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Top 10 Best Sci-fi Movies by Year
1980-1989

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Criteria: These Top 10 Best Sci-fi Movies for each year 1990 through 1999 are ranked by Impact, Influence, and Popularity in the
Sci-Fi movie genre.

 Title (Director) (Leading Actors)

Last Updated: 2021-12-02
Top 10 Best Sci-fi Movies by Year 1980-1989

10 Best Sci-Fi Movies of 1989

  1. The Abyss - (James Cameron) (Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio)
  2. Leviathan - (George P. Cosmatos) (Peter Weller, Richard Crenna, Amanda Pays)
  3. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier - (William Shatner) (William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy)
  4. Slipstream - (Steven Lisberger) (Mark Hamill, Bill Paxton, Bob Peck)
  5. Tetsuo: The Iron Man - (Shin'ya Tsukamoto) (Tomorô Taguchi, Shin'ya Tsukamoto)
  6. DeepStar Six - (Sean S. Cunningham) (Greg Evigan, Nancy Everhard, Miguel Ferrer)
  7. The Blood of Heroes - (David Webb Peoples) (Rutger Hauer, Joan Chen, Delroy Lindo)
  8. Robot Jox - (Stuart Gordon) (Gary Graham, Anne-Marie Johnson, Paul Koslo)
  9. Cyborg - (Albert Pyun) (Jean-Claude Van Damme, Deborah Richter, Alex Daniels)
10. The Terror Within - (Thierry Notz) (Andrew Stevens, George Kennedy, Terri Treas)
The Abyss movie poster

10 Best Sci-Fi Movies of 1988

  1. They Live - (John Carpenter) (Roddy Piper, Keith David, Meg Foster)
  2. Alien Nation - (Graham Baker) (James Caan, Mandy Patinkin, Terence Stamp)
  3. Heart of a Dog - (Vladimir Bortko) (Evgeniy Evstigneev, Vladimir Tolokonnikov)
  4. The Blob - (Chuck Russell) (Shawnee Smith, Kevin Dillon, Jeffrey DeMunn)
  5. Cocoon: The Return - (Daniel Petrie) (Don Ameche, Wilford Brimley, Courteney Cox)
  6. Short Circuit 2 - (Kenneth Johnson) (Fisher Stevens, Michael McKean, Cynthia Gibb)
  7. Pulse - (Paul Golding) (Cliff De Young, Roxanne Hart, Joey Lawrence)
  8. Critters 2: The Main Course - (Mick Garris) (Scott Grimes, Liane Curtis, Terrence Mann)
  9. The Brain - (Ed Hunt) (Tom Bresnahan, Cynthia Preston, David Gale)
10. World Gone Wild - (Lee H. Katzin) (Bruce Dern, Michael Paré, Catherine Mary Stewart)
They Live movie poster

10 Best Sci-Fi Movies of 1987

  1. Predator - (John McTiernan) (Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Jesse Ventura)
  2. RoboCop - (Paul Verhoeven) (Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Ronny Cox)
  3. The Running Man - (Paul Michael Glaser) (Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maria Conchita Alonso)
  4. The Hidden - (Jack Sholder) (Kyle MacLachlan, Michael Nouri, Claudia Christian)
  5. Innerspace - (Joe Dante) (Dennis Quaid, Martin Short, Meg Ryan, Kevin McCarthy)
  6. The Kindred - (Stephen Carpenter, Jeffrey Obrow) (Rod Steiger, Kim Hunter)
  7. The Curse - (David Keith) (Wil Wheaton, Claude Akins, John Schneider)
  8. Steel Dawn - (Lance Hool) (Patrick Swayze, Lisa Niemi, Anthony Zerbe)
  9. Veld (aka The Veldt) - (Nazim Tulyahodzhayev) (Yury Belyayev, Nelli Pshyonnaya)
10. Creepozoids - (David DeCoteau) (Linnea Quigley, Ken Abraham, Richard L. Hawkins)
Predator movie poster

10 Best Sci-Fi Movies of 1986

  1. Aliens - (James Cameron) (Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Bill Paxton)
  2. The Fly - (David Cronenberg) (Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis, John Getz)
  3. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home - (Leonard Nimoy) (William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy)
  4. Flight of the Navigator - (Randal Kleiser) (Joey Cramer, Cliff De Young, Veronica Cartwright)
  5. The Manhattan Project - (Marshall Brickman) (John Lithgow, Christopher Collet)
  6. From Beyond - (Stuart Gordon) (Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, Ted Sorel)
  7. Short Circuit - (John Badham) (Ally Sheedy, Steve Guttenberg, Fisher Stevens)
  8. Invaders from Mars - (Tobe Hooper) (Karen Black, Hunter Carson, Timothy Bottoms)
  9. Critters - (Stephen Herek) (Dee Wallace, M. Emmet Walsh, Billy Zane)
10. Maximum Overdrive - (Stephen King) (Emilio Estevez, Pat Hingle, Yeardley Smith)
Aliens movie poster

10 Best Sci-Fi Movies of 1985

  1. Brazil - (Terry Gilliam) (Jonathan Pryce, Kim Greist, Robert De Niro, Ian Holm)
  2. Back to the Future - (Robert Zemeckis) (Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd)
  3. Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome - (George Miller, George Ogilvie) (Mel Gibson)
  4. Enemy Mine - (Wolfgang Petersen) (Dennis Quaid, Louis Gossett Jr., Brion James)
  5. Cocoon - (Ron Howard) (Don Ameche, Steve Guttenberg, Tahnee Welch)
  6. Explorers - (Joe Dante) (Ethan Hawke, River Phoenix, Jason Presson)
  7. Lifeforce - (Tobe Hooper) (Steve Railsback, Mathilda May, Peter Firth)
  8. D.A.R.Y.L. - (Simon Wincer) (Mary Beth Hurt, Michael McKean, Barret Oliver)
  9. The Quiet Earth - (Geoff Murphy) (Bruno Lawrence, Alison Routledge)
10. Warning Sign - (Hal Barwood) (Sam Waterston, Kathleen Quinlan, Yaphet Kotto)
Brazil movie poster

10 Best Sci-Fi Movies of 1984

  1. The Terminator - (James Cameron) (Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton)
  2. Starman - (John Carpenter) (Jeff Bridges, Karen Allen, Charles Martin Smith)
  3. Nineteen Eighty-Four - (Michael Radford) (John Hurt, Richard Burton, Suzanna Hamilton)
  4. Repo Man - (Alex Cox) (Emilio Estevez, Harry Dean Stanton, Olivia Barash)
  5. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension - (W.D. Richter) (Peter Weller)
  6. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock - (Leonard Nimoy) (William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy)
  7. The Last Starfighter - (Nick Castle) (Lance Guest, Robert Preston, Dan Mason)
  8. 2010: The Year We Make Contact - (Peter Hyams) (Roy Scheider, Helen Mirren)
  9. Runaway - (Michael Crichton) (Tom Selleck, Cynthia Rhodes, Gene Simmons)
10. The Philadelphia Experiment - (Stewart Raffill) (Michael Paré, Nancy Allen)
The Terminator movie poster

10 Best Sci-Fi Movies of 1983

  1. Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi - (Richard Marquand) (Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford)
  2. WarGames - (John Badham) (Matthew Broderick, Ally Sheedy, Barry Corbin)
  3. Videodrome - (David Cronenberg) (James Woods, Debbie Harry, Sonja Smits)
  4. Brainstorm - (Douglas Trumbull) (Christopher Walken, Natalie Wood, Louise Fletcher)
  5. Krull - (Peter Yates) (Ken Marshall, Lysette Anthony, Freddie Jones, Liam Neeson)
  6. Twilight Zone: The Movie - (Joe Dante, John Landis, George Miller) (Vic Morrow, Dan Aykroyd)
  7. Testament - (Lynne Littman) (Lynne Littman, William Devane, Rebecca De Mornay)
  8. Wavelength - (Mike Gray) (Robert Carradine, Cherie Currie, Keenan Wynn)
  9. Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone - (Lamont Johnson) (Peter Strauss)
10. Strange Invaders - (Michael Laughlin) (Paul Le Mat, Nancy Allen, June Lockhart)
Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi movie poster

10 Best Sci-Fi Movies of 1982

  1. Blade Runner - (Ridley Scott) (Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Daryl Hannah)
  2. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial - (Steven Spielberg) (Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore)
  3. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan - (Nicholas Meyer) (William Shatner, Ricardo Montalban)
  4. The Thing - (John Carpenter) (Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, Keith David)
  5. TRON - (Steven Lisberger) (Jeff Bridges, David Warner, Bruce Boxleitner)
  6. Android - (Aaron Lipstadt) (Klaus Kinski, Don Keith Opper, Brie Howard)
  7. Forbidden World - (Allan Holzman) (Jesse Vint, Dawn Dunlap, June Chadwick)
  8. Turkey Shoot - (Brian Trenchard-Smith) (Steve Railsback, Olivia Hussey)
  9. Battletruck- (Harley Cokeliss) (Michael Beck, Annie McEnroe)
10. Parasite - (Charles Band) (Demi Moore, Robert Glaudini, Luca Bercovici)
Blade Runner movie poster

10 Best Sci-Fi Movies of 1981

  1. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior - (George Miller) (Mel Gibson, Bruce Spence)
  2. Escape from New York - (John Carpenter) (Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Donald Pleasence)
  3. Scanners - (David Cronenberg) (Jennifer O'Neill, Patrick McGoohan, Stephen Lack)
  4. Outland - (Peter Hyams) (Sean Connery, Peter Boyle, Frances Sternhagen)
  5. Looker - (Michael Crichton) (Albert Finney, Susan Dey, James Coburn)
  6. Malevil - (Christian de Chalonge) (Michel Serrault, Jacques Dutronc)
  7. Memoirs of a Survivor - (David Gladwell) (Julie Christie, Christopher Guard)
  8. Petlya Oriona - (Vasili Levin) (Leonid Bakshtaev, Gennadi Shkuratov)
  9. Galaxy of Terror - (Bruce D. Clark) (Edward Albert, Erin Moran, Ray Walston)
10. The Last Chase - (Martyn Burke) (Lee Majors, Burgess Meredith, Alexandra Stewart)
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior movie poster

10 Best Sci-Fi Movies of 1980

  1. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back - (Irvin Kershner) (Mark Hamill)
  2. Altered States - (Ken Russell) (William Hurt, Blair Brown, Charles Haid)
  3. Death Watch - (Bertrand Tavernier) (Romy Schneider, Harvey Keitel, Max von Sydow)
  4. The Final Countdown - (Don Taylor) (Kirk Douglas, Martin Sheen, Katharine Ross)
  5. Flash Gordon - (Mike Hodges) (Sam J. Jones, Melody Anderson, Max von Sydow)
  6. Hangar 18 - (James L. Conway) (Darren McGavin, Robert Vaughn, Gary Collins)
  7. Contamination - (Luigi Cozzi) (Ian McCulloch, Ian McCulloch, Siegfried Rauch)
  8. Virus - (Kinji Fukasaku) (Masao Kusakari, Tsunehiko Watase)
  9. Saturn 3 - (Stanley Donen) (Farrah Fawcett, Kirk Douglas, Harvey Keitel)
10. Without Warning - (Greydon Clark) (Jack Palance, Martin Landau)
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back movie poster
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