10 Most Perfect Sci-Fi Movies Since 2010, Ranked

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Published Feb 12, 2026, 3:49 PM EST

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Science fiction, as a genre, has been in a pretty good place since the turn of the 21st century. Maybe that’s appropriate, given that the year 2000 always used to sound futuristic, and then one of the most iconic sci-fi movies of the 20th century was called 2001: A Space Odyssey, so it was fate. Or not. It could just be that technology’s gotten really good, and so there’s basically no limit anymore to what filmmakers can depict on screen while tackling the sci-fi genre.

But to go forward a bit from 2000 or 2001, here’s a selection of science fiction movies made since 2010 that are either perfect, or pretty damn close to it. There are only a couple of slightly eyebrow-raising movies here, and even then, maybe only eyebrow-raising for some people. Mostly, it’s a bunch of heavy-hitters and popular movies you might well be sick of hearing praise for, at this point, but, like, too bad.

10 'Arrival' (2016)

Probably the best sci-fi movie of its year, Arrival is about trying to communicate with aliens who've come to Earth, seemingly in peace, or at least not with the kind of intensity you might expect from a movie about aliens making contact. It’s not an invasion sort of movie, nor an action one, and it has a dramatic/emotional core that proves just as important – and worthy of screen time – as the sci-fi stuff.

It’s patiently paced, but still approachable, so long as you don’t mind things unfolding a little slower than most large-scale science fiction movies. That approachability shines through, though, because of how moving Arrival is. Like, you can disconnect from the more technical and science fiction things here if the genre’s not really your thing, and yet still find yourself moved by the stuff here you're supposed to feel, more so than think about.

9 'Ex Machina' (2015)

Domhnall Gleeson as Caleb Smith talks through a glass wall in A24's 'Ex Machina'

Ex Machina does a lot with a little, because there are only a handful of characters and a pretty restricted setting for the bulk of its runtime. It’s a movie that explores advanced artificial intelligence, a bit like another movie made a couple of years earlier that’s going to be mentioned in a few lines from now, but done in a (some may say appropriately) cynical manner.

Like, Ex Machina is dark and doesn’t have very many optimistic things to say about such technology and humanity more broadly, but at least it keeps things compelling and entertaining while getting dark and pessimistic. Things are balanced well here, for the most part, and it’s the kind of film that succeeds in sticking with you for a good while once it’s over.

8 'Her' (2013)

Joaquin Phoenix looking sad and contemplative in front of a computer screen in Her (2013)

An interesting movie to watch now, compared to how you might've viewed it in the mid-2010s, Her is indeed that movie about a man falling in love with his operating system. The re-evaluations basically write themselves, now that AI is a thing that is everywhere, but not in this article, because could an AI write this, something that’s never been said or done before: ooga-wooga-bleh-bleh-booo-Garden State is kind of cringe-booo-waaaah-nyeeeh. The defense rests, your Honor.

No, but Her does make an outlandish-sounding premise work much better than you might expect, or fear, and it’s certainly one of the more mature and emotional sci-fi movies made in recent memory. Aesthetically, Her also impresses, and it features one of Joaquin Phoenix’s very best performances to date. Oh, and an amazing voice-only performance as well, courtesy of Scarlett Johansson.

7 'Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes' (2020)

Fitting for a low-budget movie, Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes is about a rather small-scale kind of time travel, or maybe it’s more accurate to say it bends and/or plays around with time. Basically, it’s set inside a café, and it involves the owner of said café discovering a monitor that shows things that'll happen two minutes into the future. From there, things get strange.

It’s a fun movie to try and keep up with, because every new scene adds some extra element or complication to the whole thing, and it never stops snowballing until it eventually has to wrap up. The way Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes is shot also adds to this, because it’s made to look like it was filmed in one take and, even when playing around with time, occurs in “real time,” so having it be linear in that way but also mind-bending and time-warping in other ways makes for a really interesting contrast.

6 'Gravity' (2013)

Sandra-Bullock in an astronaut suit in Gravity

Calling Gravity perfect feels like maybe the most controversial take in this ranking, because while it got remarkable reviews from critics, viewers tended to be a little harsher on it. Maybe you're such a viewer, and maybe you scoffed about seven or eight seconds ago when you saw the word Gravity followed by “(2013).” It is a thunderously simple movie, and if some find it a bit cheesy at times, that’s also understandable.

Gravity is a small-scale disaster movie in the sense that there aren’t many characters at all, and the runtime’s slim, but then it feels huge with its visuals and the ambition as far as the special effects are concerned.

But Gravity does exactly what it sets out to do, and it’s too phenomenal on a technical front to ignore. It’s a small-scale disaster movie set in space, or small in the sense that there aren’t many characters at all, and the runtime’s slim, but then it feels huge with its visuals and the ambition as far as the special effects are concerned. For now, it’s hard to imagine someone making a stripped-down and no-nonsense “we’ve got to survive in space and get back to Earth” movie that’s better than this.

5 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' (2022)

Rock from Everything Everywhere All at Once

And then on the other end of things to Gravity is Everything Everywhere All at Once, which is maximalist in every way and is indeed trying to be a bit of everything, all in one movie. It begins as a family dramedy about various mundane things, including paying taxes, and then it explodes into a sci-fi epic about saving the multiverse by tapping into different versions of yourself.

Which is simplifying things a bit, but then Everything Everywhere All at Once, admittedly, doesn’t lose sight of the core story, or where it began, and it circles back to being moving and relatable… eventually. The journey is great, and so too is the destination, so this movie is pretty much the best of both worlds. Or the best of all the worlds. All 360,056,708,676,767,809,450 of them.

4 'Interstellar' (2014)

Image via Paramount Pictures

Interstellar is a massively ambitious movie, and it mostly pulls off everything it’s going for (which really is a lot; that can’t be overstated). Narratively, it’s about Earth dying, and the need for humanity to find a different planet to potentially live on, which involves traveling far out into space and then having to deal with repercussions, since time is experienced differently by some as a result of the travel, so different characters end up aging at different rates.

That makes Interstellar a little more intimate, and like a drama at times, so it’s about the future of humanity, but also about a family struggling through undeniably difficult times. It’s Christopher Nolan at his most sentimental, but he makes it work, and then on a technical front, it’s hard to find anything to complain about with Interstellar (it all looks, sounds, and feels phenomenal).

3 'Dune: Part Two' (2024)

Timothée Chalamet had a fairly small role in Interstellar, and then a decade later, got to be front and center for Dune: Part Two, which is another immense sci-fi epic. Granted, Chalamet did have the lead role in Dune (2021) as well, but his character was a little more passive in that film, and it’s Dune: Part Two that gives Paul Atreides more interesting stuff to do and things to grapple with. In turn, Chalamet gets more opportunities to shine as an actor, and he does indeed rise to the occasion.

Outside of Chalamet’s performance, Dune: Part Two also exceeds the quality of the first movie in most other regards. It gets to take its time with the second half of the Frank Herbert novel, Dune, so seeing that part of the story not rushed through (like 1984’s Dune had to do) is great. It’s one of the best blockbusters of the last few years, and the kind of large-scale sci-fi movie that’s surprisingly hard to find faults with.

2 'Mad Max: Fury Road' (2015)

You could call it more of an action movie if you wanted, rather than a sci-fi one, but Mad Max: Fury Road is ultimately a bit of both, thanks to its post-apocalyptic setting. It’s the fourth Mad Max movie, but it’s pretty disconnected from the other three, and trying to reboot or continue whatever happened in those movies isn't really the point (Furiosa, on the other hand, is very much tied to Mad Max: Fury Road).

You don’t have a ton of narrative stuff going on here, but you don’t need it. Mad Max: Fury Road is more about feeling as fast as possible as often as possible, and it’s a remarkable ride of a film. Not that something that came out in 2015 is old, or at risk of aging, but everything here has held up well in that time, and will likely (or hopefully) continue to do so, as more decades tick on by.

1 'Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse' (2018)

Into the Spider-Verse - Miles and Peter sit and think in their Spidey costumes

Believe it or not, the best movie of 2018 might well have been an animated superhero movie. It’s not something many people would've assumed would happen pre-2018, but stranger things have technically happened, though not many. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is just that good, and breathed life into a series/character that had already been very well-represented (some may even say too well-represented) throughout the 21st century up until that point.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse tackled the multiverse, though, and was a novel take on an origin story, not to mention it was an origin story for Miles Morales, instead of Peter Parker (who’s still in the movie, or, like, versions of him are in the movie, because of the multiverse and stuff). It’s a relentlessly paced movie that’s funny, visually striking, moving, and always creative, so yeah, why not call it the best sci-fi movie of the past decade and a half?

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