7 Sci-Fi Movies You'll Have to Watch Twice to Actually Understand

Inception ( 2010)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 87%

Still one of Christopher Nolan 's most popular films, Inception follows master thief Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio ). Cobb has a rare specialty: he can enter people's subconscious minds and steal their secrets. His work has made him an invaluable agent in the world of corporate espionage, but it has also left him lonely and a little broken.

One day, Cobb is given a chance to redeem himself: instead of stealing secrets, he must plant an idea in someone's mind.

Inception is a movie that requires your full attention, and even then a re-watch is necessary to fully understand the layers of storytelling at play.

Blade Runner ( 1982)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 89%

In the futuristic Los Angeles of… er… 2019 (the movie is old, okay?) synthetic humans have been bioengineered as workers. When a group of these replicants become fugitives on Earth, burnt-out cop ​​Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford ) is sent to hunt down and exterminate them. Deckard's journey is complicated when he meets and falls in love with a replicant who believes she is human.

Blade Runner is still considered one of the greatest sci-fi movies ever made. It's worth re-watching the various cuts (with director Ridley Scott 's 'Final Cut' being his favorite) to see the changes to the story. It's also worth re-watching your favorite version to spot the various clues about Deckard's identity dropped along the way.

Predestination (2014)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 84%

This Australian sci-fi thriller flew totally under the radar when it was released, in spite of excellent reviews and a great cast (Ethan Hawke, Sarah Snook).

A 'Temporal Agent' on the edge of retirement embarks on one final assignment: to stop a bomber whose identity has always eluded him. It's hard to say more than that without giving anything away, but you'll have to watch it more than once to catch all the time-bending, mind-bending, head-scratching twists.

Primer (2004)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 73%

Winner of the Sundance Festival's Grand Jury Prize, Primer is an odd, singular viewing experience. Filmed with a very low budget and featuring highly technical language (the screenwriter, a mathematician, refused to dumb things down for the audience), Primer never got a wide release but has gained a cult following over the years.

Tinkering in their garage, tech engineers Aaron and Abe accidentally invent a time-travel device. Though at first they proceed slowly and cautiously, their different personalities mean that they must eventually come to a head over their device's use.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%

Sci-fi and romance are a rare combo, but legendary screenwriter Charlie Kaufman made a masterpiece with Eternal Sunshine.

After a painful breakup, Joel (Jim Carrey ) discovers that his ex Clementine (Kate Winslet ) has undergone a procedure to erase all her memories of their relationship. When Joel decides to undergo the same process, he finds himself tracing Clementine through all their memories and tries desperately not to let her go.

Interstellar (2014)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 73%

The movie that launched a thousand memes ('Don't let me leave, Murph!') is the second Christopher Nolan entry on our list.

In the near future, ecocide has caused a worldwide famine. Former NASA pilot Joseph Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is enlisted to help find a habitable planet for people to settle on. An encounter with a wormhole causes all the wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey plot twists that Nolan is famous for – and which definitely call for a second viewing.

Donnie Darko (2001)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 87%

Cult favorite Donnie Darko is about alternate realities… or maybe time loops… or maybe mental illness? But most importantly, it's about giant rabbits named Frank.

During a 1988 presidential election, teenager Donnie sleepwalks out of his house and encounters the mysterious and terrifying Frank, who tells him that the world will end in 28 days. When Donnie returns to the house, a jet plane has crashed into his bed.

Donnie Darko is a bit of a puzzle, but the more you rewatch it the more you'll discover in this twisty psychological sci fi.