10 Sci-Fi Movies That Are Also Epics, Ranked (original) (raw)
A satellite floating next to Earth in 2001: A Space Odyssey
Image via Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Published Jun 11, 2025, 6:12 PM EDT
Jeremy has more than 2500 published articles on Collider to his name, and has been writing for the site since February 2022. He's an omnivore when it comes to his movie-watching diet, so will gladly watch and write about almost anything, from old Godzilla films to gangster flicks to samurai movies to classic musicals to the French New Wave to the MCU... well, maybe not the Disney+ shows.
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Not always, but often, typical epics are grounded in reality, or some kind of historical context. They might dramatize the life story of an actual person (Lawrence of Arabia), adapt a massive work of literature (War and Peace), or have fictional characters impacted by an actual point in history (The Brutalist). But epics don’t have to focus on dramatic stories, considering works of fantasy can also be considered epics (The Lord of the Rings).
The same can be said about science fiction, with the following movies being perhaps sci-fi first, and epics second, but nonetheless proving worthy of being defined by both terms. They're ranked from great to greatest, not in order of how long they all are, but considering runtimes are significant for epics (it feels right to suggest epics need to be about 2.5 hours in length, or longer), the duration of each film is also noted.
10 'Cloud Atlas' (2012)
Runtime: 2 hours and 52 minutes
While the Wachowskis are best known for the Matrix movies, they’ve done far more than just that series, including being two of the three directors of Cloud Atlas (with non-Wachowski Tom Tykwer being the third credited director). This film is a difficult one to summarize with just a sentence or two, considering it tells a bunch of different stories spread out across a great deal of time, and has many of its cast members appearing in multiple roles.
There are some parallels between these stories that stand out straight away, while other parts of Cloud Atlas feel more disconnected and harder to pin down. But the enormity of the film is impressive, and seeing so many different threads (and genres) collide at once across a runtime that nears three hours is honestly pretty thrilling and weirdly absorbing, for the most part.
Cloud Atlas
Release Date
October 26, 2012
Runtime
172minutes
9 'Avatar: The Way of Water' (2022)
Runtime: 3 hours and 12 minutes
One of the longest movies to get a wide release in the 2020s, Avatar: The Way of Water goes bigger and arguably wilder than Avatar. It’s like James Cameron took the comments about the first movie being a sci-fi retread of Dances with Wolves to heart, and then pulled out all the stops with the first sequel, jumping forward in time, introducing new characters/ideas, and brazenly finding ways to resurrect (and then change) previously dead characters.
For what it’s worth, Avatar: The Way of Water is also one of Cameron’s wettest movies, which is saying a lot, considering he also directed the likes of Titanic and The Abyss. It might not be his greatest film, but it is undoubtedly bigger and more epic in scope than many of his other movies. And, if Cameron gets his way, this series is only going to keep expanding and feeling more like a true epic.
8 'Hard to Be a God' (2013)
Runtime: 2 hours and 57 minutes
Man on a horse in Hard to Be a God
mage via Artisan Entertainment
An absolute endurance test of a film, Hard to Be a God might well be one of the grimiest and grimmest sci-fi films ever made. It has a simple premise, though, seeing as it takes place on a planet that has its population stuck in the equivalent of its Medieval phase, prompting scientists from Earth to travel there with the purported goal of advancing the civilization’s development.
But, as the title kind of hints at, the scientists can’t help but play God, and that leads to all sorts of terrible things befalling pretty much everyone. It’s a bleak watch, since throughout its grueling 177-minute runtime, there’s never really any indication things could end well. But, for those who want a challenge, or to see something undeniably unique, Hard to Be a God does have things to offer.
7 'Interstellar' (2014)
Runtime: 2 hours and 49 minutes
Dr. Brand (Anne Hathaway) wearing an astronaut suit in Interstellar. She is looking out at the rocky terrain.
Image via Paramount Pictures
Interstellar is far from the only notable sci-fi movie Christopher Nolan has directed, but it might well be his best. And, if it’s not his best, then it’s at least easy to argue that it’s his most ambitious in scope and scale, given that time and space get warped throughout this movie, with some characters aging a great deal, and others traveling great distances.
It’s a movie about trying to travel beyond the realm of what was once thought possible, attempting to traverse space, but also dealing with the emotional implications of being physically distanced from the rest of humanity in more ways than one. Interstellar does, in turn, look inward as well as outward, and that makes it both emotional and thought-provoking, biting off a lot but managing to chew most of it, thanks to it utilizing its nearly three-hour runtime well.
Interstellar
Release Date
November 7, 2014
Runtime
169 Minutes
6 'Stalker' (1979)
Runtime: 2 hours and 42 minutes
Men standing in a strange room in the Andrei Tarkovsky film 'Stalker' (1979)
Image via Mosfilm
There’s a lot that Stalker manages to do for just one film, even though it’s also noticeably quite slow-paced at times (it’s kind of a given, when you’ve got something directed by Andrei Tarkovsky). It’s an arthouse film, a sci-fi movie, and kind of an epic, all at once, following three men as they make a dangerous journey into a place known as the Zone, in search of… something. Or lots of things. Or everything?
Stalker is the kind of movie where you get out of it what you put into it. There’s so much to think about, if you want, or you can more or less zone out and just treat it as a unique visual and aural experience. It’s a little challenging, but there’s also a hypnotic quality to it that makes it arguably easier to fall into than some other long and slow-paced art films.
Stalker
Release Date
May 25, 1979
Runtime
161 Minutes
5 'Dune: Part Two' (2024)
Runtime: 2 hours and 47 minutes
Javier Bardem squatting in the sand in Dune: Part Two
Image via Warner Bros. Pictures
If you take Dune and Dune: Part Two together, both form an impressive duology; an epic that manages to do justice to the original novel in the Dune series, without a doubt. But, if you have to single one out for being an impressive science fiction epic, then it kind of has to be Part Two, considering this one’s longer, more thematically rich, and also grander when it comes to action and spectacle.
Everything is set up very well throughout 2021’s Dune, and then Dune: Part Two sweeps up all those threads and pays them off immaculately. Of all the movies that have come out during the 2020s to date, Dune: Part Two is honestly one of the very best, and could well be crowned the best blockbuster of the decade so far (or, put another way, the one to beat going forward).
4 'On the Silver Globe' (1988)
Runtime: 2 hours and 45 minutes
Two astronauts standing on the shore in On the Silver Globe.
Image via KADR
Though it’s hard to make sense of sometimes, On the Silver Globe is something truly special. Hell, the lack of clarity about some things might well serve to make it more interesting, rather than more frustrating. It was, after all, an infamously unfinished film, but what was released/eventually put together is absorbing, grand, disturbing, and visually unlike anything else out there.
If you want a broad overview of the premise… um… well, it’s kind of about starting a new civilization on another planet, exploring this civilization over many generations and showing how it differs from life on Earth in some ways, while being comparable to humanity in other regards. On the Silver Globe, at the same time, manages to feel both simpler and more complicated than such an outline might make it sound. It’s really difficult to explain why, but if you watch the movie, you'll feel it, and that’s what matters most.
On the Silver Globe
Release Date
February 10, 1989
Runtime
165 minutes
Director
Andrzej Żuławski
Writers
Andrzej Żuławski
Cast
Michał Bajor
Marek (voice)
3 'Woman in the Moon' (1929)
Runtime: 2 hours and 50 minutes
Image via UFA
Fritz Lang deserves to be considered an all-time great science fiction director for Metropolis alone, and that is a movie that’s admittedly pretty epic, especially for its time. Less influential, but arguably more epic in scope, however, is Woman in the Moon, which came out a couple of years after Metropolis and depicted a rocket trip to the moon about four decades before such a journey actually happened for real.
Sure, it’s not 100% accurate (especially because the voyage to the moon here is done to mine gold there), but Woman in the Moon is still impressively forward-thinking and highly imaginative for its time. On a technical front, it’s very striking, especially considering the movie is now close to a century old… but also, that’s arguably in line for Lang, since many of his movies from the 1920s and 1930s hold up remarkably well.
Woman in the Moon
Release Date
October 14, 1929
Runtime
170 minutes
Cast
Willy Fritsch
Wolf Helius
Gerda Maurus
Friede Velten
Klaus Pohl
Georg Manfeldt
2 'Until the End of the World' (1991)
Director's cut runtime: 4 hours and 47 minutes
Image via Warner Bros.
Sometimes, director’s cuts don’t exactly improve the theatrical versions, but then at other times, director’s cuts are the versions that should be sought out. Until the End of the World fits into the latter camp, as the longer cut of this film takes it from a good sci-fi epic to genuinely one of the best ever made.
It’s a road movie that goes completely international in scope, proving thrilling, romantic, sad, inspiring, mysterious, and – unsurprisingly – unpredictable.
Having to clear out an entire afternoon (maybe even a little longer, if you need an intermission or two) shouldn’t put you off, since few movies have as much to offer as Until the End of the World. It’s a road movie that goes completely international in scope, proving thrilling, romantic, sad, inspiring, mysterious, and – unsurprisingly – unpredictable. Trying to describe what makes it special runs the risk of undoing the experience, as it’s the sort of movie that’s best entered into knowing as little as possible.
Until the End of the World
Release Date
September 12, 1991
Runtime
158 minutes
Cast
Sam Farber, alias Trevor McPhee
Solveig Dommartin
Claire Tourneur
1 '2001: A Space Odyssey' (1968)
Runtime: 2 hours and 29 minutes
Keir Dullea in a red spacesuit walking through well-lit space pod in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Image via MGM
It would be a bit weird to talk about the best of the epic science fiction movies and not save a spot at the very top of the ranking for 2001: A Space Odyssey. At just under 2.5 hours, this one is admittedly shorter than all the aforementioned movies, but it is pretty much as epic in scope and ambition as sci-fi gets, given how much time it covers.
Split into a few different parts, 2001: A Space Odyssey begins in prehistoric times, and ends at some point in the distant future, encompassing humanity’s evolution and beyond. It covers an unthinkable amount of time while also feeling quite patiently paced in parts, to put it mildly. It really does warp space and time in the best of ways, and can be genuinely transcendental cinema, once you get on its level (don’t be alarmed or dismayed if it takes more than one viewing).
2001: A Space Odyssey
Release Date
April 10, 1968
Runtime
149 minutes
Cast
Keir Dullea
Dr. David Bowman
Gary Lockwood
Dr. Frank Poole