10 Sci-Fi Movies That Are Better Than ‘Project Hail Mary’

2026 is still young, at the time of writing, so whether Project Hail Mary ends up standing as the year’s best sci-fi movie… it’s possible. It’s the one to beat for now, maybe that much can be said comfortably. But if you’re looking back in time, as in the years preceding 2026, then there are a fair few works of science fiction that do beat it in quality, which might well go without saying.

Too bad. It’s being said here anyway. These films all belong to the science fiction genre, and they’re either classics that are hard to beat, or more modern releases that might well age even better than Project Hail Mary. And hey, Project Hail Mary is still very good. This whole thing is just a fairly silly excuse to talk about some other sci-fi movies, all of them arguably even better than 2026’s most noteworthy science fiction film (so far).

10

‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ (2018)

It feels sensible to start with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, since it was co-produced by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, while the former was credited with co-writing it, and the duo did direct Project Hail Mary. It’s a very different sort of sci-fi movie, though, and a superhero one, too, exploring the idea of the multiverse in a way that does ultimately make it feel more science fiction-heavy than most superhero movies.

There’s a lot more tackled here genre-wise, and then it somehow also works as a surprisingly great (and never tedious) origin story, and telling an origin story interestingly in a landscape saturated with superhero movies is something worth celebrating. Further, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is easily up there with the best animated movies released in recent memory, and it’s got one pretty great sequel (Across the Spider-Verse) so far, too.

9

‘Godzilla Minus One’ (2023)

There’s an argument to be made that Godzilla Minus One is the best of all the Godzilla movies, being one of many films in a legendary sci-fi series (plus other genres; it depends on the movie), even if it’s the rare Godzilla movie that goes back in time, taking place immediately after World War II. There was also 1991’s Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, which partly took place in the past owing to the plot there involving time travel, but that’s a whole other thing. The Godzilla series is pretty wild.

Godzilla Minus One, though, doesn’t get too silly or crazy with what it wants to explore and unpack, by any means, making it a very approachable film if you’re not particularly up-to-date with the whole kaiju sub-genre. Maybe Godzilla (1954) is the more logical starting point if you’re brand new to Godzilla, but if the age of that one is a turn-off for any reason, then Godzilla Minus One also makes a ton of sense as a way to test the waters (and what waters they are, once you’re in deep and drowning in Godzilla).

8

‘Children of Men’ (2006)

Dealing with global infertility in a bleak future where the future of the human race is at stake, Children of Men is an understandably heavy watch, maybe even heavier now, in 2026, versus how it felt to watch in 2006, since the film takes place in 2027 (oh no). It’s not like the specific and central problem here is also a literal problem in the 2020s, but the general state of the world depicted in Children of Men, and some of the chaos and turmoil? That side of things hits close to home, truth be told.

So, maybe it’s a relief to know that Children of Men is also… well, not entertaining. It’s too intense to be entertaining, and its intensity does make it gripping and never boring, for what that’s worth. It’s all very relentless, gritty, and unapologetically visceral, perhaps even being one of the most suspenseful and anxious movies ever made, science fiction or otherwise.

7

‘Threads’ (1984)

Threads is all about what would happen to the world if a nuclear war broke out, to break it down in the simplest terms possible. It remains science fiction because it’s speculative, but it’s the sort of thing that would cease to feel like sci-fi if the thing it’s about ever did happen. Not many people would mind, though. There would surely be more pressing concerns than reclassifying the genre of a TV movie from the 1980s.

Threads is simultaneously one of the best and most miserable movies ever made.

So, it’s sci-fi for now, and it’s also a war movie forever, even if the conflict intentionally lasts for such a short time. Threads spends a bit of time on the prelude to war, then most of the planet’s destroyed, and those left are forced to survive in continually worsening circumstances. It’s simultaneously one of the best and most miserable movies ever made, and is apparently being reworked into something potentially even more intense, so everyone has that to look forward to!

6

‘Metropolis’ (1927)

If you like sci-fi movies, you should probably be thankful for Metropolis, as even if it didn’t invent the genre out of thin air or anything, it did redefine what was possible to do, in a movie, specifically relating to the sci-fi genre. Metropolis was perhaps the first great dystopian movie, too, being about a city very directly divided between the rich and the poor, the former thriving because of the latter, all the while living literally above them.

There’s an unpacking of class conflict and revolution here that still feels relevant, somehow, nearly 100 years later, and the filmmaking on offer here is also still impressive, if you’re purely talking about its technical qualities. Metropolis might well hold up the best of any silent movie, or at least of the non-comedic silent movies, and there really aren’t enough praise-worthy things that can be said about both it and its overall influence.

5

‘Until the End of the World’ (1991)

So, Until the End of the World sort of lives up to its title, because everyone’s grappling with the idea that the world might be ending, all in a panicky way that foreshadowed the whole Y2K thing very well, with the movie even taking place right at the turn of the millennium. Also, what it eventually has to say about technology and how people use it feels oddly prophetic, in terms of how people have found it easier to lose themselves in devices more and more as the years have gone on.

Before all that, though, Until the End of the World has quite a bit of fun as a not-quite-post-apocalyptic movie that’s maybe pre-apocalyptic, or possibly pre-apocalyptic. It’s fun because it’s also a road trip movie done on an epic/international scale, and it’s further helped by the fact that it has one of the most impressive soundtracks ever compiled in cinema history.

4

‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ (1968)

It feels a bit silly to include 2001: A Space Odyssey here, because of course it’s better than Project Hail Mary, and could well be better than just about any sci-fi movie released in the 21^st century so far. Maybe that’s funny, considering the film’s title, but it’s really held up in the years since it was actually released (1968), so if anything else released more recently is still breathtaking five or more decades from now, then perhaps it can engage in a fair fight of sorts with 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Famously, what you have here is a sci-fi epic that’s about almost everything, unpacking so much by way of the evolutionary history – and possible future – of humanity. And 2001: A Space Odyssey also has one of the best villains of all time, even though it only shows up in one of several sections of the overall film, and it’s just a menacing red dot, basically. Plus lots of other stuff. It did everything everywhere all at once before it was cool.

3

‘On the Silver Globe’ (1988)

It would be a stretch to call On the Silver Globe perfect, given it’s intentionally very messy and was also infamously unfinished, meaning it couldn’t technically be all it wanted to be, but what remains is impressive and maybe even near-perfect in terms of quality. The premise will probably make it sound a bit ordinary, since it’s about traveling off Earth and finding a new planet to start a civilization on.

Well, it’s a bit beyond that when things get interesting, because it’s less about finding the planet (that happens early) and more about what happens to that civilization over many generations, so it’s ambitious in terms of the timespan covered in a way that’s reminiscent of aforementioned films like Threads and 2001: A Space Odyssey. The whole thing is also very surreal and even oddly anxiety-inducing at times, with it also being impressive just how beautiful and ugly the film is, simultaneously.

2

‘Star Wars’ (1977)

Another obvious pick, even if it’s a space opera and thereby kind of a fantasy movie with a space setting, here’s Star Wars, as in the first one (throw “A New Hope” onto the end of the title, if you feel so inclined). You surely know the story by now, because it’s about a young man going on a quest to rescue a princess, in turn getting wrapped up in a massive conflict that escalates further following the end of this first movie.

Yes, it’s got sequels, and at least one of them might be even better and more emotionally powerful, but Star Wars (1977) nabs the spot here for being the first of the bunch, and for paving the way for that excellent sequel and then all the other follow-ups that are a bit more divisive. Few people agree about anything Star Wars-related beyond the first two movies; that you’ll learn after being on the internet for about five minutes, maybe six, tops. But those first two movies, you know? Wow.

1

‘Blade Runner’ (1982)

Blade Runner is another untouchable movie and about as obvious a pick as they get, not to mention also being a science fiction movie that proves particularly rewarding if you’re willing to rewatch it. At its most basic, it’s about a pretty dreary human being (seemingly) being tasked with taking down a bunch of replicants that have all gone rogue and are running around in human society, not that there’s much society left to run around in.

The replicants all have a finite lifespan anyway, and they seem more human than the guy tasked with killing them, which could seem like poor writing at first, with a flat protagonist, but that’s all the point, and it feels more like the point after you sit with Blade Runner for a while. There’s a lot more to unpack beyond that, and, truth be told, you can also enjoy this one for its aesthetics alone (it looks and sounds incredible throughout).