Sci-fi isn’t known for being low-key, chilled, or relaxing. Aliens, dystopian nightmares, and twisted realities are more than likely provoking a reaction from viewers that flies a lot closer to terrified. Suspenseful and tense, the best sci-fi thriller movies are focused on nailing these themes.
If you’re looking for a semi-stressful movie night served alongside a takeaway with a side of indigestion, then you’re in luck. These standout titles aren’t necessarily overtly scary — see the best space horror movies for that — but they certainly border on it, emulating the perplexing nature of the sci-fi genre. From mind-bendingly claustrophobic apocalypses to hardcore body horrors, they’ll leave you feeling incredibly uncomfortable and like you need a breath of fresh air.
It’s not always the obvious thriller tropes that will unnerve you, though, and we’ll get more into that below. So, why not take a look through the libraries of Paramount Plus, Disney, Netflix, and Amazon Prime in search of your next watch, using this list of the best sci-fi thriller movies for guidance? But, don’t say we didn’t warn you.
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12. Predestination
Release date: March 8, 2014 | Cast: Ethan Hawke, Sarah Snook, Noah Taylor | Director: The Spierig Brothers | Rotten Tomatoes score: 84% critics, 75% audience
Time travel, terrorists, and tension are the pillars of The Spierig Brothers’ “Predestination” as The Barkeep/Agent Doe (Ethan Hawke) goes back in time to try and stop the elusive “Fizzle Bomber”. A slightly whimsical name for a story that is anything but. In fact, it’s mind-bendingly complicated with so many twists and turns you might not even remember where you started in the first place.
Based on the 1959 short story “‘—All You Zombies—'” by Robert A. Heinlein, it explores the theme of paradoxes created by time travel and the consequences that can emerge because of it. It’s impossibly hard to simplify the plot without giving anything away, so we’ll just tell you that you’ll need to put your phone away for this one and pay full attention.
Ultimately, you should watch it if you want to get lost in the claustrophobia of loops, leaps, and a dizzying time-jumping abyss.
11. Westworld
Release date: August 17, 1973 | Cast: Yul Brynner, James Brolin, Richard Benjamin | Director: Michael Crichton | Rotten Tomatoes score: 84% critics, 70% audience
Before Westworld became a hugely successful TV series, the concept existed in 1970s cinema under the same name.
A human experiment firmly seated as a sci-fi Western sees guests visiting an amusement park called Delos, where three different themed worlds exist, all run by lifelike androids. Unsurprisingly, one of which is Western World. A malfunction sends the park hurtling into chaos as the androids turn against the tourists and people who have held them captive.
With such a strong plot and oodles of tension, it’s easy to see why director Michael Crichton chose to bring it to the big screen, and why HBO decided to revive it with modern technologies some 40 years later. Despite the movie’s advanced age, it’s more relevant today than it ever has been, and even more unsettling to watch a premonition of AI in the 70s that is eerily more believable now.
10. Coherence
Release date: June 20, 2014 | Cast: Emily Baldoni, Maury Sterling, Nicholas Brendon | Director: James Ward Byrkit | Rotten Tomatoes score: 89% critics, 81% audience
Eight friends are having a dinner party. Nothing unusual there. But then, a comet passes by Earth, and everything gets mighty uncomfortable… and that’s putting it extremely lightly.
Coherence is a psychological sci-fi thriller that really didn’t have much budget behind it — just $50,000 in fact — but what it does with this incredibly low movie budget is nothing short of phenomenal.
As James Byrkit’s first and only feature film directorial credit, it received widespread praise for boldly running with an idea without the big money or cast list to back it up, executing on it against the usual blockbuster odds. Coherence unravels strange events and disturbing moments that are sure to thrill.
9. Ex Machina
Release date: April 10, 2015 | Cast: Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, Oscar Isaac | Director: Alex Garland | Rotten Tomatoes score: 92% critics, 86% audience
There’s a theme that’s emerging amongst the best sci-fi thrillers, and that’s in the exploration of artificial intelligence, its capabilities, and its perils. Alex Garland’s Ex Machina is one of the best examples and demonstrations of this in cinema.
Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) wins a trip to his company’s CEO, Nathan’s (Oscar Isaac)residence, but when he arrives, it turns out his ‘win’ wasn’t quite what he expected. Instead, he’s enlisted as the human component of Nathan’s experiment with AI, a humanoid robot he’s created called Ava (Alicia Vikander).
Caleb must interact with Ava to see what emotions she’s capable of, what she can learn, and what she can’t. I mentioned that sci-fi thrillers aren’t typically low-key and chill, but Ex Machina might trick you into thinking it can be. Just you wait.
8. The Thing
Release date: June 25, 1982 | Cast: Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, Keith David | Director: John Carpenter | Rotten Tomatoes score: 85% critics, 92% audience
If you’ve happened upon any of my other works on Space, you’ll know I’m a bit of a fan of The Thing.
Living amongst the best 80s sci-fi movies, it’s a movie that truly manages to horrify way before CGI was able to lend a huge helping hand. And sometimes, a well-crafted prosthetic and a dash of film trickery can be all that it takes to create something so realistic that it’s truly thrilling.
A research team in Antarctica is thrown into chaos when an extraterrestrial lifeform takes over their base. What’s worse — and unbeknownst to the researchers — the Thing can infect them, imitating the appearance of those it kills.
Thus comes a tense game of trust and mistrust that has every single person on the base questioning who is real. And rightly so, as this unknown creature is as relentless as it is horrifying.
7. Interstellar
Release date: November 7, 2014 | Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain | Director: Christopher Nolan | Rotten Tomatoes score: 73% critics, 87% audience
Having to find a new planet to live on because Earth has become uninhabitable could send even the hardiest of minds down a terrifying rabbit hole.
In Interstellar, director Christopher Nolan brings this very concept to life. Humanity’s place on Earth has become increasingly fragile, if not borderline impossible. The unusual “blight”, a pathogen destroying all crops and consuming oxygen, means the only option foreseen to save everyone is to find somewhere else out in the galaxy to live.
With disease ravaging Earth, Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) leads a group of astronauts out on an incredibly dangerous mission through a wormhole on a last-ditch attempt at finding somewhere else to live.
The claustrophobic and lonely journey they make — along with the harrowing sacrifices along the way — makes Interstellar one heck of a watch, but be warned, it’s an emotional ride.
6. Children of Men
Release date: December 25, 2006 | Cast: Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Michael Caine | Director: Alfonso Cuarón | Rotten Tomatoes score: 92% critics, 85% audience
In the year 2027 (which is somehow just one year from now, please stop, passage of time), Children of Men imagines a world where women have been infertile for years, dooming humanity to a slow extinction. But then mysteriously, a woman gets pregnant, and it’s up to Theo, a former activist, to ferry her to safety through a world depleted and ravaged by desperation.
In Children of Men, humanity is the problem, not overtly gruesome alien beings or life-threatening technologies. It’s a tense and thrilling watch as the duo flees across the UK from the totalitarian regime that pursues them. Despite its original Christmas release date, you certainly won’t leave feeling jolly and bright.
5. Predator: Badlands
Release date: November 7, 2025 | Cast: Elle Fanning, Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi | Director: Dan Trachtenberg | Rotten Tomatoes score: 86% critics, 95% audience
Set after the events of 2018’s The Predator and the third in Dan Trachtenberg’s reign over the Predator franchise, Predator: Badlands sees Dek, a young Yautja, crash onto a hostile planet.
To fight for his survival (and honor), he’s tasked with hunting down an apex predator, but along the way, he finds himself teaming up with an unlikely ally in Thia (Elle Fanning), an android from the Weyland-Yutani Corp.
This movie is the kind of thrill ride that gets your heart racing, palms sweaty, knees weak, mom’s spaghetti, etc. But it’ll also make you laugh. A twist on the franchise that has divided opinion on humanising the Predator into a new sort of character, but it’s still an utterly thrilling addition to the franchise.
4. 12 Monkeys
Release date: December 29, 1995 | Cast: Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe, Brad Pitt, | Director: Terry Gilliam | Rotten Tomatoes score: 88% critics, 88% audience
You’ll most likely relate Terry Gilliam to his part of the Monty Python comedy group, but he’s also the brain behind some really weird movies, including 12 Monkeys (see also Brazil).
Prisoner James Cole (Bruce Willis) is given the terrifying task of heading back in time from 2043 to try and stop a man-made virus from wiping out the entire planet. His endeavor to alter the past is chaotic in its execution and incredibly claustrophobic.
While the plot alone could carry a great thriller, it’s the acting of Willis, Pitt, and Stowe that elevates this wild story to the next level. It’s a real noodle scratcher that’ll leave you trying to decipher exactly what everything meant long after the credits roll.
3. Donnie Darko
Release date: October 26, 2001 | Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Drew Barrymore | Director: Richard Kelly | Rotten Tomatoes score: 88% critics, 80% audience
Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a depressed high school student looking to find some sort of meaning or semblance of emotion in his dark and lonely life. It’s a bleak and weird trip through the human psyche, and not just because of the terrifying bunny/man. Donnie Darko is an odyssey of psychological torment for the movie’s lead character.
You could say this one leans closer to sci-fi horror, what with the nightmare bunny that haunts Donnie and threatens him with impending disaster, but it’s the tension building and profound psychological exploration that make up the core of the movie; well, that, and the occasional jumpscare.
2. Moon
Release date: June 12, 2009 | Cast: Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey, Dominique McElligott | Director: Duncan Jones | Rotten Tomatoes score: 90% critics, 89% audience
Alone for three years, astronaut Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) is nearing the end of his mission in space, collecting a rare resource needed by Earth. His only connection with the outside world is the lunar station’s computer, GERTY.
Dreaming of home, Sam’s isolation and keeping himself alive prove a perpetual nightmare, especially when he ends up in a horrible accident mere weeks before he is due to leave the station. As events unfold, it becomes increasingly clear that Sam might not make it back to Earth.
Moon leaves you asking some big questions, and it rarely provides straight answers, which feels akin to shouting into an abyss, much like Sam probably feels throughout his lunar ordeal.
1. Aliens
Release date: July 18, 1986 | Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Carrie Henn, Bill Paxton | Director: James Cameron | Rotten Tomatoes score: 94% critics, 94% audience
I can already hear your keyboards clacking to declare that “Aliens” isn’t a thriller, it’s a sci-fi action flick. And well… we’re both right. It’s a sci-fi action thriller.
The sequel to 1979’s sci-fi horror masterpiece Alien, this sequel ramps up the action, the tension, and the number of Xenomorphs significantly. Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) attempts to return to a normal life after being rescued from her deep-space slumber following the Nostromo incident, but fate has other ideas.
Contact has been lost with a colony on the planet where Ripley first encountered the Xenomorphs, and she joins up with a crack team of marines for a rescue mission. Things… do not go well. Ripley must overcome her trauma to save the survivors. While Aliens is best known for its iconic action sequences, there is plenty of intrigue, suspense, and drama during the quieter moments.
James Cameron is an icon of cinema, but when he made Aliens, it was only his fourth ever directorial credit. That he could craft such a masterpiece at that stage of his career is simply… thrilling.