Accion Mutante (1993)
Future Mutant Terrorists/Gonzo Comedy
The directorial debut of Spain’s Alex de la Iglesia, a planetary adventure about a group of mutant terrorists that comes with a bizarrely wacky sense of humour
Other Planets
Other Planets refers to any other planet that is visited in the course of an SF film. The worlds of the Solar System are dealt with in more detail under Mars, Venus, The Moon and Journeys Inside the Solar System.
Visits to other planets were for many years (up until the 1950s) confined within the Solar System – the exception might be Flash Gordon’s Mongo. These were hardly scientific – most planets being represented with Earth-like atmosphere and inhabited or the unserious whimsies of Georges Melies where the Moon and Sun had faces.
Depictions of extra-solar planets began to enter in the Space Exploration films of the 1950s and in particular tv shows like Doctor Who (1963-89), Lost in Space (1965-8) and Star Trek (1966-9), which showed a widely inhabited galaxy beyond the Solar System – although in the majority of cases still inhabited by people that looked just like us, spoke English and lived on Earth-like planets. A large part of the reason for this being that creating non-human and exotic places was far more expensive than simply going on location in Bronson Canyon or the BBC Quarry.
The much more diverse galaxy started to come in in Star Wars (1977) and sequels, showing a galaxy of worlds and different environments – desert or ice worlds, forest moons, volcanic worlds. The new Star Trek series of the 1980s/90s created more exotic aliens with strange facial appliances. However, these were still all variants on humanoid aliens and earth-like planets for the most part.
Since this, not a huge amount is changed. There are plentiful films that depict well-inhabited galaxies. And a number of others that depict exotic worlds. However, with occasional exceptions, there are only a few works that have the imagination (or budget) to go for the truly exotic and different.
After Earth (2013)
Planetary Survival Adventure
Enough with the M. Night Shyamalan bashing. Here Shyamalan pulls off a solid and interesting planetary adventure where the only real misstep is that much of the film rests on the non-acting shoulders of Jaden Smith
Alien3 (1992)
Alien Sequel
Third of the Alien films, a directorial debut for David Fincher. A better film than was perceived at the time, this explores new character depths, while Fincher imprints his own visual style on the film
Alien (1979)
Alien Nasty on a Spaceship
One of the most influential films on this site, producing a host of sequels and making the careers of all involved. At heart, a simple monster on a spaceship film, it is made into a classic through Ridley Scott’s relentless suspense and H.R. Giger’s design work
Alien: Covenant (2017)
Alien Prequel
Ridley Scott makes a further Alien prequel that is an improvement on Prometheus. While the first half gives us the stuff of aliens hunting humans, the second less interestingly doglegs off into the story of a mad android
Alien: Romulus (2024)
Alien Sequel
Despite a director that has spent a career making bad sequels to other people’s franchises, you have to admit this is an Alien sequel emerges better than you expect it to do
Aliens (1986)
Alien Sequel
James Cameron’s follow-up to Alien is one of the few sequels that matches its predecessor. Adding a troupe of Marines, Cameron creates a powerhouse of a film that sustains itself with seat-edge tension throughout
Alphaville (1965)
French New Wave/Intergalactic Detective
Surrealistic cinematic joke from French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard that mashes up film noir and SF where hard-boiled detective travels to another planet represented by contemporary Paris
Andromeda Nebula (1967)
Soviet SF Film/Space Exploration
A Soviet SF film about the exploration of an alien planet. Though they tended to the dramatically stolid, these Soviet films had amazing budgets their US counterparts of the era never did
Andromina: The Pleasure Planet (2000)
Erotica/All-Women Planet
Work of softcore erotica that gives the old 1950s B movie plot of astronauts encountering a planet inhabited only by women an Adults Only workover. Aside from the obvious reasons to watch this, the SF content is entirely negligible
Angel’s Egg (1985)
Anime/Surreal Journey Across an Alien World
One of the earliest works of anime director Mamoru Oshii, later famous for Ghost in the Shell. This is a plotless, almost dialogueless work about a young girl journeying across a strange planet that is more surrealism than SF
Another Earth (2011)
Mirror Earth
An indie hit starring/co-written by Brit Marling that is a well-played mumblecore drama about redemption and loneliness. On the other hand, the central premise of a mirror Earth is preposterous science-fiction
Ash (2025)
Hostile Alien Planet/Alien Nasty
The rapper turned filmmaker Flying Lotus directs a copy of Alien with an amnesiac crewmember of a ship landed on a hostile planet where the crew are hunted by an alien nasty
Atlas (2024)
War with the Machines
The idea of Jennifer Lopez in a transformer suit kicking robot ass has an outlandishness to it. The surprise is that this is a really good, well written SF film of planetary survival
Atomic Rulers of the World (1965)
Japanese Superhero Film
The US release of several short Japanese films featuring the superhero Starman. Cheap and entertainingly absurd, filled with tatty superheroics and laughable science
Attack of the Monsters (1969)
Japanese Monster Movie
The fifth of the Gamera films, Japanese monster movies that are made for children. This abandons the relative realism of the earlier films for a colourful silliness with frequently lunatic results
Attack on Titan (2022)
Space Opera
Not to be confused with the Japanese manga/anime of the same name, this is a space opera from The Asylum, which boasts some very good effects on a budget
Avatar (2009)
War Between Human Colonists and Aliens
James Cameron’s film was a smash phenomenon. Cameron has relocated the plot of Dances With Wolves on another planet and uses motion capture to create one of the most dazzlingly realised alien worlds on film
Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025)
War Between Human Colonists and Aliens
James Cameron makes a third venture into the world of Pandora. The question is whether he finds any new territory to explore. What you cannot deny is that he creates a pretty and absorbing picture out of it all
Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)
War Between Human Colonists and Aliens
James Cameron finally delivers his sequel to Avatar. Nothing could quite repeat the same phenomenon a second time but this does well with Cameron taking the opportunity to show more depth to his alien world
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Marvel Comics Superhero Team-Up
Marvel conclude the cliffhanger they left Avengers: Infinity War on and offer up a bigger-than-big line-up, overspilling with just about every MCU character to ever appear on screen up to that point
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Marvel Comics Superhero Team-Up
Marvel’s third Avengers film, uniting almost every superhero under their roof, resulting in some thirty characters on screen and a plot that becomes a blur of changing locations and superheroic punch-ups
Barbarella (1968)
Softcore Space Opera
Charmingly capricious and silly adaptation of the comic-strip with a wide-eyed Jane Fonda as the spacegoing heroine. Filled with some wonderfully naughty gags and a production and costume design scheme that goes to a gorgeously deranged excess
Battle Beyond the Stars (1980)
Space Opera
Roger Corman jumps aboard the Star Wars fad and offers up a version of The Seven Samurai/The Magnificent Seven located in space. Corman has thrown a reasonable budget at the film for once and it emerges as colourfully enjoyable
Battle for Terra (2007)
Animation/War Between Human Colonists and Aliens
Animated film that has a remarkable number of similarities to Avatar – even though it was released before. A simplistic variant of the same human colonists vs alien natives plot conducted with corner-cut CGI animation
Battle of the Worlds (1961)
Mysterious Planet/Italian Space Opera
Early 1960s Italian space opera from Antonio Margheriti about a rogue planet on a course towards Earth. Not nearly as interesting as it suggests it is going to be.
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
Space Opera
The original Battlestar Galactica tv series was an incredibly blatant copy built on the success of Star Wars. This is the pilot, which aired on tv in the US but was released theatrically to theatres in other countries
The Beyond (2017)
Mysterious Portal Appears in Earth Orbit
A highly ambitious film about a mysterious alien portal that appears in Earth orbit and the attempts to explore what is on the other side
Bill the Galactic Hero (2014)
Space War Parody
Harry Harrison’s Bill the Galactic Hero is hands down the funniest science-fiction book of all time; it is painful watching it rendered in the hands of Alex Cox who has only the budget and resources of an amateur film
Borderlands (2024)
Videogame Adaptation/Planetary Adventure
Eli Roth adapts the popular videogame and corrals a surprisingly high-profile cast in a knockabout planetary adventure. Alas, that met a very mixed reception and was widely regarded as a bad movie
Chaos Walking (2021)
Planet Where Thoughts Are Visible
Doug Liman’s adaptation of a Young Adult series that was problem-ridden behind the scenes. This certainly creates an interesting scenario set on a planet where men’s thoughts are visibly manifest
Children of Dune (2003)
Desert World/Intergalactic Politics/Precognitive Messiah
Follow-up to the 2000 tv mini-series adaptation of Dune, this adapts Frank Herbert’s two books sequels, Dune Messiah and Children of Dune. The production lacks the depth of its predecessor
The Chronicles of Riddick (2004)
Intergalactic Adventures
The sequel to Pitch Black where Vin Diesel’s serial killer now becomes the hero of the show and the original planetary survival story is expanded out into an ornate Gothic space opera
Clonehunter (2009)
Interstellar Detective Story
SF neo-noir that suffers from a painfully low budget (particularly when it comes to its CGI) but transcends this with a consistently intelligent story and a world created with a reasonable sense of verisimilitude
Cloud Atlas (2012)
Cross-Historical Epic
A cross-historical epic from The Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer. An uneven film driven more by its determination we view it as an epic. Surely a studio publicist’s nightmare, it grasps at the meaning of it all yet eludes telling audiences what it is about
Cosmic Sin (2021)
Space War
Another among the shoddy last films Bruce Willis-made before retirement, an SF film about a rogue military team that decide to declare war on aliens. This is laughable in terms of military tactics
Crater (2023)
Coming of Age Story on The Moon
A surprisingly better than expected film from the Disney Channel, a Coming of Age story set on The Moon about a group of kids who break out to go on a jaunt across the lunar surface
Dark Space (2013)
Crashlanded on an Alien Planet
A low budget indie film about a spaceship crashlanded on an alien planet that is no more than a glorified fan film that features a level of effects that are extremely well accomplished
The Dawnseeker (2018)
Planetary Adventure/Hunted by an Alien
A low-budget film about a group of soldiers crashed on another planet where they find themselves hunted by an alien. This channels the basics of Predator
The Day Time Ended (1980)
Mysterious Extraterrestrial Phenomena
A B-budgeted film made not long after Close Encounters of the Third Kind about a family on a ranch encountering mysterious alien phenomena. An early Charles Band produced film
Dr Who and the Daleks (1965)
Doctor Who Film
This was the first of two Doctor Who movies produced during the height of Dalekmania during the 1960s. Alas a comedy element in the form of the asinine buffoonery of Roy Castle is allowed to dominate and kills the show off
Don’t Look Up (2021)
The End of the World/Satire
The perfect film for the Covid era. A devastatingly on the ball satire on the ineptitude of people’s response in the face of an extinction level threat to the Earth from an oncoming comet as government agencies tries to minimise the news
Doppelganger (1969)
Mirror-Reversed Counter-Earth
Gerry Anderson was best known for his puppet tv shows. This was his first film with live actors based around the absurd notion of a space expedition to a planet on the far side of the sun that is a mirror opposite of the Earth
Dune (1984)
Desert World/Intergalactic Politics/Precognitive Messiah
David Lynch disowned his film version of the classic Frank Herbert SF novel. However, Lynch may be incapable of making a bad film and this, while acting freely with the book, has a visual grandeur that makes it highly watchable
Dune (2000)
Desert World/Intergalactic Politics/Precognitive Messiah
This TV mini-series remake of the Frank Herbert novel is much more faithful to the essence and complexity of the book, even if it lacks the visual resplendence of the film versions
Dune Drifter (2020)
Planetary Survival
Modestly well made low-budget planetary survival film about a pilot crashlanded on a hostile world. An entire space opera that was shot in the director’s apartment during the Covid-19 lockdown
Dune Part One (2021)
Desert World/Intergalactic Politics/Precognitive Messiah
Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s classic SF novel comes with a determination to give the story and its richly detailed world faithful life on screen. Villeneuve adapts freely in many areas but gets the complexity of the saga
Dune Part Two (2024)
Desert World/Intergalactic Politics/Precognitive Messiah
The second part of Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s classic SF novel Dune, this delves more deeply into the world of the Fremen, although starts to diverge more from the book
Empire of the Apes (2013)
Planet of Talking Apes
When 20th Century Fox began their Planet of the Apes reboot series, director Mark Polonia quickly jumped in with his own Z-budget mockbuster take. Several sequels followed
Enemy Mind (2010)
Enemies Stranded on an Alien Planet
A modest and effective low-budget reworking of the classic Enemy Mine delivered with a quite reasonable intelligence and professionalism
Enemy Mine (1985)
Human-Alien Enemies Stranded on a Hostile Planet
SF film with Dennis Quaid and Louis Gossett Jr as human and alien who are enemies but are forced to cooperate to survive after crashlanding on a hostile alien planet
Escape from Planet Earth (2013)
Animation/Aliens Imprisoned at Area 51 Comedy
This is fake SF, an animated film that has no interest in its concept, one that exists solely as a series of pop culture jokes, cutsie supporting characters, thrills and feelgood epiphanies
The Ewok Adventure (1984)
Children's Planetary Adventure/Star Wars Spinoff
Crass attempt by George Lucas to further milk the Star Wars phenomenon with a tv movie (released to theatres outside the US) given over the Ewoks from Return of the Jedi
Ewoks and the Marauders of Endor (1986)
Children's Planetary Adventure/Star Wars Spinoff
Follow-up to The Ewok Adventure, a tv movie released to theatres internationally. This is a better film than its predecessor that even captures something of the Star Wars spirit on occasions
Fantastic Planet (1973)
Bizarre Alien Planet/Animation
The first film from French animator Rene Laloux, a trippily surreal vision and one of the few portraits of a genuinely alien world on film
Fire Maidens of Outer Space (1956)
Astronauts Discover All-Female Planet
One among a sub-genre of 1950s outer space sex fantasies where astronauts encounter all-women planets and sort them out with some good lovin’, Cat Women of the Moon is held as the Z movie of this genre but this is an even cheaper
First Spaceship on Venus (1959)
Soviet Space Mission
A Soviet space exploration film from East Germany concerning an expedition to Venus. This was the first film to depict an international space mission but proves stolid dramatically
Flash Gordon (1936)
Serial/Space Opera
The original and greatest of all SF serial adventures and a huge influence on George Lucas. Despite the primitive effects, this still has a marvellously rousing imagination that stands up today. Two serial sequels followed
Flash Gordon (1980)
Campy Space Opera
Dino de Laurentiis climbed aboard the Star Wars fad with this remake of the classic serial. Against expectation, the film’s campy tone and eye-popping sets and costumes work and it has become an audience favourite
Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (1940)
Serial/Space Opera
The third of the Flash Gordon serials, not quite at the heights of the previous two but with a colour and exoticism that was head and shoulders above the other serials of the era
Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars (1938)
Serial/Space Opera
The second of the Flash Gordon serials, which relocates action to Mars following the popularity of Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds broadcast. The film has a wonderful imagination that far outshines the tattiness of usual serial production values
Flesh Gordon (1974)
Softcore Flash Gordon Parody
This offers the amusing idea of a softcore parody of the old Flash Gordon serials. A surprisingly well-made film in terms of effects but the jokes often seems belaboured amid the witless mugging
Flesh Gordon Meets the Cosmic Cheerleaders (1991)
Softcore Flash Gordon Parody
This sequel to Flesh Gordon, the R-rated parody of the Flash Gordon serials, feels like a joke that is belaboured in the retelling. The film does have a crass level of nonsensical absurdity that proves amusing
Forbidden Planet (1956)
Alien Artefacts/Monster from the Subconscious
A classic of 1950s SF that creates one of the most well remembered screen robots. An uncredited adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, there are few other films that devote so much attention to creating a sense of wonder
Galaxina (1980)
Female Android
The major distinction this has is in starring murdered Playboy Playmate Dorothy Stratten. An SF comedy made in the aftermath of Star Wars where Stratten is an android on a ship voyage romancing her human commander
Galaxy Express 999 (1979)
Anime Space Opera
Classic anime space opera adventure made not long after Star Wars and filled with moments of glorious visual poetry including the conceptually absurd image of a spacegoing train
Galaxy of Terror (1981)
Enigmatic Alien Planet
An Alien copy produced by Roger Corman that creates a constantly eerie atmosphere in between the usual slime-drooling monster attacks. With production design by a then unknown James Cameron
Gandahar (1988)
Animation/Planetary Adventure
The final film of French animator Rene Laloux, a planetary adventure set on a world where Laloux delights in creating exotically trippy aliens and landscapes. Released in English as Light Years with an Isaac Asimov script
Gor (1987)
Barbarian Planet
Cannon Films adaptation of John Norman’s series of books. The books come with heavy BDSM content but this is a planetary adventure about a professor transported to become a hero on a barbarian planet
Gorath (1962)
Rogue Planet on a Collision Course with Earth
One of the other films from Godzilla creator Ishiro Honda. This has been incorrectly identified as a Japanese giant monster film but is mostly a colourful space opera about a rogue planet
Green Lantern (2011)
Comic-Book Superhero
This received a lot of bad flak, including from star Ryan Reynolds, but I’m not one of the haters. There is the terrible CGI suit and a miscast Reynolds but it does get a good deal of the comic-book mythos right
Green Lantern: Beware My Power (2022)
Animation/DC Comics Superhero
Green Lantern is a classic comic-book character but his screen presence were damaged by the Ryan Reynolds film. This conducts a severe reset of the character’s continuity
Green Lantern: Emerald Knights (2011)
Animation/Tales of the Green Lantern Corps
Animated film that tells different stories of various members of the Green Lantern Corps (including two stories from Alan Moore). Another of the worthwhile animated DC adaptations
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Marvel Comics Adaptation/Space Opera
A triumphal Marvel Comics adaptations that manages to mainline the spirit of the original Star Wars, while in in its wryly, self-deflating culture savvy suggesting a Star Wars rewritten by a 14 year-old Quentin Tarantino
Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2 (2017)
Marvel Comics Adaptation/Space Opera
Guardians of the Galaxy was an audience winner with its eccentric humour and effortless charm; this sequel feels buried under bloated production overkill where the charms of the original remain thinly drawn
Hard to Be a God (1989)
Human Observers on a Barbarous Alien World
Adaptation of the Strugatski Brothers’ book about human observers becoming involved in the affairs of a barbarous alien society. Essentially a Star Trek Prime Directive story, the Strugatskis didn’t much like this version
Hard to Be a God (2013)
Human Observers on a Barbarous Alien World
A modern cinematic masterpiece? A plotless three-hour work that rubs our face in the squalour of the Middle Ages while feeling like people crowded into a narrow room all trying to do cryptic things at cross-purpose
Have Rocket — Will Travel (1959)
Idiots Launched Into Space Comedy
Full-length comedy from The Three Stooges where the idiots are janitors at a space centre who accidentally launch themselves into space. One of several Space Age films where popular comics where launched into space
Heavy Metal (1981)
Adult Animation Anthology
Cult animated film that adapts several stories from the adult fantasy comic-book Metal Hurlant/Heavy Metal. These vary but in its better moments that has a trippy cult hallucinatory quality
Heavy Metal 2000 (2000)
Adult Animation/Space Opera
Sequel to the animated Heavy Metal that failed to attract the same cult audience that its predecessor did. Telling only one story instead of several, it only offers a routine space opera adventure
Highlander II: The Quickening (1991)
Immortal Combat/Dark Future
Probably THE worst sequel ever made. The script’s treatment of continuity to the first film is utterly incoherent, while director Russell Mulcahy and most of the cast go at it with unrestrained OTT excess
The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy (1981)
Gonzo SF
The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was a multi-media phenomenon that has developed a cult. The tv series with a less-than-stellar BBC budget was not the most effective incarnation of these but still hits the wittily absurd nerve of Douglas Adams’ humour
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
Gonzo SF
The big-budget film version of The Hitch Hiker’s Guide phenomenon is a disaster that fumbles Douglas Adams’s absurdist wit and blows everything up with big-budget effects and a pitch to American audiences
Horror of the Blood Monsters (1970)
Space Expedition to a Prehistoric Planet
Film from Z-budget filmmaker Al Adamson. Most of this is reissued from a Filipino caveman film, along with a handful of filler scenes slung together from odds of Adamson’s other half-finished films
Howard Lovecraft and the Undersea Kingdom (2017)
Animation/Young H.P. Lovecraft’s Adventures
The second in a series of animated children’s films about the young H.P. Lovecraft and his encounters with the various denizens of the Cthulhu mythos
Howard Lovecraft and the Kingdom of Madness (2018)
Animation/Young H.P. Lovecraft's Adventures
The third of the trilogy of animated films from Arcana Studios based around the adventures of a young H.P. Lovecraft
Howard the Duck (1986)
Talking Alien Duck/Comic Book Adaptation
This adaptation of the cult Marvel comic-book from Lucasfilm should have been a classic but went tail-feathers up in a big way such that it became the term used for a film that bombs for years afterwards
Hunter Prey (2010)
Human-Alien Enemies in Pursuit Across a Desert Planet
An SF film with minimal resources – just two characters in a desert – that deliver a modest variant on the Enemy Mine scenario about an alien and human enemy stranded on a planet
The Ice Pirates (1984)
Space Opera
Space opera made in the aftermath of Star Wars, a magpie collage of influences not always the most coherently presented and given a comic emphasis
The Illustrated Man (1969)
Ray Bradbury Anthology
Anthology that adapts three stories from Ray Bradbury’s short story collection but does so with singularly heavy-handed regard. The best aspect of the film is the framing story with a brooding Rod Steiger in the title role.
Inhabited Island (2008)
Russian Science Fiction/Dystopian Planet
Russian-made adaptation of a classic Soviet-era SF novel that plays what was originally a complex social allegory as a disappointing Hollywood effects extravaganza and gets lost after mutating into a terrestrial war film of sorts
Interstellar (2014)
Space Expedition
This could be Christopher Nolan’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, which he draws from in many respects, but where Kubrick was cold and oblique, this is a 2001 with a heart. A pleasure to see a film rooted in credible science and dealing with high concept SF
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
Alien Duplication and Takeover
An excellent remake of the Cold War classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which has been retooled for the 1970s and slots perfectly into the Me Generation era with paranoia perfectly intact
John Carter (2012)
Planetary Adventure/Edgar Rice Burroughs Adaptation
While the film bombed at the box-office, it emerges as a fairly good and faithful adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ swashbuckling planetary adventure that is lavishly produced and written on an epic canvas
Josh Kirby … Time Warrior! Eggs from 70 Million B.C. (1996)
Juvenile Adventures Through Time
Fourth of the Josh Kirby juveniles and the point the series started to become quite well made
Josh Kirby … Time Warrior! Journey to the Magic Cavern (1996)
Juvenile Adventures Through Time
The fifth of the Josh Kirby juvenile adventures where the young hero sets out on a quest to find the Shroom People
Josh Kirby … Time Warrior! Trapped on Toyworld (1996)
Juvenile Adventures Through Time
The third of the Josh Kirby juvenile adventures that takes Josh and companions to a planet of living toys
Journey to the Seventh Planet (1962)
Planet of Illusions
Low-budget SF film that displays some imagination as astronauts land on a planet to find familiar things recreated from their memories
Justice League Dark: Apokolips War (2020)
Animation/Comic-Book Superheroes
Essentially the DC Comics animated version of Avengers: Endgame where they put every superhero under their roof on screen at once, including Justice League Dark, the regular Justice League, Suicide Squad and Teen Titans
Justice League vs the Fatal Five (2019)
Animation/Comic-Book Superheroes
Another of the DC Original Animated Movies that introduces the Legion of Superheroes, their nemeses The Fatal Five and an assortment of new Justice League members to widen diversity