In some ways it is not that difficult to create a list of the greatest Science Fiction movies of all time as it might be to create a list of the greatest detective movies or westerns primarily because Hollywood has made few good Science Fiction films, let alone great movies. Even today relatively few Science Fiction movies get made and the majority that do are often misclassified comic book themed movies or disaster movies or ghost stories with a technological twist, ala Pulse. Few true Science Fiction movies are made and those that are worthwhile are truly worthwhile.

Metropolis

One of the great classics, Metropolis ushered in the modern world with its vision of oppressed masses, mechanical women and a society built on the shaky pedestal of human misery. As revolutionary socially as it was technologically, Metropolis remains one of the great classics of cinema and Science Fiction.

Dark City

Dark City is in many ways an excellent bookend for Metropolis, like Metropolis it is a movie that focuses on the artifice created by those who wish to counterfeit human identity and like Metropolis its focus remains on what is authentic within the soul. Boasting a much greater sophistication level, Dark City is a dystopian nightmare, a Kafkaesque vision and a philosophical puzzle all wrapped in one. And it is ultimately the tale of a man who redeems humanity from the mechanical constraints of an artificial culture by unleashing the power within his soul.

12 Monkeys

The brilliant product of director Terry Gilliam, 12 Monkeys is at once a post-apocalyptic journey, a study of what we as humans do to survive and on what terms we are prepared to characterize that survival. Besides Terry Gilliam's usual visual mastery, 12 Monkeys boasts one of the best performances by Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt in a movie and that is saying something not because these men are great actors but because they are decidedly not. The story of a man falling backward in time and fighting to prevent armageddon carries a terrible resonance today.

Brazil

Also the product of Terry Gilliam, Brazil is a mind bending journey into a future world of strange machinery, odd humanity and a system that is systemized in such a way as to shut out human initiative and individual striving by a society teetering on madness. And yet it's also very darkly funny too. 1984 reimagined as a surreal comedy as it might have been scripted by Franz Kafka, Brazil is a strange journey into the systems we create and which then recreate us.

The Truman Show

Unerringly timely, The Truman Show took us into the heart of what happens when human experience itself becomes entertainment and our lives become nothing more than fodder for someone else's sigh and laugh track. That is the life experienced by Truman Burbank, a boy raised to become the corporate property of a vast entertainment conglomerate which secretly records and manipulates his life in order to entertain the masses. Before Reality TV had truly washed over us, The Truman Show was there to warn us.

E.T.

Despite all the time that has passed, the innate cheesiness of the original material and the general malaise of Steven Spielberg's current film career which has led to a certain measure of contempt developing for his past achievements, there is no real way to upstage the sincerity of the child's eye view of the world that Spielberg was able to channel at his best like no one else. It is that child's eye vision of the strange and the wonderful that underlies the magic of E.T. which no parody can truly dent.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Directed by a man with little to no feel for Star Trek, Star Trek Wrath of Khan nevertheless emerged as a fantastic film that trafficked equally in the destruction and the creation of worlds and the price we pay for the grudges we keep in our hearts. It is a movie about the renewal of the soul of one man, James T. Kirk and the final destruction of the soul of another, Khan Noonien Singh.

Galaxy Quest

No mention of a Star Trek film could be complete without also mentioning Galaxy Quest. The fandom Yin to the Yang of the series, Galaxy Quest celebrates the mad fan love for stories about people in spaceships fighting aliens and saving the day with the love and affection only a fan can truly bring to the table.

Flash Gordon

Not a movie that should ordinarily belong on this list yet Flash Gordon gets it right where Star Wars got it wrong. Star Wars may have become the big success but it's Flash Gordon that is the truly entertaining movie precisely because it knows better than to take the same scifi serials Star Wars was derived from seriously. Flash Gordon does not need to hide its lasers and outrageous costumes and scenery chewing behind pretentious claims about mythology. It embraces what hack SciFi was all about and makes it zoom all the way to the moons of zenra.

Terminator 2

Not truly a great movie but one that also cannot be ignored. James Cameron is the only truly epic director still working and when he steps up to the plate, he casually brushes aside the lesser pretenders like Michael Bay to genuinely put on a grand spectacle. Considered an excessive waste of money at a time when the budgets of today were inconceivable, Terminator 2 is at once a lesson in the use of special effects and a great adventure in luddite Science Fictionby the best action director working today.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Sometimes paranoia is justified and sometimes the fear in the dark of becoming anonymous in a world of clones is real. For those moments there is Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Forget any attempted remake. The original 1956 film is the only one worth seeing right down to its shock ending.