5 Most Rewatchable ’80s Sci-Fi Movies, Ranked

The 1980s were a golden age for science fiction at the movies. As technology like computers spread across society, what once seemed like the far future was now close at hand. Add in a healthy dose of Cold War paranoia and the runaway success of “Star Wars” in 1977, and you’ve got the recipe for one of the dominant genres of the decade.

A lot of the science fiction in the 1980s was rather pessimistic. Movies like “RoboCop,” “Blade Runner,” and “The Running Man,” one of the most underrated Stephen King adaptations, imagined dystopian futures of varying seriousness, taking place in techno-capitalist societies where morals have been hollowed out by tech. Those movies are great, but they sure can be depressing.

Thankfully, the decade also provided a number of more family-friendly options in this genre. In fact, many of the most rewatchable sci-fi movies of the 1980s were made with kids in mind. Below you’ll find the five most rewatchable sci-fi movies of the decade, ranked by the rewarding quality of each new watch.

George Lucas reinvigorated sci-fi with “Star Wars” in 1977, and the 1980s opened with a bang thanks to the Irvin Kershner-directed sequel “Star Wars – Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.” These movies are space operas more than hard science fiction, but there are still lasers, spaceships, aliens, and distant planets galore, making them must-see films for sci-fi fans.

“The Empire Strikes Back” contains one of the most legendary twists in cinematic history, but its brilliance is that the movie works just as well a second time through, and a third, and a fourth. Even if you see it for the first time already knowing what that climactic conversation on Bespin will reveal, it’s a start-to-finish excellent movie. 

For many “Star Wars” fans, “The Empire Strikes Back” is the standout entry. From the opening snowy sequence on Hoth to Luke’s detour to Dagobah and his training with Yoda (Frank Oz), every scene feels iconic. We also meet the ever cool Lando Calrissian of Cloud City, played by the equally smooth Billy Dee Williams. The story may seem familiar because of how heavily this movie has impacted pop culture, but they’re thrilling every time through. No more rewatchable “Star Wars” movie, is there.

The 1980s changed sci-fi in many ways, but one of the most significant was how we thought about aliens. Steven Spielberg shifted the cosmos when he wondered: what if aliens could be our friends?

Enter 1982’s “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” a movie about a lovable creature from outer space who develops a love of Reese’s Pieces. Henry Thomas plays Elliot, a young kid who realizes that there’s an alien in his backyard, and his efforts to befriend and protect the alien form the emotional crux of the film. And it sure is emotional. Between Dee Wallace’s performance as Elliot’s single mother — the kind of performance you don’t notice as a kid, but breaks your heart as an adult — and an adorable young Drew Barrymore wanting to be included in her big brother’s adventure, there’s no shortage of charm and tenderness.

This is the ultimate comfort movie, capturing the very essence of childlike wonder. Over the course of the film, as government goons come looking for the homesick extra-terrestrial, we experience alongside Elliot the highs and lows of growing up. When the score swells and those bicycles lift off into the sky, it’s a magical moment like no other in all of cinema.

Thanks, in no small part, to the runaway success of “Star Wars,” the 1980s were also a golden age for sci-fi franchise starters. That decade introduced James Cameron as a force to be reckoned with in the genre, setting up the box office dominance he’d experience in the decades to come. However, before Pandora, there was the movie that made his career, 1984’s “The Terminator.”

Cameron imagines a not-too-distant future where humanity is embroiled in a war against artificial intelligence, which we are told went sentient. There’s one person in the future who might be able to stop Skynet, so the entity sends a synthetic human back in time to Los Angeles, before he was born, to kill his mother. Brilliantly, the movie puts futuristic technology in ’80s L.A., resulting in a thrilling juxtaposition of gritty normalcy and state-of-the-art practical effects. That excitement is never lost on rewatch.

In addition to giving us James Cameron, “The Terminator” changed Arnold Schwarzenegger forever. The Austrian bodybuilder wasn’t really taken seriously as a movie star prior, but thanks to his undeniable badassery, Schwarzenegger spent the next two decades riding high at the box office. Other sci-fi/action films like “Total Recall” followed and, as promised, the Terminator would, indeed, be back.

The year after The Terminator traveled back in time to kill John Connor’s mother (Linda Hamilton), Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) went back and made out with his mom (Lea Thompson). 1985’s “Back to the Future” is one of those movies you can enjoy as a kid without picking up on some of its more adult implications … making it the perfect candidate to re-watch at several points throughout your life.

Marty McFly is a normal kid in the 1980s, but thanks to a time-traveling DeLorean created by his eccentric neighbor Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd), Marty finds himself stuck in the 1950s. Time travel paradoxes ensue, and soon Marty realizes that if his mom’s crushing on the boy she initially believes to be named Calvin Klein, he might accidentally prevent his own birth. That’s where the title comes in.

While there are plenty of dumb things in “Back to the Future” that everyone ignored, for the most part, Robert Zemeckis’s film is a whip-smart application of sci-fi tropes to the typical ’80s teen-movie format. Acting as the perfect counterpart to “Sixteen Candles” and “The Breakfast Club,” “Back to the Future” offers entertainment to all willing to admit that it’s pretty cool that the doors of a DeLorean open up.

Some movies aren’t just rewatchable solely because they serve as comfort food. Some are so packed with jokes, references, and Easter eggs that there’s simply no way to catch them all your first time through. Mel Brooks is the master of such comedies, and his 1987 film “Spaceballs” is the perfect sendup of the sci-fi genre conventions that dominated the decade.

This movie is so good and packed full of laughs, that it completely works even if you’re unfamiliar with “Star Wars.” It’s about a space-faring rogue named Lone Starr (Pullman) and his battle against the villainous Dark Helmet (Moranis), who we come to learn is his “father’s brother’s nephew’s cousin’s former roommate.” (Gasp!) Add an ornery green alien called Yogurt (Brooks), a lovesick Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga), and Joan Rivers as the C-3PO knockoff Dot Matrix, and you’ve got a recipe for magic.

John Candy, Rick Moranis, and Bill Pullman steal the show, all game for some of the goofiest, gleefully-silliest gags in comedic history. There are “Spaceballs” jokes that go over your head as a kid, making you want to revisit the film as you get older. After so many rewatches, you might even have the same reaction as when a top-hat-wearing alien bursts out of “Alien” star John Hurt’s chest and goes sashaying across the counter of a space-diner: “Not again!”