The ’70s was the decade that announced monumental changes in the filmmaking business. That is because this decade was popular for taking bold risks in their storytelling and their executions. At this time, Hollywood went through a transitional phase, moving from traditional movies to more innovative projects. The ’70s gave resources to imaginative, visionary, and provocative filmmakers. As a result, interesting film projects in this decade gave root to the science fiction genre. This is why we have created a top 10 1970s Sci-Fi Movies list.
Sci-fi movies started to become more prominent in the ’70s as the ambition and scale of movies increased. Although not all were fantastic at the box office, these movies sure made their mark, where audiences remember them many years later after production. Filmmakers used sci-fi as a creative way of employing metaphor for commentaries on the ‘Hollywood Renaissance,’ and it yielded results. It was simply the decade that served as an efficient forerunner for the sci-fi gender, thus redefining where science fiction could reach.
Serving as an introductory basis that grew into what fueled the sci-fi genre, presenting our:
Top 10 list of the science fiction movies that graced the ’70s decade!
10. The Andromeda Strain (1971)
“Human trouble was more trouble than it was worth. It was more destructive than creative, more confusing than revealing, more discouraging than satisfying, more spiteful than charitable.”
Number 10 on this 1970s Sci-Fi Movies list is The Andromeda Strain! It is another blockbuster written by Michael Crichton, the man behind Jurassic World. Robert Wise’s direction of the film makes it classic science fiction. This sci-fi produced several set pieces with a captivating story, using split-screen sequences and special effects. The result produced a maximum impact with a brilliant turnout, and of course, a climax that brims with suspense. It has gone on to inspire many spin-offs. The Academy nominated this movie for various awards, including Best Production Design and Best Film Editing.
The story that The Andromeda Strain presents is vastly interesting. It follows a team of scientists trying to solve an enigma. Soon, a satellite crashes near a tiny town in Arizona. Within a few days, it appears that everyone in the town is dead. These scientists become the only ones available to this mystery.
9. A Boy and His Dog (1975)
“Hell, they didn’t have to cut her! She could have been used two or three more times…War is hell.”
For the ninth-placed movie, A Boy and His Dog surfaces! This movie is Alvy Moore’s mix of comedy and science. This film’s cinematic features inaugurated the post-apocalyptic genre. This sci-fi movie went on to win the 1976 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation at MidAmeriCon. When you think of the 1970s and want a sci-fi movie to picture science and comedy, A Boy and His Dog will always find its place among the top picks.
Here, Vic finds himself in a post-apocalyptic desert in 2024, alongside his telepathic dog. Vic soon finds themselves in a community, where the leader’s daughter seduces Vic. Unfortunately, Vic discovers that this community has malicious intentions for him, so he quests to rejoin his dog. An interesting storyline, no doubt.
8. Time After Time (1971)
“My name is H.G. Wells. I came here in a time machine of my own construction. I am pursuing Jack the Ripper, who escaped into the future in my machine.”
Directed by Nicholas Meyer, the 8th placed movie on this top 10 1970s Sci-Fi Movies list, Time After Time is a sci-fi movie thatbalances comedy and tragedy. One fascinating thing about this movie is how it brilliantly shows Well’s reactions to the modern world than the actual story. As he pursues Jack the Ripper in the time machine he invented, he wears the look of being open-minded, and other times, conservative. This movie is a classic cinematic production that is in every way!
Time After Time has a very humorous plotline. The main character, Wells, builds a time machine to get himself into a futuristic idealist – utopian paradise. Just before he embarks on this journey, a criminal – Jack the Ripper, escapes in the machine and travels from the 1880s to 1979. The movie trails Wells, racing after Jack in the machine as the story continues.
7. Clockwork Orange (1971)
“Go on, do me in, you bastard cowards. I don’t want to live anyway…not in a stinking world like this.”
The 7th movie on this top 10 1970s Sci-Fi Movies list is Clockwork Orange. The filmmaker, Stanley Kubrick, described the movie as a “running lecture on free will.” The movie is based on a dystopian novel beautifully written by Anthony Burgess. It presents an imaginary society where there is much suffering. Stanley Kubrick’s brilliant direction of the movie gave insights into various aspects of life, such as politics, philosophy, and sociology. Clockwork Orange broke records with the kind of realism it reflected, as it gave a brilliant look at the nature of violence. Its rape and beatings scenes were a shock to the world back then in 1971. This got the movie banned in Britain for about 25 years, but in the end, no one can deny the fact that it was one of the best sci-fi movies to have come out of the ’70s.
The set of this movie is a scary futuristic London. It centers on Alex, a difficult gangster and psychopathic derelict, imprisoned for rape and murder. Now, he has volunteered for a government experiment for a reduced sentence. As you may have guessed, it did not end well.
6. Soylent Green (1973)
“I can’t figure this Simonson. If I was like him. Rich. Important…plenty to eat…real bourbon…and a girl like you…you wouldn’t see me in church.”
Although this 6th pick was made in the past, it predicted the future so well. The movie is set in a futuristic New York. It was devastated by global warming, overpopulation, hunger, and riots. No movie like Soylent Green had ever graced our screens. Soylent Green won the Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film and the Nebula Award for Best Dramatic Presentation.
It tells a concise, yet compelling story of how powerful giant companies are today. In the story, the world faces the dilemma of food shortages. Here, Charlton Heston’s cops investigate the murder of an executive at a giant corporation in the future of New York. That is because it is one of the powerful food manufacturing company.
5. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
“People are being duplicated. And once it happens to you, you’re part of this… thing. It almost happened to me!”
Philip Kaufman’s sci-fi thriller, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, brilliantly delves deep into primal fear and succeeds in making the familiar very terrifying. Although this movie’s story has been told several times, this remake is regarded as the best. The outstanding performances from Donald Sutherland, Jeff Goldblum, and Leonard Nimoy makes the movie superb. There is a constant eerie feel that ticks on every beat to gift its viewers the maximum effect. This is one brilliant sci-fi thriller that is tense and can cause you to hold your breath multiple times.
Here, a close friend (Brooke Adams) makes complaints about her husband’s constant and strange mood changes to Matthew Bennell (Donald Sutherland), and Matthew dispenses the complaints as common marital problems. However, as other people begin to make similar complaints, he faces the reality that his assessment was wrong. He discovers that he is at war with an invisible enemy and must do something quickly before the enemy takes over the entire city.
4. Solaris (1972)
“In his endless search for truth, man is condemned to knowledge. Everything else is a whim.”
The third runner up sci-fi movie for this list is Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris. It is a brilliant movie adapted from the great sci-fi legend Stanislaw Lem. This movie is not just about space operas, special effects, and explosions, which were fantastic. It is also about poetic beliefs and philosophical speculation. This movie, despite being in the sci-fi sphere, has an intimate and personal story. Thus, birthing a deeply strange but effortlessly compelling turnout! Solaris is a deeply felt narrative, making creative use of mental anguish, melancholy, and spiritual landscapes. It no doubt has produced one of the best speculative cinemas and is a masterpiece by any measure.
It tells the tale of a scientist sent to a space station, which happens to be where one of three crew members who had gone earlier died mysteriously. The other two seem to have gone out of their minds. As the scientist investigates unusual happenings, he starts to see strange visions of his dead wife!
3. Stalker (1979)
“Passion is the friction between one’s soul and the outside world.”
Number 3 on the top 10 1970s Sci-Fi Movies list is brilliant cinéaste Tarkovsky’s Stalker. It is no surprise that this cinematic masterpiece makes it on this list as number 3, as what supplies the basis for this movie is the Russian short story written by the Strugatsky brothers. They happen to be the best known Soviet sci-fi authors! This sci-fi movie has a complex narrative that pierces into philosophical musings. It is a deep and detailed masterpiece that houses science, faith, a treatise on art and fantasy. This is a must-watch movie if you ask me!
This story features Zone, a post-apocalyptic wasteland surprisingly situated in an unarmed country. The mutant child of an illegal guide (Aleksandr Kajdanovsky) claims that unimaginable evil occurs within the zone. Per his claims, the mutant child leads a scientist (Nikolay Grinko) and a writer (Anatoly Solonitsyn) to the center of the zone. They all go searching for ‘The Room,’ which they believe to be a place that, after entering, will grant all their earthly desires.
2. Alien (1979)
“In space, no one can hear you scream.”
The number 2 on this top 10 1970s Sci-Fi Movies list is no other but the quintessential sci-fi horror, Alien. This movie has produced a recognizable franchise up till today. The alien creature’s design in this movie is now one of the most iconic movie monsters ever, despite it coming from the ’70s! It is one intense, scary, emotion-sapping, teeth-gnashing, brilliant thriller ever to have graced the sci-fi genre.
This story that stars Tom Skerrit and Veronica Cartwright present a spacecraft (Nostromo) and its crew. They intercept a distress signal from a planet and go there to investigate and give some help. Unexpectedly, the plot thickens, and tables turn as they end up being the ones in need of help. As the investigation proceeds, an alien takes over the ship and attacks!
1. Star Wars (1977)
“I felt a great disturbance in the Force. As if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.”
This list is incomplete without Star Wars as number 1 on the top 10 1970s Sci-Fi Movies list! One can never really talk about the sci-fi genre on a general basis without mentioning Star Wars. George Lucas’ space opera, featuring memorable characters, outstanding space battles, and lightsabers, is undoubtedly a franchise that changed Hollywood forever. It has now become one of the biggest movie brands in the world. Audiences and critics alike note this particular sci-fi film is one of the most significant movies that not only accentuates the genre. Star Wars has also become one of the most important films that the ’70s decade had produced.
In this evergreen tale, while in the bid to subdue rebellion against the galactic empire, the imperial forces under the directory of Darth Vader (David Prowse) capture Princess Leila (Carrie Fisher) and hold her hostage. There is a lot at stake – the freedom of the galaxy, justice for the galaxy, the goals of the rebel alliance, and the safety/life of the captured princess. To secure all these, Han Solo (Harrison Ford), captain of the millennium falcon, and Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) join forces with the droid partners R2-D2 (Kenny Baker) and C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) to rescue the princess and save the galaxy.
In conclusion.
…the ’70s dutifully presented the sci-fi genre in ways that challenged mediocrity’s bounds in the movie industry. The science-fiction efforts of these 10 movies are worthy of appraisal. They no doubt did well to launch later years and decades into the production of brilliant sci-fi movies that the world and movie industry came to love and acknowledge. Still want more content? Check out our blog on the Top 10 Sci-Fi Movies of the 1980s.
About the Author
Author: Chris Ingledue
Contact: email
Bio: I am the founder and owner of Wheeljack’s Lab pop Culture and Toy Shop. My vision has always been to reunite customers with their favorite childhood toys and pop culture, triggering fond memories, and reigniting their imaginations. Every day, I work in the “lab” where it’s Christmas 365 days a year. I scour the internet, like when we had the Sears Catalog of yesteryear, for the next great treasure. Then, I await the arrival of the postman as if he were Santa Claus himself and helping collectors worldwide with their versions of Christmas. Every day as a vintage toy buyer is an absolute joy!