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!

5. 'Star Wars Episode VI Return of the Jedi'

Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM/AP
'Star Wars Episode VI Return of the Jedi' stars Carrie Fisher (l.) and Mark Hamill (r.).

The culmination of George Lucas's original "Star Wars" trilogy, "The Return of the Jedi" follows Jedi knight Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Princess Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher), and smuggler Han Solo (Harrison Ford). Following a series of bitter defeats in the trilogy's middle chapter, Luke struggles to come to terms with the knowledge that villain Darth Vader (David Prowse with voice by James Earl Jones) is his father. Meanwhile, the soldiers of the Rebel Alliance continue their war against the evil Galactic Empire and its new super-weapon, a second Death Star.

While some decry the presence of the cuddly Ewoks, the power of the father-son story between Luke and the man who was once Anakin Skywalker still resonates.

The actor who appears as Darth Vader when Luke takes Vader's helmet off (and who appears with Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda at the end of the film) is neither Prowse nor Jones – actor Sebastian Shaw, who appears in the scenes, was cast only for "Jedi."

Don't worry, "Star Wars" fans – this won't be the last movie in the series to appear on this list. 

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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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