Steven Spielberg’s 7 Best Sci-Fi Movies Ranked

Steven Spielberg is one of the kings of science fiction. However, he’s stepped away from the genre for a few years. In 2021, Spielberg brought West Side Story back to the big screen and was praised for it. Despite the movie not doing well at the box office, it received its fair share of award nominations, including one for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. The Fabelmans, a much more personal film about Spielberg’s early life, found itself in the same boat in 2022, nabbing seven Oscar nominations and plenty of other accolades. But arguably the most celebrated director of all time is ready to return to his roots and change the genre once again.

The first trailer for Spielberg’s next film, Disclosure Day, has the Internet buzzing, as it already looks like an all-timer with a unique story and standout performances. However, it’s going to be hard for it to reach the mountaintop because of all of the competition standing in its way. Here are Spielberg’s seven best sci-fi movies, ranked.

7) Ready Player One

Adapting a book that many people considered unadaptable is what Spielberg lives for. With Ready Player One, he brings Ernest Cline’s virtual world to life with ease while providing social commentary about how willing the rich are to take from the poor. The movie also serves as a love letter to cinema as a whole, featuring cameos from the DeLorean, King Kong, and the Iron Giant, among others. It’s a bit of a toss-up between Ready Player One and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull for the last spot on this list, but the former wins out because of its great action and heart.

6) War of the Worlds

With War of the Worlds, Spielberg tackled a story that had been on the big screen before. Rather than cover familiar territory, he decided to switch things up, and that worked in the movie’s favor. War of the Worlds is a film about family, with Ray Ferrier doing everything he can to keep his family safe, including discouraging his son from joining the fight against the aliens. By surviving an alien invasion, the Ferriers grow closer than ever before and become part of a much brighter future. There’s nothing more human than that.

5) Minority Report

Tom Cruise and sci-fi are a match made in heaven. Spielberg decided to capitalize on that combination by casting Cruise in his adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s 1956 novella “The Minority Report.” All the action involves the precogs, people who see glimpses of the future and can therefore identify potential criminals. Minority Report is as relevant today as when it came out because it touches on the power the government holds over its citizens and the dangers technology can pose.

4) E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

The 1980s produced enough great movies to float a battleship. However, it’s hard to top E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, a film that explains that friendship trumps all, even in the face of insurmountable odds. Beyond an absolutely stellar story, E.T. also gets credit for its incredible visuals for its time. The titular alien really feels alive as he travels with Elliot and Co., showing them how magical the galaxy really is. E.T. is Spielberg at his best, so he must reach another gear with the final three entries on this list.

Read Next

Born on This Day in 1916, One of Sci-Fi’s “Big Three” Who Wrote The Masterpiece That Changed Everything

3) Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Clearly, Spielberg has a fascination with extraterrestrials, dating back to his directorial debut, Firelight. That movie served as inspiration for what many consider to be his magnum opus, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. A regular man, Roy Neary, finds himself asking all sorts of questions after having a run-in with a UFO. What could be a generic alien movie quickly becomes much more as Roy and his companion rethink what life is really about. Just the last thirty minutes of Close Encounters of the Third Kind blow almost any other sci-fi project out of the water.

2) A.I. Artificial Intelligence

Spielberg never misses an oppurtunity to speak highly of his late friend Stanley Kubrick, best known for directing one of the most important sci-fi films ever, 2001: A Space Odyssey. When Spielberg got the chance to pick up the baton from Kubrick and continue his work on A.I. Artificial Intelligence, he took it and didn’t miss a beat. Far darker than most of the director’s filmography, it tells the story of a robot boy looking for his family in a world that’s seen better days. The themes are heavy, proving that Spielberg can explore darkness just as well as he can hopefulness.

1) Jurassic Park

Despite directing so many alien projects, Spielberg’s best sci-fi movie keeps itself relatively grounded. Jurassic Park creates a world in which scientists discover a way to bring dinosaurs back to life, leading to some marvelous sequences in which characters lay eyes on the creatures for the first time. But no amount of wonder can prepare Alan Grant and Co. for the questions they’re going to have to ask themselves about life and whether playing god is the right course of action. Other entries in the franchise don’t reach the heights of the original, but that doesn’t diminish its legacy at all.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!