10 Sci-Fi Movies From The 2010s That Are Masterpieces From Start To Finish
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."
Sign in to your ScreenRant account
The 2010s were great for the Sci-Fi genre, with some of the best sci-fi movies of all time being released in that decade, and these are sci-fi movies from the 2010s that were simply perfect from start to finish. A good masterpiece is easy to spot. Take the recent sci-fi landscape, for example, where director Denis Villeneuve has made masterpieces a common occurrence.
After all, both of Villeneuve's Dune movies, with a third on the way, have been perfect from start to finish, becoming true genre masterpieces. When looking at the sci-fi genre's entire cinematic history, some of the biggest sci-fi movie franchises of all time have also released one, if not multiple, genre masterpieces. Think Ridley Scott's Alien or the director's Blade Runner.
Other notable sci-fi masterpieces include Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Back to the Future, The Matrix, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and more. These are the kind of movies that make the list of sci-fi masterpieces for their respective decades, and some releases from their directors might be on this very list. In no particular order, here are 10 sci-fi movies from the 2010s that are masterpieces from start to finish:
10 Interstellar (2014)
Starting the list is the first Christopher Nolan sci-fi masterpiece present among the options. Interstellar is intelligent and emotional, with the sci-fi movie having only grown more timely in the years since it was released in theaters. The Nolan movie boasts a star-studded cast, featuring names like Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Timothée Chalamet, and more.
Interstellar is a dystopian sci-fi movie that follows a team of astronauts on a mission to find a way to save Earth's population on a new planet when ours suffers from an agricultural apocalypse. Interstellar's use of time dilation leads to a thought-provoking and heart-wrenching story, and its environmental focus has become all the more urgent.
9 Arrival (2016)
Similar to Nolan, Arrival is the first of multiple Villeneuve movies on the list. It comes with two major leads in the form of Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner. Arrival is a slow-burn sci-fi movie that explores first contact with an alien species in a unique way. It poses the question of how we would be able to communicate, using language as the story's driving force.
Arrival has an incredibly clever twist that completely reframes the sci-fi movie. While the story is grand in scale, it also boils down to an extremely intimate tale, and its ending is beautiful. There are some who will view the choice Adams' Louise Banks makes as tragic, while others will deem it brave and quite moving.
8 Ex Machina (2014)
Ex Machina focuses on the morality debate behind the creation of artificial intelligence and whether it could develop a consciousness. This is an incredibly timely topic, but Ex Machina was ahead of its time, having arrived in theaters on April 10, 2015. Ava, the movie's AI, is played by Alicia Vikander.
Vikander stars alongside Oscar Isaac, who plays the CEO of the company that created her, and Domhnall Gleeson, a programmer at said company, who is tasked with testing the AI. Ex Machina is a character study, asking thought-provoking questions, and it ramps up to an intense finale.
7 War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)
War for the Planet of the Apes is the third movie in the reboot series of the sci-fi franchise. The modern Planet of the Apes movies are incredibly mature, nuanced in their approach to humanity's impact on nature and the other living beings on Earth, and use groundbreaking motion capture technology.
War for the Planet of the Apes dials all that up to 11. Directed by The Batman's Matt Reeves, the sci-fi movie is both an epic, large-scale sci-fi action movie, but also a moving, character-driven drama. Like the other entries in the reboot franchise, it is a thoughtful movie that shows how the apes might be more human than what humanity turns into when faced with its own extinction.
6 The Martian (2015)
Ridley Scott's The Martian is an energetic, fun, intense, and high-stakes survival sci-fi story. Matt Damon gives one of his most electric performances in the role of astronaut Mark Watney, who is left stranded on Mars after being presumed dead during a dust storm. Watney must find ways to survive alone on the planet for years.
The Martian is based on the book of the same name by genre master Andy Weir, who also penned Project Hail Mary, which was adapted into one of the biggest movies of 2026, starring Ryan Gosling. Damon is utterly charismatic as Watney, being an easy character to root for, and the realistic scientific problem-solving on Mars makes the movie very entertaining.
5 Inception (2010)
Nolan's second and final sci-fi movie on the list is Inception. This is a mind-bending genre release that focuses on a heist, but not a regular one. Instead of breaking into a high-security location, Leonardo DiCaprio's Cobb and his team must infiltrate a target's mind through his dreams and plant an idea.
Inception is a unique sci-fi movie. There was never something quite like it before in live-action, and there has not been such a movie after it. Inception also packs a star-studded lineup that helps bring out the necessary nuance out of this cerebral concept, including names like Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Cillian Murphy, Marion Cotillard, and more.
4 Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Mad Max: Fury Road is one of the most talked about sci-fi movies when the topic becomes masterpieces. Directed by franchise creator George Miller, the movie is a pedal to the metal movie with impressive action, vibrant visuals, and some of the best practical effects ever seen from the genre.
With minimal dialogue, Mad Max: Fury Road connects with the audience through the actors' expressive performances, with every small decision on their behalf being potentialized, as well as through visceral and kinetic action. With actors like Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, and more, Mad Max: Fury Road tells a powerful and extremely physical story about survival.
3 Gravity (2013)
Gravity is a sci-fi thriller starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. The genre movie explores how two astronauts frantically attempt to return to Earth when their Space Shuttle is destroyed. This is an eerie sci-fi movie about two characters on completely different career paths, a veteran on his last day and a medical engineer on her first mission in space.
Still, they only have one another to rely on amid the terrifying vastness of space. Gravity is visually stunning, with a survival thriller story at its core that perfectly uses VFX and the absence of sound in space to craft an immersive and claustrophobic experience for fans of the genre.
2 Snowpiercer (2013)
Snowpiercer might have turned into an entertaining multi-season show more recently, but the Bong Joon Ho-directed movie still stands above it in every way. Starring Marvel's Captain America actor Chris Evans, Snowpiercer uses the end of the world to attack issues like climate change, class warfare, and more.
As such, Snowpiercer serves as the perfect blend of action thriller and visual spectacle, with social criticism to make it stand out and belong in the hall of Bong Joon Ho movies like Parasite. Evans also delivers one of his most powerful performances in a different kind of role, playing a multi-layered character that alternates between a fearless leader and a survivor filled with guilt.
1 Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
Finally, Villeneuve's final movie on the list ends it, with Blade Runner 2049 being one of the best releases the genre has ever seen. The movie is emotionally complex, comes with some intriguing moral debates, and is one of the most visually stunning entries in the genre. The cyberpunk feel to it is top-notch, telling a gritty and impactful story about humanity at its core.
Blade Runner 2049 also advances the world of Scott's original Blade Runner perfectly, feeling like a fitting future to that unique universe. It does so with an impressive cast. Led by Ryan Gosling, Blade Runner 2049 also features names like the returning Harrison Ford, Ana de Armas, Dave Bautista, Jared Leto, Robin Wright, and more. It is a fitting movie to end the 2010s Sci-Fi list.
-
From Christopher Nolan, Interstellar imagines a future where the Earth is plagued by a life-threatening famine, and a small team of astronauts is sent out to find a new prospective home among the stars. Despite putting the mission first, Coop (Matthew McConaughey) races against time to return home to his family even as they work to save mankind back on Earth.
-
Based on Ted Chiang's short story "Story of Your Life", Denis Villeneuve's Arrival follows Louise Banks (Amy Adams), a linguist brought in to establish a line of communication with an alien species that have recently landed on Earth. With the help of physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner), Banks begins to understand more of the aliens' communications, and it alters her perception of life forevermore.
-
Ex Machina
9/10
- Release Date
- April 24, 2015
- Runtime
- 108 minutes
-
Domhnall Gleeson
Caleb
-
Alicia Vikander
Ava
Ex Machina follows Caleb, a programmer from a major tech company, who wins a competition to visit the secluded estate of Nathan, the company's CEO. At this remote location, Caleb participates in an experiment involving the world's first true artificial intelligence, embodied by a humanoid robot.
-
War for the Planet of the Apes
8/10
- Release Date
- July 14, 2017
- Runtime
- 140 minutes
-
Caesar
-
Woody Harrelson
The Colonel
War for the Planet of the Apes is an action-adventure movie directed by Matt Reeves and is a sequel to Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. In the film, Caesar and his apes are forced into a deadly conflict with an army of humans led by a ruthless colonel. After the apes suffer unimaginable losses, Caesar wrestles with his darker instincts and begins his own mythic quest to avenge his kind.
-
Adapted by Ridley Scott from Andy Weir's novel of the same name, The Martian follows the plight of astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) after he finds himself stranded alone on Mars after he is falsely presumed dead during a mission. Unable to communicate with Earth and armed with little more than his scientific expertise as a botanist, Watney must find a way to survive on the barren planet until the next scheduled mission arrives.
-
Inception features a skilled thief who uses dream-sharing technology to steal corporate secrets. He is tasked with planting an idea into a CEO's mind, while confronting his troubled past, which threatens the mission and his team. -
Mad Max: Fury Road
9/10
- Release Date
- May 15, 2015
- Runtime
- 121 minutes
-
Max Rockatansky
-
Imperator Furiosa
Mad Max: Fury Road is the fourth film in George Miller's long-running sci-fi franchise, with Tom Hardy starring as Max Rockstansky, a vagabond who lives on the road in an apocalyptic wasteland. When Max comes across a cult group that keeps its people in fear and under control with a monopoly on water and other crucial supplies, he joins up with Imperator Furiosa, a warrior woman leading a rebellion against the cult's leader, Immortan Joe.
- Director
- George Miller
-
Gravity
10/10
- Release Date
- October 4, 2013
- Runtime
- 91 minutes
-
Matt Kowalski
-
Sandra Bullock
Ryan Stone
Alfonso Cuarón's sci-fi thriller Gravity tells the story of Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) after they end up stranded in space after the destruction of their shuttle. Faced with near-impossible odds of survival, the pair plan to get themselves safely back to Earth despite the relentlessly harsh reality of space threatening to claim their lives at any moment.
- Director
- Alfonso Cuarón
-
Snowpiercer, directed by Bong Joon-ho, is a post-apocalyptic sci-fi film set in a future where the remnants of humanity survive on a perpetually moving train. The story follows the struggle of oppressed passengers from the train's rear as they attempt to reach the front and alter their dystopian reality.
-
Blade Runner 2049 is a sequel to the 1982 classic, set three decades later. The film follows LAPD Officer K, a blade runner who uncovers a secret with the potential to destabilize society. His investigation leads him to Rick Deckard, the original blade runner who vanished 30 years prior.
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.