"WIRED" Magazine's 20 Greatest Science Fiction movies ever made

Cafe Society
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Here’s an interesting list. I’ll have a few comments afterwards…

“MattDecker”

“WIRED” Magazine picks top 20 science fiction flicks

Monday, May 20, 2002
By: CHRISTOPHER ALLAN SMITH
Cinescape.com News Editor

Source: Wired
Their picks could surprise you…

In a side-bar to their interview with Steven Spielberg, WIRED magazine, the cutting edge computer and technology magazine, picked its 20 greatest science fiction flicks of all time.

Their criteria, along with the fanboy basics, were to rank the films by their attendant adrenaline rush, the buzz, their vision of the future, and the precision of their science in fiction.

So what rated? Here’s their list:

  1. BLADE RUNNER

  2. GATTACA

  3. THE MATRIX

  4. 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY

  5. BRAZIL

  6. A CLOCKWORK ORANGE

  7. ALIEN

  8. BOYS FROM BRAZIL

  9. JURASSIC PARK

  10. STAR WARS EPISODE IV: A NEW HOPE

  11. THE ROAD WARRIOR

  12. TRON

  13. THE TERMINATOR

  14. SLEEPER

  15. SOYLENT GREEN

  16. ROBOCOP

  17. PLANET OF THE APES (1968)

  18. THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL

  19. AKIRA

  20. BARBARELLA

Pleasant surprises for me:

Seeing “Gattaca”… one of the most intelligent, little-known and underrated science fiction movies ever made… make #2 on the list. Cooooooooooool !!! And seeing the Japanese anime masterpiece “Akira” make the list is stunning. And of course it is nice to see “The Matrix” getting the credit it deserves. (I think these Wired guys really know what they are talking about since they didn’t JUST pick the obvious choices.)

But at the same time, they didn’t leave out any of the obvious choices such as the first “Terminator”, “Blade Runner” (at #1, can you say “no-brainer”), “2001: A Space Odyssey” and the original “Star Wars” (what is it with the “Episode IV: A New Hope” crap… NO ONE I know calls it that!!!). So they were also going for the popular, obvious films.
“What the hey???” Surprises:

“Sleeper” and “Barbarella”. Huh??? I mean, I suppose there is a time and a place for comedy science fiction. I’m willing to admit they do make an impression, but do they deserve to be on a list of the twenty greatest sci fi movies ever made??? It has been a while since I saw either one. Maybe I should give them a second chance. But “Barbarella”!!!

Also, interesting to see “Tron” and “Silent Running” and the original “Planet of the Apes”. (It is a travesty that the PIECE OF SHIT remake is going to forever make us qualify the only good version of Apes as “the original”, by the way.) “Silent Running” I personally find to be boring beyond belief and not very interesting, as well as poorly directed and poorly acted. But I guess it was groundbreaking for when it came out. “Tron”… I will have to see again.

A few last comments: If you don’t know why “The Day The Earth Stood Still” made this list, GO SEE IT. Now. Truly one of the most intelligent, low key science fiction movies ever made. Deserving of being on this list. Too bad they didn’t have room for “Forbidden Planet” or “A.I.” (As far as the latter, say what you will about the storytelling and the obnoxious ending, it is
undeniably one of the most intelligent and believable science fiction movies ever made.)

Agree or disagree with any of my comments, or the list itself? Any movies you would have put on it that you can’t BELIEVE they left out? Any of the movies on the list make you laugh out loud at their absurdity for including it???

“Matt Decker”

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I’m very pleased to see Gattaca on the list. Beautiful film, classic science fiction.

3

Barbarella in space, no one can hear you- because the shag carpeting covering every inch of the interior of your spaceship absorbs the sound. I was actually pleasantly surprised to see this one on the list, it’s always been a favorite.

Remember, an angel is love…

Tron was also cool, the visual style was truly unique.

Jurassic Park, are they high? bad story, bad acting, bad science. The effects were OK, but had no visual style- it looked like every other Hollywood blockbuster.

4

The Boys From Brazil, Barbarella, and Sleeper?

The first one is a mediocre adaption of a so-so thriller novel. Outside of it’s cloning premise, it’s barely even sci-fi.

Barbarella has not aged well, very much a product of it’s time. I’ve heard talk of a remake, it would have to be very self-aware to have any chance.

*Sleeper is still funny, but I’d put it on the bubble for this list.

If they needed a comedy, why not Death Race 2000? Dark humor, and skewers our love of violence and “reality” TV perfectly.

Where are Aliens, Forbidden Planet, Escape From New York, and Wargames?

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Grrrr! Sorry about the mess. Preview. Preview. Preview.

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Gattaca was interesting right up to the final scene of the astronauts boarding the spaceship wearing their suits and ties!

That was taking stylishness a bit too far.

I’d bump Boys from Brazil, just for its hokey dialogue and substitute Terminator II: Judgement Day, whose hokey dialogue was at least punctuated by lots of stuff blowing up.

7

Excellent film, but not the best.

Another great film. Too bad it had such a horrible marketing campaign. And a “tag line” that was like a paragraph long.

Gag… good, but way overrated. This is like TV Guide picking Seinfeld as the best TV show ever. Whatever. On the list, but not in the top 10, thankyouverymuch.

Yes, definitely. All fantastic films, all in the right place on the list.

Need to see this.

Unwatchable crap. Even worse than the book, followed by two hideous sequels. Everyone involved in the production of this film should be shot (first up, little Stevie Spielberg), and every copy destroyed.

Should be in the top five, particularly since half the sci fi films ever made would never have been made without it.

Yes. Yes. Yes. And thank God they put Terminator, and not the far inferior Judgement Day.

Not one I’m fond of.

Sigh… I suppose.

“Nice shooting. What’s your name, son?” “Murphy.” Classic.

Should probably be higher up.

Since I would consider this one of the five best films ever made, this should be number one on this list.

Akira, sure. Barbarella? I dunno.

Films that are missing:

The War of the Worlds.
Forbidden Planet.
Superman: The Movie

And of course: Plan 9 From Outer Space!

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Hey, I’ll be the first to agree it probably doesn’t belong on a list of the twenty greatest science fiction movies ever made… but IMH you are being a little harsh on the film.

I think that, very often, the first movie in a series of movies that spawned a lot of aweful sequels gets blamed for the sins of the sequels. Two that jump immediately to mind are “Rocky”, which most people forget DESERVEDLY won Best Picture the year it came out, and “Halloween”, the first (and only) great slasher film stylishly directed by John Carpenter, a truly suspenseful and scary film. There are probably other examples… including the “Jurassic Park” series.

I truly believe… and will probably get flamed for this… that the original “Jurassic Park” is a great film. Sure, the characters are a wee bit flat (but I do like Jeff Goldblum’s Ian Malcolm and Sam Neil’s Alan Grant), some of the best sequences from the book are amazingly absent, and the ending, well, just kind of ends. But the special effects were – and are, still – unparralleled. The movie was unbelievably suspenseful, at least to those of us like me who saw the movie first then read the book. The scene where the T-Rex first attacks will NEVER be outdone, as far as I’m concerned, as one of the most intense, scary, realistic and – the word is overused – awesome suspense sequences ever filmed. I could go on and on, but suffice it to say that I think the film is superb, and gets better with repeat viewings.

But, like I said, probably not deserving to be on this list.

Flame away!!! :smiley:

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Interesting. Here’s my first reactions while reading the list:

Blade Runner: I don’t want to get involved in the recurrent SDMB debate about this movie, so suffice it to say that I’m in the camp of people who think this film was brilliant. I love it. Blade Runner is my second DVD (after The Exorcist, which was one of the best Christmas presents I got that year).

Gattaca: For some reason most people feel about this movie the way I do about Blade Runner. I don’t get it. I mean, I get the movie, but not the love people have for it. I was, I dunno, um, well, it was kind of boring, I thought. Sorry, don’t flame me too bad, okay?

Matrix: Over-rated. Good, but over-rated. Made me think a little bit, which is good, I suppose . . . and the special effects were neat, but otherwise . . . well, I’ll never rent this movie, and I’ll certainly never own it. Blah.

2001: A Space Odessy: A true classic. However, the part with the apes lasted waaay too long. It was as if they recorded ape history in its entirety and forced me to watch it in real time. Likewise, some of the space scenes made me feel as though I were suffering through a real time film that chronicled the entirety of the Space Age. Of course, movies were made differently back then. I’m sure this movie would have blown my mind the way it did everybody else’s had I actually been alive to watch it when it was first screened back in theaters. That said, I think this is still a great movie. HAL is probably one of my favorite characters of all time. I loved the music. This is probably one of the few movies I’ve watched more than three or four times of my own free will; I think I’ll go out and buy a copy tomorrow.

Brazil: Never saw it. Didn’t this have something to do with Nazis? Or was that The Boys From Brazil? Also, wasn’t there a musical called Brazil or something?

A Clockwork Orange: I love how Mister Kubrick turned this great philosophical novel into a cinematic splatterfest. Great ultraviolence. I especially liked–

[book & movie spoilers]

how SK deleted the book’s last chapter in the movie, “curing” Alex of his “cure.” It was nice to see Alex turn into an upstanding young man in the book and all that cal, but I really enjoyed the unrepentant bloodlust he exhibited in the movie better. Okay, so I’m warped and twisted; people like violence and bad kids don’t always grow up into good adults. The way the movie ended seemed to me somehow more honest and realistic than the (admitted superb) book.

Again, great music.

Alien: This movie was just too cool.

Boys From Brazil: I get this confused with the aforementioned Brazil; I’ve seen neither.

Jurassic Park: Weird; I always thought of this as more of a fantasy than a science fiction movie. I did enjoy it quite a bit, though; Jurassic Park reminds me of some of my childhood day dreams (I was a dino-nerd). The book was also enjoyable, although I understand that its science was all wrong (in what way, I don’t know–I’m not a scientist). The sequel sucked.

Star Wars: A New Hope: First “grown-up” movie I ever saw, way back when I was about four years old. I’ve loved this movie and its sequels most of my life. Yet again, I liked the music.

Road Warrior: Great movie for sitting around on the couch, drinking beer. Almost as good as A Clockwork Orange for inspiring violent fantasies.

Tron: Haven’t seen it since it came out in theaters ten or twenty years ago. I remember that I liked it, though. I also remember that after I saw it, I went out and fed my entire allowance to the Tron video games.

Terminator: This movie and its sequel are both, imho, terrific movies. I love them both.

Sleeper: I’m embarrassed to say, I never even heard of this one.

Soylent Green: I’m embarrassed to say that although I have heard of this one, I’ve never seen it.

Robocop: I saw bits and pieces of this on HBO or Cinemax or Something, and thought that it looked like it probably sucked. All the violence in the other movies I’ve seen made sense; it looked like this movie was just an excuse for violence without a lot of story. Of course, like I said, I’ve only seen bits and pieces of this movie. Am I wrong? If so, I might go out and give it a chance.

Planet of the Apes:

Probably my favorite time-travel story, although the Terminator movies are way up there as well.

The remake of this classic is a travesty.

The Day The Earth Stood Still: I think I saw this when I was a little kid. I’m not sure.

Question in the spoilers:

Is this the B&W movie where the human couldn’t remember what the special words were that he had to say to the robot to save the world–or something like that?

Akira: I’m not sure. If this is one of those Japanimation flicks I may have and not realized it; I’ve seen several, but they all looked like the same movie to me.

Barbarella: I may have seen this when I was little, but am not sure. I do know that ever since I walked into my first video store, I always get the slightest prurient rush when I walk by the box for this movie. The picture on the box reminds me of some of the covers of those old pulp science fiction excuses for gratuitis sex and violence that I devoured while in middle school. I’d probably consider Jane Fonda eminently doable were it not for the fact that she’s older than my mother. Is it true that Drew Barrymore is going to be in a remake of this movie, or is that just some crazy rumor I heard?

I always thought The Fly was a great SF movie.

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Sleeper was the Woody Allen movie where he is cryogenically frozen. Best remembered for the Orgazmotron.
Barbarella was an excuse for gratuitous sex and violence- with the campiness of the old Batman TV show added. Plus Jane Fonda in a see through space suit.

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I can’t believe they left off Forbidden Planet, as others have noted. Not only is it the best celluloid expression of 1940s science fiction, but Roddeberry virtually ripped off Star Trek from it. The first major film with electronic music, the first film with Faster-Than-Light propulsion, the first film with Earth people flying artound in a spaceship that doesn’t look like a cigar. The first film (and still one of the few) in which the robot follows Asimov’s Laws of Robotics, and just general all-around intelligent design and well thought-out baclground. Great and highly influential stuff.
And how about Metropolis (The 1925 Fritz Lang film, not the recent anime). Extremely influential, and (when not butchered by the American distributor) a great flick. Get the Kino video copy or the Giorgiou Moroder restoration – both are struck from pristine European negatives. The title animation of this version alone will blow you away.
I’d put Aliens or 2010 on the in place of Jurassic Park or Tron. (I liked Tron, I just don’t think it’s great sci-fi. I suppose Jurassic Park is important for its use of CGI, but it’s not great, either). For my money It!THe Terror from Beyond Space is a better-written film than Alien (which ripped off its plot and ending), but Alien was certainly a more influential flick.

What about Dr. Strangelove?

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Where’s “Dark Star?” :slight_smile:

Mephisto:

The Boys From Brazil is about Nazi’s cloning Hitler.
Brazil is Terry Gilliam’s indescribable masterpiece of a dark, warped future. You really have to see it. Think 1984 meets, uh, Terry Gilliams warped mind.

Tron? Come on. Barbarella? They might as well have added Flash Gordon.

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A bunch of mediocre choices, put there simply because they were trying to be different.

OK flick, but nothing more. Hardly the best.

A stupid film. It tries to make you think, but if you think at all, you realize just how silly it is. It undercuts its point time and time again and makes absolutely no logical sense.

Flashy, with some good and innovative fight sequences, but too much is a dragged out bore. He’s the one? Wow, is that a surprise.

I’m not a fan of the film, but it’s the first so far that deserves to be on the list.

The first good choice. Great film.

Another good choice.

Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid film. No one in the film has the brains of an amoeba, and watching them run around like headless chickens is just plain annoying.

A truly second-rate movie. I could understand why some people might list all the other films so far, but this is like putting Plan Nine on the list.

Probably deserves a ranking, though not so high.

Anyone who calles it “Episode Four” is clueless, but this should have been first or second.

Good choice, at about the right position.

A joke. Tron is boring and stupid; science fiction for morons. The only redeeming feature is the two or three minutes of computer animation. It was a pioneer in that respect, but a loser in every other.

A bunch of good choices, finally.

Nothing to recommend it except Jane Fonda in a bra. Eh.

And where were 12 Monkeys, Dark City, Them!, E.T., It Came from Outer Space, The Time Machine (George Pal version, of course), Dark Star, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Young Frankenstein, A Boy and His Dog, Back to the Future, Galaxy Quest, Slaughterhouse Five, or Who Framed Roger Rabbit?? Any one of these is better than most of the choices here.

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Sleeper has to be on there to so that the pretentious sci-fi crowd can have the wind taken out of their collective sails. Same with Barbarella (besides, if Barbarella had never been made, Duran Duran would have had to look somewhere else for its name).

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Is it just me, or is Silent Running not actually on the list Matt posted? I’ve never seen the film anyway, so…

It’s kinda strange to look at that list of 20 films, and realize that I’ve seen almost all of them: the only ones I haven’t are Clockwork, Boys from Brazil, and Sleeper.
Of the ones I have seen, I think they’re all pretty good, for sci-fi films, but I’d add Soldier, Escape from New York, and Stargate. (hey wait, 3 Kurt Russell films…)

I also like Waterworld, but that’s just for the boat :wink:

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I loved Sleeper (“My brain! It’s my second favorite organ!”). But I would hardly call it a true sci-fi film, just like Boys from Brazil.

Where is The Fifth Element? Where is Empire Strikes Back (better than ANH by a long shot)? Where is Battle Beyond the Stars?

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Before I opened this thread, I thought, “I bet those idiots will pick Blade Runner #1.” I also had a feeling they’d call “Star Wars” by its newfangled fanboy “Episode IV: A New Hope” tagline. The name of the movie is STAR WARS. Two words, eight letters.

Bleah.

I guess it depends what you want to be BEST - the science, or the fiction. Some of these films are pretty mediocre movies. The list, IMO, does not give enough credit to movies that were actually good as MOVIES, and doesn’t give enough credit to movies that were significant industry-changing works. And some of them aren’t even science fiction movies. Some individuals thoughts:

  1. “Blade Runner” deserves to be on the list because its visuals have had a tremendous influence on science fiction movies since. As a movie, it wasn’t that great, and doesn’t really deserve to be #1. It wasn’t BAD, but if this was the bestsci-fi movie of all time, the art’s in trouble.

  2. “Gattaca” is a joke choice for #2. Come on.

  3. I think “The Matrix” should be on the list, but why on earth would it rank ahead of “Star Wars”? As influential as it is, NO movie has ever been as influential as “Star Wars,” and “The Matrix” wasn’t any better a MOVIE. So by what standard is this #3, but “Star Wars” is #9? And where is “The Empire Strikes Back”?

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Am I the only one who thinks Close Encounters deserves to be on that list?

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Yup. Apparently.

I hated CE3K. It ended where The Day the Earth Stood Still began – when the aliens come out of the saucer. TDTESS addressed why the aliens came and what they were going to do – CE3K was an exercise in “sense of wonder” – you never learned anything.

How about:

– any of the Star Trek movies. Hell, the fifth one may be bad, but Star Trek II was pretty damned good – the closest the series ever came to Roddenberry’s claimed “Horatio Hornblower in Space”. And Star Trek IV was arguably the best of the series. Either of these is better than Barbarella.

– Creator

–Destination Moon – dated, but influential. Heinlein wrote the screenplay

–Things to Come – dated but influential, and H.G. Wells wrote the screenplay!

– 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea – Disney and Verne were a perfect match. And if Bladerunner introduced cyberpunk style, this film arguably introduced steampunk style a helluva lot earlier.

–The Andromeda Strain --I have problems with Crichton’s stuff, but his first book-turned-movie was pretty good, and one of the most faithful adaptations ever. Doug Trumbull (of 2001) did the underrated f/x

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The list is pretty good, but a few things surprises me:

12 Monkeys: one of the few really good science fiction movies of the 1990s. Where is it?

Dark City: ditto

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: the only Star Trek movie I would put on this list; apparently Wired didn’t think so

The inclusion of Barbarella, Sleeper, and Robocop is baffling to me.

I’m pleased to see Gattaca so high on the list. Yes, I’m one of those who loves this film, and I’m surprised to see the knocks it has gotten in this thread.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind needs to be on this list.

The first Star Wars movie is on the list, and that is A Good Thing, but The Empire Strikes Back was woefully ignored.

Even though I have it on DVD, I’m still surprised that Tron made the list.