Best Sci-Fi 'B' movies

by danieletottle | created - 29 Aug 2015 | updated - 12 Sep 2015 | Public

A list of actually decent and watchable sci fi B movies from the 80's, 90's, 00's and 10's.

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1. Saturn 3 (1980)

R | 88 min | Adventure, Horror, Sci-Fi

9 Metascore

Two lovers stationed at a remote base in the asteroid belt of Saturn are intruded upon by an anal-retentive technocrat from Earth and his charge: a malevolent eight foot tall robot.

Directors: Stanley Donen, John Barry | Stars: Farrah Fawcett, Kirk Douglas, Harvey Keitel, Ed Bishop

Votes: 10,491

2. The Final Countdown (1980)

PG | 103 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

51 Metascore

A modern aircraft carrier is thrown back in time to 1941 near Hawaii, just hours before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Director: Don Taylor | Stars: Kirk Douglas, Martin Sheen, Katharine Ross, James Farentino

Votes: 26,962 | Gross: $16.65M

3. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)

R | 96 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

77 Metascore

In the post-apocalyptic Australian wasteland, a cynical drifter agrees to help a small, gasoline-rich community escape a horde of bandits.

Director: George Miller | Stars: Mel Gibson, Bruce Spence, Michael Preston, Max Phipps

Votes: 193,814 | Gross: $12.47M

4. Battle Beyond the Stars (1980)

PG | 104 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

59 Metascore

A farm boy recruits a band of outlaws to save the planet Akir from forces that threaten to wipe them out from the face of the universe. A battle stretching beyond the stars begins here.

Directors: Jimmy T. Murakami, Roger Corman | Stars: George Peppard, Robert Vaughn, Richard Thomas, John Saxon

Votes: 10,226

5. Brainstorm (1983)

PG | 106 min | Sci-Fi, Thriller

57 Metascore

Researchers develop a system where they can jump into people's minds. But when people involved bring their personal problems into the equation, it becomes dangerous - perhaps deadly.

Director: Douglas Trumbull | Stars: Christopher Walken, Natalie Wood, Louise Fletcher, Cliff Robertson

Votes: 13,129 | Gross: $8.90M

6. Krull (1983)

PG | 121 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy

45 Metascore

A prince and a fellowship of companions set out to rescue his bride from a fortress of alien invaders who have arrived on their home planet, Krull.

Director: Peter Yates | Stars: Ken Marshall, Lysette Anthony, Freddie Jones, Francesca Annis

Votes: 36,272 | Gross: $16.52M

7. Runaway (1984)

PG-13 | 99 min | Action, Crime, Sci-Fi

50 Metascore

In the near future, a police officer specializes in malfunctioning robots. When a robot turns out to have been programmed to kill, he begins to uncover a homicidal plot to create killer robots... and his son becomes a target.

Director: Michael Crichton | Stars: Tom Selleck, Cynthia Rhodes, Gene Simmons, Kirstie Alley

Votes: 14,512 | Gross: $6.77M

8. The Philadelphia Experiment (1984)

PG | 102 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance

44 Metascore

A United States Navy destroyer escort participates in a Navy "invisibility" experiment that inadvertently sends two sailors forty years into the future.

Director: Stewart Raffill | Stars: Michael Paré, Nancy Allen, Eric Christmas, Bobby Di Cicco

Votes: 16,759 | Gross: $8.10M

9. The Last Starfighter (1984)

PG | 100 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

67 Metascore

High schooler Alex Rogan conquers the Starfighter video game, only to find out it was just a test, and is transported to another planet. He has been recruited to join a team of the best starfighters to defend their world from the attack.

Director: Nick Castle | Stars: Lance Guest, Robert Preston, Kay E. Kuter, Dan Mason

Votes: 46,047 | Gross: $28.73M

10. Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)

PG-13 | 107 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

71 Metascore

After being exiled from the most advanced town in post apocalyptic Australia, a drifter travels with a group of abandoned children to rebel against the town's queen.

Directors: George Miller, George Ogilvie | Stars: Mel Gibson, Tina Turner, Bruce Spence, Adam Cockburn

Votes: 147,720 | Gross: $36.20M

11. Enemy Mine (1985)

PG-13 | 108 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

59 Metascore

During a long space war, the lives of two wounded enemies become dependent on their ability to forgive and to trust.

Director: Wolfgang Petersen | Stars: Dennis Quaid, Louis Gossett Jr., Brion James, Richard Marcus

Votes: 51,441 | Gross: $4.27M

12. The Running Man (1987)

R | 101 min | Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller

45 Metascore

In a dystopian America, a falsely convicted policeman gets his shot at freedom when he must forcibly participate in a TV game show where convicts, runners, must battle killers for their freedom.

Director: Paul Michael Glaser | Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maria Conchita Alonso, Yaphet Kotto, Jim Brown

Votes: 167,796 | Gross: $38.12M

13. The Magical World of Disney (1954–1997)
Episode: Earth Star Voyager: Part 1 (1988)

Unrated | 240 min | Adventure, Drama, Family

A select group of young cadets in the twenty-first century is sent off on a spaceship to find a new home for humanity when Earth is deteriorating.

Director: James Goldstone | Stars: Duncan Regehr, Brian McNamara, Julia Montgomery, Jason Michas

Votes: 655

14. The Magical World of Disney (1954–1997)
Episode: Earth Star Voyager: Part 2 (1988)

Unrated | 115 min | Adventure, Drama, Family

Along the way, they happen on an old, failed world's fair, Expo Tomorrow, where they learn that their foe is the Outlaw Technology Zone, or OTZ, a band of criminals.

Director: James Goldstone | Stars: Brian McNamara, Duncan Regehr, Ric Reid, Jason Michas

Votes: 143

15. The Blood of Heroes (1989)

R | 90 min | Action, Sci-Fi, Sport

In a future where most of mankind and technology is wiped out, six people travel from place to place playing a brutal form of football with a dog skull. They hope one day to play in the league in a city.

Director: David Webb Peoples | Stars: Rutger Hauer, Joan Chen, Delroy Lindo, Anna Katarina

Votes: 7,576 | Gross: $0.88M

16. Class of 1999 (1990)

R | 99 min | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi

33 Metascore

Three ex-military robots are reprogrammed as teachers and secretly placed in a school where most students are part of organized gangs. They begin to respond violently to unruly students, and their military training starts to take over.

Director: Mark L. Lester | Stars: Bradley Gregg, Traci Lind, Malcolm McDowell, Stacy Keach

Votes: 8,644 | Gross: $2.46M

17. Slipstream (1989)

PG-13 | 102 min | Adventure, Sci-Fi

In the near future, where Earth has been devastated by man's pollution and giant winds rule the planet, bounty hunter Matt kidnaps a murderer out of the hands of two police officers, planning to get the bounty himself.

Director: Steven Lisberger | Stars: Bob Peck, Mark Hamill, Kitty Aldridge, Bill Paxton

Votes: 3,067

18. Cyborg (1989)

R | 86 min | Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller

24 Metascore

A martial artist hunts a killer in a plague-infested urban dump of the future.

Director: Albert Pyun | Stars: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Deborah Richter, Vincent Klyn, Alex Daniels

Votes: 34,242 | Gross: $10.17M

19. Tremors (1990)

PG-13 | 96 min | Comedy, Horror

65 Metascore

Natives of a small isolated town defend themselves against strange underground creatures which are killing them one by one.

Director: Ron Underwood | Stars: Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Finn Carter, Michael Gross

Votes: 150,608 | Gross: $16.67M

20. Wedlock (I) (1991)

R | 101 min | Action, Crime, Drama

A male prison escapee heads for his hidden loot electronically attached to a female prisoner.

Director: Lewis Teague | Stars: Rutger Hauer, Mimi Rogers, Joan Chen, James Remar

Votes: 9,154

21. Split Second (1992)

R | 90 min | Action, Crime, Horror

26 Metascore

In a flooded future London, Detective Harley Stone hunts a serial killer who murdered his partner, and has haunted him ever since. He soon discovers what he is hunting might not be human.

Director: Tony Maylam | Stars: Rutger Hauer, Kim Cattrall, Alastair Duncan, Michael J. Pollard

Votes: 16,636 | Gross: $5.43M

22. Nemesis (1992)

R | 95 min | Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Alex, a burned out LA cyborg cop, is forced by commissioner Farnsworth to find his former cyborg partner and lover Jared who's about to deliver sensitive data to cyborg terrorists who wish to wage war against humans. Is he being played?

Director: Albert Pyun | Stars: Olivier Gruner, Tim Thomerson, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Merle Kennedy

Votes: 6,772 | Gross: $2.00M

23. Fortress (1992)

R | 95 min | Action, Crime, Sci-Fi

48 Metascore

In a future, private underground prison/Fortress, the inmates are computer controlled with CCTV, dream readers and devices that can cause pain or death. John and his illegally pregnant wife are inside but want to escape before birth.

Director: Stuart Gordon | Stars: Christopher Lambert, Loryn Locklin, Kurtwood Smith, Clifton Collins Jr.

Votes: 30,479 | Gross: $6.74M

24. No Escape (1994)

R | 118 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi

A soldier convicted for murdering his commanding officer is dumped and left to die on a prison island inhabited by two camps of convicts.

Director: Martin Campbell | Stars: Ray Liotta, Lance Henriksen, Stuart Wilson, Kevin Dillon

Votes: 22,715 | Gross: $15.34M

25. Screamers (1995)

R | 108 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller

A military commander stationed off planet during an interplanetary war travels through the devastated landscape to negotiate a peace treaty, but discovers that the primitive robots they built to kill enemy combatants have gained sentience.

Director: Christian Duguay | Stars: Peter Weller, Roy Dupuis, Jennifer Rubin, Andy Lauer

Votes: 29,469 | Gross: $5.78M

26. Crossworlds (1996)

PG-13 | 91 min | Action, Comedy, Sci-Fi

A young man finds himself in the middle of a universal battle between good and evil when he sets up residence in a trans-dimensional valley. Only his father's mysterious crystal pendant and its lost matching scepter can guarantee victory.

Director: Krishna Rao | Stars: Rutger Hauer, Josh Charles, Stuart Wilson, Andrea Roth

Votes: 3,157

27. The Arrival (1996)

PG-13 | 115 min | Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller

56 Metascore

Zane, an astronomer, discovers intelligent alien life. But the aliens are keeping a deadly secret, and will do anything to stop Zane from learning it.

Director: David Twohy | Stars: Charlie Sheen, Lindsay Crouse, Richard Schiff, Shane

Votes: 38,193 | Gross: $14.05M

28. Nirvana (1997)

R | 113 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi

The main character Solo in Nirvana, a computer game developed by Jimi for release in 3 days, has gained self-awareness after a virus attack. Solo wants to be deleted. Jimi wants to find his ex.

Director: Gabriele Salvatores | Stars: Christopher Lambert, Diego Abatantuono, Sergio Rubini, Stefania Rocca

Votes: 7,062

29. Cube (1997)

R | 90 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi

61 Metascore

A group of strangers awaken to find themselves placed in a giant cube. Each one of them is gifted with a special skill and they must work together to escape an endless maze of deadly traps.

Director: Vincenzo Natali | Stars: Nicole de Boer, Maurice Dean Wint, David Hewlett, Andrew Miller

Votes: 247,717 | Gross: $0.50M

30. Redline (1997)

R | 97 min | Action, Sci-Fi

When a man is murdered in Moscow, experimental bionic research brings him back to life. He then sets out to find his murderers and money that was stolen during the crime.

Director: Tibor Takács | Stars: Rutger Hauer, Mark Dacascos, Yvonne Sciò, Patrick Dreikauss

Votes: 1,409

31. Wing Commander (1999)

PG-13 | 100 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

21 Metascore

Blair, a fighter pilot, joins an interstellar war to fight the evil Kilrathi who are trying to destroy the universe.

Director: Chris Roberts | Stars: Freddie Prinze Jr., Matthew Lillard, Saffron Burrows, Tchéky Karyo

Votes: 17,418 | Gross: $11.58M

32. The Thirteenth Floor (1999)

R | 100 min | Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller

36 Metascore

A computer scientist running a virtual reality simulation of 1937 becomes the primary suspect when his colleague and mentor is murdered.

Director: Josef Rusnak | Stars: Craig Bierko, Gretchen Mol, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Vincent D'Onofrio

Votes: 77,311 | Gross: $15.50M

33. Ghosts of Mars (2001)

R | 98 min | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi

35 Metascore

In 2176, a Martian police unit is sent to pick up a highly dangerous criminal at a remote mining post. Upon arrival, the cops find that the post has become a charnel house.

Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Natasha Henstridge, Ice Cube, Pam Grier, Jason Statham

Votes: 57,982 | Gross: $8.43M

34. Impostor (2001)

PG-13 | 95 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi

33 Metascore

In the future, an alien race uses androids as bombs to attack Earth. A government weapons specialist is accused of being one such android and sets out to prove his innocence.

Director: Gary Fleder | Stars: Shane Brolly, Vincent D'Onofrio, Gary Sinise, Madeleine Stowe

Votes: 24,562 | Gross: $6.11M

35. Natural City (2003)

R | 114 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi

In the near future, humans rely heavily on androids to maintain society, but some of the machines revolt. A military officer in charge of doing away with the unruly cyborgs also loves the gynoid that looks over him.

Director: Byung-chun Min | Stars: Yoo Ji-tae, Lee Jae-un, Rin Seo, Jeong Eun-pyo

Votes: 4,615

36. Code 46 (2003)

R | 93 min | Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi

57 Metascore

A futuristic Brief Encounter (1945), this is a love story in which the romance is doomed by genetic incompatibility.

Director: Michael Winterbottom | Stars: Tim Robbins, Samantha Morton, Om Puri, Togo Igawa

Votes: 21,134 | Gross: $0.20M

37. Immortal (2004)

R | 103 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller

In the distant future, Earth is occupied by ancient gods and genetically altered humans. When a god is sentenced to death he seeks a new human host and a woman to bear his child.

Director: Enki Bilal | Stars: Linda Hardy, Thomas Kretschmann, Charlotte Rampling, Yann Collette

Votes: 21,783

38. Hunter Prey (2010)

88 min | Sci-Fi, Thriller

A spaceship crashes on a desert planet with 3 survivors besides the escaped prisoner. Extraction's in 110 hours.

Director: Sandy Collora | Stars: Clark Bartram, Damion Poitier, Isaac C. Singleton Jr., Sandy Collora

Votes: 6,227

39. Iron Sky (2012)

R | 93 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy

The Nazis set up a secret base on the dark side of the moon in 1945 where they hide out and plan to return to power in 2018.

Director: Timo Vuorensola | Stars: Julia Dietze, Christopher Kirby, Götz Otto, Udo Kier

Votes: 96,559

40. Europa Report (2013)

PG-13 | 90 min | Adventure, Drama, Mystery

68 Metascore

An international crew of astronauts undertakes a privately funded mission to search for life on Jupiter's fourth largest moon.

Director: Sebastián Cordero | Stars: Sharlto Copley, Michael Nyqvist, Christian Camargo, Embeth Davidtz

Votes: 75,532 | Gross: $0.13M

41. Coherence (2013)

Not Rated | 89 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi

65 Metascore

Strange things begin to happen when a group of friends gather for a dinner party on an evening when a comet is passing overhead.

Director: James Ward Byrkit | Stars: Emily Baldoni, Maury Sterling, Nicholas Brendon, Elizabeth Gracen

Votes: 146,194 | Gross: $0.07M

42. The Signal (2014)

PG-13 | 97 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi

54 Metascore

On a road trip, Nic and two friends are drawn to an isolated area by a computer genius. When everything suddenly goes dark, Nic regains consciousness - only to find himself in a waking nightmare.

Director: William Eubank | Stars: Brenton Thwaites, Olivia Cooke, Beau Knapp, Laurence Fishburne

Votes: 69,283 | Gross: $0.60M

43. Parallels (I) (2015)

Not Rated | 83 min | Action, Sci-Fi

A mysterious building is the gateway to infinite parallel Earths.

Director: Christopher Leone | Stars: Mark Hapka, Jessica Rothe, Eric Jungmann, Constance Wu

Votes: 15,053



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