The 5 Greatest Sci-Fi Movies Since 2020, Ranked

Image via Searchlight Pictures Published Sep 5, 2026, 8:30 AM EDT David is a Senior Editor at Collider focused primarily on Lists. His professional journey began in the mid-2010s as a Marketing specialist before embarking on his writing career in the 2020s. At Collider, David started as a Senior Writer in late 2022 and has been a Senior Editor since mid-2023. He is in charge of ideating compelling and engaging List articles by working closely with writers, both Senior and Junior, as well as other editors. Occasionally, David also reviews movies and TV shows and writes episode recaps. Currently, David is also writing his second novel, a psychological horror satire that will, hopefully, be picked up for publication sometime next year. Sign in to your Collider account Science fiction is one of cinema's most enduring genres, producing countless gems from the earliest days of the medium. Indeed, foundational movies like A Trip to the Moon and Metropolis allow us to appreciate how sci-fi has shaped cinema as a whole, evolving with the times and becoming one of the pillars upon which the medium rises today. The genre has been especially strong this decade. We still have a way to go in the 2020s, but so far, sci-fi has given us everything from modernized Frankenstein stories to wacky multiversal journeys, all filtered through a modern and often bold approach that proves just how versatile sci-fi truly is. These are the best sci-fi movies released since the year 2020, perfect efforts that continue the genre's unique ability to reflect current concerns in distinctly ambitious and mind-bending settings. 5 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' (2022) Image via A24 Everything Everywhere All at Once stars Michelle Yeoh as Evelyn Wang, an overworked and overstressed woman dealing with a meek husband, a rebellious daughter, and a struggling laundromat, all while being audited by the IRS. Things change when she gets visited by an alternate version of her husband, Waymond (Ke Huy Quan), who tells her she's the only one capable of defeating a villain known as Jobu Tupaki and saving the entire multiverse from collapsing. A wild mix of genres, tones, and sheer vibes, Everything Everywhere All at Once is one of the most original and singular movies ever made. The film is bursting at the seams with so many ideas that it's incredible how it still leads to a cohesive, exhilarating, and unforgettable whole. Directed by The Daniels, the movie has so much fun with multiple genres, indulging itself by following every thought it could possibly have, including the intrusive ones. Everything Everywhere All at Once won the 2023 Oscar for Best Picture, one of the boldest and most refreshing choices the Academy has ever made. Four years later, it still feels wildly creative and wholly unique, aging incredibly well past the initial frenzy. 4 'Godzilla Minus One' (2023) Image via Toho Godzilla is a proper icon of cinema. Since his debut in the eponymous 1954 movie, the kaiju has kept fascinating audiences worldwide with his massive destruction. In 2023, he starred in what might just be his best movie since the '54 original, the Oscar-winning Godzilla Minus One. Set in post-war Japan and starring Ryunosuke Kamiki, the film centers on a kamikaze pilot reeling from an encounter with Godzilla. When the monster attacks again, he must rise to the challenge. Minus One makes Godzilla scary again, going back to the creature's roots as a representation of the consequences of war. Indeed, the film deals with everything from nuclear fear to trauma and redemption. It succeeds because we have an emotional connection to the characters and understand their struggle, trying to keep things together while facing an unknowable, inescapable fear. As for Godzilla himself, he's more badass than ever, rampaging through Tokyo with far more fury than we've seen from him in ages. It fits the tone of the film, which opts for one of anguish and genuine dread at the devastation and the hopelessness of the situation. Godzilla Minus One is a kaiju movie that's both clever and explosive; here's hoping the upcoming sequel lives up to it. 3 'After Yang' (2021) Image via A24 AI is dominating today's headlines, as it keeps invading most aspects of our everyday lives while we struggle to understand it, let alone keep up with it. Many movies have dealt with the subject, but few have done it with more emotional intelligence or insight than Kogonada's After Yang. The film follows a family's attempts to repair Yang, a teenage android acquired to assist the young Chinese daughter in connecting with her heritage. Colin Farrell, Jodie Turner-Smith, and Justin H. Min star. Rather than presenting a bleak future overrun with androids, After Yang goes for a cozy, quiet, somewhat eerie depiction of the world. Like the best movies about AI, this one is all about connection, presence, and what it means to exist. It dares us to question ourselves about how we relate to the technology we've become so dependent upon, how we value it, and, in the process, how we interact with each other. These are ambitious questions, and After Yang doesn't always arrive at a genuine answer. However, it remains a profoundly bittersweet and ultimately rewarding piece of soft sci-fi that's emotional without being sentimental. Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you'd actually make it out of alive. 💊The Matrix 🔥Mad Max 🌧️Blade Runner 🏜️Dune 🚀Star Wars TEST YOUR SURVIVAL → 01 You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one. APull on every thread until I understand the system — then figure out how to break it. BStop asking questions and start stockpiling — food, fuel, weapons. Questions don't keep you alive. CKeep my head down, observe carefully, and trust no one until I know who's pulling the strings. DStudy the patterns. Every system has a rhythm — learn it, and you learn how to survive it. EFind the people fighting back and join them. You can't fix a broken galaxy alone. NEXT QUESTION → 02 In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires. AKnowledge. If you understand the system, you don't need resources — you can generate them. BFuel. Everything else — movement, power, escape — runs on it. CTrust. In a world of fakes and informants, a truly reliable ally is rarer than any commodity. DWater. And after water, information — the two things empires are truly built on. EShips and credits. The galaxy is big — you survive it by being able to move through it freely. NEXT QUESTION → 03 What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you're honest about what you're actually afraid of. AThat reality itself is a lie — that everything I experience has been constructed to keep me compliant. BA raid. No warning, no mercy — just the roar of engines and then nothing left. CBeing identified. Once someone with power decides you're a problem, you're already out of time. DBeing outmanoeuvred — losing a political game I didn't even know I was playing. EThe Empire tightening its grip until there's nowhere left to run. NEXT QUESTION → 04 How do you deal with authority you don't trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything. ASubvert it from the inside — learn its rules well enough to weaponise them against it. BIgnore it and stay out of its reach. The further from any power structure, the better. CAppear to comply while doing exactly what I need to do. Visibility is the enemy. DManoeuvre within it carefully. You can't beat a system you refuse to understand. EResist openly when I have to. Some things are worth the risk of being seen. NEXT QUESTION → 05 Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn't just tactical — it's physical, psychological, and very much about where you are. AUnderground bunkers and server rooms — cramped, artificial, but with access to everything that matters. BOpen wasteland — brutal sun, no shelter, constant movement. At least the threat is honest. CA dense, rain-soaked city where you can disappear into the crowd and nobody asks questions. DMerciless desert — extreme heat, no water, and something enormous living beneath the sand. EThe fringe — backwater planets and busy spaceports where the Empire's attention rarely reaches. NEXT QUESTION → 06 Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are. AA tight crew of believers who've seen behind the curtain and have nothing left to lose. BOne or two people I'd trust with my life. Any more than that and someone talks. CNobody, ideally. Alliances are liabilities. I work alone unless I have no choice. DA community bound by shared hardship and mutual survival — people who need each other to last. EA ragtag team with wildly different skills and total commitment when it counts. NEXT QUESTION → 07 Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they're actually made of. AI won't harm the innocent — even the ones who'd report me without hesitation. BI do what I have to to protect the people I've chosen. Everything else is negotiable. CThe line shifts depending on who's asking and what's at stake. DI draw a long-term line — nothing that compromises my people's future, even if it'd help now. ESome lines, once crossed, can't be uncrossed. I know which ones they are. NEXT QUESTION → 08 What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another. AWaking others up — dismantling the illusion so no one else has to live inside it. BFinding somewhere — or someone — worth protecting. A reason to keep moving. CAnswers. Understanding what I am, what any of this means, before time runs out. DLegacy — shaping the future in a way that outlasts me by generations. EFreedom — for myself, for others, for every world still living under someone else's boot. REVEAL MY WORLD → Your Fate Has Been Calculated You'd Survive In…Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for. The MatrixYou took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You're a systems thinker who can't help but notice the seams in things. You're drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it. You'd find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines' worst nightmare. You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it. The Matrix built an airtight prison. You'd be the one probing the walls for the door. Mad MaxThe wasteland doesn't reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That's you. You don't need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon. You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you're good at all three. You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider. In the wasteland, that distinction is everything. Blade RunnerYou'd survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely. You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer. In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional. You're not a hero. But you're not lost, either. In Blade Runner's world, that distinction is everything. DuneArrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards. Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they're survival tools. You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory. Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You'd learn its logic and earn its respect. In time, you wouldn't just survive Arrakis — you'd begin to reshape it. Star WarsThe galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn't have it any other way. You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion. You'd gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire's grip can be broken. You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn't something you're capable of. In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ 2 'Poor Things' (2023) Image via Searchlight Pictures Yorgos Lanthimos has made a career out of creating quirky, off-putting movies that bridge awkward comedy with genuinely disturbing themes. In 2023, he gave us what might be his finest effort to date, Poor Things, an adaptation of the eponymous novel by Alasdair Gray. An Oscar-winning Emma Stone stars as Bella Baxter, a young Victorian woman brought back to life by scientist Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe). Curious and intelligent, Bella soon embarks on a self-discovery adventure with debauched lawyer Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo). Poor Things offers a softer take on sci-fi, using the genre as a setup for a coming-of-age discovery full of wicked humor, sexual escapades, and powerful messages. Stone gives a career-best performance as the newly revived Bella, desperate to discover everything and experiencing the world for the first time. Said world is a pastel-colored, Steampunk-adjacent version of Victorian England that feels as alien to us as it is to Bella. Poor Things has a lot to say about independence, agency, feminism, and bodily autonomy, all coated under a heavy layer of biting, absurdist, often confrontational humor. Many will be confused by the movie, and others will find issue with its premise, but the fact remains that Poor Things is a remarkable, courageous story of self-discovery the likes of which we haven't seen before or since. 1 'Dune: Part Two' (2024) Image via Warner Bros. Pictures If there's a piece of sci-fi that has become representative of the 2020s as a whole, it's Dune. Denis Villeneuve's take on Frank Herbert's seemingly unadaptable novel quickly became a proper cultural phenomenon, introducing a whole new generation to the wonders of sci-fi. The 2021 original was a solid introduction to the world of Arrakis, but it was the sequel, 2024's Dune: Part Two, that brought the series to new creative and technical heights. Timothée Chalamet reprises his role as young Paul Atreides, who joins the Fremen on his quest to avenge the fall of his house and family at the hands of the ruthless Harkonnen clan. As a blockbuster, Dune: Part Two dazzles with sheer, jaw-dropping spectacle. As a tragic space opera, the film is honest about its message regarding false idols and the dangers of messianic heroes forged by prophecy and expectation. Villeneuve finds the right balance between philosophical and political overtones and explosive, exciting action. The result is a masterpiece of a blockbuster, a genuine triumph that already feels like a classic of the genre. The saga is set to end this year with Dune: Part Three, which might very well be the best entry. Dune: Part Two Release Date February 27, 2024 Cast Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Dave Bautista, Christopher Walken, Lea Seydoux, Stellan Skarsgård, Charlotte Rampling, Souheila Yacoub, Roger Yuan, Babs Olusanmokun, Giusi Merli, Kait Tenison, Tara Breathnach, Akiko Hitomi, Imola Gáspár, Elbooz Omar Ahmed Fathie, Abdelkarim Hussein Seli Mohamed Hassanin, Joseph Beddelem, Xavier Alba Royo, Rachid Abbad Runtime 167 minutes Director Denis Villeneuve Writers Denis Villeneuve, Jon Spaihts, Frank Herbert