List of science fiction films

This list of science fiction films provides an overview of the history of the genre. The films are listed chronologically. This sequence is summarized in development strands and epochs.

A thematic review can be found in the articles Science Fiction Film and Science Fiction . The latter deals with film and literature and historical and thematic focuses.

Thematic approaches

Diagram according to Hahn / Jansen

A generally accepted definition of the science fiction film does not exist because the genre has absorbed over the last decades, a variety of themes and subgenres that even experts such as Norman Spinrad to statements such as "Science fiction is anything published as science fiction. " get carried away. The following diagram also only represents one possible definition.

theme	description	gradation	Type of threat, object or circumstances	Examples
1. Negative invasions	The threat to humanity from extraterrestrial visitors. Monstrous intruders endanger the earthly order and cause cruel havoc.	Terrifying monsters		Battle of the Worlds Independence Day War of the Worlds Mars Attacks! Signs - signs
		Insidious biological and mineralogical beings		Flowers of Terror Blob - Unnamed Terror Andromeda - Deadly Dust from Space Phantoms Evolution
		Parasitic evil intelligences (in human form)		The Demonic The Body Eaters come The thing from another world The Faculty Dreamcatcher Moon 44
2. Disasters	The threat to humanity from accidents; SF disasters differ from conventional ones mainly in terms of their extent or cause.	Revolt of nature	Earth water fire air plants animals	Earthquake The Last Flood The Day After Tomorrow 2012 Armageddon - The Last Judgment Deep Impact Panic in the Sierra Nova The Happening The Birds Phase IV
		Revolt of technology	Pollution from waste or radioactivity (usually leading to natural disaster)	In the sign of the cross The cloud
			Revolt of mutated beings (as a result of radioactivity from nuclear tests)	Formicula Tarantula Godzilla
			The bomb (accidental detonation)	Target Moscow Dr. Strange or: How I Learned to Love the Bomb Atlantic incident
			The bomb - afterwards (individual fates of survivors in a nuclear contaminated world)	The Day After The Last Testament When the wind blows The last bank
3. (World) domination	The threat to humanity from rulers and powers.			What's To Come (Chief Boss) Seven Days in May The Manchurian Candidate
4. Negative technology	The threat to mankind from technical development, but also progress from technical development.	The Mad Scientist : The scientific genius, whose abilities are too great for anyone to control, pursues a utopia in his misdeeds, no matter how untenable, but basically wants to render humanity a service. The Mad Scientist experiments on:	to yourself	Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde The Invisible Man The X-Ray Eye Project Brainstorm
			on corpses	Frankenstein Frankenstein's bride
			to people	Charly The lawnmower man Lucy
			on animals	DNA - the island of Dr. Moreau Planet of the Apes: Prevolution
		His experiments fail, with unexpected consequences:	Making amends through self-sacrifice	The fly Spider-Man 2
			Intervention in complex systems (e.g. through genetic engineering)	Jurassic Park Splice - The Gene Experiment
			Living dead (based on scientific experiments)	The Last Man on Earth Resident Evil 28 Days Later
		Robots / androids / cyborgs	Robot : the thinking machine that doesn't necessarily have to resemble humans	Metropolis Star Wars (R2D2 / C3P-O) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Marvin) I, Robot WALL · E - The last one clears the earth on Ex Machina
			Androids : Artificial humans, consisting mainly of biological and / or electronic / mechanical parts	The Android The Women of Stepford Westworld Futureworld - The Land of Tomorrow Alien (Ash / Bishop / Call / David) Blade Runner A.I. - Artificial Intelligence Spaceship Enterprise - The Next Century (Data)
			Cyborgs : Short for cybernetic organism. A hybrid of man and machine. People with mechanical / electronic spare parts that can replace their biological body down to the brain.	RoboCop Star Trek: First Contact (Borg) Star Wars (Darth Vader) Ghost in the Shell
		Machines / computers / weapons: The world of technical adventures and visions belongs to SF. The topic cannot therefore be what is currently feasible, but only what is feasible in the future.	machinery	20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Alert in Space
			computer	Colossus Tron Virtuosity Her
			weapons	Pacific Rim Ender's Game - The big game
		Total mechanization: The mechanized future world par excellence, which or its components can run amok, so that it comes to a catastrophe, but which can also become a trauma to humanity. Total mechanization has the following effects:	in working life	Metropolis Modern Times Brazil
			in leisure time	Zardoz escape into the 23rd century
5. Anti-utopia (dystopia)	As an expression of real fears for the future, anti-utopias depict negative (future) worlds.	Post-Doomsday: The depiction of humanity that has mostly fallen back to an archaic level after a nuclear war (or other global catastrophe)		… Year 2022… who want to survive Mad Max Waterworld Children of Men Idiocracy
		Alternative reality : a world in which the course of history has at some point deviated from what we know.		Fatherland Back to the Future II Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow Watchmen - The Guardians
		Dictatorship of total technology: Man as a slave to a technology that has become independent		Terminator matrix
		Aggression and entertainment: The perversion of recreational activities by industry and / or the state		The Millionaire Rollerball The Truman Show The Hunger Games
		Destruction of cultural heritage: social decline through suppression of freedom of thought		Fahrenheit 451 movement Orange 1984 Equilibrium
		The destruction of individuality		The man who lived twice THX 1138 A Scanner Darkly - The dark screen
6. Positive technology	The fulfillment of scientific dreams.	Space Opera : The universe as a playground for upright heroes		Flash Gordon Star Wars Star Trek: The Motion Dune - Dune Jupiter Ascending
		Fantastic Journeys: Exploring Other Worlds	Discoveries	The incredible story of Mister C. The journey to the center of the earth The fantastic journey Tron
			Space travel	2001: A Space Odyssey Explorers - A Fantastic Adventure Avatar - Departure to Pandora Interstellar
			Time travel / time loops	The time machine Time Bandits Back to the Future Butterfly Effect Source Code Looper Edge of Tomorrow Donnie Darko
			The subconscious	The Cell Inception
7. Semi-utopia	The lines between reality and fiction are blurring.			Networked - Johnny Mnemonic Naked Lunch eXistenZ Cypher
8. The superman	The savior of mankind (is mostly American)			Superman Spider-Man Hellboy The Hancock Mask
	The savior of the system (is basically a super agent)			Barbarella James Bond 007 - Moonraker - Top Secret The Bourne Ultimatum
9. Utopia	Utopias depict positive (future) worlds in which peace and harmony prevail.			What's To Come In the Shackles of Shangri-La Star Trek (United Federation of Planets) Tomorrowland
10. Positive invasions	The strange extraterrestrial visitor with a good disposition, as a savior of the earth or looking for help himself. The hope of humanity for understanding with the aliens.			The Day the Earth Stood Still Metaluna IV Doesn't Answer Close Encounters of the Third Kind E.T. - The extraterrestrial The flight of the navigator K-PAX - Everything is possible Contact Arrival

Definition according to Koebner

In his film genre science fiction, Thomas Koebner pursues a more concentrated approach than Hahn / Jansen:

1. Concepts of a model society deviating from historical rule or escalating, which have been designed as utopias since the Renaissance and have darkened the outlook for at least a hundred years as fear prophecies of all-encompassing dictatorship or Stone Age anarchy.

2. The encounter with extraterrestrial life that invades us from space, hostile or benevolent, of incredible shape or assimilated to our bodies.

3. The artificial humans, which can be clearly derived from the Prometheus complex and its modern variant, the Frankenstein complex: unambiguous robots who serve as brave or rebellious servants for the "master men", or duplicates, likenesses, humanoids one can hardly determine how they differ from real people.

4. The fear of the apocalypse brought about by atomic explosions and the meager and miserable life afterwards, especially after the Second World War, spreading - this is where the anti-utopian predictions of terror systems overlap with dramatic end-time visions.

5. Expeditions into space, journeys into immeasurable space as a variant of the adventure journey into the unknown, which leads to distant stars and beings, which sometimes give a rather grotesque and vicious, then again a moderately bizarre impression, sometimes appear so commensurate that one in the sense of a global readiness for reconciliation, which includes the entire space population, can also employ it in one's own spaceships.

6. Travel through time, dream images of life in another era that can turn into nightmare experiences, sometimes rescue operations of future heroes that slide back on the timeline to change the fateful history of the past so that great disasters would be avoided, etc.

Lists after decades

literature

Ronald M. Hahn , Volker Jansen: Lexicon of Science Fiction Films . Heyne, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-453-11860-X .
Thomas Koebner : Film Genres: Science Fiction . Reclam, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-15-018401-0 .

Individual evidence

^ Introduction by Norman Spinrad (ed.): Modern Science Fiction . Anchor Press, 1974.
^ Ronald M. Hahn , Volker Jansen: Lexicon of Science Fiction Films. Heyne, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-453-11860-X , pp. 13-20
^ Thomas Koebner : Film Genres: Science Fiction . Reclam, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-15-018401-0 , pp. 9-10.

[Spinrad_MSF-1] Introduction by Norman Spinrad (ed.): Modern Science Fiction . Anchor Press, 1974.

[2] Ronald M. Hahn , Volker Jansen: Lexicon of Science Fiction Films. Heyne, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-453-11860-X , pp. 13-20

[3] Thomas Koebner : Film Genres: Science Fiction . Reclam, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-15-018401-0 , pp. 9-10.