The 20 Best Sci-Fi Movies of 2024, Ranked

The sci-fi genre was honestly a mixed bag in 2024, at least at the movies. On television, there were more excellent options — Dark Matter, Parasyte: The Grey, Constellation, Silo, Sugar, Fallout, X-Men ’97, Outer Range, 3 Body Problem, From, Dune: Prophecy, Terminator Zero, Resident Alien. Cinematically speaking, there weren’t as many great options. Sure, there were some big, original sci-fi epics that some people might enjoy (Kalki 2898 AD, The Empire, Megalopolis, the Rebel Moon movies), but we certainly didn’t.

There were also some great films on the festival circuit that won’t get theatrical releases until this year (if they do at all): The Assessment, The Silent Planet, Daniela Forever, All of You, and Can I Get a Witness? So we’re not including those titles in our list of the best sci-fi films of 2024, and we can’t include the documentary-sci-fi hybrid film 2073, which is absolutely worth watching but is more appropriate in our list of the best documentaries of 2024. Finally, there’s ME, another jaw-dropping, mind-boggling short film by Don Hertzfeldt that you can rent or buy here; as a short, though, it’s not officially included, but it should be sought out. So, without further delay, these are the 20 best sci-fi films of 2024.

20

I.S.S.

Read Our Review of I.S.S.

A great premise and believable performances make I.S.S. a clever, claustrophobic sci-fi thriller. The film takes place on the titular International Space Station where Americans and Russians get along. Things get tense when an American receives the message that nuclear war has broken out, and they’re ordered to forcefully take control of the station. The result is as suspenseful and thoughtful as you’d think, and Ariana DeBose proves she’s got more than just musical talent.

19

Tim Travers and the Time Traveler’s Paradox

Tim Travers and the Time Traveler’s Paradox

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Read Our Review of Tim Travers and the Time Traveler’s Paradox

Lo-fi and slightly cheesy, the wealth of imaginative ideas and settings, along with frequent laughs and delightful cameos, makes Tim Travers and the Time Traveler’s Paradox a fun and unique experience. The film follows a misanthropic (and somewhat suicidal) mad scientist who wants to understand the so-called time traveler’s paradox (if you go back in time and kill your grandfather, then you would never have been born and lived to kill your grandfather). Sci-fi fans and science geeks will get a big kick out of this one and how it deconstructs and plays with the rules, and its surprisingly humanistic message.

Spinning circular space station in the movie 2001 A Space Odyssey

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18

Meanwhile on Earth

Read Our Review of Meanwhile on Earth

An extremely artistic and unsettling film with a very specific vibe, Meanwhile on Earth is a promising new direction for filmmaker Jérémy Clapin after years making great animated shorts and one animated feature. This film acknowledges that in a way, beginning with animation before changing its aspect ratio and becoming a live-action sci-fi film unlike much of Clapin’s work. Elsa hears from her astronaut brother who has been lost in space, realizing that he’s being held by aliens who need something deeply nefarious from Elsa… involving human host bodies. Megan Northam gives one of the best performances of the year in this ambiguous, suspenseful movie.

17

Transformers One

Read Our Review of Transformers One

Possibly the best installment in the modern Transformers franchise (though that’s not saying too much), Transformers One takes us back to the beginning to tell an origins story and a meditation on friendship and betrayal. It’s also the first animated theatrical film in the franchise in decades, and the film is proof that this IP works so much better fully animated than with chunky, ugly CGI mixed with live-action. The animation is gorgeous and modernizes the franchise, and the voice acting is stellar. While Chris Hemsworth is a bit miscast, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson, Steve Buscemi, Laurence Fishburne, and Jon Hamm are all excellent.

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16

Molli and Max in the Future

It’s a bold move to make an intergalactic sci-fi rom-com set a billion years in the future with a tiny budget and no CGI, but Michael Lukk Litwak pulls it off with quirky finesse. That’s thanks in no small part to the charming performances from Zosia Mamet (Girls) and Aristotle Athari (an underrated SNL performer), who play two regular human hybrids in the future who first meet in a car accident and then keep meeting over the course of many years. Molli and Max in the Future cleverly balances the chaos of the surrounding universe with smaller relatable things, like anxieties over their careers.

15

The Becomers

Read Our Review of The Becomers

Zach Clark is an ingenious leader of the American independent movement, with masterpieces like White Reindeer defining the auteur’s eccentric approach. He takes a bold swerve into science-fiction with The Becomers, a genre-bending (and body-blending) affair that mixes romance, comedy, and body horror into its sci-fi brew. The film follows two extraterrestrial lovers trying to survive in the United States, having to use new human hosts to survive. Whether as a twisted road trip romance or a dark allegory for trans rights, The Becomers is a unique spectacle.

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14

The Wild Robot

Read Our Review of The Wild Robot

A Universal Dynamics ROZZUM robot washes up on an isolated island after a wreck in the sweet DreamWorks picture, The Wild Robot. Beautifully animated with a wide range of animals and vibrant colors, Chris Sanders’ film may be about a robot, but it’s incredibly heartwarming and filled with compassion. The robot transcends its own programming and leans into a motherly role, taking care of a gosling named Brightbill and bringing more than a couple of tears to our eyes. The film also has a wonderful voice cast as well, with Lupita N’yongo, Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor, Catherine O’Hara, Bill Nighy, Stephanie Hsu, Matt Berry, Ving Rhames, and Mark Hamill delivering the goods.

13

Monolith

Read Our Review of Monolith

A mysterious and intimate portrait of storytelling and storytellers, Monolith features a tour de force performance from Lily Sullivan (Evil Dead Rise) as The Interviewer, a journalist whose mental health is rapidly declining as she researches strange phenomena reported by multiple people in her interviews. You never know precisely what’s around the corner in Monolith, a film that expertly but gradually builds the tension to a boil. While it was on the festival circuit in 2022, it took a couple of years for this movie to get an actual release, and it’s a small marvel.

12

The Invisibles

A unique allegory for heartache and break-ups, with a very specific tone, The Invisibles bypasses the usual exposition and melodrama of many romance films to focus on the end of a relationship and study the aftermath. The film follows a man who is slowly fading away as his marriage ends — literally. As he becomes invisible, he connects to an alternate reality layered atop our own, one consisting of other Invisibles. Within that reality, he can see his wife and child in a completely new way. It’s a sad, beautiful little film with a stand-out performance from Tim Blake Nelson like we’ve never seen him before.

11

Alien: Romulus

Read Our Review of Alien: Romulus

While I personally loved Prometheus, many fans of the Alien franchise haven’t been happy with it for decades. Alien: Romulus changed that by going back to the roots of the film series, drawing from the claustrophobic horror of the original. While some elements are unbelievable, the film is nonetheless exciting, creating a nearly hour-long period of butt-clenching suspense. Great direction and production design, along with some excellent jump scares, make this a non-stop thrill ride. With its Easter eggs, the film is also a loving tribute to fans of the franchise.

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10

It’s What’s Inside

Read Our Review of It’s What’s Inside

It’s What’s Inside is a wacky, delightful mess of fun. It follows a group of friends who get together for one of their weddings and invite a reckless, genius friend they once wronged. He’s fine with it though, even bringing a party trick — a body-swapping device. Soon, a game is underway in which they all swap bodies anonymously and have to guess who is who. Secrets and desires are revealed, leading to an increasingly disastrous evening. It’s Greg Jardin’s direction, though, that makes everything so highly watchable and memorable. The way things are lit, the use of music, the inventive editing and propulsive narrative — the whole thing is thumping audiovisual fun.

9

Mars Express

Read Our Review of Mars Express

Mars Express is a masterful example of world-building, creating an extraordinarily detailed far-off future that could spawn a whole franchise. With a mix of Japanese anime and classic French animation from the ’70s, along with surprisingly realistic voice acting and mannerisms, Mars Express is distinctly its own. The film begins with a Blade Runner-like storyline, following a private investigator and their android partner as they navigate a corrupt city of criminals and cybernetics, morphing into an I, Robot scenario by the end. It’s extremely cool, and, despite the haunting ending, leaves you wanting more.

8

Robot Dreams

Read Our Review of Robot Dreams

Robot Dreams is an immensely sweet, simple, and heartbreaking silent film about a dog who creates a robot friend. They have a beautiful friendship, but when he takes the robot to the beach, his mechanical buddy rusts and gets stuck. The film takes its title seriously, following the dreams of the robot on the beach he can’t leave, all while the dog waits in his apartment for a better season to save him. It’s the small details that make Robot Dreams so beautiful, from the intricate and imaginative aspects of the dreams to the meticulously fleshed out and slightly heightened reality of 1980s Manhattan.

7

The End

Read Our Review of The End

One of two great sci-fi films starring George Mackay in 2024, The End is certainly an oddity. It comes from one of the great experimental documentarians of our time, Joshua Oppenheimer, who decided to condense his feelings and thoughts about humanity’s catastrophic collision course with climate change into an epic musical drama. The film takes place in a vast underground bunker and follows an immensely wealthy family whose patriarch is an oil baron, his company partly responsible for the unlivable habitat of the planet. Like Yorgos Lanthimos’ Dogwoof, the movie has a surreal quality that’s removed from what we know to be true, isolating these detached billionaires in a cage of their own making.

6

Things Will Be Different

Read Our Review of Things Will Be Different

Things Will Be Different is a prime example of great indie filmmaking, using a little to do a lot. It makes sense; after all, it was produced by two of the best American indie directors, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorehead (of Rustic Films). The film follows sibling thieves attempting to use a portal to an alternate reality as a means of escape. It’s important not to spoil anything more about the film, but just know that its weaving, clever narrative structure builds to just the right place.

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5

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Read Our Review of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga didn’t make as many waves as Fury Road and divided some fans, but it’s hard to see how anyone wouldn’t be on the edge of their seat throughout this gloriously high-adrenaline rollercoaster of a film. Yes, Anya Taylor-Joy was probably miscast here, but George Miller’s increasingly operatic, towering action scenes are just as magnificent as they were in Fury Road, and the narrative is more complex. Chris Hemsworth may even be a better villain this time around, giving the kind of performance we likely won’t see again from the star.

4

The Animal Kingdom

Read Our Review of The Animal Kingdom

The Animal Kingdom is fantastic in every meaning of the word. The film takes our collective trauma of COVID and turns it into a dreamlike world where humans have become genetically mutated after a history of human meddling. The mutations have become to morph (or devolve) people into various animal hybrids, and the world is trying to adapt through isolation, hospitalization, enclosures, and all that. The film focuses on a father and son trying to find the cure for the woman in their lives while also trying to survive this fairytale-like apocalypse. Beautiful cinematography and imaginative practical and digital effects alike add to this fascinating commentary on a world out of control.

3

The Substance

Read Our Review of The Substance

For many, The Substance was one of the most surprising hits of the year, with no big distributor expressing any interest in the film until the great arthouse streamer and distributor MUBI came along. The film has since gone on to become one of the highest-grossing indie horror movies of 2024 and one of the rare horror movies to garner awards attention, with Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley rightfully earning awards and nominations. It shouldn’t have been much of a surprise that the film would hit — it’s got a stacked cast who are pitch-perfect in this over-the-top body horror satire of Hollywood, self-help, and beauty standards.

2

Dune: Part 2

Read Our Review of Dune: Part 2

Dune: Part 2 is a big improvement on the original, and as long as you have the proper context, it’s one of the best films of 2024. The film expands upon the incredible visual effects and production design of Denis Villeneuve’s first Dune, but it isn’t bogged down by endless exposition and introductions. Now that you know the story and its characters, Dune: Part 2 is a sweeping, exciting affair that expertly balances its multiple storylines, ultimately showing how Paul Atreides fulfills his destiny to lead a working class rebellion of the Fremen against the Imperial Houses. It makes for a staggering meditation on war, free will, religion, and politics. And yes, the effects are awesome.

1

The Beast

Read Our Review of The Beast

The best science-fiction film of 2024 was The Beast, a sprawling movie that’s hard to pin down but has more creativity and imagination than hundreds of other sci-fi movies combined. Léa Seydoux and George MacKay star as two lovers in a future where artifical intelligence has become powerful enough to save the world from climate change and other catastrophes, but also to control the world economy. The lovers are two of many people who have to get their DNA “purified” in order to work certain jobs; the process takes them through the chains of their DNA and into their past lives. It’s as trippy, romantic, and unsettling as it sounds, with achingly beautiful performances and incredibly imaginative writing. It’s a modern masterpiece.

20 I.S.S.

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19 Tim Travers and the Time Traveler’s Paradox

18 Meanwhile on Earth

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17 Transformers One

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16 Molli and Max in the Future

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Molli and Max in the Future

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15 The Becomers

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The Becomers

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14 The Wild Robot

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13 Monolith

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12 The Invisibles

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11 Alien: Romulus

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10 It’s What’s Inside

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9 Mars Express

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8 Robot Dreams

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7 The End

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The End

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6 Things Will Be Different

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5 Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

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4 The Animal Kingdom

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3 The Substance

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2 Dune: Part 2

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1 The Beast

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I.S.S.

19

Tim Travers and the Time Traveler’s Paradox

18

Meanwhile on Earth

17

Transformers One

16

Molli and Max in the Future

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The Becomers

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The Wild Robot

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Monolith

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The Invisibles

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Alien: Romulus

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It’s What’s Inside

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Mars Express

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Robot Dreams

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The End

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Things Will Be Different

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Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

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The Animal Kingdom

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The Substance

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Dune: Part 2

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The Beast