6 Sci-Fi Movies We Actually Want a Remake Of

Published Nov 15, 2026, 6:03 PM EST

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Hollywood loves a remake, but it doesn’t always pick the right movies to bring back. Too often, studios go after beloved classics that were already perfect, and the new versions end up feeling like mediocre copies that the world could have done without. Sci-fi is a little different, though. Few genres age as quickly as this one thanks to ever-evolving filming technology.

As a result, movies that looked groundbreaking decades ago have already started feeling visually dated, even when their ideas are sharp. This means the films that actually deserve remakes aren’t the ones that got everything right — they are the ones with brilliant ideas that were held back by the technology of their time. Here are six sci-fi movies that actually deserve a remake because the questions they raised feel more relevant now than ever.

1 ‘Forbidden Planet’ (1956)

Image via Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Forbidden Planet was decades ahead of its time, and it paved the way for nearly every space adventure that followed. The film, set in the 23rd century, follows Commander John J. Adams (Leslie Nielsen) and his crew as they travel to the distant planet Altair IV to check on a group of colonists. There, they find only two survivors, including the brilliant Dr. Edward Morbius (Walter Pidgeon) and his daughter, Altaira (Anne Francis), who live alongside a helpful robot named Robby. Soon enough, an invisible force begins attacking them, and the truth behind it is tied to the long-lost civilization that once ruled the planet.

The story of the sci-fi classic is inspired by Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Forbidden Planet, and talks about what happens when people get their hands on power they can’t control. Its central idea is surprisingly deep for a 1950s sci-fi movie, and it would fit right in alongside today’s more thoughtful blockbusters. The problem is that modern audiences may struggle to get past its dated dialogue and old-fashioned gender roles. A remake could keep the eerie mystery and the big ideas of the original story while giving Altaira a much stronger role. Not to mention, with today’s effects, the invisible threat could finally look as terrifying as it was always meant to be, and Forbidden Planet could become a sci-fi classic all over again.

2 ‘Fantastic Voyage’ (1966)

Image Via 20th Century Fox

Fantastic Voyage, directed by Richard Fleischer, has one of the most fun premises in sci-fi history. The story begins when a scientist who defected from behind the Iron Curtain is left in a coma with a blood clot in his brain. Now, the U.S. government comes up with an unusual plan where a team of specialists, including agent Grant (Stephen Boyd) and medical technician Cora (Raquel Welch), is shrunk down to microscopic size along with their submarine and injected into the scientist’s bloodstream. They have just one hour to reach the clot and destroy it before they return to normal size, and it soon becomes clear that one of them may be a spy for the other side.

Back in the 1960s, Fantastic Voyage won over audiences with its colorful, otherworldly take on the human body. Today, though, its sets look more like a stage play than the inside of a person, and that’s exactly why it’s perfect for a remake. Modern effects could turn the inside of the scientist’s vein into a breathtaking yet dangerous world, where every vein holds a new surprise. The race against the clock and the hidden traitor on board also make it a natural fit for a tense modern thriller. Hollywood has been trying to bring it back for years, and it’s long past time someone finally pulled it off.

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Five of the great screen futures, and not one of them is built for comfort. Answer eight questions about instinct, loyalty and the line you would cross, and the scan will tell you which one you would still be standing in. Worlds in range

▦︎The Matrix

◈︎Mad Max

◑︎Blade Runner

▲︎Dune

✦︎Star Wars

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Question 01 of 08INSTINCT

The world as you know it ends overnight. What is your first move? No wrong answer. There is a wrong hesitation.

AFind out what is really going on behind all of it BGrab a vehicle and as much fuel as you can carry CKeep your head down and show up to work anyway DLearn the rules of whoever is in charge now EFind other people and start organizing

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Question 02 of 08RESOURCE

You can stockpile exactly one thing. What is it? Choose carefully. You are not getting a second run.

AInformation nobody else has BFuel CClean money and cleaner documents DWater EA ship that can get you off-world

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Question 03 of 08THREAT

Which kind of enemy scares you the most? Be honest about what keeps you up.

AOne that can be anywhere, wearing anyone's face BA convoy of people who want what you are carrying CSomeone who looks exactly like you DA rival family that has been planning your downfall for generations EAn empire with unlimited resources and no patience

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Question 04 of 08AUTHORITY

How do you handle the people in charge? Every world has them. Even the ones that pretend otherwise.

AAssume they are lying and work around them BNobody is in charge where I am CFollow the orders, file the report, stay invisible DStudy them, get close to them, outlast them EJoin whoever is fighting them

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Question 05 of 08ENVIRONMENT

Pick the place you would rather wake up in: You will be there a while.

AA grey city that feels slightly too perfect BAn endless desert highway CA rainy neon street at three in the morning DA dune sea with a fortress on the horizon EA crowded spaceport full of strangers

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Question 06 of 08ALLIANCE

Who do you want standing next to you? Pick one. You only get one.

AA guide who knows far more than they are telling you BOne person you trust and nobody else CNobody. You work alone DA loyal circle you grew up with EA crew of misfits who argue the whole way

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Question 07 of 08MORALITY

Which line would you cross to survive? Everybody crosses one.

ALying to the people closest to you BTaking what you need by force CLooking the other way DPlaying a long game that costs other people dearly EBlowing something very expensive up

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Question 08 of 08PURPOSE

What are you really fighting for? Last question. Make it count.

AThe truth, whatever it turns out to be BTomorrow. Just tomorrow CSomething that finally feels like a real life DYour family's name EEveryone who cannot fight for themselves

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Scan completeYou would survive

▦︎ The Matrix The Resistance, Zion You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.

You would survive The Matrix because you were never fully sold on the version of reality you were handed. You notice the seams. You ask the second question. In a world built to keep people comfortable and incurious, that instinct is the whole fight, and it is why Morpheus would have found you long before you found him. From the Collider file

• The Wachowskis' 1999 film won four Academy Awards, including Visual Effects and Film Editing.
• Bullet time was shot with a rig of roughly 120 still cameras firing in sequence around the actors.
• Keanu Reeves trained in martial arts for about four months before a frame was shot, recovering from neck surgery the whole time.
• It opened the same year as Fight Club and eXistenZ, in a run of films about not trusting the world in front of you.

Red pill energy Pattern spotter Built to question

◈︎ Mad Max The Wasteland Oh, what a day. What a lovely day.

You would survive the Wasteland because you do not waste energy mourning the world that ended. You move, you improvise, and you are very good with whatever is bolted to the thing in front of you. Furiosa would let you drive. That is not a compliment anybody earns easily. From the Collider file

• Mad Max: Fury Road won six Academy Awards in 2016, more than any other film that year.
• George Miller storyboarded the entire film as roughly 3,500 panels before there was a script.
• The chase was shot almost entirely practical in the Namib Desert, with real vehicles and real stunt performers.
• Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth carried the prequel, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, in 2024.

Keeps moving Improviser Good with engines

◑︎ Blade Runner Los Angeles, 2049 All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.

You would survive 2049 because you know how to be small in a very loud city. You keep your head down, you do the job, and you hold onto one private thing that belongs only to you. That quiet stubbornness is exactly what both Deckard and K run on, and it is what keeps either of them going when the case stops making sense. From the Collider file

• Blade Runner 2049 won Roger Deakins his first Oscar for cinematography, on his fourteenth nomination.
• The film also took Best Visual Effects, 35 years after Ridley Scott's 1982 original.
• Villeneuve shot it on large-format film and kept the fog and rain practical on set wherever he could.
• Three short films by Luke Scott and Shinichiro Watanabe bridge the 30-year gap between the two movies.

Keeps her head down Private Noir soul

▲︎ Dune Arrakis Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.

You would survive Arrakis because you think in decades while everyone around you thinks in weeks. You read the room, you learn the customs, you wait. The desert does not reward speed. It rewards people who understand that patience is a weapon, which is the one lesson the Fremen never had to be taught. From the Collider file

• Denis Villeneuve's Dune won six Academy Awards in 2022, including Cinematography and Original Score.
• Hans Zimmer turned down Christopher Nolan's Tenet so he could score Dune instead.
• Dune: Part Two arrived in 2024 and brought in Austin Butler, Florence Pugh and Christopher Walken.
• David Lynch's 1984 version and Alejandro Jodorowsky's unmade one are both their own legends by now.

Plays the long game Reads the room Patient

✦︎ Star Wars A Galaxy Far, Far Away Rebellions are built on hope.

You would survive the galaxy because you never try to survive it alone. You collect people. You end up in the middle of other folks' problems and you stay anyway. Every version of this story, from the Falcon's crew to the Ghost's, runs on somebody exactly like that holding the group together. From the Collider file

• The 1977 original won six Academy Awards plus a special achievement award for sound effects.
• John Williams' score was recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra and became the best-selling symphonic film soundtrack ever.
• Andor took the galaxy somewhere colder and earned Emmy nominations for drama series in both seasons.
• The saga now runs across eleven feature films and a growing shelf of series on Disney+.

Collects people Shows up Hope merchant

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3 ‘Silent Running’ (1972)

Image via Universal Pictures

Silent Running is a niche, strange little movie with a message that has only become more relevant with time. The film is set in the future where all plant life on Earth has died out, and the last surviving forests are kept alive in giant domes aboard spaceships drifting near Saturn. Botanist Freeman Lowell (Bruce Dern) has spent years caring for them aboard the “Valley Forge.” When the crew is ordered to destroy the forests and head home, Lowell refuses to let them go to the point that he has to take drastic measures to save them, with only a trio of small robots to keep him company.

Silent Running, directed by special effects legend Douglas Trumbull, was one of the first major sci-fi movies to put the environment at the center of its story. Lowell doesn’t fit the mold of a typical hero or villain. In fact, it is actively hard to root for him at times, even when the audience knows that his cause is right. The film’s moral tension, combined with its environmental themes, makes it feel tailor-made for today’s audiences. Its slow pace and dated look have kept it a cult favorite rather than a mainstream hit, but a modern remake could finally give this hidden gem the spotlight it deserves.

4 ‘Logan’s Run’ (1976)

Image via Warner Bros. Pictures

Logan’s Run imagines a future where nobody is allowed to grow old. The story takes place in the 23rd century. In this world, humanity lives inside a sealed, domed city where life seems like one endless party. There is just one catch, though: Everyone must die at the age of 30 in a ceremony that promises rebirth, and anyone who tries to escape is hunted down by enforcers known as Sandmen. Logan 5 (Michael York) is one of those Sandmen, but when he’s sent undercover to find a rumored safe haven called Sanctuary, he and a woman named Jessica 6 (Jenny Agutter) start to question everything about their world.

Logan’s Run is the ideal sci-fi film for a modern remake because its central message feels all the more urgent today. A society obsessed with youth and pleasure, where people would rather not think about what’s waiting for them in the future, isn’t too far from today’s culture. The 1976 film has its charms, but its campy effects and costumes make it hard to take its dark premise seriously. A remake could easily lean hard into the paranoia surrounding old age and the age-old obsession with staying young forever. Today’s world of AI filters and impossible beauty standards would hit uncomfortably home and help Logan’s Run become the classic it was always meant to be.

5 ‘The Island’ (2005)

Image via Dreamworks Pictures

The Island has a brilliant sci-fi premise that got buried under a lot of explosions. The story follows Lincoln Six Echo (Ewan McGregor) and Jordan Two Delta (Scarlett Johansson), who live in a sealed facility with hundreds of other residents who believe the outside world has been wiped out by contamination. Their only hope is to win a lottery that sends the winner to “the Island,” which they know to be the last untouched paradise on Earth. When Lincoln starts asking too many questions, though, he discovers a horrifying truth about his world, and he and Jordan are forced to go on the run.

The film, directed by Michael Bay, spends its first half asking big questions about identity and what it means to be human, then trades them in for nonstop car chases, and that idea doesn’t do justice to the otherwise brilliant premise. If the film had really honed in on its core idea about science and ethics, it truly had the potential to become one of the most unsettling sci-fi films of the 2000s. A remake that slows down and takes the film’s larger philosophical idea seriously — especially now, when debates about cloning and genetic engineering are closer to reality than ever — could give The Island the redemption arc it deserves.

6 ‘In Time’ (2011)

Image via 20th Century Fox

In Time has one of the best sci-fi ideas of the 21st century, and it’s a shame the movie didn’t do it justice. In the film’s version of the future, people stop aging at 25, but the catch is that they only have one more year to live unless they can earn more time. Soon enough, the audience learns that time has replaced money in this world. This means the rich can live forever, while the poor work day by day just for a fighting chance to survive. The story follows Will Salas (Justin Timberlake), who is one of the poor, until a stranger gives him over a century of time. It doesn’t take long before Will finds himself hunted by the determined Timekeeper (Cillian Murphy). Along the way, he teams up with Sylvia Weis (Amanda Seyfried), the daughter of a wealthy businessman, and the two start giving time back to the people who need it most.

The idea behind In Time is so strong that it’s easy to see why the movie still has fans. Turning time into money is a clever way to talk about inequality, since every price hike or loan literally costs people years of their lives, which isn’t that far off from reality. Unfortunately, the film rushes through its world-building and turns into a fairly standard chase movie halfway through. A remake, or even a TV series, could explore how this society really works, from the people living minute-to-minute to the wealthy who never even have to watch the clock. In Time had all the right ingredients, and it deserves another shot to show what this world could truly be.

In Time