Essential Sci-fi Viewing

The fact that im on here tells you that I love movies. But i have a bit of a sweet tooth for sci-fi. My analogy is that if movies are like sex, sci-fi is the g-spot. I was just looking for some recommendations for movies you guys think is essential to being a sci-fi fanatic. I love smart movies with great atmosphere and great concepts. So please, list away!
Some of mah favorites are:
-2001: A Space Odyssey
-A Clockwork Orange
-Alien
-Wall-E
-Eraserhead
-Brazil
-Terminator 2: Judgement Day
-Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
-They Live
-The Thing
-Sleeper

please tell me which i need to see

Also, I adore Children of Men

I have does this numerous times before but you should check out Nicolas Roeg’s The Man Who Fell to Earth. It’s an exploration of Science Fiction as an art form.

Planet of the Apes
both Things, the original and Carpenters
Seconds
And I loved the 7 faces of Dr. lao.
Sci fi was my first love. Though I read more than I saw on the screen.

You should also check out Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris and Stalker.

Sci-Fi is also one of my favorite genres, you may wish to consider: Metropolis, Forbidden Planet, Them, The Thing From Another World, Gojira, Liquid Sky, Village of the Damned, Not of This Earth, A Boy and His Dog, City of Lost Children, and the astoundingly bad Robot Monster. There are of course countless others that I’m sure others will mention.

Jason, have you seen Gattaca and Moon?

I second Solaris and Stalker. Those are my picks for the best sci-fi films ever.

What Joseph said.

WAR OF THE WORLDS (both versions) and THE TIME MACHINE (60’s version only)
Two remakes of THE INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (but skip Nicole Kidman version)
JOHN CARPENTER’S THE THING
And I love, love, love SUNSHINE

Just some that haven’t been mentioned yet.

Blade Runner
Akira
The Matrix
Predator
12 Monkeys

I like sci-fi in low budget 50’s form. Movies like Teenagers From Outer Space, Robot Monster, The Phantom Planet, The Robot vs. The Aztec Mummy, Earth vs. The Spider… Stuff like that.

TOTAL RECALL
The best film of the 80’s BACK TO THE FUTURE and its two sequels
CLOVERFIELD
NIGHT OF THE CREEPS
REANIMATOR
STARSHIP TROOPERS
ROBOCOP
BAD TASTE
MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE
A.I.
STAR TREK (2009)
And so many more…

Without doubt…
2001 A Space Odyssey
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Blade Runner

For some older stuff…..
When Worlds Collide – (nice early colour film)
It Came From Outer Space
First Men in the Moon – (some great Ray Harryhausen effects)
Invaders From Mars – (original version)
This Island Earth

Jason Miller:

I’m so glad you have listed “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” (1956). My feeling is people are more and more not “getting” this film. It’s too easy to pass it off as anti-Communism or anti-McCarthyism, too easy to overlook it as just another B-film with paranoid “red menace” subtext. Don Siegel never intended the film to be such. According to Siegel, Pod People are stand-ins for people in everyday life, people who allow their humanity to dwindle and exchange their individuality and free will in return for conformity and groupthink.

Kevin McCarthy had a more amusing take in a 1985 interview: he always felt the Pod People represented those heartless souls in advertising working on Madison Avenue! A couple years later, John Carpenter made a film which suggested the people on Madison Avenue ARE aliens from another world: the cult classic “They Live” (1987). I spoke with Astor Theatre owner George and he mentioned this film to me, which made me very excited because it’s an all time favourite of mine, even more excited when he said he’d love to have this film in his theatre collection!

Strange poster for “I.O.T.B.S.” in the sense the aliens didn’t arrive in metal ships: doubtless this was done to hype the movie because maybe 1950s drive-in types wouldn’t have been enticed by such a cerebral sci-fi horror film. This sort of thing happened with the posterwork for “Santo Versus The Martians”, with El Santo carrying a massive ray gun and vanquished green scaled alien to make the film seem more exciting sight unseen (but in both cases the film was exciting enough anyway).

I must make mention of “Somewhere In Time” for anyone who loves a great time travel movie. Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour are wonderful in this romantic sci-fi period drama. It is truly one of the greatest sci-fi movies of all-time, and I would say my favourite time travel film.

Please ignore the bleatings about this film being dreadful: critical response was brutal, but for once, all the naysayers were wrong. This is a movie you can show any age group, and they will enjoy it. Like Kubrick’s “2001”, this is one of the few G-rated sci-fi films that can stand head and shoulders above most others. It’s based upon the Richard Matheson novel “Bid Time Return” and Richard has a cameo in the film. I recommend this, as well as “Time After Time” starring Malcolm McDowell as H.G. Wells. These are really enjoyable films!

Forbidden Planet

The original version of “The Day The Earth Stood Still” deserves a mention, as does “Nineteen Eighty Four” with John Hurt. Also, does “The Man In The White Suit” count? I say it does! It’s a clever yarn (no pun intended) about a scientist who invents a material that never wears out or gets dirty. The film makes some intelligent comments about capitalism, industry, need versus profit…directed by Alexander Mackendrick (“Sweet Smell of Success”) and starring Sir Alec Guiness.

Also, I should mention “Fantastic Voyage” (Raquel Welch, Stephen Boyd) and its comedic successor “Innerspace” with Martin Short and Dennis Quaid, great companion pieces.

Thanks guys!
it helps alot
and ive heard of most of yours but still have alot to watch (Blade Runner, Solaris, Stalker, Forbidden Planet, The Day the Earth Stood Still, AI, Akira, Sunshine, etc.)

@dequinix: I saw Moon (thought it was well done, look for more of Duncan Jones) but not Gattica

also, any other examples would be wonderful

Phase IV (Saul Bass)

Primer is great too

Kin-Dza-Dza
Aelita
and anything inspired by a Stanislaw Lem story

solaris and Stalker

Demonseed, by the late great Donald Cammell.

Them!, La Jetée, The Thing from another world

I’ll second Somehwere in Time. I totally loved that one and the ending of Titanic bore a very close resemblance to the ending of Somewhere in Time, IMO.

My genre favorites are:

- Frankenstein (1931)
- La jetée (1962)
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
- A Clockwork Orange (1971)
- Solyaris (1972)
- Alien (1979)
- Stalker (1979)
- Blade Runner (1982)
- Videodrome (1983)
- The Fly (1986)

I have just finished the Universal box set of 1950s sci-fi movies which includes Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Tarantula, The Incredible Shrinking Man, This Island Earth, It Came From Outer Space, Creature From The Black Lagoon, The Thing From Another World. Great Fun.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Incredible Shrinking Man are probably the two that hold up the best, particularly TISM. A fantastic comment on our place in the universe. Brilliant.

Loved the ending of Incredible Shrinking Man which surprised me a little.

The Thing, Scanner Darkly, Children of Men and 12 Monkeys

Jazz

Me too, I remember seeing it as a kid on TV, but, yes, the ending really does leave you thinking. Hence my point about it being a comment on our place in the universe rather than it just being a movie about the dangers of the impending nuclear age.