Sci-fi is once again becoming one of the most dominant genres in entertainment, and 2026 is looking like it will only extend that trend further. From Star Wars returning to theaters with The Mandalorian & Grogu, to Disney-Pixar getting sci-fi weird with Hoppers, or Ridley Scott finally returning to the sci-fi genre with his new film.
But before we get to 2026, we have to close out 2025. In the spirit of sci-fi lovers everywhere, we’ve picked five films that we think are perfect for a New Year’s Eve countdown viewing party. It’s an eclectic mix of films to be sure, but they all have one common theme: they make us consider time and life, and much the same way the end of another year does.
5) The Butterfly Effect
The Butterfly Effect (2004) follows a troubled young man named Evan (Ashton Kutcher), who finds out he can travel back to past moments in his life by reading his childhood journals or watching old home videos. Evan’s time-hopping moments coincide with the “blackouts” he had during deep traumatic moments as a kid, creating a cause-and-effect time loop. Every alternate decision that Evan makes in the past creates a new future where someone close to him – his best friends, girlfriend, even his college roommate – ends up suffering a darker, more terrible life. The more Evan tries to fix it, the more damage he does to the timeline, his loved ones, and eventually his own brain.
Writer/director team Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber made The Butterfly Effect about as dark and messed up as a flip on “It’s A Wonderful Life” can be. However, the film has become a cult-classic example of 2000s sci-fi, and is strangely well-suited to the themes of New Year’s Eve. Evan’s life has some of the darkest moments imaginable, but the film boldly reminds us that fantasies of an ideal, pain-free life for everyone are a dangerous fallacy. The film is also strangely mature in its themes of accountability, and posits that sometimes letting go and moving on is the best thing for everybody. A poignant consideration for every incoming new year.
4) Back to the Future
In 1985, Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and his friend Dr. Emmet Brown (Christopher Lloyd) are experimenting with their new time machine (built into a DeLorean sports car), but a sudden calamity makes Marty panic and flee, only to end up traveling back to the year 1955. To make matters worse, Marty’s arrival in the past ends up interrupting a pivotal meet-cute between his own parents, George (Crispin Glover) and Lorraine (Lea Thompson). That interruption to the timestream starts a ticking clock of causality, where Marty must set the timeline right and get back to his timeline (using ’50s technology) before he is erased from existence.
You could choose to watch the first film, or make the whole Back to the Future trilogy your personal watch party. Back to the Future is a film that, at its core, reminds us how important the moments of our lives are and makes us ponder all the turns of fate that shape not only our current lives but the history that got us here. Never bad considerations as the years change over.
3) Interstellar
Joseph Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is a former NASA test pilot who is given the impossible task of saving humanity. Earth is becoming uninhabitable, so Cooper is tasked with flying to a wormhole near Saturn, which could theoretically serve as a portal to another galaxy, where new, habitable worlds can be found. The major catch is that the closer the flight team gets to the wormhole, the more they begin to experience time dilation, in which mere minutes or hours for the flight crew are years or decades back on Earth.
Interstellar has been criticized as one of Christopher Nolan’s weaker films, but since its release in 2014, it has grown to become a sci-fi cult-classic (if not classic). The story of family, duty, and the power of human ingenuity and perseverance may not be perfect for every single New Year’s Eve, but they are certainly much-needed themes for New Year’s Eve 2025. If this year made you feel like Earth could be in peril, then Interstellar is a harrowing but ultimately hopeful tale about how we can triumph and survive into an advanced future – even though it may come at great cost.
2) Strange Days
In futuristic Los Angeles (1999), Lenny Nero (Ralph Fiennes) is a black market dealer of a very specific vice: SQUID, a device that lets a user experience the memories and feelings of another person. Things go sideways when Lenny receives a disk, recording a brutal assault and murder of his female friend. That kicks off a Noir-style mystery, with Leeny and his friend Mace (Angela Bassett) uncovering a ring of SQUID vids that offer unspeakable experiences to the highest bidder.
Strange Days (1995) gets a high place on this list just for being the only film actually set on New Year’s Eve. There’s also the fact that the movie feels practically prescient at this point, predicting everything from our obsession with virtual reality to the twisted voyeurism and schadenfreude culture born out of social media and the Internet. It’s also one of the earliest films from Oscar-winner Kathryn Bigelow, which happen to be co-written by her ex-husband James Cameron. Strange Days is all about new love and new beginnings, and leaving the bad memories and choices behind. What else do you need to consider as the new year starts?
1) V for Vendetta
In a near future, Britain has been taken over by a fascist government led by a High Chancellor, Adam Sutler (John Hurt). A mysterious (but theatrical) masked vigilante named “V” (Hugo Weaving) has been stoking revolution among the people, through a combination of violent counterattacks against the “Norsefire” political regime, as well as carefully orchestrated acts of revolutionary art and anti-government propaganda. V soon crosses paths with Evey Hammond (Natalie Portman), a young worker at the state-run television network who gets targeted by the secret police due to her family history of political opposition. Inspired by V’s example (and his brutal tutelage), Evey endures the horrors of oppression until she can’t anymore, and joins V in his crusade.
Feeling like we are in need of a new revolution? Then V for Vendetta is your rallying cry. Unfortunately, this particular year has given the world a lot to consider politically, with authoritarianism, misinformation, and persecution of marginalized peoples being global concerns in 2025. If you need a story to wash all those bad feelings away and inspire you to do good and fight on in 2026, this is the one.
What movies are you going to be re-watching as 2025 ends? Let us know your thoughts on the ComicBook Forum!