34 Best Alien Movies That'll Take You To Space

Cast: Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards, Dina Meyer
Director:  Paul Verhoeven
Runtime: 2 hours, 9 minutes
Rating: R

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 72%

Plot via IMDB: Humans, in a fascist militaristic future, wage war with giant alien bugs.

Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, Ryan Reynolds
Director:  Daniel Espinosa
Runtime: 1 hour, 43 minutes
Rating: R

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 67%

Plot via IMDB: A team of scientists aboard the International Space Station discover a rapidly evolving life form that caused extinction on Mars and now threatens all life on Earth.

Cast: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Runtime: 1 hour, 56 minutes
Rating: PG-13

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%

Plot via IMDB: Linguist Louise Banks leads a team of investigators when gigantic spaceships touch down around the world. As nations teeter on the verge of global war, Banks and her crew must find a way to communicate with the extraterrestrial visitors.

Cast: Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, Keith David
Director: John Carpenter 
Runtime: 1 hour, 48 minutes
Rating: R

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 84%

Plot via IMDB: A research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims.

Cast: Gugu Mbatha-Raw, David Oyelowo, Daniel Brühl
Director:  Julius Onah
Runtime: 1 hour, 42 minutes
Rating: PG-13

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 22%

Plot via IMDB: Orbiting a planet on the brink of war, scientists test a device to solve an energy crisis, and end up face-to-face with a dark alternate reality.

Cast: Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, Teri Garr
Director:  Steven Spielberg
Runtime: 2 hours, 15 minutes
Rating: PG

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%

Plot via IMDB: Roy Neary, an Indiana electric lineman, finds his quiet and ordinary daily life turned upside down after a close encounter with a UFO, spurring him to an obsessed cross-country quest for answers as a momentous event approaches.

Cast: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton
Director:  Doug Liman
Runtime: 1 hour, 53 minutes
Rating: PG-13

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91%

Plot via IMDB: A soldier fighting aliens gets to relive the same day over and over again, the day restarting every time he dies.

Cast: Chris Pratt, Yvonne Strahovski, J.K. Simmons
Director:  Chris McKay
Runtime: 2 hours, 18 minutes
Rating: PG-13

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 52%

Plot via IMDB: A family man is drafted to fight in a future war where the fate of humanity relies on his ability to confront the past.

Cast: Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Brandon Perea
Director:  Jordan Peele
Runtime: 2 hours, 15 minutes
Rating: R

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 83%

Plot via IMDB: The residents of a lonely gulch in inland California bear witness to an uncanny and chilling discovery.

Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt
Director: Ridley Scott
Runtime: 1 hour, 57 minutes
Rating: R

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%

Plot via IMDB: After investigating a mysterious transmission of unknown origin, the crew of a commercial spacecraft encounters a deadly lifeform.

Cast: Jordana Brewster, Clea DuVall, Laura Harris
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Runtime: 1 hour, 42 minutes
Rating: R

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 58%

Plot via IMDB: When Casey Connor, Herrington High School's newspaper photographer, witnesses the murder of a nurse and sees her alive again, he decides to investigate the bizarre happenings.

Cast: Sharlto Copley, David James, Jason Cope
Director: Neill Blomkamp
Runtime: 1 hour, 51 minutes
Rating: R

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%

Plot via IMDB: Violence ensues after an extraterrestrial race forced to live in slum-like conditions on Earth finds a kindred spirit in a government agent exposed to their biotechnology.

Cast: Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Connelly, Kathy Bates
Director: Scott Derrickson
Runtime: 1 hour, 44 minutes
Rating: PG-13

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%

Plot via IMDB: A remake of the 1951 classic science fiction film about an alien visitor and his giant robot counterpart who visit Earth.

Cast: Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith, Linda Fiorentino
Director: Barry Sonnenfeld
Runtime: 1 hour, 38 minutes
Rating: PG-13

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91%

Plot via IMDB: James, an NYC cop, is hired by Agent K of a secret government agency that monitors extraterrestrial life on Earth. Together, they must recover an item that has been stolen by an intergalactic villain.

Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Carrie Henn
Director: James Cameron
Runtime: 2 hours, 17 minutes
Rating: R

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%

Plot via IMDB: Decades after surviving the Nostromo incident, Ellen Ripley is sent out to re-establish contact with a terraforming colony but finds herself battling the Alien Queen and her offspring.

Cast: Keri Russell, Jake Brennan, Josh Hamilton
Director: Scott Stewart
Runtime: 1 hour, 37 minutes
Rating: PG-13

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 41%

Plot via IMDB: As the Barrett family's peaceful suburban life is rocked by an escalating series of disturbing events, they come to learn that a terrifying and deadly force is after them, one which may have arrived from beyond the stars.

Cast: Milla Jovovich, Elias Koteas, Will Patton
Director: Olatunde Osunsanmi
Runtime: 1 hour, 38 minutes
Rating: PG-13

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 18%

Plot via IMDB: A thriller involving an ongoing unsolved mystery in Alaska, where one town has seen an extraordinary number of unexplained disappearances during the past 40 years and there are accusations of a federal cover up.

Cast: Noomi Rapace, Logan Marshall-Green, Michael Fassbender
Director: Ridley Scott
Runtime: 2 hours, 3 minutes
Rating: R

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 73%

Plot via IMDB: Following clues to the origin of mankind, a team finds a structure on a distant moon, but they soon realize they are not alone.

Cast: Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Tim Robbins
Director: Steven Spielberg
Runtime: 1 hour, 56 minutes
Rating: PG-13

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 76%

Plot via IMDB: An alien invasion threatens the future of humanity. The catastrophic nightmare is depicted through the eyes of one American family fighting for survival.

Cast: Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith, Rip Torn
Director: Barry Sonnenfeld
Runtime: 1 hour, 28 minutes
Rating: PG-13

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 38%

Plot via IMDB: Agent J is sent to find Agent K and restore his memory after the re-appearance of a case from K's past.

Cast: Julianne Moore, Dominic West, Christopher Kovaleski
Director: Joseph Ruben
Runtime: 1 hour, 31 minutes
Rating: PG-13

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 76%

Plot via IMDB: After being told that their children never existed, a man and woman soon discover there is a much bigger enemy at work.

Cast: Shawnee Smith, Kevin Dillon, Donovan Leitch Jr.
Director: Chuck Russell
Runtime: 1 hour, 35 minutes
Rating: R

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 68%

Plot via IMDB: A deadly entity from space crash-lands near a small town and begins consuming everyone in its path. Panic ensues as shady government scientists try to contain the horrific creature.

Cast: Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore, Peter Coyote
Director: Steven Spielberg
Runtime: 1 hour, 55 minutes
Rating: PG

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 99%

Plot via IMDB: A troubled child summons the courage to help a friendly alien escape from Earth and return to his home planet.

Cast: Warren Christie, Lloyd Owen, Ryan Robbins
Director: Gonzalo López-Gallego
Runtime: 1 hour, 26 minutes
Rating: PG-13

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 24%

Plot via IMDB: Decades-old found footage from NASA's abandoned Apollo 18 mission, where three American astronauts were sent on a secret expedition, reveals the reason the U.S. has never returned to the moon.

Cast: Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Gary Oldman
Director: Luc Besson
Runtime: 2 hours, 7 minutes
Rating: PG-13

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 71%

Plot via IMDB: In the colorful future, a cab driver unwittingly becomes the central figure in the search for a legendary cosmic weapon to keep Evil and Mr. Zorg at bay.

Cast: Nicolas Cage, Joely Richardson, Madeleine Arthur
Director: Richard Stanley
Runtime: 1 hour, 51 minutes
Rating: NR

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 86%

Plot via IMDB: A secluded farm is struck by a strange meteorite which has apocalyptic consequences for the family living there and possibly the world.

Cast: Liana Liberato, Noah Le Gros, Jake Weber
Director: Jeffrey A. Brown
Runtime: 1 hour, 28 minutes
Rating: Unrated

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 81%

Plot via IMDB: A romantic getaway for two troubled college sweethearts turns into a struggle for survival when unexpected guests — and the surrounding environment — exhibit signs of a mysterious infection.

Cast: Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Jeff Goldblum
Director: Philip Kaufman
Runtime: 1 hour, 55 minutes
Rating: PG

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%

Plot via IMDB: When strange seeds drift to earth from space, mysterious pods begin to grow and invade San Francisco, replicating the city's residents one body at a time.

Cast: Nathan Fillion, Elizabeth Banks, Michael Rooker
Director: James Gunn
Runtime: 1 hour, 36 minutes
Rating: R

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 87%

Plot via IMDB: A small town is taken over by an alien plague, turning residents into zombies and all forms of mutant monsters.

Cast: Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup
Director: Ridley Scott
Runtime: 2 hours, 2 minutes
Rating: R

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 65%

Plot via IMDB: The crew of a colony ship, bound for a remote planet, discover an uncharted paradise with a threat beyond their imagination, and must attempt a harrowing escape.

Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Charles S. Dutton, Charles Dance
Director: David Fincher
Runtime: 1 hour, 55 minutes
Rating: R

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 44%

Plot via IMDB: Returning from LV-426, Ellen Ripley crash-lands on the maximum-security prison Fiorina 161, where she discovers that she has unwittingly brought along an unwelcome visitor.

Cast: Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin
Director:  Barry Sonnenfeld
Runtime: 1 hour, 44 minutes
Rating: PG-13

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 67%

Plot via IMDB: Agent J travels in time to M.I.B.'s early days in 1969 to stop an alien from assassinating his friend Agent K and changing history.

Cast: Grant Cramer, Suzanne Snyder, John Allen Nelson
Director:  Stephen Chiodo
Runtime: 1 hour, 30 minutes
Rating: PG-13

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 78%

Plot via IMDB: Aliens who look like clowns come from outer space and terrorize a small town.

Cast: Jack Nicholson, Pierce Brosnan, Sarah Jessica Parker, Glenn Close
Director:  Tim Burton
Runtime: 1 hour, 43 minutes
Rating: PG-13

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 56%

Plot via IMDB: Earth is invaded by Martians with unbeatable weapons and a cruel sense of humor.