5 Best Sci-Fi Movies With the Highest Tomatometer to Stream on Max

The sci-fi genre has been on the rise lately – as evidenced by the impressive number of TV shows released in 2024 alone.

If you've already seen them all, it's time to move on to the feature films – we've chosen five with the highest scores.

1. War for the Planet of the Apes, 2017

Tomatometer: 94%

After the extremely successful Dawn of the Planet of the Apes at the box office, the Fox studio continued to tell about the confrontation between humans and intelligent apes in the post-apocalyptic future.

This time, the events will be centered on the familiar leader of the apes Caesar and the ruthless leader of the humans nicknamed Colonel, played by Woody Harrelson. In the past, Caesar tried to establish peaceful coexistence, but now there is no talk of it – the war for the fate of earthly civilization is on the agenda.

2. Gattaca, 1997

Tomatometer: 82%

What if it were possible to improve a person's physical and mental abilities before birth? Then it would be possible to have a flawless humanity: no unnecessary emotions, diseases, or other shortcomings. Now, DNA determines who you will become, who you will marry, and what heights you will reach; you no longer have to worry about anything, because doubts and dreams are an unnecessary flaw.

But all this wonderful new life is only available to people born in a laboratory. And if you were conceived naturally, you will be labeled "in-valid" at birth. The main character is not at all satisfied with this arrangement, and he decides to make his own destiny.

3. Stalker, 1979

Tomatometer: 100%

About twenty years ago, a meteorite fell in the Zone, burning the village to the ground, and then people started disappearing. The place was surrounded and put under heavy guard. Soon rumors began to spread that there was the Room in the Zone, where wishes were granted. Since then, the Zone began to attract people, and guides appeared – stalkers. The main character of the movie is a stalker who has just been released from prison and leads tourists to the Zone.

Stalker by Andrei Tarkovsky was filmed based on the novel by the Strugatsky brothers Roadside Picnic, although in the end the movie turned out to be an independent work, having little in common with the original source. Dark science fiction, intertwined with mysticism, speaks of a crisis of faith and asks what happens when a person can no longer give anything to another person.

4. The Martian, 2015

Tomatometer: 91%

Ridley Scott, a director who made his name creating dark sci-fi worlds, decided to turn back the clock with The Martian. The story of Mark Watney, an astronaut stranded on Mars, turned out to be one of the genre's brightest and most optimistic projects.

In The Martian, Scott breathed the once-lost scientific positivism back into science fiction – it was technology, science, and the actions of NASA that played a colossal role in saving the astronaut.

5. 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968

Tomatometer: 92%

All modern science fiction would not exist without 2001: A Space Odyssey – and that fact alone would be enough to make it one of the greatest films ever made. But it is not only its historical significance and technical achievements that impress – Stanley Kubrick's film, made almost half a century ago, still looks amazing.

It is difficult to describe this movie, because you have to feel it – to live this compact history of mankind as interpreted by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, who together made not only a great science fiction movie, but the most important science fiction movie in the history of mankind.