For generations, science fiction stories have used mankind’s inclination towards innovation to tell stories of all stripes - from the inspiring to the terrifying. This extends to the big screen, too.
Since the release of Georges Méliès’ 1902 picture A Trip to the Moon, science fiction has been a stalwart genre that enables filmmakers to experiment in their stagecraft and to enlighten (and entertain) millions of audiences. It’s in these movies that some of the greatest fictional characters ever imagined appear, feeling simultaneously fresh and familiar.
Whether they are saviors rescuing mankind from extinction, survivors who narrowly escape by the skin of their teeth, or artificial intelligence beings who want to feel real, these are some of the greatest science fiction characters ever in the history of cinema.
35. Lady Jessica (Dune)
While Dune author Frank Herbert envisioned Lady Jessica in the same loving light he saw his own wife Beverly, director Denis Villeneuve and actress Rebecca Ferguson reimagined her with a greater sense of calculated evil in Villeneuve’s epic film adaptations. In the Dune duology, Lady Jessica grows from unsure, meek Bene Gesserit concubine to the master orchestrator of Paul Atreides’ rise as both messiah and military savior to the Fremen. Whenever Lady Jessica appears on screen, listen closely to the atmospherically dreadful notes in Hans Zimmers’ musical score. Everything she does has ripple effects that will be felt centuries later, and none of it good.
34. Ava (Ex Machina)
Ava, a major character in Alex Garland’s acclaimed sci-fi Ex Machina, doesn’t really tell a new story about artificiality and humanity. Sort of like Pinnochio, all Ava wants is to be human, and throughout the movie goes to great (and violent) lengths to achieve that goal. What makes Ava stand out is simply the execution in how her story is told. Between Garland’s stunning overall direction and an absorbing Alicia Vikander, Ava is a robot who feels more alive than any of the humans who surround and use her.
33. Theodore (Her)
Theodore is an ordinary man - an ordinary man in love with his virtual assistant, Samantha (voiced by Scarlett Johansson). In Spike Jonze’s speculative sci-fi Her, Oscar-winner Joaquin Phoenix imbues immense pathos in Theo, a wallflower who even in his job (as a personal letters writer) surrenders any sense of identity. Seeking solace during an agonizing divorce, Theo falls for a disembodied A.I. voice in a romance that raises questions about what is actually required from us to be intimate. Throughout Her’s runtime, Theo is equal parts poetic and pathetic, an exhibition of our desperate need for warmth against our rapid, rabid innovations.
32. Gojira (Godzilla)
He’s the king of the monsters, and he reigns supreme over all of science fiction horror. Created in collaboration by Tomoyuki Tanaka, Eiji Tsuburaya, and Ishirō Honda - not to forget Haruo Nakajima, who wore the heavy rubber suit for the first dozen or so movies - Gojira/Godzilla is a towering monstrosity whose foreboding footsteps over Tokyo warn humankind of its imminent destruction through nuclear weapons. A decades-long image rehabilitation that has seen Godzilla transformed into both a folk hero and corporate mascot have not been enough to completely decimate his significance as the vanguard of our apocalypse.
31. RoboCop (RoboCop)
Dead or alive, you’re coming with him. In Paul Verhoeven’s sci-fi satire RoboCop, Peter Well portrays a resurrected Detroit policeman who is given artificial new life as the heroic cyborg RoboCop. While the movie’s unintended audience of kids are totally game for an android bringer of justice, Verhoeven’s movie is - in true Verhoeven tradition - a cynical satire of a capital-driven police state. Engineered as a mockery of Reaganomics, RoboCop is a well-armored cartoon who blasts through subtlety with a straight face.
30. Kat Barton (Tenet)
An elegant woman in a heartless marriage, all Kat Barton wants is to be free, to live a life of independent agency with her son. So it’s no surprise when she agrees to go along with a well-dressed protagonist who shows her the way out. While John David Washington and Robert Pattinson co-lead Christopher Nolan’s least accessible yet most enjoyable sci-fi blockbuster Tenet, the movie also stars Elizabeth Debicki in one of her finest roles. The most moving part of her arc is that, at one point, she expresses yearning to be the woman she sees swimming away from her husband’s yacht with her naked eye. Little does she realize that woman is closer to herself than she could imagine. Their only difference is courage.
29. Klaatu (The Day the Earth Stood Still)
Klaatu barada nikto. What’s it mean? No one actually knows. But Klaatu, best remembered in his chrome silver jumpsuit, leads the seminal 1951 sci-fi movie The Day the Earth Stood Still, with actor Michael Rennie in the role. In the grand scheme Klaatu is little more than a representative, hailing from an unknown planet and an unknown species, who comes to Earth in peace only to be met with hostility. He’s neither hero nor a villain, just a man doing his job only to encounter the roughest time doing it.
28. Alexander Dane/Dr. Lazarus (Galaxy Quest)
On TV, Dr. Lazarus is the heroic, noble alien scientist aboard the NSEA Protector. But in real life, he’s Alexander Dane, a thespian tormented by his one and only major role. In the riotous sci-fi comedy Galaxy Quest, fandoms get affectionately roasted when has-been actors of a cult sci-fi show are recruited by real aliens to save them from an evil species. Among the awe-struck actors is Alexander, played with aplomb by the late Alan Rickman. His unforgettably deflated voice in “By Grabthar’s Hammer… what a savings” shows us a man at his absolute lowest. But in being Dr. Lazarus for real, Alexander learns there’s nowhere else to go but up.
27. Boba Fett (The Empire Strikes Back)
You’re no good to him dead. The enigmatic rogue of the Star Wars series is more than just a cool action figure. Debuting on the big screen in The Empire Strikes Back, Boba Fett showed moviegoers in 1980 that a galaxy far, far away has room for more than one bad hombre in a cool helmet. While Boba Fett didn’t physically do much in any of his cinematic appearances but stand around - especially Return of the Jedi, where he’s unceremoniously undone by accident - his presence alone implies a lifetime of danger and intrigue.
26. The Woman (Under the Skin)
While Michel Faber spares no detail about his beautiful alien anti-hero named “Isserley” in his 2000 novel Under the Skin, director Jonathan Glazer and co-writer Walter Campbell are far more opaque in their celebrated 2013 film adaptation. Lacking so much as even a name, “The Woman” (played by an exceptional Scarlett Johansson) is a predator, a serial killer in the shell of a magazine model who hunts and feeds on lonely men. Exchanging all the known lore in Faber’s book for mystique, Glazer’s movie traffics heavily in its commentary of the consuming ways feminine beauty and sexuality are weaponized. Johansson’s involvement adds additional layers to Glazer’s storytelling, with Johansson being a world-famous movie star alienating her from her humdrum environments.
25. The Predator (Predator)
Only a savage alien from a distant planet has the cojones to go after Arnold Schwarzenegger. A monument of creature effects craftsmanship (largely credited to Stan Winston), the Predator is not just one alien but a species officially known as the Yautja. Famously, they are bug-like trophy hunters who use their cunning intellect and advanced arsenal against more primitive species. You know, like humans. Each installment in the Predator series spotlights a different, unnamed Yautja - and sometimes, more than one. But no matter what Predator you’re facing, count yourself unlucky, because that is a very bad day indeed. Just remember: They bleed, so you can kill them.
24. The Guardians of the Galaxy (Guardians of the Galaxy)
Get your stinkin’ Avengers outta here. The Guardians of the Galaxy, a group of ragged, jagged A-holes from different corners of the cosmos, star in their own sub-franchise within the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe. And we’re glad they do. Through their combined might - and killer classic rock playlists - the Guardians of the Galaxy bring much-needed counterbalance to the whitebread heroics of Earth’s so-called “Mightiest Heroes.” Not only are the Guardians’ movies some of the best in the whole MCU, they’re simply great sci-fi movies period.
23. Stilgar (Dune)
While Javier Bardem’s Fremen leader Stilgar is guarded and reserved in Denis Villeneuve’s first Dune, he rises into one of the duology’s single best characters in the sequel. In Dune: Part Two, Stilgar takes Paul Atreides under his wing, teaching him his people’s ways, all in his steadfast belief that he is the messiah his people have been waiting for. Though his fanboy love for Paul is amusing at first, past a certain point, his dogma ceases to become a laughing matter. As billions of lives are staked in an imminent holy war, Dune posits that the most dangerous people around are those who preach of our salvation.
22. Caesar (Planet of the Apes)
Apes… together… strong. Originating as a minor character in the original Planet of the Apes series, Caesar ascends to main character status in the modern reboot series. It’s through his expressive eyes - brought to life by mo-cap legend Andy Serkis - that audiences see the beginning of the end for mankind, evolving from a scientist’s pet project to his species’ reluctant revolutionary. Beginning with 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes and continuing into 2017’s War for the Planet of the Apes, Caesar stands at the forefront of one of the finest science fiction epics ever made. What’s heartbreaking is that, deep down, Caesar wants peaceful co-existence with man. If only man would listen.
21. Hakaider (Machine Violator Hakaider)
Next to Ultraman and Kamen Rider, Android Kikaider is among the most influential superhero tokusatsu shows of all time. But in 1995, Kikaider’s sworn rival, the villain Hakaider, starred in his own standalone movie. Appearing as an anti-hero, Hakaider redeems himself of his past misdeeds by protecting the helpless residents of Jesus Town, a utopian village built over Jerusalem. In his story that heavily riffs over Western gunslinger conventions, Hakaider shows that not all villains from Saturday morning television shows are doomed to be evil forever. For some of them, there is still another chance to do what’s right.
20. Trinity (The Matrix)
She may be the love interest of “The Chosen One,” but she’s no damsel in distress. Trinity, played by a razor-sharp Carrie Ann-Moss in the Wachowski’s seminal action-sci-fi The Matrix, is a deadly revolutionary and one of Morpheus’ most dependable soldiers. After Morpheus recruits Neo, it’s Trinity who holds his hand throughout his awakening and growth into his role as mankind’s savior. Starting with a 360-degree jump kick that totally blew all our minds away, Trinity completely rebooted what action heroines looked like at the dawn of the 21st century.
19. Marshall Stacker Pentecost (Pacific Rim)
Only Idris Elba could deliver a line like “We are canceling the apocalypse!” and make it sound like the raddest thing a human being could say. The beleaguered leader of the multinational Jaeger Program is Stacker Pentecost, who plays a crucial role in Guillermo del Toro’s roaring mecha sci-fi Pacific Rim. Though he’s a square-jawed military man who commands - and outright demands - respect in his vicinity, he’s not inhuman. As audiences learn, he’s become something of a surrogate parent for orphaned Makoto. Seems there is a heart beating beneath that iron-pressed uniform.
18. Agent J and Agent K (Men in Black)
They’re buddy cops. It’s just that their jurisdiction is a bit more galactic than the rest. In the rollicking 1997 summer blockbuster Men in Black, grizzled veteran Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) mentors hot-shot rookie Agent J (Will Smith) in the ways of the MIB. They got no names, no fingerprints, and with a flash, you won’t even remember they were there. Though they reunite in two lesser sequels, their story is a complete package in their debut outing.
17. Sapper Morton (Blade Runner 2049)
To be clear: It’s Dave Bautista, in a revelatory performance, who makes Sapper Morton more than just an expendable prologue character in Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049. As a runaway replicant turned farmer, Sapper is hunted down and eventually killed by Ryan Gosling’s K at the beginning of the movie (after a savage one-on-one battle). Before he dies, Sapper challenges K to realize what he’s doing, to understand how empty he is in his shell. “You’ve never seen a miracle,” Sapper taunts him. Like a lot of other great sci-fi characters, Sapper has experienced a wealth of stories that will never be told, but we still wonder what they could be.
16. Kaneda (Akira)
He’s little more than a punk teenager joyriding around Neo-Tokyo on stolen, tricked out motorcycles. But when his best friend Tetsuo is transformed into something monstrous by a secret government project, Kaneda rises into the role of Neo-Tokyo’s savior even when he’s no one’s hero. Brash, arrogant, and prone to starting fights, Shōtarō Kaneda (voiced by Mitsuo Iwata in the original Japanese audio, and Johnny Yong Bosch in the 2001 English dub) is a peculiar breed of protagonist who may be shaped by very specific cultural anxieties but resonates worldwide as a timeless figure of restless and reckless youth. Also: His jacket is to die for.
15. Marty McFly and Doc Brown (Back to the Future)
Exactly what business does a high school student have in hanging out with an eccentric old scientist? No one really cares to know, not when their adventures in the Back to the Future trilogy are just so much fun. Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd make for an electric movie tag team as rad teenager Marty and manic, sleepless Doc Brown respectively who experience the past and future in Hill Valley (all behind the wheel of a souped up DeLorean). Where they’re going, they don’t need roads.
14. The T-800 (Terminator 2: Judgment Day)
You come with him if you want to live. While the one and only Arnold Schwarzenegger played an evil T-800 in the first Terminator flick, it’s in the sequel Terminator 2: Judgment Day that Schwarzenegger blasts (and awkwardly smiles) his way to immortality. Reprogrammed by human revolutionaries and sent back in time to protect an adolescent John Connor, the T-800 becomes the absolute coolest best friend in sci-fi movie history. He’s big, he’s mean, and this time, he’s one of the good guys. Even the liquid T-1000, with his snazzy and revolutionary effects, can’t outmuscle an allied Terminator.
13. Major Motoko Kusanagi (Ghost in the Shell)
One of the most revered heroines in all of manga and anime, Major Motoko Kusanagi is the haunted but highly capable agent of Public Security Section 9. In Mamoru Oshii’s acclaimed 1995 film version, where she’s voiced by Atsuko Tanaka (in Japanese) and Mimi Woods (in English), Motoko wrestles with existential questions about her identity and her own capacity to be human as she tracks down the enigmatic hacker called Puppet Master. Ghost in the Shell is a wildly influential movie, and virtually all sci-fi storytellers after it have taken something out of Motoko’s philosophical struggle for her own meaning.
12. Khan (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan)
Khan first appeared in a 1967 episode of the original Star Trek series, but his major role as the villain in the all-important 1982 film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan assures his place in the canon of sci-fi cinema. Played by a dastardly, scene-chewing Ricardo Montalbán, Khan is a charismatic warlord whose people follow him like a god. While so much of Khan’s lasting impression is due to Montalbán’s impeccable performance, Khan himself is memorable due to his instructive portrayal of tyrants at their most effective - and deadly.
11. Rick Deckard (Blade Runner)
Is he human? Is he a replicant? Or is he something more? No answer seems good enough when it comes to Harrison Ford’s Rick Deckard, the lead bounty hunter of synthetic replicants in Ridley Scott’s masterwork Blade Runner. While Rick practically drowns in enigma, Ford soars in his layered performance as a noir detective in a bold (and terrifying) vision of the future where mankind has surrendered so much of itself to artificiality. He may not be the flashiest hero in sci-fi, but his anguished demeanor makes him one of the most compelling.
10. HAL9000 (2001: A Space Odyssey)
Be careful what you say around HAL. Even when it’s not listening, it can read your lips. As the villain in Stanley Kubrick’s sci-fi masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey, HAL starts out as an assistant to the men aboard the Discovery One, effectively functioning as the ship’s primary artificial interface, before violently turning on them based on his own interest to survive. A symbolic antagonist for mankind’s conflicts with its own advancement, HAL now reads as eerily prescient as we meatbag humans confront the uncontrollable growth of artificial intelligence.
9. Sarah Connor (Terminator 2: Judgment Day)
Initially the panicked target in James Cameron’s original The Terminator, Sarah Connor - played by Linda Hamiliton - beefs up into a hardened fighter in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Beyond her physical transformation, Sarah has undergone personal growth, learning to rely on just herself to survive the coming apocalypse. Though Sarah has forgotten how to be a mother, it’s her love for her son - and for all of humanity - that Sarah has become the gritty warrior woman she shows herself in T2. Our collective permanent visual of Sarah Connor is aviator shades and loaded machine guns, and it’s because of how she prepared for Judgment Day.
8. Neo (The Matrix)
He knows kung fu. Do you? While Keanu Reeves was no stranger to science fiction before The Matrix, having traveled through time as Ted (in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure) and hacked cyberspace as Johnny (in Johnny Mnemonic), it’s his journey in the Wachowskis’ Matrix saga that makes him one of the finest heroes in the genre’s history. Sure, his Christ-like story of untapped potential and sacrifice isn’t awfully innovative. But no one said being “The One” meant being inventive. Between his slick coats and dope ability to dodge bullets, Neo earns his spot in a canon shared by the all-time greats.
7. Han Solo (Star Wars)
Han Solo is nothing without the loyal (and intimidating) Chewbacca. But he is still a singular character everyone and anyone who sees Star Wars at the right age aspires to emulate. Confident enough and smooth enough to talk himself out of trouble before drawing his signature blaster (or at least, he tries to), Han exudes so much swagger that it’s kind of believable that he could pull a stone cold 10/10 like Leia. Admittedly, we have Harrison Ford to thank for making Han Solo the iconic character he is all these years later. Tell him “I love you,” and only Ford could reply with “I know” and make it sound like the most romantic thing you’ve ever heard.
6. Ellen Ripley (Alien)
Alien did more than just make a star out of a then-obscure Sigourney Weaver. Through its principled and cautious lead protagonist, Nostromo officer Ellen Ripley, Alien picked up the baton from the previous year’s Halloween to show women in horror who thrive in heroic capacities. But as the Alien series continued, it tethered itself to Ripley, who formed a bad habit of waking up in the future and finding herself surrounded by hapless humans who can’t outrun a Xenomorph. Ripley is fierce, resourceful, and hellbent on finally having a moment’s rest from acid-spewing predators.
5. Iron Man (Iron Man)
Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist. The dream of Ayn Rand in an armored suit of hot rod red, Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, launched the mega-franchise known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe (and so much of it due to a refocused Robert Downey Jr.). Though superheroes often dabble with science fiction, Iron Man’s story is marinated in it, with cinematic influences amalgamating everything from Metropolis to Superman. While there are more “traditional” sci-fi protagonists more deserving of prominent recognition, almost none of them have shaped modern popular culture quite like Marvel’s resident industrialist in titanium alloy.
4. Furiosa (Mad Max Fury Road)
Charlize Theron fires on every cylinder possible in Mad Max Fury Road. Entering George Miller’s blinding high contrast frames as Furioisa, Theron’s deeply textured performance creates the impression that we’ve already known her for decades and want nothing more than to see her succeed in whatever she does. (That her mission is to free the concubines under tyrannical Immortan Joe just makes us root for her even more.) Though Furiosa has her heart blown to smithereens when she finds what has become of “The Green Place,” it’s through Furiosa we find that paradise isn’t somewhere we escape to but where we can demand our homes to be.
3. Princess Leia (Star Wars)
“Aren’t you a little short for a Stormtrooper?” It wasn’t her first line of dialogue. But with just that one line, Leia changed what it meant to be a princess forever. Played by the eternally effervescent Carrie Fisher, Princess Leia of Alderaan is a headstrong diplomat - and later, a war general - who factors into the Skywalker Saga as much as her biological twin brother. Even when she’s rendered into a salacious object, Leia reclaims her personhood by choking the daylights out of the putrid Jabba the Hutt. She's a hero not just to little girls and women, but to everyone everywhere who understands that history has its eyes on them.
Standing like a shogun from the future, the fearsome Darth Vader strikes fear into the hearts of all who must stand before him and deliver bad news. As if his all-black silhouette isn’t terrifying enough, it’s when he draws his blood red lightsaber when you see what a true Sith lord really looks like. Played by David Prowse and voiced by James Earl Jones in the original trilogy (with Jake Lloyd and Hayden Christensen playing his pre-Vader ego, Anakin Skywalker, in the prequels), Darth Vader is simply too iconic to put into words. Which is why Vader leaves so many speechless - though that could be his Force choking.
1. Frankenstein's Monster (Frankenstein)
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is one of the greatest, and most horrific, science fiction novels of all time. So it’s only fitting that the acclaimed film version, 1931’s Frankenstein, has a fittingly everlasting vision of the story. With Boris Karloff in the role of the monster, who is chillingly credited with just a single question mark (which undoubtedly cemented eternal ambiguity over its real name for future generations), “The Monster” is scary as he is sympathetic, with actual potential for goodness. See him pluck flowers with a little girl who isn’t frightened at all by his presence. It’s only grown men, with their own prejudices, who hunt him with more monstrosity in their hearts than the monster has limbs. In truth, it’s not the stitched-together zombie who is the monster here, but the stark raving men holding the pitchforks.
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