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The Best Outer Space Movies

The Best Outer Space Movies
  1. 2001: A Space Odyssey poster
    2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
    Stanley Kubrick · 190 critic votes
    Humanity finds a mysterious object buried beneath the lunar surface and sets off to find its origins with the help of HAL 9000, the world's most advanced super computer.
  2. Alien poster
    Alien (1979)
    Ridley Scott · 28 critic votes
    During its return to the earth, commercial spaceship Nostromo intercepts a distress signal from a distant planet. When a three-member team of the crew discovers a chamber containing thousands of eggs on the planet, a creature inside one of the eggs attacks an explorer. The entire crew is unaware of the impending nightmare set to descend upon them when the alien parasite planted inside its unfortunate host is birthed.
  3. Solaris poster
    Solaris (1972)
    Andrei Tarkovsky · 15 critic votes
    A psychologist is sent to a space station orbiting a planet called Solaris to investigate the death of a doctor and the mental problems of cosmonauts on the station. He soon discovers that the water on the planet is a type of brain which brings out repressed memories and obsessions.
  4. Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope poster
    Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977)
    George Lucas · 14 critic votes
    Princess Leia is captured and held hostage by the evil Imperial forces in their effort to take over the galactic Empire. Venturesome Luke Skywalker and dashing captain Han Solo team together with the loveable robot duo R2-D2 and C-3PO to rescue the beautiful princess and restore peace and justice in the Empire.
  5. Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back poster
    Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
    Irvin Kershner · 7 critic votes
    The epic saga continues as Luke Skywalker, in hopes of defeating the evil Galactic Empire, learns the ways of the Jedi from aging master Yoda. But Darth Vader is more determined than ever to capture Luke. Meanwhile, rebel leader Princess Leia, cocky Han Solo, Chewbacca, and droids C-3PO and R2-D2 are thrown into various stages of capture, betrayal and despair.
  6. Aliens poster
    Aliens (1986)
    James Cameron · 7 critic votes
    Ripley, the sole survivor of the Nostromo's deadly encounter with the monstrous Alien, returns to Earth after drifting through space in hypersleep for 57 years. Although her story is initially met with skepticism, she agrees to accompany a team of Colonial Marines back to LV-426.
  7. Gravity poster
    Gravity (2013)
    Alfonso Cuarón · 5 critic votes
    Dr Ryan Stone, an engineer on her first space mission, and Matt Kowalski, an astronaut on his final expedition, have to survive in space after they are hit by debris while spacewalking.
  8. Invisible Adversaries poster
    Invisible Adversaries (1978)
    Valie Export · 4 critic votes
    Anna, an artist, is obsessed with the invasion of alien doubles bent on total destruction. Her schizophrenia is reflected in the juxtapositions of long movie camera takes with violently edited montages: private with public spaces; black & white with colour, still photographs with video, earsplitting sounds with disruptive camera angles. Anna uses her body like a map; after a devastating quarrel with her lover, she paints red stitches on herself. Watching their scenes together, we realize how seldom, if ever before, the details of sexual intimacy have been shown in film from the point of view from a woman. Export privileges rupture over unity and never settles for one-dimensional solutions
  9. WALL-E poster
    WALL-E (2008)
    Andrew Stanton · 4 critic votes
    After hundreds of years doing what he was built for, WALL•E— a robot designed to clean up the earth—discovers a new purpose in life when he meets a sleek search robot named EVE. EVE comes to realize that WALL•E has inadvertently stumbled upon the key to the planet's future, and races back to space to report to the humans. Meanwhile, WALL•E chases EVE across the galaxy and sets into motion one of the most imaginative adventures ever brought to the big screen.
  10. Interstellar poster
    Interstellar (2014)
    Christopher Nolan · 4 critic votes
    The adventures of a group of explorers who make use of a newly discovered wormhole to surpass the limitations on human space travel and conquer the vast distances involved in an interstellar voyage.
  11. Plan 9 from outer Space poster
    Plan 9 from outer Space (1957)
    Ed Wood · 2 critic votes
    In California, an old man grieves the loss of his wife, and dies the day after she is buried. However, the space soldier Eros and his mate Tanna use an electric device to resurrect them both, alongside the strong Inspector Clay, who was murdered by the alien-controlled dead couple. When the populations of Hollywood and Washington DC see flying saucers on the sky, a colonel, a police lieutenant, a commercial pilot, his wife and a policeman try to stop the aliens.
  12. High Life poster
    High Life (2018)
    Claire Denis · 2 critic votes
    Monte and his daughter are the last survivors of a damned and dangerous mission to deep space. The crew—death-row inmates led by a doctor with sinister motives—has vanished. As the mystery of what happened onboard the ship is unraveled, father and daughter must rely on each other to survive as they hurtle toward the oblivion of a black hole.
  13. The '?' Motorist poster
    The '?' Motorist (1906)
    Walter R. Booth · 1 critic vote
    A magical glowing white motorcar ignores policemen, drives up buildings, flies through outer space, and can transform into a horse and carriage.
  14. Forbidden Planet poster
    Forbidden Planet (1956)
    Fred M. Wilcox · 1 critic vote
    Starship C57D travels to planet Altair 4 in search of the crew of spaceship "Bellerophon," a scientific expedition that has been missing for twenty years. They find themselves unwelcome by the expedition's lone survivor and warned of destruction by an invisible force if they don't turn back immediately.
  15. Quatermass 2 poster
    Quatermass 2 (1957)
    Val Guest · 1 critic vote
    In England, a group of space scientists led by Bernard Quatermass, who have developed plans for the first Moon colony, learn that a secret, ostensibly government-run, complex of identical design has been built in a remote part of England and is the focus of periodic falls of small, hollow "meteorites" originating in outer space. Quatermass determines to investigate and uncovers a terrifying extraterrestrial life form which has already begun action to take over the Earth.
  16. Of Stars and Men poster
    Of Stars and Men (1964)
    John Hubley · 1 critic vote
    Of Stars and Men is a 1964 animated film from the Hubley family of animators, based on the 1959 book of the same name by astronomer Harlow Shapley, who also narrates. Made in the style of a documentary, it tells of humankind's quest (in the form of a child) to find its place in the universe, through themes such as outer space, physical matter, the meaning of life and the periodic table. There are no character voices; instead, they "talk" through their actions. It has been cited as an example of an "animated documentary".
  17. Silent Running poster
    Silent Running (1972)
    Douglas Trumbull · 1 critic vote
    After the entire flora goes extinct, ecologist Lowell maintains a greenhouse aboard a space station for the future with his android companions. However, he rebels after being ordered to destroy the greenhouse in favor of carrying cargo, a decision that puts him at odds with everyone but his mechanical companions.
  18. Dune poster
    Dune (1984)
    David Lynch · 1 critic vote
    In the year 10,191, the most precious substance in the universe is the spice Melange. The spice extends life. The spice expands consciousness. The spice is vital to space travel. The spice exists on only one planet in the entire universe, the vast desert planet Arrakis, also known as Dune. Its native inhabitants, the Fremen, have long held a prophecy that a man would come, a messiah who would lead them to true freedom.
  19. La Belle Verte poster
    La Belle Verte (1996)
    Coline Serreau · 1 critic vote
    As part of an intergalactic coalition, a well-meaning space alien volunteers to bring a message of self-actualization and harmony with nature to the one planet rejected by all her peers as incorrigible: Earth.
  20. Dandy Dust poster
    Dandy Dust (1998)
    Hans Scheirl · 1 critic vote
    Dust, a split-personality cyborg of fluid gender, zooms through time and space in search of their own memories and a sense of understanding. They travel from the Planet of White Dust where war is constant, to the Planet of Blood and Swelling, a hybrid of their father’s body.
  21. Elysium poster
    Elysium (2013)
    Neill Blomkamp · 1 critic vote
    In the year 2159, two classes of people exist: the very wealthy who live on a pristine man-made space station called Elysium, and the rest, who live on an overpopulated, ruined Earth. Secretary Rhodes, a hard line government official, will stop at nothing to enforce anti-immigration laws and preserve the luxurious lifestyle of the citizens of Elysium. That doesn’t stop the people of Earth from trying to get in, by any means they can. When unlucky Max is backed into a corner, he agrees to take on a daunting mission that, if successful, will not only save his life, but could bring equality to these polarized worlds.
  22. Earth II poster
    Earth II (2021)
    Anti-Banality Union · 1 critic vote
    In the near future, a space station dubbed Earth II is built for the purpose of scientific research and world peace. However, that peace is shattered when the Chinese send up a nuclear bomb that is orbiting just a few miles away from the station. Can the crew disarm the bomb before it detonates, not only destroying the station but setting off World War III?
  23. Asteroid City poster
    Asteroid City (2023)
    Wes Anderson · 1 critic vote
    In an American desert town circa 1955, the itinerary of a Junior Stargazer/Space Cadet convention is spectacularly disrupted by world-changing events.
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