Ranking The 7 Best Sci-Fi Movies Released Since 2020
Felipe Rangel is a Movie and TV Journalist ScreenRant. He has been writing about movies and TV since 2021. Felipe joined ScreenRant in 2022, working across different teams, covering everything from breaking news to features to reviews and more.
Felipe is a writer who is an avid film and TV fan, with superhero movies and series being his biggest passion. He graduated from college in 2019, having studied Journalism. Before college, he spent a month studying at the Oxford English Centre. His superhero knowledge expands to the comics, with his undergraduate thesis being "Politics Reflected In American Comics."
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Sci-Fi is having a great going in the 2020s, and these seven movies are the genre's best thus far, though some of them rank higher than others. 2026 has proven itself a massive year for sci-fi movies. Not only have they been successful in theaters, but also on streaming, with projects like Reacher star Alan Ritchson's War Machine on Netflix breaking all-time streaming records.
That got me thinking about all the excellent sci-fi movies that have been released in the 2020s so far. We have had films that explored the multiverse, time travel, and more. Sci-fi movies of the most varied subgenres, like hard-sci-fi, space operas, monster movies, and everything in between. It is honestly an embarrassment of riches, with the genre also doing well on TV.
With that in mind, I decided to rank the best sci-fi movies of the 2020s thus far. The method for the list was to select which movie would serve as the best sci-fi film of the year they were released in, with the list collecting a movie for each year from 2020 to 2026. There is something to note though.
As 2026 has yet to come to a close, two massive sci-fi movies are being left out of the list. Those are Marvel Studios' next MCU movie, Avengers: Doomsday, and Denis Villeneuve's final Dune movie, Dune: Part Three. Either of those could end up topping the 2026 portion of the list, but I feel pretty strongly about this year's candidate for the rankings, which include:
7 Palm Springs (2020)
2020 was a bit of a gap year for the movie industry as a whole, given the COVID-19 pandemic led to a global shutdown of theatrical operations, among many other things. That said, the year still yielded some worthy candidates for the list, and I feel Palm Springs is not only the year's strongest, but also one of the most charming sci-fi movies released in the 2020s.
Palm Springs is a time travel movie released on Hulu that stars two actors with impeccable comedic timing: Andy Samberg (Brooklyn Nine-Nine) and Cristin Milioti (How I Met Your Mother). The sci-fi movie sees the actors play two guests at a wedding, Nyles and Sarah, who are stuck in a time loop and are forced to relive the same day. This leads to hilarious situations, dramatic reveals, emotional moments, and lots of chemistry as the characters just keep growing.
6 Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025)
Avatar: Fire and Ash is the latest movie in James Cameron's masterpiece space opera franchise. Avatar: Fire and Ash offers a deeper dive into the lore of Pandora, introducing the frightening Ash People, exploring new biomes, and posing some intriguing philosophical questions. With each movie, the scale of the Avatar universe just keeps getting bigger and somehow more personal each time. The Sully family truly feels like one, and all characters matter.
Sam Worthington gets to shine in Avatar: Fire and Ash, and really the Avatar franchise as a whole, in a way that he has not done in most other projects. Jake Sully remains a force to be reckoned with, and how his dynamic with Stephen Lang's Miles Quaritch shifts in this film is quite entertaining. Additionally, Avatar: Fire and Ash is another of Cameron's visual spectacles, operating on a technical level that perhaps trumps all sci-fi movies from the 2020s.
5 Godzilla Minus One (2023)
Godzilla Minus One is one of, if not the very best, kaiju movies in history. With a reported budget of $15 million, it is simply impossible to believe the level of fidelity the sci-fi movie managed to achieve for the King of the Monsters. Yet there he is, with Godzilla looking like a giant weapon of mass destruction throughout the film, driving fear into humans' hearts.
Godzilla Minus One is not only a visual marvel, but also one of the best entries in the kaiju franchise when it comes to emotional stakes and grounding the monster action with gripping human stories. You often hear complaints about how the Monsterverse wastes a lot of time on human characters no one cares about. This separate iteration of the Godzilla franchise makes every second of the story count and boosts the destruction caused by the kaiju.
4 Project Hail Mary (2026)
With Dune: Part Three and Avengers: Doomsday still a few months away, I feel pretty confident in saying that Project Hail Mary is the best sci-fi movie of 2026 so far. It makes sense, as it unites intricate practical effects and cutting-edge VFX to make one of the most visually appealing sci-fi movies of all time. When Ryan Gosling's Ryland Grace makes it to space, nearly every shot could make for a poster.
Project Hail Mary also tells an emotional story about connection. This is a man who starts the movie with amnesia, only to remember that he is humanity's last hope on a suicide mission to space, and still finds the time to bond with an adorable alien companion, aka Rocky. Without Gosling's charisma, the movie would not work. This is a sci-fi masterpiece with the highest of stakes that is grounded in real science and lovable character interactions.
3 Dune (2021)
Villeneuve is one of the best modern sci-fi masters we have. After helming movies like Blade Runner 2049 and Arrival, Villeneuve somehow surpassed his magnificent work with the release of Dune. The top-of-industry VFX in this movie will have you thinking Arrakis is a real place, not a fictional planet. All the ships, buildings, creatures, and more feel tangible, with Dune's scale and world-building being dense and impressive.
Dune also boasts one of the genre's best casts, including names like Zendaya, Oscar Isaac, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, and many more. As the audience follows Timothée Chalamet's Paul Atreides in a desperate quest for survival amid a galactic game of politics. Dune is one of the best space operas and movies of all time. It might move slowly, but the world-building, performances, eventual action, and more make the ride worth it.
2 Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)
Everything Everywhere All At Once uses the multiverse to deliver an emotional and thrilling story. Its core concept is that even though your life might not seem as exciting as the many other possibilities that exist out there in your imagination — or in the multiverse — the beauty of life is finding the value in even the most trivial things of the life we have, which may often be taken for granted.
Even though superhero franchises like Marvel and DC have been using the multiverse for years, Everything Everywhere All At Once might just be the project to better utilize the concept in the 2020s thus far. The sci-fi movie comes with nuanced performances from actors like Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan, who portray different multiverse iterations of their characters and never miss a beat. This is one that will leave viewers teary-eyed.
1 Dune: Part Two (2024)
Finally, the best sci-fi movie of the 2020s thus far is another Villeneuve Dune movie, aka Dune: Part Two. If the first space opera in the franchise was already a masterpiece, the fact that the sequel took everything that worked for the original and improved on it makes it a generational release. Dune: Part Two has more action, more intense performances, and an even larger scope.
It takes all the slow-burn world-building of the first Dune movie and runs with it, providing ann action-packed ride as Chalamet's Paul Atreides rises to become a messianic figure and reclaim control of Arrakis. In this revenge story, we start with another "Chosen One" sci-fi trope, only to watch as Paul actually exists in the grey. Dune: Part Two also boosted the franchise's cast with the additions of Austin Butler and Florence Pugh, with Zendaya's Chani also getting an expanded role. It is a perfect Sci-Fi movie and the best of the 2020s so far.
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Palm Springs is a sci-fi comedy film that sees two strangers, Nyles and Sarah, who meet at a wedding reception and, after heading off for a night of debauchery, are tossed into a strange vortex that keeps them date locked in November 9th with no perceivable way out. Nyles and Sarah bond while trying to find an escape from the odd time loop as the truth behind the vortex slowly unravels.
- Director
- Max Barbakow
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Avatar: Fire and Ash is a 2025 science fiction film continuing the saga of Pandora. Jake Sully and Neytiri confront a formidable new enemy, the Ash People, led by Varang. Struggling with personal loss and external threats, they strive to protect their family and Pandora's future.
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Godzilla Minus One
8/10
- Release Date
- November 3, 2023
- Runtime
- 124 minutes
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Ryunosuke Kamiki
Koichi Shikishima
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Minami Hamabe
Noriko Oishi
In Godzilla Minus One, set in postwar Japan, an unyielding Godzilla emerges in a landscape already ravaged, leaving survivors to unite against the monstrous threat. With no aid from military forces or government, the community must confront their fears to fend off the escalating peril.
- Director
- Takashi Yamazaki
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Project Hail Mary
9/10
- Release Date
- March 15, 2026
- Runtime
- 157 minutes
-
Ryland Grace
-
James Ortiz
Rocky (voice)
Based on the novel by Andy Weir (The Martian), Project Hail Mary is an action-adventure sci-fi film that stars Ryan Gosling as an astronaut who must save Earth from an oncoming ice age by heading to a faraway galaxy.
- Director
- Christopher Miller, Phil Lord
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Dune
5/10
- Release Date
- September 15, 2021
- Runtime
- 155 minutes
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Paul Atreides
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Rebecca Ferguson
Lady Jessica Atreides
Dune is a science fiction epic directed by Denis Villeneuve, starring Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides. Set on the desert planet Arrakis, the film follows Paul's journey amid a conflict over the planet's valuable resource, spice, as he grapples with his destiny to secure his family's future.
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Everything Everywhere All at Once
8/10
- Release Date
- March 24, 2022
- Runtime
- 140 minutes
-
Evelyn Wang
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Joy Wang / Jobu Tupaki
In Everything Everywhere All at Once, a middle-aged laundromat owner (Michelle Yeoh) is distracted from her financial and family issues by a multiversal crisis. With just her husband (Ke Huy Quan) to support her through the confusion, she must contend with her overbearing traditional father (James Hong), a pencil-pushing auditor (Jamie Lee Curtis), and her emotionally-distant daughter (Stephanie Hsu).
- Director
- Daniel Scheinert, Daniel Kwan
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Dune: Part Two continues the epic saga of Paul Atreides as he allies with Chani and the Fremen. Pursuing retribution for his family's devastation, Paul grapples with a significant decision impacting his personal desires and the universe's future, attempting to avert a dire destiny that only he anticipates.
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