The Playlist's The 100 Best Sci-Fi Films of All Time

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If there was ever a time where sci-fi was seen as something only for geeks, that time has long gone. You could debate the exact point at which it changed — when Stanley Kubrick’s “2001” had audiences dropping acid for a better trip, when the blockbuster success of “Star Wars” changed film forever, when comic book movies dominated screens, when CGI made it possible to do almost anything, when even nerdy old “Star Trek” got a sleek, hip makeover — but there’s no doubt that the genre is firmly within the mainstream.

Indeed, looking at the blockbuster season ahead, there’s all kinds of science-fiction adventures to come, with this week bringing the second space adventure in three weeks, with Ridley Scott’s “Alien: Covenant,” which follows “Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2” into theaters, where it’s currently doing gangbusters. And three of the all-time top-five worldwide grossers are hard sci-fi movies: “Avatar,” “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” and “Jurassic World.”

Scott’s return once again to the sci-fi franchise he helped create has had us thinking about the genre’s place in history, so we decided to take our most comprehensive look at the genre ever, and pick out what, in our view, are the 100 greatest sci-fi movies of all time.

It’s a genre almost as old as cinema, so it was understandably difficult to pin down, even with a few ground rules (most notably that we sort of consider superhero films their own thing). But we’ve found a list that we’re pretty happy with in the end, though we’re sure it’ll inspire plenty of debate. Take a look below.