 | Blade Runner (The Director's Cut)
Buy used from: $1.50 Blade Runner is absolutely fantastic - its heart is just as big as its cinematic scope, beautiful, thoughtful, dark. Spot on.
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 | Alien (The Director's Cut)
Buy new: $13.99 / Used from: $3.92 Alien presents a singular danger in a horrific environment, a hegemonic weapon-obsessed shadow government, and a female protagonist sure to warm Virginia Woolf's heart. The overt sexual nature of the aliens themselves, and Ripley's quest for self-actualization, is gripping from first cut to last. Rarely is fear realized with such intensity and importance. This film is like Freud's wet dream.
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 | Stalker: A Film by Andrei Tarkovsky
Buy new: $25.49 / Used from: $16.50 In my opinion, Stalker climbs the heights of the philosophic and cinematographic narrative. This film is not for the faint of heart - or those that need a cut scene every 5 seconds. Involving takes that last up to 5 minutes, and intimate dialogue that requires you to pay attention, stalker blooms only through viewer investment.
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 | 2001 - A Space Odyssey
Buy used from: $3.46 Kubrick and Clarke's visionary masterpiece is a gold standard for the genre - out-of-control artificial life, the traces of alien presence, and the transformation of human consciousness. what more is there in great sci-fi cinema?
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 | Robocop
Buy new: $13.49 / Used from: $1.87 Ultraviolence is a visceral concept superbly realized in this film which questions, not only humanity and our relation to technology in an original way, but also the brutality of technology on the flesh of the mortal populous. The scene where the experimental robot goes beserk and kills everyone in the board room never fails to make me feel my mortality in a very real way.
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 | DONNIE DARKO (DVD)
Buy used from: $2.26 This may be stretching the genre a bit, but Donnie Darko, if it can be said to be science fiction (as opposed to a surrealist or just strange) film, is one of those visions in which I am so enraptured that it's hard to look at daily life the same anymore. Films really don't get better than this i think.
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 | The Terminator
Buy new: $10.49 / Used from: $6.63 Despite T2's ferocity, the original is great in the same way that Alien is superior to Aliens. There is a journey here which is singular and privelaged to the later evolution which seeks to expand the effect into more explosions, thankfully in the case of T2, successfully. As it is, the first installment is the closest to the heart of man vs machine since Blade Runner.
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 | The Abyss (Special Edition)
Buy new: $12.49 / Used from: $2.63 James Cameron's masterpiece is as beautiful as it is seductive. As the situation devolves what we see is not so much the beatification of alien life but rather the devolution of human life. And there is a wonder alive in this film that is rarer still.
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 | The Matrix
Buy used from: $0.18 If you didn't see this film at least 3 times in the theatre, then we can't be friends anymore. Also lots of green for you green lovers. This film is like a promise made to the audience - just don't assume that it's going to be fulfilled in later additions. there's no need to look further than this superman coming to himself for the first time.
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 | Star Wars, Episode V- The Empire Strikes Back (Widescreen Edition)
Buy used from: $4.60 Empire is, of course, the dark heart of Star Wars and perhaps the one location in this series that takes itself as seriously as it should - plus Vader and Luke meet for the first time. This is as close as we'll ever get Star Wars taking a moment to ponder itself.
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 | The Thing (Collector's Edition)
Buy new: $8.99 / Used from: $4.93 Yes aliens are gross - especially these. At first glace you might think The Thing is another cheezy Kurt Russell flick (ie Big trouble in little china) but you'd be wrong. The Thing is a closer sibling to Alien or other "horror" films which aren't going for cheap, but for something more profound.
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 | Gattaca
Buy used from: $1.94 Gattaca's cinematography is both dreamlike and urgent. And if you like the color green, you'll be in for a treat!
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 | Metropolis (Restored Authorized Edition)
Buy new: $25.49 / Used from: $12.49 Fritz Lang was certainly a visionary. The cover art on this film alone communicates a sort of transcendental nightmare, and the film's acclaim is very well deserved. They sure don't make them like they used to...
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 | Brazil - The Criterion Collection (3-Disc Boxed Set)
Buy new: $53.99 / Used from: $28.20 Much has been made of Brazil, and for good reason. You will have to work hard to keep your feet under you as you enter the strange and ominous, 1984-like space where Brazil takes place. Here is a film in which the genre achieves a high art, akin to Tarkovsky's works.
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 | Contact (Snap Case)
Buy new: $5.79 / Used from: $1.98 Jodie Foster shines in this dialogue about the meaning of extraterrestrial existence.
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 | Dune (Widescreen)
Buy new: $9.49 / Used from: $2.95 While i LOVE Lynch, I freely admit that "Dune" is not a masterpiece. It is, however, very close to my heart - and as a fan of the book series, it was this movie more than any other which sparked and requited my love of science fiction. Despite its flaws, there is a magic in this film, a daring to impossible gradiosity, which is the work of great imagination and love.
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