A Glean movie guide
The Best Sci-Fi of the 2010s
A decade of future classics.
From mind-bending dreams to deep-space epics, these are the decade's essential visions.
Handpicked for this guide
The movie list
- 01
Inception
A heist thriller that masterfully navigates the complex architecture of the human subconscious.
Cobb, a skilled thief who commits corporate espionage by infiltrating the subconscious of his targets is offered a chance to regain his old life as payment for a task considered to be impossible: "inception", the implantation of another person's idea into a target's subconscious.
- 02
Interstellar
A visually stunning epic that balances theoretical physics with a powerful father-daughter story.
The adventures of a group of explorers who make use of a newly discovered wormhole to surpass the limitations on human space travel and conquer the vast distances involved in an interstellar voyage.
- 03
Arrival
A profound look at first contact that prioritizes communication and the nature of time over conflict.
Taking place after alien crafts land around the world, an expert linguist is recruited by the military to determine whether they come in peace or are a threat.
- 04
Ex Machina
A tense, claustrophobic exploration of artificial intelligence and the ethics of creation.
Caleb, a coder at the world's largest internet company, wins a competition to spend a week at a private mountain retreat belonging to Nathan, the reclusive CEO of the company. But when Caleb arrives at the remote location he finds that he will have to participate in a strange and fascinating experiment in which he must interact with the world's first true artificial intelligence, housed in the body of a beautiful robot girl.
- 05
Blade Runner 2049
A breathtaking expansion of a classic world that explores what it truly means to be human.
Thirty years after the events of the first film, a new blade runner, LAPD Officer K, unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what's left of society into chaos. K's discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard, a former LAPD blade runner who has been missing for 30 years.
- 06
The Martian
A gripping survival story that celebrates human ingenuity and the rigors of real science.
During a manned mission to Mars, Astronaut Mark Watney is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney has survived and finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet. With only meager supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, wit and spirit to subsist and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive.
- 07
Mad Max: Fury Road
A relentless, high-octane masterpiece of post-apocalyptic world-building and practical effects.
An apocalyptic story set in the furthest reaches of our planet, in a stark desert landscape where humanity is broken, and most everyone is crazed fighting for the necessities of life. Within this world exist two rebels on the run who just might be able to restore order.
- 08
Her
A soulful and prescient meditation on loneliness and the evolving relationship between humans and AI.
In the not so distant future, Theodore, a lonely writer, purchases a newly developed operating system designed to meet the user's every need. To Theodore's surprise, a romantic relationship develops between him and his operating system. This unconventional love story blends science fiction and romance in a sweet tale that explores the nature of love and the ways that technology isolates and connects us all.
- 09
Annihilation
A surreal and unsettling journey into a biological anomaly that defies the laws of nature.
A biologist signs up for a dangerous, secret expedition into a mysterious zone where the laws of nature don't apply.
- 10
Edge of Tomorrow
A clever and propulsive action-thriller that puts a fresh, high-stakes spin on the time-loop trope.
Major Bill Cage is an officer who has never seen a day of combat when he is unceremoniously demoted and dropped into combat. Cage is killed within minutes, managing to take an alpha alien down with him. He awakens back at the beginning of the same day and is forced to fight and die again... and again - as physical contact with the alien has thrown him into a time loop.