MOVIEPIQ · SCI-FI · FOR RESTLESS NIGHTS

Sci-Fi Movies For Restless Nights From The 80S And 90S

Sci-Fi movies for restless nights from the 80s and 90s. Includes Dragon Ball Z: Cooler's Revenge, The Dead Zone, Strange Days and more, curated by Moviepiq.

Late. Restless. Not ready to give up on the day yet. These work for that.

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 right film for when sleep won't cooperate but exhaustion is already there.

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.

Absorbing enough to quiet the mind, calm enough not to wind it back up.

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.

Absorbing enough to quiet the mind, calm enough not to wind it back up.

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.

Absorbing enough to quiet the mind, calm enough not to wind it back up.

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.

The right film for when sleep won't cooperate but exhaustion is already there.

A film that helps a restless night has something specific going for it. These have it.

Transporting enough to break the loop of restlessness.

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.

Absorbing enough to quiet the mind, calm enough not to wind it back up.

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.

The right film for when sleep won't cooperate but exhaustion is already there.

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.

Absorbing enough to quiet the mind, calm enough not to wind it back up.

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 right film for when sleep won't cooperate but exhaustion is already there.

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.

Absorbing enough to quiet the mind, calm enough not to wind it back up.

These films work because they match where you actually are, not where you think you should be.

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