● Trending in the US
MOVIEPIQ · SCI-FI · CURATED LIST

Best Sci-Fi Movies Alone On A Rainy Night From The 80S And 90S You Have Probably Never Heard Of

The Moviepiq team picked these sci-fi films specifically for a rainy night in. No filler. Every film on this list earns its place for exactly this occasion.

The best sci-fi movies alone on a rainy night from the 80s and 90s you have probably never heard of. Includes Dragon Ball Z: Cooler's Revenge, The Dead Zone,...

A rainy night alone is one of the few situations that genuinely calls for a great film. No interruptions, no compromises on what to watch, no one talking over the quiet moments.

The 80s and 90s remain a goldmine. Films that were commercially dismissed on release and now considered essential.

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

Dragon Ball Z: Cooler's Revenge movie poster
1
1991 · ★★★½☆ 7.0/10

After defeating Frieza, Goku returns to Earth and goes on a camping trip with Gohan and Krillin. Everything is normal until Cooler - Frieza's brother - sends three henchmen after Goku. A long fight ensues between our heroes and Cooler, in which he transforms into the fourth stage of his evolution and has the edge in the fight... until Goku transforms into a Super Saiyan.

The Dead Zone movie poster
2
1983 · ★★★½☆ 7.0/10

Johnny Smith is a schoolteacher with his whole life ahead of him but, after leaving his fiancee's home one night, is involved in a car crash which leaves him in a coma for 5 years. When he wakes, he discovers he has an ability to see into the past, present and future life of anyone with whom he comes into physical contact.

Strange Days movie poster
3
1995 · ★★★½☆ 7.0/10

In the last days of 1999, ex-cop turned street hustler Lenny Nero receives a disc which contains the memories of the murder of a prostitute. With the help of bodyguard Mace, he starts to investigate and is pulled deeper and deeper in a whirl of murder, blackmail and intrigue.

Tetsuo: The Iron Man movie poster
4
1989 · ★★★½☆ 7.0/10

A "metal fetishist", driven mad by the maggots wriggling in the wound he's made to embed metal into his flesh, runs out into the night and is accidentally run down by a Japanese businessman and his girlfriend. The pair dispose of the corpse in hopes of quietly moving on with their lives. However, the businessman soon finds that he is now plagued by a vicious curse that transforms his flesh into iron.

Enemy Mine movie poster
5
1985 · ★★★½☆ 7.0/10

A soldier from Earth crashlands on an alien world after sustaining battle damage. Eventually he encounters another survivor, but from the enemy species he was fighting; they band together to survive on this hostile world. In the end the human finds himself caring for his enemy in a completely unexpected way.

Great sci-fi asks impossible questions and then sits with them honestly. No easy answers. No tidy resolutions. Just the question, placed carefully in front of you.

Flight of the Navigator movie poster
6
1986 · ★★★½☆ 7.0/10

12-year-old David is accidentally knocked out in the forest near his home, but when he awakens eight years have passed. His family is overjoyed to have him back, but is just as perplexed as he is that he hasn't aged. When a NASA scientist discovers a UFO nearby, David gets the chance to unravel the mystery and recover the life he lost.

Tremors movie poster
7
1990 · ★★★½☆ 6.9/10

Val McKee and Earl Bassett are in a fight for their lives when they discover that their desolate town has been infested with gigantic, man-eating creatures that live below the ground.

Dragon Ball Z: Super Android 13! movie poster
8
1992 · ★★★½☆ 6.9/10

Dr. Gero's Androids #13, #14, and #15 are awakened by the laboratory computers and immediately head to the mall where Goku is shopping. After Goku, Trunks, and Vegeta defeat #14 and #15, #13 absorbs their inner computers and becomes a super being greater than the original three separately were. Now it is up to Goku to stop him.

Starman movie poster
9
1984 · ★★★½☆ 6.9/10

When an alien takes the form of a young widow's husband and asks her to drive him from Wisconsin to Arizona, the government tries to stop them.

The X-Files movie poster
10
1998 · ★★★½☆ 6.9/10

Mulder and Scully, now taken off the FBI's X Files cases, must find a way to fight the shadowy elements of the government to find out the truth about a conspiracy that might mean the alien colonization of Earth.

The best-kept secrets in cinema aren't obscure for lack of quality. They're obscure because distribution is cruel and algorithms are indifferent.

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

From the Blog

READ Best Movies to Watch Alone at Night
READ Good Movies at Night When Bored
READ The Psychology of Watching Horror Alone

You Might Also Like

ENERGY Sci Fi Movies when You Cant Focus
MINDSTATE Sci Fi Movies anxious Nights
GENRE Fantasy Movies alone Rainy Night
DEEPER Nothing Feels Real
EDITORIAL Best Movies to Watch Alone at Night
Tell us one film you love - we'll find your next one.TRY IT