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Space is having a moment. The NASA Artemis II crew has just returned to Earth today after their 10-day lunar fly by mission.It was the first crewed flight to orbit the moon since 1972, with the astronauts on board—Victor Glover, Christina Koch, Jeremy Hansen, and commander Reid Wiseman—quickly captivating audiences across the world with their daily happenings; from naming new craters on the moon after loved ones, sharing their moisturizing techniques, and even their struggles with Microsoft Outlook (Astronauts! They’re just like us!) For those who want to keep the space adventures going a little bit longer, we’ve rounded up some of the best movies set in space (with the organizing principle that there needs to be an Earth where people still live to depart from). From sci-fi adventures, to stories based on real-life events, these are our favorites.
1) 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Ancient apes mystified by the smooth monolith that suddenly appears in their midst. Millions of years later, a spacecraft on a longterm mission to Jupiter occupied by a crew of five and accompanied by a supercomputer known with a jovial voice known as HAL. What does the monolith mean? What does the crew find? Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece is often considered one of the best films of all time.
2) Apollo 13 (1995)
In 1970, just a year after Neil Armstrong took “One small step for man and one giant leap for mankind” on the moon, the Apollo 13 mission was supposed to bring another crew to its surface. But after a series of technical malfunctions, the crew is in danger of not being able to return to Earth. (This is where the famous phrase “Houston, we have a problem” originated.) This Oscar-nominated Ron Howard epic, starring Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, and Ed Harris brings the dramatic events to life.
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3) Project Hail Mary (2026)
Based on the 2021 book of the same name by Andy Weir, the film adaptation starring Ryan Gosling quickly became one of the year’s top grossing movies. Gosling stars as Ryland Grace, a middle-school Science teacher, who wakes up in a spaceship with no recollection on how he got there. He soon realizes he is on a mission to save humanity, and in the process forms an unlikely friendship with an alien that will change everything.
4) Contact (1997)
Jodie Foster is Dr. Ellie Arroway, a scientist who is researching signs of extraterrestrial life in this Robert Zemeckis film based on the 1979 novel of the same name by Carl Sagan. Ellie decodes messages sent from a far-away star system which end up being instructions to build a ship. The film grapples with the subject of whether science and faith can ever coexist.
5) Interstellar (2014)
This Christopher Nolan film, which he co-wrote with his brother, takes place in a near future where Earth’s ecosystem has been damaged resulting in drought and famine. Matthew McConaughey is Joseph Cooper, who used to work as a NASA pilot, and discovers a secret message in dust patterns in his daughter’s bedroom. Following them leads Cooper—and eventually his daughter Murph (played by both Jessica Chastain and Ellen Burstyn)—through a journey through a wormhole to find another habitable planet for humanity to survive. (This is a Christopher Nolan film, so know the plot is a a lot more involved than this, but we don’t want to give it all away!)
6) High Life (2018)
In this film by the French director Claire Denis, a ship full of convicts on death row is on a trip to a black hole to mine it for resources. Meanwhile, Dibs, the ship’s doctor (a superb Juliette Binoche) is conducting sexual experiments on the prisoners—which include Robert Pattison, André Benjamin, and Mia Goth. Through its sci-fi lens, it is a movie about what makes us human.
7) The Fifth Element (1997)
In this is absolute classic by Luc Besson, Bruce Willis stars as Corbin Dallas, and Milla Jovovich as Leeloo, the titular “fifth element” that can save the world from great evil forces. This movie has everything—alien invaders, action sequences, great comedy, killer costumes by Jean Paul Gaultier, and yeah—surprise!—it’s also a love story.
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8) First Man (2018)
This Damien Chazelle film, adapted from a Neil Armstrong biography aptly titledFirst Man:The Life of Neil A. Armstrong, also stars Ryan Gosling as the first man who walked on the moon. It focuses on Armstrong’s life leading to his groundbreaking Apollo 11 trip, including dealing with the death of his young daughter from a brain tumor. The all-star cast includes Claire Foy, Kyle Chandler, and Corey Stoll.
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9) Armageddon (1998)
A massive meteor is heading to Earth, threatening to end life as we know it. A group of rag-tag oil drillers that includes—Bruce Willis, Ben Stiller, Steve Buscemi, and Michael Clarke Duncan—are selected as the men for the job. No one thinks they can make it, but by god they’ll prove everyone wrong. Diane Warren wrote the actually iconic “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing,” interpreted by Aerosmith, that absolutely dominated radio and television in the summer of 1998. Out of all the Academy Award nominations Warren’s been robbed of, perhaps this one stands as the most unfair.
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10) Gravity (2013)
In this Alfonso Cuarón movie, Sandra Bullock stars as Dr. Ryan Stone, an engineer on board the Space Shuttle, which is suddenly damaged after being hit by debris from a nearby explosion. Also starring George Clooney,Gravityis ultimately about human resilience and survival.
11) A Trip to the Moon (1902)
An important entry in the history of cinema, Georges Méliès iconic film is inspired by another classic—Jules Verne’s late 19th century novelsFrom the Earth to the MoonandAround the Moon.A series of astronomers board a spaceship—shaped like a bullet—and embark on their journey to the moon. Once they get there, they are confronted by the Selenites (the moon’s alien residents), and a battle ensues, with the astronomers eventually fighting them off and returning back to Earth.
12) Independence Day (1996)
Aliens invade the earth a few days before 4th of July. Bill Pullman is president, Will Smith is a Marine on duty facing off in battle with the creatures, Jeff Goldblum is the scientist who figures out the computer virus to take their defense system down. Another total classic. “Welcome to Earf!”
13) Wall-E (2008)
In the future, Earth has become uninhabitable, save for a single trash-compacting robot and his best friend, a roach. One day, EVE, a robot from the giant corporate spaceship where all humans now live, comes to earth—the two robots meet and fall... in love? Wall-E follows EVE back to the spaceship where shenanigans ensue and the robots teach the humans—who have since become lazy blobs accustomed to having technology do and think for them—that life is for the living. You’ll probably cry.
14) Hidden Figures (2016)
Based on the book by the same name by Margot Lee Shetterly,Hidden Figurestells the story of the real-life group of Black women engineers and mathematicians that worked at Langley Research Center in Virginia beginning in the late ’50s who provided the space program with invaluable scientific contributions. The all-star cast includes Taraji P. Henson. Octavia Spencer, and Janelle Monáe.
15) Solaris (1972)
In this Andrei Tarkovsky film, astronauts aboard a space station overlooking a planet named Solaris, are experiencing weird hallucinations and other happenings. It is based on the 1961 novel of the same name by Stanislaw Lem, which also provided inspiration for Steven Soderbergh’s 2002 film of the same name—which stars George Clooney. But we recommend you watch the 1972 version for a more psychedelic experience.
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