You can watch quite a few martial arts movies before you come across one that also counts as a work of science fiction, as they’re genres that don’t cross over all that often. Most martial arts movies play out like fairly grounded dramas with hand-to-hand fight scenes thrown in, while some get fantastical (like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), and some combine martial arts action with crime-focused narratives (like The Raid and its sequel).
But there are some sci-fi martial arts movies worth checking out, and the best of them are below. Again, not a huge number, so giving a decent-sized ranking does mean including a few that are probably closer to decent than outright great, but that’s okay. They’re ranked below, starting with those pretty solid ones and ending with those that happen to be all-timers within the martial arts genre.
8
‘Equilibrium’ (2002)
There is a certain series that began in 1999 and continued with two sequels in 2003 that Equilibrium borrows from a bit… or at least it borrowed from the first movie. You’ve got science fiction elements, dark futures, people wearing generally dark clothes, and action that combines gunplay with some martial arts, and Equilibrium kind of makes up for its lack of originality with certain parts of it, stylistically, and then also the action.
It’s the kind of thing you’ll probably be more into the younger and less discerning you are, but in any event, it’s not a worthless watch or anything. Maybe it’s a little like that meme format where Mom says, “No, we have x at home,” and she says, “We have The Matrix at home” after her kids ask for The Matrix, and The Matrix at home is actually Equilibrium, but, uh… better than nothing? Maybe? Probably!
7
‘Six-String Samurai’ (1998)
A real oddity of a post-apocalyptic movie, Six-String Samurai can also count itself as a martial arts movie of sorts, as long as you’re okay with classifying samurai movies as belonging to the martial arts genre. Well, even then, this is far from a traditional samurai film, even beyond the post-apocalyptic setting, seeing as it’s about a guy with aspirations of being the new Elvis Presley.
For the energy here, and all the things that make Six-String Samurai unique, it’s worth checking out.
So he wanders around, and proves capable with both a sword and a guitar, and the whole movie is kind of just that. It’s kind of good, though it is weird and offbeat enough that if you’re mostly after action, you could come away a bit disappointed. Still, for the energy here, and all the things that make Six-String Samurai unique, it’s worth checking out for those who might be morbidly curious.
6
‘Electric Dragon 80000V’ (2001)
The most important thing to note, when it comes to talking about Electric Dragon 80000V, is the fact that it’s called Electric Dragon 80000V, and that’s instantly intriguing. Also, it’s very brief for a feature-length film, clocking in at just under an hour, and… okay, so maybe some would consider that not quite feature-length. But it’s longer than a short film, so it’s here, and also, it needs more love as a work of science fiction generally speaking.
That’s all before getting to the topic of what Electric Dragon 80000V is about, but honestly, your guess is as good as any. Does it matter, with a movie like Electric Dragon 80000V? This has some sci-fi chaos combined with fantastical elements, lots of music, and some super over-the-top action, all done in a stylistically bold, dizzying, and kind of neat way. It’s a headache of a movie, sure, but definitely a fun headache. You might not think such a thing exists, but if you watch Electric Dragon 80000V, you’ll realize anything is possible, headaches of an enjoyable nature included.
5
‘The Matrix Reloaded’ (2003)
Now, The Matrix Reloaded is not as good as the movie it serves as a sequel to, and that movie’s time will come a few places down, but it is still very good, and probably the second-best of all the Matrix movies. The world expands here, for better or worse, and maybe it gets a bit weighed down with all that expansion and extra lore… yet where it counts (namely, all the action), The Matrix Reloaded really delivers.
You get some cool sci-fi ideas revisited, a mixed bag of new concepts and developments, and then some action that’s honestly on par with what was offered in the first movie. The Matrix Reloaded is a bumpy ride of a film, but when it comes to spectacle and well-choreographed fight scenes, it really does deliver, and might well even have some of the best action sequences of its decade.
4
‘District B13’ (2004)
If you like the Fast and Furious movies, but wish people ran around rather than used cars or other vehicles most of the time, then District B13 is probably the movie for you. The story here is simple, since it’s about two people reluctantly teaming up to take down a bigger threat, with said threat being a gang that might have access to a potentially devastating weapon.
It’s an excuse to have lots of parkour scenes, basically, and the parkour looks cool, and so District B13 ends up also being pretty cool. As for the science fiction elements? They’re maybe a little underplayed, but the movie was made in 2004 and set in 2010, and has something of a dystopian setting, so it fits in within the sci-fi genre just enough. It’s mostly concerned with action, though, and on that front, it largely delivers.
3
‘The Super Inframan’ (1975)
Well, The Super Inframan is very silly. It’s good to get that out of the way. It’s a Shaw Brothers movie, and came out at a time when most Shaw Brothers martial arts movies tended to be grounded (with some experimentation into fantastical/supernatural territory every now and then). So it really stands out as one of the more gonzo Shaw Brothers films, and one willing to basically have the feel of a Showa era Godzilla movie, too.
The monsters aren’t often giant enough for this to be a full-on kaiju movie, yet it’s still a monster movie, and you get to see people in wild costumes having ridiculous fights, and it’s a blast. Or you might find The Super Inframan one of the stupidest things ever, and maybe that’s okay. It’s got a lot that it’s willing to throw at you all at once, and you can either go with it or (again, understandably) throw your hands up in frustration at the whole mess of a thing.
2
‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ (2022)
Speaking of things being thrown at you all at once, here’s Everything Everywhere All at Once, which stands out for being the only sci-fi movie to have ever won Best Picture at the Oscars. Yep, not even 2001: A Space Odyssey, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, or the original Star Wars won the top prize. Everything Everywhere All at Once did, and it’s a wild movie about saving the multiverse, overcoming a midlife crisis, repairing shattered family bonds, and doing taxes.
It’s also about a whole bunch of other things, with all the different emotions imaginable touched upon at some point, and then there’s still a bit of room left over for Everything Everywhere All at Once to be a great martial arts movie, too. Feeling overwhelmed and overstimulated is the point, and there’s some real insight and emotional depth that comes from the chaotic approach, but you do have to give the whole exhausting (and fairly long) movie a shot to fully understand, or at least feel it, to some degree.
1
‘The Matrix’ (1999)
You probably couldn’t put anything else here but The Matrix (1999) without seriously ruffling a whole bunch of feathers, and that’s fair enough, because this one might well be the quintessential sci-fi martial arts movie. There’s a guy who discovers the life he’s been living is a simulation, and then he gets roped into helping a bunch of resistance fighters battle the machines that have been enslaving humanity, since signs point to him being some kind of chosen one.
And yeah, yeah, movies about “one” being “chosen” are very common and a little played-out, but The Matrix handles the whole premise well. Also, the main character gets to learn kung fu as a way to quite literally fight back, and the combination of martial arts action alongside lots of slow-motion gun battles? It’s great. It still looks cool, it’s still a blast, and it is, undeniably, all something that needed to exist before Equilibrium ever really had a chance of doing the same.
