Care to gather ‘round the campfire and talk about 90s sci fi movies? How can one classify the 1990s in terms of sci fi movies? The 90s seems like such a strange decade to pin down (I'm not just talking sf movies) It started with Total Recall and ended with The Matrix. It had 4 Star Trek movies, 2 Alien movies, 2 Robocop movies, 2 Jurassic Park movies, a Terminator movie, a Bill & Ted movie, the conclusion of the Back to the Future Trilogy and the rebirth of Star Wars with The Phantom Menace (and the Special Edition re-cuts). There was that weird patch in the middle with one-off non-franchise SF movies like: Demolition Man, Tank Girl, Johnny Mnemonic, Strange Days, Starship Troopers and Dark City to name a few. It even gave us a few unusual gems like Galaxy Quest and The Iron Giant. It was the decade practical effects made way for CGI (see Terminator 2 and Jurassic Park). There was even some quiet intellectual fare like Until the End of the World and Gattaca.



So, let’s talk 90s sci fi!

No mention of arguably the biggest sci-fi movie of the 90s, Independence Day?

I think the maturation of CGI was huge for the sci-fi genre in the 90s. So many movies. The Fifth Element and Stargate were also favorites of mine in the decade. A great decade for the genre.

D'oh!

The 90s also had some lesser known SF films like:

Circuitry Man I and II
Screamers
Late for Dinner (from the director of Buckaroo Banzai)

The 90s was arguably the last interesting decade for SF movies.

Strange Days (seems to be forgotten).
12 Monkeys
Event Horizon

^^DUDE! How could I forget 12 Monkeys? It's Terry Gilliam's best film (sorry, Brazil...)

T2 was both a goodbye to the superior 80's sci-fi flicks and a fitting climax to Arnold's early movie career. Believe it or not, there a was a brief time in the late 80's and very early 90's, when renting an Arnold movie was something to look forward to on a Friday night.

I think the 80s had the overall best sci-fi flicks...

Alien (1979, I know... but it sort of kicked off the decade), The Thing, Aliens, Terminator, Robocop, Predator, Star Trek II-VI (yeah, '91, I know -- I'll just say that, like Alien, it bookended the decade), Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, Road Warrior, Beyond Thunderdome, Blade Runner, The Abyss... Hell, I'd even throw Tron and Enemy Mine in there.

All seemed like really awesome,visionary stuff. Really nice blend of body horror, cyberpunk, space opera, and dystopia. And a lot of these filmed seemed almost guerilla... kind of low budget, boundary-pushing, and transgressive.

The 90s era of sci-fi was mostly PG fare with enormous budgets... Jurassic Park, Independence Day, even The Matrix. Mostly seemed like big loud action movies that appealed to mass audiences. Johnny Mnemonic was a botched attempt to get William Gibson's Sprawl on the big screen. I kinda liked The Matrix, but it mostly seemed like a vehicle for bullet-time effects and corny pop philosophy. Ditto, T2, which too often felt a demo reel for morphing effects and a star vehicle for Arnold. And with The Phantom Menace, once you got beyond the "Holy Shit! The Prequels are actually happening!" it was kind of a dud.

Some exceptions would be Dark City, Strange Days, and Starship Troopers, which seemed to push boundaries and present some actual ideas.

Not traditional sci-fi but Hackers is one of my favorites from the 90's.

I agree with that. However, I would argue that the 90s had better and more interesting sci fi flicks that the 00s and 10s and most likely, the 20s. The 21st century has been a dead zone for sci fi movies.

Still it was released with an R rating, so it was able to maintained some of the 80's roughness and edge.

No love for The Last Starfighter?

Can't argue with you about that. From 2000 to recent, it is all about big budget superhero flicks. While I really enjoy watching the MCU unfold to its climax, I wish for a Sci-Fi renaissance.

12 Monkeys is one of my favorite movies. Just an all around awesome film.

I almost forgot about this gem. Denzel Washington vs Russell Crowe in a mid-90s virtual reality action movie? Yes please!

90s had some super fun Sci-Fi cheese. The aforementioned films are testament to them.

But as far as science fiction, for me it begun and ended with Dark City. I saw that one three times in theaters, and loved it more with each viewing. I also enjoyed Contact, Gattaca, 12 Monkeys, Kafka, eXistenZ, Cube, and Abre Los Ojos.

I've never heard of a few of those. And Gattaca is my pick for best SF movie of the 90s. A movie reviewer once described it as "if Shakespeare wrote a science fiction story".

That was a great thread intro. Never thought about how pivotal the 90's were for Sci-fi

Need to add Freejack, The Arrival, and X-Files: Fight The Future to the list.

I saw that in the theater when I was a kid. And I remember absolutely nothing about it. As such, I've had no desire to revisit it. I might watch a bit of it if I saw it on the cable schedule, though, just to see if it jogged my memories.

Does anyone remember The Thirteenth Floor from 1999? It came out around the same time as The Matrix. Man, the 90s practically had a sub-genre of VR and or "Net" related SF movies.

I just wanted to give some love to a couple of films that haven't been mentioned so far:

Pi (1998) - If Darren Aronofsky didn't make anything after this movie, I think he'd still be considered one of the best indie writer/directors to come out of the '90s.

Men in Black (1997) - The franchise has yet to do better than the origin story of J joining the MiB. Real shame about Linda Fiorentino not returning for the sequels.

Cube (1997) - It's amazing what you can do with a single set redressed over and over. I haven't had many white-knuckle experiences at the movies, but the sound-sensitive room really sent my anxiety through the roof.

Guyver: Dark Hero (1994) - Not a classic by any stretch of the imagination but it's hard to go wrong with guys in bio-armor doing martial arts.

Species (1995) - Reasonably entertaining B-movie that had a decent budget. This movie introduced to me the idea of the Dumb Genius.

Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991) - If I'm not mistaken, this was the first time the Big G fought the Three-Headed G one on one.

Godzilla (1998) - This is one of the movies that's so stupid I can actually feel my IQ drop as I watch it.

Judge Dredd (1995) - Not sure why Stallone needed to remake Demolition Man so soon.

Waterworld (1995) - What d'y'all think? Was this the film where Costner used up all the good will he earned through the '80s and early '90s?

Soldier (1998) - You have Kurt Russell as your star...why are you wasting him?

Sphere (1998) - I read the novel and thought Michael Crichton fully intended it to be made into a movie. Too bad it wasn't made into a good one.

As for sci-fi movies I haven't seen that haven't been mentioned yet, I can think of these:

• Escape From L.A. (1996)
• The Faculty (1998)
• Body Snatchers (1993)
• The Postman (1997)
• Hardware (1990)
• Deep Impact (1998)
• Fire in the Sky (1993)
• Bicentennial Man (1999)
• Tetsuo II: Body Hammer (1992)
• Multiplicity (1996)
• Universal Soldier (1992)
• Face/Off (1997)
• The Island of Doctor Moreau (1996)
• Timecop (1994)
• Wing Commander (1999)
• Village of the Damned (1995)
• The Meteor Man (1993)
• Zeiram (1991)
• Honey, I Blew Up the Kid (1992)
• Armageddon (1998)
• Muppets from Space (1999)
• Flatliners (1990)
• The Arrival (1996)
• Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992)
• Fortress (1993)
• The Lawnmower Man (1992)
• Robot Jox (1990)
• Split Second (1992)

To quote Keanu Reeves: "woah." That is *really* comprehensive! I missed quite a few! (Men in Black, Armageddon).

Here's another one--based on the book that really started the whole genre:

I'm a big fan of the 1990s Godzilla movies, esp. GODZILLA VS. MECHAGODZILLA (1993) and also the three 1990s Gamera movies, esp. GAMERA: GUARDIAN OF THE UNIVERSE (1996) and GAMERA III: THE REVENGE OF IRIS (1999).





And of course such great anime sci-fi movies of the decade: GHOST IN THE SHELL, PATLABOR 2, MEMORIES (co-directed by AKIRA's Katsuhiro Otomo), ROUJIN Z, TENCHI MUYO IN LOVE, TENCHI FOREVER and X: THE MOVIE. There's a ton of others I'm forgetting, though.

^^I need to see Ghost in the Shell. I've put it off.