5 Best Sci-Fi Movies From 1996, Ranked

It's important to remember that the 1990s were a more diverse time at the nationwide box office in terms of genre. 30 years ago, in 1996, the top-grossing movies included (in no notable order) an original sci-fi/action spectacular ("Independence Day"), a visual effects-driven disaster film ("Twister"), a TV show adaptation ("Mission: Impossible"), a few comedy remakes ("101 Dalmatians," "The Birdcage," "The Nutty Professor"), a kidnapping thriller ("Ransom"), an original comedy ("The First Wives Club"), and a legal drama ("A Time To Kill").

Moreover, if one scans through the top 50 highest-grossing films of 1996 (in the U.S.), one will find only a handful of sequels, including "Star Trek: First Contact" and "Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco." In the 2010s, this kind of thing was unheard of, and we're only seeing original projects crack the top 10 again here in the mid-2020s.

The point is that sci-fi wasn't a guaranteed money-making genre in 1996, and the decade produced a weird, wild variety of sci-fi movies that skewed variously toward horror, action, or even comedy. And while the biggest hit of the year was a big-budget sci-fi actioner, it hardly represents the best of what 1996 had to offer. Indeed, looking over the sci-fi movies that were released during that period, one finds a lot of oddball bombs, zany comedies, and other self-aware films that didn't take the genre itself very seriously. Likewise, a lot of '90s media was marked by its self-deprecating auto-commentary, with spoofs and ironic movies coming just as frequently as the earnest ones.

As such, the five best sci-fi movies of 1996 are going to be a jumbled bag of strange selections. Be that as it may, they all come highly recommended (with some requiring a little re-litigation and defense).

Roland Emmerich's "Independence Day" was the most popular movie of 1996, even while being wholly lambasted, even at the time, for its brazen silliness. Specifically, many critics and filmgoers noted the movie's resemblance to the ensemble disaster pictures of the 1970s (while Gen-X high school students noted right away that its dialogue and story were ridiculous).

But maybe the absurdity was what drew people in. One of the film's main selling points was an image of an alien spacecraft blasting the White House to smithereens, and audiences cheered at the destruction. We were clearly in a mood in 1996. "Independence Day" was retrograde entertainment, a callback to less sophisticated times when evil aliens could invade, and all humanity needed to do was blast them to smithereens. The movie's visual effects were first rate and its prolonged scenes of city destruction were thrilling. Cars flying through the air! Tunnels being cleared out by fire! But don't worry. The golden retriever survives. And when the aliens finally do show up, they look pretty cool.

The plot of "Independence Day" isn't very complex. Aliens invade, and the U.S. military, using some crashed alien tech from decades earlier, sets out to defeat them. The U.S. President (Bill Pullman) keeps his country together by making a rather shouty speech about how we're going to live on and survive. Will Smith is a charmer as a hotshot pilot who manages to shoot down alien dogfighting craft. Jeff Goldblum capably plays the Jeff Goldblum role. Vivica A. Fox, Robert Loggia, Randy Quaid, and Brent Spiner round out the cast. "Independence Day" may not be great, but it's a crowd-pleaser, and many younguns latched onto it. It's even better after a cocktail or three.

In 1996, equipped with a $50 million budget, John Carpenter essentially remade his 1981 classic "Escape from New York" with the sequel "Escape from L.A.," a drive-in classic of the highest caliber. In the distant future of 2013, an earthquake has separated Los Angeles from the mainland, and it has been left to languish as a prison. The modern presidency is overseen by a self-righteous, ultra-conservative televangelist who likes to assert his moral superiority. Sadly, for him, his daughter (Allison Joy Langer) has fallen in with revolutionaries in L.A., notably the Che-like Cuervo Jones (Georges Corrface), and he needs to hire a mercenary to get her out.

Enter Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell), an eyepatch-wearing badass who plays like a cartoon version of Clint Eastwood. Russell has never looked better in a movie, dressed in a long black leather coat and vinyl tank top. He takes a submarine to L.A. and treks through the bizarro landscape, encountering a colorful cast of criminals. Steve Buscemi plays a fast-talking con man. Peter Fonda plays a surfer who shoots the curl on aftershock-induced tsunamis. The great Bruce Campbell plays a twisted plastic surgeon with an army of silicone-encrusted minions. Pam Grier plays a former criminal partner of Snake's who has transitioned in recent years. The film climaxes with Snake and his partners flying hang gliders over Disneyland, blowing up rides with sticks of dynamite.

"Escape from L.A." is fun, sublime, B-movie glory. And, yes, its visual effects are kind of cheap, but that only enhances the movie in my eyes. Sadly, however, the film kind of bombed, and Carpenter only directed a few more movies after it before putting the cameras down. "Escape from L.A." isn't as good as its predecessor, but it's certainly entertaining.

The eighth "Star Trek" film overall, Jonathan Frakes' "Star Trek: First Contact" is often held up as one of the franchise's best. Many mass audiences liked it, at the very least, because it was an action-packed adventure featuring time travel, revenge, and a scary collection of menacing cyborgs as its central villains. Compared to the staid, philosophical tone of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (the show that it's based on), "First Contact" is silly action schlock. But as action schlock goes, it's still a fun sit.

When the film begins, Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart), despite having undergone years of therapy on the matter, starts having dangerous flashbacks to the time when he was assimilated by the Borg. So, when the Borg attack Earth, this activates Picard's inner Ahab, and he becomes obsessed and angry in ways we've never seen before. The Borg then travel back in time to the year 2063 to stop humanity from initiating first contact with the Vulcans, stymying Earth's eventual utopia. Hence, Picard and the Enterprise's crew have to fight back against the Borg who have infiltrated their ship, including a previously unseen supervillain: the Borg Queen (Alice Krige, giving a deliciously evil performance).

I hold the unpopular opinion that none of the four films based on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" are as good as the TV show was in its heyday, but of them, "First Contact" is the biggest, most crowd-pleasing, and entertaining. It's not smart or sophisticated, but it's still a pleasure to see your favorite "Star Trek" crew on the big screen. The scenes where the Borg Queen grafts human skin to Data (Brent Spiner) even add a fun note of body horror to the film as well.

No one likes this movie but me, but I like it rather a lot. 

Tim Burton's "Mars Attacks!" was released five months after "Independence Day," and it served as a satire/antidote to that movie. Based on the ultra-violent 1962 Topps trading cards, "Mars Attacks!" tells the story of Martians invading Earth ... and that's it. And like "Independence Day," it stars a large ensemble of celebrities, this time even bigger and more impressive. (Burton clearly called in some favors.) Jack Nicholson plays two roles, and the movie also stars Glenn Close, Natalie Portman, Martin Short, Rod Steiger, Danny DeVito, Pierce Brosnan, Michael J. Fox, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jack Black, Lucas Haas, Pam Grier (there she is again), Jim Brown, and Tom Jones as himself. 

But don't make the mistake of thinking that any of the human characters are meant to be sympathetic. Truth be told, the best way to watch "Mars Attacks!" is to sympathize with the Martians (and, ideally, to be a really violent fifth grader). The bulk of "Mars Attacks!" follows the Martians as they, without any explanation, begin laying waste to Earth. They only seem to be attacking the planet because they think it's funny. In one scene, they use their saucers to knock over the Washington Monument, and they deliberately tip it over onto some passing Boy Scouts. The diminutive Martians, with their exposed brains and red eyeballs, are goblin-like agents of chaos sent to cause misery. They're hilarious. 

Once you're on the Martians' side, then you'll probably enjoy "Mars Attacks!" a lot more. This is not some corny movie about inspiring speeches and the survival of humanity. It's a live-action cartoon for whimsical nihilists who want to watch the world burn and see celebrities get vaporized.

"Mystery Science Theater 3000" began its life on an independent television station in Minnesota in 1988, and throughout the early '90s, it developed a cult following. It eventually moved to the middle of the night on Comedy Central, and weird kids everywhere started to tape it and circulate the tapes among their peers. The show's premise was novel: a gonzo scientist (Trace Beaulieu) and his sidekick (Frank Conniff) had trapped a poor sucker (Mike Nelson) in space on a satellite and were performing experiments on his mind. They would force him to watch terrible movies to see if he could stay sane. He was able to with the help of his robot friends (Beaulieu, Kevin Murphy), who would provide live running commentary on the films as the audience watches along.

"MST3K" proved that bad movies have value, even if they're merely grist to be riffed upon. Every film, the show posited, is part of the same pop cultural map.

"MST3K: The Movie" took the same formula to the big screen in a slicker, tighter rendition that might serve as a great introduction to the property (although Frank had left the franchise by then). The jokes all land, and the homemade production design is perfect. The characters watch the Universal film "This Island Earth," which was a big deal when it was first released in 1955, but, by the 1990s, it had become absurd fuel for comedy. Their take on the movie completely alters one's ability to take it seriously.

The movie is only 74 minutes, so you'll be done before you know it, having eaten the most delicious sampler platter there is. After that? Go watch one of the funniest TV shows of all time.