Must See Sci-Fi Movies
I’ve been wondering what movies are considered must sees as far as Sci-Fi either past or present. The ones I know are:
War of the worlds
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Contact
ET
2001 A Space Odyssey
I know there are more but I don’t know what they are.
Blade Runner.
Alien.
The Incredible Shrinking Man.
The Day the Earth Stood Still.
Forbidden Planet.
Metropolis.
And, IMO, two smaller ones that should be, in recognition of their influence on later films:
Dark Star.
A Boy and His Dog.
I just remembered a Disney movie that most definitely should qualify but I’m not sure, Earth: Star Voyager, and I forgot to mention Dune.
Robocop
The Terminator
Terminator 2
The Quatermass Experiment (The Creepin Unknown)
Quatermass 2 (Enemy from Space)
Quatermass and the Pit (Fve Million Years to Earth)
Robinon Crusoe on Mars (Stupid Title, good flick)
It! The Terror from Beyond Space (Alien was DEFINITELY ripped of from this. Good Jerome Bixb script, Paul Blaisdell alien)
Aliens
Journey to the Center of the Earth (It has its bad points, but overall a good flick)
Dark City an amazing movie that I’ve never heard about from anyone.
Are you thinking of Tron?
Not one of my favorites, but the first one that came to mind with Disney. A Southpark episode (Jewbilee) I believe parodied it.
12 Monkeys is one of my personal faves
Also a big Matrix fan, though it might be considered more of an action movie then Sci-Fi.
I second:
2001
Blade Runner
12 Monkeys
Dark City
Alien
I would also add:
The original Star Wars trilogy. (If you haven’t seen this, you have a gigantic hole in your movie watching education.)
Akira
Ghost in the Shell
Pi (Very, very borderline sci-fi.)
Aliens
Repo Man (More of a personal favorite.)
Brazil
And many more I can’t think of.
I agree with most of the movies listed…and i’d like to add Solaris.
I can’t believe that nobody (including myself) has mentioned
The Thing
Both versions. The original is considered a classic, but the John Carpenter remake is much more faithful to the John Campbell story it’s based on.
Creator
2010: The Year we Make Contact (which I’ll still defend)
Star Trek II, III, and IV
The Andromeda Strain (The only Crichton I’ve really liked – and directed by Rober Wise!)
Things to Come (often boring and sometimes ridiculous, but a classic)
The Blood of Heroes AKA Wrath of the Jugger Hard to find. Worth looking for. Austrailian Post-Apocolyptic sports movie. Better than it sounds. It has Joan Chen biting a guys ear off. Later on she sleeps with Rutger Hauer. It’s good, really.
The Road Warrior (The first and last Mad Max movies are fun, but the second one was proably the best)
Venus Wars, a fairly obscure 80’s era anime, (with all that implies) which sounds like it’s hentai, but isn’t. I really should pick up the DVD one of these days.
A Wind Named Amnisia was pretty good, dispite the terrible ending. I suppose I should mention Wings of Honiamise as well.
They’re not movies, but the Armitage III OAV series, Neon Genesis Evangilon, and Key the Metal Idol all hand some interesting SF premises, though avoid the dub of the first unless you want to hear Elzebeth Berkley try to act. And Bubble Gum Crisis, of course. 
Votoms and Gakarasi are supposed to be very good, but I haven’t seen them.
Of stuff already mentioned, Blade Runner, the first Alien, the first Terminator, GiTS, Akira, 2001, The Andromeda Strain.
I STILL haven’t seen Gattica, though.
Out of curiosity, how was Dark Star influential?
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“That being said, enjoy your crappy sci-fi movie.”
Ooooooh… All pretty darn good movies, so far. I’d like to submit 1971’s Silent Running with Bruce Dern.
I did see Dark City when it came out a few years ago, and I’ll admit I didn’t quite know if I liked it or not. But after a little while, I realized it was a darn good film. Quirky, odd, but what a storyline!
And what about Planet of the Apes (1968)?
Uru-Maru:
One way Dark Star was influential was in showing a “lived in” spaceship. AFAIK it was the first movie to do this – before Star Wars or Solaris. Before Dark Star space ships were always pristine and clean.
Another war it’s important is that it brought back the “Monster loose aboard the starship” for the first time since the 1956 flick “It! The Terror from Beyond Space”. The subplot with the “Beachball” (which waasn’t part of the original student film) has the same plot as Alien. By the way, one of the screenwriters for Alien was Dan O’Bannon, who is the guy chasing the Beachball in Dark Star. Coincidence? I seriously doubt it.
“ET” as required viewing? Yechhhh!
Much better than ET:
Destination Moon
When World Collide
Deep Impact
The War Game (Peter Watkins; film, not the Matthew Broderick film), Threads, The Day After, and a host of similar “When the Bomb Falls” films
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (THe Disney version)
This Island Earth (in MST3K: The Movie of course)
Also:
Terror from the Year 5000
The Phantom Planet
Horror at Party Beach
The Projected Man
You can thank me later.
How about Enemy Mine with Dennis Quaid and Lou Gossett Jr.?
What? No one is going to mention A Clockwork Orange?
One recent but notable addition would have to be Titan A.E.
I’ll also have to cast a vote for Logan’s Run, although I recognize that there is a certain amount of cheesiness in that movie.
Disney movie? I think Tron should qualify, but maybe our friend is searching for The Black Hole.
Dang, thought of a couple more after hitting the submit button.
Soylent Green (sp?)
THX-1138
The Fifth Element
And there is another movie which I have been trying to remember, but can’t think of. It’s truly a horrible, horrible movie, but it’s so bad that it should be on any must-see list just as a counterweight. It’s the one it’s set in a post-apocalyptic world where a guy and girl and another fellow are on the run from LA to NY (or vice versa?) and have to travel underground. The most memorable part of the movie for me is where they encounter some weirdo underground and the weirdo has the most memorable line of the movie – “You see, I’m sick in the head. I eat leeches.” – or words to that effect. I’ve tried to find it listed in IMDb using the quote search, but none of the searches for “leech” or “leeches” turn it up. Can anyone else remember?
Brazil
Time Bandits
Basically anything Terry Gilliam!
Aaagh! Two more:
Heavy Metal
They Live (a superb satire)
How can no one have yet mentioned “The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension?”
Tor