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Best Sci-Fi Movies Alone On A Rainy Night From The 80S And 90S That Will Make You Think For Days

These sci-fi picks were hand-selected for a rainy night in, not pulled from a popularity chart. Every pick is chosen for emotional and situational fit, not streaming popularity or critic scores.

The best sci-fi movies alone on a rainy night from the 80s and 90s that will make you think for days. Includes Gattaca, Predator, Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Rebor...

There's a particular kind of film for a rainy night alone - absorbing enough to pull you fully in, good enough that you don't check your phone once.

The 80s and 90s are where a lot of cinema's DNA was written. Films that set the templates still running today.

Science fiction cinema at its finest takes ideas seriously. Not as window dressing — as the engine. These films are built around questions worth asking.

Gattaca movie poster
1
1997 · ★★★½☆ 7.6/10

Vincent is an all-too-human man who dares to defy a system obsessed with genetic perfection. He is an "In-Valid" who assumes the identity of a member of the genetic elite to pursue his goal of traveling into space with the Gattaca Aerospace Corporation.

Predator movie poster
2
1987 · ★★★½☆ 7.5/10

A team of elite commandos on a secret mission in a Central American jungle come to find themselves hunted by an extraterrestrial warrior.

Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn movie poster
3
1995 · ★★★½☆ 7.5/10

Not paying attention to his job, a young demon allows the evil cleansing machine to overflow and explode, turning the young demon into the infamous monster Janemba. Goku and Vegeta make solo attempts to defeat the monster, but realize their only option is fusion.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial movie poster
4
1982 · ★★★½☆ 7.5/10

An alien is left behind on Earth and saved by the 10-year-old Elliott who decides to keep him hidden in his home. While a task force hunts for the extra-terrestrial, Elliott, his brother, and his little sister Gertie form an emotional bond with their new friend, and try to help him find his way home.

Back to the Future Part III movie poster
5
1990 · ★★★½☆ 7.5/10

The final installment finds Marty digging the trusty DeLorean out of a mineshaft and looking for Doc in the Wild West of 1885. But when their time machine breaks down, the travelers are stranded in a land of spurs. More problems arise when Doc falls for pretty schoolteacher Clara Clayton, and Marty tangles with Buford Tannen.

These films use the grammar of science fiction — the technology, the strangeness, the distance — to say things that couldn't be said any other way.

A Grand Day Out movie poster
6
1990 · ★★★½☆ 7.5/10

Wallace and Gromit have run out of cheese, and this provides an excellent excuse for the duo to take their holiday to the moon, where, as everyone knows, there is ample cheese.

Memories movie poster
7
1995 · ★★★½☆ 7.5/10

Three back-to-back anime films by three different directors make up this sci-fi trilogy three years in the making.

The Secret of NIMH movie poster
8
1982 · ★★★½☆ 7.5/10

A widowed field mouse must move her family -- including an ailing son -- to escape a farmer's plow. Aided by a crow and a pack of superintelligent, escaped lab rats, the brave mother struggles to transplant her home to firmer ground.

Open Your Eyes movie poster
9
1997 · ★★★½☆ 7.5/10

Handsome 25-year-old Cesar had it all -- a successful career, expensive cars, a swank bachelor's pad, and an endless string of beautiful and willing women -- until he is thrown into a strange psychological mystery after a car accident scars his face and lands him in prison.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan movie poster
10
1982 · ★★★½☆ 7.4/10

The starship Enterprise and its crew is pulled back into action when old nemesis, Khan, steals a top secret device called Project Genesis.

A film that makes you think for days has done something rare: it's trusted you to do the work. These films trust you.

The best sci-fi films feel more relevant with time, not less. The future they imagined turns out to be a map of now.

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