Honorable Mention: Blade Runner (director's cut, 1992), Silent Running (1971) and Quintet (1979).

The most common complaint about sf films is that most are not true representatives of their genre but crude horror films mounted on some pseudo-scientific babble to explain their phenomenon. At its best, sf is, of course, a more intellectual genre than horror. Very little of this often comes off on the screen, and the travails of the first cut of Blade Runner indicates the queasiness producers have with an even slightly poetic slice of sf.

Michael J. Weldon

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Solaris (1972)
The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
Videodrome (1982)
The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)
Village of the Damned (1960)
They Live (1988)
The Time Machine (1960)

John Carpenter

• The Thing (1951) Still the best. Howard Hawks influence. Overlapping dialogue. World-view of America in the 1950s perfectly captured.
• The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) Ground-breaking alien invasion movie. Brain Donlevy is part B-movie gangster, part Sherlock Holmes - and a scientist to boot! Richard Wordsworth's performance as the possessed astronaut is seminal.
• Frankenstein (1931)
• Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
• Quatermass II (1957) Influenced by George Orwell and H.P. Lovecraft. Film noir political allegory. Slop monsters inside the domes? "Who ya gonna call?" Brain Donlevy.
• The Invisible Man (1933) Claude Rains. James Whale. Black Comedy. Brilliant
• Forbidden Planet (1956) Shakespeare's The Tempest as sf. Walter Pidgeon as Prospero (Morbius). Monsters from the Id. The first ever all-electronic musical score.
• Not of This Earth (1957) Roger Corman's best. Dick Miller's vacuum-cleaner salesman is a show-stopper. Ending action scene shows Corman's crisp, no-nonsense style at its peak of elegance.
• X The Unknown (1956) Stark and terrifying. Dean Jagger's famous monster-exposition scene takes an absurb idea and makes it gripping. Great black-and-white photography. The descent into the abyss is a white-knucker.
• Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) Don Siegel's parasite invasion mystery thriller. Remember what Kevin McCarthy says: "You're next!"

Robert Bloch

Metropolis (1926)
Frankenstein (1931)
Island of Lost Souls (1932)
King Kong (1933)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

As a young moviegoer who sought out such films for entertainment rather than education, I tended to prefer fantasy over factuality. Today the genre is generally judged by the visual impact of special effects, but to me the best films are those that also move me intellectually.

Phil Hardy

Blade Runner (1982)
Quatermass II (1957)
Alphaville (1965)
The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)
The Thing (1951)
Dark Star (1926)

Arthur C. Clarke

Metropolis (1926)
The Thing (1951)
Things to Come (1936)
Frankenstein (1931)
King Kong (1933)
Forbidden Planet (1956)
The Thing (1951)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind - The Special Edition (1980)
Alien (1979)
Blade Runner (1982)

I would add to the list Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Return of the Jedi (1983), Jurassic Park (1993), Dune (1984), and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991).

Joe Kane

The Terminator (1984)
Creation of the Humanoids (1962)
Seconds (1966)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
Dark Star (1974)
The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
The Tingler (1959)
Blade Runner (1982)
X - The Man with the X-Ray Eyes (1963)

Danny Peary

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
The Thing (1951)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind - The Special Edition (1980)
Blade Runner (1982)
Them! (1954)
E.T.: The Extraterrestrial (1982)
Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Metropolis (1926)
Alien (1979)
The Terminator (1984)
Brazil (1985)
Mad Max 2 (1981)
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Nineteen Eighty-four (1984)

Frederik Pohl

(in order of preference)

• Things to Come (1936) Special effects are klutzy, but my favorite because it's a thoughtful sf film.
• Forbidden Planet (1956) The first sf film with a story that a sf magazine might have been willing to print.
• Star Wars (1977) Dumb story, but it didn't matter: the special effects were magnificent.
• 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Brilliant and thoughtful; would have placed higher, but the "black monolith" is a trivialization of some exciting theories of the evolution of human intelligence.
• Alien (1979) Just for the stomach-turning shock of the monster bursting out of the actor's belly.
• Just Imagine (1930) A silly comedy, sure, but wonderful for its time and rewarding for lovely Maureen O'Sullivan's first big role.
• King Kong (1933) How can you not put the great ape of the Empire State in a ten-best list?
• Metropolis (1926) Hammy acting, treacly sermonizing, but look when it was made.
• The Man in the White Suit (1951) Alec Guinness made this one great.
• Frankenstein (1931) Scared the hell out of me when I was twelve.

Philip Strick

Forbidden Planet (1956)
Alphaville (1965)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Solaris (1972)
Star Wars (1977)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Alien (1979)
Blade Runner (1982)
The Terminator (1984)
Groundhog Day (1993)

This list is a celebration of the prehistoric. Film science in the 1990s has so far overtaken film fiction that we need no longer applaud the cinema simply for its fumbled attempts to create images of the imaginery. Now that film can do anything, it has only to think, like the Starchild, about what to do next. And as true sf is all about the thinking process, the best is yet to come.

Robert Wise

Blade Runner (1982)
Frankenstein (1931)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
E.T.: The Extraterrestrial (1982)
Star Wars (1977)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1941)

Author's List

The Thing (1951)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
Invaders from Mars (1953)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Quatermass II (1957)
I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958)
Village of the Damned (1960)
Children of the Damned (1963)
God Told Me To (1977)
The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)

Joe Kane

God Told Me To (1977)
Alien (1979)
The Thing (1951)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
Invaders from Mars (1953)
Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Kronos (1957)
I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958)
Stardust Memories (1980)

Michael J. Weldon

The Thing (1951)
The Thing (1982)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
War of the Worlds (1953)
Invaders from Mars (1953)
Alien (1979)
Quatermass and the Pit (1967)
God Told Me To (1977)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
The Blob (1958)

Joe Kane

Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
The Terminator (1984)
Mad Max 2 (1981)
Miracle Mile (1989)
Fail-Safe (1964)
Panic in Year Zero (1962)
Testament (1983)
Planet of the Apes (1968)
Rocket Attack, USA (1959)

Philip Strick

Things to Come (1936)
War of the Worlds (1953)
On the Beach (1959)
Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Fail-Safe (1964)
The War Game (1965)
A Boy and His Dog (1975)
Mad Max 2 (1981)
Testament (1983)
Miracle Mile (1989)

Michael J. Weldon

Mad Max 2 (1981)
Weekend (1968)
Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

Joe Kane

The Terminator (1984)
Mad Max 2 (1981)
The Time Machine (1960)
A Boy and His Dog (1975)
Night of the Comet (1984)
The Blood of Heroes (1990)

Philip Strick

Metropolis (1926)
Things to Come (1936)
This Island Earth (1955)
Forbidden Planet (1956)
Alphaville (1965)
THX 1138 (1971)
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
Blade Runner (1982)
Dune (1984)
Brazil (1985)

Michael J. Weldon

Metropolis (1926)
Things to Come (1936)
Blade Runner (1982)
Brazil (1985)
Robocop (1987)
Flash Gordon (serial) (1936-1940)
Wild in the Streets (1968)
Escape from New York (1981)
Death Race 2000 (1975)

Author's List

The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1919)
Dr Mabuse, der Spieler (1922)
Metropolis (1926)
The Testament of Dr Mabuse (1933)
Island of Lost Souls (1932)
The Invisible Man (1933)
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Flesh and the Fiends (Mania) (1959)
Les Yeux Sans Visage (1959)
The Creeping Flesh (1973)

The doctor of Flesh and the Fiends was not mad but a respected historical figure, Dr.Knox, whose experimental need for cadavers prompted the infamous deeds of the notorious Burke and Hare. Their murders were also chronicled in The Body Snatcher (1945), Burke and Hare (1971) and The Doctor and the Devils (1985). Knox was legally acquitted of any guilt. However, he is still listed here, having become the prototype (and role model?) for the fictional mad doctors that have followed his pursuit of corpses.

Michael J. Weldon

Island of Lost Souls (1932)
Mad Love (1935)
Frankenstein (1931)
The Devil Commands (1941)
Les Yeux Sans Visage (1959)

Michael J. Weldon

The Beast from 20000 Fathoms (1953)
The Giant Behemoth (1959)
Them! (1954)
Godzilla, King of the Monsters (1956)
Mothra (1962)

Joe Kane

The Terminator (1984)
Creation of the Humanoids (1962)
Blade Runner (1982)
Robot Monster (1953)
Robocop (1987)
Alien (1979)
Forbidden Planet (1956)
Android (1982)
Who? (1974)
The Phantom Creeps (1939)

Joe Kane

Scanners (1981)
The Sender (1982)
Scanners III: The Takeover (1992)
The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1936)
The Fury (1978)
Carrie (1976)
Psychotronic Man (1980)