# The Chrons guide to the greatest sci-fi films of all time apart from 1970 onwards because WIRED doesn't know what "all time" means



## Harpo (May 2, 2019)

Let's list them all. Up to the end of 1969 of course.


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## Jo Zebedee (May 2, 2019)

Logan’s Run


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## Daysman (May 2, 2019)

Jo Zebedee said:


> Logan’s Run


_Very_ 70s... 

*1960s*
Planet of the apes

*1950s*
The day the earth stood still

*1940s*
???


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## Jo Zebedee (May 2, 2019)

Daysman said:


> _Very_ 70s...
> 
> *1960s*
> Planet of the apes
> ...



Yes, read it all wrong


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## Anthoney (May 2, 2019)

For the 1940s I would go with, Casablanca or Citizen Kane.     or maybe The Maltese Falcon.


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## Daysman (May 2, 2019)

Jo Zebedee said:


> Yes, read it all wrong


Yeah, well it's a Thursday...


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## Daysman (May 2, 2019)

Anthoney said:


> For the 1940s I would go with, Casablanca or Citizen Kane.     or maybe The Maltese Falcon.


Perhaps: a matter of life and death?

*1930s*
things to come (not sure about this one)

*1920s*
metropolis


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## Anthoney (May 3, 2019)

*1930s* has to be Gone with the Wind.

(edit:  Gone with the Wind is credited as 1939 but released Jan 1940 so I'm not sure)


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## Dave (May 3, 2019)

_Gone with the Wind_ is some really serious science fiction,  but that's okay I read it wrong too at first (and I would have said _The Wages of Fear, Casablanca _and_ Ice Cold in Alex_.)

However, for science fiction that's easier, _The Time Machine, War of the Worlds and Forbidden Planet_.


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## Anthoney (May 3, 2019)

Yeah sorry I fumbled the sci-fi part.


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## BAYLOR (May 3, 2019)

*1940's * Mighty Joe Young
*1950's.  *Forbidden Planet
*1960's* 2001 A Space Odyssey


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## Harpo (May 3, 2019)

1902 - A Trip To The Moon


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## Robert Zwilling (May 3, 2019)

1916 - 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea


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## Victoria Silverwolf (May 3, 2019)

*Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb* (1964)

Along with *2001: A Space Odyssey* and *A Clockwork Orange*, making Stanley Kubrick the greatest director of science fiction films of all time.


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## -K2- (May 3, 2019)

Robinson Crusoe on Mars
1984
Fahrenheit 451
Failsafe (more a thriller really)
Barbarella (Hokey and raunchy, but it fit the era)
When Worlds Collide
Flash Gordon (1930's)
This Island Earth
Fantastic Voyage
And though I didn't like it, being a Hammer it's a classic... Quartermass and the Pit (in the U.S. Five Million Years to Earth)

K2


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## Rodders (May 3, 2019)

Having rewatched 2001: A Space Odyssey last week gave me a new appreciation of the movie and I totally get it's status as a sci fi classic. 

My personal favourites SF movies prior to 1970 include The Day The Earth Caught Fire, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, The Time Machine and King Kong. 

Of course, you can't discuss pre 1970 SF without mentioning Ray Harryhausen. Jason and the Argonauts being a particular favourite of mine.


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## Vladd67 (May 3, 2019)

1956 Invasion of the Bodysnatchers
         X the Unknown
1958 Fiend without a face.


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## -K2- (May 3, 2019)

Let's also not forget 'Crack in the World.'

K2


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## Daysman (May 3, 2019)

The Power (1968)


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## M. Robert Gibson (May 3, 2019)

My greatest science-fiction films of all time, if time stopped in 1969, would be:

YearFilm 1969The Illustrated Man1968A Space Odyssey1968Barbarella1968Planet of the Apes1967Quatermass and the Pit1966Fahrenheit 4511962The Day of the Triffids1961The Day the Earth Caught Fire1961Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea1960The Time Machine1959Journey to the Center of the Earth1958The Fly1956Forbidden Planet1956Invasion of the Body Snatchers1953The War of the Worlds1951The Day the Earth Stood Still

Before the 1950s my knowledge is pretty limited, apart from maybe
1931 Frankenstein
1931 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
1927 Metropolis


* Note this has given me a chance to play with the new _Insert Table_ feature I've only just noticed


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## -K2- (May 3, 2019)

Here's one many don't know, a musical at that!  From 1930 looking forward to the _distant future_ of *1980*; *Just Imagine:*






K2


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## Dave (May 3, 2019)

-K2- said:


> Here's one many don't know, a musical at that!  From 1930 looking forward to the _distant future_ of *1980*; *Just Imagine:*


I only watched a little. They predicted "Hoodies", but not the fall in the popularity of marriage. The door bell seems ostentatious. I stopped when he got out the guitar and was going to sing.


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## Danny McG (May 3, 2019)

Dave said:


> I only watched a little. They predicted "Hoodies", but not the fall in the popularity of marriage. The door bell seems ostentatious. I stopped when he got out the guitar and was going to sing.


Were Hoodies a 'thing' in 1980 Dave? 
I can't remember them back then, it was all like New Romance stuff wasn't it?


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## Dave (May 3, 2019)

No, they weren't around in 1980. David Cameron's "Hug  a Hoodie" speech was made in 2006. They were still a "new thing" then.


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## Harpo (May 4, 2019)

I had a hoodie in 1981. I don't remember how long I'd had it, but certainly it was not called a hoodie, even though it certainly was one.


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## -K2- (May 4, 2019)

Hoodie?  In the first few minutes there is an electric hand dryer (1921 patented, yet not popular until '48), security cameras, video-phones, re-animation or perhaps cloning... It's the future!

K2


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## Victoria Silverwolf (May 4, 2019)

I've seen *Just Imagine*.  It's pretty much *Metropolis:  The Musical Comedy*.  Weird film, with some dazzling visual imagination and a lot of goofiness.


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## Robert Zwilling (May 4, 2019)

Just Imagine. They got the long shirt collar tips right. Nurses wearing hotpants missed the mark, while the hemlines got shorter, they were replaced by pants before they got that short.

Since the rules are always changing, a new category for cult films could be old black and white movies and silent films that relatively few are watching now but did really good at the box office when first released.

1925 - The Lost Continent

1933 - King Kong

I never get tired of watching the original King Kong, it just doesn't age for me. The dark black and white sets make the whole movie seamlessly fit together.


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## Droflet (May 4, 2019)

No one's mentioned Them. Talk about ants in your pants.


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## BAYLOR (May 6, 2019)

-K2- said:


> Here's one many don't know, a musical at that!  From 1930 looking forward to the _distant future_ of *1980*; *Just Imagine:*
> 
> 
> 
> ...



A very painful film to watch.


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## Robert Zwilling (May 7, 2019)

-K2- said:


> Here's one many don't know, a musical at that! From 1930 looking forward to the _distant future_ of *1980*; *Just Imagine:*


I seen half hour of it, going back to finish it. The hoodies just covered the head and shoulders for flying in an open cockpit, probably was already a real article of clothing. Sometimes the props open up more doors than the dialogs.


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## Narkalui (May 30, 2019)

Nosferatu? Or is that fantasy?


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## Robert Zwilling (May 30, 2019)

It should be science fiction and fantasy movies.

Just Imagine the movie, the songs are terrible, the flight to Mars so far unmemorable. The guy they resurrected is a comic relief version of Dracula's servant, Renfield.


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