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The 15 Best Sci-Fi Movies on Peacock in November 2024: Interstellar, Jurassic Park & More
Peacock has a collection of new and old titles, including some of our science fiction faves!
Stories are the way we talk about the things we’re not good at talking about: love, death, fear, hope... We build proxies for ourselves that are better-looking, braver, or cleverer than we are, and we put them in the situations we can only imagine in order to explore the world as it is or as we wish it could be. Science fiction, more than perhaps any other genre, extends this unique form of cultural meditation to our own possible future.
Through science fiction, we see the ways the world might one day be, and we can make mistakes on page or screen in the hope that we don’t make them when they really come knocking. Because we can only build what we can first imagine, we’d serve ourselves well by sampling the many different potential futures available in our fictions.
If you’re looking for inspiration, Peacock’s collection of science fiction movies and television series might be the perfect place to start. To be sure, not all sci-fi flicks present an ideal future, and they might serve you better as a warning than a blueprint, but either way you’re sure to have a blast along the way. There are scores of movies and hundreds of episodes of science fiction to choose from, these are but some of our favorites.
What are the best sci-fi movies now streaming on Peacock?
Back to the Future (Trilogy)
It’s got a wacky scientist, paradoxes, a car that was as poorly designed as it was cool looking, time travel lightning, made up scientific jargon, cross-generational friendships, Libyan terrorists, and a dog. It starts in 1985, a moment which was at once firmly planted in its time and filled with potential for a looming future.
As we learn over the course of Back to the Future’s 116 minute runtime, that future, whatever it might be, is defined by the choices we made in the past. Go back and change something and you might ruin the world, you might even erase your own existence before you have a chance to be born.
In a story that sounds like it was written in the midst of a cough syrup bender (no shade to Zemeckis or Gale) Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) accidentally finds himself in 1955 without enough power for a return trip. To get home, Marty has to harness the power of lightning, but first he has to fight off his own mother’s advances and convince her to fall in love with his dad. He also kinda invents Chuck Berry.
King Kong (2005)
Following the record-breaking success of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Peter Jackson returned to a project he’d been kicking around for years: a remake of King Kong. The movie hit theaters in 2005 and follows the story of down-on-his-luck filmmaker Carl Denham (Jack Black), struggling starlet Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) and famed playwright Jack Driscoll (Adrian Brody).
The trio board a ship along with a dozen or so supporting crew on a trip officially headed for Singapore. Instead, Denham makes way for the legendary Skull Island where they capture a massive, oversized ape first on camera and then for real. Andy Serkis turns in a stellar performance as the titular King Kong, breathing life into what was only a rubber suit in decades past.
Jurassic Park/World (Collection)
Jurassic Park is perhaps the most rewatchable movie ever made. Based on the Michael Crichton novel of the same name, Jurassic Park takes viewers to the titular park alongside a small group of scientists and one unfortunate lawyer.
The park is a monument to humanity’s capacity for both wonder and hubris. Things start out beautifully. The look in the eyes of doctors Sattler (Laura Dern) and Grant (Sam Neill) is transcendent to the point that you’ll almost believe dinosaurs walk the earth once again. But it wouldn’t be a Crichton story if things didn’t go horribly wrong. The story continues in the Jurassic Park/Jurassic World collection.
The Day After Tomorrow
From disaster expert Roland Emmerich comes The Day After Tomorrow, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Dennis Quaid as a father-son duo just trying to survive the end of the world. Jack Hall (Quaid), is a paleoclimatologist working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, when a massive chunk of the ice shelf he’s studying breaks away. His research, looking at the way climate has changed throughout the distant past, leads him to believe that human-caused climate change might result in an ice age freezing over the northern hemisphere in the very near future.
His predictions, unfortunately, are proven true in short order. An incredible tropical storm develops over the northern half of the planet, and quickly splits into three separate but still gigantic storms, one each over Canada, Scotland, and Siberia. The storms pull super frozen air from the upper troposphere and plunge it down to the surface, freezing anything in its path in an instant.
That’s what Jack is up against when his son (Gyllenhaal) finds himself in the path of one of the storms, leaving Jack on a race against time and nature itself to save his family.
The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, humanity has found itself at a precipice. Having developed ever-advancing technology, our species has the burgeoning ability to change the face of our planet for better or for worse. In response, a delegation of intelligent alien species sends an emissary to Earth, setting off The Day the Earth Stood Still.
This 2008 film from director Scott Derrickson and starring Keanu Reeves, is a remake of the 1951 science fiction classic of the same name. With Earth nearing the edge of ecological collapse, an alien spacecraft arrives carrying the extraterrestrial Klaatu (Reeves) and his giant robotic companion GORT (short for Genetically Organized Robotic Technology).
Klaatu is determined to save the Earth one way or another, the only question is whether humanity will still be around to enjoy a brave new future.
Face/Off
This 1997 crime thriller written by Mike Werb and MIchael Colleary was directed by John Woo (The Killer) and explores the consequences of honest-to-Crom identity theft. John Travolta and Nicolas Cage star as FBI agent Sean Archer and wanted terrorist Castor Troy. Or is it the other way around?
When Troy tries to kill Archer, accidentally killing his son instead, the two become locked in an escalating war which eventually leads to a surgical Freaky Friday. Hoping to find information about an upcoming attack, Archer undergoes an experimental procedure to take Troy’s face and voice. Things get complicated though, when Troy takes Archer’s face too, threatening to take over his life forever.
Interstellar
Christopher Nolan’s 2014 science fiction epic imagines humanity with its back against the wall and a hail Mary space mission to save the species. It’s a few decades from now and the climate problem has become increasingly dire. Ecological collapse is so severe that humanity faces global extinction, unless we can find someplace new to live.
Joseph Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), a former NASA test pilot, agrees to embark on a secret mission across the galaxy in search of a new planet. Over the course of its 2 hour and 49 minute runtime, Interstellar presents viewers with a wormhole near Saturn, a supermassive black hole, time dilation, four-dimensional time cubes, intelligent robots, super tsunamis, antigravity, betrayal, and more!
Push
Chris Evans’ most famous superhero role is undoubtedly that of Steve Rogers and Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it’s far from his only one. Evans also played Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, in a duo of Fantastic Four films in 2005 and 2007.
Between those two roles, Evans portrayed a down-on-his-luck super in the 2009 film Push. For decades, humans have been emerging with seemingly superhuman psychic abilities. There are Movers, those who can move objects with their minds, and Watchers who can see the future before it occurs, as well as people who can use energy either as a weapon or to heal. Government entities identify and track these individuals, forcing them to undergo often fatal experiments to boost their abilities.
It’s a world in which those with special abilities are used, abused, and ultimately killed. And it’s up to Nick (Evans) and Cassie (Dakota Fanning) to set things right.
Knowing
If you throw a dart at Nicolas Cage’s filmography there’s no way of knowing if you’re going to get a heartwarming and serious film or one of the weirdest movie experiences of your life. One thing you can be sure of, though, is that you’re going to have a good time. Knowing falls somewhere in the middle of the Cage Camp Continuum and sees him playing a mathematician who discovers a sequence of numbers which accurately predicts major disasters.
After banging his head against this apocalyptic sudoku puzzle he realizes the numbers identify the date, planetary coordinates, and body count of every major disaster going back centuries. There are only a few dates left before the end of the sequence, and with it, the end of the world.
Aliens Abducted My Parents and Now I Feel Kind of Left Out
Teenagers Calvin (Jacob Buster) and Itsy (Emma Tremblay) are unlikely friends growing up in a small town. Itsy is new, having just moved with her family from the big city, while Calvin has lived there all his life and become something of a town pariah.
Ten years earlier, Calvin’s folks disappeared during the once-a-decade appearance of the fictional comet Jesper. Calvin becomes convinced that his mom and dad were snatched up by alien visitors and that he’ll be able to join them when the comet returns. His entire life becomes a preparation for the imminent reappearance of the comet.
What follows is a heartfelt sci-fi coming of age story from screenwriter Austin Osanai Everett and director Jake Van Wagoner that is both out of this world and totally grounded right here on Earth.
Donnie Darko
Richard Kelly’s 2001 cult classic, Donnie Darko, continues to demand rewatches and command late-night barguments two decades after release. Set in 1988, the titular Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal) is awoken by a mysterious voice. Following it, he encounters a creepy, humanoid rabbit named Frank who tells Donnie the world will end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds.
Strange as that encounter was, it saved Donnie from certain death when an airplane engine crashed into his bedroom. From there, a bizarre series of events unfolds involving tangent universes, multiverse artifacts, time traveling ghosts, and the entangled fates of one boy and the entire universe.
Apollo 18
NASA’s Apollo program came to a close in 1972 with the successful return of Apollo 17. The program ended early, scrapping three planned crewed missions, Apollos 18 - 20. The history books will tell you that’s where things ended but director Gonzalo López-Gallego imagined an alternate history in the 2011 found footage film Apollo 18.
After Apollo officially ended, the 18th mission was reactivated as a Top Secret Department of Defense mission to deliver a classified payload to the Moon’s South Pole. The deadly events that follow go a long way to explaining why the footage was buried and the mission never spoken of. If you know the Moon landings happened but still want a little conspiracy, as a treat, this is the movie for you.
Turbo Kid
Turbo Kid isn’t, strictly speaking, a vision of the future, but we’ll let it slide because it’s INCREDIBLE. It takes place in an alternate reality 1997, in a world struggling for water. The tyrannical overlord Zeus (played perfectly by Michael Ironside) captures people from the Wasteland and crushes them to get their water. It’s a tough world to live in when you’re a kid who just wants to ride his bike and read comic books.
When The Kid meets Apple, a friendship model robot, the two of them embark on a coming-of-age story like none you’ve ever seen. It’s equal parts Napoleon Dynamite and Mad Max, with a disturbingly hilarious amount of blood splatter. It’s a post-apocalyptic fever dream as imagined by a Power Glove-wearing teenager from the ‘80s. It’s perfect.
Mystery Science Theatre 3000
You never know what a new day might bring. If you’re very unlucky you might be kidnapped by a group of mad scientists, shuttled aboard an interstellar spacecraft, and forced to watch bad movies until your connection with reality shatters. If you find yourself in that situation, it helps to have a few friends.
When Joel Robinson found himself in this exact unlikely but hilarious situation, and without any friends, he built some from scratch using pieces of the ship. Those friends are known as Tom Servo, Crow T. Robot, and GPC. And they, along with the human test subject (first Joel, then a smattering of other folks over time), watch bad movies and crack wise to make them a little less painful. The great thing about Mystery Science Theater 3000, is it isn’t just one bad movie, but so many. So many, that eventually they start to look pretty good.
Upside Down
Juan Diego Solanas’ 2012 film Upside Down, blurs the lines between science fiction and fantasy to tell a cosmic love story only possible in our imaginations. We enter the worlds of Upside Down through the eyes of Adam (Jim Sturgess). He’s an ordinary guy in extraordinary circumstances, a citizen of a binary planet system with an impossible gravitational relationship.
The two worlds, known only as Up and Down, share a gravitational field, allowing them to orbit in incredibly close proximity to one another. But that doesn’t mean that residents of the two worlds travel freely between them. On these worlds, matter adheres to a few seemingly inalienable rules. First and most important, all matter is only attracted to the gravity of its home world. Second, matter can be counterbalanced by “inverse” matter from the opposing world. Finally, contact with inverse matter is temporary and results in spontaneous combustion after a few hours.
Adam might have been satisfied to live out his life on one world, but when he meets Eden, a woman from Up, they set about rewriting both the laws of their society and the laws of physics.
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