5 Best Sci-Fi Movies Of 1999, Ranked

There have been many great years at the movies. The summer of 1982 gave us "E.T.," "Blade Runner," "The Thing," "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" and oh so much more. But from January to December of 1999, a year that will forever live in infamy for cinephiles, the lineup of game-changing, all-time great movies that made their way to theaters is downright dizzying.

M. Night Shyamalan's "The Sixth Sense" became the must-see box office sensation of the '90s, delivering the single greatest twist in cinema history. "Toy Story 2" became one of the best sequels of all time. "The Blair Witch Project" shifted the fabric of the horror genre, essentially birthing the found footage movement. That's just the very tip of the iceberg, but it was a particularly fruitful year for lovers of science fiction.

There were a ton of great sci-fi movies released that year. "Galaxy Quest" offered one of cinema's most positive portrayals of dedicated fandom. Even "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me" used a sci-fi twist to deliver a legendary comedy. But today, we're going to look at the best of the best that the final year of the 1990s had to offer genre enthusiasts before the new millennium dawned.

From lovable robots to big entries in massive franchises, we're ranking the five best sci-fi movies from the legendary year that was 1999. Let's get into it.

Kaiju fans are well aware of Gamera and his on screen exploits. Godzilla may be the King of the Monsters, but we would all do well to put some additional respect on Gamera's name. He's been at the center of some of the best kaiju films dating back to his feature debut in 1965's "Gamera, the Giant Monster." But it's the so-called Heisei trilogy that kicked off in 1995 that resulted in the monster's defining era. And the lesser-discussed conclusion to that trilogy arrived in 1999, offering up some of the best rubber suit monster action known to man.

Taking place after the events of 1995's "Gamera: Guardians of the Universe" and 1996's "Gamera: Attack of Legion," "Gamera: Revenge of Iris" sees the winged Gyaos re-emerging, with Gamera's ties to humanity severed as his bond to Asagi (Ayako Fujitani) has been broken. Meanwhile, an orphaned girl named Ayana (Ai Maeda) discovers a new creature she names Iris. She aims to take her revenge on Gamera, who she blames for the death of her family. Once Iris gets big, an all-out monster brawl ensues.

Director Shusuke Kaneko manages to meld the past with the future, incorporating CGI while largely relying on practical monster effects, giving us something that feels like the best of both worlds. Not only is the third-act monster fight among the best in kaiju cinema history, but the human stakes actually matter. There's real emotion and stuff going on that helps anchor the movie for the viewer. It's not just about counting the seconds until the monsters show up again.

Hardcore monster movie fans in the know are aware of the "Gamera" Heisei trilogy, but this is certainly an under-discussed sci-fi gem from one of the best years in cinema history that's well worth seeking out.

In the realm of shark movies, it's pretty much Steven Spielberg's "Jaws," and then everything else. From now until the end of time, if you make a movie with a shark in it, you're at best going to be fighting for the silver medal. As it stands, though, director Renny Harlin's "Deep Blue Sea" is the second-best shark movie ever made. It was just a modest box office hit in 1999, but it gained true cult status, inspiring an unlikely franchise in its wake. But the original remains a true gem at the intersection of monster flicks and science fiction.

It takes place in an underwater research facility and focuses on Dr. Susan McAlester (Saffron Burrows), who is harvesting the brain tissue of DNA-altered sharks to cure Alzheimer's disease. When the facility's backers send an executive to investigate the experiments, a routine procedure goes awry and the sharks get loose. Now, McAlester and her team must figure out a way to stop them from escaping to the ocean and breeding.

With all due respect, Renny Harlin doesn't make classy motion pictures. He makes popcorn movies, and excels at it. He truly thrived in the '90s, making classics like "Cliffhanger" and "The Long Kiss Goodnight." What "Deep Blue Sea" represents is his most unhinged sensibilities at play, making for a delightfully wacky, surprisingly inventive sea-set monster movie.

With a standout performance from Thomas Jane as the picture's big hero and arguably the single most surprising death in cinema history, one could easily argue that this is the most fun sci-fi movie of 1999. It may not be the best of the best, but it's fun as hell.

I can hear the groans from "Star Wars" fans of a certain age right now, and I get it. "The Phantom Menace" remains, for some people, a black spot on the franchise's reputation. But for different fans of a certain younger age, director George Lucas' first entry in the ever-divisive prequel trilogy represents what "Star Wars" is to them. It is, in its own way, a great movie that paved the way for so much more.

For those who may need a refresher, "Episode I" centers on two Jedi, Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), who escape a hostile blockade to find allies on Naboo before they come across a young boy named Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd) who may bring balance to the Force. Meanwhile, the long-dormant Sith have resurfaced in an attempt to reclaim their former glory.

"The Phantom Menace" created a new generation of "Star Wars" fans and that can't possibly be ignored. People who were kids in the '90s adored this movie. They embraced the prequels that led to "The Clone Wars" animated series, which is one of the biggest things that fostered the younger fandom as it exists. This movie's contributions to "Star Wars" are undeniable.

Despite what anyone wants to say about it, Lucas packed some amazing stuff into his return to a galaxy far, far away. Darth Maul is a cool villain and "Duel of the Fates" is not only the greatest lightsaber battle in the franchise, it's one of the greatest bits of score ever put to film. (Thank you, John Williams!) Some of the greatest "Star Wars" movie moments of all time are in "The Phantom Menace." By and large, this movie's reputation has undoubtedly been redeemed by now.

If you say the word "Superman" and you're not directly referencing DC's Man of Steel, odds are, it's in reference to director Brad Bird's 1999 animated classic "The Iron Giant." That's a tremendous moment in a tremendous movie, and the film itself is one of the best movies of any kind to come out in one of cinema's best years ever. That's a bold statement, but one that's no less true. Pound for pound, purely as a piece of cinema and not taking its impact on the culture into account, one could even argue it's the best overall movie on this list. It's that good.

It centers on a giant alien robot that crash-lands near a small Maine town in 1957. A nine-year-old boy named Hogarth discovers the robot and soon forms an unlikely friendship with him. When a paranoid government agent becomes determined to destroy the robot, Hogarth and beatnik Dean McCoppin must do what they can to save the misunderstood machine.

"The Iron Giant" bombed at the box office and Warner Bros. was to blame, but it's proof positive that the box office isn't the end-all, be-all for a movie. Bird's tremendous "boy and his robot" story has rightly been judged by time as a cinematic classic for the ages. It's one of the best animated movies ever made, one that will pull on your heartstrings to the point of making you sob. It's worthy of cheers and tears every single time.

Vin Diesel delivers a great voice performance as the title character, and Bird proved he was a force to be reckoned with in the realm of animation, later directing Pixar's "The Incredibles," the biggest original superhero movie ever at the box office. But some 27 years later, it's still easy to argue that this is his crowning achievement. It's a perfect movie.

In discussing science fiction released in 1999, there can be no other movie chosen to top the list than "The Matrix." Just to put my cards on the table, I don't even love this movie as much as others do, even though I adore both action and sci-fi as some of my favorite genres in cinema. That said, this was an undeniable achievement that served as a real "before and after" moment. It remains a testament to pushing the boundaries of what's possible on film.

The movie takes place as a beautiful stranger (Carrie Ann Moss) leads computer hacker Neo (Keanu Reeves) to a mysterious underworld where he discovers the shocking truth: the life he knows is the elaborate deception of an evil cyber-intelligence. Neo joins legendary and dangerous rebel warrior Morpheus (Lawrence Fishburne) in the battle to destroy the illusion that's enslaving humanity.

The Wachowskis' pitch for "The Matrix" was like nothing the producers had seen before, and amazingly, they pulled it off. From stopping bullets mid-air to gravity-defying combat, not to mention the very heady worldbuilding, it was a gigantic leap forward for the genre. Even aside from the sheer inescapable greatness that was the movie itself, the impact it left behind is downright monumental.

An entire generation of genre cinema had to live in the shadow and influence of "The Matrix." Even its sequels were doomed to try and live up to the original, which they never quite managed to do. Blending martial arts, inventive shootouts, romance, and groundbreaking visual effects into one slick package, this was the movie that defined science fiction in '99.