Entertainment
10 Greatest Sci-Fi Movie Masterpieces of the ’90s, Ranked
As a decade, the 1990s is probably now more nostalgic than some people would like to admit, or acknowledge. If a movie came out during this decade, it is, at the time of writing, at least a quarter of a century old, and some of the earliest ones are pushing 40. Time comes for everyone and everything, movies included. Ruthless.
As for specific genres, sci-fi seemed to do pretty well throughout the decade, as far as movies are concerned. That once far-off and futuristic-sounding year of “2000” was right around the corner, so maybe stories about technology and the future were on people’s minds to an even greater extent. Whatever the case, these are some of the best – and hardest to fault – science fiction movies of the ‘90s.
10
‘Starship Troopers’ (1997)
Starship Troopers does feel pretty different depending on how old you are when you watch it. As a piece of satire, it does feel on the nose if you’re of a certain age, but if you’re young enough, maybe it mostly feels like a cool and kind of edgy sci-fi flick about a futuristic military force waging a war against aliens that are basically giant bugs.
Some of that bug action is still fun in a mindless sort of way, but it’s the rest of Starship Troopers that elevates it, and makes it feel like more than simply a B-movie that just so happens to have the kind of budget usually reserved for A-grade films. It’s the sort of thing Paul Verhoeven, in his prime, was incredibly good at doing (see also the original RoboCop, which was one of the best sci-fi movies of the 1980s).
9
‘Ghost in the Shell’ (1995)
If you’re talking about great dystopian anime movies, it’s always going to be tough to top Akira, which came out in the late 1980s, but Ghost in the Shell is still worth considering as a competitor. It’s got some lofty themes alongside being entertaining as a futuristic crime movie of sorts, with terrorists here who can hack people’s brains, and police officers who’ve been enhanced by cybernetics.
Great science fiction can be escapist, or it can dig a little deeper and get a bit heavier, with Ghost in the Shell arguably being in the latter camp more than the former. Still, it’s tremendously engaging and inventive, and the quality of the animation here also holds up tremendously well more than 30 years later. Also, more than 30 years later, we’re almost at the point in time when Ghost in the Shell is set: the year 2029.
8
‘Face/Off’ (1997)
The 1990s was a time when a movie star could sell a movie more so than the 2020s so far (not that there aren’t people worthy of being considered movie stars), and so when you throw two big names into the mix and promise a “face off” between them, you’ve got almost inevitable gold. Enter Face/Off, which is about John Travolta vs. Nicolas Cage, effectively, but with both playing each other.
Okay, okay, technically, their characters are facing off, and their characters swap faces, but again: it was the 1990s, and people probably saw this for the stars over anything else. If you were into it because it was directed by John Woo, though, then that’s also valid, since he directs the hell out of it all. And if you can’t get on board with the goofy sci-fi stuff for whatever reason, hopefully you can easily enjoy the action Face/Off offers.
7
‘Godzilla vs. Destoroyah’ (1995)
There have been various eras of Godzilla movies, with the Heisei one having most of its entries come out in the 1990s (all besides The Return of Godzilla and Godzilla vs. Biollante). Of those 1990s Godzilla movies, Godzilla vs. Destoroyah is probably the best, and it’s good enough just as a movie to be one of the most impressive science fiction films of its decade, too.
It brings the Heisei era to a close in a dramatic fashion, and the stakes here have the whole thing feeling more dramatic (and eventually tragic) than your average Godzilla movie. Also, Destoroyah is one of the best foes Godzilla has ever taken on; perhaps even the best to only appear in a single movie to date… at the time of writing, at least. Never say never, fellow Destoroyah fans.
6
‘Open Your Eyes’ (1997)
Some people might be more familiar with the remake, Vanilla Sky, but 1997’s Open Your Eyes is superior. Penélope Cruz plays the same role in both, though, which is kind of interesting; like the acting equivalent of Michael Haneke directing both versions of Funny Games. But to focus on Open Your Eyes, it’s a psychological thriller/mystery movie that’s also kind of a sci-fi movie.
In Open Your Eyes, things jump around tonally as well as genre-wise, seemingly all in an effort to keep you, as a viewer, on your toes.
There’s also a romance element to it, as there was with Vanilla Sky, and things jump around tonally as well as genre-wise, seemingly all in an effort to keep you, as a viewer, on your toes, and maybe even a little confused, but not necessarily in a bad way. Open Your Eyes also rewards repeat viewings and analysis if you’re willing to dig in… or you can just appreciate the strange ride it takes you on, from a purely emotional/visceral standpoint.
5
‘The Iron Giant’ (1999)
A more approachable and optimistic animated film than the aforementioned Ghost in the Shell, The Iron Giant is also a cult classic; famously one that got buried, to some extent, in the cinematically crowded year that was 1999. It’s got a familiar sort of story, about a boy befriending some sort of unusual being, but it does that well-worn premise effectively… think E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, but with a giant robot instead of a much smaller (and initially terrifying) alien.
There’s also something irresistibly retro about The Iron Giant, as it was set in the past and also had a traditional animation style at a time when computer animation was starting to take off, and had almost become the norm. It packs a lot of humor, creativity, and heart into a runtime that clocks in at under 90 minutes, and it’s also hard to imagine many people watching The Iron Giant and coming away disappointed or underwhelmed, even with its lofty reputation preceding it.
4
‘Until the End of the World’ (1991)
You can’t really overstate how impressively ambitious Until the End of the World really is, so long as you make sure to watch the director’s cut over the theatrical version. Yes, doing so involves finding almost five hours of free time, which is a pretty high demand, but it’s worth that sort of undertaking. Also, the movie earns such a runtime, since it’s a fully global road movie that crosses into various countries, rather than “just” different states or territories.
The sci-fi elements of Until the End of the World are underplayed for certain stretches of the film, though that’s okay when significant chunks of it are about humanity’s relationship with technology, and the (then) near-future. It also really makes use of everywhere it ended up being shot, and the resulting film is among the best-looking ever made on such a scale.
3
‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’ (1991)
There was a little movie in 1984 called The Terminator that isn’t really a little movie anymore, in hindsight, but maybe it felt like that at the time. James Cameron wasn’t a household name or anything, and Arnold Schwarzenegger had been in Conan the Barbarian, but also wasn’t a star the way he’s now known, but The Terminator ended up doing so much for the careers of both men.
And then Terminator 2: Judgment Day had to feel like a big movie when it came out, because it couldn’t really sneak up on people or be a sleeper hit like the first one. There needed to be a good reason to continue this story, and upping the stakes and spectacle was also a must, and so that’s what Terminator 2: Judgment Day did on just about every front, to the extent that it can easily count itself among the most exciting and entertaining sci-fi films ever made.
2
‘Jurassic Park’ (1993)
Even among entertaining Steven Spielberg movies (there are a bunch of them), Jurassic Park stands out as being particularly thrilling, fun, and easy to revisit. Lots of the other movies here are perfectly paced, or close enough to it that they might well be perfectly paced, but even then, Jurassic Park is still probably the best paced. Hell, call it the best-paced sci-fi movie of the 1990s, then… why not?
It spends the right amount of time developing the characters, getting to the island (while building anticipation for it), explaining the science that’s plot relevant, and then showcasing all the various things going wrong, with each big set piece marking a point of escalation. Calling Jurassic Park a blast is a big old understatement, as it is, quite plainly, one of the best blockbusters ever, science fiction-related or otherwise.
1
‘The Matrix’ (1999)
Some of the best action scenes of the 20th century were saved for the very end of it, as The Matrix has a few sequences that are absolute all-timers. If it were just an action movie, and not also an amazing science fiction movie, it would still be a classic, but the fact that it manages to do both at the same time is truly impressive. Hell, it’s more than just one sort of action movie, too, as there are martial arts fights and heroic bloodshed-esque shootouts here, and sometimes, you get a bit of both at once.
Narratively, it’s inventive, and thematically, there’s also so much to dig into when it comes to The Matrix, especially if you want to break down what it has to say about identity and conformity. It satisfies intellectually and also satisfies as spectacle, so you get the best of both worlds in a movie that’s sort of about two worlds, one of them simulated. There really is something for everyone here.
