Sci-Fi (science-fiction) is a film genre that uses speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as extra-terrestrial lifeforms, alien world, extrasensory perception and time travel, along with futuristic elements such as spacecrafts, robots, cyborgs, interstellar travel or other technologies. Science fiction films have often been used to focus on political or social issues, and to explore philosophical issues like the human condition. These motion pictures may not have an objective and proved grounds but they have never failed to entertain us. The genre has produced on of the most beautiful movies in history. Directors and story-writers have made these fantasies a little realer every year. Great sci-fi delivers mind-bending visuals packed with innovative ideas, probing everything from the human experience to the future of humanity. From the black hole cinema, the article segregates ten best sci-fi movies which are a ‘must-watch’ for all age groups.
1.Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
Directed by Irvin Kershner, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back was released May, 21. It became the highest grossing movie in 1980 with $440 million. Star war is originally a trilogy, announced in October 2012 when George Lucas sold his productions company, and began with the first installment, The Force Awakens, was released on December 18, 2015. The final installment, The Rise of Skywalker, was released on December 20,2019. Directed by Abrams, who co-wrote the screenplay with Chris Terrio. In 2010, the film was selected for preservation in the United States’ National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as “culturally historically, or aesthetically significant.” Movie had a significant impact on filmmaking and popular culture, being regarded as rare example of a sequel that transcends the original.
2.Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
It is based on Star Trek, a TV Show which usually depicted adventures of humans and aliens who serve Starfleet, the space-borne humanitarian and peacekeeping armada of the United Federation of the United Federation of Planets. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is the second film in the Star Trek film series, and is a sequel to Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979). Plot features James T, Kirk and the crew of the starship USS Enterprise facing off against the genetically modified tyrant Khan Noonein Singh. The latter escapes from a 15-year exile for a revenge on Kirk, who stops him from acquiring a powerful terraforming device named Genesis. The movie was the first feature film to contain a sequence created entirely with computer graphics.
3.A Space Odysssey
Based on a short story, The Sentinel by Arthur C. Clarke. Movie is a beautiful depiction of space flight with scientific accuracy. A Space Odysssey received diverse critical responses, ranging from those who saw it as darkly apocalyptic to those who saw it as an optimistic reappraisal of the hopes of humanity. According to his biographer John Baxter, despite their “clumsy model sequences, the films were often well-photographed in colour, their dismal dialogue was delivered in well-designed and well-lit sets. Nominated for four Academy Awards, with Kubrick winning for his directions of the visual effects. The film was widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential films ever made. In 1991, it was deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
4.The Extra-Terrestrial
It is an America science fiction film produced and directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Melissa Mathison, movie stars Dee Wallace, Henry Thomas, Peter Coyote, Robert McNaughton and Drew Barrymore. The Extra-Terrestrial is a story about a boy who friends an extra-terrestrial. The movie is an inspiration from an imaginary friend the director made after his parents’ divorce. It was shot in rough chronological order, to facilitate convincing emotional performances from the young cast. Movie became a blockbuster soon after its release surpassing Star Wars. Movie had the record of highest grossing film of all time till eleven years until Jurassic Park. In 1994, the film was added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress, being designated as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.
5.Aliens
Aliens is a science-fiction directed by James Cameron. Set in the far future, the film stars Sigourney Weaver as Lieutenant Ellen Ripley, the sole survivor of an alien attack on her ship. When all communication is lost with her human colony on the moon on which her crew first encountered the alien creatures, Ripley agree to return to the site with a troop of Colonial Marines to investigate. The movie was released on July 18, 1986, to critical acclaim. Movie received a number of awards and nominations, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for Weaver at a time when science-fiction genre was generally overlooked. Aliens earned $183.3 million during its theatrical run, one of the highest-grossing films of 1986 worldwide. It is now considered one of the greatest films of the 1980s, one of the best science-fiction or action films ever made, and one of the best sequels ever made.
6. Blade Runner
Directed by Ridley Scott, and adapted by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, Blade runner is sci-fi movie released on June 25, 1982. It has some inspiration from novel ‘Do Android Dream of Electric Sheep?’. Blade runner initially underperformed in North America theaters complexity and visuals, while others critiqued its slow pacing and alack of action. It later became an acclaimed cult film regarded as one of the all-time best science fiction films. Hailed at its productions design depicting a decaying future, Blade Runner is a leading example of neo-noir cinema. The movie influenced many science fiction films, video games, anime and television series. It also won Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, and in 1933 Blade Runner was selected for preservation in the U.S National Film Registry of the Library of Congress, being designated as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.
7.Back to the Future
Movie is set in 1985, where a teenager, Marty McFly accidentally sent back to 1955 in a time-travelling DeLorean automobile built by his eccentric scientist friend Doctor Emmett “Doc” Brown (Lloyd). Trapped in past in the past, Marty inadvertently prevents his future parents’ meeting-threatening his very existence, forced to reconcile the pair and somehow get back to the future. It is an American sci-fi movie filmed by Robert Zemeckis. Back to the Future’s popularity led to numerous books about its production, documentaries and commercially. Back to the future has been updated into a 2020 stage musical.
8.Jurassic Park
Jurassic Park is directed by Steven Spielberg and produced by Kathleen Kennedy and Gerald R. Molen. Plot of the movie is set on an island of Isla Nublar, located off Central America’s Pacific Coast near Costa Rica. There, a wealthy businessman John Hammond and a team of genetic scientists have created a wildlife park of de-extinct dinosaurs. When industrial sabotage leads to a catastrophic shutdown of the park’s power facilities and security precautions, a small group of visitors and Hammond’s grandchildren struggle to survive and escape the perilous land.
9.Children of Men
The film was released ion 22 September 2006 in the UK and on 25 December in the US. Children of Men received critical acclaim, recognized for its achievement in screenwriting, cinematography, art direction, and innovative single-shot action sequences. It was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Film Editing, it also was nominated for three BAFTA Awards, winning Best Cinematography, Best Production Design, and for three Saturn Awards, winning Best Science Fiction Film. In 2016 it was voted 13th among 100 films considered the best of the 21st century by 117 film critics from all around the world.
10.District 9
Themes of the story were humanity, xenophobia and social segregation, begins in an alternate 1982, when an alien spaceship appears over Johannesburg, South Africa. When a population of sick and malnourished insectoid aliens are discovered on the ship, the South African government confines them to an internment camp called District 9. Twenty years later, during the government’s relocation of the aliens to another camp, one of the confined aliens run to another camp, named Christopher Johnson, who is about to try to escape from Earth with his son and return home, crosses paths with a bureaucrat leading the relocation named Wikus van der Merwe. It also received acclaim from critics, who praised the film’s direction, performances, themes, and story, with some calling it one of the best science fiction films of the 2000s, and garnered numerous awards and nominations for best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Visual Effects, and Best Film Editing.
