The 25 best science fiction movies of all time

What are the best movies about mysterious planets, visitors from other worlds, and the future on our very own Earth? Check out our picks!

14. 'Metropolis'

Kino International
'Metropolis' is directed by Fritz Lang.

The 1927 silent film directed by Fritz Lang depicts a city in which the rich live in towers far above the surface of the world and those with less money work below the ground. (So yes, this movie was most likely the inspiration for every single iteration you've seen of that idea since.) Freder (Gustav Fröhlich), the son of the city's ruler, thinks nothing of this until he meets and falls in love with Maria (Brigitte Helm), who lives underground. Freder soon learns of a revolution brewing among the workers.

"'Metropolis' still packs a visual wallop," Monitor film critic David Sterritt wrote of the movie. "Lang was one of cinema's greatest stylists, and today's directors could learn invaluable lessons from his economical editing, masterly framing, and trail-blazing special effects."

The movie was re-released by producer Giorgio Moroder in 1984 with a soundtrack by artists such as Bonnie Tyler, Pat Benatar, and Freddie Mercury.

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Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

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