7 Sci-Fi Movies That Will Actually Make You Feel Good About the Future

While sci-fi is one of the most popular movie genres, it is understandably a little daunting. With stories that frequently feature advanced technology, extraterrestrial life, and significant shifts in society and culture in situations that are often bleak or downright dystopian, sci-fi can sometimes feel frightening and even depressing even as it provokes big questions that leave us wondering how we can prevent such things from coming to pass. But not all sci-fi is dark, bleak, and scary. There’s quite a few movies within the genre that take a much more positive view of not just advancement, but of the future itself. These are movies that may challenge some of your beliefs and expectations, but leave you walking away with hope — or, at least, a smile on your face.

Here are seven sci-fi movies that, instead of making you uneasy or fearful of tomorrow will actually make you feel good about the future. These are movies that, while humanity may face some dark moments, ultimately lead to a hopeful place and remind us that, while the future is yet unwritten, it might not be all that bad.

7) Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure

If we’re being honest, we could put the whole Bill & Ted’s franchise on this list, but if you really want to feel good about the future, it’s the first film that will likely leave you feeling the best — and it just so happens to be a fantastic movie, too. In the film metalhead slacker high school students Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) have to travel through time to put together a group of historical figures for their history presentation.

While the premise doesn’t seem like it would do much to make you feel good about the future on it’s the reason this time travel adventure takes place that is the key to the optimism. You see, in 2688 human society is a utopia because of the music and philosophy of the Two Great Ones who just so happen to be Bill and Ted. To ensure that things happen as they should — specifically, to make sure that Bill and Ted pass history so history isn’t changed — a future citizen named Rufus is sent back in time to help. Admittedly, if you think too hard about the mechanics of things, the story kind of comes apart, but that doesn’t matter. Not only does the existence of this utopian future make one feel a little bit hopeful, but the adventure to preserve it is just a hoot.

6) The Martian

Based on Andy Weir’s novel of the same name, The Martian isn’t necessarily a movie that you’d expect to make you feel optimistic and hopeful about anything, but in the end it ends up being a beautiful story about human survival and the power of people to come together to save someone even in the most unlikely of circumstances. In The Martian, astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is on a mission to Mars and, after being struck by debris as he and the rest of the crew evacuate the planet in a dust storm, is presumed dead and left behind. However, Mark survives. Once those back on earth realize that he’s survived, people come together on a mission to rescue him while Watney works to survive.

While being stranded with no clear hope for rescue may seem bleak and certainly gives The Martian plenty of drama and tension, there’s something about NASA and other agencies working together on a comprehensive plan to bring the lost astronaut back home that feels deeply hopeful, especially in a world where we frequently feel more divided than united.

5) Her

Released in 2013, Her follows a man named Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) who enters in a relationship with an A.I. called Samantha (voiced by Scarlett Johansson). To be clear, Her is not exactly a happy or cheerful movie. Theodore is a sad, lonely man dealing with a divorce and his relationship with Samantha has some unexpected impacts on his real life and goes into some uncomfortable territory that could also make one pause and question the evolution of A.I. in our own lives. However, where the film finds itself fitting into the category of those that will leave you optimistic about the future is that it doesn’t have a tragic or terrible end.

Her ends in a place where the advancement of the artificial intelligence technology is more neutral. While things happen that are a bit sad in terms of Theodore, he ends up with a more grounded connection to real humans in actual reality. Considering that most movies featuring A.I. have humanity doomed or in danger because of the technology, Her is a breath of fresh air that feels fair, not sensational.

4) Arrival

First contact movies can be a bit of a mixed bag. So many of them have humanity’s first encounter with intelligent alien life going very, very poorly for us while others are perhaps more positive but still leave us unsettled or has a good outcome that exists only from suffering. Arrival, however, is very different and, instead, is focused less on the invasion element of dealing with aliens but more about a very personal response to the situation — as well as the idea that not all alien encounters are doom and gloom.

In Arrival, linguist Louis Banks is enlisted by the U.S. Army to figure out how to communicate with the aliens who have arrived on Earth in order to prevent tensions from leading to war. In the process of learning how the aliens communicate, Louise learns about a different perception of time, leading to a greater understanding not only of the visitors, but of the human experience as well. While events of the future may not be able to be changed for Louise, the hope comes in understanding and it ends up being a beautiful message and film.

3) Interstellar

Set in a dystopian future where the Earth is dying due to catastrophic blight and famine and time for humanity is running out, Interstellar follows NASA test pilot Joseph Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) who goes into space on a mission to colonize a habitable planet and ensure humanity’s survival while, back on Earth, work continues to try to figure out how evacuate humanity from the dying planet.

There are a lot of almost tragic turns in Interstellar and it seems as though the entire mission will be a failure, but ultimately Interstellar is a story about human determination and a father’s love. The movie ends on a note of hope for the future — both on the grand scale of humanity as a whole and for Cooper specifically.

2) WALL-E

People frequently overlook WALL-E when talking about great sci-fi movies, but the 2008 Pixar movie is genuinely one of the greats — and will leave you feeling a sense of hope, too. Set in 2805, WALL-E follows the titular robot who “lives” on an uninhabitable and deserted Earth where he has been left to clean up garbage. He becomes smitten with a robot called EVE who is looking for sustainable life and when EVE is shown the living seedling that WALL-E has found, she’s collected by a rocket to be taken to a ship in space where humanity evacuated to and WALL-E hangs on for the ride.

WALL-E offers a bleak look at humanity. Earth ruined by overconsumption and corporate greed, humanity left obese and helpless due to microgravity and laziness in space as fed by continued consumerism and corporate greed — these are not cheerful things. However, it is WALL-E’s determination to find and save EVE as well as the hope that the plant gives for Earth and humanity’s future that not only makes for a beautiful story but serves as a reminder that things can always get better.

1) Project Hail Mary

No, you’re not reading this wrong. We know that Project Hail Mary doesn’t open in theaters until March 20th. and, no, we’re not going to offer any spoilers if you haven’t read the book. But even without knowing the ending of the upcoming Ryan Gosling-starring film, it’s safe to say that Project Hail Mary is going to be another movie that you’ll walk out of with a sense of hope rather than dread, even though the situation faced by humanity (and specifically Gosling’s Ryland Grace) is extremely dire.

The film follows Ryland Grace, a man who is sent on a life-or-death mission into space when it’s discovered that the sun is starting to dim. On his mission, Grace ends up making contact with an alien, Rocky, who is also searching for a way to save his planet from the same grim fate faced by Earth. Again, no spoilers here if you haven’t read the book, but just the idea of humanity making a “hail Mary” attempt to save itself — and the unlikely partnership between Grace and Rocky — are guaranteed to leave you feeling good and like maybe, just maybe the future isn’t all that bad.

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