The Top 10 Sci-fi Films

No genre is better suited to cinema than sci-fi, where filmmaking�s mastery of light and sound is employed to conjure new worlds and realise strange ideas.

In cinema, boundless outer space, looming futurist cityscapes and even tears in the rain need not be left to our imagination.

Here, James Blackford of the BFI chooses his Top 10 Sci-fi films.

10. Silent Running
A hippie sci-fi classic from Douglas Trumball, the man behind many of 2001: A Space Odyssey�s impressive visual effects. Bruce Dern delivers a performance full of conviction as the conservationist who goes rogue when he receives orders to destroy the earth�s last forests, which he maintains upon the space ship Valley Forge.

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A stirring, scene-setting speech from the start of the film:

9. Forbidden Planet
A glossy big-budget space adventure based on Shakespeare�s The Tempest, replete with flying saucers, Id monsters, and the loveable �Robbie the Robot�. It�s a film packed full of ingenious ideas (the huge underground Krell installation, the �plastic educator�) spectacularly designed and captured in colour cinemascope.

Buy on DVD for �6.99 / Blu-ray for �9.99

"Imagine yourself as one of the crew of this faster-than-light spaceship of the future..."

8. Scanners
THE definitive exploding head movie, but don't let this put you off. Cronenberg's breakthrough feature is a satirically-charged attack on multinationals and scientists whose madness goes unnoticed because everyone around them is even crazier. Superbly served by a maniacal Ironside, some fabulous set pieces and the pounding score of Howard Shore.

Part of the Scanners collection, available for �8.99

7. Soylent Green
A sci-fi / police procedural hybrid with a macabre central conceit. In a hellish, polluted future of 2022, the people of New York are surreptitiously being fed processed human remains in the form of synthetic pea green slices. At the film�s heart lies a touching and believable friendship between Charlton Heston�s Detective Thorn and Edward G. Robinson�s Sol Roth. The climactic scene of Sol�s assisted suicide is hugely moving.

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6. The Day The Earth Stood Still
Definitive American sci-fi from the genre�s halcyon years, which sees a Christ-like alien humanoid descend to earth to deliver a dire warning on the dangers of atomic war. A heartfelt call for peace and harmony between nations that also features the memorable robot Gort, an eight foot steel titan with laser beam eyes.

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5. Metropolis (Reconstructed & Restored)
A towering dystopian epic whose story of an apartheid society under autocratic rule was sadly prophetic for Germany. This was filmmaking of truly colossal aspiration and its futurist designs influenced a generation of sci-fi directors. Even better, the newly reconstructed and restored version finally makes sense.

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4. Solaris
Often ridiculously posited as the Soviet answer to 2001, Tarkovsky�s vast, sentient ocean-planet of Solaris in fact represents a gravely inward journey, delving into protagonist Kris Kelvin's unconscious and physically manifesting his repressed desires. Through this metaphor, Tarkovsky questions the whole concept of man�s explorations into space, concluding �We don�t want other worlds, we want mirrors".

Part of the Tarkovsky collection, click here to buy for �34.99

Tarkovsky ruminates on the art and commerce of cinema:

3. Blade Runner
L.A becomes a gloriously decaying, rain-drenched metropolis in this ultra-stylised future-noir. Superbly crafted miniature effects, Vangelis� sumptuous synths, and an oddly sympathetic performance from Rutger Hauer as the tragic android villain combine to make this a thoroughly unique and compelling addition to the sci-fi canon.

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Rutger Hauer's final moments and one of cinema's greatest scenes:

2. Stalker
The antithesis of the American special effects film, the genius of Stalker lies in how Tarkovsky creates such a convincingly strange post-apocalyptic world (the dystopian �Zone� through which his stalker travels) from the real dilapidated industrial reality of the ailing Soviet state.

Part of the Tarkovsky collection, click here to buy for �34.99

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Special Edition)
Beyond epic in scope, light years ahead of its time technically and endlessly emulated, Kubrick's magnum opus is a triumphant synergy of awe-inspiring visuals and grandiose philosophical musing. It stills stands unmatched in the annuls of sci-fi cinema.

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HAL's unforgettable final moments:

NB. We've limited ourselves to choosing from titles currently available in the UK