The best sci-fi movies on Max right now

Thanks to a particularly deep bench of films from the Warner Bros. catalog, Max has a lineup of sci-fi movies that rank among the best ever made. The problem is that once you’re done with the classics, Max doesn’t have a lot of sci-fi films to replenish its library.

Max’s movies from other studios partially fill that gap, but the selection really feels like its thinning out this month. Contents High Life Aliens The Iron Giant Dune Blade Runner 2049 Upgrade Source Code Predator The Maze Runner Dawn of the Planet of the Apes Avatar Spaceballs Under the Skin Strange Days Avatar: The Way of Water X-Men: Days of Future Past Monsters vs. Aliens Limitless Edge of Tomorrow 2001: A Space Odyssey Ex Machina The Terminator The Matrix Show 18 more items Our latest additions to the best sci-fi movies on Max include a heady sci-fi drama called High Life , as well as James Cameron’s Aliens , and Brad Bird’s animated classic, The Iron Giant .

Beyond those three titles, you can find more of Max’s science fiction selections below. Recommended Videos In need of some more streaming recommendations? We also have guides to the best movies on Max , the best shows on Max , and what’s new on HBO and Max that are worth looking through. Save on everything from laptops and tablets, to coffee makers and air purifiers, and smart home essentials like the Amazon Echo.

High Life A24 Year: 2018 Runtime: 1 hour, 53 minutes Director: Claire Denis High Life is a film that requires a great deal of patience because it’s not the kind of sci-fi movie with thrills or a lot of action. Instead, it’s the story of a doomed spaceship in space that is staffed by prisoners who would have otherwise faced death sentences on Earth. Robert Pattinson stars in the film as Monte, one of the few inmates on the ship who is relatively well-adjusted.

That’s why Monte captures the attention of Dr. Dibs (Juliette Binoche), a deranged scientist on the ship who uses his DNA to create a child with another prisoner named Boyse ( Pearl ‘s Mia Goth). But as the ship continues on its one-way trip to oblivion, Monte may be the only person who can give his child some semblance of a life.

Aliens 20th Century Fox, Brandywine Productions Year: 1986 Runtime: 2 hours, 18 minutes Director: James Cameron Aliens was only the third film that James Cameron directed, and it was his first project after The Terminator . But Cameron’s command of the screen was already evident in this superlative sequel to Ridley Scott’s Alien . Sigourney Weaver is the only returning cast member from the original film, and she reprises her role as Ellen Ripley, the lone crewmember of the Nostromo to make it back to Earth.

As Ripley struggles to overcome her trauma, and the idea of losing decades of her time in suspended animation, she is recruited for a Colonial Marine mission on the colony LV-426. This time, the Xenomorph invasion has completely overrun the entire colony. Ripley soon suspects that their true mission is to bring back samples of the creatures so the Weyland-Yutani Corporation can turn them into biological weapons.

The Iron Giant Warner Bros. Animation Year: 1999 Runtime: 1 hour, 27 minutes Director: Brad Bird The Iron Giant may be the greatest animated movie that Warner Bros. has ever produced.

Before he jumped ship to Pixar, director and screenwriter Brad Bird completely re-envisioned Ted Hughes’ original story by setting it in America in the late ‘50s when the Cold War paranoia was particularly high. Vin Diesel lends his voice to the Iron Giant, a strange visitor from another world who befriends a young boy named Hogarth Hughes (Eli Marienthal). Although Hogarth sees the inherent goodness in the giant, Federal Agent Kent Mansley (Christopher McDonald) is so convinced that the giant is a threat that he’s willing to sacrifice anyone who gets in the way of his plans to destroy the Iron Giant.

Dune Warner Bros. Pictures Year: 2021 Runtime: 2 hours, 36 minutes Director: Denis Villeneuve Impatient viewers may have a hard time with the modern adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune because it really takes its time getting to a cliffhanger ending for the upcoming sequel. Unlike David Lynch, director Denis Villeneuve had the room to space things out, so to speak.

The result is one of the most lavish sci-fi epics in decades. Timothée Chalamet stars as Paul Atreides, but a good deal of this film belongs to Paul’s father, Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac). Despite his suspicions that he was sent to Arrakis to fail, Duke Leto genuinely believes he can improve the lives of the native Fremen and bring peace to the most important planet in the universe.

Unfortunately for House Atreides, their enemies have already made plans to destroy them, and Paul may be the only one who can keep his family line alive. Blade Runner 2049 Warner Bros. / Warner Bros.

Pictures Year: 2017 Runtime: 2 hours, 44 minutes Director: Denis Villeneuve Someone in Hollywood keeps letting director Denis Villeneuve take big swings with sci-fi films that don’t make much money. Fortunately, Blade Runner 2049 is an emerging cult classic in the genre and one of the most visually arresting movies of the last ten years. Decades after the events of the original Blade Runner , a Replicant named K (Ryan Gosling) discovers evidence that a female Replicant died while giving birth to a hybrid human child.

More alarmingly, K believes that he may be the hybrid child of none other than Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), a Blade Runner who went off the grid years before. And if K can’t find Deckard before the forces of billionaire Niander Wallace (Jared Leto), then the future of every Replicant may be very bleak. Upgrade Universal Pictures Year: 2018 Runtime: 1 hour, 40 minutes Director: Leigh Whannell Grey Trace (Logan Marshall-Green) is not a violent man in Upgrade , but he soon will be.

Before Grey and his wife, Asha Trace (Melanie Vallejo), were attacked, they were happy and content. In the aftermath of that incident, Asha is killed and Grey is left paralyzed and despondent. Billionaire Eron Keen (Harrison Gilbertson) offers Grey a chance to regain his mobility via implants powered by the artificial intelligence known as STEM (Simon Maiden).

Grey soon discovers that STEM can offer him much more than mobility. It can give him the revenge he desires, just as long as Grey is willing to let STEM take over his body. Source Code Summit Entertainment Year: 2011 Runtime: 1 hour, 33 minutes Director: Duncan Jones Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) just isn’t the man that he used to be…literally! In Source Code , Colter suddenly finds himself out of the combat zone and on a civilian train heading into Chicago while seemingly in another man’s body.

Then the train blows up, again and again. On each pass, Colter encounters Christina Warren (Michelle Monaghan), a fellow passenger, as he slowly learns the truth about what is happening to him. Colter is in the source code and he has a mission to fulfill before it’s too late.

But there may be no release from this deadly cycle unless Colter discovers who left the bomb in the first place. Predator 20th Century Studios Year: 1987 Runtime: 1 hour, 47 minutes Director: John McTiernan The action satire Predator is the granddaddy of all its sequels and spinoff movies, but it’s also best known for cementing Arnold Schwarzenegger’s place as an action icon of the ’80s. Major Alan “Dutch” Schaefer (Schwarzenegger) leads a small team that includes Master Sergeant Mac Eliot (Bill Duke), Staff Sergeant Jorge “Poncho” Ramírez (Richard Chaves), Sgt.

1st Class Blain Cooper (Jesse Ventura), Sgt. 1st Class Billy Sole (Sonny Landham), and Sergeant Rick Hawkins (Shane Black). But don’t get too attached to any of those guys.

Just as Dutch starts to suspect that his CIA contact, Al Dillon (Carl Weathers), has sent them into an impossible situation, the team comes under attack by a being from another world: The Predator (Kevin Peter Hall). It’s a lethal creature who loves to hunt big game like humans. As his men fall one by one, Dutch takes it upon himself to bring the Predator down.

The Maze Runner 20th Century Studios Year: 2014 Runtime: 1 hour, 54 minutes Director: Wes Ball The Maze Runner takes place in a strange dystopian future and follows Thomas (Dylan O’Brien), a teenager who finds himself placed in an open enclosure called the Glade alongside a thriving mini-society of boys like him. Alby (Aml Ameen), the leader of the Gladers, welcomes Thomas to their ranks, but Gally (Will Poulter) views him with suspicion and exhibits signs of a mental breakdown. Because of Thomas’ ability to transverse and survive in the vast maze that holds the Gladers captive, he is given the status of a Runner to help the group escape.

But when Teresa (Kaya Scodelario) becomes the first and only female to be sent to the Glade, her arrival sets off a chain of events that will force the Gladers to adapt or die. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes 20th Century Studios Year: 2014 Runtime: 2 hours, 11 minutes Director: Matt Reeves Before he went on to helm The Batman , director Matt Reeves took over the Planet of the Apes prequel trilogy with the second film, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes . In this installment, a decade has passed since Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Caesar (Andy Serkis) has set up an ape colony near San Francisco.

Despite tensions with a new colony of human survivors, Caesar comes to trust and befriend Malcolm (Jason Clarke), the first man who truly tries to reason and coexist with the apes. However, one of Caesar’s followers, Koba (Tobey Kebbell), is willing to betray Caesar for the chance to kill the humans. And on the other side, the human leader, Dreyfus (Gary Oldman), is preparing for war with the apes.

The battle lines have been drawn, and the oncoming tragedy may be inevitable despite the best efforts of both Caesar and Malcolm. Avatar 20th Century Studios Year: 2009 Runtime: 2 hours, 42 minutes Director: James Cameron Avatar is still the reigning worldwide box office champion, and it’s back on Max. In the film, director James Cameron took audiences to a distant world called Pandora, where humanity is attempting to take the natural resources from the native people, the Na’vi.

Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) replaces his late brother on a mission to Pandora that allows him to inhabit a Na’vi-like body so he can befriend the Na’vi and gain their trust while working for Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang). Jake quickly forms a bond with a Na’vi woman, Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), who takes it upon herself to teach him about life on Pandora. But the more time that Jake spends on Pandora, the more he realizes that he’s on the wrong side.

Unfortunately for Jake, it may already be too late to save the Na’vi’s world from Quaritch and the colonizers from Earth. Spaceballs MGM Year: 1987 Runtime: 1 hour, 37 minutes Director: Mel Brooks Spaceballs is more of a Star Wars spoof than a real sci-fi movie on its own terms. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t a fun science fiction story! Mel Brooks takes aim at all of the big franchises of the ’80s and also co-stars in the film as both Yogurt the Wise and the evil President Skroob of Planet Spaceball.

Skroob, Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis), and Colonel Sandurz (George Wyner) plot to kidnap Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga) and steal all of the air from her planet. The ones who can save the day are the roguish mercenary Lone Starr (Bill Pullman) and his alien sidekick, Barf (John Candy). This story plays out in very familiar ways, but it’s also relentlessly funny and it never stops being silly.

If you’re willing to laugh at your favorite genre, then this is the movie for you. Under the Skin StudioCanal Year: 2013 Runtime: 1 hour, 49 minutes Director: Jonathan Glazer Asteroid City ‘s Scarlett Johansson stars in Under the Skin as an alien woman who seduces men and feeds them to some kind of alien void. The reason that this film stands out is that Under the Skin refuses to explain its premise in simple terms, and Johansson’s character never even gets a real name.

When the woman begins feeling empathy for one of her victims, she flees her fellow aliens and attempts to determine if she has an identity of her own. However, she has no true concept of what humanity is really capable of. And she’s about to find out the hard way.

Strange Days 20th Century Studios Year: 1995 Runtime: 2 hours, 26 minutes Director: Kathryn Bigelow Director Kathryn Bigelow and her ex-husband, The Terminator ‘s James Cameron, collaborated on Strange Days , an underrated sci-fi classic from the mid-90s. In the near future, memories recorded on SQUID devices have become the drug of choice in Los Angeles. Ex-LAPD officer Lenny Nero (Ralph Fiennes) turned his back on the law to deal in memories, much to the chagrin of his friend, Lornette “Mace” Mason (Angela Bassett).

But when Lenny comes across a memory recording of Iris (Brigitte Bako) being raped and murdered, it thrusts him deeper into the dangerous criminal underworld. Avatar: The Way of Water 20th Century Studios / 20th Century Studios Year: 2022 Runtime: 3 hours, 12 minutes Director: James Cameron Disney’s gain is apparently also Max’s gain. Through a content-sharing deal, James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water is streaming on Max, and it might be the last new 20th Century Studios release to do so.

The Way of Water picks up 16 years after the original film, as Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his wife, Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), live peacefully on Pandora while raising a family, including their adoptive daughter, Kiri (Sigourney Weaver). When humanity re-invades Pandora, Jake learns that his old adversary, Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), lives on through his recorded memories in a cloned Avatar body. To protect themselves from Quaritch’s vendetta, Jake and Neytiri take their family into hiding and attempt to make new allies among the Na’vi.

But they can’t hide forever… X-Men: Days of Future Past Image used with permission by copyright holder Year: 2014 Runtime: 2 hours, 12 minutes Director: Bryan Singer Inspired by a classic comic book storyline with the same name, X-Men: Days of Future Past is one of the few superhero movies that works as a straightforward sci-fi film as well. In the present, mutants are on the verge of extinction and things are so bad that even Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Magneto (Ian McKellen) are working together to survive. In a desperate plan to change the past, the X-Men send the mind of Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) back to the ‘70s to change the past.

Once his present-day mind inhabits his younger body, Wolverine recruits the younger versions of Xavier (James McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender) to find Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence). If they fail to stop Mystique from killing Dr. Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage), then their future is doomed.

Monsters vs. Aliens Image used with permission by copyright holder Year: 2009 Runtime: 1 hour, 35 minutes Directors: Conrad Vernon and Rob Letterman On her wedding day, Susan Murphy (Reese Witherspoon) is transformed into a giant and thrust into the bizarre world of DreamWorks Animation’s Monsters vs. Aliens .

Alienated from her old life and renamed Ginormica, Susan is forced to live and work with other creatures including B. O. B.

(Seth Rogen), Dr. Cockroach (Hugh Laurie), and The Missing Link (Will Arnett). When aliens attack Earth, Ginormica and her newfound friends are offered their freedom if they battle the invaders on behalf of humanity.

But if the monsters want to save the world, they will have to overcome the alien overlord, Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson). Limitless Relativity Media Year: 2011 Runtime: 1 hour, 45 minutes Director: Shawn Levy How far would you go if there was nothing holding your mind back? In Limitless , the new drug, NZT-48, gives Eddie Morra ( Bradley Cooper ) such a significant mental boost that he is basically the smartest man in the world while the drug is active. This gives Eddie a chance to attain the success and wealth of his wildest dreams and attracts the attention of a wealthy man named Carlos Van Loon (Robert De Niro).

But all of this comes with a heavy price for Eddie, which includes serious side effects and potentially his death. And when someone steals Eddie’s supply of NZT-48, he finds himself ill-equipped to handle the mounting threats against his life. Edge of Tomorrow Warner Bros.

Year: 2014 Runtime: 1 hour, 53 minutes Director: Doug Liman It’s hard to believe it’s almost been a decade since Edge of Tomorrow hit theaters, but it remains one of the best modern sci-fi films. In the near future, Earth has been invaded by aliens that are steadily conquering the world. Cruise stars as William Cage, an officer who is demoted to private and sent into a doomed battle against the aliens.

However, Cage soon discovers that exposure to the aliens’ blood has given him the ability to relive the same day over and over again. This often means that Cage has to die to reset the day, usually in painful ways. The legendary warrior, Sgt.

Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), takes it upon herself to help Cage use this newfound ability to become a true soldier. But much to Cage’s horror, he and Vrataski are seemingly always doomed to die long before they can defeat the alien threat. 2001: A Space Odyssey Image via Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Year: 1968 Runtime: 2 hours, 23 minutes Director: Stanley Kubrick The word “masterpiece” tends to get thrown around a lot in film criticism.

But 2001: A Space Odyssey more than lives up to the hype even decades later. director Stanley Kubrick and writer Arthur C. Clarke crafted an unforgettable sci-fi epic that is told more through visuals than anything spoken aloud.

Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood star respectively as Dr. David Bowman and Dr. Frank Poole.

Together, David and Frank are part of a deep space mission to investigate a massive alien monolith that may be connected to the origins of humanity millions of years earlier. Unfortunately for David and Frank, their onboard artificial intelligence, HAL 9000, is developing some very dangerous and paranoid tendencies that may threaten more than just their mission. Ex Machina Image used with permission by copyright holder Year: 2015 Runtime: 1 hour, 48 minutes Director: Alex Garland You’ll find that machines turning on humans is a common theme in sci-fi, and so too is the idea that machines can be almost indistinguishable from humans.

Ex Machina plays with both notions by giving the AI known as Ava (Alicia Vikander) a human face and a very feminine demeanor. Ava is also a lot better at being human, or at least pretending to be human, than her creator, Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac) suspects. Domhnall Gleeson also stars in the film as Caleb Smith, an ordinary employee of Nathan’s who is invited to examine Ava to determine if she genuinely has a humanlike consciousness.

Almost immediately, Ava manipulates Caleb and tries to turn him against Nathan. The Terminator Orion Pictures Year: 1984 Runtime: 1 hour. 47 minutes Director: James Cameron Terminator 2 is also on Max, and it is visually superior to its predecessor, but in terms of story, The Terminator blows it away.

This was only James Cameron’s second theatrical film in the director’s chair, but it set the stage for everything he did afterward while also making Arnold Schwarzenegger into a star. Linda Hamilton stars as Sarah Connor, an unassuming waitress who has no idea that she’s been marked for death by machines in the future. That’s why the relentless T-800 (Schwarzenegger) has been sent back in time to murder her.

To save Sarah, a man named Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) travels from his future to her present in order to keep the Terminator from altering history. The Matrix Image used with permission by copyright holder Year: 1999 Runtime: 2 hours, 16 minutes Director: The Wachowskis The Matrix was such a game-changing film that it’s surprising that none of its sequels are anywhere near as good as the original. No one can tell you what the Matrix is, and it’s worth the surprise on the off chance that you haven’t seen it yet.

Keanu Reeves stars as Neo, a hacker by night and a lowly programmer by day. After years of searching for the hacker known as Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), an enigmatic woman named Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) arranges for Neo to finally meet the man he has been looking for. And the choice that Morpheus presents to Neo remains one of the greatest surprises in cinema history … especially if you don’t know what’s coming.

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