What once seemed like the distant future (anything after the year 2000) is now very much the present, if not the past. While not all things predicted to come true in science fiction stories of old have indeed come to fruition, one thing has remained constant throughout time: consistently strong science fiction stories have continued to be made. The last decade or so has seen plenty of sci-fi movies that’ll surely be considered classics as the years go on.

Of the following movies, some definitely fall into the category of “undisputed classic,” while others may be flawed, but exceedingly enjoyable to the point where creative missteps hardly matter. Above all, these modern science fiction movies – all made during the 2010s or 2020s – are very easy to rewatch and, indeed, sometimes become better and better the more they’re revisited. All are worth seeking out and returning to, and are ranked below, from great to greatest.

10 'Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes' (2020)

Director: Junta Yamaguchi

One of the greatest Japanese movies in recent years is also among the best – and most underrated – sci-fi films to be released within the last decade or so. The film in question is Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes, an ambitious low-budget sci-fi/comedy movie about time travel that plays out in just over an hour and is presented in a way that looks as though it was filmed in one shot.

It’s got a mind-bending central hook, with the story involving the chaos that unfolds after a man discovers he has a monitor that shows footage from a couple of minutes into the future. Each new scene introduces something else that complicates the whole thing further, but it’s possible to keep up… just. Even then, if you don’t keep a handle on all the wildness, Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes is nevertheless good, breezy fun, and remarkably creative for a film of such modest scale.

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9 'Godzilla vs. Kong' (2021)

Director: Adam Wingard

It’s far from one of the smartest King Kong movies, but it could well be one of the most enjoyably dumb, Godzilla vs. Kong delivers exactly what you’d expect from the title and then some. When judged as a Godzilla movie, it’s also one of the more full-on in that series, pitting the King of the Monsters against Kong, here framed as an underdog who nevertheless puts up a surprisingly good fight.

The 2024 sequel kept the goofy fun going, but of these two Adam Wingard-directed Godzilla + Kong movies, Godzilla vs. Kong feels like it will endure a little longer in time, simply because seeing these two titans have a smackdown is just such a blast. Perhaps this movie’s best rewatched with a finger hovering over the fast-forward button during the non-monster scenes, though… the film might not be perfect, but the highs outshine the lows.

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8 'Pacific Rim' (2013)

Director: Guillermo del Toro

Changing things up a little from the likes of Godzilla and Kong, Pacific Rim is up there with the very best giant monster movies of all time that don’t revolve around one – or both – of those cinematic legends. Instead, Pacific Rim is an original story from the mind of Guillermo del Toro, taking place in a world where all the countries on Earth band together to create giant controllable robots – called Jaegers – to defeat the gigantic monsters – called kaiju – that have started to come forth from the sea, seeking world domination.

The story and the characters within it may be simple, but there’s a heart to Pacific Rim that makes it work surprisingly well. It’s a film that knows exactly what it is and sticks to its guns throughout, with impressive world-building, inventive creature designs, and super satisfying action that makes it one science fiction movie that’s easy to devote multiple viewings to.

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7 'Dune' (2021)

Director: Denis Villeneuve

Denis Villeneuve has been on a role lately when it comes to the sci-fi genre, given his last four feature films have all been definable as science fiction, though it’s hard to accuse him of repeating himself or making the same kind of sci-fi. Arrival was quiet and meditative, Blade Runner 2049 had a strong element of mystery while increasing the scope, and then his two Dune movies have both been monumental epics that are impressive in just about every way.

2021’s Dune is probably the slightly lesser of the two, not quite having as much impactful material to work with, given it adapts the first half or so of Frank Herbert’s novel of the same name. The second half is where things get particularly interesting, and so it follows that the sequel went to even grander and more surprising places. Speaking of…

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6 'Dune: Part Two' (2024)

Director: Denis Villeneuve

If Dune: Part Two hadn’t been fantastic, it would have made the first Dune look worse in retrospect. That 2021 film had amazing technical qualities, some spectacular action scenes, and a great score, but so much of the narrative was set-up, and a second part was needed for the pay-off. If Dune: Part Two hadn’t delivered the necessary payoffs, rewatching Dune would become a more frustrating experience than watching it a couple of years ago would’ve been.

Dune: Part Two takes the characters still alive at the end of the first Dune and pushes them into darker territory, with character arcs feeling unexpected and the overall story becoming more morally complex and challenging. It’s a more moving and perhaps even more deconstructive film than the first was, but that it does all this while also being entertaining – as well as more action-packed/epic than the first – is what makes Dune: Part Two feel like classic science fiction already. Taken together, both these films make for an epic duology; a satisfying five-hour epic that still feels as though there’s more story to tell.

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5 'Guardians of the Galaxy' (2014)

Director: James Gunn

Though it received two strong sequels, there’s a purity to the original Guardians of the Galaxy that makes it especially rewarding to go back to, even now, a decade on from its initial release. It was an unlikely hit at the time, and such a pleasant surprise for those who hadn’t heard of what was then a somewhat obscure Marvel property. That changed from 2014 onwards, with the characters of Guardians of the Galaxy now being as recognizable as any of the MCU’s heavy-hitters.

It's a movie about several down-on-their-luck individuals being thrust together, initially disliking and distrusting each other, but then learning to work together and becoming unlikely heroes in the process. The characters are fun, James Gunn directs the whole thing with style, and it’s also very funny without the humor detracting from the action and the more emotional moments. It’s well-balanced, and certainly a 2010s superhero movie that holds up better than most.

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4 'Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse' (2018)

Directors: Rodney Rothman, Peter Ramsey, Bob Persichetti

Like Guardians of the Galaxy, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was also something of a pleasant surprise. If you’d told someone before its release that an animated Spider-Man movie would become not just one of the best superhero movies of all time, but also up there with the best and most inventive science fiction movies of all time, they probably wouldn’t have believed you.

But then Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse proved that it had what it took to be a classic, no matter how one chooses to define it. It manages to tell an origin story in a way that feels dynamic and innovative, it explores the idea of a multiverse better than just about anything else, and the animation's so bold and instantly eye-catching that certain films released after 2018 already seem to have been influenced by it. It’s also a movie with so much going on and so many details that fly by that more than one viewing isn’t just recommended; it might well be necessary.

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3 'Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse' (2023)

Directors: Joaquim Dos Santos, Justin K. Thompson, Kemp Powers

For as detailed and fast-paced as Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was, its remarkable 2023 sequel, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse might have pushed things even further in those regards. With a complex world established and Miles Morales having already gone through his origin story, Across the Spider-Verse hits the ground running, and doesn’t let up for a second of its impressively beefy 140-minute-long runtime.

So long as the third Spider-Verse movie sticks the land, this trilogy could well hold up as one of the most consistently rewatchable and enduring in cinema history. For as big a call as it could sound right now, if the third movie is as good as the first two, we could be looking at another film trilogy potentially on the same level as The Lord of the Rings. They’re very different kinds of movies, sure, but the potential is there for a complete Spider-Verse trilogy to be that great.

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2 'Mad Max: Fury Road' (2015)

Director: George Miller

You won’t need a second viewing of Mad Max: Fury Road to understand the plot by any means, given it’s an action/sci-fi movie that’s pure, no-nonsense, and rather straightforward. It follows the titular character getting mixed up in a wild chase through a post-apocalyptic wasteland, with a group of young women fleeing from the tyrannical cult leader who’d enslaved them, leading to plenty of ferocious action, destruction, and spectacle.

Though Mad Max: Fury Road isn’t literally one uninterrupted action sequence, it can feel like one at times, because most of the movie revolves around people being chased and other people doing the chasing. It’s always moving forward and never stops being thrilling, so returning to a film with such gorgeous action – and so much of it – proves surprisingly easy to do, not to mention rewarding, given how technically immaculate the entire production is (meaning certain details may go unnoticed the first time watching the film).

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1 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' (2022)

Directors: Daniel Scheinert, Daniel Kwan

There’s something about the concept of a multiverse that makes a movie rewatchable, perhaps because the idea of multiple universes can take more than one viewing to wrap one’s head around, or because such a concept allows for plenty of hidden jokes, details, or easter eggs. As such, much in the same way that the Spider-Verse movies feel like very rewatchable sci-fi flicks, so too is the Best Picture-winning Everything Everywhere All at Once.

As the wild title suggests, Everything Everywhere All at Once is an explosion of tones, genres, and ideas, following one seemingly ordinary woman thrust into a dramatic mission to save not just the universe, but all the universes. As a film, Everything Everywhere All at Once is unique, funny, sad, heartfelt, inspiring, terrifying, thought-provoking, stupid, smart, chaotic, and relatable. It’s the sort of movie one could watch again and again and potentially never get tired of; something that will hopefully endure and remain compelling well into the future.

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