The best sci-fi movies on HBO Max
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HBO Max is blessed to have the catalogs of Turner Classic Movies and Warner Bros. at its beck and call, making it one of the best platforms for a deep dive into the history of a genre — science fiction being no exception. If you're willing to set aside the space operas now owned by a certain House of Mouse, HBO's streaming selection provides a great overview of onscreen cosmic epics, twisty time-travel blockbusters, and moody examinations of the intersection between cold technology and red-hot humanity. Here's EW's list of the best sci-fi films HBO Max has to offer at the moment.
<i>The Fly</i> (1958)
Based on a short story published in Playboy in the 1950s, The Fly is a science fiction horror film that follows an investigation into a scientist's suspicious death, and his wife's subsequent obsession with one specific fly. Set in Montreal, scientist André lives with his wife Hélène and son Philippe, and has focused his field of study on the process of matter transfer. But after an accident causes his body and brain to begin to fuse with that of an insect's, it's up to his wife to convince the authorities that she is neither crazy nor responsible for her husband's murder.
The first film in The Fly trilogy — which also includes 1959's Return of the Fly and 1965's The Curse of the Fly — the film was later remade by David Cronenberg in 1986 with a cast that includes Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis. A classic movie whose unique but nightmarish premise will continue to buzz around in your brain long after the credits roll, The Fly is a must-see for all sci-fi geeks and horror heads.
<i>The Blob<i> (1958)
Where later sci-fi features would have to come up with ever more arcane reasons for their alien assailant's destruction, 1958's The Blob had the luxury of needing no explanation. An otherworldly goop from the far-off reaches of space has crash landed in a small town — and it's hungry.
Beyond its ability to make food coloring and jelly frightening, the B-movie schlockfest is notable for being Steve McQueen's first leading role. As the monster grows in size and color on its tyrannical tirade on Norman Rockwell's small-town America, McQueen gamely carries this slow-burn movie to its electrifying ending, with the angry red Blob meeting its match while consuming the local diner whole. The straightforward creature feature made a seismic impact on the sci-fi film genre, influencing countless future directors and inspiring a restored release through the Criterion Collection.
<i>2001: A Space Odyssey</i> (1968)
Stanley Kubrick's claustrophobic, space-faring epic confronted audiences with a hard truth: No matter how far forward technology leaps, humans will still launch themselves into ultimately doomed quests toward somewhere else in service of whatever deities the universe provides.
In spite of that ultimately bleak idea, the 1968 masterpiece is a gorgeous marvel of filmmaking, so grand in scope and design that it was originally screened on specially made curved screens to better envelop the audience in Kubrick's mad vision. We promise the "Also sprach Zarathustra" opening still lands on your television screen with the weight of an otherworldly monolith.
Watch 2001: A Space Odyssey on HBO Max.
<i>Solaris</i> (1972)
Consider Andrei Tarkovsky's moody and meditative space story a graduate-level response to the Homeric tale we just referenced. Just as grand in ambition, though less likely to be a hit if you throw it on at a party, this 1972 film dares to ask what the rules are in an endless cosmos and while intentionally avoiding spoon-feeding us easy answers.
Tarkovsky eschews the flash of his non-Soviet contemporaries, opting to use sci-fi in the manner of the era's novelists as a way to examine the as yet undiscovered contours of the human mind. The resulting film is short on special effects and long on philosophy, luxuriating in its nearly three-hour runtime to ponder human nature, unchanged even in the far-off era of long-distance space travel.
<i>Scanners</i> (1981)
David Cronenberg's visceral blend of body horror and sci-fi first came to American audiences thanks to this Canadian cult classic. Before he was turning the ravishing good looks of Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis on their heads via a not-so-sterile experimental machine, Cronenberg confronted audiences with the goop inside our heads with Scanners.
In this bombastic dystopia, the heightened paranoia of the Cold War and the rise of a revitalized right wing tears the psyches of former hippies turned yuppies inside out, a phenomenon that Cronenberg realizes in vivid shades of red. These "scanners" harbor psychic and telekinetic powers, making waves in underground rings, national security, and in the unsuspecting heads of those around them. The subsequent story is nothing short of mind-bending (and blowing, considering the famous head explosion stunt).
<i>Ghostbusters</i> (1984)
New York City is crowded enough without the presence of unwanted supernatural entities. That's why a group of former Columbia University parapsychology professors (Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, and Harold Ramis) decide to start the Ghostbusters, a professional ghost hunting business. Armed with proton packs and energy streams, this ragtag team of academics turned ghost destroyers must find a way to contain the city's ever expanding psychic presence, or risk destruction at the hands of the demigod Zuul, and Gozier, the god of destruction.
As if the film's trifecta of leads weren't impressive enough, Ghostbusters also stars Ernie Hudson as the fourth and most underrated ghostbuster, and Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis as New York City apartment dwellers who become possessed by the evil forces seeking to bring about the apocalypse. One of the first high-budget comedies of its time — and certainly the only one to include a giant Stay Puft Marshmallow Man as a major plot point — Ghostbusters hunts ghosts and catches a lot of laughs while doing it.
Watch Ghostbusters on HBO Max.
<i>Total Recall</i> (1990)
In the late '80s and early '90s, Arnold Schwarzenegger focused his considerable talents in a more comedic direction (see: Twins and Kindergarten Cop). But if anyone was concerned the action star had lost his edge, he proved them wrong by starring alongside Sharon Stone in Paul Verhoeven's Total Recall, a film EW's Chris Nashawaty describes as the "most unrelentingly violent film the strapping cinematic sadist has ever served up," adding that it's not just one of his favorite Arnold movies, "it's one of my favorite movies, period."
Adapted from a short story by Philip K. Dick, Schwarzenegger plays Douglas Quaid, a construction worker living in 2084 who dreams of going to Mars — only to discover that not only has he already been, his whole life has been a series of lies intended to cover up his true identity as a Martian secret agent. Now tasked with returning to and rescuing the Red Planet from a tyrannical regime, Quaid might not be entirely sure of who he is, but a minor identity crisis isn't going to keep him from kicking ass.
Watch Total Recall on HBO Max.
<i>Terminator 2: Judgment Day</i> (1991)
In the first Terminator film, director James Cameron reimagined the stoic serial killers of the slasher genre inside a fully realized sci-fi time-travel epic. Seven years later, he one-upped himself with Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
The second film in the soon-to-be unwieldy Terminator franchise adds on to the lore of the war between man and machine. Ever more advanced robots are sent back into our own timeline to wipe out the future leader of human resistance before he can grow old. Flipping the deathless menace of Arnold Schwarzenegger's original killer on its ear, Cameron casts the beefy Austrian as a reprogrammed and redeemed bodyguard bot tasked with protecting John Connor (Edward Furlong) while also making peace with his original target, John's mom Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton).
Arnold's star power had expanded as exponentially as an ever-looping time-travel plot, and the requisite face turn and budget boost in the sequel leads plays out in the form of incredible pyrotechnic showdowns between the Terminator and new baddie, the T-1000 played by Robert Patrick.
Watch Terminator 2: Judgment Day on HBO Max.
<i>Mimic</i> (1997)
Entomophobics beware: Mimic is a living recreation of your nightmares, only with a better plot. The B in this B-movie stands for bugs, the kind created by entomologist Dr. Susan Tyler (Mira Sorvino) in an attempt to cure a deadly disease plaguing New York City's children. Three years after the illness has been eradicated and the bugs have allegedly died out, Dr. Tyler discovers they are in fact still alive, thriving in tunnels under the city. In even worse news, the bugs have mutated in such a way that they are capable of mimicking human behavior — making them more than a match for their above-ground prey.
Working alongside her husband Dr. Peter Mann (Jeremy Northam), director of the CDC, Dr. Tyler must find a way to keep the creepy crawlies from continuing to breed, or risk the elimination of the entire human species. Orchestrated by Guillermo del Toro, who seizes every available opportunity in his script and score to unnerve his audience, an EW critic writes that the real star of the show is "the bugs: ominous, razor-limbed beasts that flutter through the subway tunnels with lightning abandon."
<i>Limitless</i> (2011)
In 2009's comedy The Hangover, Bradley Cooper's character uses 0% of his brain. Two years later, Cooper appeared in the sci-fi thriller Limitless, where his character Eddie uses all 100%. Eddie is a struggling author (as evidenced by his unkempt hair) living in New York City whose life takes a 180-degree turn after a friend introduces him to a new drug called NZT. An untested pill that allows users to tap into their entire brain's potential — as opposed to the usual 20% humans are supposedly able to access — NZT opens up Eddie's world.
With the help of his supply, Eddie finishes his book, kills it on the stock market, and in his relationship with Lindy (Abbie Cornish) — but his success doesn't go unnoticed, and soon everyone from finance tycoon Carl von Loon (Robert De Niro) to the Russian mob wants a piece of him. One of his first opportunities to unleash his dramatic acting talents, Cooper is "so charismatic in his verbal seductions," an EW critic writes, "that he suggests a faster version of the young Mickey Rourke."
<i>Under the Skin</i> (2013)
Superstardom is a realm so far from the average person's experience as to be entirely alien. Scarlett Johansson took a break from her skyrocketing career in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to examine what it would be like to view humanity from the outside.
In this art-house split from her endless churn of summer blockbusters, Johannson plays an alien disguised as a human woman. Throughout the film, which is directed by Jonathan Glazer and includes an alluring score courtesy of Mica Levi, she lures several people back to her lair to study them, ultimately submerging their bodies in a black abyss. Though she never seems to fully understand the everyday people she brings back to her house of horrors, she does develop a sort-of empathy for her test subjects as the film hurtles toward its brutal conclusion.
Watch Under the Skin on HBO Max.
<i>Divergent</i> (2014)
In a dystopic version of Chicago, 16-year-olds are given more than just a driver's license: The teens are sorted into different factions, depending on the human virtues they possess. But when it's Tris Prior's (Shailene Woodley) turn to be tested to determine which faction she belongs in, Tris learns that she falls into a separate class altogether. Categorized as divergent, Tris is told that she has the power to think for herself, which makes her impervious to mind control, and a danger to the system. Told to conceal her identity, Tris chooses to join the Dauntless faction, which prioritizes bravery,but struggles to follow the commands of her instructor Four (Theo James) and to keep up with her rival, Peter (Miles Teller).
Also starring Kate Winslet in the role of steely leader Jeanine Matthews, and based on the best-selling series of young adult novels, Divergent unfolds like a science fiction version of Harry Potter, with similar elements to The Hunger Games. The series may have faltered after Allegiant — the third film in the franchise — which bombed on all levels, but the first film is worth a watch. As an EW critic writes in their review, it's "a lean, exciting basic-training thriller, with Tris willing herself to do things like jump aboard speeding trains and fight with her bare knuckles."
<i>Ex Machina</i> (2014)
In a world quickly burning thanks to the worst excesses of our billionaire class, this moody horror story about a tech entrepreneur who doesn't care who he hurts might hit too close to home, though it is excellent cinema. This exploration of the mundane evil of innovation for its own sake is worth putting the outside world aside, however briefly.
Oscar Isaac stars as reclusive techno-hermit Nathan Bateman, who tricks an employee (Domhnall Gleeson) into his glass-and-steel labyrinth of a home in order to test out his latest creation: a nearly human android named Ava (Alicia Vikander). The creeping dread of the opening act becomes an incessant pounding in the ears as Bateman's true motives become clear and Gleeson's Caleb realizes he's as much a test subject as a stress tester.
<i>The Lobster</i> (2016)
No one sees the world quite like Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite), whose 2016 film The Lobster offers one of the funniest, most deranged, and thoroughly absurd takes on our culture's approach to dating, marriage, and love. A black romantic comedy that pokes fun at society's suspicion around single people, The Lobster exists in a world where singles are allowed 45 days to find a life partner or transformed into the animal of their choice. David (Colin Farrell) has selected the lobster as his preferred animal, and after his wife leaves him, he is taken to a hotel and instructed to find someone compatible. But when an incident involving a potential life partner forces him to flee into the woods to live with the loners, David discovers that it doesn't matter where you are or who you're with — falling in love is a struggle. Also starring Lanthimos favorites Rachel Weisz and Olivia Colman, as well as Ben Whishaw and John C. Reilly, The Lobster is the weirdest romantic comedy you'll ever see, and it will live in your brain rent-free for weeks after watching.
<i>The Matrix Resurrections</i> (2021)
Children were born and grew into legal adults in the years since the last Matrix movie was released. But that 18 year gap was well spent; The Matrix Resurrections — directed solely by Lana Wachowski — finds a compelling way to yank the film out of the Internet's infancy and into the modern technological era. The stunts are impressive, but it's the romance between Neo and Trinity (Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss working off each other in ways that EW's reviewer describes as "defiantly sexy") that not only revives the franchise, but elevates it to heights that Reloaded and Revolutions could only ever dream of.
Neo — who now goes by the name Thomas Anderson — has developed several successful video games based on his distant memories of the Matrix, but his inability to distinguish between dreams and reality has him running to his therapist (Neil Patrick Harris) for help. Laurence Fishburne sits this one out, so there's a new Morpheus in town, and newcomer Jonathan Groff adds narrative texture as Anderon's business partner and former arch enemy. Well worth a watch, The Matrix Resurrections reminds us why we loved getting red-pilled the first time, or, as our reviewer puts it, "All that's old is neo again."
Watch The Matrix: Resurrections on HBO Max.
<i>Dune</i> (2021)
Frank Herbert's Dune novels are dense treatises on colonialism, climate change, and the nature of power. The spice-addled mish-mash of spiritualism and Sun Tzu was considered nigh unfilmable, especially after David Lynch's unfortunate 1984 attempt. But that was before director Denis Villeneuve wowed audiences by cutting the first book in half and plopping Hollywood's hardest-working waif (Timothée Chalamet) into an unforgiving landscape riddled with monstrous, holy worms.
The resulting film throws the viewer into the confusing tumult of young Paul Atreides' life, using the foreboding nature of the source material to ramp up the story's internal tension and confusion. A score of war drums and whispers never lets the viewer find their feet on the ever-shifting sands of Arrakis, which EW's critic calls "the kind of lush, lofty filmmaking wide screens were made for."
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