The 19 Greatest Space Films of All Time

by Ran

 

Since it's release in 1968, the original interstellar epic, 2001: A Space Odyssey, has been the gold standard in extraterrestrial cinema. Director Stanley Kubrik's finest work is rife with pioneering, awe-inspiring spectacle, profundity, philosophy and depth. And yet, parts of it are very difficult to watch. Some of what was sublime in the late 60s has become a mind-numbing chore. In 2016, parts of it are downright boring. You heard me. It's true. Everyone who bothers to contemplate his place in the universe should see it at least once. But over the years, Kubrik's masterpiece has managed to inspire a few other works set between the stars, that, while perhaps not as substantive, have the benefit of being so enjoyable that they practically beg to be seen over and over again. So, without further ado, here are Hollywood's finest cosmic offerings...

19. Sunshine

Sunshine revolves around an international crew of specialists on a mission to reignite the dying Sun with a mega-ton nuclear bomb in the year 2057. Director Danny Boyle was obviously heavily influenced by both Alien and 2001: A Space Odyssey, but this movie stands on its own. The bad news is that it transitions to a slasher movie near the end. It sort of went from "sugar to shit."

I wouldn't be surprised if Chris Evans, who portrays the spacecraft's engineer, Mace, got the role of Captain America based solely on his performance in Sunshine. He's focused, self-sacrificing, heroic, morally uncomplicated, stalwart, calm under pressure, take-charge and sincere -- everything the Captain is, minus 60 pounds of muscle.

18. The Cloverfield Paradox

17. Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Though Star Trek hit television screens 11 years before Star Wars flew into movie theaters, the latter's eye-popping box office and cultural dominance undoubtedly prompted the Star Trek folks to take their show -- which was cancelled in 1969 -- to the big screen.

Admiral James T. Kirk commandeers his old ship in a desperate bid to prevent a mysterious entity from destroying the Earth.

16. Prometheus

It's a shame that the Alien folks didn't realize that people would be more
than willing to watch an Alien movie without Ripley (and without Predators)
until after Alien: Resurrection was made. And released. And hated.

15. Gravity

Countless cartoons, sci-fi movies and comic books since before I was born have featured space stations. But actual, real-world space stations have always seemed to be back-page news outside of the scientific community. So when Gravity came around in 2013 -- 42 years after the first station was launched, it was one of those "it's-about-damn-time" moments. To be honest, it was so long overdue that it's surprising that Hollywood even bothered. If only the audio wasn't so irritating.

14. Aliens

As harrowing an ordeal as the events that transpired in Alien was for Ripley, the follow-up continues her suffering almost from the start, as she learns that her daughter has died during the 57 years that she was adrift in cryosleep. 

Aliens managed to accomplish the Herculean task of competing with it's predecessor by not even trying. While the original Alien is a horror film, it's sequel is a military/action movie. And come on, who didn't try that knife-between-the-fingers trick, albeit at a much slower pace? 

Aliens is just hands-down the best showcase of marines in space -- period. 

It features one of the most visually-striking spacecraft ever seen, in the marines' U.S.S. Sulaco. The rest of the military vehicles, such as the APC and the dropship, aren't too shabby either. Much of the movie was clearly inspired by Robert Heinlein's 1968 novel, Starship Troopers (for instance, the cargo-loader exoskeleton utilized by Ripley). But, Aliens is way better than the movie adaptation of that book -- which was released 11 whole years after Cameron's movie. Check this out: Director Paul Verhoeven hated what he considered the book's pro-war and fascism stance, so he made the movie as a satire of its own source material. How sick is that? Speaking of films influenced by Starship Troopers, Bill Paxton hilariously returned to his future infantry-versus-aliens roots 18 years later in 2014's Edge of Tomorrow as a squad commander who wouldn't have cut Private Hudson (his Aliens character) one bit of slack.

You know, given the Weyland-Yutani corporation's continued and extreme disregard for human life, maybe the movie should've been titled, The Business Empire Strikes Back. Maybe not. The biggest takeaway from Aliens: Never trust a big corporation.

13. The Wrath of Khan

The Wrath of Khan is essentially about time. Now-Admiral Kirk is struggling with coming to grips with getting older -- he feels that his time is running out. And his past catches up with him, in more ways than one: an old enemy resurfaces (Khan); he meets the son he never knew for the first time (a grown man who hates him); and he's confronted by said son's mother, Dr. Carol Marcus (literally, Kirk's baby mama).

Spock's sacrifice and its effect on Kirk in The Wrath of Khan achieve a poignancy unmatched in any other 80s Trek movie.

The Wrath of Khan was the best Trek film for decades but unfortunately, its special effects haven't aged well. On the plus side, the emotional aspects of the story hit as hard as ever. After Khan Noonien Singh disables the Enterprise, Spock makes the ultimate sacrifice in order to help get the fabled vessel moving again as "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of...the one."

12. Wall-E

Nemo? Nope. Frozen? Get the hell outta here. WALL-E represents the zenith of Disney Pixar films. In fact, Entertainment Weekly named it the greatest animated film ever. WALL-E is an example of one of the rare times that the AMPAS got it right when the film earned the Oscar for Best Animated Feature at the 81st annual Academy Awards.

Like many space stories, our hero endures more than his share of isolation and loneliness. At its core, WALL-E is about an unassuming guy living in a desert wasteland, stuck doing menial labor, who travels to outer space for the first time in order to rescue a sophisticated female clad in white. Said female also happens to be pretty handy with a gun. He soon realizes that he, and she, are part of something much bigger than he ever imagined. Sound familiar? The difference is that instead of ending up in one, the hero is a trash compactor.
 
He barely talks, he looks like he belongs in the landfill in which he resides, and yet, you can't stop watching him. If he were a person, that little dude would be a great one. 

Believe it or not, WALL-E is also among the number of films in which a significant amount of its hero's woes can be traced to either an artificial intelligence or a huge corporate conglomerate. In this case, it's both. 

There are quite a few barely-veiled Christian themes at work here too: Imagine the spaceship, the Axiom, is Noah's Ark and Eve is the dove who brings back an olive branch. All that and Sigourney Weaver, too.  

11. Interstellar

When Interstellar was released, several reviewers compared it to 2001: A Space Odyssey. While 2001 was the more philosophical of the two, Interstellar was more exciting. On top of that, TARS and CASE comprise the best robotic duo since R2D2 and C-3PO in the original Star Wars trilogy (their inclusion in the prequels was one of the many, many bad judgment calls concerning the first three episodes).

10. Star Wars

When Star Wars was originally released in 1977, it became the highest-grossing movie of all time and remained so until 1982. It was also nominated for ten Oscars, including Best Picture, and actually won seven. There's virtually no chance that a sci-fi fantasy film would be nominated for anything more than a couple of technical awards these days.

Star Wars pioneered the tangible, worn look of spacecraft and sci-fi equipment that would inspire future projects such as: the Alien films; Space Hunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone; The Ice Pirates; and Guardians of the Galaxy. Up to that point sci-fi entertainment tended to feature exceedingly clean, glossy, boring-looking spaceships and cockpits.

Star Wars' influence didn't stop at science fiction either. Replace the galaxy far, far away with London and you've got Harry Potter. Think about it. When the story begins, Harry is a young, nerdy orphan (Luke) who's barely tolerated by his aunt and uncle (Beru and Owen). A wizard (Obi-Wan Kenobi) convinces him to leave home in order to cultivate his heretofore unknown magical abilities (Force powers). Along the way he meets a guy (Han Solo) and a girl Hermione (Princess Leia) who will eventually become his closest friends and fall in love with each other. His magical mentor (Kenobi) is killed but continues to communicate with him throughout the series. The villain is a powerful and disfigured wizard (Darth Vader) who murdered Harry's parents (Kenobi tells Luke that Vader murdered his father; it's eventually revealed that he was responsible for the death of Luke's mother) and is referred to as a "Dark Lord". Said villain has also undergone a name change -- from Tom Marvolo Riddle (Anakin Skywalker) to Lord Voldemort (Lord Vader). Harry's, and every wizard's, weapon of choice is a wand (lightsaber).

Conceived out of necessity when Lucas was denied the rights to Flash Gordon (which ironically received a big-screen adaptation as a result of Star Wars' success), his idea for what he called a "space fairy tale" was rejected by United Artists, Universal and Disney before 20th Century Fox finally agreed to back him. 

The original idea underwent a myriad of changes before becoming the final product that debuted in the late 70s. Reportedly, Han Solo was initially intended to be green and Billy Dee Williams, who would portray Lando Calrissian in the 2nd and 3rd installments of the trilogy, originally auditioned for the role of Luke Skywalker. Lucas' insistence on filling most of the parts with relatively unknown actors resulted in Broadway veteran James Earl Jones voicing the iconic Darth Vader, who wouldn't be nearly as menacing had he opted to go with any of the other choices he'd considered.

Something to think about given the information that's eventually revealed in the final movie of the trilogy, Return of the Jedi: Princess Leia gives Luke the first of three kisses (the second and third are in The Empire Strikes Back) in the series in Star Wars. 

The original, unmolested, non-Special Edition Star Wars is deceptively entertaining. I've been told more than once that it "changed the world" forty years ago, but when I think about watching it it feels like work. I guess you had to be there. The thing is, it manages to draw you in not long after it starts. And by the end it's GREAT. When I was a kid, I saw it countless times on HBO but I'd never watched it chronologically, from beginning to end. I'd always see it in parts, which was fine with me. I experienced it more as viewing the events of whatever galaxy it takes place in, as opposed to a linear story. I think I prefer it that way, to tell you the truth.

9. Rebel Moon: The Curse of Forgiveness

Writer/director Zack Snyder's follow-up to 2023's A Child of Fire is a vast improvement as the recruited warriors join the Veldt villagers in engaging the full military might of Admiral Noble's forces. While this sequel's predecessor showed promise, Curse of Forgiveness genuinely makes good on Snyder's Star Wars ambitions, providing backstories as well as juxtaposing ground skirmishes with a fight aboard a crashing starship. Like The Empire Strikes Back, the story picks up with the revolutionaries being hunted by the reigning regime and ends with them set to embark on a quest to locate a loved one (in this case a princess instead of a smuggler), teasing much more to come.

Derivative or not, the Imperium's walking tanks are vast improvements on the ones seen in the Prequel Trilogy, outclassing them in every way. And underscoring the abundance of gray morality on display, two of our heroes kill enemy combatants attempting to provide medical assistance after posing as their injured comrades-in-arms. 

There are surprises too. it's refreshing and, frankly, astonishing in this day and age that, given his introduction as "the village's greatest hunter" and Gunnar's rival for Kora's affections, that Den is never depicted as an avatar of "toxic masculinity" and instead was always counted among the heroes. This second half of Rebel Moon's Snyder Cut is the best sci-fi movie of the year and the best "Star Wars" film anything since Rogue One.

8. Infinity War

7. The Transformers

Contrary to popular misconception, neither Shia LaBeouf nor Michael Bay has any connection whatsoever to the first Transformers film. Nor is it a combination of live-action and CGI. The first and best big-screen depiction of the Autobot/Decepticon conflict is rendered in old-fashioned, two-dimensional anime and premiered way back in 1986. Despite the format, its the darkest and most mature of the Transformers films to date. Transformers also bears the distinction of being the final film for both Scatman Crothers and Orson Welles. Crothers and Welles gave vocal performances alongside other well-known figures such as Leonard Nimoy, Robert Stack, Judd Nelson, Eric Idle and radio legend Casey Kasem.

The Transformers' initial on-screen incarnation was a daily television series which aired from 1984-1987. The animation style employed in the film, like everything else, is a vast improvement over the one used for the series. The theme song even gets a hard rock update from the LA band Lion. Even for those who don't like hair bands (a group that includes me), it sounds great and is further evidence that the filmmakers took the project seriously. The film's signature song, "The Touch", by Stan Bush, was initially produced for the 1986 hit, Cobra, starring Sylvester Stallone. "The Touch" is also the song main character Dirk Diggler records for his demo tape in the 1997 movie, Boogie Nights.

The Transformers, which is based directly on the animated television series, picks up 20 years after the events of the show -- in the distant future of 2005 (How about that?). In a departure from the series, which was set largely on Earth, the film takes place mainly in space and on other planets. There is a vast leap in maturity on display here -- in more ways than one. For one thing, while the film is not without moments of comedic relief (much of it dark comedy), the tone is astoundingly serious for an animated feature. You'll even hear some curse words during a couple of particularly stressful situations. You'll also notice that Spike Witwicky (the same last name used in the Shia LaBeouf movies), one of the few human regulars on the televison series and teenaged during the seasons preceding the film, is now a grown man with a son. Spike's father, Sparkplug (another series regular), is never seen or mentioned. Lastly, the film whole-heartedly embraces the premise of the Transformers concept: the Autobots and Decepticons are engaged in a war. A war that claims lives -- on both sides.

6. Return of the Jedi

The would-be conclusion to the Star Wars saga has not held up well in some respects. While it garnered critical praise when it debuted, it's now the lowest rated entry in the original trilogy. The ewoks were always a bad idea, the "Special Edition" updates are anything but improvements, Harrison Ford is noticeably fatter despite being in suspended animation since The Empire Strikes Back (c'mon it was only three years -- Carrie Fisher's wearing a bikini for fuck's sake) and Boba Fett's death is just lazy.

That said, there is a lot to admire. The space scenes were, and still are, outstanding. The Death Star run at the end of the movie is phenomenal. There is nothing like it anywhere else in cinema. Speaking of which, the Death Star itself looks incredible. As redundant as it is, the unfinished Death Star 2.0 looks so much better than the final product -- seen in Star Wars. Better still, the dogfight in space is the absolute best of any movie of any era -- bar none. The fact that it was done without the benefit of CGI is astounding.

Darth Vader fulfills the prophecy that he'd bring balance to the Force -- for the second time (the first was 20 years earlier in Revenge of the Sith) -- and in spectacular fashion as he allows his son to beat him in a fight (which is really the only way Luke had any chance at all, given that Vader had not one, but two Force mentors and had been a Force practitioner for about 30 years before Luke ever even saw a lightsaber) and ultimately behaves like any real father of any galaxy. Think about the revelations regarding Vader's progeny and consider the ramifications in context of the suffering he willfully inflicted on the heroes during the first two films. If the movie isn't complicated, the man certainly is (at least he is until his actions defy all logic, common sense and even the slightest semblance of actual human behavior in the prequels).

Jabba the Hutt is stupendous as the absurdly overweight drug kingpin. He shows that you don't have to carry a gun, wear an expensive suit or even be human to be a gangster. He also introduces sex into the Star Wars universe. It's impossible to ignore the strippers and sex slaves (wearing collars attached to chains, no less) roaming around his palace. When you see the hate in Princess Leia's eyes it's clear that she'd felt more than Jabba's gaze.

The Emperor is at his best and the stoicism of his silent, red-clad Imperial Guard is a nice, ominous touch.

Lando Calrissian becomes the hero and quite possibly proves that Han Solo is not the best pilot to have manned the controls of the Millenium Falcon.

It's also nice to see what Luke has become -- and a little chilling to see what he may be becoming. Take note of his color of choice, for example. The apple doesn't seem to fall very far from the tree in the Skywalker family. For better or worse (or perhaps, for better and worse), his past has taken quite a toll on him. The excitable kid that couldn't wait to leave the farm in Star Wars is gone forever.

For a time, the movie was officially titled, Revenge of the Jedi. There are plenty of posters with that title still floating around eBay. Supposedly, the title was changed because the thinking was that vengeance is out of character for jedi. The fact is, vengeance seems to be exactly what Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda have in mind. According to a Los Angeles Times interview with Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back producer Gary Kurtz, certain script ideas, such as Han Solo being killed in the middle of the movie and ending the film with Luke Skywalker walking off "like Clint Eastwood in the spaghetti westerns," were abandoned because the happier ending was thought to be more conducive to increased toy sales. Just think -- this popcorn movie could have been art. Oh, well.

5. Star Trek

Chief Engineer Scotty's personality is sorely missed in this film. His de-evolution into a clownish jester is so disappointing that its worse than if he'd been absent altogether. It's also weird that present-Spock's voice is significantly higher than future-Spock's, but it's not that big of a deal.

There was criticism that this film was too much like the Star Wars films, but the fact is that it's easily better than most of those movies. Also, the fighting and ramped-up action in this film is more in line with the original television series than ANY of the pre-reboot movies.

4. Alien

Alien is a phenomenal achievement on more than one front. It's a horror film that actually manages to scare people, and considering the true agenda of the corporation that employs the crew of the Nostromo -- the alien isn't the only monster.

3. Into Darkness

Contrary to popular misconception, Into Darkness is not a remake of The Wrath of Khan. Yes, both films feature Khan, but the two depictions are markedly different. So different, in fact, that neither is inferior to the other.

While Khan features heavily in Darkness, he acts alone without the support of his cadre of genetically-engineered  acolytes, and because he and Kirk have no history, he is not driven by a pathological obsession to murder the good Captain. What's more, Khan is not the main villain this time around. Nor is there any mention of Ceti Alpha V nor VI.

The Wrath of Khan is essentially about time. Now-Admiral Kirk is struggling with coming to grips with getting older -- he feels that his time is running out. And his past catches up with him, in more ways than one: an old enemy resurfaces (Khan); he meets the son he never knew for the first time (a grown man who hates him); and he's confronted by said son's mother, Dr. Carol Marcus (literally, Kirk's baby mama).

Spock's sacrifice and its effect on Kirk in The Wrath of Khan achieve a poignancy unmatched in Darkness' role reversal imitation. However, one scene does not trump an entire film.

Darkness, however, is not without its faults. Future-Spock's presence in this film was jarringly out of place. And if Captain Kirk had to die, he shouldn't have been resurrected until the next film -- at the very earliest. Mr. Scott's new court jester persona is still annoying. He's become the Jar Jar Binks of Star Trek (not to mention Mission: Impossible). Khan could have benefited from more muscle mass, but that last one is just quibbling. 

Otherwise, Into Darkness is superb. The best Star Trek film ever made. Yep. If you prefer one of the 80s movies or 1979's Star Trek: The Motion Picture, that's understandable. They're pretty good. However, if you put nostalgia aside for a moment and go back and watch those movies, they don't hold up in comparison to this one.

2. Rogue One

Star Wars is finally back. Not a remix of the first two films -- an original Star Wars story. Last year's The Force Awakens had a lot of style but not much substance. Let's be real, it was more hype than greatness. Rogue One is actually about something.

The movie is marketed as a "stand-alone Star Wars story". But that's not really true. In reality, Rogue is a prequel and is key to the events that follow. There is also a small acknowledgement of what came before. But fortunately, it's nothing like those pre-Empire movies. Rogue has more in common with The Empire Strikes Back than those things.

To be honest, it's more like Empire than any other Star Wars movie. Vader is in beast-mode, the good guys aren't angels, there's no teddy-bear army and the "heroes" take extremely heavy losses.

In fact, this movie makes up for the wack stuff in Return of the Jedi. For instance, you get a battle that alternates between land and space -- but without the Care Bears.

Rogue One makes me never wanna watch the prequel trilogy, The Force Awakens even Return of the Jedi again. Yeah, I said it. I definitely don't give a sh*t what happens to Kylo Ren, Rey and Poe Dameron in the future. At this point all the Star Wars saga needs is the original, The Empire Strikes Back and Rogue One. There's your new trilogy right there.

Darth Vader is back too. Not a lame, groupie grandkid trying hard to be live up to the family name and not George Lucas' rewritten version of history -- this time the actual, choke-the-sh*t-out-you-quick, murder-my-own-officers-without-breaking-a-sweat Darth Vader. Not once does he break outta character and yell, "Nooooo!" like he did in Revenge of the Sith and the Special Edition Return of the Jedi (Smh).

If we're lucky and if Lucasfilm is smart, this is a sign of things to come and not a stand-alone great story.

1. The Empire Strikes Back

The sequel that's far superior to the groundbreaking, revolutionary, blockbuster original. The adventure story that dared to combine substance and integrity with incomparable style. The film that had the gall to let you hear one of it's heroes scream in agony. And to let another of it's heroes fail. And go toe-to-toe with evil and not only lose decisively but to run away. Where an ally reveals himself to be a traitor, but not for reasons as cliche' or superficial as the promise of riches. Where a puppet looked more realistic, had more personality and remains more beloved than any computer-generated character even 35 years later, including The Lord of the Rings' Gollum. Where not one, but two of the hero's mentors display dubious morals -- at best. This is also the film in which the villain takes center stage and gets revenge. It's also the film that visited the most locations in space (the ice planet, the swamp planet, the cloud city, the asteroid and Super Star Destroyer). It has textured, dirty, used, so real-looking-you-swear-you-could-reach-out-and-touch-them spacecraft. It has science (sort of) and sorcery, existentialism and non-cheesy romance. Empire contains the least drastic changes of the trilogy (George Lucas' so-called "improvements" to the films made 20 years after Star Wars' debut), though the Emperor's appearance was thankfully boosted to the caliber of the rest of the visuals. Empire proves that when a film is great, without qualification, it's alright to have a tragic ending. And if you decide to make a sequel, people will show up in droves because they don't just want to know, they want to see, what happens next.

Whether Lucas recognized his limitations or simply found that he was too busy as a newly-independent producer, passing the respective writing and directing reins over to Lawrence Kasdan and his old film school professor, Irvin Kershner, was his wisest decision since bringing his saga to the screen in the first place. Like The Winter Soldier 34 years later, Empire is completely different from its predecessor. The emphasis was re-focused onto character while doubling up on the visuals and excitement. Everything was honed to perfection.

Darth Vader was never better (the same holds true for Boba Fett). He no longer boasts or shouts angrily as he did in Star Wars. His short temper has been replaced by the imperturbable, matter-of-fact malice witnessed in one too-brief scene in Star Wars (where he calmly, telekinetically strangles one of his cohorts at a meeting). He's no longer a caricature with distinctive heavy breathing, he's a so-hardened-he's-irredeemable, barely human warrior who's seen it all and lost the capacity to be moved or impressed. He's the template for The Terminator's T-800 and No Country for Old Men's Anton Chigurh. He's so villainous that he murders his own officers for failing, severs his only son's hand and casually plots to overthrow and murder his mentor. This film reveals the true nature of the galaxy's power structure -- Vader allows the Emperor to sit on the imperial throne -- for now -- but he's really the one calling the shots (a la Dick Cheney or Tony Soprano when Uncle Junior was the New Jersey don). Even his helmet is shinier. This is the king of bad guys at his finest.

The "space opera" takes cues from no less than Shakespeare and Greek tragedy, with a touch of Hamlet and Oedipus Rex. Life was hard for Luke in Star Wars (he was an orphan who found the corpses of his murdered aunt and uncle, watched his mentor die and lost a childhood friend on a suicide mission), but things got worse a mere three years later and he does not make it out in one piece. While he overcame his self-doubts in Star Wars, even more of his personal flaws are revealed here and the villain's restraint and ulterior motives are the only reasons they don't become fatal. Both Yoda and Kenobi use Luke in order to satisfy their desire for revenge. They conceal from him the true nature of the suicide mission for which they are preparing him -- to unwittingly murder his own father. It's worth noting that both chose to live in hiding for decades instead of undertaking said mission themselves. How's that for complexity?

The distinctive score debuted in Star Wars is enhanced, most notably with the addition of the "Imperial March", which netted composer John Williams both a Golden Globe for best soundtrack and a Grammy.

Empire is one of the greatest films of any genre ever made and it's the Michael Jordan of adventure and fantasy films. It's much better than anyone could have ever expected or imagined it to be. Critics that likened Guardians of the Galaxy to Star Wars films could not have been referring to this one. They must have had Attack of the Clones in mind. The Empire Strikes Back is so good that it's not merely the best fantasy film. It should be referred to as the fantasy film.

Updated 8/28/24
Updated 2/8/18

Originally Posted 12/7/15

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