Some of the best science-fiction movies use outer space as more than just a backdrop. The isolation, distances and dangers of space can become an essential part of the story, whether the characters are exploring the Solar System, crossing interstellar space or simply trying to survive aboard a spacecraft.
For this list, I’ve concentrated on movies in which space travel or life aboard a spacecraft plays a substantial role. That means plenty of excellent science-fiction films set primarily on Earth or the surface of another world don’t make the cut.
Listed chronologically, here are my 10 favorite sci-fi movies set in outer space.
1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Writers: Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke
2001: A Space Odyssey begins with a mysterious monolith influencing prehistoric hominins before jumping forward millions of years to humanity’s expansion into space. When another monolith is discovered buried on the Moon, its activation points toward Jupiter and sets in motion the voyage of the spacecraft Discovery One.
Much of the film’s enduring power comes from the way it portrays space itself. Travel is slow, quiet and potentially deadly, while even routine activities aboard spacecraft are presented with unusual attention to detail. The conflict between astronaut Dave Bowman and the increasingly unreliable HAL 9000 remains one of cinema’s defining explorations of artificial intelligence.
More than half a century later, its combination of realistic spaceflight, enormous unanswered questions and extraordinary visual design still makes 2001 one of the landmarks of science-fiction cinema.
2. Star Wars (1977)
Director: George Lucas
Writer: George Lucas
Star Wars is much closer to space fantasy than hard science fiction, but few films have done more to shape the popular image of adventure among the stars. Luke Skywalker joins Han Solo, Princess Leia, Obi-Wan Kenobi and their companions in the struggle against the Galactic Empire and its planet-destroying Death Star.
Its universe feels enormous. Spaceports, freighters, starfighters and vast capital ships suggest a galaxy in which interstellar travel has become commonplace, while the climactic attack on the Death Star remains one of cinema’s great space-battle sequences.
The physics may be decidedly flexible, but as a piece of outer-space filmmaking its influence is almost impossible to overstate.
3. Alien (1979)
Director: Ridley Scott
Writers: Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett
The crew of the commercial towing vessel Nostromo is returning to Earth when the ship’s computer wakes them from suspended animation to investigate a transmission from a nearby moon. Their discovery ultimately brings an unknown organism aboard the ship, turning the journey home into a fight for survival.
Alien succeeds partly because its spacecraft feels less like a futuristic palace and more like an industrial workplace. Its crew members eat together, complain about pay and carry out ordinary jobs while surrounded by machinery that looks used rather than pristine.
Once the alien is loose, the isolation of deep space becomes crucial. There is nowhere to escape and nobody close enough to help. The result is a near-perfect fusion of science fiction and horror.
4. 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984)
Director: Peter Hyams
Writers: Peter Hyams, based on the novel by Arthur C. Clarke
Nine years after the mysterious events aboard Discovery One, a joint American-Soviet expedition travels to Jupiter to investigate the abandoned spacecraft, determine what happened to HAL 9000 and learn more about the enormous monolith discovered near the planet.
2010 is a more conventional film than 2001, but that also makes its exploration of spacecraft, planetary science and the Jupiter system more accessible. The growing political tension back on Earth contrasts nicely with a crew that must cooperate millions of miles from home.
It lacks some of the mystery of its predecessor, but remains an ambitious and underrated space-based science-fiction movie.
5. Serenity (2005)
Director: Joss Whedon
Writer: Joss Whedon
Set centuries in the future, Serenity follows Malcolm Reynolds and the crew of a small spacecraft living on the fringes of a powerful interplanetary society. Their decision to protect River Tam, a young woman with extraordinary abilities and dangerous knowledge, puts them into direct conflict with the Alliance.
The film builds on the universe of the television series Firefly, where spaceships are not glamorous status symbols but homes, workplaces and sometimes barely functioning means of survival.
That gives Serenity a distinctive personality. It combines the freedom of a space adventure with the atmosphere of a western, while gradually uncovering a much darker mystery about the society through which its characters travel.
6. Sunshine (2007)
Director: Danny Boyle
Writer: Alex Garland
In Sunshine, the Sun is mysteriously fading and Earth faces catastrophic cooling. The crew of the spacecraft Icarus II is sent toward the Sun carrying a huge stellar bomb in a desperate attempt to restore it.
The underlying solar physics is highly speculative, but the film makes excellent dramatic use of the environment. The crew is flying toward an object so powerful that even looking at it without protection is dangerous, and the mission leaves almost no room for mistakes.
The result combines psychological tension with some spectacular images of the Sun and spaceflight. It becomes increasingly surreal as the story develops, but few science-fiction movies have made our own star seem quite so beautiful or threatening.
7. Pandorum (2009)
Director: Christian Alvart
Writers: Travis Milloy and Christian Alvart
Two crew members awaken from hypersleep aboard the enormous colony ship Elysium with fragmented memories and little understanding of what has happened. The vessel is carrying thousands of sleeping colonists toward another world, but something has gone badly wrong during the journey.
Pandorum uses the generation-starship idea as the setting for a dark mixture of science fiction, mystery and horror. Much of its tension comes from the sheer scale of the vessel and the uncertainty surrounding how long it has been traveling.
It isn’t as celebrated as some of the films on this list, but its combination of interstellar migration, suspended animation and psychological breakdown makes it an interesting take on the darker possibilities of very long space voyages.
8. Star Trek (2009)
Director: J.J. Abrams
Writers: Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman
Star Trek reintroduces James T. Kirk, Spock and the crew of the USS Enterprise through an alternate timeline created by a Romulan vessel arriving from the future. Kirk’s first major journey aboard the Enterprise quickly becomes a battle to prevent further planetary destruction.
The movie favors speed and spectacle over the slower exploratory style associated with some earlier Star Trek stories, but it captures the excitement of setting out aboard a starship into a much larger galaxy.
Its enormous spacecraft, warp-speed travel and battles between worlds put outer space at the center of the action, while the relationship between Kirk and Spock provides the human core of the story.
9. Interstellar (2014)
Director: Christopher Nolan
Writers: Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan
With environmental collapse threatening humanity’s future on Earth, former NASA pilot Cooper joins a mission through a wormhole near Saturn in search of a new home for the human race.
Interstellar stands out because many of its biggest ideas come directly from modern astrophysics. The story explores wormholes, gravitational time dilation and a rapidly rotating black hole, while the enormous distances involved repeatedly affect the lives of the characters.
Not everything in the movie should be taken as literal science, but its attempt to build a major emotional story around relativity and interstellar travel makes it one of the most ambitious space movies of recent decades.
10. The Martian (2015)
Director: Ridley Scott
Writer: Drew Goddard, based on the novel by Andy Weir
After astronaut Mark Watney is accidentally left behind during an emergency evacuation of Mars, he must find a way to survive with limited food and equipment while NASA and his crewmates attempt an extraordinary rescue.
Unlike most films on this list, much of The Martian takes place on the surface of another world rather than in open space. It earns its place because spaceflight is fundamental to the entire story, from the original Mars expedition and the Hermes spacecraft to the orbital mechanics involved in trying to bring Watney home.
Its greatest strength is its enthusiasm for solving problems. Growing food, producing water, communicating across interplanetary distances and planning trajectories all become parts of the adventure. Some liberties are taken for dramatic effect, but the film treats science and engineering as tools for survival rather than obstacles to the story.
That combination of humor, isolation and practical problem-solving makes The Martian a fitting modern addition to a list of memorable movies about humanity venturing beyond Earth.