More so than any other genre, sci-fi has the potential to inspire a sense of exploration and wonder. Of course, sci-fi can transport audiences to alien planets teeming with strange life, but it also has the scope to explore concepts that people have never thought about before.
In the 21st century, almost the entire globe has been explored and people have access to all the information that they need at any time. This means that it’s harder to find something which can spark the same feelings of wonder that humans, as curious, intellectual beings, still crave. Some sci-fi movies show that there are still plenty of questions left to answer.
9
Gravity (2013)
Gravity’s Cinematography Brings Audiences Into Space
Gravity inspired a resurgence of space exploration movies in the 2010s, as Alfonso Cuarón’s tense thriller became a huge box office hit. Sandra Bullock stars as an astronaut stranded in orbit after debris strikes her space station. After a brief set-up, the rest of the movie plays out like a breathless survival narrative.
Gravity keeps things simple, which makes the narrative feel even more urgent.
Rather than being a movie about exploring the vast expanses of the universe, Gravity is about trying to return to the comfort of Earth. Still, Cuarón’s eye for spectacle makes it a wonderfully immersive thrill ride with a strong sense of adventure. Gravity keeps things simple, which makes the narrative feel even more urgent.
8
Ad Astra (2019)
Brad Pitt Stars In An Underrated Sci-Fi Drama
Ad Astra deserves more love as one of the best sci-f movies of the 2010s, but it probably came out at the wrong end of the space exploration movie trend. The movie’s slow, thoughtful pace and its philosophical themes also mean that it lacks broad appeal, but it’s richly rewarding for audiences who can key into its wavelength.
Ad Astra is a strange mash-up of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, drawing parallels between humanity’s history of violent colonization and its potential future. There are countless visual wonders in Ad Astra, but they are tempered by a dark, sinister undercurrent that digs into the psychology of exploration.
7
Interstellar (2014)
Christopher Nolan’s Cerebral Thriller Is Worth Multiple Watches
Many of Christopher Nolan’s movies are spectacular big-screen thrillers with a lot of intelligence, and Interstellar stands alongside Inception and The Prestige in that regard. It didn’t receive such outstanding reviews at the time, but a gradual critical reevaluation has caused it to climb up the ranking of Nolan’s movies.
Interstellar has been praised for its portrayal of complex theories in physics, and it doesn’t dumb anything down for a broad audience. Nolan couples his exposition with some jaw-dropping visuals, which ensures that Interstellar never feels too dense or as if it’s asking too much of its audience. It sparks a sense of discovery like few other movies can.
6
Annihilation (2018)
Annihilation Takes A Journey Into The Surreal
When most people think of sci-fi movies with a strong sense of adventure, they picture astronauts traveling to the furthest reaches of space, but Annihilation manages to be just as captivating and mysterious on Earth. The story follows a group of scientists who investigate a bizarre anomaly teeming with danger.
Annihilation leaves some mysteries unanswered, and it creates some images that defy simple explanation. This makes it linger in the memory after the credits roll, as audiences are left to come up with their own theories about the Shimmer. It’s far more intriguing than a movie filled with complete answers.
5
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Stanley Kubrick’s Masterpiece Continues To Shape The Genre
2001: A Space Odyssey helped sculpt the landscape of modern sci-fi, both with its intelligent thematic exploration and its trippy, bold visuals. On the surface, it’s a story about humanity investigating the possibility of alien life deep in the solar system, but this plain synopsis doesn’t capture its mind-bending allure.
2001: A Space Odyssey is packed full of imagery that confronts the audience, from the large, pitch-black monolith early on to the kaleidoscopic wormhole sequence and the sanitized H๏τel room at the end of existence. It suggests that humanity is on the brink of incomprehensible wonders, and potentially dangerous ones too.
4
Stargate (1994)
Stargate Links Ancient Mythology To The Mysteries Of The Future
Stargate opens in Egypt in the 1920s, which captures the sense of constant exploration and discovery that runs throughout the story. The story spans great leaps in time and vast distances across the universe, but it’s also linked to ancient human civilizations on Earth.
Stargate provides the first glimpse into a fascinating and complex universe, so it makes sense that there were several TV shows and other media which spun off from Roland Emmerich’s original movie. The Stargate franchise is characterized by exploration, both scientific and physical.
3
Treasure Planet (2002)
Treasure Planet Updates A Classic Adventure Novel
Long before outer space was the new frontier for exploration, adventure stories were set on the high seas, with tales of swashbuckling pirates and mariners. Treasure Planet updates Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island with this shift in mind, transposing the same adventurous ideals onto a sci-fi setting.
Treasure Planet came out in the strange period between Disney’s 1990s renaissance and the success of later 3-D animated movies like Frozen and Tangled. It has more depth and a much greater scope than most 2-D animated movies, as it paints a portrait of the cosmos just begging to be explored. It also creates some charming alien characters to hint towards a dense universe.
2
The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy (2005)
The Adaptation Captures The Absurdity Of Douglas Adams’ Work
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is an adaptation of Douglas Adams’ popular sci-fi novel, and it does a good job of maintaining the absurd comedy that categorizes Adams’ strange universe. Although some aspects are watered down, there are still dozens of strange aliens, outlandish technologies and a skydiving whale.
The result of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy‘s seemingly random structure is that it paints a picture of a universe that’s so baffling and disordered that it feels refreshing. Adams uses his absurd humor to shake the audience’s ᴀssumptions, so that anything feels possible and nothing is easy to predict.
1
Mickey 17 (2025)
Bong Joon Ho’s Latest Film Is A Sci-Fi Satire
After making Oscars history with Parasite, all eyes were on what Bong Joon Ho would do next, but it took six years for his next movie to finally hit theaters. Mickey 17 might not be what many people were expecting, since it has more in common with the playful tone of Okja than Parasite.
Even though Mickey 17 mostly takes place on a distant planet, it’s rooted in the modern era in some ways.
Mickey 17 makes a few changes to Edward Ashton’s book Mickey7, most of which bring out Bong’s sly satirical side. However, it retains the same sense of adventure, and all the darkness, conflict and confusion that comes with it. Even though Mickey 17 mostly takes place on a distant planet, it’s rooted in the modern era in some ways, which makes its vision of space travel unavoidably grim.
