spaceship that needs fixing. The sudden removal from hibernation leaves them without memories and possibly suffering from serious psychosis, and when they run across man-eating creatures on the ship it seems like their situation can’t get any worse. (Spoiler alert: it can.)

Pandorum mines the isolation and infinite void of space for an almost Lovecraftian atmosphere, kind of like Event Horizon if the filmmakers weren’t trying to impress you with how cool the ship looks, and instead focused all their energy on freaking you out. The surprising storyline keeps the suspense shifting throughout the film, and the ending is a real stunner.

Gravity (2013)

It’s hard to make deeply personal films on a gigantic budget, but that’s just what Gravity is. Sandra Bullock stars Ryan Stone, as a rookie astronaut who gets sent soaring into space when a debris field obliterates her ship and her co-pilot, played by George Clooney . Breathtakingly realized by director Alfonso Cuaron (who won an Oscar for this), much of the film appears to take place in long takes that emphasize just how completely screwed our hero is. Maybe more than any other movie character in history.

With no villains to face and already suffering from an overwhelming sense of despair, it falls to Stone to try to save herself for the sake of saving herself, because life is worth it no matter how desperate the situation seems. Cuaron’s masterful, handsomely realized VFX masterpiece gradually reveals itself to be not just a thrill ride but an exhilaration intervention, a call to everyone in the audience to keep striving against the desire to give up and let life end. It’s one of the ultimate examples of cinematic inspiration, and it’s teeth-shatteringly exciting to boot.

Space Station 76 (2014)

It’s hard to imagine why, exactly, people thought all of our problems might be solved by going into space. In Jack Plotnick ’s deliciously droll Space Station 76 , we’ve brought all our suburban plights with us, and transformed a fantastical sci-fi environment into a depressing non-stop social call with friends we don’t like, and spouses who are all sleeping together behind each other’s back.

The dry humor of Space Station 76 stems from the wonderfully unhappy characters, played by the likes of Patrick Wilson , Liv Tyler , Matt Bomer and Jerry O’Connell , and the way that all our scientific progress has done absolutely nothing to save them from their own pathetic choices. It’s a classic 1970s character-drama that just happens to look like an offshoot of 2001: A Space Odyssey , and the clash between tones is always hilarious.

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

The Marvel Cinematic Universe was always a little kooky, but it took a turn towards the monumentally bizarre with Guardians of the Galaxy . A ragtag group of bounty hunters and thieves band together to steal an all-powerful space rock, and along the way they get in all kinds of action-packed adventures. But that’s just the window-dressing. The plot isn’t what’s great about James Gunn ’s film, it’s the off-the-wall characters, like a raccoon with a mean sense of humor, a tree who only knows one sentence, and a human who tries to act like Han Solo without realizing he’s the dude Ice Pirates at best.

Gunn presents it with all the visual wonder of a Star Wars movie, but with all the acerbic wit of a low-budget indie comedy. And in a medium practically defined by the majesty of a John Williams soundtrack, Guardians of the Galaxy reimagines an outer space defined by Bowie tunes, and songs about piña coladas. But the music isn’t just for fun, it’s the most important character of all, messages from a mother who can’t be there to support her son but who helps tell his story anyway. Guardians of the Galaxy tugs at your heartstrings, when it’s not making you chortle.

High Moon (2014)

Nobody said the best space movies of the 21st century had to debut in theaters. The failed pilot for an ambitious TV series, High Moon , debuted on SyFy Channel as a standalone movie, and it’s a bizarre oddity, as inspired by half-forgotten 1960s sci-fi westerns like Moon Zero Two as it is by its source novel, The Lotus Caves , by John Christopher .

Half a century into the future, the moon has been colonized by corporations and governments all over the world, and the old rivalries are alive and, sadly, well. When a flower is discovered on the lunar surface it leads to a massive cover-up and mind-blowing revelations. High Moon doesn’t get to resolve every thread but the world it establishes is gorgeous and hyper-stylized, just the kind of sci-fi kitsch you’d expect from producer Bryan Fuller , who also gave you Hannibal and Pushing Daisies .

Interstellar (2014)

Cinematic wunderkind Christopher Nolan is an intellectual filmmaker, whose films tend to rely on big ideas more than interpersonal emotional drama. So although the big emotional beats often fall flat in his ambitious space epic Interstellar they are rescued by the film’s astounding realization of space flight, conflicting timelines, black holes, and bizarre robots.

The future of mankind is looking grim and traveling into outer space is the only viable option for humanity. But only a few planets within range have the capacity to sustain life, and it’s up scientists and astronauts played by Matthew McConaughey , Anne Hathaway , David Oyelowo and Wes Bentley to travel to the stars and back in time to save the species, while Jessica Chastain and Michael Caine struggle to solve the mathematical problems of our survival back on Earth. The suspense is dense, the imagery absolutely incredible. The intellect is undeniably palpable. Ironically, it’s the film’s heart that’s academic.

Jupiter Ascending (2015)

Absolutely bonkers but absolutely on purpose, The Wachowski ’s directed a gleefully subversive would-be blockbuster with Jupiter Ascending . The film stars Mila Kunis as a housemaid who discovers that, due to a quirk of genetics, she’s just inherited the planet Earth. But the Earth is so valuable that her fellow royals will stop at nothing to get it, whether that means destroying her or, worse, marrying her.

Jupiter Ascending smartly transforms the old-fashioned princess fantasy of discovering you were born special, inherited great wealth and power, and then undermines it at every turn. By achieving greatness, Jupiter enters into a complex and disturbing world of capitalistic excess and fascistic control, and only with the aid of her loyal dogman with flying sneakers, played by a bemused Channing Tatum , will she be able to save herself from becoming a cog in the machine. Fantastical imagery and a wonderfully camp performance from Eddie Redmayne make Jupiter Ascending one of the most underrated sci-fi films of the last two decades.

The Martian (2015)

“In the face of overwhelming odds, I'm left with only one option… I'm gonna have to science the @#$% out of this.” That’s Mark Watney for you. Ridley Scott ’s wonderfully hopeful sci-fi epic The Martian stars Matt Damon as an astronaut marooned on Mars, applying logic and good humor to every impossible problem that arises, and somehow transforming radically complicated scientific ideas into clear, exciting problem-solving strategies.

The Martian , not unlike Gravity , is about perseverance in the face of astounding odds. But unlike Gravity it’s a film about unerring positivity and the confidence that sheer, unbridled logic has the power to overcome any problem. The surface of Mars may be unable to support life but it’s home to one of the most wonderfully vibrant and inspiring characters in sci-fi movie history.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is, with no hyperbole, the most visually stunning science fiction film so far this decade. It’s a fabulously gorgeous spectacle, set in a future where alien societies have merged their space stations together into one incredible mega colony, and where political intrigue attracts dashing intergalactic heroes Valerian ( Dane Dehaan ) and Laureline ( Cara Delevingne ).

Along the way, they force their heads into deadly psychic squids, race for their lives from enemies chasing them in a parallel dimension, and plow through multiple worlds on foot. There’s no shortage of eye-popping wonders in Valerian , and although Dane Dehaan is almost indisputably miscast as a charming ladies man, the rest of the movie is so charmingly bizarre that it compensates. We don’t go to other worlds to see the same old aliens and action sequences over and over again, and Valerian has more daring and wonder than any of the modern Star Wars movies (which is pretty ironic, since it was based on a comic that inspired Star Wars in the first place).

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

That’s no sleight to Star Wars , of course. The motion picture series that made sci-fi action stories mainstream has been going strong throughout the last two decades, to the extent that picking only one film to represent the franchise was very difficult. But in the end, the narrative innovation and stunning locales won out: Star Wars: The Last Jedi expands on the Star Wars universe in every conceivable way, breaking out of old conventions and visualizing strange new worlds filled with strange creatures and incredible new developments.

It’s actually strange just how different The Last Jedi feels, since on paper Rian Johnson ’s film rigidly follows the original formula. The cast splits up, with the novice Jedi getting trained by the master Jedi who fled from the fight years ago, and the pair with romantic chemistry traveling to a society where moral compromise has led to dangerous dealings with the Empire. There’s even a big twist that sends the whole saga into a new, unexpected direction. But The Last Jedi doesn’t feel as beholden to the past as every other Star Wars film since the prequels began, and that sense of extempore - that anything can and will happen - makes it more faithful to the original, unpredictable spirit of George Lucas ’s first, classic film than practically any of the other follow-ups.

First Man (2018)

Oscar-winning director Damien Chazelle seems obsessed with the idea of exceptionalism, as all the characters in his movies push themselves beyond reason to accomplish incredible deeds. Unlike the protagonists of Whiplash and La La Land , Neil Armstrong’s pursuits aren’t artistic, they’re scientific and exploratory. But his incredible journey to become the first human being to step foot on the moon has just as much intense focus and vision.

First Man refreshingly portrays the space program not as a heroic endeavor that changed the course of history, but as the accomplishment of people who put themselves at unbelievable risk. Most of the space flights are shown from inside the cockpit, reminding us that as cool as space travel looks from the outside, from the inside you’re just stuck in a rattling canister with only a thin sheet of metal between you and certain death. The change of perspective is exhilarating, and the impeccable sound design puts you right in the middle of the shuttle, holding on for dear life.

High Life (2019)

What kind of sci-fi epic would the director of the disturbing dramas White Material and Trouble Every Day direct? It’s as unexpected as you’d expect. Robert Pattinson stars as a convict shot into space with other felons, never to return, on a mission towards a black hole. Along the way, a scientist played by Juliette Binoche performs acts of mad science in an attempt to impregnate the crew and create life in outer space.

Bitterly desperate and yet, in the scenes with Robert Pattinson caring for a baby in outer space, all by his lonesome, utterly beautiful, Claire Denis ’ High Life imagines a future of space travel led not by our best and brightest, but by the people Earth can most afford to lose, who are forced to justify their existence to a computer every single day just to keep the life support on. That path leads to madness, usually, but possibly a form of enlightenment we cannot understand.

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TOP 100 Space Films

• Movies or TV
• IMDb Rating
• In Theaters
• Release Year

1. Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)

PG | 121 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy

Luke Skywalker joins forces with a Jedi Knight, a cocky pilot, a Wookiee and two droids to save the galaxy from the Empire's world-destroying battle station, while also attempting to rescue Princess Leia from the mysterious Darth Vader.

Director: George Lucas | Stars: Mark Hamill , Harrison Ford , Carrie Fisher , Alec Guinness

Votes: 1,445,386 | Gross: $322.74M

2. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

PG | 124 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy

After the Rebels are overpowered by the Empire, Luke Skywalker begins his Jedi training with Yoda, while his friends are pursued across the galaxy by Darth Vader and bounty hunter Boba Fett.

Director: Irvin Kershner | Stars: Mark Hamill , Harrison Ford , Carrie Fisher , Billy Dee Williams

Votes: 1,375,224 | Gross: $290.48M

3. Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)

PG | 131 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy

After rescuing Han Solo from Jabba the Hutt, the Rebels attempt to destroy the second Death Star, while Luke struggles to help Darth Vader back from the dark side.

Director: Richard Marquand | Stars: Mark Hamill , Harrison Ford , Carrie Fisher , Billy Dee Williams

Votes: 1,118,061 | Gross: $309.13M

4. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

PG-13 | 133 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

In a time of conflict, a group of unlikely heroes band together on a mission to steal the plans to the Death Star, the Empire's ultimate weapon of destruction.

Director: Gareth Edwards | Stars: Felicity Jones , Diego Luna , Alan Tudyk , Donnie Yen

Votes: 684,336 | Gross: $532.18M

5. Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)

PG-13 | 140 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy

Three years into the Clone Wars, Obi-Wan pursues a new threat, while Anakin is lured by Chancellor Palpatine into a sinister plot to rule the galaxy.

Director: George Lucas | Stars: Hayden Christensen , Natalie Portman , Ewan McGregor , Samuel L. Jackson

Votes: 842,614 | Gross: $380.26M

6. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

G | 149 min | Adventure, Sci-Fi

After uncovering a mysterious artifact buried beneath the Lunar surface, a spacecraft is sent to Jupiter to find its origins: a spacecraft manned by two men and the supercomputer HAL 9000.

Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Keir Dullea , Gary Lockwood , William Sylvester , Daniel Richter

Votes: 716,997 | Gross: $56.95M

7. The Martian (2015)

PG-13 | 144 min | Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi

An astronaut becomes stranded on Mars after his team assume him dead, and must rely on his ingenuity to find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive and can survive until a potential rescue.

Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Matt Damon , Jessica Chastain , Kristen Wiig , Kate Mara

Votes: 920,490 | Gross: $228.43M

8. Starship Troopers (1997)

R | 129 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

Humans, in a fascist militaristic future, wage war with giant alien bugs.

Director: Paul Verhoeven | Stars: Casper Van Dien , Denise Richards , Dina Meyer , Jake Busey

Votes: 319,813 | Gross: $54.81M

9. Aliens (1986)

R | 137 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

Decades after surviving the Nostromo incident, Ellen Ripley is sent out to re-establish contact with a terraforming colony but finds herself battling the Alien Queen and her offspring.

Director: James Cameron | Stars: Sigourney Weaver , Michael Biehn , Carrie Henn , Paul Reiser

Votes: 760,411 | Gross: $85.16M

10. Alien (1979)

R | 117 min | Horror, Sci-Fi

The crew of a commercial spacecraft encounters a deadly lifeform after investigating a mysterious transmission of unknown origin.

Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Sigourney Weaver , Tom Skerritt , John Hurt , Veronica Cartwright

Votes: 946,543 | Gross: $78.90M

11. Contact (1997)

PG | 150 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi

Dr. Ellie Arroway, after years of searching, finds conclusive radio proof of extraterrestrial intelligence, sending plans for a mysterious machine.

Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Jodie Foster , Matthew McConaughey , Tom Skerritt , John Hurt

Votes: 292,326 | Gross: $100.92M

12. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)

PG-13 | 150 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy

Still reeling from the loss of Gamora, Peter Quill rallies his team to defend the universe and one of their own - a mission that could mean the end of the Guardians if not successful.

Director: James Gunn | Stars: Chris Pratt , Chukwudi Iwuji , Bradley Cooper , Pom Klementieff

Votes: 376,793 | Gross: $359.00M

13. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

PG-13 | 121 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy

A group of intergalactic criminals must pull together to stop a fanatical warrior with plans to purge the universe.

Director: James Gunn | Stars: Chris Pratt , Vin Diesel , Bradley Cooper , Zoe Saldana

Votes: 1,269,632 | Gross: $333.18M

14. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)

PG-13 | 136 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy

The Guardians struggle to keep together as a team while dealing with their personal family issues, notably Star-Lord's encounter with his father, the ambitious celestial being Ego.

Director: James Gunn | Stars: Chris Pratt , Zoe Saldana , Dave Bautista , Vin Diesel

Votes: 756,722 | Gross: $389.81M

15. Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

G | 143 min | Adventure, Mystery, Sci-Fi

When an alien spacecraft of enormous power is spotted approaching Earth, Admiral James T. Kirk resumes command of the overhauled USS Enterprise in order to intercept it.

Director: Robert Wise | Stars: William Shatner , Leonard Nimoy , DeForest Kelley , James Doohan

Votes: 96,344 | Gross: $82.26M

16. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

PG | 113 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

With the assistance of the Enterprise crew, Admiral Kirk must stop an old nemesis, Khan Noonien Singh, from using the life-generating Genesis Device as the ultimate weapon.

Director: Nicholas Meyer | Stars: William Shatner , Leonard Nimoy , DeForest Kelley , James Doohan

Votes: 128,937 | Gross: $78.91M

17. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)

PG | 119 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy

To save Earth from an alien probe, Admiral James T. Kirk and his fugitive crew go back in time to San Francisco in 1986 to retrieve the only beings who can communicate with it: humpback whales.

Director: Leonard Nimoy | Stars: William Shatner , Leonard Nimoy , DeForest Kelley , James Doohan

Votes: 91,254 | Gross: $109.71M

18. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)

PG | 107 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy

Captain Kirk and his crew must deal with Mr. Spock's long-lost half-brother who hijacks the Enterprise for an obsessive search for God at the center of the galaxy.

Director: William Shatner | Stars: William Shatner , Leonard Nimoy , DeForest Kelley , James Doohan

Votes: 64,045 | Gross: $52.21M

19. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)

PG | 110 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

On the eve of retirement, Kirk and McCoy are charged with assassinating the Klingon High Chancellor and imprisoned. The Enterprise crew must help them escape to thwart a conspiracy aimed at sabotaging the last best hope for peace.

Votes: 80,713 | Gross: $74.89M

20. Star Trek: Generations (1994)

PG | 118 min | Action, Adventure, Mystery

With the help of long presumed dead Captain Kirk, Captain Picard must stop a deranged scientist willing to murder on a planetary scale in order to enter a space matrix.

Director: David Carson | Stars: Patrick Stewart , William Shatner , Malcolm McDowell , Jonathan Frakes

Votes: 86,866 | Gross: $75.67M

21. Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

PG-13 | 111 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

The Borg travel back in time intent on preventing Earth's first contact with an alien species. Captain Picard and his crew pursue them to ensure that Zefram Cochrane makes his maiden flight reaching warp speed.

Director: Jonathan Frakes | Stars: Patrick Stewart , Jonathan Frakes , Brent Spiner , LeVar Burton

Votes: 131,793 | Gross: $92.00M

22. Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)

PG | 103 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

When the crew of the Enterprise learn of a Federation conspiracy against the inhabitants of a unique planet, Captain Picard begins an open rebellion.

Votes: 79,287 | Gross: $70.12M

23. Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)

PG-13 | 116 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

The Enterprise is diverted to the Romulan homeworld Romulus, supposedly because they want to negotiate a peace treaty. Captain Picard and his crew discover a serious threat to the Federation once Praetor Shinzon plans to attack Earth.

Director: Stuart Baird | Stars: Patrick Stewart , Jonathan Frakes , Brent Spiner , LeVar Burton

Votes: 83,749 | Gross: $43.25M

24. Dune: Part Two (2024)

PG-13 | 166 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

Paul Atreides unites with Chani and the Fremen while seeking revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family.

Director: Denis Villeneuve | Stars: Timothée Chalamet , Zendaya , Rebecca Ferguson , Javier Bardem

Votes: 290,179

25. Star Trek Beyond (2016)

PG-13 | 122 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

The crew of the USS Enterprise explores the furthest reaches of uncharted space, where they encounter a new ruthless enemy, who puts them, and everything the Federation stands for, to the test.

Director: Justin Lin | Stars: Chris Pine , Zachary Quinto , Karl Urban , Zoe Saldana

Votes: 257,973 | Gross: $158.85M

26. Prometheus (I) (2012)

R | 124 min | Adventure, Mystery, Sci-Fi

Following clues to the origin of mankind, a team finds a structure on a distant moon, but they soon realize they are not alone.

Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Noomi Rapace , Logan Marshall-Green , Michael Fassbender , Charlize Theron

Votes: 642,407 | Gross: $126.48M

27. Dune (2021)

PG-13 | 155 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

A noble family becomes embroiled in a war for control over the galaxy's most valuable asset while its heir becomes troubled by visions of a dark future.

Director: Denis Villeneuve | Stars: Timothée Chalamet , Rebecca Ferguson , Zendaya , Oscar Isaac

Votes: 832,645 | Gross: $108.33M

28. WALL·E (2008)

G | 98 min | Animation, Adventure, Family

In the distant future, a small waste-collecting robot inadvertently embarks on a space journey that will ultimately decide the fate of mankind.

Director: Andrew Stanton | Stars: Ben Burtt , Elissa Knight , Jeff Garlin , Fred Willard

Votes: 1,196,051 | Gross: $223.81M

29. Gravity (2013)

PG-13 | 91 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Dr Ryan Stone, an engineer on her first time on a space mission, and Matt Kowalski, an astronaut on his final expedition, have to survive in space after they are hit by debris while spacewalking.

Director: Alfonso Cuarón | Stars: Sandra Bullock , George Clooney , Ed Harris , Orto Ignatiussen

Votes: 861,642 | Gross: $274.09M

30. Interstellar (2014)

PG-13 | 169 min | Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi

When Earth becomes uninhabitable in the future, a farmer and ex-NASA pilot, Joseph Cooper, is tasked to pilot a spacecraft, along with a team of researchers, to find a new planet for humans.

Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Matthew McConaughey , Anne Hathaway , Jessica Chastain , Mackenzie Foy

Votes: 2,085,757 | Gross: $188.02M

31. Moon (2009)

R | 97 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi

Astronaut Sam Bell has a quintessentially personal encounter toward the end of his three-year stint on the Moon, where he, working alongside his computer, GERTY, sends back to Earth parcels of a resource that has helped diminish our planet's power problems.

Director: Duncan Jones | Stars: Sam Rockwell , Kevin Spacey , Dominique McElligott , Rosie Shaw

Votes: 375,889 | Gross: $5.01M

32. Galaxy Quest (1999)

PG | 102 min | Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi

The alumni cast of a space opera television series have to play their roles as the real thing when an alien race needs their help. However, they also have to defend both Earth and the alien race from a reptilian warlord.

Director: Dean Parisot | Stars: Tim Allen , Sigourney Weaver , Alan Rickman , Tony Shalhoub

Votes: 177,458 | Gross: $71.58M

33. Avatar (2009)

PG-13 | 162 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy

A paraplegic Marine dispatched to the moon Pandora on a unique mission becomes torn between following his orders and protecting the world he feels is his home.

Director: James Cameron | Stars: Sam Worthington , Zoe Saldana , Sigourney Weaver , Michelle Rodriguez

Votes: 1,383,017 | Gross: $760.51M

34. 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984)

PG | 116 min | Adventure, Mystery, Sci-Fi

A joint USA-Soviet expedition is sent to Jupiter to learn exactly what happened to the "Discovery" and its H.A.L. 9000 computer.

Director: Peter Hyams | Stars: Roy Scheider , John Lithgow , Helen Mirren , Bob Balaban

Votes: 56,831 | Gross: $40.20M

35. Independence Day (1996)

PG-13 | 145 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

The aliens are coming and their goal is to invade and destroy Earth. Fighting superior technology, mankind's best weapon is the will to survive.

Director: Roland Emmerich | Stars: Will Smith , Bill Pullman , Jeff Goldblum , Mary McDonnell

Votes: 604,033 | Gross: $306.17M

36. Total Recall (1990)

R | 113 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

When a man goes in to have virtual vacation memories of the planet Mars implanted in his mind, an unexpected and harrowing series of events forces him to go to the planet for real - or is he?

Director: Paul Verhoeven | Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger , Sharon Stone , Michael Ironside , Rachel Ticotin

Votes: 353,227 | Gross: $119.39M

37. The Fifth Element (1997)

PG-13 | 126 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

In the colorful future, a cab driver unwittingly becomes the central figure in the search for a legendary cosmic weapon to keep Evil and Mr. Zorg at bay.

Director: Luc Besson | Stars: Bruce Willis , Milla Jovovich , Gary Oldman , Ian Holm

Votes: 504,393 | Gross: $63.54M

38. Forbidden Planet (1956)

G | 98 min | Adventure, Sci-Fi

A starship crew in the 23rd century goes to investigate the silence of a distant planet's colony, only to find just two survivors, a powerful robot, and the deadly secret of a lost civilization.

Director: Fred M. Wilcox | Stars: Walter Pidgeon , Anne Francis , Leslie Nielsen , Warren Stevens

Votes: 53,024 | Gross: $3.00M

39. Star Trek (2009)

PG-13 | 127 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

The brash James T. Kirk tries to live up to his father's legacy with Mr. Spock keeping him in check as a vengeful Romulan from the future creates black holes to destroy the Federation one planet at a time.

Director: J.J. Abrams | Stars: Chris Pine , Zachary Quinto , Simon Pegg , Leonard Nimoy

Votes: 619,433 | Gross: $257.73M

40. Serenity (2005)

PG-13 | 119 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

The crew of the ship Serenity try to evade an assassin sent to recapture telepath River.

Director: Joss Whedon | Stars: Nathan Fillion , Gina Torres , Chiwetel Ejiofor , Alan Tudyk

Votes: 305,256 | Gross: $25.51M

41. Solaris (1972)

PG | 167 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi

A psychologist is sent to a station orbiting a distant planet in order to discover what has caused the crew to go insane.

Director: Andrei Tarkovsky | Stars: Natalya Bondarchuk , Donatas Banionis , Jüri Järvet , Vladislav Dvorzhetskiy

Votes: 97,925

42. Arrival (II) (2016)

PG-13 | 116 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi

A linguist works with the military to communicate with alien lifeforms after twelve mysterious spacecraft appear around the world.

Director: Denis Villeneuve | Stars: Amy Adams , Jeremy Renner , Forest Whitaker , Michael Stuhlbarg

Votes: 765,953 | Gross: $100.55M

43. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)

PG | 105 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

Admiral Kirk and his bridge crew risk their careers stealing the decommissioned U.S.S. Enterprise to return to the restricted Genesis Planet to recover Spock's body.

Votes: 85,960 | Gross: $76.47M

44. The Thing (1982)

R | 109 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi

A research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims.

Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Kurt Russell , Wilford Brimley , Keith David , Richard Masur

Votes: 464,620 | Gross: $13.78M

45. Gattaca (1997)

PG-13 | 106 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller

A genetically inferior man assumes the identity of a superior one in order to pursue his lifelong dream of space travel.

Director: Andrew Niccol | Stars: Ethan Hawke , Uma Thurman , Jude Law , Gore Vidal

Votes: 322,390 | Gross: $12.34M

46. Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

PG-13 | 135 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

Board the Millennium Falcon and journey to a galaxy far, far away in an epic action-adventure that will set the course of one of the Star Wars saga's most unlikely heroes.

Director: Ron Howard | Stars: Alden Ehrenreich , Woody Harrelson , Emilia Clarke , Donald Glover

Votes: 377,904 | Gross: $213.77M

47. The Abyss (1989)

PG-13 | 140 min | Adventure, Drama, Mystery

A civilian diving team is enlisted to search for a lost nuclear submarine and faces danger while encountering an alien aquatic species.

Director: James Cameron | Stars: Ed Harris , Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio , Michael Biehn , Leo Burmester

Votes: 192,201 | Gross: $54.46M

48. Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)

PG | 142 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy

Ten years after initially meeting, Anakin Skywalker shares a forbidden romance with Padmé Amidala, while Obi-Wan Kenobi discovers a secret clone army crafted for the Jedi.

Director: George Lucas | Stars: Hayden Christensen , Natalie Portman , Ewan McGregor , Christopher Lee

Votes: 756,592 | Gross: $310.68M

49. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)

PG-13 | 136 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy

A dark force threatens Alpha, a vast metropolis and home to species from a thousand planets. Special operatives Valerian and Laureline must race to identify the marauding menace and safeguard not just Alpha, but the future of the universe.

Director: Luc Besson | Stars: Dane DeHaan , Cara Delevingne , Clive Owen , Rihanna

Votes: 196,316 | Gross: $41.19M

50. Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)

PG | 136 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy

Two Jedi escape a hostile blockade to find allies and come across a young boy who may bring balance to the Force, but the long dormant Sith resurface to claim their original glory.

Director: George Lucas | Stars: Ewan McGregor , Liam Neeson , Natalie Portman , Jake Lloyd

Votes: 853,835 | Gross: $474.54M

51. War of the Worlds (2005)

An alien invasion threatens the future of humanity. The catastrophic nightmare is depicted through the eyes of one American family fighting for survival.

Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Tom Cruise , Dakota Fanning , Tim Robbins , Miranda Otto

Votes: 473,921 | Gross: $234.28M

52. Dune (1984)

PG-13 | 137 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

A Duke's son leads desert warriors against the galactic emperor and his father's evil nemesis to free their desert world from the emperor's rule.

Director: David Lynch | Stars: Kyle MacLachlan , Virginia Madsen , Francesca Annis , Leonardo Cimino

Votes: 177,309 | Gross: $30.93M

53. Space Battleship Yamato (2010)

TV-14 | 138 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

In 2199, the crew of the space battleship Yamato embark on a dangerous journey to the planet Iskandar to acquire a device that will rejuvenate the war-ravaged Earth.

Director: Takashi Yamazaki | Stars: Takuya Kimura , Meisa Kuroki , Toshirô Yanagiba , Naoto Ogata

Votes: 6,364

54. Harlock: Space Pirate (2013)

Not Rated | 115 min | Animation, Adventure, Sci-Fi

Mankind is dying. Only one man can do anything about it, Space Captain Harlock, but the Gaia Coalition will stop at nothing to end him.

Director: Shinji Aramaki | Stars: Yû Aoi , Jessica Boone , Ayano Fukuda , Arata Furuta

Votes: 12,858

55. Starship Troopers: Invasion (2012)

R | 89 min | Animation, Action, Sci-Fi

A black op has gone terribly wrong. Now, Captain Carmen Ibanez and a hardcore trooper famed as Major Henry "Hero" Varro must lead a team of battle-weary troopers to find the missing ship and discover what went wrong.

Directors: Shinji Aramaki , Steven Foster | Stars: Luci Christian , David Matranga , Justin Doran , David Wald

Votes: 11,895

56. Starship Troopers: Traitor of Mars (2017)

R | 88 min | Animation, Action, Sci-Fi

Federation trooper, Johnny Rico's ordered to work with a group of new recruits on a satellite station on Mars, where giant bugs have decided to target their next attack.

Directors: Shinji Aramaki , Masaru Matsumoto | Stars: Casper Van Dien , Dina Meyer , DeRay Davis , Justin Doran

Votes: 6,391

57. Bumblebee (I) (2018)

PG-13 | 114 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

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From Interstellar to Hidden Figures: 12 of the best space movies

Interstellar, Moon, Proxima, Alien, Hidden Figures... From science fiction to biographical drama, does your favourite movie about space make our list?

By Simon Ings

3 August 2021

Matthew McConaughey in Interstellar

Melinda Sue Gordon/©Paramount/c

There are so many great movies about space that it’s hard to choose between them all, but that won’t stop us. We’ve got some in our selection that will keep you on the edge of your seat while others will keep you hidden behind the sofa. Here are 12 of the best space movies.

Interstellar (2014)

Explorers arrive on a world covered in knee-high water. Distant “mountains” come sweeping towards them: a planet-spanning kilometres-high killer tide. They escape, only for an unhinged astronaut to maroon them, a little later, on a solid airborne cloud of exotic ice.

Often silly, sometimes truly visionary, Interstellar is the best rejoinder the 21st century has yet made to Stanley Kubrick’s seminal 2001: A Space Odyssey . Matthew McConaughey plays Joseph Cooper, a widowed NASA pilot who is called upon to journey into interstellar space to find an Earthlike “Planet B” for us to move to, now that the Earth’s food system is collapsing. Jessica Chastain plays his grown-up daughter, haunted by her father’s ghost.

Their performances carry real conviction, but it is the set pieces that matter. Gargantua, a spinning black hole that provides the film with its climax, is a visual effect calculated so accurately by physicist Kip Thorne and rendered so meticulously by London effects studio Double Negative, it ended up in a paper for the journal Classical and Quantum Gravity .

Years earlier, Thorne and film producer Lynda Obst had conceived of a movie exploring what, in an interview with Science magazine , Thorne called “the warped side of the universe – black holes, wormholes, higher dimensions, and so forth”. They’re the subject of Thorne’s very entertaining book The Science of Interstellar .

Nolan, meanwhile, has gone on to make movies of increasing complexity. Tenet is his latest, doing for time what Interstellar did for space.

Moon (2009)

Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) is preparing to leave the moon at the end of his three-year stint as sole supervisor of a helium-3 mine. (Robert Zubrin’s book Entering Space gave Duncan Jones the film’s industrial premise.) But Sam is also trapped in the carcass of a crashed lunar ore conveyor. And as Sam and Sam wrestle with their inexplicable meeting, they must solve an obvious and pressing puzzle: just how many more Sams might there be?

Offered a low-budget British sci-fi movie by a first-time director , Rockwell left things until the last minute, then grabbed at the chance of playing against himself. Once on board, his commitment was total: riffing and extemporising off memories of his own performance, he insisted on distinguishing the two Sams more by demeanour than by costume changes. The result is a compelling, emotionally charged thriller, spiked with an inventive mix of effects (from CGI to model work to simple, deft editing) that keeps the audience off-balance throughout the movie. Jones has yet to top his debut work, and Rockwell, for all his subsequent successes, will forever be remembered as the Moon guy(s).

Proxima (2019)

Shot in the European Space Agency’s training facilities in Germany, and in the complex outside Moscow that is home to the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center , Alice Winocour’s third feature Proxima never leaves the ground, and yet it remains an out-of-this-world experience.

Cinematographer Georges Lechaptois brilliantly captures these rarely glimpsed spaces in all their strangeness, banality and occasional dilapidation. One can’t help but think, watching this, that being an astronaut must be like being a professional athlete – one’s glamorous career being conducted, for the most part, in smelly changing rooms.

Plaudits also to Eva Green for her portrayal of Sarah Loreau, a single mother given a last-minute opportunity to join a mission to the International Space Station. Green conveys wonderfully Sarah’s conflicted state of both wanting to go to space but not wanting to be separated from her daughter. The solution is there but it’s going to be hard to forge, and Green’s performance is heart-rending.

Alien (1979)

Sigourney Weaver plays Ripley, member of a sensible and resourceful space-going cargo crew whose capabilities are going to prove of no use whatsoever as they confront a predatory, stowaway alien.

Critics loved Alien : they said it would change how we thought about science fiction. It also, for some of us who caught it at the right age, changed how we thought about biology.

We have been an apex predator for so long, we have forgotten the specialness of our privilege. Alien reminds us of what the natural world is really like. It locates us in the middle of things, not without resources but most definitely not at the top of a food chain. It reminds us that living processes are predatory – that life is about tearing living things apart to get at their raw material.

Alien in Alien

AA Film Archive / Alamy

The clumsily named “xenomorph” of the Alien movies has an infamous life cycle, loosely based on those of certain parasitic wasps, but with the added ingredient of plasticity. A hugged human brings forth a humanoid alien. A hugged dog produces a canine. (Where the aquatic aliens of Alien: Resurrection (1997) spring from is anyone’s guess.)

If you want to know what Darwin said, read On the Origin of Species . But if you want to know how it must have made its original readers feel – go watch Alien .

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

When Stanley Kubrick suggested a movie idea to British writer Arthur Clarke, Clarke responded enthusiastically. “The ‘really good’ science-fiction movie is a great many years overdue,” he wrote.

The question – which the two never really resolved – was which really good movie to make. A film about the triumph of science and technology? Or a film about the timeless yearnings of the human spirit?

While Kubrick, a student of human nature, director of searing and discomforting films like Paths of Glory and Lolita , mined Japanese sci-fi movies for special effects, Clarke, a communications satellite pioneer as well as a writer, worked up a script centred on what he later dubbed “the God concept”.

Encompassing everything from the dawn of man, the space race, artificial intelligence, space exploration and trans-dimensional travel, 2001 centres on the duel between David Bowman (Keir Dullea) and the inadvertently-designed-to-be-murderous HAL, a computer that is guiding his ship to Jupiter. We tend to assume Clarke provided the film’s gosh-wow factor and Kubrick provided the unease. Not so: his 1960 story, The Challenge of the Spaceship shows Clarke already painfully aware of the challenges faced by a “little, self-contained community floating in vacuum millions of miles from anywhere, kept alive in a bubble of plastic and metal” with “absolutely nothing” happening.

The boredom and incipient madness that haunt both Bowman and the ship’s poor, boxed-in AI are the film’s chief point: that we cannot live by reason alone. We need something more.

Hidden Figures (2016)

At NASA’s Langley Research Center in 1961, three Black female mathematicians, Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughn (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe) , contribute their considerable mathematical ability to the agency’s efforts to launch white men into space. The unit they work in is segregated by gender and race but the difficulties they face are ignored by many of their colleagues. Their boss, Al Harrison, (a composite fictional character played by Kevin Costner), feels otherwise and proceeds to desegregate NASA single-handedly, armed only with an acid tongue and a sledgehammer.

The film is loosely based on 2016 book of the same name by Margot Lee Shetterly, although it takes a less factual approach. For example, the film delays Johnson’s pioneering work by a good decade so that she can share feel-good moments with the other female cast members .

Whether that matters comes down to personal taste. It is no small thing that, thanks to this film, we now know Johnson, Vaughn and Jackson by name .

Apollo 13 (1995)

On 11 April 1970, a seventh crewed mission in the Apollo space programme launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It was due to land in the Fra Mauro crater, and help establish the early history of both the moon and Earth.

Two days into the journey, an oxygen tank in the spacecraft’s service module exploded, and their flight path was changed to loop them around the moon and bring them back to Earth on 17 April. Dizzy from carbon dioxide levels in the air, mounting at a rate they thought would kill them, soaking wet from all the condensation, cold because power was now severely limited, and with only plastic bags of their own urine for company they couldn’t jettison for fear this would alter their course, commander Jim Lovell, command module pilot Jack Swigert and Lunar Module pilot Fred Haise uttered hardly a word of complaint. Incredibly, they survived.

For his script, director Ron Howard has added one argument between Swigert (Kevin Bacon) and Haise (Bill Paxton) and otherwise changed barely a word of the official Apollo 13 transcript. Tom Hanks plays Lovell as a capable man dealing with a crisis. There are no epiphanies. Souls aren’t searched. For some, this might make for a slightly muted experience. But this painstakingly accurate film (the sets included bits of the Apollo 13 command module; even the actors’ pressure suits were airtight) remains peerless, utterly convincing in every shot and every gesture .

First Man (2018)

As if landing on the moon wasn’t enough, Neil Armstrong spent the rest of his life having to describe the experience to the world’s media. No wonder he became something of a recluse – which of course only served to generate even more media interest.

Armstrong, an aeronautical engineer and university professor, was a man who enjoyed his privacy. Cornered, what could he do but tell the same story again and again and again? Disappointed, their curiosity unslaked, people called him dull.

Two years after hurling a vocally challenged Ryan Gosling into his musical La La Land , Damien Chazelle cast him as Neil Armstrong, in a movie that promised to locate Armstrong’s beating heart and rich emotional life. As such, First Man is a triumph.

Gosling is the film actors’ film actor, capable of expressing deep emotion with astounding economy. Playing “buttoned up” hampers him hardly at all. And he is given plenty to work with. Josh Singer’s ingenious script gives Armstrong a profound and personal motivation for wanting to reach the moon that in no way interferes with the historical record, or trivialises its celebrated subject. As for the moon landing itself, it represents a milestone in cinematic technique. You’ll believe you were there, and you’ll wonder, deeply, why Armstrong, or anyone else for that matter, ever went.

The Right Stuff (1983)

Anchored by powerful performances by Sam Shepard as Chuck Yeager and Ed Harris as John Glenn, Kaufman’s 3-hour-13-minute epic loosely follows Tom Wolfe’s book of the same name: a heart-thumping yet critical account of the earliest US efforts to send humans into space.

What is needed for that is, of course, “the right stuff”: a combination of skill, bravery and a somewhat blood-curdling fearlessness in the face of death. They are qualities superbly embodied in Shepard’s performance as test-pilot Chuck Yeager, the first man to break the sound barrier (and, incidentally, a consultant on the film).

Leaving Earth also needed collaboration, organisation, even – heaven help us – publicity. Ed Harris is the squeaky-clean Glenn, destined to be the first American in space, whose “right stuff” has had its rough edges shaved off by endless classes, tests, magazine profiles and media events.

Historically, The Right Stuff isn’t especially accurate. In particular, Mercury astronauts Wally Schirra, Gordon Cooper and Alan Shepard were critical of the way the film short-changed their compatriot Gus Grissom, who died in the Apollo 1 fire.

Still, it is a thoughtful and intelligent movie, as well as a thrilling one, and it captures very well the moment space travel became a serious, and corporate, enterprise.

The Martian (2015)

Premised on a single, staggering inaccuracy (a Martian storm could never get up the energy to blow a spacecraft over) The Martian is an otherwise cleverly figured-out tale of how an astronaut (Mark Watney, played by Matt Damon), left for dead on the surface of Mars, might survive for four years on a diet of potatoes grown in recycled faecal matter .

Based on a book (by Andy Weir) that itself began life as a series of blog posts, Scott’s film retains an endearing, cobbled-together quality, which neatly (and by the end, really quite movingly) reflects Watney’s scrabble for survival.

Boasting habitat, spacesuit, spacecraft and launch vehicle designs that all carried NASA’s stamp of approval, The Martian flits between Watney’s Martian base, the ship in which his crew mates are returning home, and the offices and control rooms on Earth where everybody is frantically trying to do the right thing, as their chances of saving Watney narrow to a point.

An unashamed advertisement for NASA’s plans for Mars, and a celebration of its crewed programme’s rebirth after the Challenger disaster in 1986, The Martian already feels slightly dated. But its invention and good humour are timeless.

Gravity (2013)

When a cloud of debris travelling faster than a speeding bullet collides with the space shuttle, mission specialist Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) must make their way across gulfs of space on dwindling supplies of air and propellant in search of a vehicle that will take them home; soon the debris cloud will return on its inexorable orbit.

As likely to scare someone off a space career as inspire them to pursue one, Gravity is premised on the idea that low Earth orbit is so crowded with hardware and discarded junk that a collision could initiate a chain reaction known as the Kessler syndrome, and destroy every satellite.

For all that, Gravity is less a science fiction film than a survival film (think Open Water or Touching the Void , both from 2003), and is the last place you would go for a lesson in orbital mechanics. While not quite as egregiously silly as 2019’s Ad Astra (in which Brad Pitt literally leaps through Saturn’s ice rings, using a hatch-cover for an umbrella) Gravity is no 2001 , no Apollo 13 , no First Man .

But while accuracy is one thing; truth is quite another. With Gravity , director Cuarón triumphantly realised his ambition to make the first truly weightless-seeming film, conveying the environment and sensation of zero gravity more powerfully, immediately (and, yes, accurately) than any film-maker, before or since.

October Sky (1999)

NASA engineer Homer H. Hickam Jr.’s autobiography provided the seed for this drama about a teenager coming of age at the dawn of the space race. A 17-year-old Jake Gyllenhaal (he was still taking school classes during the filming) plays Homer, a high school student in Coalwood, West Virginia, when, in 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first human-made satellite.

Inspired by the Soviet achievement, and encouraged by his teacher (Laura Dern), Homer and his fellow “rocket boys” start building their own homemade missiles. Chris Cooper finds gold in the somewhat thankless role of Homer’s father, conscientiously pouring cold water on his son’s dreams: what’s wrong with working in the local coal mine, he’d like to know?

Director Joe Johnston is better known for his rather more gung-ho approaches to heroism and rocket flight. (1991’s Rocketeer is a cult classic; Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) needs no introduction here.)

October Sky is an altogether more contained achievement: the touching story of imagination awakened by the possibilities of rocketry, space travel, and a world beyond Earth.

What do you think of this list? Think there are better space movies out there that deserve a coveted spot? We have review lots of sci-fi films, books and TV shows  but we can’t watch them all so let us know your favourite on  Twitter  and  Facebook . If you enjoyed this you might also want to see what we think are the  best science documentaries ,  top popular science books  and even  video games set on Mars .

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