Sci-fi is filled with gigantic franchises and blockbusters, but some of the best stories in the genre fly under the radar. These hidden gems show you don’t have to spend an enormous budget or feature endless explosions to tell a mind-bending, emotional, or straight-up fun story. From trippy time loops, space odysseys, and cult classics, check out these 15 underrated sci-fi movies that should be on your watchlist.
15. Infinity Chamber (2016)
A guy awakens in a clinical, AI-run prison with only a snarky computer to keep him company. Infinity Chamber is a psychological thrill ride in which memory and reality become intertwined. It’s spare but full of giant ideas about control and consciousness, a movie that’ll have you wondering what’s real well after the credits roll.
14. Love and Monsters (2020)
Who told us the apocalypse cannot be enjoyable? This creature-ridden journey follows a lovesick protagonist searching for his girlfriend among the mutated beasts overrunning the world. With heart, humor, action, and a scene-stealing canine, Love and Monsters shows sci-fi can be as thrilling as it is sweet.
13. The Endless (2017)
Two brothers go back to the cult from which they had escaped and find time loops and unsettling cosmic forces at work. Combining sci-fi, horror, and mystery, The Endless is creepy, mind-bending, and unforgettable a great choice if you prefer your tales drenched in existential horror.
12. Timecrimes (2007)
This Spanish thriller is a masterclass in suspense. When a man gets trapped in a time loop, each decision he makes unwinds into darker and more perilous repercussions. Clever, witty, and expertly paced, Timecrimes illustrates just how crazy time travel can become on a non-Hollywood budget.
11. Upgrade (2018)
A paralyzed man is given a sophisticated AI implant that transforms his body into the ultimate weapon. What begins as a revenge tale becomes a thought-provoking journey into free will, technology, and control. Brutal, chic, and darkly comedic, Upgrade is a cyberpunk masterpiece you won’t want to miss.
10. Aniara (2018)
When a colonist ship bound for Mars goes off course, its passengers face the terrifying reality of drifting endlessly in space. Based on a Swedish poem, Aniara is both visually stunning and emotionally crushing, tackling survival, hopelessness, and what it means to be human when there’s no way home.
9. The Vast of Night (2019)
Set in the 1950s, this low-burning mystery follows a switchboard operator and a radio DJ who stumble onto a strange signal that might be alien in origin. With retro vibes, sharp dialogue, and old-school suspense, The Vast of Night feels like a lost Twilight Zone episode brought to life.
8. Prospect (2018)
A dark space western featuring Pedro Pascal and Sophie Thatcher, Prospect follows a father-daughter team searching for valuable minerals on a perilous moon. Survival is all when everything that could go wrong does. Grounded world-building and great performances make it as tense as it is stunningly atmospheric.
7. Coherence (2013)
At a dinner party, a comet whizzes overhead and reality begins to shatter. Guests start slipping into parallel timelines in this high-concept, low-budget thriller. Coherence feeds on snappy writing and improvisation, making it one of the most disturbing journeys into parallel worlds ever to be screened.
6. Moon (2009)
Sam Rockwell is excellent in this chilling one-man play about an astronaut completing his moon mission until he meets another copy of himself. With an undercurrent of identity, isolation, and greed, Moon is a touching, elegantly constructed work of science fiction that suggests less can be more.
5. Looper (2012)
Time travel and noir collide in Looper, in which assassins kill their targets sent back from the future. It gets complicated when one looper (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) must eliminate his older version (Bruce Willis). Combining action with emotional complexity, Looper is inventive and profoundly human.
4. Silent Running (1972)
This ’70s sci-fi classic from George Lucas envisions a world where Earth’s vegetation has disappeared, surviving only in domes on a spaceship. Bruce Dern’s plant scientist goes to extreme lengths to safeguard them, presenting an effective tale of nature, loneliness, and optimism. It’s more relevant than ever today, decades on.
3. THX 1138 (1971)
Pre-Star Wars, George Lucas wrote this futuristic dystopia in which love is forbidden and people are tranquilized into submission. Austerely cold, unflinchingly stark, and well ahead of its time, THX 1138 is a daring work of movie-making and a terrifying vision of a humanless future.
2. Barbarella (1968)
Campy, vibrant, and completely one-of-a-kind, Barbarella takes Jane Fonda on a trippy space ride. With outrageous costumes, wacky set pieces, and unashamed audacity, it’s a cult favorite that’s as fun now as it was transgressive in the ’60s.
1. Another Earth (2011)
What if there was a replica Earth in the sky with another you on it? Another Earth does just that, asking the question through the eyes of a young woman trying to atone for tragedy. Poetic and emotional, it’s sci-fi at its most personal and heartfelt.
A few sci-fi films blow onto the screen with lasers and special effects. A few others creep into the periphery, but those are usually the ones that linger longest in your mind. These 15 hidden gems show that the greatest adventures to other worlds are the ones no one’s discussing.