Today marks the birthday of French illusionist and film director George Méliès. This year marks the 115th anniversary of not only the earliest example of a science fiction film, but one of the most influential films in cinema history, Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon). The 1902 surrealist silent film was inspired by a number of stories, most notably the Jules Verne novels From the Earth to the Moon and Around the Moon, and follows a group of astronomers who travel to Earth’s moon and must escape from its underground inhabitants.
LE VOYAGE DANS LA LUNE (1902) by Georges Méliès
In honor of this film’s 115th birthday, we’re listing the top 15 films featuring space travel and exploration.
15. Event Horizon (1997) – Paul W.S. Anderson
Accidental wormhole openings rarely results in happiness for all. While critics have nearly universally slammed the film, its most resonating impact is the empathy for its characters who give the very real reaction of flight versus fight. The moment things go wrong in space is the very moment you wish to be home waking from a nightmare. While this film may be derivative of others further down this list, it’s possible that were it not plagued by its production and post-production disasters, there would be a very different film that would be even more revered 20 years after its release.
14. Dark Star (1974) – John Carpenter
A comedy dubbed “The Spaced Out Odyssey” that was developed from a student film from John Carpenter and the future scribe of Alien Dan O’Bannon. This is a hidden gem from a director with a cult following who’d spend the next decade mastering his craft with Assault on Precinct 13, Halloween, Escape from New York, The Thing, and Christine, before a slight return to the genre with Starman.
13. Stargate (1994) – Roland Emmerich
It may be a bit of cheat to skip the journey to distant galaxies by using a portal, but there’s much to discover upon arrival so go ahead and leave that clunky spaceship behind. Use your teleport, warp speed, or Egyptian device that transports you to a far away land recalling Egypt putting face to face with the God of the Sun. The fun here is primarily due to our leap forward using alien technology and allowing us the possible answers that we would otherwise be millions of years away from discovering.
12. Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) – Robert Wise
Thanks to the success of syndicating the canceled series, Star Trek was successfully resurrected and forever launched the debate of Star Wars vs. Star Trek. (The answer is Star Trek.) While the mission of the Star Trek crews are to explore space, they understandably don’t feature heavily on film. This first of the Star Trek films comes close, though, having to investigate a destructive energy cloud and coming into a contact with a deep space probe.
11. Contact (1997) – Robert Zemeckis
Yes, this film is set on Earth for the most part, but it’s the closest method through which we are currently exploring our solar system. Radios, satellites and energy-measuring recording devices are telling us more than we could ever learn if we dumped funding into spacesuits and hibernation chambers. Our most likely contact with any other superior intelligent life will be the interception of our own radio broadcasts, making Contact our most achievable reality on this list.
10. Europa Report (2013) – Sebastián Cordero
A definite slow-burn of a science fiction film that uses found footage to recount the (fictional) story of the first crewed mission to Europa, of the four Galilean moons of Jupiter. An incredibly realistic depiction of space exploration that earned a nomination for a Bradbury Award.
9. Prometheus (2012) – Ridley Scott
For those familiar with Greek mythology, the name Prometheus (who defied the god by gifting fire to man and then subjected to eternal punishment) should’ve raised a few warning flags that this his installment of the Alien franchise would mean disaster for its crew. However, rather than the demise of a crew that the titular antagonist of the film’s earlier installments featured, Prometheus‘ focus is on the search of the origins of humanity. In doing so, we are introduced to some dazzling visual effects magic that, upon deeper review, reveal a lot about the film’s intent. After this year’s Alien: Covenant, which further connects the Alien storyline as both a Prometheus sequel and also an Alien prequel, we can expect two more sequels which Scott has warned will go in a different direction.
8. The Martian (2015) – Ridley Scott
Best Comedy at the 2016 Golden Globes finally makes the list! Andy Weir wrote the book to be as scientifically accurate as possible, which was a result of extensive research into orbital mechanics, manned spaceflight and botany. Closely following the methodical engineering and testing done by an astronaut/botanist would require a charmer to carry the film and delicately balance the biting sarcasm with the seemingly hopeless efforts to salvage some of NASA’s research – that’s when you call in the self-deprecating Matt Damon for the film’s adaptation. While it fails to reach the level of sci-fi greatness for which Scott is known, it remains as fun and exciting as rescue mission could be, regardless of the location and extraction process involved.
7. Interstellar (2014) – Christopher Nolan
While not necessarily a better move than many listed above, Interstellar fits the bill for space films with its beautiful imagery, exciting applications of physics to strong gravity fields and interstellar travel. No other film in recent memory has featured the sheer and majestic vastness of deep space and, if that weren’t enough, even includes one of the most plausible depictions of wormholes and the bending oceans of time and space.
6. 2010 (1984) – Peter Hyams
Set nine years after the mysterious failure of the Discovery One mission to Jupiter in 2001: A Space Odyssey, this sequel starring a very recognizable cast of Roy Scheider, John Lithgow, Helen Mirren and Bob Balaban, never achieved even near the praise of its predecessor. While earning mixed-positive reviews, this film has never gained enough notoriety by failing to match up to its predecessor, whose poetry and mystery set the bar so incredibly high as one of the greatest films ever made. If freeing the comparisons of the Kubrick masterpiece, 2010 offers much-needed answers to many of the strange things in 2001, while also continuing the story with HAL along for the ride.
5. Forbidden Planet (1956) – Fred M. Wilcox
A bit outdated today, but earns bonus points for its parallels to Shakespeare’s The Tempest and its groundbreaking featuring of lightspeed space travel and distant planets, predating Star Trek. One of the most ambitious and smartest films of its time but whose pace may need a intergalactic war film or the next film on our list to satiate your need of rapid fire and explosions.
4. Alien (1979) – Ridley Scott
If anyone has made a case for staying put on your own planet where anyone can hear you scream, it’s Ridley Scott, who has now appeared for a third mention on this list. Consistently hailed as one of the greatest films of all-time, Alien has been deemed as “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” by the Library of Congress with its selection for preservation in the US National Film Registry in 2002. It’s sheer chest-bursting fun in space.
3. Apollo 13 (1995) – Ron Howard
Regarded as one of the most accurate science/space films ever, Apollo 13 is a must-have for this list just to reiterate that fact. It also happens to be a great film about one of the most dramatic and terrifying spaceflight stories ever told.
2. Solaris (1972) – Andrei Tarkovsky
A pscyhologist is sent to a distant planet’s obriting satellite station to uncover what had caused its crew to go insane. Tarkovsky grew to view his film to be a personal artistic failuretic failure due to the lack of technological dialogue and special effects needed to tell the story. While the 2002 Soderbergh remake has been largely forgotten, this 1972 landmark of Russian cinema was nominated for the Palme d’Or at Cannes and is still regarded as a masterpiece that raises haunting questions about humanity and its existence.
1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) – Stanley Kubrick
Was there any possible alternative for #1? Initially not well-received, 2001 has become the gold standard against which all space movies – and really most films – are judged. Reviews for Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life frequently made comparisons to the science fiction classic. But Kubrick’s film was not as well-received upon its release, as were most of films. Famed film critic Pauline Kael found mostly failure in the “monumentally unimaginative movie,” whereas filmmakers like Steven Spielberg admitted to not understanding any part of the film after his first viewing, but acknowledged that there was something great and, as Roger Ebert claimed, “inspiring our awe.”
Films were limited to only those that dealt with travel or exploration, so would rule out Star Wars or Galaxy Quest and other films that deserve to always be on Best Of lists. To be fair, there’s a lot of gray area here and many films could’ve (should’ve) received a more recent viewing to better argue their ranking, but there will no doubt be endless revisions as this genre keeps pushing forward.