Netflix's top science fiction films

 Netflix has an enormous collection that is still far too big for one individual to go through, even when you narrow it down by genre.

Here's where we get involved. Whether it's the greatest comedy, thrillers, horror, action, or just the greatest Netflix movies, we aim to save you time by selecting only the finest.

It's time to speak about the top science fiction films available on the platform and get spacey today. There are all-time classics, major blockbusters (two of which fall under the umbrella of "the first big space movie from a prolific filmmaking nation"), and cute tiny independent films.

Now let's get started.

Beyond Skyline and Skylines

Image: Vertical Entertainment

Skyline (2010), an epic space invasion film with the soul of a do-it-yourself special effects reel, had nothing to write home about. Therefore, you might ignore the unwanted sequel without being blamed by anyone.

and still, here we are, enthusiastically endorsing it. B-movie slugger The continuation Beyond Skyline features Frank Grillo (Captain America: The Winter Soldier) in a humorously cruel role.

which sees his son saved by his LAPD detective from kidnapping, then saved from inside the hull of a brain-extracting vessel, then saved from a battalion of slobbering aliens by his son, and finally assisted by a group of Laotian freedom fighters in saving humanity from the last wave of the invasion. Aggressive and audacious, featuring intense extraterrestrial action (whatever the antithesis of Alien's creepy, hide-the-creatures-in-the-shadows terror is, this is it), Beyond Skyline conducts mayhem akin to the greatest straight-to-DVD schlockfests, gives Grillo the conductor's baton, and gives The Raid's Iko Uwais just enough alien-slaying solos to make it count as a romp. Skylines, the sequel, elevates the series to new heights with an engrossing plot about superpowers. —Matt Patches

Circle

Image: FilmBuff

Suddenly, fifty individuals find themselves in the most literal game of Survivor ever, with no idea how they got stuck in a circular death grid. The participants, who ranged widely in age, race, and occupation, voted psychically every two minutes to choose who would be the next target of an energy-blasting alien ball. Every two minutes, the remaining men and women set aside their disagreements to try to work out a plan of escape, make friends with other inmates, discuss their personal histories, and try to make sense of the situation in order to determine who is deserving of survival. Similar to an oblique sociology 101 experiment, the low-budget, incredibly successful Circle uses horrifying methods to examine the morals of a contemporary society. How would you respond? —MP

JUNG_E

Image: Well Go USA

Relentlessly one of the most intriguing science fiction directors at work today, Yeon Sang-ho explores a variety of subgenres, including superhero (Psychokinesis) and apocalyptic (Train to Busan, Hellbound). With a dash of the more contemporary "humans as data products," his most recent film, JUNG_E, pays homage to even more traditional science fiction touchstones: artificial intelligence, cloning, robotics, and the monetization of people and bodies.

In JUNG_E, the effects of climate change have forced the majority of humanity to evacuate into space. These space colonies gave rise to two factions, who have been at war for decades. To JUNG_E's advantage, Yeon chooses to concentrate on a much smaller story instead of a large-scale war film: that of a lone scientist entrusted with cloning the ideal soldier from her mother's unconscious body. The late Kang Soo-yeon, who passed away before the film's premiere, gives a moving performance in which she is forced to speak with multiple incarnations of her mother before permanently cutting them off.

JUNG_E is really good science fiction action, if not quite as consistently exciting as some of his earlier works. The film is a marvel of creation, with magnificent animals enhanced by amazing sound effects that give the mechanical creatures life, such as gear shifts and buzzing machinery. This is made possible in large part by Yeon's animation experience, which undoubtedly helps him arrange and incorporate CG figures into the other environments of JUNG_E. Plus, it has some awesome combat scenes at each end, which is always a plus. —PV

JUNG_E is available to watch on Netflix.

The Mobile Suit Gundam trilogy

Image: Sunrise

The Mobile Suit Gundam trilogy tells the tale of Amuro Ray, a young child living on a space colony in the future who unintentionally becomes the pilot of a prototype "Mobile Suit" known as the Gundam. It is one of the first cases of an anime television series being reedited into a feature-length film.

As he and his neighbors escape their home on the White Base spacecraft, Amuro is compelled to confront the Principality of Zeon in an attempt to put a stop to the conflict. In addition to serving as a fantastic introduction to one of the most influential mecha series ever, Mobile Suit Gundam I, Mobile Suit Gundam II: Soldiers of Sorrow, and Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters in Space are also significant works in the history of anime, having taken a failing franchise and turned it into a beloved phenomenon in Japan. —TE

Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway

Image: Sunrise

Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway is the first in a trilogy of films directed by Shuko Murase (Witch Hunter Robin, Blade Runner: Black Out 2022) that tells the story of Hathaway Noa, the errant son of Federation Captain Bright Noa from the first Mobile Suit Gundam series. The film is set 12 years after the events of Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack. Noa pilots the experimental RX-105 Gundam into the most recent conflict that may determine the fate of humanity while covertly waging a guerilla struggle against the Earth Federation's scheme to privatize the planet. Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway is an exciting science fiction film that will keep you riveted to your screen from beginning to end. It features elaborate, conventionally animated mecha designs, gorgeous character designs, and a suspenseful, tightly wrapped plot. —TE

The Platform

Image: Netflix

To be honest, it's startling that Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia's debut feature is the horrific film The Platform. It's extremely strange in a manner that suggests a director with the cachet to get any "one for me" movie below a certain price point funded, and it's polished and confident in a way that suggests a lifetime of filmmaking. In a chilling near-future, inmates are housed in a complex made up of plain concrete chambers connected by an exposed vertical shaft. A lavish feast is sent down the shaft on a floating platform once a day, but the inmates in the highest cells consume everything they can, leaving a soiled mess (or nothing at all) for the inmates below. It's a straightforward, stark metaphor for wealth disparity, but Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia twists it with harsh regulations and witty asides. The prisoners begin debating how to deal with the system, and they all make their own decisions. A brilliant and bloody metaphor film, this is one of the oddest and finest Netflix films. It is darkly comedic at moments, depressingly dismal at others, and continuously shocking as the reality behind the bizarre facility slowly comes to light. —TR

Psychokinesis

Image: Next Entertainment World

Psychokinesis is a live-action film directed by Yeon Sang-ho, a Korean animator best known for his transition from cartoons to live action. It centers on Shin, a bumbling, borderline-alcoholic security guard who drinks from a mountain spring that has recently been infected by a meteorite and gains telekinetic powers. As the oaf who is regaining control of his abilities while his estranged daughter reappears in his life and drags him into a class conflict motivated by real estate, Ryu Seung-ryong is a delight to watch. While Psychokinesis isn't as cartoonish as Hong Kong filmmaker Stephen Chow's genre-bending films, it nevertheless manages to make the flying item mayhem both cheeky and exciting. Psychokinesis plays Shin's "fighting style" for laughs. Yeon never loses sight of the reason everyone came: to push the psychic conceit to ever-higher heights. The political edge lends weight to Shin's superhuman decisions. —MP

Space Sweepers

Image: Netflix

Everything is in Space Sweepers: scathing criticisms of capitalism! A diverse group of space criminals coming together for a shared goal! Transgender themes conveyed via a cute robot! AWESOME battle scenes! It whips and is often regarded as the first Korean space blockbuster. —PV

Tau

Photo: Sanja Bucko/Netflix

Tau, a film about a girl and her AI buddy that falls somewhere between a horror escape room and a found-family drama, has two really talented actors: Ed Skrein, who plays a sleazy tech-bro genius, and Maika Monroe from The Guest, who is the tech-bro genius's captive. An added benefit is Gary Oldman's portrayal of the AI that Monroe's character must befriend in order to survive. The epitome of a little, solitary science fiction film is Tau: After capturing Julia (Monroe) for scientific research, Alex (Skrein) confines her to his high-tech home, which is controlled by an artificial intelligence named Tau. Only a few basic sets are used throughout the entire film: The main plot points revolve around Alex and Julia's intellectual duel as well as Julia's attempts to get Tau to see her humanity and assist her in getting away. It's micro-budget sci-fi that's taut, tight, and effective, with a few standout visual effects to add flavor. —TR

The Wandering Earth

Image: China Film Group

2019's The Wandering Earth, billed as China's first sci-fi movie and constructed on a scale intended to completely justify that designation, gives its characters an issue straight out of Snowpiercer: the Earth is freezing and everyone is going to perish. Then it offers them a solution right out of a science fiction movie from the 1950s: humanity chooses to mount a massive number of rockets on Earth and use them to travel outside our solar system and toward an other sun. Sadly, that's where Jupiter's gravitational well is located. Armageddon immediately comes to mind when one thinks of the comparable American sci-fi films that The Wandering Earth strongly resembles. Both include laugh-out-loud science and a large ensemble of barely defined characters who are all acting out personal crises atop the global calamity that unites them all. However, the entire spectacle is a lot of fun, the action is thrilling, and the daring of it all is superb. The Wandering Earth, which is based on a short novel by author Liu Cixin of Three-Body Problem, has just enough family drama to make the plot contemporary and approachable, but what really draws viewers in is the size and sweep of the picture, as well as all the shocking visuals that a blockbuster budget can provide. —TR