Sci-fi

A commercial crew answers a distress call and finds something that does not want to be rescued. Ridley Scott's 1979 film is still the cold standard for science fiction that wants to scare you.

Young miners on a forgotten station crack open a lab they should have left shut. The 2024 chapter is mean, practical, and very much an Alien movie.

Ripley goes back, this time with Marines who think guns will be enough. James Cameron turns the nightmare into a war film, and both halves still work.

A thief gets a suit that shrinks him, and the heist gets very small. Paul Rudd, light on its feet, on Disney+.

Jennifer Lopez has to trust an AI she hates in order to stop the one she built. A 2024 Netflix science-fiction action film, big and straightforward.

The remaining Avengers try to undo the snap. It is long, it is a reunion, and it is on Disney+.

A kid, a soft robot, and a city that looks like San Francisco married Tokyo. A superhero movie that is really about grief. On Disney+.

T'Challa comes home to Wakanda and has to decide what a hidden nation owes the world. On Disney+. The action is great. The argument is better.

A replicant cop finds a secret that could break the wall between people and machines. Denis Villeneuve, Ryan Gosling, long and beautiful. On Prime and Paramount+.

A weekend with friends gets ugly when one of them is not what she seems. Sharp, nasty, and newly on Hulu and Max.

A duke's son is dropped onto a desert planet that everybody wants for the spice. Denis Villeneuve's first half, on Max. Huge, quiet, and sandy.

Paul walks into the desert and comes back as something people will follow. The 2024 film is the war the first one promised. On Max.

Tom Cruise dies, wakes up, and has to fight the same invasion until he gets it right. Emily Blunt is the reason it works. On Paramount+.

A kid who feels misplaced on Earth gets taken by aliens who think he is the one in charge. The 2025 Pixar film, on Disney+.

A programmer is invited to test whether a robot can pass for a person, and the test is the trap. Alicia Vikander, Domhnall Gleeson, on Tubi.

Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein, on Netflix, treats the creature as a person the world refuses to look at. Long, sad, and made of weather.

A background character in a video game notices the game and decides to be the hero. Ryan Reynolds, on Disney+.

The 2016 reboot, with Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy answering a call the city does not believe. On Hulu.

A family inherits a farm, a ghost trap, and a grandfather's unfinished business. The 2021 one, on Hulu, aimed at people who grew up with the original.

Postwar Tokyo, a pilot who already survived one disaster, and Godzilla treated like a real catastrophe. The 2023 film, on Netflix.

The big lizard and the big ape have to share a planet, badly. Spectacle, on Prime and Max. Bring popcorn, not a thesis.

Two astronauts are cut loose from their shuttle and have to get home with what is left of the air. Sandra Bullock, Alfonso Cuarón, on Paramount+.

A thief, a green assassin, a raccoon, and a tree steal the wrong orb. The mix-tape Marvel movie, on Disney+.

The Guardians go after the man who made Rocket. It is the sad one, and the jokes are still there. On Disney+.

A very average man wakes up in a future that has gotten much dumber. Mike Judge, on Prime. Mean, and not entirely a joke.

Earth is drying out, and a pilot goes through a wormhole looking for another place to put his children. Christopher Nolan, on Paramount+. Bring time.

Generations after Caesar, a young ape goes looking for his clan and finds humans who were supposed to be gone. On Max.

Assassins in the present kill targets sent from the future, until one of them is sent himself. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, on Netflix.

A toy company builds a doll that bonds a little too well with a grieving kid. Funny until the head tilt. On Netflix.

A disposable worker on a colony mission dies for a living, and then there are two of him. Bong Joon Ho, Robert Pattinson. It lands on Hulu November 23, 2026.

Siblings on a horse ranch notice something in the sky that does not want to be filmed. Jordan Peele, spectacle and dread, on Netflix.

A Predator story pointed at a new world, rated PG-13, and on Hulu in 2025. The hunt is the point. The landscape is the trap.

On the Great Plains in 1719, a Comanche hunter figures out she is not the only one tracking. The best Predator film in years, and it is on Hulu.

A pill gives you five minutes of a superpower, and it might also kill you. Jamie Foxx and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, on Netflix.

In a rotting future, the escape is a virtual world, and a dead inventor hid the keys inside it. Spielberg, on Max, all reference and chase.

A crew that will not make the crawl steals the Death Star plans. The war film of the saga, on Disney+.

Miles Morales learns there are other Spider-People, and the movie looks like a comic that learned to move. On Netflix.

Peter's identity is public, and a spell to fix it cracks the multiverse open. Tom Holland, on Disney+.

A farm kid, a princess, and a space station that can kill a planet. The 1977 film, on Disney+. You can start here.

A scavenger on a desert planet finds a droid with a map, and the war starts again. The 2015 sequel, on Disney+.

A machine is sent to protect the boy who will matter later, and his mother already knows how this ends. Arnold, Linda Hamilton, on Prime and Paramount+.

A pilot from the future crash-lands in his own childhood and has to team up with the kid he used to be. Ryan Reynolds, on Netflix.

In a war against artificial intelligence, a former soldier is sent to find a weapon that turns out to be a child. Gareth Edwards, on Hulu.

In an alternate 1990s, a girl and a robot cross a wasteland of abandoned machines. The 2025 Netflix film, big, strange, and aimed at the couch.

The 23rd century needs five elements to survive, and one of them is a woman who just fell out of the sky. Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, orange and outrageous. On Tubi.

A girl volunteers for a televised fight so her sister does not have to. Jennifer Lawrence, on Hulu. The action matters. The politics matter more.

A scientist in the Arctic tries to warn a returning spaceship not to come home. George Clooney, on Netflix. Quiet science fiction.

A prison is a vertical shaft, and the food only goes down. People at the top eat. People at the bottom wait. On Netflix.

A machine comes back from a war that has not happened yet to kill the woman who will matter. Arnold, 1984, on Prime. Leaner than the sequel.

Thor loses his hammer, gains a gladiator arena, and has to stop his sister from ending Asgard. The funny one, on Disney+.

A team of people nobody fully trusts gets pointed at a problem. The 2025 Marvel film, on Disney+.

The grid comes back in 2025, on Disney+. Neon, programs, and a world that was never only a game.

A trash-compacting robot on an empty Earth finds a plant and a reason to follow a probe into space. Pixar, on Disney+. Almost no dialogue, and it does not need it.

The children of captured superheroes have to save them, and they are better at it than the adults expected. A Netflix family action film.