10 Best Sci-Fi Movies On HBO Max To Watch

Sci-fi movies are another universe of movie genres that takes you to other fascinating outer worlds, creatures, and otherworldly elements.

Sci-fi movies come with a mixed genre of movies that make them thrilling and relatable. 

Venturing into the geeky, cyber, outwardly space with a relatable story that takes you closer to the big picture is only a start to fuel your imagination.

So many human issues we face daily are projected through sci-fi films, making it an exciting genre to binge on.  

The Matrix

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The Matrix franchise started in 1999 and gave a view of the real world through a virtual mind’s lens. Neo, played by Keanu Reeves, is a software author chosen by the head of a virtual world, 

Morpheus to makes him realize that he lives in a matrix of slavery that makes him wake up every day and go about the same routine. 

Though hard to guess, the movie is an eye-opener for those who live the same life every day, accustomed to the slavery of routine and mundane life. The film is a cult classic in Sci-Fi because of its theme, plot, and treatment. 

Colossal

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Colossal stars Anne Hathway as Gloria, an unemployed alcoholic kicked out of her boyfriend’s apartment after break up.

She returns to her hometown and lives in her childhood vacant home connecting with her childhood pals working at her friend’s bar.

Gloria manifests a monster in Seoul in a drunken state that mimics her and wreaks havoc. Her friend Oscar later joins her in manifesting a monster.

They cause destruction, killing people. The movie depicts what a mess Gloria’s life is and takes her back to a memory where she made a paper monster that manifested itself on her school playground. 

The Dead Zone

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David Cronenberg’s The Dead Zone is based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name. Christopher Walken plays a coma patient, Johnny Smith, who awakened after five years with psychic powers. 

He can tell the past, present, and future events of anyone with physical contact. He also experiences a Dead Zone, a blank state of suspicion that lets him change the future of events he foresees. 

Johnny can change the future of certain events with the Dead Zone looming in, in situations where he wants to help but feels helpless. Being in that state allows him to change the occurrences of events with a better outcome. 

The Butterfly Effect 

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Ashton Kutcher plays Evan, who was abused in childhood by his friends. His traumatic past has an effect on his subconscious mind as an adult. He lands in a shrink’s office when he scares his mother with a knife.

Asked to keep a journal, he discovers the power of time travel in the past and future, altering events that have unexpected outcomes for his present. 

Through time travel a few times, he realizes he must help his friends find happiness by giving up his traumatic memories, which allows him to free his subconscious mind of pain and trauma from past events.  

Tenet

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Nolan’s screenplays are branded to be brilliant in their own right. Tenet is a time-bending screenplay with opulent visuals that absorb all of your senses.

A wealthy madman from Russia could change the events of history and the future through a time-traveling inverted object that the Protagonist is trying to protect.

He is tormented and escapes death, protecting it to prevent starting World War III, plotted by the wealthy Russian madman Andrei Sator. The movie runs back and forth in time with brilliant visuals, which is atypical of the time travel sci-fi genre. 

An ambitious plot where Neil and Protagonist are plotting to prevent World War from happening again now with weapons that have inverted bullets. Too challenging for world peace? The movie is a masterpiece as it introduces a new wave of sci-fi war fantasy with inventiveness. 

Nevertheless, it is easier for commoners to fathom by taking notes and rewinding back and forth to know how the plot connects. 

Contact

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Jodie Foster plays Dr.Eleanor Arroway, a SETI scientist trying to make contact with aliens through her radio facility.

Instead, she receives an encrypted message in the form of symbols, a decoded message from the aliens.

U.S. government intervenes in the ongoing project Arroway has been working on and takes over.

However, she finds her way back into working on making contact with aliens and goes through the wormhole to make contact with them.

The movie has a simpatico narrative from the 90s. It’s unclear why they used Adolf Hitler’s video message.

She brings back evidence of alien contact, which is unclear. The movie depicts the purpose of how God is trying to contact humanity through aliens with a dash of cynicism is convincing but not awe-inspiring. 

A Space Odyssey

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A Space Odyssey is an epic sci-fi movie produced, written, and directed by Stanley Kubrick.

A sublime work of sci-fi fantasy made aesthetically. After millions of years of evolution, a scientist finds a monolith that sends radio frequencies when sunlight hits it. 

The HAL 9000 computer with the personality of a human being is built in the spaceship. It ascends to Jupiter with astronauts.

HAL computer and the human astronauts jostle to find a solution to the failed antenna of the HAL computer. 

Human evolution, extraterrestrial existence, and rebirth are themes aesthetically explored in the movie.

Finally, Scientist Bowman finds the last piece of the monolith and turns into an angelic human fetus returning to Earth without the spaceship. 

Equilibrium

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A sci-fi movie set in a dystopian state named Liberia, inhabited by World War III survivors who think human emotions led to the war.

Their purpose is to condition their mind from anything that rouses emotions, such as art, music, etc., and take daily injections to suppress them. 

Christian Bale plays John Preston, whose wife is executed for showing emotions, being termed a Sense Offender.

He fights his way through the government conspiracy keeping people away from feeling any emotion and finally creates a revolution destroying plants that develop the emotion-suppressing injection. 

This theme is similar to the dystopian totalitarianism explored in V for Vendetta.

Preston finally comes to the senses to find an equilibrium between deep emotions, human compassion, and a control mechanism that frees humans from feeling devoid of emotions. 

Ex-Machina

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Bicentennial Man probably inspired Ex Machina with a female version of a robot programmed to think with consciousness.

Caleb Smith is a programmer at an AI firm called Blue Book gets to stay at the home of CEO Nathan, played by Oscar Issac. Unfortunately, he is unaware that Nathan is trying to create a Frankestine out of Android female robots.

In his interactions with the Ava robot, Caleb realizes his true intentions. He tries to escape, only to find himself imprisoned in an unidentified city of the land of robots, where Ava takes him.

The plot is character driven and depicts themes of how women are portrayed in the mindscape of Nathan’s creation. 

Inception

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Inception is yet another masterpiece made by Christopher Nolan. It deals with the theme of telekinesis used to perform corporate espionage.

The movie is shot in layered dream sequences, not mere dreams but projected information to commit robbery.  

Dom Cobb, played by Leonardo Di Caprio, is a professional thief who steals information to make money from the subconscious mind of people.

The movie seems like a juggle, like a maze created by Cobb, layering every dream sequence to extract information to steal.

He recruits various professionals to create a dreamscape to perform elaborate robbery, sending people into those dreamscapes and reading their subconscious minds.

He manipulates dreams to gather information and defeat rivals, putting them in a trance and confusion.

This original screenplay is a masterpiece purported to steal information in people’s sleep. The visuals are riveting and get you absorbed into every bit of the plot leaving you amazed. 

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