Best Sci-Fi Movies on Netflix and More in April 2023

Greetings, Polygon readers! It’s officially mid-April, the fourth month of the futuristic-sounding 2023. This month, we’re expanding the playing field of our best streaming sci-fi movies, stretching beyond Netflix’s earthly confines to explore previously unknown corners ( and streaming platforms) of the universe.

Our April picks feature contemporary dishes and eccentric cult classics from 2014’s time warp sci-fi actioner edge of tomorrow starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt, to David Lynch’s unjustly maligned 1984 adaptation of Frank Herbert dune. Read on to get the lowdown on the best sci-fi movies on Netflix. Hello, HBO Max (soon to be renamed “Max”) and more.

Let’s get into that!

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beginning

Year: 2010
Duration: 2h 28m
Director: Christopher nolan
Pour: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Elliot Page

Whether you think beginning overrated or if you think Christopher Nolan’s intricately drawn, carefully rendered Dream-in-Dream Heist flicks are the bee’s knees, you can agree on one thing: beginning is one of his most influential films, if only because every trailer has to come out now BWAAAAAHHH.

Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Elliot Page and Tom Hardy play thieves who steal secrets from their targets’ dreams, hired by Ken Watanabe’s businessman to do the opposite: implant an idea in a rival’s mind without him ever realizes he did it don’t even think about it. Someone’s past (literally) comes back to haunt their dreams and complications arise. —Susana Polo

beginning can be streamed on Netflix.

dune

Year: 1984
Duration: 2h 17m
Director: David Lynch
Pour: Kyle MacLachlan, Virginia Madsen, and Francesca Annis

Of all the so-called unfilmable classics of science fiction and fantasy, Frank Herberts dune might be the most exciting. But without David Lynch, the challenge would only be half as fascinating dune – a mesmerizing, masterful absolute disaster.

The experience of watching dune is the experience of going back and forth between some of the strangest things you’ve ever seen convincingly rendered on screen and some of the most confusing choices you’ve ever seen outside of experimental film – sometimes scene-by-scene. And yet you have to watch dune, starring Kyle MacLachlan, Sting, Patrick Stewart, Brad Dourif, Dean Stockwell and many other actors totally committed to the work. Just so you can see the movie that turned Lynch away from Hollywood forever. —SP

dune can be streamed on Criterion Channel.

edge of tomorrow

Year: 2014
Duration: 1h 53m
Director: Doug Liman
Pour: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton

Okay, interrupt me if you’ve heard this before: Tom Cruise stars in this time warp sci-fi action film as Maj. William “Bill” Cage, a public affairs officer who is arrested and then joined in combat front line is drawn against the Mimics, an invasive race of amorphous aliens vying to destroy human civilization. With no prior combat experience, Bill dons a powerful mech and is killed – only to miraculously remember the day he first arrived to cover the war effort.

Working with Sgt. Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), a decorated soldier with a similar affliction, Bill must live, fight, die and rise from the dead over and over again to devise a plan to defeat the Mimics once and for all. Here is the elevator pitch: Foreigner meets top gun meets Groundhog Day. Doesn’t that sound cool – hey, what’s up? What do you mean I should explain the premise to you? edge of tomorrow? You don’t know yet? OK, stop it if you’ve heard this before… – Toussaint Egan

edge of tomorrow is available for streaming HBO Max.

prey

Year: 2022
Duration: 1h 40m
Director: Dan Trachtenberg
Pour: Amber Midthunder, Dakota Beavers, Dane DiLiegro

Dan Trachtenberg’s 2022 prequel to the Predator franchise isn’t just one of the best films to come out of the series since…well, 1987 predator with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Carl Weathers, but also one of the best films of 2022.

Set over 200 years before the events of the original film, Prey follows the story of Naru (Amber Midthunder), a young Comanche woman who strives to earn her place among the warriors of her tribe. During her rite of passage, Naru crosses the paths of an otherworldly warrior from another world, one who has traveled the vast Gulf of Space to hunt the planet’s top species (i.e. humans) for sport. To save her people, Naru must fight alongside her brother Taabe (Dakota Beavers) to find a way to kill this mysterious creature once and for all. Light on dialogue and heavy on beautiful imagery and gory violence prey delivers the potential of the Predator franchise like no other. —THE

prey is available for streaming Hello.

Thereafter

Year: 2022
Duration: 1h 36m
Director: Gonadada
Pour: Colin Farrell, Jodie Turner-Smith, Justin H.Min

I really enjoyed it beef, the new Netflix drama about two lonely, sad people who get caught up in a street riot and want to ruin each other’s lives. The only reason it’s not in our list of the best shows of 2023 is that I haven’t finished it yet, but I’m sure it will be soon. Steven Yeun and Ali Wong are fantastic as the two leads, but Justin H. Min is also brilliant as Edwin, a local church leader who comes into contact with Yeun’s Danny.

Many people may know Min from his role as Ben on Netflix The Umbrella Academybut he also starred in one of the best movies of 2022: Thereafter. Thereafter And prey Couldn’t be more different as far as 2022 sci-fi fare goes, but both exceed their respective goals.

In Thereafter, director Kogonada weaves a moving and beautiful portrait of a family of four: father Jake (Colin Farrell), mother Kyra (Jodie Turner-Smith), daughter Mika (Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja) and AI helper/older brother character Yang (Min ). When Yang’s system fails and the family is forced to say goodbye to him unexpectedly early, they mourn her loss and reflect on the impact he had on their family unit. While it’s a quiet and thoughtful film, don’t mistake it for a downer – the opening dance number is fun and engaging, and the beauty of Kogonada’s imagery and actors’ performances add to that Thereafter an absolute delight. —pete people

Thereafter can be streamed on FuboTV or rented or purchased digitally Amazon, apple tv, GooglePlay and vudu.

Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind

Year: 2004
Duration: 1 hr 48 mins
Director: Michael Gondry
Pour: Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst

Written by Charlie Kaufman (be John Malkovich, I’m thinking of ending things), Michel Gondry’s whimsical sci-fi romantic drama Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind Stars Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet as a dysfunctional couple who end up erasing all memories of each other after a messy breakup. Despite this, they accidentally meet again, unaware of their past together.

As they are confronted with this revelation, they must not only ask themselves what they mean to each other, but also whether it is better to love and know heartbreak or not to have known such love at all. With a beautiful score composed by Jon Brion, Eternal Sunshine is a whimsical, surreal and moving ode to the enduring love in the absence of memory and the presence of grief. -THE

Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind is available for streaming peacock.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Year: 2017
Duration: 2h 16m
Director: Luca Beson
Pour: Dane DeHaan, Cara Delevingne, Clive Owen

Based on the long-running French pulp sci-fi comic Valerian and LaurelineLuc Bessons Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is really just an excuse for the director to create a sci-fi future even richer and more surprising than his own cult hit The fifth Element. Is somehow wondrous? Yes! It is good? Ehhhhhhh.

It’s a film of contrasts. On the one hand, there are some alien cannibals who definitely push the boundaries of good taste. But there’s also a hedgehog pooping on spaceship fuel, and Rihanna, and an all-time use of “Space Oddity” in the opening sequence. —SP

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is available for streaming Prime video.