71 Best Sci-Fi Movies of the 1950s
Discover the best science-fiction movies of the 1950s, the golden age when the movies mind-melded with the public consciousness. Through sci-fi, all the things poking and prodding at everyday American life launched themselves upon the sliver screen. (Also they were super cheap to make; can’t be blowing all your post-war prosperity bucks on rubber masks and strings for flying saucers.)
Things looking up thanks to Space Age optimism? That was reflected in the two movies that kicked off the sci-fi craze of the decade: Destination Moon and Rocketship X-M, dueling 1950 productions racing for title of first serious outer-space feature.
Threat of Cold War nuclear annihilation and the fatal chase of the arms race? See! The War of the Worlds, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Invaders From Mars, On the Beach, and even Plan 9 From Outer Space.
The Hollywood Blacklist and McCarthyism got you eyeballing your neighbors with suspicion? Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Got bugs and pests invading your curated suburban home and sullying the white picket fence out front? Creature features forever: Them!, The Fly, Tarantula, The Blob, The Black Scorpion, and Creature From the Black Lagoon.
Beyond our borders, Japan launched the longest-running sci-fi series with Godzilla, with quick follow-up rides Godzilla Raids Again and Rodan. In England, the cross sci-fi experiments with horror were lead with The Quatermass Xperiment and The Curse of Frankenstein.
We’ve collected every science-fiction movie from the ’50s and ranked them by Tomatometer score, with Certified Fresh movies first, including The Thing From Another World (based on the same source material of John Carpenter‘s The Thing), Forbidden Planet (in color and shot ultra-wide), and The Incredible Shrinking Man.
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