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The Top Ten Science Fiction Movies of All Time
Tired of the same old Top Ten Sci-Fi movies lists that have 2001: Space Odyssey listed way up on top, and somehow manage to leave off any of the Star Trek movies? Well so are we. We think 2001 sucks and decided to make our own list of the best science fiction movies ever, other critics opinions be damned. Seriously what’s so great about that film anyway? It puts me to sleep every time I try to watch it. Sure, there’s some cool special effects for its time but they are spaced out between a long boring story where the most exciting thing that happens is a some monkeys going wild and a strange acid trip in outer space. And can someone please tell me just what the hell is going on in that movie during the last half hour? Just because Stanley Kubrick made it and all the critics like it, every loser trying to make a top ten Sci-Fi movie list feels like he or she has to include it among the elite ten science fiction movies of all time. Well, not us. Those who know us know that we don’t care about appearing intelligent. Anyway, here’s our list. If you don’t like it, go check out Ebert’s.
10. Twelve Monkeys
 How can you go wrong with a movie about time travel, directed by one of the members of Monty Python and starring Bruce Willis? Well, you can't, and that's why 12 Monkeys makes our "Top Ten Science Fiction Movies of All Time" list. This was a truly epic film, with everything a science fiction junkie could ask for. A hot doctor lady, a deadly virus, and a deranged time traveler who is troubled with recurring dreams involving a chase and a shooting in an airport.
The plot: Bruce Willis is a criminal from the future who must go back in time to collect information about a deadly virus that wipes out most of the earth's population in 1997. The only thing he knows is that the mysterious Army of Twelve Monkeys is somehow responsible for the deadly plague. In the past he is subsequently locked up as a lunatic where he befriends an attractive psychologist lady who slowly comes to believe him. After some back and forth time travel he figures out that the Army of Twelve Monkeys he's been pursuing is nothing more than a red herring, and the true culprit was Doctor Peters, an assistant at the Goines lab, and in an attempt to assassinate the perpetrator, Bruce Willis's character is shot as his childhood self watches, and the villain escapes. Has there ever been a better ending to a science fiction movie? 9. Blade Runner
 Has there ever been a bad Harrison Ford movie (okay, besides Hollywood Homicide)? The answer to that question is "No" of course, and Blade Runner is no exception. This is a truly great film, based on the novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sleep" by none other than Philip K. Dick. Set in dystopian Los Angeles, 2019, where genetically manufactured beings called replicants are used for dangerous and degrading work on Earth's colonies. After a minor replicant uprising, replicants become illegal on Earth, and specialist police units, called "blade runners", are trained to hunt down and "retire" escaped replicants on Earth. The plot focuses on a brutal and cunning group of replicants hiding in Los Angeles and a semi-retired blade runner, Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), who reluctantly agrees to take on one more assignment.
One of Deckard's fellow blade runners has been shot by one of four escaped replicants, and a reluctant Deckard is ordered to eliminate the escapees. The four escapees include a commando, a manual labourer, an assassin and a "basic pleasure model" (say no more!). The movie follows Deckard as he tracks down and retires the replicants. The fourth replicant, Roy Batty is deteriorating fast, and after chasing Deckard onto some roofs, Deckard ends up hanging for dear life on a post high above the ground. Roy then saves Deckard's life, which suggests perhaps that he has gained the empathy that is the thin dividing line between the Humans and the replicants. Showing more "humanity" than the men who seek to kill him, we are left wondering at what exactly makes us human. As he dies, Roy tells Deckard about the things he saw in his life and how all those memories would be gone forever. "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I've watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All those... moments will be lost in time... like... tears..in..rain". This leaves the question of what exactly he did see, or had memories of. This was simply a great movie. 8. Aliens
 Unlike in mainstream movies, oftentimes in science fiction a sequel will surpass its predcessor. Empire Strikes Back was unquestionably a better movie than A New Hope, Wrath of Khan was clearly a better movie than Star Trek the Motion Picture, and Aliens continues that trend as a far better movie than Alien. As Weaver stated in an interview: "Aliens made the first Alien look like a cucumber sandwich." Well, I don't know what her problem with cucumbers is, but I am picking up what she's putting down. Aliens was a much better movie than the first (not taking anything away from the first movie), so much so that it makes our top 10 science fiction movies of all time list. The story this time around takes place nearly sixty years after the conclusion of Alien, Ellen Ripley and Jonesy the cat are still quite happily sleeping away in their cryo-freeze compartment aboard the shuttle after having sent the first alien out the airlock. The film opens with a salvage crew opening up the shuttle and finding her and the cat! After she's awoken, she learns that she's been floating around for fifty seven years and the company she works for is none to sympathetic to her cause, basically blackballing her. Unbeknownst to her, the "company" sends someone out to investigate her story and not too long thereafter nobody from the planetoid is heard from again. This of course prompts the company to send the space marines and Ripley as an advisor to find out what happened to the terraformers, and what follows from there is one of the best and most intense Sci-Fi action thrillers to have ever been made.
7. Terminator 2
 Terminator 2: Judgement Day was the follow up to the highly successful Terminator, and once again it starred Arnold Schwarzenegger, although this time he plays a replica of the original Terminator model T-800 which dominated the first movie. The story is unimaginative, but effective: In a future, war-ravaged Los Angeles, human rebels led by an adult John Connor do battle with silvery, skeletal robots. Two "intelligent machines" have been dispatched to the past, one to protect the young Connor, the other to kill him. On late 20th-century Earth, the young John Connor finds himself pursued by two androids. The machine sent to kill him is a newer model than the one sent to save him (which is the T-800), the T-1000, and it takes on the appearance of a young policeman - the first human it dispatches after arriving on Earth. This "bad" Terminator sent by the machines is far more sophisticated than Arnold's T-800, constructed from liquid steel so that it can adopt the appearance of anyone or anything it comes in contact with. Now convinced that androids from the future really do exist, John realizes that his mother, Sarah Connor, is far from crazy. (Sarah's belief in killer robots has had her detained in Pescadero State Hospital.) Now the boy and his Terminator must somehow free Sarah, destroy the T-1000, and prevent an impending nuclear apocalypse.
The film is more or less the same as its predecessor, except that this time around the effects are more spectacular, and there's also a not-so-subtle anti-nuke subtext. The script's good-natured wit is undercut by the sentimentality of Arnold's Terminator becoming a caring cyborg, and although he is the nominal star of Terminator 2: Judgement Day, the show is stolen by the extraordinary ground-breaking special effects, particularly the "morphing" in which the liquid metal T-1000 transforms itself into a multitude of organic and inorganic forms. The movie isn't perfect though. Like an increasing number of big-budget extravaganzas, it bears all the hallmarks of having been created for the masses. Thus the violence is offset by a more user-friendly Schwarzenegger, who is forbidden to kill anyone. Meanwhile, Linda Hamilton is given a lot of New Age, motherly things to say; nevertheless, her muscle-bound, gun-toting persona is refreshing. Flaws aside, Terminator 2 is an enjoyable, often exhilarating piece of filmmaking, with a wry sense of humor to boot. 6. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
 Close Encounters of the Third Kind, a Stephen Spielberg classic, is more than worthy of it’s weight in alien gold as one of Old-Wizard’s top 10 Sci-Fi classics. Taking place in a time when McDonalds had only served 24 billion, Close Encounters is one of the rare movies whose storyline centers around a benevolent alien/human association. Unlike most sci-fi movies of its time, the agenda of the alien visitors in Close Encounters didn’t involve the mass destruction of humans or the desire to take over the planet. Instead it seemed like all that these intergalactic guests wanted to do was say "hello", play a few tunes, give back the hundreds of abductees they borrowed and ..well…maybe take Richard Dreyfus back to outer space with them as a souvenir; but who cares, they didn’t destroy any humans or blow up the Earth. It was the least we could do. Although one must question the intelligence of a species which traveled thousands of light years through the vastness of space, plucked a squadron of torpedo bombers out of the sky, only to drop them into the Mexican desert 30 years later, disapeared a freighter from the middle of the ocean and proceeded to drop it in into the Gobi desert in Mongolia, sang to an entire population of remote town in India and implanted images of Devil's tower in Wyoming into a bunch of random humans only to kidnap Richard Dreyfus.
5. Back to the Future Part 2
 When asked "what is the best movie of the Back to the Future Trilogy ?" most fans, without even thinking, will answer "Part 1". After all Part 2 is nothing but a rehash of the first movie, and Part 3 barely had any time traveling. What these people fail to realize is just how unique the second installment of the Back to the Future Trilogy really is. As the movie was originally conceived, it would have been nothing more than a simple rehash of the the first movie, as old Biff was originally going to bring the almanac back to 1965 to give it to his younger self, but then the movie's writers stumbled upon a brilliant idea: have the old Biff deliver the almanac back to the same day in 1955 as the first movie took place. This idea was simply genius, and turned what could have been an average sequel to a great movie into a great movie itself. In what other movie sequel do you literally go back to the original movie during the new movie?
The eighties were a magic time for movie making, and Back to the Future Part 2 was made at a time when special effects were created to advance a story, as opposed to today where the story is written in order to facilitate more and more outrageous special effects. But that's not to say the movie didn't have great special effects. Anyone who saw this movie when it first came out and says they didn't want a hover board is simply lying. Another great thing about eighties movies is that they didn't have to make any scientific sense. Can you really imagine a movie being made today where the heroes travel back in time in a De Lorean? This is what made the eighties great in terms of both movies and video games. In Timeline, for instance we are bored with all the endless scientific techno-babble which aims at making time travel seem plausible to a "modern" audience. The seemingly endless trend in making movies more and more realistic has robbed modern audiences of the sense of fantasy and whimsy which older audiences still remember and look back upon with a sense of nostalgia. Perhaps if we had known what moving making would be like in the future, we wouldn't have wanted to go there so bad. 4. Planet of the Apes
 Planet of the Apes was a groundbreaking movie that illustrates just how bad it would suck to crash your spaceship on a future earth only to discover it's now governed by a class system of monochromatically dressed talking apes with a penchant for hunting, caging and conducting torturous scientific experiments on lowly mute humans before killing them. There's nothing worse than breaking down on the wrong side of time and utopia.
But all monkey business aside, this movie is a true Sci Fi classic complete with social commentary, caged romance amongst humans and one of the most renowned surprise movie endings in history. And how great is Nova? Possibly the perfect girl, she's a hot, scantily clad, mute woman who will follow you around anywhere you go and do anything you want. She's every science fiction nerd's wet dream. And although it can always be slightly disconcerting to observe a couple of chimpanzee scientists as they discuss the finer points of human castration, it's well worth the watch and well deserving of it's placement on the Old-Wizard best Sci Fi movie list. 3. Strek Trek: Wrath of Khan
 KHAAAN!!!! Undoubtedly the greatest Star Trek movie ever made, Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan is top-notch filming making. It has heroic characters, a nasty villain and a sweeping adventure that is both engaging and entertaining. Wrath of Khan is a sequel to the "Space Seed" episode from the original 1967 show, in which Kirk had banished the evil Khan to the edge of the universe. Now Khan is back and looking for revenge, via a device capable of reversing creation dubbed "Project Genesis". Project Genesis is a device that reorganizes molecular matter on a sub-atomic level, turning barren environments into life-sustaining ones. Described by Spock as "life from lifelessness," it was perfectly named after the first book of the Bible. To put it in the words of Dr. McCoy, "According to myth, the Earth was created in 6 days. Now, watch out. Here comes Genesis. We'll do it for you in 6 minutes." Of course, when used on an inhabited planet, it has the opposite effect, and thus our villain wants nothing more than to get his hands on it. In the process we get one of the best ship to ship battles in science fiction history when the USS Enterprise, commanded by none other than Captain James T. Kirk takes on Khan in the stolen Federation vessel the USS Reliant. Not only is the story great, but the special effects are also well-done. In this age of CGI it is refreshing to see the ingenuity and creativity of old-style model effects being used so effectively. In short, this is a great movie, and the best science fiction movie without "Star Wars" in its title, which leads us to our number two movie of all time...
2. Star Wars: A New Hope
 Released in 1977, Star Wars A New Hope is a legendary masterpiece that had a revolutionary effect on the Sci-Fi industry. With a timeless score, kick ass plot and epic special effects, this movie literally took the world by, well, ‘force’ for lack of a better word, and restored cultural enthusiasm to a struggling genre. The best thing about this movie is the constant excitement which occurs from the very beginning of the movie and continues on all the way through to the end. Lets face it, there aren’t too many opening scenes that can inspire as much anticipation as the opening scene of Star Wars. The combination of John Williams legendary ‘Main Theme’ music playing over the opening crawl of “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away" is still to this day, enough to send shivers down your spine. Yes indeed.
The plot of the movie is simple: Good Vs. Evil, but like everything else the story is more intricate. It begins with the Rebel Alliance fleeing from the evil Galactic Empire’s Star Destroyer after the alliance confiscates the Empires plans for planetary obliteration. After a climatic pursuit, the Galactic Empire, led by Darth Vader, eventually overpowers the Rebel Alliance, and captures Princess Leia. However, before her detainment, Leia manages to hide the Empire’s plans with R2-D2, who, by the way, isn’t the crew’s chirping trash receptacle as you may have thought, but rather a high tech space droid with many endearing qualities. While harboring the recently stolen and highly coveted plans, R2-D2 hops on board an escape pod with his ambiguously gay humanoid side kick C-3PO (not that there's anything wrong with that). Together they manage to escape the pursuing clutches of the evil Galactic Empire. They land on the planet Tatooine where something like the ‘force’ leads them to cross paths with a rash young farm boy named Luke Skywalker and Obi Wan, an old cave dwelling wizard who is later discovered to be a very powerful Jedi knight and the last of a once great but dying breed. It is here the story begins to unravel even further and where it is revealed to Luke that he’s not just another adventurous farmboy from Tatooine, but in fact the son of a great warrior Jedi Knight who was also universally renowned for being the “best star pilot in the galaxy". With this information, Luke’s curiosity is peaked. And after seeing a holorecording of Princess Leia’s plea for assistance and discovering the violent death of his aunt and uncle, Luke decides unequivocally that it's time to ‘meet his destiny’ and learn the ways of the Jedi Knightship. And at this revelation, the battle lines between good and evil are drawn and Luke Skywalker’s quest to be a Jedi Knight begins… 1. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
 Could there be any doubt as to what the greatest science fiction movie of all time would be? EMPIRE BITCHES!!! Whether you prefer the original version or the special edition (The Empire Strikes Back special edition wasn't nearly as bad as the other two), this movie is the best Sci-Fi movie of all time. The Empire Strikes Back is the rare example of a sequel which is better than the first movie. It's a much darker and somber movie than A New Hope, this is a Star Wars movie for adults, and the one movie in the trilogy where the dark side gains the upper hand. The plot is simple Darth Vader leads the superior Imperial forces as they chase the rag tag rebel fleet across the galaxy.
Darth Vader is on a mission to find the rebels and finish them off. We learn he and the Emperor are especially interested in young Luke Skywalker. Eventually he tracks them to the ice planet Hoth, setting up what is probably the coolest battle scene in any movie…EVER. After a resounding defeat the rebels once again escape, unfortunately, Han, Leia, Chewbacca, and C-3PO are on the Millennium Falcon, whose hyperdrive has just failed. They take refuge in an asteroid field, while Luke heads to Dagobah at the behest of Obi-Wan Kenobi's ghost, to learn the ways of the force from the Jedi master Yoda, at the urging of Obi-Wan Kenobi's ghost.
Meanwhile the crew of the Millennium Falcon narrowly escape from the Imperial fleet and arrive at Bespin, where we meet Lando Calrissian, a shady entrepreneur, and former owner of the Millennium Falcon. He now runs Cloud City, a "respectable" mining operation located high in the atmosphere of Bespin. Unbeknownst to our intrepid heroes, the vile bounty hunter, Boba Fett, another great character we meet in this movie, has alerted Darth Vader as to their presence on Cloud City and the Empire has arrived ahead of them, and forced Lando to agree to turn them over.
As Luke undergoes Yoda's rigorous lessons about the metaphysical nature of the force, his friends are captured and tortured by Darth Vader so that Luke would feel their suffering and come to their rescue. The villainous plan works, and Luke abandons his training to come and save his pals, culminating in a showdown between Luke and Vader, where we hear the film's most famous line "No, I am your father"(often misquoted as "Luke, I am your father").
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