Even before cinema came to be recognized as either an art form or even a storytelling medium—these are the days of Georges Méliès we’re talking about, when motion pictures were seen as little more than a novelty attraction—, science fiction was one of the most popular and prolific genres. There’s something about these stories of futuristic technology, space exploration, and complex technological concepts that seems to lend itself perfectly to the cinematic medium.
Throughout its history, cinema has produced sci-fi masterpieces so exceptional that they can be counted among the greatest films ever made, but it has also produced sci-fi masterpieces that have sadly mostly faded into oblivion. Logically, there will be diehard cinephiles and cult film fans who will be perfectly familiar with these cinematic gems, but for the most part, it’s fair to say they’ve been sadly forgotten by the mainstream public. Thankfully, however, we live in an age where it’s easier than ever to hunt down and access these films, and they’ve aged so well that they’re even better today than they were back when they came out.
‘Sexmission’ (1984)
The Polish cult classic Sexmission is one of the best political satires of the 1980s, as well as one of the most perfect sci-fi cult classics of its time. It’s a dystopian comedy where two scientists are placed into a 50-year hibernation, and when they wake up, they find themselves the only two males in an underground society composed exclusively of women.
Though the movie’s depiction of women’s emancipation has been subject to the critique of many feminist film scholars over the years, that hasn’t prevented it from growing a cult following. Sexmission has an irresistible sense of humor and a sharp sense of satire, subtly poking fun at the harsh realities of life in the Eastern Bloc during its time. Though there can be an argument that its regressive depictions of women have made it so that it’s actually not better today than it was in 1984, these depictions at least invite even more thought and analysis from modern cinephiles than they would have back then.
‘Fish Story’ (2009)
Many excellent comedy movies came out throughout the 2000s, many of them criminally underrated today. One such film is the Japanese action comedy Fish Story, where several seemingly unrelated tales start intertwining to reveal how a Japanese band that invented punk rock in 1975 is connected to a world-destroying comet in 2012.
The movie’s well-deserved score of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes reveals a hilarious and terribly underappreciated gem. It weaves the stories of four generations together to form a message about art inspiring world-changing action. All the while, it delights the audience with a vibrant tone, catchy tunes, and exquisite narrative ambition that has only gotten more enjoyable with the passage of time.
‘Man Facing Southeast’ (1986)
Audiences from the English-speaking world who are willing to look over at Latin America will find countries with some of the most underrated sci-fi filmographies of any nation. Argentina, for instance, is the birthplace of Eliseo Subiela‘s Man Facing Southeast, a sci-fi drama about a patient in a mental hospital who claims that he’s an alien. A common theme in science fiction is the question of what it means to be human, and Subiela explores it in fascinating ways.
Thought-provoking, slow-burning, and eerie in tone, it’s a bittersweet Argentine classic that Iain Softley‘s 2001 Hollywood film K-PAX notoriously ripped off. The original is the superior version of this story in virtually every way. Sci-fi movies full of Christian parallelisms can sometimes be seen as pretentious, but Man Facing Southeast employs them in all sorts of engrossing ways, delivering a delectably intelligent masterpiece that every fan of the genre should check out sometime.
‘The Secret of the Third Planet’ (1981)
Soviet cinema was the product of not just a handful, but several of the greatest films of the 20th century. That includes many movies that have sadly fallen victim to the passage of the years in terms of memorability, including many near-perfect animated movies that nobody remembers today. Tall among those movies stands The Secret of the Third Planet, a family adventure where a spaceship crew journeys on a dangerous mission involving space pirates and the missing captain of a ship.
The movie’s a wonderful cult classic with visuals that, though clearly not modern, have nevertheless proven timeless thanks to their charm and colorfulness. It’s only 50 minutes long, but that’s enough for its wonderfully surreal moments, engaging world-building, Ghibli-esque sense of adventure, and nostalgic tone to work their magic on virtually any sci-fi movie fan.
‘Brand Upon the Brain!’ (2006)
Guy Maddin is one of the most intriguing voices in modern avant-garde cinema and the author of some of the best Canadian movies of all time. Barely any of those movies are particularly well-known—even in Canada—, but that doesn’t make them any less exceptional. For example, one needn’t look much further than Brand Upon the Brain!, a silent dramedy where a man raised by his parents in an orphanage has to confront the childhood memories that have long haunted him.
Branded “emotionally autobiographical” by Maddin himself, this dreamlike and unforgettably surreal semi-autobiography is one of the most fascinating silent films made in modern times. Maddin toys with the very ideas of plot, structure, style, and experimental cinema in a way that’s irresistibly engrossing, making for an artistically uncompromising masterpiece that every fan of arthouse sci-fi should watch at least once in their lives.
‘Kin-dza-dza!’ (1986)
Yet another example of an exceptional Soviet sci-fi film that has been (mostly) forgotten by time, but deserves a resurgence, Kin-dza-dza! is a dystopian comedy unlike any other. In it, a pair of Russian men press the wrong button on a strange device and end up transported to the telepathic planet Pluke, which has bizarre societal norms.
Kin-dza-dza! is a delightfully unique international masterpiece that shows why no one made sci-fi films quite like Soviet directors.
Described by Joel Blackledge as “Mad Max meets Monty Python by way of Tarkovsky,” Kin-dza-dza! is a delightfully unique international masterpiece that shows why no one made sci-fi films quite like Soviet directors. Endlessly creative, unapologetically weird, and surprisingly good at balancing amusing satire and bittersweet poignancy, it’s a gem that people who love the work of auteurs like Terry Gilliam are pretty much guaranteed to love.
‘The Fabulous Baron Munchausen’ (1962)
Based on the tales of the fictional German nobleman Baron Munchausen, Karel Zeman‘s experimental surrealist masterpiece The Fabulous Baron Munchausen is one of the most delightfully zany animated flicks of the ’60s. It’s among the most exceptional animated outings produced by the Czechoslovak New Wave, one of the most important film movements in the history of European cinema.
This colorful, hugely stylized, overtly gonzo extravaganza also mixes in several elements of live-action, supported by a bizarre score and a strangely heartwarming tone. It’s an entirely unique kind of sci-fi movie, one which directly influenced Terry Gilliam’s own The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. With the cult status of that movie, it’s a better time than ever to allow Zeman’s magnum opus to be remembered as what it always has been: one of the most creative animated films of the 20th century.
‘Seconds’ (1966)
John Frankenheimer‘s Seconds is a psychological thriller of tremendous depth and complexity, making it one of the heaviest sci-fi movies of all time. It’s about a man who undergoes a procedure to receive a new body and life, becoming Tony Wilson (played by the iconic Rock Hudson), a Malibu artist who begins to have trouble adjusting. What ensues is an exquisitely bizarre and surreal classic.
Widely interpreted by critics, cinephiles, and queer film scholars as a profound (even if unintentional) commentary on Rock Hudson’s notorious life as a closeted gay man in Hollywood, Seconds is a cult classic that deserves a following far bigger than what it has nowadays. Aside from having some of the best cinematography of any ’60s sci-fi film, Seconds is a cautionary tale far ahead of its time whose themes of identity, alienation, and consumerism will probably ring truer to modern audiences than they did to people in 1966.
‘Neptune Frost’ (2021)
You don’t typically hear a lot about it or even get chances to check it out in the Western world, but African cinema is full of masterpieces that deserve far more love from worldwide audiences. That includes the Rwandan sci-fi romance musical Neptune Frost, one of the most unique musical films of the 2020s so far. Its story follows an intersex hacker, a miner, and the virtual miner born as a result of their union.
Colorful, catchy, ambitious, and unapologetically queer, this gem, executive-produced by Lin-Manuel Miranda, is a great introduction for people who have never explored the world of African sci-fi cinema. It’s a cyberpunk, Afro-futurist, anarchic, politically sharp and progressive extravaganza that has gotten even better in only five years following its release. One can only imagine how well it will continue to age going forward.
‘The Face of Another’ (1966)
Seeing as it’s the 222nd highest-rated movie on Letterboxd, there can be an argument regarding how accurate it would be to say that the Japanese drama The Face of Another has been “forgotten.” However, it’s impossible to deny that it is still an infinity away from being considered the mainstream classic it deserves to be considered as. It’s one of the greatest examples of the Japanese New Wave film movement, about a businessman with a disfigured face who obtains a lifelike mask from his doctor, which starts altering his personality.
It’s also one of the highest-rated Japanese movies on IMDb, and it’s not hard to see why. Though the movie wasn’t well-received outside of Japan when it originally came out, cinephiles have come to warmly embrace it in the years since. It’s a dense, profound, and brilliantly analytical study of identity that has aged like fine wine, and its potent narrative will most likely continue to ensure its timelessness as the years continue to pass.