The 15 best sci-fi movies on Amazon Prime Video

From creepy AI dolls to mysterious UFOs, Amazon Prime Video is ready to satisfy your sci-fi cravings.

Sci-fi can do it all: Whether you're looking for a piece of explosion-heavy escapism, an existential meditation on what it means to be human, or a genre-bending head-scratcher, there's a little something for everyone. But let's face it...there are plenty of other-worldly duds out there, too, and when it comes to streaming libraries, it can be difficult to find the diamonds in the rough. That's why EW took the liberty of sifting through Amazon Prime Video to bring you its very best sci-fi offerings, from chilling classics like Invasion of the Body Snatchers to recent favorites like Asteroid City.

Here are the best sci-fi movies on Amazon Prime Video, as of April 2024.

The Age of Adaline (2015)

This romantic sci-fi fantasy drama is one of those films where your willingness to just go with its fantastical plot is directly related to whether it works for you. Blake Lively stars as Adaline Bowman, a woman who dies in the 1930s but is revived by a lightning strike that also prevents her from aging. Stuck for decades at the age of 29, Adaline progresses through time in that perpetually youthful state — even while her daughter ages naturally. Drawing off similar melancholic vibes of another morality fantasy, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), The Age of Adaline is a surprisingly moving film, with sensitive performances by Lively and Harrison Ford, who plays a past lover of Adaline who recognizes her decades later. As EW's critic writes, the film is "a good reminder that love, even when it's complicated or painful or doesn't last, is a whole lot better than immortality." —Kevin Jacobsen

Where to watch The Age of Adaline: Amazon Prime Video

EW grade: B (read the review)

Director: Lee Toland Krieger

Cast: Blake Lively, Michiel Huisman, Kathy Baker, Harrison Ford, Ellen Burstyn

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Asteroid City (2023)

Wes Anderson doubles down on style, artifice, and metatextual layers with this entertaining (yet profound) confection. The film simultaneously tracks a play about a group of young stargazers and their parents who converge for a convention in the desert town of Asteroid City, as well as the writing of that play by a famed playwright. Within the reality of the play, a UFO descends upon the junior stargazers, causing fascination (and panic) within the community. While science fiction is more of a side dish than the whole meal here, Anderson's thematic ambitions with Asteroid City also relate quite well to storytelling within the genre. As EW's critic writes of Anderson's thesis, "To find the truth in art, you have to give yourself over to the artifice of the dream." —Kevin Jacobsen

Where to watch Asteroid City: Amazon Prime Video

EW grade: B (read the review)

Director: Wes Anderson

Cast: Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Liev Schreiber

Related content: Here's what you need to know about Asteroid City, courtesy of Wes Anderson

Cloverfield (2008)

Like The Blair Witch Project before it, Cloverfield made great use of marketing itself with an air of mystery and ambiguity. Luckily, the film itself did not disappoint, using a found footage style to capture a horrifying monster attack in New York City. Cloverfield centers on a group of friends attending a party, only to be disrupted by an earthquake and a power outage. Soon, a giant creature descends upon the city, leading to mass chaos. EW's critic calls the film a "surreptitiously subversive, stylistically clever little gem of an entertainment," and it still holds up today, with its great use of its limited camera perspective and a shockingly poignant ending. —K.J.

Where to watch Cloverfield: Amazon Prime Video

EW grade: B+ (read the review)

Director: Matt Reeves

Cast: Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas, T.J. Miller, Michael Stahl-David, Mike Vogel, Odette Yustman

Related content: Cloverfield endings: Do they work?

Coherence (2013)

When old friends reunite for a dinner party in a movie, you know something is about to go terribly awry. In Coherence, that "something" is the arrival of a close-passing comet — and the discovery of a house full of doppelgängers having an identical dinner party down the street. The plot is full of quantum-related twists and turns, but the film is grounded by the talented cast, which includes Buffy's Nicholas Brendon in a fun self-referential role as a former TV star. The production is just as quirky as the premise: Director James Ward Byrkit wanted to make a low-budget film that was so stripped down, it didn't even have a script. Instead, he invited a bunch of actor friends to his living room, gave them basic character motivations, and let them improvise through the entire thing. The result, while occasionally messy, is thoroughly original. —Janey Tracey

Where to watch Coherence: Amazon Prime Video

EW grade: B+ (read the review)

Director: James Ward Byrkit

Cast: Emily Foxler, Maury Sterling, Nicholas Brendon, Lorene Scafaria

Related content: Things get spooky in clip from new sci-fi film Coherence

The Dead Zone (1983)

What exactly would you do if you suddenly had the power of psychic visions? In this Stephen King adaptation, schoolteacher Johnny Smith (Christopher Walken) must face such deliberation when he awakens from a coma with the ability to know a person's past and future just by touching them. After foreseeing such harrowing events as a kid drowning and a man who would become president ordering a nuclear strike on the USSR, Johnny comes to realize that he may also have the power to alter the future. The Dead Zone presents a world not unlike our own, where every action has consequences, in a gripping film enhanced by its sci-fi premise rather than being weighed down by it. —K.J. 

Where to watch The Dead Zone: Amazon Prime Video

Director: David Cronenberg

Cast: Christopher Walken, Brooke Adams, Tom Skerritt, Herbert Lom, Anthony Zerbe, Colleen Dewhurst, Martin Sheen

Related content: The 10 essential David Cronenberg films

Event Horizon (1997)

Negatively impacted by a rushed production and post-production, Event Horizon wasn't exactly loved by critics or audiences upon its initial release, but it has seen a reevaluation decades later. Paul W.S. Anderson's sci-fi horror spectacle concerns a crew investigating the sudden reappearance near Neptune of a starship that disappeared seven years prior. The group discovers what appears to be a massacre onboard but soon finds their minds playing tricks on them — to put it lightly. Despite its poor reception in 1997, EW gave Event Horizon a positive review, claiming the film contains "some of the most unsettling horror imagery in years." —K.J.

Where to watch Event Horizon: Amazon Prime Video

EW grade: B– (read the review)

Director: Paul W.S. Anderson

Cast: Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill, Kathleen Quinlan, Joely Richardson

Related content: Event Horizon director says restoration of long-lost footage would require Snyder Cut efforts

Interstellar (2014)

After turning a film as cerebral as Inception into an Oscar-winning hit, Christopher Nolan indulged in his sci-fi-loving sensibilities even further with this space epic. Matthew McConaughey delivers one of his most achingly sincere performances as Cooper, a NASA pilot living on a ravaged Earth who embarks on a last-hope mission to an exoplanet that may be capable of sustaining life. What he finds on his trip becomes a mind-bending (and time-bending) testament to humanity's fight for survival, its sense of resilience, and its profound effect on future generations. While the film refuses to hold your hand in exploring such heady themes, those who give themselves over to Nolan's vision will be bowled over by its advanced storytelling on such a grand scale. —K.J.

Where to watch Interstellar: Amazon Prime Video

Director: Christopher Nolan

Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Bill Irwin, Ellen Burstyn, Michael Caine

Related content: The science of Interstellar: A primer on black holes, wormholes, and more

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

In this sci-fi classic, an extraterrestrial race is populating Earth with pods that systematically replace humans with alien duplicates. The film follows a quartet of friends who try to uncover the truth and alert the authorities before it's too late, eventually waging war against pod people. Featuring one of the most chilling endings of all time, Invasion of the Body Snatchers remains a tense thrill ride and a powerful commentary on paranoia. This was the second of multiple adaptations of Jack Finney's 1955 novel The Body Snatchers, and, as EW's critic writes of the 1978 film, "this version is the most slitheringly creepy." —K.J.

Where to watch Invasion of the Body Snatchers: Amazon Prime Video

EW grade: A (read the review)

Director: Philip Kaufman

Cast: Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Leonard Nimoy, Jeff Goldblum, Veronica Cartwright

Related content: Six movie remakes that are worth watching

Mad Max (1979)

The gonzo world of George Miller's Mad Max, now a five-film franchise, began with this independent Australian thriller. Set in a future where society has become nearly lawless, the film follows Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson), a patrol officer who kills the head of an outlaw motorcycle gang, leading to a chaotic series of events that turns Max into a vigilante. There's a shagginess to the original Mad Max that future installments would smooth out (slightly), but the idiosyncratic world-building is fascinating to see on such a small scale, as is the emergence of Gibson as a star in only his second feature film. —K.J.

Where to watch Mad Max: Amazon Prime Video

Director: George Miller

Cast: Mel Gibson, Joanne Samuel, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Steve Bisley, Tim Burns, Roger Ward

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M3GAN (2023)

This campy sci-fi spooker doesn't take itself too seriously, even if the titular doll is a serious threat to those who cross her owner. After robotics expert Gemma (Allison Williams) develops an artificial intelligence-powered doll named M3GAN for her grieving niece, Cady (Violet McGraw), the dangerously smart humanoid starts to exhibit possessive qualities. And God forbid anyone who poses even a minor threat to Cady. EW's critic calls M3GAN "a scampering Blumhouse caper that turns out to be blithely self-aware, negligibly jump-scary, and mostly very fun," and audiences seemed to agree — the film grossed nearly $100 million at the U.S. box office, leading to an announcement of a sequel, M3GAN 2.0, coming in 2025. —K.J.

Where to watch M3GAN: Amazon Prime Video

EW grade: B+ (read the review)

Director: Gerard Johnstone

Cast: Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Ronny Chieng, Jenna Davis, Amie Donald

Related content: Making M3GAN: How everyone's favorite killer robot was brought to life

Super 8 (2011)

Inspired by the wonder-filled '80s-era films by Steven Spielberg, Super 8 is a visually striking homage that works even for those who don't have nostalgia for that time period. Set in 1979, the film centers on 14-year-old Joe (Joel Courtney) and his peers as they film a zombie movie with a Super 8 camera. Their filming is interrupted when they witness a truck crash into a train, which soon leads to mysterious events occurring around town. EW's critic praises the film for its "original storytelling grounded in a sophisticated respect for storytellers who have come before." —K.J.

Where to watch Super 8: Amazon Prime Video

EW grade: A (read the review)

Director: J.J. Abrams

Cast: Elle Fanning, Kyle Chandler, Joel Courtney, Gabriel Basso, Noah Emmerich, Ron Eldard, Riley Griffiths, Ryan Lee, Zach Mills

Related content: Super 8: Steven Spielberg meets J.J. Abrams

Total Recall (1990)

Total Recall is many things: a sci-fi techno-thriller; a cautionary tale for the future; a heady examination of identity. But we wouldn't have it any other way. Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as Douglas Quaid, a construction worker living in 2084 who has a recurring dream about himself and a woman on the planet Mars. But as he comes to realize, the dream may actually be a suppressed reality as agents hunt him down and a vast conspiracy unfolds from there. While not universally loved at the time, Total Recall is now remembered as one of the seminal films in the science fiction genre thanks to its narratively complex themes, thrilling action set pieces, and visually striking imagery; the film deservedly won the Oscar for its practical visual effects. EW's critic calls it "a head film for action freaks." —K.J.

Where to watch Total Recall: Amazon Prime Video

EW grade: N/A (read the review)

Director: Paul Verhoeven

Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin, Sharon Stone, Michael Ironside, Ronny Cox

Related content: Total Recall: 13 reasons to watch the original

The Vast of Night (2020)

This underrated sci-fi indie centers on a pair of teenage friends living in 1950s New Mexico who investigate a cryptic audio signal that suddenly interrupts a radio program. Putting the pieces together, they unravel a conspiracy that may suggest proof of alien life. With a budget of just $700,000, director Andrew Patterson pulls off a number of stunning shots, transporting us to a specific time and place. As EW wrote following the film's success, "Just the setting and veneer of the film — it's framed as an episode of a Twilight Zone-esque anthology TV series — should be enough for you to guess more or less where it's headed." —K.J.

Where to watch The Vast of Night: Amazon Prime Video

Director: Andrew Patterson

Cast: Sierra McCormick, Jake Horowitz

Related content: How The Vast of Night pulled off its stunning tracking shot

The War of the Worlds (1953)

H.G. Wells' 1898 novel The War of the Worlds was one of the first-ever alien invasion tales, and Orson Welles' 1938 CBS radio adaptation famously caused a panic when listeners believed a Martian attack was actually taking place. But when it comes to films based on Wells' work, the 1953 version still reigns supreme. The story, which follows an atomic scientist instead of a 19th-century writer, is updated to tap into Cold War anxieties, but in the end, just as in the novel, the invasion is presented as a natural disaster largely outside of human control. Although the special effects are no longer as groundbreaking as they were in the '50s, they're still incredibly entertaining, especially the manta ray-shaped alien war machines. —J.T.

Where to watch The War of the Worlds: Amazon Prime Video

Director: Byron Haskin

Cast: Gene Barry, Ann Robinson

Related content: Listen to Orson Welles' The War of the Worlds radio broadcast

When Worlds Collide (1951)

This classic sci-fi disaster movie — which won an Oscar for its special effects — is a fascinating artifact of its time. Richard Derr stars as David, a pilot who learns from a scientist and his assistant daughter that a rogue star is expected to collide with Earth. The scientist pushes his idea for an ark (in one of many biblical allusions) to transport people to a nearby planet for the benefit of humanity's future. A clear predecessor to end-of-the-world social commentary films like Don't Look Up (2021), When Worlds Collide is at its most intriguing when it contemplates how the world would react in such a doomsday scenario. Plus, the film is one of the many great sci-fi movies referenced in the opening musical number of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). —K.J.

Where to watch When Worlds Collide: Amazon Prime Video

Director: Rudolph Maté

Cast: Richard Derr, Barbara Rush, Peter Hansen, John Hoyt

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Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.