15 Old Sci-Fi Movies of the 90s That Still Hold Up in 2024, Somehow
No The Matrix here, that would be too obvious. Think less about those blockbusters with budgets that could fund a small moon landing, and more about those under-the-radar hits that had something special.
These 15 movies, they've become a bit like those old video games you dust off – they've got heart, nostalgia, and they remind you why you fell in love with sci-fi in the first place.
1. Total Recall (1990)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 82%
A construction worker's trip to recall services for implanted memories of Mars as a spy turns chaotic, leading him on a real journey to the red planet, where he uncovers secrets about his identity, a resistance movement, and a sinister corporate plot.
2. The Rocketeer (1991)
_29578.webp)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 67%
In 1938 Los Angeles, a young pilot discovers a top-secret jetpack and becomes a flying hero, battling Nazis and mobsters who seek the technology to rule the skies.
3. Demolition Man (1993)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 63%
A cop and his arch-nemesis are cryogenically frozen in 1996, only to be thawed into a pacifist future in 2032, where their violent confrontation resumes, challenging the sanitized society.
4. Stargate (1994)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 54%
An Egyptologist and a military team use an ancient alien device, the Stargate, to teleport to a distant planet resembling ancient Egypt, where they battle a godlike entity enslaving the locals.
5. Species (1995)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 42%
In one of the most underrated sci-fi horrors of the 90s, government team tracks a genetically engineered, rapidly maturing alien-human hybrid intent on reproducing her species, leading to a deadly hunt through Los Angeles. The cast (Natasha Henstridge, Ben Kingsley, Michael Madsen, Forest Whitaker) is solid enough to make this actually enjoyable.
6. 12 Monkeys (1995)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 88%
A convict from a dystopian future is sent back in time to prevent a devastating plague, only to find himself embroiled in a complex plot involving insanity, time paradoxes, and a radical environmentalist group.
7. Strange Days (1995)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 68%
On the eve of the millennium in Los Angeles, a former cop turned street hustler inadvertently uncovers a conspiracy involving a new virtual reality technology that records and plays back experiences, plunging him into a noirish murder mystery.
8. Mars Attacks! (1996)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 56%
Earth faces comically grotesque Martians who initially pretend to come in peace but launch a full-scale attack, leading to chaotic battles and unlikely heroes in a satirical sci-fi adventure.
9. Men in Black (1997)
_29578.webp)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 91%
A streetwise New York City cop is recruited into a secret organization that polices extraterrestrial interactions on Earth, pairing with a veteran agent to stop an interstellar terrorist.
10. Gattaca (1997)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 82%
In a future where genetic engineering determines one's place in life, a genetically inferior man assumes another's identity to pursue his dream of space travel, challenging the system's prejudices.
11. The Fifth Element (1997)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 71%
A cab driver unwittingly becomes the central figure in the search for a cosmic weapon to save Earth from an impending evil, alongside a mysterious woman who is the key to the weapon's activation.
12. Event Horizon (1997)
_29578.webp)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 34%
In this movie, that doesn't get as much credit as it deserves, a rescue crew investigates a spaceship that disappeared into a black hole and has now returned with something new on board, uncovering a terrifying reality bending force.
13. Starship Troopers (1997)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 72%
Young soldiers face a brutal war against a planet of insect-like aliens, discovering the horrors of war and the value of sacrifice in a satirical military sci-fi epic.
14. Contact (1997)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 68%
Long before he starred in Nolan's Interstellar, Matthew McConaughey acted his heart out in this sci-fi thriller with Jodie Foster. A scientist's lifelong search for extraterrestrial intelligence becomes reality when she receives a message from space, leading to the construction of a machine that could allow for human-alien contact.
15. Cube (1997)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 63%
Strangers wake up in a maze of deadly cubic rooms, with no memory of how they got there, and must work together to find a way out, uncovering the cubes' secrets and their own connections to this twisted game.