Best dystopian movies of all time

- Director: George Lucas
- IMDb user rating: 6.7
- Votes: 47,337
- Metascore: 75
- Runtime: 86 minutes

George Lucas adapted his own student film for this feature debut, which takes place in a rigidly controlled future society. Confined to a seemingly inescapable fortress, human beings are reduced to alpha-numerical designations and deprived of their basic desires. Upon snapping out of his brainwashed state, factory worker THX 1138 (Robert Duvall) formulates an exit plan.

- Director: Luc Besson
- IMDb user rating: 6.8
- Votes: 5,536
- Metascore: data not available
- Runtime: 92 minutes

Director Luc Besson's first feature-length film takes place in a post-apocalyptic future, where all remaining humans have lost the ability to speak. Relying purely on non-verbal communication, two loners team up in a harrowing fight for survival. Between its lack of dialogue and grueling premise, the movie occasionally resembles a wildlife documentary.

- Director: Lars von Trier
- IMDb user rating: 6.8
- Votes: 9,116
- Metascore: data not available
- Runtime: 104 minutes

Controversial director Lars von Trier presents Europe as a dark and dystopian world in his feature-length debut. While hunting down a vicious serial killer, a detective (Michael Elphick) resorts to unorthodox methods. The director appears as a character named Schmuck of Ages, which is a role his biggest detractors might say he was born to play.

- Director: Geoff Murphy
- IMDb user rating: 6.8
- Votes: 24,241
- Metascore: data not available
- Runtime: 91 minutes

After his scientific creation destroys virtually every living creature on earth, a man (Bruno Lawrence) finds himself quite literally alone in the world. He eventually comes upon two other survivors, but can he trust them? So goes this sci-fi drama from 1985, which critic Tom Keogh described as a "strange, vivid movie."

- Director: Michael Anderson
- IMDb user rating: 6.8
- Votes: 51,053
- Metascore: 53
- Runtime: 119 minutes

Drawing upon youth culture's distrust of adults, this semi-iconic flick imagines a future in which every human is secretly executed when they reach 30 years of age. After pulling back the curtain on their city's utopian veneer, Logan 5 (Michael York) and Jessica 6 (Jenny Agutter) flee in search of a place called Sanctuary. A modern-day remake is reportedly in the works.

- Director: David Cronenberg
- IMDb user rating: 6.8
- Votes: 92,758
- Metascore: 68
- Runtime: 97 minutes

Released the same year as similarly themed films like "The Matrix" and "The 13th Floor," this unconventional thriller blends science fiction and body horror as only David Cronenberg can. It follows a game designer (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and her marketing trainee (Jude Law) as they try to salvage her latest virtual reality creation. Or have they been playing the game this whole time?

- Director: Jonathan Levine
- IMDb user rating: 6.8
- Votes: 217,474
- Metascore: 60
- Runtime: 98 minutes

Putting a clever twist on the zombie genre, this 2013 horror comedy chronicles the relationship between an infected boy (Nicholas Hoult) and a living girl (Teresa Palmer). As the zombie boy regains his sense of humanity, a number of the walking dead are brought back to life. In her review for Empire Magazine, critic Helen O'Hara claimed that the film "manages to make the apocalypse seem charming."

- Director: Michael Bay
- IMDb user rating: 6.8
- Votes: 298,314
- Metascore: 50
- Runtime: 136 minutes

A rare box-office misfire for director Michael Bay, this big-budget thriller stars Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson as two subjugated humans living in a post-outbreak world. Their only hope for salvation is an uncontaminated paradise known as The Island, but it turns out there's no room for paradise in a dystopia.

- Director: Wes Ball
- IMDb user rating: 6.8
- Votes: 411,152
- Metascore: 57
- Runtime: 113 minutes

The first installment of "The Maze Runner" trilogy finds young Thomas (Dylan O'Brien) waking up in a strange place called The Glade, with no memory of where he came from. Surrounded by others who underwent the same experience, Thomas discovers that the only way to escape is through a deadly maze. As per the movie's initial tagline: Get ready to run.

- Director: Kornél Mundruczó
- IMDb user rating: 6.9
- Votes: 14,925
- Metascore: 80
- Runtime: 121 minutes

At the heart of this Hungarian drama are 13-year-old Lili (Zsófia Psotta) and her dog, Hagen. When the two are separated, they undertake a long and arduous journey toward reunification. According to Variety critic Guy Lodge, the movie is both a story of "interspecies hierarchy" and a "simple but elegant metaphor for racial and class oppression."

- Director: Alex Cox
- IMDb user rating: 6.9
- Votes: 33,422
- Metascore: 82
- Runtime: 92 minutes

A veritable cult classic, Alex Cox's sci-fi punk comedy stars Emilio Estevez as a young misfit named Otto. Lured into the job of repo man, Otto enters an utterly bizarre world of cosmic intrigue and endless adventure. Set against a retro-futuristic Los Angeles landscape, the film pulls no punches in its critique of American consumerism.

- Director: Tommy Wirkola
- IMDb user rating: 6.9
- Votes: 101,050
- Metascore: 47
- Runtime: 123 minutes

Overpopulation and famine have resulted in a strict one-child policy by the time this movie opens. That's bad news for seven identical sisters (all played by Noomi Rapace), who try to outwit the Child Allocation Bureau by pretending to be the same individual. Things take a turn for the worse when one of the sisters disappears.

- Director: George Miller
- IMDb user rating: 6.9
- Votes: 189,083
- Metascore: 73
- Runtime: 88 minutes

The original "Mad Max" seems almost like a prequel in retrospect, taking place when society hasn't quite entered its post-apocalyptic phase. It tells the story of an Australian police officer named Max (Mel Gibson), who embarks on a quest for revenge after his family is killed by a gang of bikers. Made for just $200,000, the movie would end up earning nearly $100 million at the international box office.

- Director: Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia
- IMDb user rating: 7.0
- Votes: 151,755
- Metascore: 73
- Runtime: 94 minutes

A Netflix original movie, "The Platform" is a Spanish film set in the "Vertical Self-Management Center," a prison where inmates are fed via a platform that travels from top to bottom, with each level only getting the grub left behind by the floors above. The dystopian horror film highlights race and class inequities. The film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2019 and gained widespread popularity the following year against the real-life dystopian backdrop of COVID-19.

- Director: Joseph Kosinski
- IMDb user rating: 7.0
- Votes: 479,209
- Metascore: 54
- Runtime: 124 minutes

What was originally an unpublished graphic novel from Joseph Kosinski would eventually become this somewhat maligned sci-fi film, which Kosinski directed. It follows a drone repairman named Jack (Tom Cruise) as he visits an abandoned Earth in search of resources. Upon his discovery of a crashed alien spacecraft, Jack calls into question the story he's been told about the planet's demise.

- Director: Joseph Sargent
- IMDb user rating: 7.1
- Votes: 8,061
- Metascore: data not available
- Runtime: 100 minutes

Like a cross between "Dr. Strangelove" and "The Terminator," this forward-thinking thriller centers on the supercomputer Colossus. Designed to oversee America's missile defense system, Colossus ends up developing its own sense of awareness and intelligence. Chaos ensues, naturally.

- Director: Jean-Luc Godard
- IMDb user rating: 7.1
- Votes: 22,568
- Metascore: data not available
- Runtime: 99 minutes

French New Wave legend Jean-Luc Godard injected the sci-fi genre with his unique sensibilities, resulting in this acclaimed work. Rife with dense imagery and cultural references, it depicts a futuristic city ruled by an evil scientist and his human-like computer. When an American private eye (Eddie Constantine) falls for the scientist's daughter (Anna Karina), it threatens to undermine the citywide ban on love and self-expression.

- Director: Richard Fleischer
- IMDb user rating: 7.1
- Votes: 56,427
- Metascore: 66
- Runtime: 97 minutes

The year is 2022 and New York is overpopulated and choked with pollution in this iconic sci-fi thriller. Due to a scarcity of resources, humans survive on a plankton-based food product called Soylent Green. While investigating the murder of a top executive at the Soylent Corporation, Detective Thorn (Charlton Heston) uncovers the horrendous secret behind the world's most popular provision.

- Director: Michael Radford
- IMDb user rating: 7.1
- Votes: 65,414
- Metascore: 67
- Runtime: 113 minutes

While the actual year of 1984 bore little resemblance to George Orwell's cautionary novel, it nevertheless provided the perfect excuse for a big-screen adaptation. True to its source material, the film takes place in a war-torn totalitarian society. When an office worker (John Hurt) discovers that the Ministry of Truth has been dispensing complete lies about the state of world affairs, he goes on the run as a "thought criminal."

- Director: Richard Linklater
- IMDb user rating: 7.1
- Votes: 105,547
- Metascore: 73
- Runtime: 100 minutes

Director Richard Linklater and his team employed an animation technique known as interpolated rotoscoping to bring this novel to life. The technology provided the perfect visual foundation for this heady sci-fi drama, about an undercover cop in a world plagued by drug addiction, who slowly loses his grip on reality. Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, and Robert Downey Jr. star.

- Director: Mark Romanek
- IMDb user rating: 7.1
- Votes: 135,941
- Metascore: 69
- Runtime: 103 minutes

Based on the best-selling novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, this British coming-of-age drama imagines a parallel world in which cloning and extended lifespans have become the norm. It chronicles the lives of three close friends who must grapple with their existence as cloned organ donors. Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan, and Andrew Garfield star.

- Director: Pete Travis
- IMDb user rating: 7.1
- Votes: 247,866
- Metascore: 60
- Runtime: 95 minutes

Not to be confused with the 1995 Sylvester Stallone vehicle, this latter-day version takes a much grimmer tone. While trying to stop the flow of a powerful drug, a futuristic cop (Karl Urban) and his rookie partner (Olivia Thirlby) square off against a deadly gang. Despite decent reviews and a loyal following, the movie was a box office disappointment.

- Director: Bong Joon Ho
- IMDb user rating: 7.1
- Votes: 311,148
- Metascore: 84
- Runtime: 126 minutes

In the first English-language film from South Korea's Bong Joon-ho, a climate disaster forces all human survivors to live aboard a constantly-moving train. Fed up with the divide between upper and lower class, a man named Curtis (Chris Evans) leads a violent revolt. The action follows Curtis and his followers from one room to the next, throwing a host of surprises along the way.

- Director: Alex Proyas
- IMDb user rating: 7.1
- Votes: 493,360
- Metascore: 59
- Runtime: 115 minutes

Adapted from the popular book series by Isaac Asimov, this sci-fi thriller takes place in a society where humanoid robots are regulated by a set of rules. As he investigates an apparent death by self-murder, technophobic detective Del Spooner (Will Smith) discovers that a rogue robot may have perpetrated the crime. It all makes for a premise straight out of Elon Musk's worst nightmares.

- Director: Stanley Kramer
- IMDb user rating: 7.2
- Votes: 11,813
- Metascore: 55
- Runtime: 134 minutes

Featuring a star-studded cast, this award-winning drama takes place in the wake of a nuclear war. Upon his arrival in Australia, a submarine captain (Gregory Peck) meets a newfound love interest (Ava Gardner) and other survivors. Together, they try to cope with the end of existence itself.

- Director: Jean-Luc Godard
- IMDb user rating: 7.2
- Votes: 12,937
- Metascore: data not available
- Runtime: 105 minutes

While this absurdist effort from Jean-Luc Godard doesn't exactly scream "dystopia" in the traditional or futuristic sense, it does deal with the utter collapse of bourgeois society. What starts as a getaway to the French countryside becomes a ceaseless nightmare of traffic jams, revolts, murder, and even cannibalism. The end result is commonly seen as Godard's personal takedown of modern consumerism.

- Director: Toyoo Ashida
- IMDb user rating: 7.2
- Votes: 13,043
- Metascore: data not available
- Runtime: 80 minutes

Based on a popular book series, this animated sci-fi fantasy takes place thousands of years in the future. With help from a vampire hunter, a young girl tries to track down and kill the vampire who bit her. Should they fail in their mission, the young girl will turn into a vampire herself.

- Director: Woody Allen
- IMDb user rating: 7.2
- Votes: 39,434
- Metascore: 77
- Runtime: 89 minutes

Woody Allen's earliest comedies are also some of his silliest, including this farcical take on the legend of Rip Van Winkle. Upon waking up 200 years in the future, a high-strung store owner (Allen) discovers a brave and ridiculous new world. As zany the execution might be, Allen sent the script to science fiction writer Isaac Asimov before the shoot began, to make sure its ideas were plausible enough.

- Director: François Truffaut
- IMDb user rating: 7.2
- Votes: 40,716
- Metascore: data not available
- Runtime: 112 minutes

Like fellow legend Jean-Luc Godard, French New Wave director François Truffaut dipped his toes into the sci-fi genre. The result was this engrossing adaptation of Ray Bradbury's classic novel about a society that burns all books to protect against offensive ideas. The story's central conceits remain both poignant and relevant, which is perhaps why HBO recently produced its own version.

- Director: Pierre Morel
- IMDb user rating: 7.2
- Votes: 66,005
- Metascore: 70
- Runtime: 84 minutes

Co-written by Luc Besson, this French sci-fi action flick takes viewers deep into the walled-off ghettos of future Paris. The story follows an undercover cop (Cyril Raffaelli) and a former punk (David Belle) as they penetrate gang territory in search of a stolen neutron bomb. Clocking in at under 90 minutes, the movie features explosive fight scenes and impressive parkour stunts.

- Director: Kathryn Bigelow
- IMDb user rating: 7.2
- Votes: 66,384
- Metascore: 66
- Runtime: 145 minutes

James Cameron conceived the story and co-wrote the screenplay for this futuristic crime drama from Kathryn Bigelow, which takes place in 1999 Los Angeles. Ralph Fiennes plays street hustler Lenny Nero, who sells human memories and sensations via illegal technology. After one of the recordings reveals a heinous crime, Nero finds himself embroiled in a grave conspiracy.

- Director: David Cronenberg
- IMDb user rating: 7.2
- Votes: 82,268
- Metascore: 60
- Runtime: 87 minutes

David Cronenberg's cult classic blends surrealism and body horror to jarring effect, all while making pointed statements about various aspects of media culture. James Woods stars as sleazy cable TV programmer Max Renn, who uncovers a snuff-type show by the name of Videodrome. Little does Renn realize that Videodrome causes brain damage in all who watch it, thereby blurring the line between reality and fantasy.

- Director: John Carpenter
- IMDb user rating: 7.2
- Votes: 123,783
- Metascore: 76
- Runtime: 99 minutes

Decades before "District B13" came this seminal John Carpenter movie, in which future Manhattan has been transformed into a walled-off prison. When the American president crash-lands inside the prison walls, it's up to convicted bank robber Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) to go in and retrieve him. A latter-day remake from "Saw" and "Insidious" franchise alum Leigh Whannell is reportedly in the works.

- Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
- IMDb user rating: 7.2
- Votes: 212,860
- Metascore: 82
- Runtime: 119 minutes

Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos imagines a futuristic world in which humans are taken to The Hotel, and tasked with finding romance in 45 days or less. Should any given guest fail to secure a partner in the allotted time, he or she will turn into an animal and be cast out into The Woods. For one man (Colin Farrell), the clock is ticking.

- Director: John Hillcoat
- IMDb user rating: 7.2
- Votes: 220,936
- Metascore: 64
- Runtime: 111 minutes

Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic novel laid the groundwork for this 2009 film, which takes place in a world where resources are scarce and danger is omnipresent. As a father and son journey across a perilous terrain, they must determine who is a friend and who is a bloodthirsty cannibal. Decisions, decisions.

- Director: Steven Spielberg
- IMDb user rating: 7.2
- Votes: 287,561
- Metascore: 65
- Runtime: 146 minutes

Legendary director Stanley Kubrick developed this project before he passed away, leaving Steven Spielberg with the reins. The movie therefore represents a blend of two very different artistic temperaments, telling the story of an advanced robot boy (Haley Joel Osment) who longs to be "real." The boy's subsequent journey takes place against an exquisitely rendered futuristic landscape, which has direct ties to climate change.

- Directors: Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski
- IMDb user rating: 7.2
- Votes: 508,552
- Metascore: 62
- Runtime: 138 minutes

Widely viewed as a disappointment compared to its epoch-making predecessor, this 2003 sequel was nevertheless the highest-grossing R-rated movie of its time. As 250,000 sentinels close in on the city of Zion, Neo (Keanu Reeves) and his friends have 72 hours to save the Resistance. Along the way, Neo is haunted by visions of Trinity's (Carrie-Anne Moss) death.

- Director: Gary Ross
- IMDb user rating: 7.2
- Votes: 835,073
- Metascore: 68
- Runtime: 142 minutes

Suzanne Collins' wildly popular young adult book series leapt onto the big screen in 2012, with Jennifer Lawrence tackling the role of Katniss Everdeen. The story takes place in a brutal dystopian society, where pampered elitists watch 24 young citizens of the post-apocalyptic nation of Panem fight to the death in a televised event. The overarching film franchise went out with more of a whimper than a bang, but not before earning nearly $1.5 billion at the worldwide box office.

- Director: Bruce Pittman
- IMDb user rating: 7.3
- Votes: 2,251
- Metascore: data not available
- Runtime: 99 minutes

This loose adaptation of a Kurt Vonnegut story takes place in a truly egalitarian future, where humans are trained to be equal in every conceivable way. When a young man named Harrison Bergeron (Sean Astin) demonstrates a higher level of intelligence than his peers, he's exposed to some harsh truths about the society in which he lives. Bergeron tries to bring his message to the masses, but most listeners are too ignorant to process what he's saying.

- Director: Andrzej Zulawski
- IMDb user rating: 7.3
- Votes: 2,330
- Metascore: 72
- Runtime: 166 minutes

Drawing upon a range of anthropological and political themes, this sci-fi epic chronicles the birth of a future civilization on the dark side of the moon. Under attack from winged mutants, the civilization believes a newcomer is the messiah who will save them. Director Andrzej Żuławski's earliest work was derailed by the Polish ministry of culture, forcing him to shut down filming and pick things back up years later.

- Director: Jens Lien
- IMDb user rating: 7.3
- Votes: 16,270
- Metascore: data not available
- Runtime: 95 minutes

This Norwegian fantasy drama takes place in a strange city, where all the residents seem just a little too content for comfort. When a man arrives with no memory of how he got there, he stirs up trouble by asking too many questions. What's worse, he can't figure out how to leave.

- Director: John Carpenter
- IMDb user rating: 7.3
- Votes: 107,805
- Metascore: 55
- Runtime: 94 minutes

Released at the tail end of the Reagan era, "They Live" is a harsh critique of corporate capitalism dressed up as an alien invasion movie. When a downtrodden construction worker (Roddy Piper) puts on a pair of special sunglasses, he discovers that aliens have been using subliminal messages to take over the world.

- Director: Robert Rodriguez
- IMDb user rating: 7.3
- Votes: 221,058
- Metascore: 53
- Runtime: 122 minutes

Director James Cameron spent approximately 15 years developing this adaptation of a Japanese cyberpunk manga, eventually handing the reins to Robert Rodriguez. It follows a reactivated cyborg named Alita (Rosa Salazar) as she tries to uncover who she is and where she came from. Despite making more than $400 million worldwide, the film is generally seen as a financial disappointment.

- Director: Yasuhiro Yoshiura
- IMDb user rating: 7.4
- Votes: 7,512
- Metascore: 66
- Runtime: 98 minutes

Japanese filmmaker Yasuhiro Yoshiura defies perspective and gravity alike in this anime adventure, which centers on a young girl named Patema. Dissatisfied with the rigid rules of her underground society, Patema stumbles upon a surface world of reversed physics. New York Times critic Jeannette Catsoulis called the film a "delightful animated fable."

- Director: Hiroyuki Okiura
- IMDb user rating: 7.4
- Votes: 14,862
- Metascore: 59
- Runtime: 102 minutes

Hiroyuki Okiura's directorial debut imagines an alternate post-WWII Japan, where there exists a brutal divide between the haves and have-nots. To quell militia uprisings, Tokyo's government creates an elite paramilitary unit known as the Capitol Police Organization. After falling for the sister of a war victim, officer Kazuki Fuse finds himself embroiled in a web of corruption from within his own department.

- Directors: Peter Chung, Andrew R. Jones, Yoshiaki Kawajiri, Takeshi Koike, Mahiro Maeda, Kôji Morimoto, Shin'ichirô Watanabe
- IMDb user rating: 7.4
- Votes: 70,733
- Metascore: data not available
- Runtime: 100 minutes

This collection of animated shorts expands upon "The Matrix" universe and ultimately ranks higher on IMDb than both live-action sequels. Filling in numerous backstory details, the movie depicts the original war between man and machine and the creation of The Matrix itself. The Wachowskis wrote four of the nine segments.

- Director: Matt Reeves
- IMDb user rating: 7.4
- Votes: 223,960
- Metascore: 82
- Runtime: 140 minutes

The third installment in the "Planet of the Apes" prequel franchise centers on the brutal war between human survivors and hyper-intelligent apes. When his wife and child are killed, Caesar discovers his darker side and sets out for revenge. Dystopian perhaps, but apes are just a few strokes away from ridding the world of those pesky humans.

- Director: Kurt Wimmer
- IMDb user rating: 7.4
- Votes: 309,177
- Metascore: 33
- Runtime: 107 minutes

Set in a world where feelings have been deemed illegal, this dystopian action film stars Christian Bale as a top law enforcer named John Preston. When he skips out on his daily dose of emotion-suppressing drugs, Preston becomes the one person capable of changing the system. Audiences view "Equilibrium" in a more favorable light than critics, who mostly consider it a retread of better sci-fi films.

- Directors: Tom Tykwer, Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski
- IMDb user rating: 7.4
- Votes: 341,702
- Metascore: 55
- Runtime: 172 minutes

Tom Hanks and Halle Berry respectively tackled six different roles for this sprawling epic, which depicts a series of interconnected stories. Jumping from distant past into distant future, the movie shows how specific actions from one era can affect outcomes in another. In the future segment, a Korean clone rebels against the system that enslaves her.

- Director: Rian Johnson
- IMDb user rating: 7.4
- Votes: 528,754
- Metascore: 84
- Runtime: 113 minutes

Director Rian Johnson owes his "Star Wars" gig to this inventive sci-fi flick from 2012. It stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a young hitman whose job is to murder mob targets sent back from the future. When the hitman refuses to kill his own future self (Bruce Willis), it kicks off a string of life-changing events.

- Director: Mamoru Oshii
- IMDb user rating: 7.5
- Votes: 35,821
- Metascore: 66
- Runtime: 100 minutes

Why settle for the underwhelming live-action version of "Ghost in the Shell" when there's the original classic and its intriguing follow-up? In the sequel, a cyborg cop and his partner are on the trail of homicidal pleasure robots. As zany the premise might sound, it's not as far out as one might expect.

- Directors: Marc Caro, Jean-Pierre Jeunet
- IMDb user rating: 7.5
- Votes: 64,211
- Metascore: 73
- Runtime: 112 minutes

Brimming with unforgettable visuals and endless imagination, this European fantasy takes place in a surreal dystopian society. Determined to stop his premature aging, a mad scientist Krank (Daniel Emilfork) abducts children and steals their dreams. It's up to a strongman named One (Ron Perlman) and his quirky cohorts to save the day.

- Director: Gary Ross
- IMDb user rating: 7.5
- Votes: 120,066
- Metascore: 71
- Runtime: 124 minutes

Twins David (Tobey Maguire) and Jennifer (Reese Witherspoon) get more than a glimpse into simpler times when they leave their 1990s-era high school life to enter the world of David's favorite black-and-white sitcom, "Pleasantville." As a direct result of the teens' arrival, various townsfolk depart from their scripted lines, eventually unleashing their repressed desires. The film's deft examination of the gaps between illusion and reality touch on both entertainment culture and nostalgia for bygone eras.

- Director: Leigh Whannell
- IMDb user rating: 7.5
- Votes: 152,674
- Metascore: 67
- Runtime: 100 minutes

Considered one of 2018's most overlooked movies, this gripping sci-fi thriller takes place in the not-too-distant world of self-driving cars and ubiquitous technology. Upon losing his wife and mobility to vicious thugs, a man (Logan Marshall-Green) agrees to undergo an experimental upgrade. Now empowered by an intelligent computer chip, he embarks on a violent and occasionally humorous quest for revenge.

- Director: Paul Verhoeven
- IMDb user rating: 7.5
- Votes: 229,692
- Metascore: 67
- Runtime: 102 minutes

Blending ultra-violent action with poignant satire, "RoboCop" depicts a proximite future in which a private corporation owns the Detroit Police Department. Convinced that robot technology will improve crime-fighting, the corporation resurrects a murdered police officer (Peter Weller) as a cyborg cop. Paul Verhoeven had to revise scenes and submit the movie to the MPAA eight times before they dropped their initial X rating.

- Director: Paul Verhoeven
- IMDb user rating: 7.5
- Votes: 297,774
- Metascore: 57
- Runtime: 113 minutes

Director Paul Verhoeven released a string of iconic sci-fi movies in the late 20th century, including this one from 1990 based on a 1966 short story called "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale."  The film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as a muscle-bound construction worker with dreams of visiting Mars. Little does the man know that he's already been to Mars, and that he'll soon be going back...or will he?

- Director: Steven Spielberg
- IMDb user rating: 7.5
- Votes: 358,081
- Metascore: 64
- Runtime: 140 minutes

In 2045, teenage gamer Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) escapes the doldrums of a polluted, crumbling America by entering the OASIS, a virtual world of limitless possibility. After conquering the first challenge of an OASIS-wide contest, Watts embarks on an Easter egg hunt of epic pop culture proportion. Meanwhile, the audience goes on an Easter egg hunt of its own.

- Director: Francis Lawrence
- IMDb user rating: 7.5
- Votes: 606,462
- Metascore: 76
- Runtime: 146 minutes

The second installment in "The Hunger Games" film franchise is considered the best by audiences and critics alike. Set one year after the 74th Hunger Games, it follows Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) as they spark rebellion during their victory tour. Noticing as much, President Snow (Donald Sutherland) forces Katniss, Peeta, and others into an even deadlier battle arena.

- Directors: Kôji Morimoto, Tensai Okamura, Katsuhiro Ôtomo
- IMDb user rating: 7.6
- Votes: 15,255
- Metascore: data not available
- Runtime: 113 minutes

It's no surprise that most of Japan's best dystopian films are animated, such as this one from 1995. The movie is based on three separate manga stories from Katsuhiro Ôtomo, and accordingly split into three parts. Ôtomo himself directed one of the segments, about a city that fires cannons at an unseen enemy.

- Director: George Pal
- IMDb user rating: 7.6
- Votes: 35,651
- Metascore: 67
- Runtime: 103 minutes

This 1960 adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel sends H. George Wells (Rod Taylor) himself into the future by way of time machine. What at first appears to be a utopian society turns out to be something far more dangerous and deadly. The film won an Academy Award for its use of an innovative time-lapse effect, which showed the world whizzing by Wells' machine.

- Directors: Marc Caro, Jean-Pierre Jeunet
- IMDb user rating: 7.6
- Votes: 79,562
- Metascore: 66
- Runtime: 99 minutes

Before teaming up to direct "The City of Lost Children," France's Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet churned out this deliciously subversive comedy. It's set in a post-apocalyptic European city, where food is scarce and used as currency. With a number of the city's residents disappearing, the local delicatessen would kindly request that no one ask how the sausage gets made.

- Director: Walter Hill
- IMDb user rating: 7.6
- Votes: 92,467
- Metascore: 65
- Runtime: 92 minutes

Walter Hill's gritty cult classic presents future New York as a city on the verge of gang takeover. Accused of murdering the underworld's foremost leader, the Warriors must make it back to their turf alive. As they cross through the city's most dangerous territories, enemies close in from both sides of the law.

- Director: Dennis Gansel
- IMDb user rating: 7.6
- Votes: 101,373
- Metascore: data not available
- Runtime: 107 minutes

A high school teacher's lesson on autocracy spins wildly out of control in this German socio-political drama. Adopting the role of dictator, the teacher (Jürgen Vogel) slowly molds his classroom into a microcosm of the Nazi regime. Will he stop the madness before both he and the class get swept up by something they can no longer contain?

- Director: George Miller
- IMDb user rating: 7.6
- Votes: 164,450
- Metascore: 77
- Runtime: 96 minutes

George Miller's vision of the post-apocalypse became flesh in this heralded sequel, set in a barren desert wasteland. The story follows Mad Max (Mel Gibson) as he helps an oil-rich community stave off a horde of thieving barbarians. It all sets the stage for a road battle of truly epic proportion.

- Director: Kinji Fukasaku
- IMDb user rating: 7.6
- Votes: 167,277
- Metascore: 81
- Runtime: 114 minutes

Fans of "The Hunger Games" movies might want to check out this graphic precursor, which was likewise based on a book. It takes place in an alternate Japan, where the government pits ninth graders against one another in a fight to the death. In 2009, director Quentin Tarantino named "Battle Royale" his favorite film of the last 19 years.

- Director: Alex Proyas
- IMDb user rating: 7.6
- Votes: 186,070
- Metascore: 66
- Runtime: 100 minutes

Director Alex Proyas followed up "The Crow" with this similarly gothic effort, in which John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) wakes up in a hotel room with no memory of how he got there. As he wanders through a strange city, Murdoch uncovers a sinister plot involving powerful alien beings. Like a big-budget episode of "The Twilight Zone," the story builds up to a stunning reveal.

- Director: Matt Reeves
- IMDb user rating: 7.6
- Votes: 408,218
- Metascore: 79
- Runtime: 130 minutes

A deadly pandemic has wiped out the bulk of mankind when this 2014 blockbuster opens. As the human survivors try to consolidate resources, Caesar (Andy Serkis) and his clan of evolved apes huddle in the nearby forest. In the wake of hostile encounters, both sides inch closer to deadly battle.

- Director: Zack Snyder
- IMDb user rating: 7.6
- Votes: 494,808
- Metascore: 56
- Runtime: 162 minutes

With an HBO series just around the corner, now is the perfect time to revisit Zack Snyder's 2009 adaptation. Rewriting the history books, it depicts a dystopian world in which superheroes are real and Richard Nixon was never impeached. When one of their own is murdered, powerful vigilantes reunite to find the killer.

- Director: Steven Spielberg
- IMDb user rating: 7.6
- Votes: 501,788
- Metascore: 80
- Runtime: 145 minutes

Tom Cruise stars as John Anderton, chief of the PreCrime department, in this film adaptation from Steven Spielberg. In order to stop crimes before they can occur, Anderton relies on the visions of clairvoyant humans known as "precogs." When the precogs foresee Anderton himself committing a murder, he goes on the run to prove his future innocence.

- Director: Juliusz Machulski
- IMDb user rating: 7.7
- Votes: 11,785
- Metascore: data not available
- Runtime: 117 minutes

In this Polish sci-fi comedy, two scientists wake up 50 years in the future to discover that they're the last two men in a world completely inhabited by women. This all might sound like the stuff of pure farce, but the film also makes satirical jabs toward Poland's politics of the time.

- Directors: Masayuki, Kazuya Tsurumaki, Hideaki Anno
- IMDb user rating: 7.7
- Votes: 17,280
- Metascore: data not available
- Runtime: 98 minutes

As monstrous entities known as Angels attack the planet, young Shinji Ikari joins the resistance. With virtually no training, Ikari pilots the giant biomachine Evangelion Unit 01 and heads into battle. Based on the popular anime series "Neon Genesis Evangelion," this was the first installment in the "Rebuild of Evangelion" tetralogy.

- Director: Yoshiaki Kawajiri
- IMDb user rating: 7.7
- Votes: 28,833
- Metascore: 62
- Runtime: 103 minutes

Edging out its 1985 predecessor in just about every way, this dark slice of Japanimation likewise goes down thousands of years in the future. When a young girl is kidnapped by a vampire, a half-human/half-vampire named D sets out to save her. It's all based on original stories from Yoshitaka Amano, who designed some of the film's characters.

- Directors: Christopher Miller, Phil Lord
- IMDb user rating: 7.7
- Votes: 320,788
- Metascore: 83
- Runtime: 100 minutes

Everything is awesome for Emmet Brickowski (Chris Pratt) in the beginning of this 3D-animated comedy, but that all changes when he comes upon the Piece of Resistance. With the veil of awesomeness lifted, Emmet and an epic cast of characters take on the evil Lord Business (Will Ferrell). Between its overt jabs at capitalism and unexpected reveal, "The Lego Movie" goes above and beyond the average family fare.

- Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
- IMDb user rating: 7.8
- Votes: 5,265
- Metascore: 76
- Runtime: 212 minutes

Based on the same novel as 1999's "The Thirteenth Floor," this German sci-fi mystery originally aired as a two-part miniseries. It centers on an advanced computer called Simulacron, which has created an artificial world and filled it with unwitting humans. When one of Simulacron's overseers unexpectedly dies, it kicks off a series of mind-bending phenomena.

- Director: Peter Watkins
- IMDb user rating: 7.8
- Votes: 6,110
- Metascore: data not available
- Runtime: 91 minutes

In the words of critic Nathan Rabin, this 1971 pseudo-documentary presents a "leftist fever dream of totalitarian oppression." Responding to anti-war protests and an overpopulated prison crisis, President Richard Nixon declares a national emergency. It leads to the creation of Punishment Park, where hippies and draft dodgers are hunted for sport.

- Director: Orson Welles
- IMDb user rating: 7.8
- Votes: 19,027
- Metascore: data not available
- Runtime: 119 minutes

Filmmaker Orson Welles brought the nightmarish world of Franz Kafka to the big screen in 1962. The story follows office worker Josef K. (Anthony Perkins) as he's arrested by the police and convicted in a court of law. All the while, Josef is never informed of the charges being brought against him.

- Director: René Laloux
- IMDb user rating: 7.8
- Votes: 24,207
- Metascore: data not available
- Runtime: 72 minutes

Humans are enslaved by giant blue aliens in this French cult classic, which takes place on a faraway planet. After escaping from his owner, a human "pet" is taken in by a band of revolutionaries. The film's psychedelic soundtrack and cut-out animation style are as surreal and distinctive now as they were more than 40 years ago.

- Director: Andrew Niccol
- IMDb user rating: 7.8
- Votes: 277,312
- Metascore: 64
- Runtime: 106 minutes

This noirish sci-fi thriller originally tanked at the box office, then later developed a loyal following, in part due to its increasingly prescient premise. Ethan Hawke stars as Vincent Freeman, whose genetic makeup confines him to a specific range of menial jobs. Determined to travel into space, Freeman manipulates DNA testing and adopts the identity of another man (Jude Law).

- Director: Wes Anderson
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Votes: 134,774
- Metascore: 82
- Runtime: 101 minutes

Wes Anderson's stop-motion adventure takes place during a dog flu outbreak in a dystopian Japan. After all dogs are exiled to Trash Island, a young boy (Koyu Rankin) boldly ventures there to retrieve his beloved pet, Spots. Lending their respective voices are Bryan Cranston, Greta Gerwig, Yoko Ono, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Jeff Goldblum, Frances McDormand, Scarlett Johansson, and Harvey Keitel.

- Director: Terry Gilliam
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Votes: 185,470
- Metascore: 84
- Runtime: 132 minutes

"Monty Python" alum Terry Gilliam delivers a darkly comic take on George Orwell's "1984" in this retro-futuristic satire. After being mistaken for a terrorist, a lowly bureaucrat (Jonathan Pryce) flees the government with the girl of his dreams by his side. Robert De Niro costars.

- Director: Alfonso Cuarón
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Votes: 459,376
- Metascore: 84
- Runtime: 109 minutes

The year is 2027 and humans are no longer able to reproduce, leading to societal collapses around the world. In London, a government bureaucrat (Clive Owen) is tasked with transporting the first pregnant woman in 18 years to safety. Director Alfonso Cuarón's masterful use of the long take creates a palpable sense of constant danger, and pays off in spades during the movie's legendary climax.

- Director: Neill Blomkamp
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Votes: 632,805
- Metascore: 81
- Runtime: 112 minutes

Neill Blomkamp's debut feature is a thinly veiled metaphor for South African apartheid and racial segregation. It imagines an alternate reality in which aliens landed years ago, only to be forced into militarized ghettos. While overseeing a hostile eviction operation in District 9, government agent Wikus Van De Merwe (Sharlto Copley) is exposed to—and changed by—alien biotechnology.

- Director: Bryan Singer
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Votes: 653,193
- Metascore: 75
- Runtime: 132 minutes

It doesn't get more dystopian than the opening to this "X-Men" installment, which sees man and mutant alike being driven to extinction by an invincible race of machines. Hoping to reverse the course of history, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) inhabits his former body and effectively travels back to 1973. Here, he teams up with characters from "X-Men: First Class" and gets to work with the claws.

- Director: Mamoru Oshii
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Votes: 126,633
- Metascore: 76
- Runtime: 83 minutes

In this seminal anime thriller, a cyborg policewoman and her partner hunt down a hacker known only as The Puppet Master. The movie's dystopian vision and groundbreaking aesthetic would influence a slew of subsequent sci-fi shows and films. 2008 saw the release of a digitally revised and graphically enhanced version, better-known as "Ghost in the Shell 2.0.".

- Director: Katsuhiro Ôtomo
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Votes: 161,490
- Metascore: data not available
- Runtime: 124 minutes

"Put it up there with the most astonishing animated features ever made," critic Derek Malcolm wrote of this groundbreaking cyberpunk anime film. Set in the futuristic city of Neo-Tokyo, the story centers on a motorcycle-riding gang leader named Shōtarō Kaneda. When one of Kaneda's fellow gang members unlocks psychic powers, it kicks off a series of violent confrontations.

- Director: Franklin J. Schaffner
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Votes: 163,650
- Metascore: 79
- Runtime: 112 minutes

"The Twilight Zone" creator Rod Serling co-wrote the screenplay for this landmark sci-fi film, which spawned multiple franchises. It stars Charlton Heston as astronaut George Taylor, who crash lands on a planet ruled by a simian race. Taylor's adventure culminates with one of the most iconic reveals in cinematic history.

- Director: Denis Villeneuve
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Votes: 447,897
- Metascore: 81
- Runtime: 164 minutes

Set 30 years after the original, this visually striking sequel centers on a young blade runner named K (Ryan Gosling). While hunting down his latest target, K uncovers a long-buried secret that could change the shape of society itself. Given that same society's drab and dystopian state, change is probably a good thing.

- Director: Terry Gilliam
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Votes: 571,426
- Metascore: 74
- Runtime: 129 minutes

Director Terry Gilliam offers another twisted vision of dystopia, in which mankind has been forced to live underground due to a deadly outbreak. Tasked with uncovering the disease's origins, a man (Bruce Willis) journeys back and forth in time. Unfortunately, time travel isn't as exact a science as one might hope.

- Director: James Cameron
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Votes: 789,949
- Metascore: 84
- Runtime: 107 minutes

James Cameron's own feverish nightmare eventually became this iconic sci-fi thriller, which opens in the midst of an ongoing war between man and machine. Rather than fight the resistance leader head-on, the machines send a cyborg (Arnold Schwarzenegger) back in time to kill the leader's mother (Linda Hamilton). A franchise reboot is set to drop at the end of this year.

- Director: James Mangold
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Votes: 633,695
- Metascore: 77
- Runtime: 137 minutes

After staving off armageddon in "X-Men: Days of Future Past," Logan (Hugh Jackman), better-known as Wolverine, ended up in a dystopian wasteland anyway. As the mutant population dwindles around the planet, the jaded superhero attends to an ailing Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart). When asked to escort a spry young mutant to the Canadian border, Logan discovers there's some life in him yet.

- Director: Ridley Scott
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Votes: 683,125
- Metascore: 84
- Runtime: 117 minutes

This cult sci-fi classic follows blade runner Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) as he tracks down four genetically engineered humanoids, better known as replicants. Between the movie's eye-popping visuals and lush soundtrack, it plays like an atmospheric answer to the "Star Wars" franchise. Multiple versions have been released over the years, though most agree that "The Final Cut" is the one to watch.

- Director: George Miller
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Votes: 864,115
- Metascore: 90
- Runtime: 120 minutes

Tom Hardy tackles the role of Mad Max in this big-budget installment, which expands upon George Miller's vision of the post-apocalypse. After crossing paths with a vicious warlord, Max and a rebel named Furiosa (Charlize Theron) hit the sand in a truly epic and explosive chase. Rumors of a follow-up persist, but the reality of it happening are as bleak as a desert wasteland.

- Director: Peter Weir
- IMDb user rating: 8.1
- Votes: 919,469
- Metascore: 90
- Runtime: 103 minutes

Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey) thinks he's living a normal life in a small picturesque town, but he's actually the unwitting star of the world's most popular reality show. Overseeing the voyeuristic endeavour is a megalomaniac named Kristof, played by Ed Harris. The movie remains so timely and effective that it has a psychological disorder named after it.

- Director: Andrei Tarkovsky
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Votes: 113,668
- Metascore: data not available
- Runtime: 162 minutes

Andrei Tarkovsky's meditative sci-fi drama takes place in a nameless city, containing a reality-bending region called The Zone. While The Zone has been deemed off-limits by the government, people can hire a seasoned guide known as a stalker to help them sneak inside. That's exactly what two men decide to do, and they're soon confronted with a range of psychological and philosophical dilemmas.

- Director: James McTeigue
- IMDb user rating: 8.2
- Votes: 1,016,432
- Metascore: 62
- Runtime: 132 minutes

Based on a graphic novel, this dystopian thriller depicts future England as a ravaged society ruled by a neo-fascist regime. After being taken prisoner, Evey Hammond (Natalie Portman) is saved by a mysterious freedom fighter named V (Hugo Weaving). Working together, they set out to punish those who brought their country to its knees.

- Director: Fritz Lang
- IMDb user rating: 8.3
- Votes: 157,565
- Metascore: 98
- Runtime: 153 minutes

The futuristic city of Metropolis is a paradise of privilege for those who live above ground, but below the surface is a grueling world of human toil and misery. When the son of an elitist architect falls in love with a working-class girl, it puts the gears of revolution in motion. This was the most expensive movie of its era, and one that has only gained more acclaim and relevance in the time since.

- Director: Stanley Kubrick
- IMDb user rating: 8.3
- Votes: 745,806
- Metascore: 77
- Runtime: 136 minutes

Bone-chilling synth music and a menacing stare set the stage for Stanley Kubrick's dystopian masterpiece, which opens in a drug-laced milk bar. What follows is a tour de force of the human id, as Alex and his three droogs engage in a number of heinous crimes. When Alex's ability to harm others is disabled by an experimental serum, the predator becomes the prey.

- Director: Andrew Stanton
- IMDb user rating: 8.4
- Votes: 981,959
- Metascore: 95
- Runtime: 98 minutes

An abandoned Earth covered in garbage and rife with dust storms is about as dystopian as it gets, and that's exactly where this Pixar movie starts off. Tasked with stacking mountains of compressed trash cubes, a lovable robot named WALL-E discovers a new friend with an important mission, and finds his way onto a spaceship. There, he discovers an entirely different type of human dystopia, albeit one that doesn't smell as bad.

- Director: James Cameron
- IMDb user rating: 8.5
- Votes: 981,627
- Metascore: 75
- Runtime: 137 minutes

Armed with more experience and a much bigger budget, James Cameron crafted this wildly successful sequel to his original sci-fi nightmare. Arnold Schwarzenegger takes on the role of good guy, squaring off against a liquid metal robot called the T-1000 (Robert Patrick). Touching on a variety of genres, the movie is groundbreaking in its use of CGI.

- Director: Christopher Nolan
- IMDb user rating: 8.6
- Votes: 1,470,079
- Metascore: 74
- Runtime: 169 minutes

Christopher Nolan's sci-fi epic depicts a not-too-distant future, which sees climate change pushing mankind to the brink of extinction. In a last-ditch effort for survival, a group of explorers searches the deepest corners of space for an inhabitable planet. Featured in the star-studded cast are Matthew McConaughey, Timothée Chalamet, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, and Michael Caine.