Let’s face it, for all of us Sci-fi lovers finding the perfect movie to watch with our girlfriend is always a problem. If you’re tired of always compromising and ending up watching some chick flick (not that they’re bad… well at least not all the time) try suggesting that you watch one of these 15 movies that will neither scare your girlfriend or, god forbid, bore her.
1. Alien
The crew of a commercial space ship just finished a mission and is on it’s way back home. They receive a distress signal from an unknown ship and decide to answer the call. A crew member goes into the other ship and discovers thousands of eggs inside. One of the eggs hatch while the crew member is inspecting it and the hatchling attacks but is killed off. Other than the strange eggs nothig else is discovered in the ship so the crew decides to move on. They all think that everything has returned back to normal but little do they know that an alien lifeform is forming inside it’s new host.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078748/plotsummary
2. The Truman Show
Truman Burbank is an ordinary man with an ordinary job. He hangs out with some fairly ordinary people and is interested in ordinary things. What he doesnt know is that he is actually very special. Everything around him is part of a TV show and the only one who doesnt know that he is actually THE star of the show is Truman himself.
One day he accidentally walks into a backstage and becomes suspicious. He then plots to deceive his viewers and escape his scripted life to see the real world. But will he succeed? How far will he be able to go when every single person he knows is an actor following a script.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120382/plotsummary
3. Children of Men
In a world where no child has been born for 18 years, population is dwindling and everything is chaotic. The best scientists are unable to explain why such a phenomenon is happening and there seems to be no hope left for humanity.
Then a lone woman is discovered pregnant in London and the candle of hope burns once again. The children of men tells the story of this woman’s journey to safety and the people who help her along the way.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0206634/plotsummary
4. Dark City
John Murdoch suddely wakes up without any recollection of his past. He finds himself in a room in a strange hotel that he doesnt remember entering. If this wasnt enough he also learns that the police is after him for an alleged murder that he commited.
John lies low while he tries to piece together his past.
On top of all the strange things he has seen when he woke up, the most peculiar by far are the people he discovers known as the Strangers. They have the power to put people to sleep and have conrolled the poeple of the city from the shadows. John must find a way to stop this group from controlling his mind while he continues his search for the truth.
Will he find out what’s happening to the city? Will he be able to leave and why is it always night time? Why are the strangers after him and what are these strange new powers that John seems to possess?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118929/plotsummary
5. Moon
Sam Bell has been stuck on a Mon-based facility for long time. There was a malfunction with his equipment in the past so he hasn’t had any contact with Earth for a long time. Because of his prolonged disconnection with society he has developed some peculiar habits. To keep himself sane he talks to himself and his plants a lot and of course his computer and assistant GERTY.
Just 3 weeks from the end of his 3 year contract an accident occurs. He wakes up and realizes that he is not alone after all. Things were never really what they seemed and he’s about to uncover the mysteries that surround him.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1182345/plotsummary
6. Gattaca
Vincent Freeman has bee categorized as someone who is only suitable for menial jobs. It seems his DNA doesnt meet the requirements for someone who can travel through space, his long time dream. In order to subvert the system he takes the identity of Jerome Morrow, someone diagnosed to be genetically perfect but who has become a paraplegic because of a car accident. He learns how to decieve the DNA checks and is soon about to embark on a space mission. However things don’t turn out the way Vincent wants them to when the director of the space program is killed and the police starts an investigation.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119177/plotsummary
7. Starman
An alien recieves an unexpectedly rude welcome when he agrees to visit earth. He must now travel to a giant crater in Winslow within 3 days otherwise he will die. He takes the form of a human and recieves assisance from a recently widowed woman named Jeny Hayden. They must travel quickly and in secret while the government tracks them both down.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088172/plotsummary
8. Avatar
Jake Sully is a paraplegic who agrees to take over his brother’s mission after his brother is killed in a robbery. His role is to “pilot” one of the biological suites that are called Avatar. The mission involves traveling to a new world to explore the area and interact with the natives.
He later discovers that the real reason for the mission is to find mining sites for precious minerals in this lush new world. In order to succeed in this mission he agrees to a deal with Colonel Quaritch to befriend the natives and discover the location of the mining sites. However he develops a bond with the tribe and even falls in love with the his new found companion, Neytiri.
Everything falls apart when the colonel decides to attack the village in order to force the natives out of the area. An epic battle ensues where Jake must choose between the interests of his employers and those of the natives of this new world.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0499549/
9. 5th Element
An apocalyptic prophecy tells of the end of the world unless the 4 elemental stones are combined with the 5th element, a female alien named Leeloo.
Leeloo must now fulfill this prophecy with the help of an ex-military leader who now drives a taxi cab named Korban Dallas. They must finish their mission and save the world from evil and the being named Zorg which will destroy the world if they fail.
http://www.starpulse.com/Movies/Fifth_Element,_The/Summary/
10. Blade Runner
Rick Deckard is a retired blade runner. A blade runner is a special type of police that deals with replicants or clones. Rick was the best of them all during his time and after retiring is forced to come back when he learns that 6 replicants escaped from an off-world colony.
Blade Runner tells tells the story of Rick as he hunts these replicant fugitives and his ironic love affair with a beautiful replicant named Rachael.
http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9A0DE4D71038F936A15755C0A964948260
11. Contact
Dr. Ellie Arroway has always been interested in contact with faraway lands. Her research was originally funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The organization however decided that her work is more fiction than fact so they cut her funding.
Determined to pursue her work, she and a couple of her colleagues search for financiers where ever they can. She eventually finds funding from an person whose motivations for sending her the money are as unknown as his identity.
Ellie’s perseverance eventually bears fruit when they discover a “chatter” originating from the the star Vega. Her elation for the discovery is short lived because the military, religious leaders and politicians try to take over her work. Her work is thrown in disarray as she loses control of her project. Thankfully she has Palmer Joss, an author and theologian, to help her as she tries to uncover the truth behind the discovery and her financiers motivations.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118884/plotsummary
12. The Matrix
Thomas Anderson is a regular employee by day and a renowned hacker by night called Neo. One day he gets a message from Morpheus, a legendary hacker who is considered as a threat by the government.
Morpheus offers NEO the chance to discover the truth. He accepts it and awakens to a ravaged world where machines rule over humans. He finds out that he has been living his whole life inside a false reality known as the Matrix while his body has been used as fuel by the machines.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/
13. Star Wars
In a galaxy far far away the Empire rules over everything with an iron fist. A rebellion was formed and for years war has waged between the two. In one of the battles between the two, plans for a massive space ship are discovered. The ship is known as the Death Star and the plans for it are smuggled to the Rebells.
Several incidents occur and the plans end up in the hands of a farm boy who dreams of becoming a fighter pilot for the rebels. He then takes it upon himself to deliver the plans and in this he is assisted by an old hermit who belongs to a light saber wielding group of warriors. They hire a smuggler and his furry copilot to bring them to Alderan and from there their adventure takes off.
They discover that the planet has been destroyed and that they must now rescue a young woman who has been taken captive by the empire and attack the Death Star for the sake of the galaxy.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076759/plotsummary
14. Back to The Future
Marty McFly is your regular teenager except that he isn’t in the time period he is supposed to be in. He goes back to 1955, 30 years from his own time, after his friend Dr Emmet Brown is gunned down. He must now find and convince Dr Brown’s past self that he isn’t from that time and get him to send himback to the future. If this wasn’t difficult enough, he also has to bring both his parents back together because he accidentally got in the way of their first meeting.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088763/plotsummary
15. ET
A human task force discovers and disturbs a group of alien botanists from their work. The aliens leave quickly but due to their haste, one of them is left behind. Lost and hungry the alien finds a 10 year old friend named Elliot. They become really close and the extra terrestrial (ET) even meets Elliot’s brother and sister.
Because of ET’s desire to go home, he builds a device that allows him to contact his planet. ET becomes sick however and his condition becomes critical. Both Elliot and ET must avoid the human task force who has constantly been looking for ET while waiting for the alien ship to arrive.
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Great list. I like Tank Girl for a film for my girlfriend. She enjoyed the light humor and punk sensibility. And there’s a musical number.
Lazarus Lupin
http://strangespanner.blogspot.com/
art and review
With the exception of Avatar, those are all great flicks, many of them defining classics of the genre. I would have to disagree with Blade Runner being a film women like, however. It is one of my personal top five movies of all time, and I’ve tried showing it to many women; without exception they find it dark and depressing. Not a chick thing.
I would guess Dark City would elicit the same reaction, though I personally consider it one of the little-known gems of the movie industry. William Hurt’s performance is, as always, perfect.
hmmm, I’m a chick who loved Blade Runner. As did several of my chick friends.
These are very good movies (yeah, except Avatar) but seriously, unless the girlfriends in question are already sci-fi fans, I don’t think they’d enjoy half of them. Half of ‘em do not include any kind of romance. Did you not know ya got to have romance to get the girls? Blade Runner and Moon will put her to sleep. Gattaca is all clinical and stuff. And she’s already seen ET, Back to the Future, and Star Wars when she was nine, and everyone has seen The Matrix. Aliens is more accessible than Alien. Contact has Jodie Foster and girls like her, but only nerdy girls will like her in this movie. Children of Men and Dark City and The Truman Show will not put her in any kind of mood you want her to be in. Starman’s a good one, if you can handle the hairstyles, but it’s barely sci-fi.