John Scalzi over at Whatever has a book out, The Rough Guide to Sci-Fi Movies, which includes a canon of 50 science fiction films. He posts several times about the book (the link is to the first post), and in one he mentions the meme of taking the list and bolding the films you’ve seen. And so herewith (the list cries out for annotation and comments, but I just don’t have the time right now):
- The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension!
- Akira
- Alien
- Aliens
- Alphaville
- Back to the Future
Blade Runner- Brazil
Bride of Frankenstein
Brother From Another Planet
A Clockwork Orange
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Contact- The Damned
- Destination Moon
- The Day The Earth Stood Still
- Delicatessen
- Escape From New York
ET: The Extraterrestrial- Flash Gordon: Space Soldiers (serial)
- The Fly (1985 version)
- Forbidden Planet
- Ghost in the Shell
- Gojira/Godzilla
The Incredibles- Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956 version)
Jurassic Park
Mad Max 2/The Road Warrior
The Matrix
Metropolis- On the Beach
Planet of the Apes (1968 version)- Robocop
- Sleeper
- Solaris (1972 version)
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back- The Stepford Wives
- Superman
- Terminator 2: Judgement Day
- The Thing From Another World
- Things to Come
- Tron
12 Monkeys
28 Days Later
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
2001: A Space Odyssey- La Voyage Dans la Lune
- War of the Worlds (1953 version)
You must go out and rent Forbidden Planet. It is THE prototypical sci-fi film of the era, and beautifully done. It has Leslie Nielsen in it, for heaven’s sake!