The best sci-fi movies to watch on Netflix in September 2024

September is already more than halfway over and the release calendar is finally getting more exciting, especially for science fiction fans. Transformers Onethe animated prequel by director Josh Cooley (Toy Story 4), will be released this weekend together with The substancethe new body horror film with Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley. And that’s not even mentioned MegalopolisFrancis Ford Coppola’s much-discussed science fiction epic with an ensemble cast around Adam Driver, which is due to hit theaters next week.

However, if you’re looking for the best sci-fi movie to watch on Netflix right now from the comfort of your own home, don’t worry; we’ve got you covered. This week, we’ve compiled a short list of the best sci-fi movies to stream this weekend, including a popular (and, at the time of this writing, sadly sequel-less) action thriller starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt, a cult satire about interstellar fascism, and an animated reboot of a celebrated tokusatsu icon.

Let’s take a look at what this month has to offer!

Director: Doug Liman
Pour: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton

“And every day the groundhog greets youbut…” is almost always a great approach to a film, but when you add Tom Cruise, aliens and lots of sci-fi action, you suddenly have the recipe for one of the best and most entertaining films of the last decade: Edge of Tomorrow.

Cruise is completely true to type in this film: he starts off as a sleazy army PR man, always ready with a smile and a charming word, but he’s clearly above the sweat and bones of the common soldier and far too good for a simple life of combat. But when he suddenly finds himself stuck in a time loop of evil aliens bent on destroying the world, it turns out that combat was his destiny from the start. Of course, it takes a lot of training to go from spokesman to soldier, and that’s why war heroine Rita Vrataski, played superbly by Emily Blunt, is here.

The whole thing results in a fantastically entertaining film that perfectly combines huge action sequences with the inherent silliness of And every day the groundhog greets you‘s trial-and-error format. Cruise’s character overexerts himself countless times, trying again and again to improve himself even a little bit, but failing far more often than he succeeds. In other words, it’s a perfect metaphor for what makes Tom Cruise such a perfect movie star: You get as many tries as a scene needs to get it just right. —Austen Goslin

Director: Shannon Tindle
Pour: Christopher Sean, Gedde Watanabe, Tamlyn Tomita

Ultraman: On the rise is possibly the best entry point for anyone who has been curious about Tsuburaya Productions’ iconic giant superhero. Set in a different continuity than previous Ultraman series, the film centers on Kenji “Ken” Sato, a top baseball player who returns to his native Japan despite being on the verge of winning an American championship. In reality, Ken is the only son of the former Ultraman – a giant, transforming superhero dedicated to maintaining harmony between humanity and kaiju – and has moved to Japan to take up his father’s legacy.

Ken initially struggles to balance his personal life with his duties as the new Ultraman. Even bigger problems arise when he inadvertently becomes the adoptive father of a Kaiju baby. With the help of his AI assistant Mina and eventually his own father, Ken grows up to become not only a responsible adoptive father, but also a hero to believe in. Ultraman rises

is a reboot that takes the core principles of what makes Ultraman a compelling and iconic hero, builds on those foundations with a narrative never before addressed in the franchise’s history, and does so with a level of visual aplomb and creativity worthy of a feature-length animated event. —Toussaint Egan

Director: Paul Verhoeven
Pour: Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards

Starship Trooper is set in a distant future where humanity has mastered interstellar space travel and is using it for what everyone would expect: colonizing every alien species it can find.

Science fiction films are full of evil empires stretching across the stars. However, very few of these films anchor us as firmly in the perspective of these empires as Starship Trooper does. But what makes Paul Verhoeven’s sci-fi action film really special is that it leaves the evil of his Earth-based empire completely unmentioned. Instead, Verhoeven plays the film like state-sponsored propaganda, with characters shouting on screen about the evils of the insect plague without saying why Earth is conquering their planet in the first place. It’s masterful satire in a way that only Verhoeven could achieve. —AG