Long before there were science fiction films, there was science fiction literature. In fact, many of the greatest science fiction movies that we celebrate today are inspired by or based on novels written years before the films were even dreamed of. From the iconic stories of H. G. Wells, to the pulp and dime-novel yarns of little-known science fiction writers of the ’50s and ’60s, the film industry is always on the hunt for the next book or short story to adapt into a major blockbuster. Sometimes the novel is immensely popular and a dedicated fanbase hotly anticipates the adaptation, as was the case with Dune, and other times the film version takes audiences by surprise and introduces a generation to a once-forgotten work of fiction. In either case, we see that literature and cinema are very closely intertwined.
Just as Homer’s epics The Odyssey and The Iliad have inspired countless poems, books, plays, and movies, science fiction veterans like Philip K. Dick, Arthur C. Clarke, Michael Crichton, and Frank Herbert have made an indelible mark on cinematic history, both in and beyond their lifetimes. Collected below is a list of the very best sci-fi movies based on books ever made.
15/15 Dune (2021)
Dune, the giant Frank Herbert novel that fans thought no one could adapt, was finally made into a successful film in 2021 by Denis Villeneuve. The movie is about a young man who must travel to an incredibly dangerous planet to embark on a quest to save his people from extinction. Although the novel had been adapted once before, in 1984 by David Lynch, that version was met with mostly negative reviews and failed to capture the grand scale of the novel. That said, Dune has had an immense influence on cinema since its publication, inspiring countless science fiction classics throughout the decades. According to CBR, “It is undeniable that George Lucas was loosely inspired by Frank Herbert’s Dune when crafting his Star Wars films.”
14/15 Total Recall (1990)
One of the best adaptations of a story by Philip K. Dick, Total Recall takes the short story We Can Remember It For You Wholesale, gives it a catchier title, and transforms it into an Arnold Schwarzenegger-starring action extravaganza. The film follows Douglas Quaid, an average laborer who dreams of moving to Mars. Realizing he doesn’t have the funds to do this, he does the next best thing and visits a company that can plant a false memory of an adventure on Mars into his brain for him. Things go awry, and Quaid soon finds himself in the middle of a dangerous corporate conspiracy. Director Paul Verhoeven directs this slick adaptation with his usual flair for the bizarre, packing it full of outrageously over-the-top violence, hilarious one-liners, memorable characters, and a subtle undercurrent of irony that brings it all together.
13/15 Slaughterhouse-Five (1972)
Slaughterhouse-Five is an adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s famous novel of the same name. It follows optometrist Billy Pilgrim as he relates his experiences in becoming “unstuck in time.” The film chronicles Pilgrim’s exploits as a prisoner of war in World War II and as a kidnapped zoo specimen on the alien planet Tralfamadore. It is an almost episodic film, covering a vast stretch of time and cutting between disparate locales at a breakneck pace. In spite of its rapid-fire tonal and environmental shifts, Slaughterhouse-Five manages to tell a poignant anti-war story under the guise of zany science fiction. Although the film was met with mixed reviews, the author of the novel adored it, and fans of the book praised the filmmakers for their hard work in bringing a difficult-to-adapt story to the silver screen.
12/15 Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
Although there have been many adaptations of Jack Finney’s classic sci-fi novel The Body Snatchers, the best one is easily 1978’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Set in ‘70s San Francisco, an eclectic cast of characters is pitted against an invisible enemy of extraterrestrial origin in this Donald Sutherland and Jeff Goldblum-starring gem. The special effects are outstanding, the performances are fantastic, and the atmosphere is thick with impending doom and suffocating paranoia, making this the best of the Body Snatcher films.
11/15 Starship Troopers (1997)
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Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers takes the jingoistic, propaganda-like novel by Robert A. Heinlein and flips the story on its head, resulting in a satirical, anti-fascist science fiction masterwork. The movie portrays a distant future in which the Earth is at constant war with the Arachnids, an alien race of giant bugs. The film directly pokes fun at the militarist perspective of the original novel, even going so far as to include parody military propaganda films intercut throughout the movie. Verhoeven’s film is part exhilarating action spectacle, part biting satire, and all fun.
10/15 The War of the Worlds (1953)
The 1953 film version of The War of the Worlds is not just the best adaptation of H. G. Wells’ famous story of the same name, but it is also one of the most iconic alien-invasion films from the 1950s. It centers around a small town that becomes the crash-site of a strange meteorite. The meteorite cracks open and releases an alien war machine that wreaks havoc on the Earth and instigates a full-scale counterattack from the United States Marines. Although the movie simplifies the original story and is more of a pulpy sci-fi adventure than the more thought-provoking novella, it holds up as an exciting and dazzling Technicolor marvel of the Atomic Era.
9/15 Jurassic Park (1993)
One of Steven Spielberg’s most celebrated films, Jurassic Park, is a science fiction classic that does the Michael Crichton-penned source material justice. The film follows a group of scientists who are given the chance to tour a new theme park that is inhabited by living dinosaurs. When the dinosaurs break free and run amok through the park, an intense fight for survival ensues. Jurassic Park not only nails the story and ideas of Crichton’s novel, but enhances them with top-notch special effects and some fantastic performances.
8/15 The Thing (1982)
John Carpenter’s The Thing is a classic sci-fi horror movie that updates the original 1951 The Thing from Another World and takes it in a new, body-horror direction. What many fans might not know is that the body-horror-tinged paranoia of this film version is actually more faithful to the original novella, Who Goes There?, by John W. Campbell. The movie depicts an American research team working in remote Antarctica who become prey to an otherworldly creature that can take on the shape of its victims. A tough helicopter pilot, played to perfection by Kurt Russell, leads the team in the fight for survival against the shape-shifting beast in this celebrated, downbeat sci-fi horror masterpiece.
7/15 The Andromeda Strain (1971)
Like Jurassic Park, The Andromeda Strain is one of the best movies based on a Michael Crichton novel. It tells an unsettling tale about a deadly and microscopic organism of alien origin that kills the population of a small Arizona town. The best scientists available are quickly gathered together in a top-secret and high-tech research facility to identify and stop the otherworldly threat. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards, and remains every bit as prescient and unnerving as it was in 1971.
6/15 Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970)
Colossus: The Forbin Project is a thought-provoking science fiction tale based on the novel Colossus by Dennis Feltham Jones. The film is about a high-tech defense system called Colossus that becomes sentient. The system takes control of the facility it’s contained in and seeks to use its nuclear defense programs to end war across the globe. Its creator must reason with the sentient program and put a stop to its misguided attempt to save humankind. It’s a chilling and exhilarating movie, and easily one of the best “thinking-man’s” sci-fi flicks of its era.
5/15 Blade Runner (1982)
Blade Runner is an undisputed sci-fi neo-noir classic. Based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by famed writer Philip K. Dick, Blade Runner follows Rick Deckard’s attempts to eliminate several androids who have outlived their purpose and are now assimilating into human society. Unexpected romance and questions of morality and what it means to be human arise and complicate things for Deckard, making this a more meditative movie than your average sci-fi pulp. Although Ridley Scott and company diverge greatly from the source material, the atmosphere and characters are quite faithful to the book and make Blade Runner one of the best sci-fi film adaptations of all time.
4/15 Frankenstein (1931)
The 1931 film version of Frankenstein is one of the earliest and most popular adaptations of Mary Shelley’s horror classic. It’s also still the best, despite many subsequent retellings. In their original 1931 review of the film, The Hollywood Reporter stated “As a story Frankenstein dates back to 1831 — for one hundred years, it has remained alive in the interest of those book readers who go in for ghost stories. Now we’ll see if these same people go to motion picture theaters.” Clearly a global interest in Frankenstein has prevailed, as nearly another 100 years later this story continues to frighten and delight.
3/15 Planet of the Apes (1968)
The original 1968 Planet of the Apes is not just one of the best science fiction flicks of the ‘60s, but it’s also one of the best book-to-movie adaptations. The film follows three astronauts who crash-land on a desolate planet where apes are the dominant species and humans are unintelligible slaves. Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling wrote the first draft of the script, expanding upon the complicated sociological themes present in Pierre Boulle’s original novel La Planète des singes. The film was met with widespread acclaim and is hailed as a classic work of science fiction, winning many awards and inspiring many sequels and remakes. The film has even been preserved in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress
2/15 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Often hailed as one of the greatest science fiction films ever made, 2001: A Space Odyssey is an undisputed classic. Directed by Stanley Kubrick and based on a short story by Arthur C. Clarke entitled “The Sentinel,” the film tells of the discovery of a mysterious object on the moon, and the subsequent mission to uncover its mysterious origins. With the help of a supercomputer called HAL 9000, the humans embark on a dangerous journey through space with frightening, apocalyptic ramifications. The movie was an enormous success both financially and critically, and won many awards. During the writing of the screenplay, Clarke also worked on the novel version, making this the only film on this list that was written simultaneously with its novel counterpart.
1/15 Metropolis (1927)
Fritz Lang’s seminal film Metropolis is one of the last and greatest silent films, and one of the first feature-length science fiction films ever made. This pioneering expressionist film is based on a novel by director Lang’s wife Thea von Harbou. It depicts a future urban dystopia, with vast class disparities putting the rich and powerful in skyscrapers and the poor working class below ground. Freder and Maria, an unlikely duo from opposite sides of the class spectrum, come together and attempt to unify the city. Surprisingly for such a critically acclaimed and well-known classic, the film was actually met with lukewarm reviews upon its initial release. While critics adored the lavish sets, mind-blowing special effects, and operatic setpieces, the story was lambasted for being too simple and idealistic.
The film’s most famous critic was prominent science fiction author H. G. Wells, who considered the film to be silly and overly simplistic. Many critics of the time also accused the film and its makers of promoting communist ideas, which resulted in even more negative press. In spite of all the criticism, however, Metropolis has endured and become an icon of cinematic science fiction. It is not only the best science fiction book-to-movie adaptation ever made, but one of the finest films ever to grace the silver screen.
