The 25 Best Sci-Fi Movies That Are Out Of This World

If a visitor from the 1920s travelled 100 years into the future, our world would look like something out of a science-fiction film. People attached to small screens they keep in their pockets. Planes soaring across continents.

Science-fiction movies project the fantasies, fears, and hopes of the people onto an imagined future. The best sci-fi movies use interesting science-based phenomena to get at the heart of the human experience, and have fun along the way. They transcend the genre's tropes of alien invasions and overly intelligent robots, instead presenting us with a new way to consider our future — and our present.

Don’t kid yourself: A lot of movies considered “sci-fi” these days are just blockbusters with aliens or computers. Avoiding that trap, the movies on this list are the 21st century’s most imaginative explorations of the future.

Ahead, the best sci-fi movies that have been made, period.