Sci-Fi Films That Make You Think

Twelve alien ships land around the world, and a linguist is asked to work out how to talk to the visitors before somebody starts a war. Thoughtful, moving and far more hopeful than most films about aliens.

The question it asks: how much does the language you speak shape the way you think?

An astronaut is left for dead on Mars and has to stay alive on a planet where nothing grows, using only what his crew left behind. The most optimistic film here: every problem gets solved with science and stubbornness.

The question it asks: how far would we go to bring one person home?

A young programmer wins a week at his reclusive boss’s remote house and is asked to judge whether a humanoid robot named Ava is truly conscious. Four characters, one building and a great deal of tension.

The question it asks: how would you know whether a machine was thinking, or only acting as if it was?

In a near-future Los Angeles, a lonely man who writes other people’s love letters for a living falls for the voice of his new operating system. Gentle, funny and more relevant every year.

The question it asks: can a relationship be real if one half of it is software?

In a future where parents choose their children’s genes, a man conceived the old-fashioned way borrows another person’s identity to chase his dream of going into space. Stylish, tense and underrated.

The question it asks: how much of who you are is decided before you are born?

Sam is nearing the end of a three-year solo shift at a mining base on the far side of the Moon, with only a computer for company, when he has an accident and things stop adding up. A small film with a big idea, best seen unspoiled.

The question it asks: what makes you the person you are?

No child has been born anywhere for eighteen years, and a worn-out civil servant in Britain is asked to protect a young woman who is miraculously pregnant. Bleak, thrilling and filmed in astonishing long takes.

The question it asks: what keeps people going when there is no future to plan for?

A mysterious black monolith appears at turning points in human history, and a mission to Jupiter is placed in the hands of HAL 9000, a computer that has never made a mistake. Slow, strange and unlike anything else.

The question it asks: where did we come from, and what comes next?