Do you like science fiction movies and Netflix? Then, we’ve got just the list for you. We break down six of the best sci-fi movies currently streaming on the popular platform. This short list is full of tales that are fascinating, disturbing, hilarious, and even inspiring. So, if you’re looking to kill some time, these movies will do the trick.
Donnie Darko
After the poorly received Southland Tales and The Box, Hollywood seems to have had enough of the once-promising director Richard Kelly. But if Richard Kelly must be a one-hit wonder, he still leaves behind a strong legacy thanks to 2001’s Donnie Darko.
Donnie Darko is a mind-bending sci-fi film, featuring a time-traveling man in a bunny suit, tangent universes, and a schizophrenic adolescent named Donnie at the center of it all. On the other hand, it’s also a solid ’80s teen drama with an incredible cast. Jake Gyllenhaal, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Patrick Swayze, Drew Barrymore, and Mary McDonnell populate this movie, adding solid human moments between the bizarre metaphysics.
Richard Kelly never had as strong of an emotional core in his later films. That may be why they didn’t resonate with fans. (Kelly also never found an image that worked as well on T-shirts as Frank the Rabbit.) Donnie Darko, though, is like a proto-Stranger Things, only moodier and even more sincere.
Cloud Atlas
Cloud Atlas is a fascinating experiment. Imagine watching six movies at once that each have a different setting, era, genre, and tone. Yet, when combined, they somehow manage to become a unified whole. Cloud Atlas effortlessly splits your attention between elderly people escaping from a crooked nursing home and a barbaric story set after the fall of humanity.
The result should have been a confusing, pretentious mess. Instead, Cloud Atlas gives us a sweeping epic where different kinds of storytelling come together. These varying styles and ideas mix to tell a coherent tale of good vs. evil and souls finding each other across time. It is remarkably inspiring.
Cloud Atlas was, unfortunately, a flop in 2012. Six years later, it deserves a place as a bold and entirely unique experience.
John Dies at the End
John is not the main character. Also, minor spoiler: John actually dies somewhere in the middle. This is that kind of movie.
John Dies at the End is H.P. Lovecraft meets Bill & Ted. This movie is less science fiction and more total-insanity fiction. A mysterious drug called “Soy Sauce” opens up the mind of slacker twenty-something David Wong (Chase Williamson) to the terrible reality that exists all around us.
It turns out the universe is more disgusting and more horrifying than David could ever imagine. Also, his best friend John (Rob Mayes) is dead and talking to him through a hot dog. Then, there’s the small issue of a genocidal supercomputer made of meat that is trying to conquer our world.
John Dies at the End is incoherent free-form nonsense. However, that incoherence is both hilarious and scary at the same time. It’s a shame that this movie never quite became the cult classic it was meant to be.
Men in Black
Men in Black is not the thinking man’s sci-fi movie. But there’s nothing wrong with that.
Men in Black is a key piece of late ’90s pop culture, complete with a terrible pop song and some hit or miss sequels. However, putting nostalgia aside, Men in Black is a great movie. This film imagines a wacky secret world of alien immigrants living where they would best blend in — Manhattan. Our heroes are the government agents who keep us regular folk safe and ignorant. Also, there’s a bug man out to destroy the world.
Essentially, Men in Black is a simple buddy cop story. The older veteran Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) gets paired up with brash young rookie J (Will Smith). Neither actor exactly disappears into their role. Will Smith never stops being Will Smith. But the two personalities play great off each other. They’re opposites yet strong partners. Men in Black is a movie that aims to be fun and succeeds completely. Even the special effects are mostly practical and still hold up over twenty years later.
Moon
Much as Richard Kelly could never top Donnie Darko, Duncan Jones has not topped Moon. Jones recently made another film set in the same universe, Mute, which was produced by Netflix. But Mute isn’t on this list because Mute isn’t a great movie. It is a shame since Moon, like Donnie Darko, showed so much promise.
In the near-distant future, Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) works alone on the lunar Helium-3 — with only two weeks left until he returns to Earth. After years of isolation with only a robot buddy as company, Sam starts to hallucinate. He sees a girl in a yellow dress. Then, he sees himself, meaning there are two of him in the film. Has the barren darkness of Earth’s moon finally driven Sam insane? Or is something even more sinister going on?
Moon is a movie that reminds us how creepy space exploration can really be. Science panels and technology cannot shield you from this cold reality. Our moon is a dead world where humans were not meant to go, making it a great setting for a brilliant, atmospheric sci-fi film.
The Road
Nobody does bleak like writer Cormac McCarthy, who wrote the book The Road is based on. No explanation is ever given as to what happened to the world. The skies have been covered in gray clouds for years. Nothing grows, civilization has fallen to ash, and cannibalism seems to be the only industry left.
Even so, Viggo Mortensen’s nameless starving hero leads his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) south to the ocean and some vague dream of a future. The father “carries the fire,” a wish for safety and sanity in a world without either. The worst torture, however, is the father’s memories of love and happiness, both of which have been lost to him.
The Road is unrelentingly terrible in a way few movies dare to be. Yet there’s just enough affection between the two leads that the film still conveys a message of hope in endless darkness.