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The Best Outer Space Movies

The Best Outer Space Movies
  1. Interstellar poster
    Interstellar (2014)
    Christopher Nolan · 4 critic votes
    Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Paramount+ Amazon Channel, Paramount+ Roku Premium Channel
    The adventures of a group of explorers who make use of a newly discovered wormhole to surpass the limitations on human space travel and conquer the vast distances involved in an interstellar voyage.
  2. Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope poster
    Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977)
    George Lucas · 14 critic votes
    Streaming on Disney Plus
    Princess Leia is captured and held hostage by the evil Imperial forces in their effort to take over the galactic Empire. Venturesome Luke Skywalker and dashing captain Han Solo team together with the loveable robot duo R2-D2 and C-3PO to rescue the beautiful princess and restore peace and justice in the Empire.
  3. Alien poster
    Alien (1979)
    Ridley Scott · 28 critic votes
    Streaming on Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads
    During its return to the earth, commercial spaceship Nostromo intercepts a distress signal from a distant planet. When a three-member team of the crew discovers a chamber containing thousands of eggs on the planet, a creature inside one of the eggs attacks an explorer. The entire crew is unaware of the impending nightmare set to descend upon them when the alien parasite planted inside its unfortunate host is birthed.
  4. WALL-E poster
    WALL-E (2008)
    Andrew Stanton · 4 critic votes
    Streaming on Disney Plus
    After hundreds of years doing what he was built for, WALL•E— a robot designed to clean up the earth—discovers a new purpose in life when he meets a sleek search robot named EVE. EVE comes to realize that WALL•E has inadvertently stumbled upon the key to the planet's future, and races back to space to report to the humans. Meanwhile, WALL•E chases EVE across the galaxy and sets into motion one of the most imaginative adventures ever brought to the big screen.
  5. 2001: A Space Odyssey poster
    2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
    Stanley Kubrick · 190 critic votes
    Streaming on HBO Max Amazon Channel, HBO Max, Philo
    Humanity finds a mysterious object buried beneath the lunar surface and sets off to find its origins with the help of HAL 9000, the world's most advanced super computer.
  6. Dune poster
    Dune (1984)
    David Lynch · 1 critic vote
    Free on YouTube Free
    In the year 10,191, the most precious substance in the universe is the spice Melange. The spice extends life. The spice expands consciousness. The spice is vital to space travel. The spice exists on only one planet in the entire universe, the vast desert planet Arrakis, also known as Dune. Its native inhabitants, the Fremen, have long held a prophecy that a man would come, a messiah who would lead them to true freedom.
  7. Aliens poster
    Aliens (1986)
    James Cameron · 7 critic votes
    Streaming on Netflix, fuboTV, MGM+ Amazon Channel
    Ripley, the sole survivor of the Nostromo's deadly encounter with the monstrous Alien, returns to Earth after drifting through space in hypersleep for 57 years. Although her story is initially met with skepticism, she agrees to accompany a team of Colonial Marines back to LV-426.
  8. Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back poster
    Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
    Irvin Kershner · 7 critic votes
    Streaming on Disney Plus, YouTube TV
    The epic saga continues as Luke Skywalker, in hopes of defeating the evil Galactic Empire, learns the ways of the Jedi from aging master Yoda. But Darth Vader is more determined than ever to capture Luke. Meanwhile, rebel leader Princess Leia, cocky Han Solo, Chewbacca, and droids C-3PO and R2-D2 are thrown into various stages of capture, betrayal and despair.
  9. Elysium poster
    Elysium (2013)
    Neill Blomkamp · 1 critic vote
    Streaming on Netflix, fuboTV
    In the year 2159, two classes of people exist: the very wealthy who live on a pristine man-made space station called Elysium, and the rest, who live on an overpopulated, ruined Earth. Secretary Rhodes, a hard line government official, will stop at nothing to enforce anti-immigration laws and preserve the luxurious lifestyle of the citizens of Elysium. That doesn’t stop the people of Earth from trying to get in, by any means they can. When unlucky Max is backed into a corner, he agrees to take on a daunting mission that, if successful, will not only save his life, but could bring equality to these polarized worlds.
  10. Gravity poster
    Gravity (2013)
    Alfonso Cuarón · 5 critic votes
    Streaming on fuboTV, Paramount+ Amazon Channel, Paramount+ Roku Premium Channel
    Dr Ryan Stone, an engineer on her first space mission, and Matt Kowalski, an astronaut on his final expedition, have to survive in space after they are hit by debris while spacewalking.
  11. Asteroid City poster
    Asteroid City (2023)
    Wes Anderson · 1 critic vote
    Streaming on Peacock Premium, Peacock Premium Plus
    In an American desert town circa 1955, the itinerary of a Junior Stargazer/Space Cadet convention is spectacularly disrupted by world-changing events.
  12. Forbidden Planet poster
    Forbidden Planet (1956)
    Fred M. Wilcox · 1 critic vote
    Free on Tubi TV, Plex, Plex Channel · Streaming on Fawesome
    Starship C57D travels to planet Altair 4 in search of the crew of spaceship "Bellerophon," a scientific expedition that has been missing for twenty years. They find themselves unwelcome by the expedition's lone survivor and warned of destruction by an invisible force if they don't turn back immediately.
  13. Solaris poster
    Solaris (1972)
    Andrei Tarkovsky · 15 critic votes
    Free on Tubi TV, YouTube Free, Shout! Factory TV · Streaming on Criterion Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel, HBO Max
    A psychologist is sent to a space station orbiting a planet called Solaris to investigate the death of a doctor and the mental problems of cosmonauts on the station. He soon discovers that the water on the planet is a type of brain which brings out repressed memories and obsessions.
  14. High Life poster
    High Life (2018)
    Claire Denis · 2 critic votes
    Free on Tubi TV, The Roku Channel, Fandango at Home Free · Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Kanopy, Hoopla
    Monte and his daughter are the last survivors of a damned and dangerous mission to deep space. The crew—death-row inmates led by a doctor with sinister motives—has vanished. As the mystery of what happened onboard the ship is unraveled, father and daughter must rely on each other to survive as they hurtle toward the oblivion of a black hole.
  15. Silent Running poster
    Silent Running (1972)
    Douglas Trumbull · 1 critic vote
    After the entire flora goes extinct, ecologist Lowell maintains a greenhouse aboard a space station for the future with his android companions. However, he rebels after being ordered to destroy the greenhouse in favor of carrying cargo, a decision that puts him at odds with everyone but his mechanical companions.
  16. La Belle Verte poster
    La Belle Verte (1996)
    Coline Serreau · 1 critic vote
    Streaming on Kanopy
    As part of an intergalactic coalition, a well-meaning space alien volunteers to bring a message of self-actualization and harmony with nature to the one planet rejected by all her peers as incorrigible: Earth.
  17. Quatermass 2 poster
    Quatermass 2 (1957)
    Val Guest · 1 critic vote
    Free on Tubi TV, Plex, Plex Channel · Streaming on Fawesome, Artiflix
    In England, a group of space scientists led by Bernard Quatermass, who have developed plans for the first Moon colony, learn that a secret, ostensibly government-run, complex of identical design has been built in a remote part of England and is the focus of periodic falls of small, hollow "meteorites" originating in outer space. Quatermass determines to investigate and uncovers a terrifying extraterrestrial life form which has already begun action to take over the Earth.
  18. Plan 9 from outer Space poster
    Plan 9 from outer Space (1957)
    Ed Wood · 2 critic votes
    Free on Cultpix, FlixHouse, JustWatch TV · Streaming on MUBI, MUBI Amazon Channel, Hoopla
    In California, an old man grieves the loss of his wife, and dies the day after she is buried. However, the space soldier Eros and his mate Tanna use an electric device to resurrect them both, alongside the strong Inspector Clay, who was murdered by the alien-controlled dead couple. When the populations of Hollywood and Washington DC see flying saucers on the sky, a colonel, a police lieutenant, a commercial pilot, his wife and a policeman try to stop the aliens.
  19. The '?' Motorist poster
    The '?' Motorist (1906)
    Walter R. Booth · 1 critic vote
    A magical glowing white motorcar ignores policemen, drives up buildings, flies through outer space, and can transform into a horse and carriage.
  20. Earth II poster
    Earth II (2021)
    Anti-Banality Union · 1 critic vote
    In the near future, a space station dubbed Earth II is built for the purpose of scientific research and world peace. However, that peace is shattered when the Chinese send up a nuclear bomb that is orbiting just a few miles away from the station. Can the crew disarm the bomb before it detonates, not only destroying the station but setting off World War III?
  21. Of Stars and Men poster
    Of Stars and Men (1964)
    John Hubley · 1 critic vote
    Of Stars and Men is a 1964 animated film from the Hubley family of animators, based on the 1959 book of the same name by astronomer Harlow Shapley, who also narrates. Made in the style of a documentary, it tells of humankind's quest (in the form of a child) to find its place in the universe, through themes such as outer space, physical matter, the meaning of life and the periodic table. There are no character voices; instead, they "talk" through their actions. It has been cited as an example of an "animated documentary".
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