A Scientist's Guide to the Top 100 Sci-Fi Films

About This Site

Welcome to our comprehensive ranking of the top 100 science fiction films of all time. Each film has been carefully evaluated based on multiple criteria to provide you with the most thoughtful and comprehensive rankings available.

Our scoring system takes into account entertainment value, scientific accuracy, cultural impact, and prescience to give you a well-rounded view of what makes these films truly exceptional. From Georges Méliès' pioneering "A Trip to the Moon" in 1902 to modern masterpieces, science fiction cinema has always pushed the boundaries of imagination and storytelling.

Whether you're a longtime sci-fi enthusiast or new to the genre, these rankings will guide you through the very best films that have shaped our understanding of the future, technology, and our place in the universe.

Perhaps differently to other movie rankings, these movies were ranked by an active scientist who has published research in top journals (e.g., Science, Nature, Science Advances, Nature Communications, etc). Therefore, unlike other rankings, the Scientists Guide to the Top 100 Sci-Fi Films lean heavily on scientific accuracy, or at least the scientific spirit. These are NOT simply repackaged listings from another source - instead this site aims to celebrate the very best in science fiction, in terms of entertainment as well as inspiring us to think outside the box.

What is Sci-Fi?

Science fiction is a genre that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universes, and extraterrestrial life. It often explores the potential consequences of scientific, social, and technological innovations.

For our rankings, we focus specifically on films that use science and scientific concepts as core elements of their storytelling. This means we include movies that explore advanced technology, space travel, artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, and other science-based themes.

What we don't rank: Superhero movies that rely primarily on magic or unexplained powers rather than science (such as Thor, Doctor Strange, or Wonder Woman), and horror films that use supernatural elements without scientific basis (like The Exorcist, Poltergeist, or traditional vampire and werewolf movies). We had a difficult time with films like Denis Villenueve's Dune films and Stars Wars. Both sets of films make no real efforts to explain the technology or apparently supernatural aspects of the worlds they created. In the end, we decided to consider Star Wars movies simply because of the huge impact they had on film in gerneral, and sci-fi in particular. We decided that Dune was more fantasy than sci-fi, so we did not rank it.

Great science fiction doesn't just entertain — it makes us think about our world, our future, and our place in the universe. The films in our top 100 represent the very best of this thought-provoking genre, with an emphasis on films that represent science the most accurately.

The Rankings

Our rankings are based on four key criteria:

• Entertainment Value: How engaging and enjoyable is the film?
• Scientific Accuracy: How well does the film handle scientific concepts?
• Cultural Impact: What influence has the film had on society and other media?
• Prescience: How well did the film predict or anticipate future developments?

Each film is scored on a scale of 1-10 for each criterion, and the average score determines the final ranking. Some films, like Georges Méliès' "A Trip to the Moon" might be astronomical in terms of Cultural Impact but perhaps less strong in other categories (like Scientific Accuracy and modern Entertainment value. For these reasons, 'A Trip to the Moon' is not in the top 100 (and also because it is just a short). Also, just because a film is set in space or use time travel, it doesn't automatically qualify. There must be some attempt at incorporating scientific concepts or the scientific method into the movie. Use the ranking buttons above to explore different sections of our top 100 list, and you can even vote for your personal top ten in our voting page.

Sortable Rankings

Click on any column header to sort the films by that criteria. Click again to reverse the sort order.

Vote for Your Top 10 Sci-Fi Films

Select up to 10 films from our list that you think are the best sci-fi movies. Your votes will be tallied with other users' votes to see which films are most popular.

Community Voting Results

See which films the community has voted as their favorites. Results are based on all submitted votes.

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Last updated: July 27, 2025

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