The 40 most popular 1970s science fiction movies, ranked. Click any film for ratings, reviews, trailers, and where to watch.


Star Wars
1977 · 2h 1m · US
Princess Leia is captured and held hostage by the evil Imperial forces in their effort to take over the galactic Empire. Venturesome Luke Skywalker and dashing captain Han Solo team together with the loveable robot duo R2-D2 and C-3PO to rescue the beautiful princess and restore peace and justice in the Empire.


Alien
1979 · 1h 57m · US
During its return to the earth, commercial spaceship Nostromo intercepts a distress signal from a distant planet. When a three-member team of the crew discovers a chamber containing thousands of eggs on the planet, a creature inside one of the eggs attacks an explorer. The entire crew is unaware of the impending nightmare set to descend upon them when the alien parasite planted inside its unfortunate host is birthed.


A Clockwork Orange
1971 · 2h 17m · UK
In a near-future Britain, young Alexander DeLarge and his pals get their kicks beating and raping anyone they please. When not destroying the lives of others, Alex swoons to the music of Beethoven. The state, eager to crack down on juvenile crime, gives an incarcerated Alex the option to undergo an invasive procedure that'll rob him of all personal agency. In a time when conscience is a commodity, can Alex change his tune?


The Rocky Horror Picture Show
1975 · 1h 40m · UK
After getting a flat tire in the middle of nowhere, newly engaged couple Brad and Janet encounter the eerie mansion of the flamboyant, seductive Dr Frank-N-Furter and a variety of eccentric characters. Through elaborate dance and rock music, the mad scientist unveils his latest creation: a perfect, muscular man.


Mad Max
1979 · 1h 31m · AU
In the ravaged near-future, a savage motorcycle gang rules the road. Terrorizing innocent civilians while tearing up the streets, the ruthless gang laughs in the face of a police force hell-bent on stopping them.


Superman
1978 · 2h 24m · UK
Mild-mannered Clark Kent works as a reporter at the Daily Planet alongside his crush, Lois Lane. Clark must summon his superhero alter-ego when the nefarious Lex Luthor launches a plan to take over the world.


Eraserhead
1977 · 1h 29m · US
First-time father Henry Spencer tries to survive his industrial environment, his angry girlfriend, and the unbearable screams of his newly born mutant child.


Close Encounters of the Third Kind
1977 · 2h 17m · UK
After an encounter with UFOs, an electricity linesman feels undeniably drawn to an isolated area in the wilderness where something spectacular is about to happen.


Stalker
1979 · 2h 42m · SU
Near a gray and unnamed city is the Zone, a place guarded by barbed wire and soldiers, and where the normal laws of physics are victim to frequent anomalies. A stalker guides two men into the Zone, specifically to an area in which deep-seated desires are granted.


Moonraker
1979 · 2h 6m · FR
After Drax Industries' Moonraker space shuttle is hijacked, secret agent James Bond is assigned to investigate, traveling to California to meet the company's owner, the mysterious Hugo Drax. With the help of scientist Dr. Holly Goodhead, Bond soon uncovers Drax's nefarious plans for humanity, all the while fending off an old nemesis, Jaws, and venturing to Venice, Rio, the Amazon...and even outer space.


Star Trek: The Motion Picture
1979 · 2h 11m · US
When an unidentified alien destroys three powerful Klingon cruisers, Captain James T. Kirk returns to the newly transformed U.S.S. Enterprise to take command.


Dawn of the Dead
1978 · 2h 7m · US
During an ever-growing epidemic of zombies that have risen from the dead, two Philadelphia SWAT team members, a traffic reporter, and his television-executive girlfriend seek refuge in a secluded shopping mall.


Invasion of the Body Snatchers
1978 · 1h 56m · US
The residents of San Francisco are becoming drone-like shadows of their former selves, and as the phenomenon spreads, two Department of Health workers uncover the horrifying truth.


Beneath the Planet of the Apes
1970 · 1h 35m · US
The sole survivor of an interplanetary rescue mission lands on the planet of the apes, and uncovers a horrible secret beneath the surface.


Godzilla vs. Megalon
1973 · 1h 18m · JP
Inventor Goro Ibuki creates a humanoid robot named Jet Jaguar. It is soon seized by an undersea race of people called the Seatopians. Using Jet Jaguar as a guide, the Seatopians send Megalon as vengeance for the nuclear tests that have devastated their society.


One Million-Year Trip: Bander Book
1978 · 1h 32m · JP
Bander is a 17-year-old boy from Earth who lives on a distant planet, which is populated by human shape-shifters who feed off of vegetables and animal tails. Violence soon breaks out, as invaders launch an attack on Bander's new planet. This was Japan's first 2-hour animated film for television. The program received high ratings when broadcast as part of a set of 24-hour TV programs called "Ai wa Chikyu wo Sukuu" on Nippon Television. After a long gap since his last animated film for television, this work fully reflects Osamu Tezuka's desire to achieve theatrical quality with this production.


Westworld
1973 · 1h 29m · US
Delos is a futuristic amusement park that features themed worlds populated by human-like androids. After two patrons have a run-in with a menacing gunslinger in West World, the androids at Delos all begin to malfunction, causing havoc throughout the park.


Solaris
1972 · 2h 47m · SU
A psychologist is sent to a space station orbiting a planet called Solaris to investigate the death of a doctor and the mental problems of cosmonauts on the station. He soon discovers that the water on the planet is a type of brain which brings out repressed memories and obsessions.


Soylent Green
1973 · 1h 37m · US
In the year 2022, overcrowding, pollution, and resource depletion have reduced society’s leaders to finding food for the teeming masses. The answer is Soylent Green.


Sssssss
1973 · 1h 39m · US
David, a college student, is looking for a job. He is hired by Dr. Stoner as a lab assistant for his research and experiments on snakes. David also begins to fall for Stoner's young daughter, Kristina. However, the good doctor has secretly brewed up a serum that can transform any man into a King Cobra snake-and he plans to use it on David.


Futureworld
1976 · 1h 48m · US
Two years after the Westworld tragedy in the Delos amusement park, the corporate owners have reopened the park following over $1 billion in safety and other improvements. For publicity purposes, reporters Chuck Browning and Tracy Ballard are invited to review the park. Just prior to arriving, however, Browning is given a clue by a dying man that something is amiss.


Escape from the Planet of the Apes
1971 · 1h 38m · US
The world is shocked by the appearance of three talking chimpanzees, who arrived mysteriously in a spacecraft. Intrigued by their intelligence, humans use them for research - until the apes attempt to escape.


Battle for the Planet of the Apes
1973 · 1h 33m · US
The fifth and final episode in the Planet of the Apes series. After the collapse of human civilization, a community of intelligent apes led by Caesar lives in harmony with a group of humans. Gorilla General Aldo tries to cause an ape civil war and a community of human mutants who live beneath a destroyed city try to conquer those whom they perceive as enemies. All leading to the finale.


Godzilla
1977 · 1h 36m · JP
A re-edited Italian-language dubbed version of the original Godzilla, using as a basis the U.S. version, "Godzilla, King of the Monsters!" (1956), plus WWII newsreel footage and clips from other science fiction films. The re-edited film was then colorized via a process called "Spectrorama 70" consisting of applying various colored gels to the black and white footage. The film's opening and ending also features new music composed by musicians Fabio Frizzi, Franco Bixio, and Vince Tempera (under the pseudonym Magnetic System).


Conquest of the Planet of the Apes
1972 · 1h 28m · US
In a futuristic world that has embraced ape slavery, a chimpanzee named Caesar resurfaces after almost twenty years of hiding from the authorities, and prepares for a revolt against humanity.


Phantasm
1979 · 1h 29m · US
A teenage boy and his friends face off against a mysterious grave robber, known only as the Tall Man, who employs a lethal arsenal of unearthly weapons.


Invisible Adversaries
1977 · 1h 49m · AT
Set in contemporary Vienna, the film involves a photographer, Anna, who discovers that extraterrestrial beings are colonizing the minds of her fellow citizens by raising the human aggression quotient. The outer world immediately becomes disjointed, yet the inner world does too, as Anna and her lover, Peter, try to hang onto their deteriorating relationship.


The Man Who Fell to Earth
1976 · 2h 19m · UK
Thomas Jerome Newton is an alien who has come to Earth in search of water to save his home planet. Aided by lawyer Oliver Farnsworth, Thomas uses his knowledge of advanced technology to create profitable inventions. While developing a method to transport water, Thomas meets Mary-Lou, a quiet hotel clerk, and begins to fall in love with her. Just as he is ready to leave Earth, Thomas is intercepted by the U.S. government, and his entire plan is threatened.


Logan's Run
1976 · 1h 58m · US
In the 23rd century, inhabitants of a domed city freely experience all of life's pleasures — but no one is allowed to live past 30. Citizens can try for a chance at being "renewed" in a civic ceremony on their 30th birthday. Escape is the only other option.


The Year of the Plague
1978 · 1h 49m · MX
A terrible disease is found in a Mexican town. A doctor tries to alert the authorities when he discovers its epidemic nature. No one listen to him and soon after the disease spreads. The government tries to control the information in order to prevent panic.


Buck Rogers
1977 · 1h 30m · US
Edited version of the 1939 Universal serial "Buck Rogers." A 20th Century pilot named Buck Rogers and his young friend Buddy Wade awake from 500 years in suspended animation to find that the world has been taken over by the outlaw army of Killer Kane.


The Andromeda Strain
1971 · 2h 11m · US
When virtually all of the residents of Piedmont, New Mexico are found dead after the return to Earth of a space satellite, the head of the US Air Force's Project Scoop declares an emergency. A group of eminent scientists led by Dr. Jeremy Stone scrambles to a secure laboratory and tries first to isolate the life form while determining why two people from Piedmont - an old alcoholic and a six-month-old baby - survived. The scientists methodically study the alien life form, unaware that it has already mutated and presents a far greater danger in the lab, which is equipped with a nuclear self-destruct device designed to prevent the escape of dangerous biological agents.


The Gendarme and the Creatures from Outer Space
1979 · 1h 36m · FR
The bungling inspector Cruchot finds himself trying to save the residents of St. Tropez from some oil-drinking humanoid aliens. The only way to tell the aliens from the real people, besides their constant thirst for oil-products, is that they sound like empty garbage cans when you touch them. Chaos is ahead.


Capricorn One
1977 · 2h 3m · UK
In order to protect the reputation of the American space program, a team of NASA administrators turn the first Mars mission into a phony Mars landing. Under threat of harm to their families the astronauts play their part in the deception on a staged set in a deserted military base. But once the real ship returns to Earth and burns up on re-entry, the astronauts become liabilities. Now, with the help of a crusading reporter, they must battle a sinister conspiracy that will stop at nothing to keep the truth hidden.


Godzilla vs. Hedorah
1971 · 1h 25m · JP
An ever evolving alien life-form arrives on a comet from the Dark Gaseous Nebula and proceeds to consume pollution. Spewing mists of sulfuric acid and corrosive sludge, neither humanity nor Godzilla may be able to defeat this toxic menace.


Dark Star
1974 · 1h 23m · US
A group of scientists are sent on a mission to destroy unstable planets. Twenty years into their mission, they have to battle their alien mascot as well as a "sensitive" and intelligent bombing device that starts to question the meaning of its existence.


The Black Hole
1979 · 1h 38m · US
The explorer craft USS Palomino is returning to Earth after a fruitless 18-month search for extra-terrestrial life when the crew comes upon a supposedly lost ship, the USS Cygnus, hovering near a black hole. The ship is controlled by Dr. Hans Reinhardt and his monstrous robot companion, but the initial wonderment and awe the Palomino crew feel for the ship and its resistance to the power of the black hole turn to horror as they uncover Reinhardt's plans.


Silent Running
1972 · 1h 29m · US
After the entire flora goes extinct, ecologist Lowell maintains a greenhouse aboard a space station for the future with his android companions. However, he rebels after being ordered to destroy the greenhouse in favor of carrying cargo, a decision that puts him at odds with everyone but his mechanical companions.


Sleeper
1973 · 1h 27m · US
Miles Monroe, a clarinet-playing health food store proprietor, is revived out of cryostasis 200 years into a future world in order to help rebels fight an oppressive government regime.


The Boys from Brazil
1978 · 2h 5m · UK
Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman discovers a sinister and bizarre plot, masterminded by Dr. Josef Mengele, to rekindle the Third Reich.
The 1970s are widely considered American cinema's strongest decade, when the studio system's collapse handed a generation of young directors unusual freedom. It ended with Jaws and Star Wars inventing the modern blockbuster.
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.