The 40 most popular 1950s science fiction movies, ranked. Click any film for ratings, reviews, trailers, and where to watch.


Forbidden Planet
1956 · 1h 38m
country: United States
Starship C57D travels to planet Altair 4 in search of the crew of spaceship "Bellerophon," a scientific expedition that has been missing for twenty years. They find themselves unwelcome by the expedition's lone survivor and warned of destruction by an invisible force if they don't turn back immediately.


Godzilla
1954 · 1h 36m
country: Japan
Japan is thrown into a panic after several ships are sunk near Odo Island. An expedition to the island led by Dr. Kyohei Yamane soon discover something far more devastating than imagined in the form of a 50 meter tall monster whom the natives call Gojira. Now the monster begins a rampage that threatens to destroy not only Japan, but the rest of the world as well.


20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
1954 · 2h 7m
country: United States
A ship sent to investigate a wave of mysterious sinkings encounters the advanced submarine, the Nautilus, commanded by Captain Nemo.


Creature from the Black Lagoon
1954 · 1h 19m
country: United States
When scientists exploring the Amazon River stumble on a “missing link” connecting humans and fish, they plan to capture it for later study. But the Creature has plans of his own, and has set his sights on the lead scientist's beautiful fiancée, Kay.


The War of the Worlds
1953 · 1h 25m
country: United States
The residents of a small town are excited when a flaming meteor lands in the hills, until they discover it is the first of many transport devices from Mars bringing an army of invaders invincible to any man-made weapon, even the atomic bomb.


The Fly
1958 · 1h 34m
country: United States
Industrialist François Delambre is called late at night by his sister-in-law, Helene, who tells him that she has just killed her husband. Reluctant at first, she eventually explains to the police that he invented a matter transportation apparatus and, while experimenting on himself, a fly entered the chamber.


The Day the Earth Stood Still
1951 · 1h 32m
country: United States
An alien and a robot land on Earth after World War II and tell mankind to be peaceful or face destruction.


Them!
1954 · 1h 34m
country: United States
As a result of nuclear testing, gigantic, ferocious mutant ants appear in the American desert southwest, and a father-daughter team of entomologists join forces with the state police officer who first discovers their existence, an FBI agent and, eventually, the US Army to eradicate the menace, before it spreads across the continent — and the world.


Godzilla, King of the Monsters!
1956 · 1h 21m
country: Japan
During an assignment, foreign correspondent Steve Martin spends a layover in Tokyo and is caught amid the rampage of an unstoppable prehistoric monster the Japanese call 'Godzilla'. The only hope for both Japan and the world lies on a secret weapon, which may prove more destructive than the monster itself.


Invasion of the Body Snatchers
1956 · 1h 20m
country: United States
A small-town doctor learns that the population of his community is being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates.


Godzilla Raids Again
1955 · 1h 22m
country: Japan
Two fishing scout pilots make a horrifying discovery when they encounter a second Godzilla alongside a new monster named Anguirus. Without the weapon that killed the original, authorities attempt to lure Godzilla away from the mainland. But Anguirus soon arrives and the two monsters make their way towards Osaka as Japan braces for tragedy.


The Thing from Another World
1951 · 1h 27m
country: United States
Scientists and US Air Force officials fend off a blood-thirsty alien organism while investigating at a remote arctic outpost.


On the Beach
1959 · 2h 14m
country: United States
In 1964, atomic war wipes out humanity in the northern hemisphere; one American submarine finds temporary safe haven in Australia, where life-as-usual covers growing despair. In denial about the loss of his wife and children in the holocaust, American Captain Towers meets careworn but gorgeous Moira Davidson, who begins to fall for him. The sub returns after reconnaissance a month (or less) before the end; will Towers and Moira find comfort with each other?


The Curse of Frankenstein
1957 · 1h 23m
country: United Kingdom
Baron Victor Frankenstein has discovered life's secret and unleashed a blood-curdling chain of events resulting from his creation: a cursed creature with a horrid face — and a tendency to kill.


Três Vagabundos
1952 · 1h 22m
country: Brazil
A scientist swaps the mind of banker and an idiot by accident.


Monkey Business
1952 · 1h 37m
country: United States
Research chemist Barnaby Fulton works on a fountain of youth pill for a chemical company. One of the labs chimps gets loose in the laboratory and mixes chemicals, but then pours the mix into the water cooler. When trying one of his own samples, washed down with water from the cooler, Fulton begins to act just like a twenty-year-old and believes his potion is working. Soon his wife and boss are also behaving like children.


The Blob
1958 · 1h 22m
country: United States
A drive-in favorite, this sci-fi classic follows teenagers Steve and his best girl, Jane, as they try to protect their hometown from a gelatinous alien life form that engulfs everything it touches. The first to discover the substance and live to tell about it, Steve and Jane witness the blob destroying an elderly man, then it growing to a terrifying size. But no one else has seen the goo, and policeman Dave refuses to believe the kids without proof.


The Incredible Shrinking Man
1957 · 1h 21m
country: United States
A dangerous combination of radiation and insecticide causes the unfortunate Scott Carey to shrink, slowly but surely, until he is only a few inches tall. His home becomes a wilderness where he must survive everything from spiders living in the cellar to his beloved cat.


The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms
1953 · 1h 20m
country: United States
The controlled explosion of an atomic bomb in the Arctic Circle awakens a frozen dinosaur that will wreak havoc in New York City.


The Fabulous World of Jules Verne
1958 · 1h 23m
country: Czechoslovakia
As the world progresses into the industrial age, a professor studying the "nature of pure matter" is spirited away by a would-be dictator and connived into building a super-bomb, as a young reporter and a girl rescued from the sea attempt to warn him of their mutual kidnapper's intentions to dominate the world with a new and more-deadly-yet weapon.


Attack of the 50 Foot Woman
1958 · 1h 6m
country: United States
When an abused wife grows to giant size following an alien encounter and an aborted murder attempt, she goes after her philandering husband with revenge on her mind.


The Revenge of Frankenstein
1958 · 1h 30m
country: United Kingdom
Rescued from the guillotine by his devoted dwarf Fritz, the Baron relocates to Carlsbruck, where he continues his gruesome experiments.


The Man in the White Suit
1951 · 1h 25m
country: United Kingdom
The unassuming, nebbishy inventor Sidney Stratton creates a miraculous fabric that will never be dirty or worn out. Clearly he can make a fortune selling clothes made of the material, but may cause a crisis in the process. After all, once someone buys one of his suits they won't ever have to fix them or buy another one, and the clothing industry will collapse overnight. Nevertheless, Sidney is determined to put his invention on the market, forcing the clothing factory bigwigs to resort to more desperate measures...


This Island Earth
1955 · 1h 25m
country: United States
Aliens have landed and are hiding on Earth, but need Earth’s scientists to help them fight an inter-planetary war.


Earth vs. the Flying Saucers
1956 · 1h 23m
country: United States
Test space rockets exploding at liftoff and increased reporting of UFO sightings culminate in a direct attempt by alien survivors of a dead, extra-galactic civilization to invade Earth from impervious flying saucers, using ray-weapons of mass destruction.


The Quatermass Xperiment
1955 · 1h 22m
country: United Kingdom
The first manned spacecraft, fired from an English launchpad, is lost from radar before roaring back to Earth and crashing in a farmer's field. The rocket is found to contain only one of the three men who took off in it; and he is unable to talk but appears to be undergoing a torturous physical and mental metamorphosis.


It Came from Outer Space
1953 · 1h 20m
country: United States
Author and amateur astronomer John Putnam and schoolteacher Ellen Fields witness an enormous meteorite come down near a small town in Arizona. Putnam becomes a local object of scorn when, after examining the object up close, he announces that it is a spacecraft, and that it is inhabited...


It! The Terror from Beyond Space
1958 · 1h 9m
country: United States
The first manned expedition to Mars is invaded by an unknown life form, which stows away on the rescue ship.


Tarantula
1955 · 1h 20m
country: United States
A rogue scientist near a small desert town arouses the suspicion of the town's doctor when his lab assistant is found dead from a case of acromegaly, which took only four days to develop. As the doctor investigates, aided by the scientist's new female assistant, they discover that something is devouring local cattle and humans in increasingly large quantities.


Quatermass 2
1957 · 1h 25m
country: United Kingdom
In England, a group of space scientists led by Bernard Quatermass, who have developed plans for the first Moon colony, learn that a secret, ostensibly government-run, complex of identical design has been built in a remote part of England and is the focus of periodic falls of small, hollow "meteorites" originating in outer space. Quatermass determines to investigate and uncovers a terrifying extraterrestrial life form which has already begun action to take over the Earth.


Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet the Invisible Man
1951 · 1h 23m
country: United States
As novice detectives, Bud and Lou come face to face with the Invisible Man.


When Worlds Collide
1951 · 1h 23m
country: United States
When a group of astronomers calculate a star is on a course to slam into Earth, a few days before, it's accompanying planet will first pass close enough to the Earth to cause havoc on land and sea. They set about building a rocket so a few selected individuals can escape to the planet.


Revenge of the Creature
1955 · 1h 22m
country: United States
In a tributary of the Amazon, a monster – half-man, half-fish – is captured and placed in a reservoir in a Florida national park to be observed by scientists.


Plan 9 from Outer Space
1957 · 1h 18m
country: United States
In California, an old man grieves the loss of his wife, and dies the day after she is buried. However, the space soldier Eros and his mate Tanna use an electric device to resurrect them both, alongside the strong Inspector Clay, who was murdered by the alien-controlled dead couple. When the populations of Hollywood and Washington D.C. see flying saucers on the sky, a colonel, a police lieutenant, a commercial pilot, his wife, and a policeman try to stop the aliens.


The Tingler
1959 · 1h 22m
country: United States
A pathologist experiments with a deaf-mute woman who is unable to scream to prove that humans die of fright due to an organism he names The Tingler that lives within each person on the spinal cord and is suppressed only when people scream when scared.


Invaders from Mars
1953 · 1h 18m
country: United States
A boy tries to stop aliens that have taken over his town and are brainwashing its inhabitants.


Return of the Fly
1959 · 1h 20m
country: United States
Fifteen years after his father's experiments with matter transmission fail, Philippe Delambre and his uncle François attempt to create a matter transmission device on their own. However, their experiments have disastrous results, turning Philippe into a horrible half-man, half-fly creature.


Attack of the Giant Leeches
1959 · 1h 2m
country: United States
A backwoods game warden and a local doctor discover that giant leeches are responsible for disappearances and deaths in a local swamp, but the local police don't believe them.


1984
1956 · 1h 30m
country: United Kingdom
In a totalitarian future society, a man whose daily work is rewriting history tries to rebel by falling in love.


Superman and the Mole Men
1951 · 58m
country: United States
Reporters Clark Kent and Lois Lane arrive in the small town of Silsby to witness the drilling of the world's deepest oil well. The drill, however, has penetrated the underground home of a race of small, furry people who then come to the surface at night to look around. The fact that they glow in the dark scares the townfolk, who form a mob, led by the vicious Luke Benson, intent on killing the strange people. Only Superman has a chance to prevent this tragedy.
1950s cinema fought television with everything it had: widescreen formats, colour, and spectacle. Underneath the scale, it was also the decade of Japanese cinema's international breakthrough and the birth of the modern art film.
Science fiction uses the future — or a plausible alternative present — to think through the current moment. It's produced some of cinema's most influential images, and the genre's biggest leaps have usually followed leaps in effects technology.