Have you ever stopped to realize that we’re living in the future? There may not be flying cars or interstellar travel, but space tourism is real, and the vast majority of people have phones that would have been considered supercomputers just a few decades ago. And yet the future we want is always just out of reach. That’s why the sci-fi genre is so important. It gives the dreamers something to shoot for, while also shining a spotlight on the world as it is, warts and all. Of course, the escapism of killer robots, space battles, and sinister aliens is also a lot of fun. And if you’re a Hulu subscriber, you’ll find a diverse lineup of sci-fi films that can satisfy almost any kind of story you’re looking to find. To give you a place to start, we’ve put together this list of the best sci-fi movies on Hulu.
If you’re curious about what’s available in science fiction on other streaming services, we also have guides for the best sci-fi movies on Netflix, as well as the best sci-fi movies on Amazon Prime Video.
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
Genre Drama, Science Fiction, Adventure
Stars Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law, Frances O'Connor
Directed by Steven Spielberg
146m
The late Stanley Kubrick tried to make A.I. Artificial Intelligence for decades before he passed the story to his friend, director Steven Spielberg. The Sixth Sense’s breakout star Haley Joel Osment headlines the cast as David, a realistic human-like android who has been programmed to feel love and other emotions. For a time, David brings great comfort to his “parents,” Monica (Frances O’Connor) and Henry Swinton (Sam Robards). But when David is ultimately rejected by the Swinton family, he goes on a quest to become “a real boy” to win back Monica’s love. Along the way, David picks up an unlikely friend and ally, Gigolo Joe (Jude Law), an android who has been framed for murder.
The Congress (2013)
Genre Drama, Science Fiction, Animation
Stars Robin Wright, Harvey Keitel, Jon Hamm
Directed by Ari Folman
122m
Most critics would probably agree that Robin Wright is not a horrible actress, and yet The Congress casts Wright as herself and portrays her as almost criminally inept at her craft. The fictional Robin is out of work so frequently that her most lucrative gig to date is selling her likeness to Miramount Studios in exchange for a large sum of money and a promise to never act again. Two decades later, the computer-generated Robin is a bigger star than the real actress ever was. But as Robin’s contract comes up for renewal, her feelings about losing control of her likeness have changed. She also finds herself swept up into an anti-Miramount resistance movement, as led by Dylan Truliner (Jon Hamm), the man who animated her CG counterpart.
Gattaca (1997)
Genre Thriller, Science Fiction, Mystery, Romance
Stars Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Jude Law
Directed by Andrew Niccol
106m
Gattaca is a low key sci-fi film in an alternate future where genetic engineering and eugenics have divided humanity into “valids” and “in-valids.” While the valids are given the best opportunities and jobs, the in-valids are second-class citizens at best. Ethan Hawke stars as Vincent Freeman, an in-valid who joins the prestigious Gattaca space agency by impersonating Jerome Eugene Morrow (Jude Law), a valid who has lost the use of his legs. Vincent has to go to great lengths to preserve the secret of his identity. Vincent’s potential space mission is jeopardized when his real genetic material is found at a murder scene. And the lead investigator is none other than Anton Freeman (Loren Dean), Vincent’s estranged brother.
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
Genre Science Fiction, Action, Adventure, Thriller
Stars William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley
Directed by Nicholas Meyer
113m
Almost all of the Star Trek films are currently on Hulu, but Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country deserves a spotlight for the way it sends off the original Enterprise crew. When a disaster forces the Klingon leader, Gorkon (David Warner), to approach the Federation with peace talks, Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) reveals that he harbors great hatred for the Klingons over the death of his son. That allows saboteurs on both sides to frame Kirk for Gorkon’s murder. To save Kirk and Dr. Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley) from facing Klingon “justice,” Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and the rest of the Enterprise crew must find the real killers.
Fast Color (2019)
Genre Thriller, Drama, Science Fiction
Stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw, David Strathairn, Lorraine Toussaint
Directed by Julia Hart
102m
Technically, Fast Color could be called a superhero movie. But there are no capes or crime-fighting here. Instead, Ruth (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) is a woman with an uncontrollable seismic power that often forces her to go on the run. While trying to escape an attempted capture, Ruth reunites with her mother, Bo (Lorraine Toussaint), and her daughter, Lila (Saniyya Sidney). Both of them take on the responsibility of training Ruth to help her regain control of her abilities. Unfortunately, their enemies are closing in and the family doesn’t have much time left.
Possessor Uncut (2020)
Genre Thriller, Science Fiction, Horror
Stars Andrea Riseborough, Christopher Abbott, Jennifer Jason Leigh
Directed by Brandon Cronenberg
104m
Possessor is a sci-fi film, but it is also a body horror flick in the Cronenberg tradition, courtesy of director Brandon Cronenberg. In an alternate present, Tasya Vos (Andrea Riseborough) is a married woman who has a double life as an assassin. With the help of a cybernetic implant, Tasya can put her mind in someone else’s body and force them to kill for her before she terminates her host body as well. That was the perfect plan, until she possessed Colin Tate (Christopher Abbott) so she could kill his fiancee, Ava Parse (Tuppence Middleton), and her ruthless father, John Parse (Sean Bean). However, Colin isn’t like Tasya’s previous victims. He fights to hold on to his own mind and body, which threatens Tasya’s survival as well.
The X Files (1998)
Genre Mystery, Science Fiction, Thriller
Stars David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Mitch Pileggi
Directed by Rob Bowman
121m
One of the biggest knocks against The X-Files: Fight the Future is that it plays like a two-hour episode of the series. And it does, but it’s also on a much larger scale than any of the TV episodes could achieve. It’s also one of the rare TV-to-movie adaptations to be fully integrated into the show’s story, as special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) find their lives and careers in jeopardy as they get closer than ever to exposing the lies that have protected a malevolent alien presence on Earth. Skully still doesn’t fully believe, but Mulder sees things that would be pretty hard to forget.
Love and Monsters (2020)
Genre Comedy, Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Stars Dylan O'Brien, Jessica Henwick, Michael Rooker
Directed by Michael Matthews
109m
With a premise that sounds ridiculous, Love and Monsters doesn’t seem like it should work, but it proves to be a fun adventure flick that surprises you with its emotional depth. When most of humanity is wiped out, and all of the world’s cold-blooded animals are mutated into giant monsters, what remains of humanity takes shelter underground in isolated colonies. After Joel (Dylan O’Brien) finally discovers his girlfriend Aimee (Jessica Henwick) is in a colony 80 miles away, he leaves the relative safety of his colony to find her. With no one but his canine companion, Boy, to help him, Joel braves the post-apocalyptic world filled with massive worms, ants, toads, and other creatures to find the girl he loves.
Attack the Block (2011)
Genre Action, Comedy, Science Fiction
Stars Jodie Whittaker, John Boyega, Nick Frost
Directed by Joe Cornish
88m
One would eventually become a Time Lord and the other would have a lightsaber duel with Kylo Ren, but in the 2011 fusion of sci-fi, horror, and comedy Attack the Block, neither the nurse Sam (Jodie Whittaker) or the gang leader Moses (John Boyega) are prepared for what’s coming. Moses and his buddies are in the middle of mugging Sam when a meteorite crashes into a nearby car. Soon Sam and Moses are working together to fight off an alien invasion. Mixing social commentary with screams, hilarity, and action, Attack the Block is a perfect example of great and utterly accessible science fiction.
Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020)
Genre Comedy, Science Fiction, Adventure
Stars Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, Kristen Schaal
Directed by Dean Parisot
92m
It took a decade to make it happen, but finally, in 2020, Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter reunited to officially make the fictional adventures of Bill (Winter) and Ted (Reeves) a trilogy. With Bill & Ted Face the Music, the titular heroes are no longer high school students hopping through time so they can pass a history test, but middle-aged dads who have to traverse space and time to save existence itself. Along the way, they run into their old buddy the Grim Reaper (William Sadler), confront buffed-up versions of themselves in prison, and amazingly manage to recapture the wholesome and hilarious spirit of the decades-old films.
Come True (2020)
Genre Science Fiction, Horror
Stars Julia Sarah Stone, Landon Liboiron, Carlee Ryski
Directed by Anthony Scott Burns
105m
Plagued by sleep disturbances her whole life, teenage Sarah (Julia Sarah Stone) sees things get worse after she runs away from home and is hunted by shadowy figures in her dreams every night. Hoping it will be the answer to her prayers, Sarah agrees to participate in a sleep study run by the creepy Dr. Meyer (Christopher Heatherington). Unfortunately, the study only makes things more dire as whatever’s stalking Sarah in her sleep begins to threaten her waking world. A visually impressive mix of sci-fi and horror, Come True has echoes of Philip K. Dick while feeling like a more thoughtful, indie answer to Wes Craven’s classic A Nightmare on Elm Street.
Little Fish (2021)
Genre Romance, Science Fiction, Drama
Stars Olivia Cooke, Jack O'Connell, SoKo
Directed by Chad Hartigan
101m
With echoes from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Never Let Me Go, Little Fish is not your average dystopian plague story. Rather than searching for cures for flesh-eating chemical weapons or fighting off hordes of brain-eating zombies, the characters of Little Fish are under siege from N.I.A. — a virus that devours its victims’ memories. Musicians can’t play their instruments, pilots can’t fly, and sailors can’t sail. While we get an idea of how the world as a whole is collapsing beneath the weight of the epidemic, the movie’s focus is on the heartbreaking story of Emma (Olivia Cooke) and Jude (Jack O’Connell), who struggle to hold together their relationship as the virus beings chipping away at Jude’s memories of their life together.
Arrival (2016)
Genre Drama, Science Fiction, Mystery
Stars Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker
Directed by Denis Villeneuve
116m
If one day the aliens show up, what are we going to do? Well, unless we want a repeat performance of Independence Day, we’re going to have to talk to them, and that’s part of what makes up the core of 2016’s visually stunning sci-fi drama Arrival. Amy Adams stars as linguistics professor Louise Banks, who is tapped to help the world figure out what the mysterious visitors are saying and, more importantly, what we should say back. Transcending questions of space and aliens to examine humanity itself, Arrival is a must-watch for any fan of science fiction, or just any fan of great movies.
Boss Level (2021)
Genre Action, Science Fiction, Thriller
Stars Frank Grillo, Mel Gibson, Naomi Watts
Directed by Joe Carnahan
101m
Every morning is the same morning for Roy Pulver (Frank Grillo) in Boss Level, and each of those mornings he wakes up to the same assassin burying a machete in his headboard and a small army of colorful killers waiting for him outside. No matter what he does, Roy can’t manage to survive past 12:47 p.m., and that doesn’t change until a clue from his estranged wife puts him on the right path. Time loop movies are nothing new. Films like Groundhog Day, Edge of Tomorrow, and even Hulu’s own Palm Springs have turned the idea of living the same day over and over again into a subgenre all of its own. What sets Boss Level apart is the dark humor and perfectly over-the-top violence with which the story is told. It’s an action-packed and fun way to spend an hour and a half, with lots of blood and lots of laughs.
Save Yourselves! (2020)
Genre Comedy, Science Fiction
Stars Sunita Mani, John Reynolds, Ben Sinclair
Directed by Eleanor Wilson, Alex Huston Fischer
93m
The 2020 Hulu original Save Yourselves! is one of the funniest and most timely sci-fi films you’ll ever see. Su and Jack are desperate to curb their shared addictions to the internet and social media. When a friend offers them the use of his wilderness cabin, they think they’ve finally found an opportunity to unplug. Unfortunately, because the pair are cut off from the rest of the world, when fuzzy, watermelon-sized aliens — which they refer to as “poofs” — start falling from the sky, they have no idea it’s happening until the poofs start filling the place.
Dredd (2012)
Genre Action, Science Fiction
Stars Karl Urban, Olivia Thirlby, Lena Headey
Directed by Alex Garland, Pete Travis
95m
Anyone who suffered through 1995’s Judge Dredd should be forgiven if they feel hesitant about giving 2012’s Dredd a try, but the reboot is a much different kind of movie. As satirical as the 2000 AD comic strips upon which it’s based, most of the film’s 95 minutes take place in a massive slum tower with the ultraviolent Judge Dredd (Karl Urban) pursuing the ruthless drug lord Ma-Ma (Lena Headey). Unapologetically violent and stylized, Dredd is a worthy adaptation of its source material and a great introduction to the character for the uninitiated.
Coherence (2013)
Genre Thriller, Science Fiction
Stars Emily Baldoni, Maury Sterling, Nicholas Brendon
Directed by James Ward Byrkit
89m
Sometimes a movie’s concept is such that it’s best to go in knowing as little as possible. The 2013 sci-fi thriller Coherence is such an animal. At first, nothing appears to be from the world of the fantastic at a get-together between friends, but then the story gets more interesting after a comet passes overhead. In the wake of the comet, strange and unexplainable things begin happening to the characters, and their normal dinner party turns into a surreal mystery. If you enjoy a story that challenges you to figure it out until the very end, Coherence is definitely for you.
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