The Best Sci-Fi Movies on Netflix Right Now

Last Updated on March 11, 2022

These days, it feels like we’re living in a sci-fi movie. Between nature itself apparently trying to wipe us out and deadly viruses looking to mop up the rest, it can be a little much sometimes. Thankfully, we have science fiction to distract us from the horrors of the world around us – or maybe its trying to prepare us for whatever dark futures lay ahead. Either way, our favorite corporate cuddle-buddy, Netflix, have plenty of sci-fi movies on offer to provide for either reason; so lock yourself away during whatever lockdown you’re currently in and check out the best scifi movies on Netflix right now! 

Battle Los Angeles

Battle Los Angeles gets a slot as one of the best scifi movies on Netflix right now because it’s goshdarn underrated. From its haunting trailer lined with great music to its underappreciated cast (Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez, Michael Peña, Bridget Moynahan, Noel Fisher, even Ne-Yo), Battle Los Angeles makes for a great LA-based alien invasion movie, and far superior to Skyline, which came out around the same time with a similar concept. The action from director Jonathan Liebesman at times feels like Black Hawk Down… but with aliens. Not a bad comparison.

Dark Skies

An under-appreciated blend of sci-fi and horror, with a focus on the ‘horror’, 2013’s Dark Skies was a fine, if muddled, attempt at making little gray men scary again. Personally, I think it succeeded. A great cast (led by Keri Russell) shore up the story of a family – specifically their young boy – plagued by extraterrestrial visitation. Blumhouse are at the wheel, and while it’s one of their lesser-regarded entries, there’s some spooky scifi fun to be had here.

Inception

Ah, Inception. Making a welcome return to Netflix is Christopher Nolan’s dream-trippin’ sci-fi heist flick. With shades of Bond (everything about that snowy fortress assault screams 007), an airtight script and a dream (heh) cast including Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Caine and more, Inception stands the test of time as not just one of the greatest scifi movies of the 21st century, but, well… ever.

Inception – as we all should know by now – presents the concept of entering someone else’s subconscious while they dream, in order to extract information – or in our protagonists’ case, incepting an idea. There’s so many cool notions here – very simply and effectively explained – that Nolan could’ve been forgiven for taking the next ten years off. Thankfully, he didn’t.

Mars Attacks

Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks is as much fun today as it was in 1996. An ode to mid-20th century scifi B movies, Mars Attacks has its iconic, fish-bowl-adorned ack-ack aliens putting humanity through its paces. A bunch of Americans led by President Jack Nicholson try their best to fend off the aliens and their superior weaponry, with plenty of hijinks along the way. We get Jack Black as a gung-ho soldier and Pierce Brosnan ends up as a disembodied head. What’s not to love? It’s colorful, it’s funny, and it’s Tim Burton like we hadn’t seen him before (nor since!). Check it out for a fun trip down memory lane.

Project Power 

Another Netflix Original, Project Power is a fun take on the superhero sub-genre, showcasing a world where an experimental new drug gives people one of several random superpowers for a brief period of time. Foxx is a man with a military background looking for his daughter, teaming up with a street-wise kid and a young cop (Joseph Gordon-Levitt again) looking to get these power pills off his streets… even if it means using them. Fresh, fun and slick to look at, Project Power is a good time. 

Snowpiercer

Before giving life to a TV spinoff of the same name (also on Netflix), Snowpiercer was merely a sci-fi curiosity. Adapted from a French comic book by Bong Joon Ho and starring Chris Evans as he leads a revolution on a train. There’s obviously more to it than that, the movie showing us a dystopian future where the last surviving humans circle the world endlessly on said train, with the rich at the front and the poor on the back. Evans gives one of the best performances of his career, which includes a tearful monologue that’ll leave you shattered. It’s one of the best sci-fi movies on Netflix, one of the best sci-fi movies ever made, and this writer hopes it leads you further down the rabbit hole of the work of Oscar-winner Bong Joon Ho (Parasite, The Host).

Stargate

Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, 2012, White House Down) started on the road to big budget escapades with his iconic 1994 effort, Stargate. For a movie that bequeathed a whole franchise – namely its TV spinoff Stargate SG-1, that ran for 10 seasons (count ’em!) – you’d think Stargate would enter into more conversations. Sadly, it looks like it’s been a little forgotten as of late, but Netflix is here to remind us all of this 90s curio.

Kurt Russell and James Spader are the soldier and scientist duo who find a portal to an alien planet, inhabited by Egyptian-looking humanoids who worship the same gods as our ancestors in Africa. Spader especially is a delight, even if the script has its fair share of duds and corny one-liners. “Give my regards to King Tut, asshole!”, indeed. It’s definitely one of the best sci-fi movies on Netflix, pretty much based on the nostalgia factor.

Stowaway

Stowaway, released this year, is an interesting little scifi movie that transposes the “trolley problem” into outer space. The film follows a trio of astronauts (Toni Collette, Anna Kendrick and Daniel Dae-Kim) on their way to Mars on a research mission. Everything is going well until they find a passed-out launchpad technician in the ceiling, having suffered an accident pre-launch. Things snowball as their source of oxygen is damaged, meaning not enough breathable air for four people. Hard decisions are considered and things soon go from bad to worse; it all makes for a decent space-set potboiler, with Anna Kendrick giving an anchoring performance that’s sure to break some hearts. For our Canadian contingent, this one’s available on Amazon’s Prime Video.

Synchronic

After doing a whirlwind on the festival circuit, Synchronic finally arrived on our screens to blow our minds. A trippy trip through time with Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan courtesy of some mind-bending drugs, Synchronic has to be experienced to be (barely) understood. Perfect for fans of movies like Primer or the works of Phillip K. Dick. Mackie does solid work, although Dornan is sometimes forgotten in the proceedings. Fans of muted yet colorful palettes will have a good time! 

Total Recall

Paul Verhoeven’s 1990 classic starring Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of the all-time batshit crazy pour-yourself-a-whisky it’s-about-to-get-freaky scifi action movies. Based on the Philip K. Dick novel We Can Remember It for You Wholesale, Schwarzenegger has a blast playing construction worker-come-secret agent Douglas Quaid, who finds himself trying to peel away false memories to figure out some MacGuffin-y stuff. Who cares! There’s a chick with three breasts! Verhoeven in the late 80s and early 90s was nothing if not wild, and Sharon Stone makes an appearance as Quaid’s gun-toting, psychotic double agent “wife”. Schwarzenegger’s one-liners are on form (“Consider that a divorce!”). Thank the heavens it’s on the streaming service, easily making it one of the best sci-fi movies on Netflix.