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Discover how NASA’s shuttle program has led to its exciting new era of space exploration. Learn about the important role of the International Space Station. Uncover what NASA and the space community are working on, and the challenges they face to carry out bold missions such as capturing asteroids and landing astronauts on Mars. Narrated by Sir Patrick Stewart.

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For almost 20 years, Shout! Factory has redefined what it means to be an entertainment company for fans, by fans. Through its beginnings lovingly releasing and reviving beloved cult films and classic TV series, Shout! cultivated an uncanny ability to rediscover great content and applied these skills to producing and distributing fan-driven new releases that set the bar for independent entertainment. Shout! Factory's extensive experience in a diverse array of genres has led to the launch of several well-respected properties, including Shout! Studios, Scream Factory, Mystery Science Theater 3000 , Shout Kids, Shout Select and the streaming service Shout! Factory TV. Capitalizing on both traditional and emerging digital platforms, Shout! Factory is a media company devoted to producing, uncovering, preserving and revitalizing the very best of pop culture.

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-Behind-The-Scenes Footage -Photo Gallery -Trailers

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• MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ NR (Not Rated)
• Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 0.7 x 7.5 x 5.4 inches; 3.2 ounces
• Item model number ‏ : ‎ 35375000
• Media Format ‏ : ‎ NTSC, Widescreen
• Run time ‏ : ‎ 45 minutes
• Release date ‏ : ‎ June 7, 2016
• Actors ‏ : ‎ Patrick Stewart
• Studio ‏ : ‎ SHOUT! FACTORY
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01CH6SA74
• Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1
• #653 in Special Interests (Movies & TV)
• #854 in Documentary (Movies & TV)

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A Journey into Space

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Get ready for the mission of a lifetime - one of wonder, excitement, and pure joy. Take a virtual trip though outer space and hover miles and miles far above the earth and enjoy the various and equally fascinating views of our marvelous planet, ranging from its snow-capped mountains and fertile valleys, to its sprawling desserts and tropical oasis. If you have ever dreamt of flying above the earth and experiencing the majesty of our planet, then this is truly the program is for you! 2 hours of wonderful space views from the NASA archive.

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The 30 best space movies

Head to infinity and beyond with the greatest intergalactic odysseys of all time

From the time the movies were invented, filmmakers have been dreaming of outer space. Mankind hadn’t even figured out how to get off the ground yet when Georges Méliès imagined voyaging to the moon, and in the century-plus since, many other directors have taken audiences on trips far deeper into the cosmos. To infinity and beyond, you might say.

It’s no wonder, really. The concept of space is vast enough to allow for the exploration of all sorts of big ideas. What is mankind’s place in the universe? What lies outside our tiny little rock – and do we really want to know what’s out there? For that reason, the ‘space movie’ exists as its own genre beneath the wider umbrella of science fiction. And so, we’ve decided to rank them. Here are our picks for the 30 best movies about that big, overwhelming, sometimes frightening, sometimes beautiful void above our heads.

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The best space movies

1.  2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

• Science fiction

Director: Stanley Kubrick 

Cast: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood

Many argue that this film is cinema’s GOAT – us, among them – and its enduring status is partly down to ideas around artificial intelligence and technology that have only become more prescient with every passing year. But few sci-fi films have embraced the look, feel and experience of space travel with this level of baked-in, world-building cool. Kubrick had three production designers on the case and got big brands like IBM, Dupont and Nikon to imagine what their products might look like in an interstellar future. Major props, too, to Douglas Trumbull’s eye candy stargate sequence, which helped ensure that late-‘60s stoners were the first audiences to take it all to their hearts.

2.  The Martian (2015)

• Action and adventure

Director: RIdley Scott

Cast: Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Chiwetel Ejiofor

After dividing audiences with Prometheus , Ridley Scott’s return to space was a heel-turn from his previous horrors. Thanks in huge part to a script by The Cabin in the Woods writer Drew Goddard and an endearing performance by Matt Damon as a marooned astronaut, The Martian is a bracing survivalist yarn with a reliable charm. In fact, Damon’s affability scored it an unlikely Best Comedy nod at the Golden Globes. And those laughs are vital in a film detailing a scientist slowly starving himself on a distant planet as his friends risk their lives to rocket through space to save him. 

3.  WALL-E (2008)

Director: Andrew Stanton

Cast: (voices) Jeff Garlin, Fred Willard, Ben Burtt

Only half of Pixar’s environmentalist parable-slash-intertechnological love story actually takes place in space, and most of those scenes are set aboard the galaxial Noah’s Ark keeping mankind alive after destroying the planet. But its moment among the stars is an absolute stunner. After breaking out of the spaceship’s airlock, the titular sentient trash compactor – aided by a fire extinguisher – and his Alexa-esque paramour twirl, spin and criss-cross each other in a zero-gravity Astaire-Rogers ballet that jerks tears and raises goosebumps in equal measure.    

4.  Star Wars (1977)

Director : George Lucas

Cast : Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, Alec Guinness

Has any film more perfectly channelled our fascination with space? It’s easy to forget how truly mesmerising A New Hope is when it ditches its fantastical planets and takes to the sky. It’s not just the dogfights of the climax, either. Much of the film plays out as an intergalactic road trip at warp speed, but it also slows down for a quick game of chess as stars drift past the window. By the end, you find yourself looking skyward, imagining the possibilities – not unlike Luke Skywalker himself, as he stares out beyond Tatooine’s twin suns and dreams of his destiny.

5.  The Right Stuff (1983)

Director: Philip Kaufman Cast: Sam Shepherd, Ed Harris, Dennis Quaid, Scott Glenn

Philip Kaufman’s boy’s own adaptation of Tom Wolfe’s nonfiction classic is every bit as stirring as Top Gun , though the tale of the US Mercury’s astronauts seldom gets its due. It also begs the question: how is it that movie astronauts are so often depicted as introverted nerds when we’ve seen Sam Shepard’s wildchild Chuck Yaeger breaking the sound barrier and the other Mercury astronauts strutting like the rock stars of their day? Truly, our understanding of space – and the cocksure punks who sought to tame it – remains woefully out of touch.

6.  A Trip to the Moon (1902)

Director: Georges Méliès

Cast: ​ ​Georges Méliès

All sci-fi movies – hell, pretty much all of modern effects-led cinema in general – begins here. But we don’t include Georges Méliès’s groundbreaker out of historical obligation. Well over a century later, the film displays an imagination in both storytelling and effects that wows even today, especially when you consider that not even the aeroplane existed yet. Surely, when the first astronauts made it to that big rock in the sky, they half-expected to find harpoon-wielding insectoids there to greet them.  

7.  Outland (1981)

Director : Peter Hyams

Cast : Sean Connery, Peter Boyle, Clarke Peters 

Essentially High Noon in space – but with 100 percent more splattered heads, thanks to the wonders of explosive decompression – this Sean Connery-starring space western unfolds above and below one of Jupiter’s moons, where a mining operation becomes the nucleus of a drug-fuelled mystery full of violence and depravity. The film shares a lot of DNA with Alien  thanks to its advanced effects and claustrophobic sets; only here, it’s humans doing the eviscerating... and a lot of it. 

8.  Galaxy Quest (1999)

Director: Dean Parisot

Cast: Tim Allen, Alan Rickman, Sigourney Weaver

A comedy is often only as strong as its reverence toward what it’s lampooning. A love of Star Trek ’s Gene Roddenberry shines through in every moment of this corker about the cast of a  Trek knockoff enlisted to save the denizens of a faraway planet. The plot is essentially a sci-fi version of  Three Amigos! , but the game cast – particularly Alan Rickman and a young Sam Rockwell – sell every uproarious gag, while the effects work updates the ‘60s camp while keeping the cartoonish charm front and centre. 

9.  Moon (2009)

Director: Duncan Jones

Cast: Sam Rockwell

While much of Duncan Jones’s ( Source Code ) meditative sci-fi takes place on the lunar surface, Moon  spends plenty of time with Sam Rockwell’s spaceman gazing at the stars and to the distant Earth like a blue-collar Major Tom. Rockwell has never been better in this small-scale tale of space madness (or is it?) about a helium farmer on a three-year lunar stint, accompanied only by his own personal HAL. Jones’s quiet gem embraces the all-engulfing nature of space, crafting something of a desert-island movie in the cold black void. 

10.  Event Horizon (1997)

Director: Paul WS Anderson

Cast: Sam Neill, Laurence Fishburne, Kathleen Quinlan

Derided for its relentless sadism upon release, Paul ‘Not PT’ Anderson’s trippy space saga has had an overdue reassessment and is emerging from the wormhole as a certified cult film. Part ‘ The Shining in space’, part ‘ Interstellar in hell’, Event Horizon ’s tale of misbegotten astronauts transported straight into the seventh circle isn’t for the squeamish. But for those who can stomach the viscera, it’s a wild ride through the gore-spattered corridors of an extremely haunted space station. Never has the cold vacuum of space seemed more welcoming than the supposed sanctuary of an airlock. 

11.  Treasure Planet (2002)

• Family and kids

Director: Ron Clements & John Musker

Cast: (voices) Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emma Thompson, Martin Short

Disney dared to do something different with its sci-fi take on Robert Louis Stevenson’s pirate classic ‘Treasure Island’. Audiences didn’t respond to its hybrid of hand-drawn and CG animation, or storytelling that ditched princesses in favour of something a little more space-age and weird, but Treasure Planet is full of gorgeous celestial flair. The juxtaposition between old-school tall ships and cutting-edge interstellar animation remains dreamlike in its beauty. Plus, it beats the hell out of Mars Needs Moms . 

12.  Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

Director: Nicholas Meyer

Cast: William Shatner, Ricardo Montalbán, Leonard Nimoy

The eye-popping space battles and serene galactic imagery. The mind-controlling space eels. The introduction of the Kobayashi Maru test. The tear-soaked space funeral. The goddamn mind-controlling space eels . The Wrath of Khan stands tall above all the USS Enterprise’ s cinematic adventures for many reasons, but chief among them is its deference to space itself – the franchise’s spiritual home. The reboot might have more advanced ships and shinier effects, but this was the moment Trek matched Star Wars in terms of pure awe in the abyss. 

13.  Starship Troopers (1997)

Director: Paul Verhoeven

Cast: Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards, Jake Busey

For millennia, humankind has gazed to the heavens and wondered what life exists beyond the stars. Paul Verhoeven has an answer, and it’s a horde of vengeful, snot-spewing insectoids. The Total Recall director’s return to space is a feature-length satire of fascist propaganda films that also plays like a stunning action spectacle, goopy horror romp and white-knuckle actioner. Verhoeven spends considerable time above the battlefield as a fleet of space cruisers discovers rather quickly that their ships are no match for bug bogeys and the unforgiving vacuum of space in graphic detail. 

14.  Interstellar (2014)

Director : Christopher Nolan

Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Jessica Chastain, Anne Hathaway

There’s a lot going on both above and below the ground in Christopher Nolan’s heady but divisive space odyssey, but this is a film that’s done its homework. And once Matthew McConaughey’s astronaut-farmer takes to the skies, all the film’s whiteboard-scribbling science lessons pay off with the most dazzling – and scientifically backed – renderings of space travel since 2001: A Space Odyssey . Say what you will about the film’s father-daughter narrative (Muuuuuurph!!!!), but even the most ardent detractor will be floored by Interstellar ’s cosmic imagery.

15.  Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

Director: James Gunn

Cast: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista

The MCU’s first proper trip to the cosmos takes its cues from Star Wars and The Ice Pirates in equal measure. But it also carves a unique impression into cinematic space lore thanks to its fantastic worlds and gleeful depiction of space travel. The sequel arguably nails the sensation of gravity-defying antics better, capping things off with a space funeral that trounces The Wrath of Khan . But director James Gunn’s original is the kind of film that knows damn well that a scene of eye-popping space psychedelics all but demands to be scored to Bowie’s ‘Moonage Daydream’ (of course), then delivers in kind.

16.  Alien (1979)

Director: Ridley Scott

Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Ian Holm

No other film captures the contradiction of space being at once infinitely vast and frighteningly claustrophobic than Ridley Scott’s sci-fi horror masterpiece. It’s an oddly small picture, given its influence and iconic special effects, but the movie’s true genius is in how it maximises its small budget, turning a spaceship into a haunted house and the infinite void of the universe into a deep, dark wood. And the big, bad wolf has never been this terrifying. 

17.  Apollo 11 (2019)

• Documentaries

Director : Todd Douglas Miller

Strap yourself to the side of the thundering Apollo 11 rocket as it careers into, and beyond, the Earth’s atmosphere in a spectacular doc that makes great use of hitherto unseen Nasa footage. The mission, of course, successfully plonked two Americans on to the Moon’s surface and then unplonked them again, thereby winning that bit of the space race with the Soviet Union, but there’s nothing triumphalist in director Todd Douglas Miller’s thrilling recreation – just a lot of quiet professionalism, teamwork and fearless men in helmets. When it gets into space and the 70mm footage does its thing, it makes you wish you’d actually followed up on that childhood ambition to become an astronaut.

18.  Gravity (2013)

Director: Alfonso Cuarón

Cast: Sandra Bullock, George Clooney

Some were disappointed when Alfonso Cuarón followed up 2006’s Children of Men – a masterpiece of dystopian world-building with big ideas about hope, faith and the future of humanity – with the simple story of an astronaut marooned in space. Of course, there’s nothing all that simple about poor Sandra Bullock’s situation. With her craft destroyed by orbiting debris and her partner (George Clooney) having floated off into the void, home appears both tantalisingly close and unimaginably far away. The movie is a technical marvel, but even on the small screen, it’s breathlessly tense – not since Alien has the infinite expanse of the universe felt so claustrophobic.

19.  First Man (2018)

Director: Damien Chazelle

Cast : Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Kyle Chandler A true-life astronaut drama that soars for the heavens but finds its deepest emotions at the kitchen table, this reimagining of what Neil Armstrong was contending with at the time of the Apollo 11 mission will have you ugly crying before anyone can so much as bob across that lunar surface. Ryan Gosling reunites with his La La Land director, Damien Chazelle, to humanise the now almost mythical Armstrong in his grief for his young daughter, with a just-holding-it-together Claire Foy as the moonwalker’s wife. For the majority of its runtime, First Man is earthbound. But when it finally touches down on the moon, it’s cinematic magic: a moment of wonderment, solitude and an overwhelming sense that you’re right there too.

20.  Ad Astra (2019)

Director : James Gray

Cast : Brad Pitt, Ruth Negga, Tommy Lee Jones Directed with a lust for adventure by The Lost City of Z ’s, James Gray,  Ad Astra (‘to the stars’) follows Brad Pitt’s spaceman across the galaxy to track down his ornery dad (Tommy Lee Jones), who may or may not be trying to wipe out humanity from a space station near Neptune (spoiler: he is). The journey sits somewhere between the old Star Trek movies in its stargazy philosophising and the rebooted ones in some of zero-g action sequences that suck the air from your lungs. There’s also an awesome space-buggy chase across the moon and a bit with psychotic space baboons. We are here for them both.   

21.  Forbidden Planet (1956)

Director : Fred M Wilcox

Cast : Leslie Nielsen, Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis It’s Shakespeare in space – this iconic sci-fi is an intergalactic take on The Tempest – as a group of galactic travellers led by a straight-shooting Leslie Nielsen fall into the lap of megalomaniac boffin (Walter Pidgeon) on the remote planet of Altair 4. Cutting-edge effects presented in widescreen CinemaScope – the flying saucer remains cool AF – make this a true landmark not just in space flicks, but sci-fi genre as a whole. Don’t take our word for it: Gene Roddenberry cites it as a major influence on Star Trek .

22.  Silent Running (1972)

Director: Douglas Trumbull

Cast : Bruce Dern, Cliff Potts A direct inspiration for WALL-E and about as eco-conscious as science-fiction can get, this enduring classic shows that 2001: A Space Odyssey SFX maestro Trumbull could tell his own stories too. And this one follows a single astronaut (Bruce Dern) and his three adorbs robot pals, Louie, Huey and Dewey, as they drift through space, doing a spot of gardening and trying to stay sane in the face of mankind’s extinction. Heavy themes, sure, but treated with loads of heart and a philosophical spirit that echoes especially loudly in an era of climate crisis. 

23.  Solaris (1972)

Director : Andrei Tarkovsky

Cast : Donatas Banionis, Natalya Bondarchuk

Since remade by Steven Soderbergh, the original Tarkovsky Solaris is definitely the place to start when it comes to enigmatic, brainy affairs set in the far reaches of the universe. A cosmonaut (Lithuanian actor Donatas Banionis) is haunted by his dead wife as his spaceship orbits a mysterious planet. But is the planet creating embodiments of the ghosts haunting the poor man’s subsconscious, a bit like when Ray Stantz accidentally summons the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man in Ghostbusters ? With its eerie visuals, it makes for a dreamlike journey to the far reaches of the human psyche.

24.  First Men in the Moon (1964)

Director : Nathan Juran

Cast : Edward Judd, Martha Hyer, Lionel Jeffries This monster-filled space adventure came out five years before man actually set foot on the moon and you can only hope Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong weren’t watching, because the moon landing itself is a trainwreck. The ‘in’ part of the title is key: this is a Journey to the Centre of the Earth -style caper that has a crew of heroically under-prepared Brits discovering all sorts of things that don’t want to be discovered beneath the lunar crust. You will learn nothing at all about space but the giant stop-motion critters, animated by the great Ray Harryhausen, are a lot of fun.

25.  For All Mankind (1989)

Director : Al Reinert Six moon landings are ticked off in Al Reinert’s iconic doc, all accompanied by Brian Eno’s cosmic score (if space had sound, it’d definitely sound like Brian Eno). It makes the perfect non-fiction double bill with the more recent Apollo 11 – a window into the experience of being on the moon and looking back at earth. ‘A spiritual presence was there,’ says one NASA astronaut of those lunar vibes. ‘We were not alone.’ Haunting and hard to shake, this is proof that sometimes real life can be as spectacular as science fiction.

26.  Sunshine (2007)

Director: Danny Boyle

Cast: Cillian Murphy, Rose Byrne, Michelle Yeoh Director Danny Boyle positions his mindtrip space flick as a midway point between 2001: A Space Oydssey and Alien – a fusion of thrills and thinky bits that culminates in a third act that gets close to melting down as it draws close to the sun. You could probably throw Armageddon into that mix – a self-sacrificing crew of astronauts heads into space to save humanity from annihilation – although it’s a lot more believable (Boyle put his cast through astronaut training) and a lot less tub-thumping. The vast planetary vistas glimpsed from the decks of the Icarus II make a suitably awe-inspiring backdrop from its stellar cast (Cillian Murphy, Rose Byrne, Chris Evans et al) to come apart at the seams.

27.  Apollo 13 (1995)

Director: Ron Howard

Cast: Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinese

So much more than its famous ‘Houston, we have a problem’ catchphrase, Apollo 13 harkens back to the glory days of white-knuckle, PG-rated entertainment. An ensemble tribute to the power of group problem-solving, it has Howard fully embracing a ‘70s aesthetic and the storytelling of the era to craft a timeless middlebrow crowd-pleaser with an almost surgical focus on the imperiled mission at hand. 

28.  Contact (1997)

Director: Robert Zemeckis 

Cast: Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, John Hurt

We’d have loved to include Denis Villeneuve’s magical, melancholy Arrival  on this list but it takes place entirely within Earth’s atmosphere. Instead, try this big, ambitious drama from Back to the Future ’s Robert Zemeckis based on a book by sci-fi seer Carl Sagan. Contact ’s heart is in a similar place, and like Arrival ’s protagonist played by Amy Adams, it is female-led, steers clear of macho ideas of hostile aliens and cocks an ear to new voices from far beyond our solar system. Zemeckis, who loves to push visual boundaries, images space travel as a dizzying acid trip full of wormholes, whirlpools and mind-bending geometries. It’s one of those rare movies that should come with motion sickness tablets.

29.  Dark Star (1974)

Director : John Carpenter

Cast : Dan O'Bannon, Dre Pahich, Brain Narelle

There’s no film version of The Muppet’ s ‘Pigs in Space’ sketch, but John Carpenter’s debut, set during the 22nd century, delivers the next best thing: A hippie movie hopped up on its own counter-cultural sense of the absurd (there’s a talking bomb) and a pisstake-y irreverence. It’s the perfect antidote to bombastic science-fictions that get lost in their own self-importance – a lo-fi whoopie cushion that invites you aboard its titular spacecraft to hang out with four fargone astronauts and indulge in a little space surfing.

30.  High Life (2018)

Director : Claire Denis

Cast : Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche, André Benjamin Myriad mysteries abound in this deliriously bonkers space oddity from French auteur Claire Denis ( White Material ) that co-stars Robert Pattinson and Juliette Binoche as an interstellar inmate and his scientist jailer. The human body and its function gets a rare exploration in this context – space flicks rarely spend this much time over their characters’ sexual needs in zero gravity ( 2001: A Space Odyssey does not have a Fuckbox) – and its themes of reproduction, incarceration and experimentation play out in a space with its own realities. Go with it, in other words, and be rewarded with a space journey unlike any other.

The 100 best sci-fi movies

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Top 25 space films

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey

3. Apollo 13

6. Interstellar

8. The Martian

10. October Sky

11. Blade Runner

12. Sunshine

14. Solaris

15. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

17. Close Encounters of the Third Kind

18. The Fifth Element

19. Gravity

20. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back

21. Event Horizon

22. Prometheus

23. Pandorum

24. Star Trek

26. Starship Troopers

27. Total Recall

28. Pitch Black

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The Best '60s Space Movies

Venturing back into the realm of 1960s cinema, a momentous era stands out - the golden age of space movies. The 1960s birthed a rich tapestry of interstellar thrillers and cosmic dramas that continue to inspire filmmakers today. This epoch, characterized by a strong sense of curiosity and a desire for exploration, offered a unique blend of innovative storytelling and technological advancement, which is distinctively seen in the famous space movies of the time.

The essence of the Space Age lies in the intricate narratives of these old space movies that seamlessly blend science fiction with a captivating depiction of the future. Noteworthy for their groundbreaking approach to both plot and technological nuances, these cinematic gems portray a fascinating intersection of reality and imagination. A compelling portrayal of human interaction with extraterrestrial elements weaves through each movie, setting a benchmark for subsequent films in the genre.

Taking center stage in this notable array is 2001: A Space Odyssey , a cinematic marvel that paints a chilling yet mesmerizing picture of mankind's evolution against the backdrop of space exploration. Next in line is Planet of the Apes , a thought-provoking narrative replete with stunning makeup effects and an unforgettable conclusion. The list further includes masterpieces like Fantastic Voyage , an audacious journey into the human body, and Barbarella , a psychedelic ride carried by Jane Fonda's stellar performance. For each entry, there's the added convenience of accessible streaming buttons for platforms including Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Max, and Paramount+, ensuring a seamless viewing experience.

These powerful narratives, fueled by relentless human curiosity and technological prowess, have immortalized the 1960s as a pivotal period for space age movies. Each film serves as a testament to the boundless creative ventures of the time, teetering between humanity's realities and the realm of the unknown. Immerse yourself in the compelling plots and inspirational cinematography that these best 60s space movies offer, each telling a unique story while leaving an indelible mark on the canvas of classic cinema.

2001: A Space Odyssey

In this iconic science-fiction masterpiece, director Stanley Kubrick explores the possibilities of extraterrestrial life and artificial intelligence, taking viewers on an unforgettable cosmic odyssey. Groundbreaking visual effects, a classical music score, and a mysterious monolith combine to create an awe-inspiring, enigmatic journey through time and space. The movie's abstract nature encourages interpretive analysis, ensuring its status as an all-time great transcending its era.

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Planet of the Apes

This thought-provoking film delves into themes of humanity, morality, and societal structure, depicting a world where apes rule and humans are mute, oppressed beings. Featuring groundbreaking makeup effects, a memorable score, and Charlton Heston's intense performance, it captures audiences with its chilling portrayal of a future Earth turned upside down. The film's shocking conclusion, with the realization that humanity destroyed itself, remains one of the most unforgettable moments in cinematic history.

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First Men in the Moon

Adapting H.G. Wells' novel, this fascinating adventure follows an eccentric inventor and his companions as they journey to the moon and encounter its underground-dwelling inhabitants. Utilizing innovative stop-motion animation techniques by effects legend Ray Harryhausen, the film immerses viewers in a fantastic lunar landscape. The movie's blend of whimsy, humor, and thought-provoking commentary on colonialism and human nature make it a notable entry in the era's science fiction offerings.

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Thunderbirds Are Go

Combining the unique charm of marionettes with an exciting plot, this film adaptation of the popular British television series takes International Rescue to new heights. Featuring innovative model designs, an engaging soundtrack, and a plot centered on the crew's efforts to launch a manned mission to Mars, the film manages to capture the spirit of its source material while offering a fresh perspective. The underlying themes of teamwork and global unity add depth to this enjoyable and imaginative adventure.

Fantastic Voyage

A pioneer of the "inner space" subgenre, the film follows a team of scientists who are miniaturized and injected into a dying man's body in order to save him from a life-threatening blood clot. The groundbreaking special effects and imaginative sets effectively transform the human body into an alien landscape filled with wonder and danger. Its thrilling blend of suspenseful action, scientific intrigue, and thought-provoking themes make it a standout entry in the realm of science fiction.

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Robinson Crusoe on Mars

This inventive reimagining of Daniel Defoe's classic novel transports the marooned protagonist to the desolate Martian landscape, where survival becomes an even more daunting task. Striking visual effects, a haunting score, and Paul Mantee's earnest performance as the titular character create an engaging science fiction take on the classic tale of isolation and self-reliance. The film's exploration of themes such as resourcefulness, human ingenuity, and the importance of companionship elevate it beyond mere novelty status.

This campy, colorful, and psychedelic adaptation of the French comic book series stars Jane Fonda as the titular space-traveling heroine. Set in an imaginative and risqué vision of the far future, the film embraces its offbeat humor and sexual innuendo, making it an enduring cult classic. Its stylish visuals, memorable characters, and tongue-in-cheek charm ensure its lasting appeal among fans of retro futurism.

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Journey to the Far Side of the Sun

Also known as "Doppelgänger," this intriguing science fiction thriller presents the discovery of a previously unknown planet located directly opposite Earth, hidden from view by the sun. Thoughtful pacing, intelligent writing, and compelling performances build tension and mystery as the astronauts embark on a perilous mission to investigate the newfound world. Its eerie, disorienting atmosphere and thought-provoking exploration of duality make it an underappreciated gem of the era.

Dr. Who and the Daleks

In this colorful big-screen adaptation of the popular British television series, Peter Cushing stars as the time-traveling Doctor on a mission to save a peaceful planet from the ruthless Daleks. Featuring eye-catching production design and the iconic villainous aliens that have since become a staple of the franchise, the film aims to entertain both fans and newcomers alike. While not part of the show's official canon, its light-hearted charm and sense of adventure make it an enjoyable romp through time and space.

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As a precursor to films like "Apollo 13" and "Gravity," this thrilling drama focuses on three astronauts trapped in Earth's orbit, racing against time to figure out how they can return home safely. The impressive ensemble cast, which includes Gregory Peck and Gene Hackman, delivers top-notch performances that convey the desperate urgency of their dire situation. With its impressive attention to detail and adherence to the technical aspects of space travel, it offers a realistic and tension-filled depiction of the perils of space exploration.

Mutiny in Outer Space

This low-budget independent science fiction film centers on a crew aboard an international space station who must deal with a dangerous and rapidly spreading fungus. Though hindered by its budget constraints and limited special effects, the movie distinguishes itself through its tense atmosphere and well-developed characters. Its themes of loyalty, duty, and self-sacrifice add depth to this suspenseful, claustrophobic tale of survival in the face of an otherworldly threat.

Before he became a beloved filmmaker, Robert Altman directed this suspenseful drama, which revolves around a race against time to reach the moon before the Soviet Union. The film features a strong cast, including James Caan and Robert Duvall, who help to create a palpable sense of tension and urgency. While dated in some aspects, it remains a fascinating time capsule of Cold War-era anxieties and the competitive spirit surrounding the Space Race.

Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D.

In the second big-screen adventure featuring Doctor Who, Peter Cushing reprises his role as the time traveler, this time to save a post-apocalyptic Earth from the Daleks' sinister machinations. Boasting a larger budget than its predecessor, the movie delivers more ambitious action sequences, colorful sets, and engaging storytelling. Though not part of the official TV show's canon, it still provides a fun, spirited adventure that fans and newcomers alike can enjoy.

The Phantom Planet

In this imaginative B-movie, an astronaut is stranded on a mysterious planet that causes him to shrink in size, forcing him to adapt to a strange new way of life. Though hampered by a low budget and hokey special effects, the film's unique premise and engaging story manage to create a captivating world. Its exploration of themes like identity, humanity, and love are surprisingly deep for what would otherwise be a standard sci-fi adventure.

Nude on the Moon

This cheeky and innocent sexploitation film centers around two scientists who discover a race of telepathic, topless women living on the moon. With its tongue-in-cheek humor, kitschy set design, and catchy theme song, it stands out as a light-hearted and playful entry in the annals of space-themed cinema. Far from a serious examination of space exploration, the film is best enjoyed as a campy, nostalgic romp through the more risqué side of 1960s filmmaking.

Planet of the Vampires

Directed by Italian horror maestro Mario Bava, this atmospheric sci-fi film follows a group of astronauts who become trapped on a treacherous and eerie alien planet. Boasting visually stunning set design and stylish cinematography, the movie delivers a palpable sense of isolation and dread. This influential cult classic brilliantly combines elements of science fiction, horror, and gothic mystery, creating a unique and unnerving cinematic experience.

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians

In this holiday-themed oddity, Martians kidnap Santa Claus to bring joy to their children and inadvertently set off a series of comic misadventures. Though widely regarded as one of the worst films ever made, it has since gained a cult following for its campy charm, offbeat humor, and memorable characters. Its sheer absurdity, endearing handmade quality, and almost avant-garde approach to storytelling make it an idiosyncratic curiosity worth revisiting.

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Destination Inner Space

This deep-sea thriller combines underwater adventure with extraterrestrial menace as an ocean research team discovers a submerged alien spacecraft. With its innovative low-budget special effects and strong performances, it delivers an engaging blend of action, suspense, and otherworldly terror. Its premise of exploring the uncharted depths of Earth's ocean as a stand-in for outer space creates a refreshing and intriguing change of pace within the genre.

Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women

This unique mashup of American and Soviet filmmaking chronicles the story of Earth astronauts discovering an oceanic planet inhabited by telepathic, beautiful women. The film's combination of surreal visuals, Frankenstein-like editing, and striking narrative makes it a fascinating fusion of artistic styles. Despite its low budget and sometimes disjointed storytelling, it remains a compelling glimpse at the possibilities of international collaboration in cinema.

Queen of Blood

In this eerie and atmospheric horror-sci-fi hybrid, astronauts on a mission to Mars find themselves rescuing an enigmatic alien woman who harbors a dark secret. The film's tension-filled premise and unsettling tone are bolstered by strong performances, particularly from genre veteran John Saxon. Its blend of cosmic terror and vampire mythos make it a uniquely spine-chilling cinematic journey into the unknown.

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Mission Stardust

This campy and tongue-in-cheek adaptation of a popular German pulp novel series follows secret agent Perry Rhodan on an interstellar quest to save a dying alien race. With its outlandish premise, over-the-top action, and kitschy charm, the film is a delightful time capsule of 1960s pop culture and genre sensibilities. Though hardly a high point in cinematic history, it provides a fun and colorful cosmic adventure that entertains audiences with its sheer inventiveness.

Journey to the Seventh Planet

In this eerie and atmospheric Danish-American production, astronauts exploring Uranus encounter a mysterious force that can manifest their deepest fears and desires. Combining striking visuals, a haunting score, and psychological horror elements, the film crafts a unique and unsettling cinematic experience. Its exploration of the human mind and the perils of unchecked desire set it apart from more conventional space adventures.

The Green Slime

In this vividly colorful and campy Japanese-American co-production, a group of astronauts unwittingly brings a dangerous alien lifeform back to their space station following a mission to destroy an asteroid. Featuring bizarre, blob-like monsters and over-the-top action, the film revels in its own absurdity and kitschy charm. Despite its low budget and dated special effects, it has earned a cult following for its unique blend of sci-fi tropes and infectious energy.

They Came from Beyond Space

In this British sci-fi thriller, a scientist discovers that a series of meteorites are actually a cover for an alien invasion, forcing him to take action to save humanity. Featuring a suspenseful plot, solid performances, and a tense atmosphere, the film successfully melds elements of horror and science fiction into a gripping tale. Though not as well-known as other entries on this list, it remains a worthy and engaging example of 1960s space-themed cinema.

This cerebral Soviet sci-fi masterpiece, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, explores deep philosophical concepts of consciousness, memory, and human emotion through its story of a psychologist sent to a distant space station. Known for its slow, hypnotic pace and mesmerizing visuals, the film masterfully constructs an unsettling atmosphere that lingers long after the credits roll. Widely regarded as one of the greatest science fiction movies of all time, it truly stands apart with its introspective and transcendent approach to storytelling.

Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet

This inventive reworking of a Soviet sci-fi film adds new footage to create a unique hybrid, telling the story of a group of astronauts who encounter strange creatures and ancient ruins on the surface of Venus. Boasting impressive set design and special effects for its time, the film creates a fascinating and visually striking alien landscape. The blend of Eastern European and American filmmaking sensibilities adds a unique flavor to this curiosity of cinema.

The X from Outer Space

This kaiju-infused space adventure follows a group of astronauts who unwittingly bring back a destructive, Godzilla-like creature after investigating a mysterious UFO sighting. Loaded with colorful special effects, rubber-suited monster mayhem, and a catchy theme song, the film is a delightful throwback to the classic days of Japanese giant monster movies. Despite its somewhat derivative nature, it stands as a fun and entertaining entry in both the space and kaiju subgenres.

Women of the Prehistoric Planet

Employing an intriguing blend of space adventure and prehistoric Earth-set action, this low-budget feature follows two groups of stranded astronauts who discover a mysterious planet inhabited by primitive humanoids. Despite its shoestring budget and occasionally lackluster special effects, the film benefits from a genuinely interesting premise and engaging storytelling. Its creative fusion of space opera and prehistoric fantasy make it an entertaining entry in the annals of 1960s science fiction.

This British sexploitation sci-fi comedy centers on a secret agent's investigation into a race of scantily-clad alien women who are targeting Earth's male population. Rife with tongue-in-cheek humor, colorful visuals, and risqué situations, the film is a decidedly lighthearted and campy addition to the space genre. Though far from a serious examination of extraterrestrial life, it provides a fun and titillating diversion for fans of both science fiction and sexy spy spoofs.

Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster

In this bizarre B-movie mashup, an android named Frank and his creator must save Earth from an invasion force of alien Martians. Though limited by its low budget and often laughable special effects, the film has found a cult following due to its outlandish concept and haphazard storytelling. Its unforgettable mix of science fiction, horror, and camp ensures its status as a unique and entertaining curio of 1960s cinema.

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Ranking everything in the era of JFK, the Vietnam War, the Beatles, Martin Luther King, the mini-skirt, the space race, and Woodstock.

30 Most Underrated Space Movies You Need To Watch

Ever since the 1902 short film "A Trip To The Moon" saw a rocket smash into the face of the lunar surface, Hollywood has been enamored with stories set amidst the stars. While science fiction movies can encompass many different kinds of remarkable stories, from time travel tales to futuristic dystopian post-apocalypses, stories set in outer space hold a special fascination for the audience and are a touchstone of the genre. Whether they're grounded tales of astronauts seeking out intelligent life or fantastic alien battles between good and evil, some of the biggest films of all time have taken place far from Earth among the vast and endless reaches of the cosmos.

But for every "Star Wars," there's a forgotten, underrated space movie that was swallowed up by the bigger box office hit. For ever "Interstellar," there's another unheralded independent drama about an astronaut that deserves more attention. You've seen "Guardians Of The Galaxy" and "The Martian," and now it's time you take a look at some more movies you may have missed, overlooked because they weren't lighting up the box office charts, or buried in an avalanche of streaming titles. From a 1972 ecological sci-fi thriller to a 2021 Netflix original, here are underrated space movies that you need to watch.

1. Sunshine

The 2007 sci-fi thriller "Sunshine" was directed by Danny Boyle ( "28 Days Later" ) and features one of the best casts on this list. The story chronicles the crew of the starship Icarus II, who've departed a devastated Earth on a critical mission to reignite the sun, which is dying and has left the planet slowly withering away in increasing darkness. A previous mission to save the world had been tried and failed under mysterious circumstances, but when this new crew find the abandoned starship Icarus I along the way, they go aboard to salvage supplies. Looking to find out what went wrong the first time, they bring back a bigger mystery, and soon new problems begin to plague their own ship. It quickly becomes clear that someone is trying to sabotage their mission to save the sun — and doom Earth forever.

A haunting science fiction thriller with a heartbreaking climax, it takes a shocking turn midway through the film that will leave you on the edge of your seat. Largely overlooked on its release, it was  a flop at the box office in the middle of a crowded blockbuster summer , but eventually gained some attention after its home video release and later on streaming sites like Netflix. Cillian Murphy and Michelle Yeoh headlined the cast, while a pre-MCU Chris Evans and Benedict Wong appeared alongside Hiroyuki Sanada and Rose Byrne.

2. 2010: The Year We Make Contact

The 1984 sci-fi sequel "2010: The Year We Make Contact" has long lived in the shadow of its predecessor, the groundbreaking science fiction epic "2001: A Space Odyssey." This sequel, released 15 years after the original, and based on Arthur C. Clarke's sequel novel, "2010: Odyssey II," picks up nearly a decade after Dave Bowman's disastrous showdown with the artificially intelligent computer called HAL 9000. 

The film sees the launch of second expedition into space, this time a joint effort between American and Soviet space programs, to determine what happened aboard the Discovery before the ship's orbit decays and it collides with one of the planet's many moons. Finding both Discovery and the mysterious monolith that was at the center of its earlier mission, Discovery Two uncovers the truth behind HAL 9000's behavior, and gets closer to the secrets of the monoliths. Their mission is complicated by events back on Earth, where relations between the United States and the Soviet Union have begun to break down. 

Despite a stellar cast that includes Roy Scheider and Helen Mirren, the film can't quite live up to the 1969 classic that preceded — but if we're honest, few science fiction films do. On its own merits, though, "2010: The Year We Make Contact" is a less cerebral sequel that might even satisfy those who felt the first film was a bit too slow. In some respects, it could even be seen as more effective sci-fi mystery with a clearer message and a warning about our own future, in the truest tradition of the genre.

3. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

The sixth and final "Star Trek" film to feature the cast of "The Original Series," "The Undiscovered Country" brings Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and the rest of the crew back to the bridge of the Enterprise for one last adventure. Ready for retirement, the destruction of a Klingon moon draws them back out into space, with Kirk reluctantly leading a diplomatic mission to escort the Klingon Chancellor to Earth. With their bitter rivals in crisis, there are calls for peace, and the Federation hopes to negotiate a once unthinkable alliance. But when the Chancellor Gorkon is assassinated and Kirk is blamed, he and McCoy are put on trial. 

The chancellor's daughter goes forward with the peace talks, but Spock — now in command of the Enterprise — believes her father's death was part of a bigger plot to sabotage the coming treaty. While "The Undiscovered Country" is recognized as one of the better "Trek" films, it's often overshadowed by "The Wrath Of Khan" and the more crowd-pleasing "Voyage Home." But the sixth film is more than just a space adventure, and it rarely gets the recognition it deserves as a first-rate political thriller that was intended as an allegory for the fall of the Berlin Wall . 

Impeccable direction, nail-biting suspense, and a chilling performance by actor Christopher Plummer — not to mention a climactic starship confrontation — help make it the franchise's most underrated film.

A terrifying psychological thriller, the 2009 film "Moon" is another movie that received more recognition after its original theatrical release, though it proved short-lived. Since that brief window when it was the talk of sci-fi circles, the movie has fallen back into the pack of underrated sci-fi classics, and deserves to be brought back out for another viewing. Essentially a one-man play, Sam Rockwell ("Iron Man 2") stars as engineer Sam Bell, an astronaut assigned to an extended solitary mission aboard a lunar-based mining installation. 

For three long years, Sam has had no company aboard the station but for a robotic assistant named GERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey). But as his rotation on the moon draws to a close and he prepares to head home, he suddenly begins to lose his grip on his sanity. Seeing visions of a strange woman and a young girl, Sam is forced to question reality itself. Is what he seeing a hallucination or a nightmare, and what is his real mission? These are the questions that Sam and the audience must ponder, and the answers will shock you. Carried solely by Rockwell's powerful singular performance, "Moon" proves a story about a lonely man searching for his soul. A stunning debut for writer and director Duncan Jones, the filmmaker has struggled to live up to his opening masterpiece.

5. Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension

Before he had his career-defining turn as Alex Murphy in "Robocop," star Peter Weller took the title role in W.D. Richter's 1984 cult classic "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai in the 8th Dimension." As weird as you'd expect from the title, the eclectic title hero is a scientist/doctor/rock star/test pilot turned dimension-hopping superhero crimefighter. It all starts when Banzai and his scientist mentor Dr. Tohichi Hikita create a device that sends him and his jet-powered Ford F-350 briefly into another dimension. But while there, he draws the attention of alien overlords who are building an army and plan on attacking New Jersey.

Alongside his bandmates in the Hong Kong Cavaliers, Banzai has to save the Garden State from being overrun by warriors from another dimension. While the movie's plot is needlessly complicated, that's part of the zany, off-the-wall fun of it. Dismissed in its day for being too ridiculous even for the '80s, it proved well ahead of its time , where with more modern SFX it would fit right in today alongside colorful comic book comedies like "Guardians Of The Galaxy," "Thor: Ragnarok" or DC's "Peacemaker." Its all-star cast included Weller, Clancy Brown, Jeff Goldblum , Christopher Lloyd, Ellen Barkin, Carl Lumbly, and John Lithgow, too. If you can get past the dated visuals, "The Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzai In The 8th Dimension" delivers a raucously silly good time.

6. Screamers

Also starring Peter Weller, the 1995 film "Screamers" was based on a story by Philip K. Dick (whose others works were adapted into  "Blade Runner," "The Man In The High Castle," "Total Recall," and "Minority Report"), and was written by Dan O'Bannon (who wrote the original "Alien"). Appearing in a more serious action thriller this time around, Weller plays Commander Joseph Hendricksson, leader of a group of former laborers on a distant colony who are embroiled in a brutal war with the mining company. The mining union have fought back and created an army of robotic sentries called "screamers" to hunt and kill the mercenaries the company brought in to crack down on labor strikes.  

But when a company soldier arrives with an offer of peace — and is gunned down by a screamer before he can deliver it — Hendricksson must figure out if the message is true. Does the company really want to end the war? Meanwhile, screamers themselves seem to be growing minds of their own, and have gained a shocking new ability that adds a new dimension to the conflict. A creepy, action-packed thriller that not-so-coincidentally recalls the gritty tone of "Alien," "Screamers" deserves to be dusted off and watched again in the 21st century.

7. High Life

When Robert Pattinson was still struggling to be taken seriously as an actor post-"Twilight," he took a turn in a sci-fi horror film to show his chops in a more cerebral setting. With French filmmaker Claire Denis in the director's chair, the 2018 film "High Life" follows an astronaut named Monte. He is all alone on a journey through deep space aboard an otherwise empty starship, with only what appears to be his infant daughter as company. Told in a nonlinear fashion, the movie flips back and forth from the past and the present as we learn more about what brought him aboard, what caused the loss of the rest of the ship's crew, and where he is headed with a baby in tow.

As the film peels back the layer's of Monte's past, we discover not all is as it seems, and a larger tapestry is at play. An understated performance from Pattinson helps focus the film, which earned it good reviews on its release. Unfortunately, it came and went quickly from theaters. But with Pattinson ascending to Hollywood heavyweight in the aftermath of "The Batman," this is one film that deserves to be given new life, and should be appreciated as one of the most underrated sci-fi films of the decade.

8. Enemy Mine

A science fiction drama from 1985, Dennis Quaid ("Inner Space") and Louis Gossett Jr. ("Iron Eagle") starred in "Enemy Mine," a story of two men — one human, the other alien — who must overcome their biases and distrust of each other's peoples in order to survive on a desolate world in the far reaches of outer space. As the film opens, we find Earth at war with a deadly alien race of reptile-like humanoids called the Dracs some time in the late 21st century. The war has been devastating for both sides, and each has developed a violent intolerance of the other. Fighter pilot Will Davidge (Quaid) has an almost blind hatred for the Dracs, and during a brutal outer space battle, finds himself and an enemy soldier both crashed on a nearby planetoid.

While they at first try to kill one another, it becomes clear that to survive, they'll have to put aside their hatred and work together. As Davidge and the alien attempt to communicate, they learn about each other, and find that they are not so different after all. Using science fiction the way the genre intended, the film provides a social and moral message about looking past our differences to find common ground. Directed by Wolfgang Petersen ("Das Boot"), it's criminally overlooked, and one of the best forgotten sci-fi films of the '80s.

9. Pandorum

Speaking of Dennis Quaid, years after his '80s hayday he would star in "Pandorum," an independent horror movie released in 2009, set aboard a mysterious interstellar starship. Quaid co-stars with Ben Foster ( "X-Men: The Last Stand" ) as Peyton and Bower, a pair of astronauts who awaken from cryogenic stasis and find themselves aboard what seems to be a empty starship. They have no memory of who they are, why they are there, or what the purpose of the vessel might be. As they begin to explore the ship, they realize that they are not alone: they are being stalked by a bizarre and deadly alien creature. But the bloodthirsty beast may or may not be real, as they could be suffering from pandorum — a form of space psychosis — as a result of their extended time in stasis.

But the stakes are raised when they learn that their mission is nothing less than the preservation of the entire human race itself: The ship hauls the last vestiges of mankind on an voyage to a new world after the devastation of Earth. Though the film was barely seen when released in theaters, it garnered a cult following when it found a home on Netflix not long after. Newly discovered by horror and sci-fi enthusiasts who passed it around as a hidden streaming gem, it saw new life, but remains an underrated sci-fi "never-was."

10. Solo: A Star Wars Story

A "Star Wars" movie that's underrated? Look no further than the prequel film "Solo: A Star Wars Story." Savaged by its critics and called the spin-off nobody asked for, the film gives admittedly unnecessary backstory to  the lovable thief Han Solo, once played by Harrison Ford. 

Set some 15 years before the original "Star Wars," it finds the young wayward Han on the run from a criminal syndicate. Separated from the woman he loves, Han joins a group of smugglers led by a seasoned gangster named Tobias Beckett. Taken under the wing of a notorious scoundrel, Han becomes a crafty young hustler himself. But when a job goes wrong and Han finds himself on the wrong end of intergalactic kingpin Dryden Voss, he'll have to get help from a former Wookie slave and a charismatic rogue if he wants to stay alive and reunite with his lost love. 

Though it may not have been a story that needed to be told, and it's certainly not a perfect movie — bogged down by some bizarre attempts at political commentary — it's a high class, glossy spectacle of an adventure that deserves to be appreciated for its own unique charms. With top notch, awe-inspiring action, and some impressive performances from its cast — including star Alden Ehrenreich and renaissance man Donald Glover — it's definitely the most underrated "Star Wars" story, one that doesn't deserve the hate it often gets.

11. Silent Running

Science fiction of the 1970s before "Star Wars" was harder on the science, and in 1972 Douglas Trumball, VFX supervisor on the landmark "2001: A Space Odyssey" three years earlier, took the helm of one of the most under-appreciated hard science fiction films of the decade, "Silent Running." The film opens in a future where Earth has been devastated by environmental disaster and unable to maintain lush plant life. As a result, large space cruisers have been converted to carry massive bio-domes that contain the last remnants of the planet's florae and fauna. Aboard one such vessel is Freeman Lowell (Bruce Dern), a man who believes in their noble mission, and who is stunned when they are ordered to jettison the forests and return home.

Unwilling to go along with his orders, Lowell rebels and kills the rest of his crew, intent on saving the bio-domes from destruction. Now on the run from the authorities, it's up to him — and a trio of service robot assistants — to preserve the last remnants of Earth's once beautiful environment from annihilation. An outer space ecological adventure with a powerful environment message, it shows one man's sacrifice and conviction, who is willing to stand up and to do what's right, no matter the cost.

12. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy

Based on the sci-fi radio play-turned-novel series of the same name, "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" may have upset longtime fans of the books who preferred the faithful — if low budget — BBC TV series from the early 1980s. Released in 2005, this big budget Hollywood production deviated from the source material in places, but original creator Douglas Adams co-wrote the screenplay, making it tough to complain. 

Featuring a cast full of big names, some before they were stars, Martin Freeman ( "Sherlock" ) played bumbling everyman Arthur Dent, Zooey Deschanel ( "New Girl" ) was quirky space girl Tricia "Trillian" McMillan and Sam Rockwell ("Iron Man 2") was the President Of The Galaxy Zaphod Beeblebrox. Rapper Mos Def and actors Bill Nighy, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, and Alan Rickman rounded out the all-star cast. Like the original, it introduced Dent as perpetually beleaguered man whose house is being bulldozed to make way for a highway when he learns aliens are about to blow up Earth for an interstellar bypass. Dent becomes an unwitting adventurer aboard a bizarre spaceship called the Heart Of Gold, alongside a depressed android called Marvin.

A strong adaptation — faithful in tone and spirit if not entirely in story — its very British sense of humor may have put off wider audiences, leaving it to languish in theaters, never receiving its promised sequels . But on its own, it's a big budget sci-fi laugher worthy of becoming a comedy classic.

13. Dark Star

The debut film from celebrated horror director John Carpenter ("Halloween"), it's long been overshadowed by his bigger and better films. Like "Screamers," the 1974 film "Dark Star" was written by Dan O'Bannon, but this one was before his breakout script "Alien" made him a name in Hollywood. Sure to evoke the look and feel of bigger films you've seen many times before, this forgotten cult classic predates them all. It became incredibly influential in the genre, with a style and tone that can still be felt in sci-fi film's today: its gritty, workman-like visual aesthetic, and grounded realism that made space men more like cynical, exhausted blue collar workers than dashing, brave heroic figures. 

Set aboard the exploratory vessel Dark Star, the worn-down crew has been in space for decades, searching for rogue planets that might cause trouble for Earth's interplanetary colonization efforts. Long since settled into their humdrum daily life aboard the broken down starship, their long journey has left Lieutenant Doolittle and his crew with not much to do but continually make repairs thanks to increasingly common maintenance problems. Their situation get worse, though, when the ship is hit by an electromagnetic storm that causes their artificially intelligent weapons to malfunction. Surprisingly sardonic and bitterly acerbic, "Dark Star" is a clever science fiction workplace adventure that may not be the best on this list, but deserves to be better remembered than it is.

14. Galaxy Quest

The third film on this list to include Sam Rockwell, "Galaxy Quest" was a loving homage and quasi-parody of the original "Star Trek" series. Instead of being about a futuristic starship and its crew though, it tells the story of a group of actors form a popular sci-fi television series. Said cast gets mistaken for their characters by a group of alien refugees attempting to escape from an army of insidious villains. Now, thanks to a case of mistaken identity, the cast of eccentric Hollywood thespians finds themselves battling real-life monsters from outer space, and they might just be the only hope of turning the tide of an interstellar struggle.

Often seen as merely a mockery of "Star Trek," the truth is that "Galaxy Quest" is that and so much more. A razor sharp comedy with one of the finest casts a '90s comedy could assemble, it starred Tim Allen as the William Shatner-esque hero (two years before he'd voice the heroic space man Buzz Lightyear ), Sigourney Weaver as his bombshell castmate and fictional first officer, plus Rockwell, Tony Shalhoub ("Monk"), Alan Rickman ("Harry Potter"), Justin Long ("Live Free Or Die Hard"), and Rainn Wilson in his pre-"The Office" days. The truth is, "Galaxy Quest" works as a hysterical sci-fi romp even if you don't get all the "Star Trek" jokes, and it deserves to be ranked among the best '90s comedies.

Though it was heavily marketed as a big budget sci-fi drama — with a big name cast that included Ryan Reynolds and Jake Gyllenhaal – the 2017 film "Life" came and went quickly, and was unfavorably compared to classics like "Alien." But come at it with different expectations — or, better yet, no expectations — and you'll find a compelling science fiction thriller all its own. The sci-fi horror film begins aboard an International Space Station, where a crew of astronauts has just received soil samples from Mars that may contain living organisms. But the crew is unprepared when the organism grow at an exponential rate, and start attacking and feeding off them.

But when the creature damages the station, causing its orbit to decay, it becomes a race against time to destroy it before it can reach Earth. A tense, action-packed horror movie set in space, early promotion included a cryptic first trailer , leading to speculation that it might somehow be tied to the "Spider-Man" franchise of all things . This confusion led to people misjudging it, and ultimately overlooking it when it turned out to be something else. A victim of lofty expectations, it was quietly buried after  disappointing somewhat at the box office, but in many ways is a better "Alien" sequel than anything produced since James Cameron's first sequel.

16. Final Voyage (Das letzte Land)

"Das letzte Land" ("Final Voyage") is a German science fiction drama from 2019 that's never really made its way stateside. Thanks to streaming, though, it's available for those interested in dark psychological sci-fi. If you can track it down, you're in for a treat — especially if you like your space movies slow, dreary, haunting, and enigmatic. At its heart, "The Final Voyage" is a mystery, beginning with an escaped prisoner who discovers an abandoned, run-down space vessel. Paired with one of the prison's former guards, he gets it up and running to escape the hellish planetoid.

But out in deep space, it becomes a ceaseless struggle to keep the craft up and running. Described by Rabbit Reviews  as "atmospheric and immersive," the film finds the two desperate explorers on a search for a safe harbor. Drawing inspiration from films like "Dark Star" and "Alien," this modern international sci-fi indie movie deserves a look. Though not a perfect movie, its use of practical effects and its sweeping cosmic vistas make it a visual treat, while its tone and story are a fresh take on the genre that still evoke the look and feel of older classics.

17. Solaris

Starring George Clooney, the 2002 sci-fi drama "Solaris" was based on a classic novel by legendary Polish author Stanislaw Lem. A remake of the previous adaptation, a 1972 Russian film of the same name, it was a passion project of co-producer James Cameron, and was ultimately written and directed by Stephen Soderbergh. The film tells the story of Dr. Chris Kelvin, a psychologist brought in by a corporation that runs a deep space orbital station above the planet Solaris. The crew onboard suffered a series of bizarre mental breakdowns and since disappeared. Kelvin is tasked with investigating and ultimately determining if the station's mission should continue.

But once there, Kelvin himself begins to succumb to the same strange phenomenon, including receiving visions of his long-dead wife. After learning that something similar had happened to the crew, Kelvin must figure out if the visions of their loved ones are real, and if they could in fact be some form of alien contact.

Fresh off their collaboration on the previous year's remake of "Ocean's Eleven," Soderbergh and Clooney made "Solaris" a prestigious, high profile project, but it failed to deliver at the box office . Though recognized by critics for its stirring drama and thought provoking ideas, "Solaris" unfortunately had to contend with the specter of the pioneering original version, which still holds up today. But this new version is more than a retread — it forges its own path, and is sure to impress fans of contemplative science fiction psycho-dramas.

18. Event Horizon

Director Paul W.S. Anderson may be known as a purveyor of schlock action movies — producing the "Resident Evil" series, "Alien Vs. Predator," and the first "Mortal Kombat" film — but in 1997, he made arguably his best work with the sci-fi horror movie "Event Horizon." Assembling a stellar cast that included Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill, Kathleen Quinlan, and Jason Isaacs, the film is about a starship called the Event Horizon that disappeared in deep space, and the crew of a second exploratory vessel sent to investigate it when it suddenly reappears a decade later. 

The mission is led by Miller (Fishburne), a military commander and pragmatist, and Weir (Neill), the inventor of the starship's power drive that supposedly folds space time, and who is obsessed with finding the truth. But as the crew begins looking for clues, they realize that the horror isn't over, and that the disaster that killed the crew of the Event Horizon may soon consume them too. Given Anderson's later catalog of disappointing flicks, it's easy to dismiss "Event Horizon," but with an strong cast and some clever concepts, it's a joyous guilty pleasure sure to satisfy anyone who loves science fiction, action, and horror.

19. Black Hole

After the success of "Star Wars," everyone was looking for the next big sci-fi blockbuster, and the Walt Disney Company was no exception . Nearly 35 years before they'd simply buy the whole enterprise, Disney tried their hand at their own outer space adventure, and the result was the 1979 adventure "Black Hole." Starring Maximillian Schell, Joseph Bottoms, Anthony Perkins, and Robert Forster, the movie follows the crew of the USS Palomino, on a deep space exploratory mission when they encounter an older starship, the USS Cygnus, thought lost 20 years before. 

Now orbiting a black hole, they find one man aboard: Dr. Reinhardt, one of Earth's most brilliant minds, who says he's the last man alive after the ship became damaged. Along with a crew of human-like robot drones he claims to have built himself, he has continued to study the titular black hole. But while exploring the Cygnus, the crew of the Palomino realizes that Reinhardt is hiding something, and there's more to his robot army than meets the eye. A surprisingly disturbing sci-fi adventure for a Disney picture, never became as well known as "Star Wars," nor did it ever become it spawn a franchise, but — thanks to its impressive special effects and intriguing story — it has since become a cult classic.

20. Zathura: A Space Adventure

The 2005 family film "Zathura: A Space Adventure" has been largely forgotten, but in retrospect, it's an important stepping stone on a number of Hollywood journeys. Directed by Jon Favreau just before "Iron Man," the film was also a quasi-sequel to "Jumanji," and there have been calls more recently to reincorporate it back into that franchise. The movie follows a pair of brothers who leave home alone and try to pass the time by playing space adventure board game called Zathura. But every move they make and every situation they encounter in the game comes to life, sending them on an incredible journey into space.

With the help of a heroic astronaut, the two brothers — and their older sister, who becomes trapped with them — must find a way to use the game to make their way back to Earth. A fun family adventure, its lack of success was blamed on poor promotions  that confused audiences. But with Favreau at the helm, and a cast that included a young Josh Hutcherson ("The Hunger Games") and Kristen Stewart before "Twilight," the first "Jumanji" sequel is an underrated outer space adventure.

International sci-fi films are easy to miss in the States, where some of the best gems receive little promotion and can disappear on sites like Netflix or Hulu, buried under mountains of bigger titles. One such gem that shouldn't be miss is the 2018 Swedish science fiction dystopian drama "Aniara" from co-directors Pella Kågerman and Hugo Lilja. Set in the not-too-distant future, the Earth has become nearly uninhabitable, devastated by climate change that has seen non-stop natural disasters and rising ocean levels. Humanity is colonizing Mars and has begun a mass migration, with massive vessels regularly ferrying large numbers of colonists to the Red Planet. 

One such vessel is the Aniara, a large cruise-liner equipped with a Mima — an artificially intelligent, virtual reality simulator — that provide immersive experiences for the migrants during their long journey. But when the ship is struck by space debris, it loses navigation and may no longer be able to reach Mars. As the journey is extended by years, and the Mima breaks down, the delicate balance of society aboard the star-liner breaks down. Chaos erupts. A wave of despair sweeps the ship, and as chances for rescue dwindle, all hope may rest with the Mimarobe, the Mima's engineer who has been trying to recreate the Mima's functions. A bleak, haunting drama in space, it's not for the faint of heart, but comes highly recommended if you can track it down. 

22. The Last Starfighter

Another attempt to capture the sci-fi adventure of "Star Wars," this time by Universal Studios, the 1986 film "The Last Starfighter" similarly a teenaged boy fulfill his dreams of going into outer space after he is recruited fight in an interstellar war. Alex Rogan (Lance Guest) is a high school kid on Earth who becomes the highest scoring player of an arcade game called The Last Starfighter, which he learns was secretly designed to find the best pilots in the cosmos. Brought into outer space and trained by an alien fighter named Grig (Dan O'Herlihy), Alex learns about the war between the Rylan Star League and the Ko-Dan Empire.

The Star League's home planet Rylos has successfully fended off an invasion, but the Ko-Dan's leader, a vicious tyrant named Xur, has a new weapon that can breach their defenses. Now Alex must find the courage to join the war and stop an invasion that threatens to engulf Earth, as well. Criminally under-seen, "The Last Starfighter" is a memorable sci-fi actioneer that any child of the '80s likely has fond memories of, even if it hasn't become a classic.

23. Europa Report

Another sci-fi movie about an exploratory mission that proves a disaster from almost the moment it leaves Earth's atmosphere, the 2013 indie drama "Europa Report" used a mix of found footage, fictionalized news reports, documentary interviews, and gonzo style filmmaking. The end result? A grounded, realistic look at what a real space mission to search for life among the stars might be like. It follow the crew of a privately funded space flight to Europa, a moon of Jupiter, to search for evidence of life. But even before the vessel arrives at its destination, they lose a crew member, who sacrifices himself to save their mission after pass through devastating solar storm.

When they finally get to Europa, they encounter more problems drilling through the moon's icy shell, with their first probe mysteriously lost. A series of unexplained occurrences rattle the group, before disaster strikes, and their entire mission is in jeopardy. Will they discover life on Europa, and if they do, will it be more than they bargained for? An intense and gripping tale of scientific discovery, its unique filmmaking style brought something fresh to the genre that made it worth the watch, even if the story itself wasn't anything groundbreaking.

24. Ad Astra

The thoughtful character drama "Ad Astra" was an ambitious and high profile project for star Brad Pitt, but was mostly seen as a disappointment . It wasn't a flashy sci-fi epic like "Interstellar" nor a dramatic survival story like "The Martian." Instead, "Ad Astra" was a thoughtful, introspective character drama about a family, faith, and legacy. Pitt stars as Roy McBride, commander of SpaceCom, whose father Clifford had manned a mission to Neptune years before, but had been lost somewhere in out there along the way. Now, with a series of unexplained power surges on Earth that are traced back to his father's last known location in deep space, Roy is sent on a mission to find his father and discover the cause of the phenomenon that threatens to destroy the world.

Set in a future world where humanity's obsession with technological progress has led to disaster, the film is sci-fi at its finest, taking a hard look at today's problems through the lens of tomorrow. Punctuated by impeccable performances from its all-star cast — which also includes Tommy Lee Jones, Liv Tyler, and Donald Sutherland — "Ad Astra" does more than look great, it explores real issues both broadly profound and intensely personal. Seldom cited as one of Pitt's best, it deserves attention, and remains one of his strongest, most understated performances, despite the movie's lower profile.

Another lesser-seen international standout, the innovative Netflix original "Cargo" from 2019 comes courtesy of Indian writer and director Arati Kadav. A disturbing space-based tale, it explores the prospect of reincarnation and the afterlife — not to mention other-worldly deities — being discovered in the depths of outer space. It introduces us to scientist Prahastha (Vikrant Massey), who works for a company that runs post-death transition, where — in an orbital station — he prepares recently deceased people for a new life. His monotonous job is just fine as far as he's concerned, and he seems to enjoy his solitary duties. But his routine is disrupted when he's assigned a new assistant.

With the arrival of the young and beautiful Yuvishka (Shweta Tripathi), Prahastha finds his job and life becoming far more complicated. We also learn that Prahastha is something much more than a mere scientist. A compelling and unique blending of Hindu faith and high concept science fiction, "Cargo" impresses with a rare new take on a classic idea: the lone astronaut on a tedious, prolonged mission. Though there are some common themes and ideas at play, "Cargo" at least gives them a sardonic twist with a religious bent, making the film an innovative and imaginative offering that deserves the spotlight.

26. Treasure Planet

When someone mentions an excellent Disney sci-fi film, you probably think of Pixar's "WALL-E," but there's another that's almost entirely forgotten today: the 2002 outer space adventure "Treasure Planet." One of their rare forays into the genre, the film was a clever twist on Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island." It focuses on Jim Hawkins, who runs an inn on the planet Montressor. All his life, he has heard stories of intergalactic treasure hunter Nathaniel Flint and his search for the fabled "Treasure Planet." When a starship crash lands nearby, and its pilot leaves him with a mysterious star map, Hawkins discovers that Treasure Planet is no fable, and sets out to find the greatest prize in the galaxy.

A mix of sci-fi, fantasy, and steampunk before it was popular, "Treasure Planet" may just have been a little too ahead of its time. Full of fun visuals, likable heroes, and dastardly villains, it's everything you could want from a Disney animated feature, and it's a real shame it hasn't become a classic. As a good old pulp adventure in space, it succeeds, and deserves to be remembered alongside the best the animation giant has to offer.

27. Stowaway

With a flood of movies landing every month on any number of streaming sites, it's easy for some films to get lost in the crowd. One such movie that disappeared was "Stowaway," a 2021 Netflix original starring Anna Kendrick ("Pitch Perfect"), Daniel Dae-Kim ("Hawaii Five-O") and Toni Collette ("Knives Out"). Despite the cast, it came and went with little fanfare. It's a shame, because it's a first rate space movie about a mission to Mars whose crew runs into a complicated moral dilemma. 

Embarking on a multi-year journey to the Red Planet, three space-faring scientists are thrown for a loop when they discover an unintended stowaway aboard, trapped in the module before takeoff. He's also damaged the ship's CO 2 scrubber, making it impossible for the crew to survive. With an unintended companion and malfunctioning equipment that can't sustain so many passengers, the mission seems doomed, and the crew are forced to improvise. But with time running out, and mission control offering no solution, they decide one of them may have to die for the rest to survive. A surprising psychological thriller packed with compelling characters forced into impossible decisions, it's a tense personal drama in outer space that provides some of the best sci-fi suspense on this list.

28. Explorers

The 1985 film "Explorers" featured a surprisingly star-studded cast for a movie with child actors. The film starred Ethan Hawke ( "Moon Knight" ) and River Phoenix ("Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade") in their movie debuts, and also co-starred James Cromwell ("Babe") and Robert Picardo ( "Star Trek: Voyager" ). Directed by Joe Dante ("Gremlins"), with special effects by Industrial Light & Magic and a score by "Star Trek" composer Jerry Goldsmith, it has a classy pedigree in all facets of the production, yet is somehow hardly remembered.

A classic childhood adventure, the film centers on three friends — Ben, Wolfgang, and Darren — who are obsessed with outer space. When Ben receives a vision of a circuit board in a dream, he and his friends use it to build a small spacecraft in their backyard. Against all odds, the ship flies and takes them on a journey, where they meet a pair of aliens much like them: youngsters looking for adventure. Think of it as "The Sandlot" in space. Unfortunately, the movie was swallowed up in a busy summer that included "Back To The Future" and "Goonies," but if you love those movies, or the similar "Flight Of The Navigator," check out their lesser-seen cousin "Explorers."

29. Space Station 76

What "Austin Powers" did for '60s spy movies, the R-rated 2014 outer space comedy "Space Station 76" does for '70s sci-fi. A retro send-up that mocks classic science fiction films and tropes, including a couple from this list, the film stars Patrick Wilson ("Watchmen"), Liv Tyler ("The Incredible Hulk"), Matt Bomer ("Doom Patrol") and Jerry O'Connell ("Star Trek: Lower Decks"). Set aboard the Omega 76 space station, we meet Jessica Marlow (Tyler), the incoming first officer of the Omega 76 space station. She arrives at her new assignment and clashes with the oddball crew, each dealing with their own personal issues.

Captain Glenn Terry (Wilson) is forced to hide his sexuality in the repressed retro future, while Ted (Bomer) struggles with being a single father who wants nothing more than to get back together with his unstable ex-wife Misty (Marisa Coughlan). A delightful throwback that is as much a '70s comedy as it is an homage to the era, it boasts appropriately primitive VFX and is full of clever sight gags, incisive social commentary, and big laughs mined from the oddity of disco sci-fi. Whether you love that decade's best or just enjoy seeing someone poke fun at them, "Space Station 76" will leave you laughing all the way to Alpha Centauri and back.

The directorial debut of filmmaker William Eubank (whose further science fiction films "The Signal" and "Underwater" also come highly recommended), the curiously titled 2011 space drama "Love" once again tells a tale of loneliness and madness in space. It focuses on a singular astronaut, Lee Miller, who has been sent on a one-man mission to the previously abandoned International Space Station in the year 2039. After he arrives however, a massive global war breaks out on Earth, devastating the planet and leaving him all alone in orbit, possibly the last man alive.

As he deals with both a physical and existential crisis, Miller slowly begins to lose his grip on his sanity. But while trying to stay alive, he discovers a strange and antiquated journal aboard the station. Written during the Civil War by a Union captain, it recounts the soldier's fantastic journey to investigate a strange, unearthly object that had been reported during the conflict. Miller will soon discover that he and the Union captain have more in common than he ever could have imagined. Though "Love" explores common themes the genre has touched on before, the low-budget indie film embraces them with a certain spirituality that makes it unique, and should appeal to fans of more thought-provoking space-based science fiction.

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Renowned theatre artist MC Kattappana passes away

Prominent theatre artist MC Chacko, famously known as MC Kattappanna (75), passed away on Tuesday due to age-related ailments. He had been active in the state’s theatre scene for several decades, participating in approximately 30 drama productions and also featuring in a handful of movies. Alongside his theatrical endeavours, he was deeply involved in social service. He is survived by his wife Saramma, daughter Sheeja, and son Boban.

In 2007, he received the state government’s award for the best theatre artist for his performance in the drama 'Arum Kothikkunna Mannu', produced by Kollam Arena. The play depicted the plight of farmers settled in the high ranges, with MC Kattappana's portrayal of a farmer earning widespread acclaim.

MC Kattappana commenced his professional theatre journey in 1977 with Attingal Deshibhimani. Subsequently, he became associated with several theatre companies, gracing hundreds of stages with his performances. Concurrently employed in the government sector, he pursued a career in professional theatre. Additionally, he essayed roles in movies such as 'Pakal', 'Kaazhcha', 'Amrutham', 'Palunku', and 'Kanaka Simhasanam', among others.

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Hubble's Servicing Mission 4 Celebrates Its 15 th Anniversary

• Released Friday, May 10, 2024
• Produced by:
• Paul Morris

Fifteen years ago, a remarkable mission unfolded above the Earth. The Hubble Space Telescope, humanity's eye on the universe, received an unprecedented upgrade during its fifth and final Servicing Mission. In May 2009, a brave team of astronauts embarked on a daring journey aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis. Their mission? To breathe new life into Hubble, ensuring its legacy of discovery could continue for years to come. For more information, visit https://nasa.gov/hubble. Music Credit: "Tough Enough" by Steve Sechi [ASCAP] via Soundcast Music [SESAC], and Universal Production Music.

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How Biden Adopted Trump’s Trade War With China

The president has proposed new barriers to electric vehicles, steel and other goods..

This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email [email protected] with any questions.

From “The New York Times,” I’m Sabrina Tavernise, and this is “The Daily.”

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Donald Trump upended decades of American policy when he started a trade war with China. Many thought that President Biden would reverse those policies. Instead, he’s stepping them up. Today, my colleague, Jim Tankersley, explains.

It’s Monday, May 13.

Jim, it’s very nice to have you in the studio.

It’s so great to be here, Sabrina. Thank you so much.

So we are going to talk today about something I find very interesting and I know you’ve been following. We’re in the middle of a presidential campaign. You are an economics reporter looking at these two candidates, and you’ve been trying to understand how Trump and Biden are thinking about our number one economic rival, and that is China.

As we know, Trump has been very loud and very clear about his views on China. What about Biden?

Well, no one is going to accuse President Biden of being as loud as former President Trump. But I think he’s actually been fairly clear in a way that might surprise a lot of people about how he sees economic competition with China.

We’re going after China in the wrong way. China is stealing intellectual property. China is conditioning —

And Biden has, kind of surprisingly, sounded a lot, in his own Joe Biden way, like Trump.

They’re not competing. They’re cheating. They’re cheating. And we’ve seen the damage here in America.

He has been very clear that he thinks China is cheating in trade.

The bottom line is I want fair competition with China, not conflict. And we’re in a stronger position to win the economic competition of the 21st century against China or anyone else because we’re investing in America and American workers again. Finally.

And maybe the most surprising thing from a policy perspective is just how much Biden has built on top of the anti-China moves that Trump made and really is the verge of his own sort of trade war with China.

Interesting. So remind us, Jim, what did Trump do when he actually came into office? We, of course, remember Trump really talking about China and banging that drum hard during the campaign, but remind us what he actually did when he came into office.

Yeah, it’s really instructive to start with the campaign, because Trump is talking about China in some very specific ways.

We have a $500 billion deficit, trade deficit, with China. We’re going to turn it around. And we have the cards. Don’t forget —

They’re ripping us off. They’re stealing our jobs.

They’re using our country as a piggy bank to rebuild China, and many other countries are doing the same thing. So we’re losing our good jobs, so many.

The economic context here is the United States has lost a couple of million jobs in what was called the China shock of the early 2000s. And Trump is tapping into that.

But when the Chinese come in, and they want to make great trade deals — and they make the best trade deals, and not anymore. When I’m there, we turn it around, folks. We turn it around. We have —

And what he’s promising as president is that he’s going to bring those jobs back.

I’ll be the greatest jobs president that God ever created. I’ll take them back from China, from Japan.

And not just any jobs, good-paying manufacturing jobs, all of it — clothes, shoes, steel, all of these jobs that have been lost that American workers, particularly in the industrial Midwest, used to do. Trump’s going to bring them back with policy meant to rebalance the trade relationship with China to get a better deal with China.

So he’s saying China is eating our lunch and has been for decades. That’s the reason why factory workers in rural North Carolina don’t have work. It’s those guys. And I’m going to change that.

Right. And he likes to say it’s because our leaders didn’t cut the right deal with them, so I’m going to make a better deal. And to get a better deal, you need leverage. So a year into his presidency, he starts taking steps to amass leverage with China.

And so what does that look like?

Just an hour ago, surrounded by a hand-picked group of steelworkers, President Trump revealed he was not bluffing.

It starts with tariffs. Tariffs are taxes that the government imposes on imports.

Two key global imports into America now face a major new barrier.

Today, I’m defending America’s national security by placing tariffs on foreign imports of steel and aluminum.

And in this case, it’s imports from a lot of different countries, but particularly China.

Let’s take it straight to the White House. The president of the United States announcing new trade tariffs against China. Let’s listen in.

This has been long in the making. You’ve heard —

So Trump starts, in 2018, this series of tariffs that he’s imposing on all sorts of things — washing machines, solar panels, steel, aluminum. I went to Delaware to a lighting store at that time, I remember, where basically everything they sold came from China and was subject to the Trump tariffs, because that’s where lighting was made now.

Interesting.

Hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese goods now start falling under these Trump tariffs. The Chinese, of course, don’t take this lying down.

China says it is not afraid of a trade war with the US, and it’s fighting back against President Trump with its own tariffs on US goods.

They do their own retaliatory tariffs. Now American exports to China cost more for Chinese consumers. And boom, all of a sudden, we are in the midst of a full-blown trade war between the United States and Beijing.

Right. And that trade war was kind of a shock because for decades, politicians had avoided that kind of policy. It was the consensus of the political class in the United States that there should not be tariffs like that. It should be free trade. And Trump just came in and blew up the consensus.

Yeah. And Sabrina, I may have mentioned this once or 700 times before on this program, but I talk to a lot of economists in my job.

Yeah, it’s weird. I talk to a lot of economists. And in 2018 when this started, there were very, very, very few economists of any political persuasion who thought that imposing all these tariffs were a good idea. Republican economists in particular, this is antithetical to how they think about the world, which is low taxes, free trade. And even Democratic economists who thought they had some problems with the way free trade had been conducted did not think that Trump’s “I’m going to get a better deal” approach was going to work. And so there was a lot of criticism at the time, and a lot of politicians really didn’t like it, a lot of Democrats, many Republicans. And it all added up to just a real, whoa, I don’t think this is going to work.

So that begs the question, did it?

Well, it depends on what you mean by work. Economically, it does not appear to have achieved what Trump wanted. There’s no evidence yet in the best economic research that’s been done on this that enormous amounts of manufacturing jobs came back to the United States because of Trump’s tariffs. There was research, for example, on the tariffs on washing machines. They appear to have helped a couple thousand jobs, manufacturing jobs be created in the United States, but they also raised the price of washing machines for everybody who bought them by enough that each additional job that was created by those tariffs effectively cost consumers, like, $800,000 per job.

There’s like lots of evidence that the sectors Trump was targeting to try to help here, he didn’t. There just wasn’t a lot of employment rebound to the United States. But politically, it really worked. The tariffs were very popular. They had this effect of showing voters in those hollowed-out manufacturing areas that Trump was on their team and that he was fighting for them. Even if they didn’t see the jobs coming back, they felt like he was standing up for them.

So the research suggests this was a savvy political move by Trump. And in the process, it sort of changes the political economic landscape in both parties in the United States.

Right. So Trump made these policies that seemed, for many, many years in the American political system, fringe, isolationist, economically bad, suddenly quite palatable and even desirable to mainstream policymakers.

Yeah. Suddenly getting tough on China is something everyone wants to do across both parties. And so from a political messaging standpoint, being tough on China is now where the mainstream is. But at the same time, there is still big disagreement over whether Trump is getting tough on China in the right way, whether he’s actually being effective at changing the trade relationship with China.

Remember that Trump was imposing these tariffs as a way to get leverage for a better deal with China. Well, he gets a deal of sorts, actually, with the Chinese government, which includes some things about tariffs, and also China agreeing to buy some products from the United States. Trump spins it as this huge win, but nobody else really, including Republicans, acts like Trump has solved the problem that Trump himself has identified. This deal is not enough to make everybody go, well, everything’s great with China now. We can move on to the next thing.

China remains this huge issue. And the question of what is the most effective way to deal with them is still an animating force in politics.

Got it. So politically, huge win, but policy-wise and economically, and fundamentally, the problem of China still very much unresolved.

Absolutely.

So then Biden comes in. What does Biden do? Does he keep the tariffs on?

Biden comes to office, and there remains this real pressure from economists to roll back what they consider to be the ineffective parts of Trump’s trade policy. That includes many of the tariffs. And it’s especially true at a time when almost immediately after Biden takes office, inflation spikes. And so Americans are paying a lot of money for products, and there’s this pressure on Biden, including from inside his administration, to roll back some of the China tariffs to give Americans some relief on prices.

And Biden considers this, but he doesn’t do it. He doesn’t reverse Trump’s tariff policy. In the end, he’s actually building on it.

We’ll be right back.

So Jim, you said that Biden is actually building on Trump’s anti-China policy. What exactly does that look like?

So Biden builds on the Trump China policy in three key ways, but he does it with a really specific goal that I just want you to keep in mind as we talk about all of this, which is that Biden isn’t just trying to beat China on everything. He’s not trying to cut a better deal. Biden is trying to beat China in a specific race to own the clean-energy future.

Clean energy.

Yeah. So keep that in mind, clean energy. And the animating force behind all of the things Biden does with China is that Biden wants to beat China on what he thinks are the jobs of the future, and that’s green technology.

Got it. OK. So what does he do first?

OK. Thing number one — let’s talk about the tariffs. He does not roll them back. And actually, he builds on them. For years, for the most part, he just lets the tariffs be. His administration reviews them. And it’s only now, this week, when his administration is going to actually act on the tariffs. And what they’re going to do is raise some of them. They’re going to raise them on strategic green tech things, like electric vehicles, in order to make them more expensive.

And I think it’s important to know the backdrop here, which is since Biden has taken office, China has started flooding global markets with really low-cost green technologies. Solar panels, electric vehicles are the two really big ones. And Biden’s aides are terrified that those imports are going to wash over the United States and basically wipe out American automakers, solar panel manufacturers, that essentially, if Americans can just buy super-cheap stuff from China, they’re not going to buy it from American factories. Those factories are going to go out of business.

So Biden’s goal of manufacturing jobs in clean energy, China is really threatening that by dumping all these products on the American market.

Exactly. And so what he wants to do is protect those factories with tariffs. And that means increasing the tariffs that Trump put on electric vehicles in hopes that American consumers will find them too expensive to buy.

But doesn’t that go against Biden’s goal of clean energy and things better for the environment? Lots of mass-market electric vehicles into the United States would seem to advance that goal. And here, he’s saying, no, you can’t come in.

Right, because Biden isn’t just trying to reduce emissions at all costs. He wants to reduce emissions while boosting American manufacturing jobs. He doesn’t want China to get a monopoly in these areas. And he’s also, in particular, worried about the politics of lost American manufacturing jobs. So Biden does not want to just let you buy cheaper Chinese technologies, even if that means reducing emissions.

He wants to boost American manufacturing of those things to compete with China, which brings us to our second thing that Biden has done to build on Trump’s China policy, which is that Biden has started to act like the Chinese government in particular areas by showering American manufacturers with subsidies.

I see. So dumping government money into American businesses.

Yes, tax incentives, direct grants. This is a way that China has, in the past decades, built its manufacturing dominance, is with state support for factories. Biden is trying to do that in particular targeted industries, including electric vehicles, solar power, wind power, semiconductors. Biden has passed a bunch of legislation that showers those sectors with incentives and government support in hopes of growing up much faster American industry.

Got it. So basically, Biden is trying to beat China at its own game.

Yeah, he’s essentially using tariffs to build a fortress around American industry so that he can train the troops to fight the clean energy battle with China.

And the troops being American companies.

Yes. It’s like, we’re going to give them protection — protectionist policy — in order to get up to size, get up to strength as an army in this battle for clean energy dominance against the Chinese.

Got it. So he’s trying to build up the fortress. What’s the third thing Biden does? You mentioned three things.

Biden does not want the United States going it alone against China. He’s trying to build an international coalition, wealthy countries and some other emerging countries that are going to take on China and try to stop the Chinese from using their trade playbook to take over all these new emerging industrial markets.

But, Jim, why? What does the US get from bringing our allies into this trade war? Why does the US want that?

Some of this really is about stopping China from gaining access to new markets. It’s like, if you put the low-cost Chinese exports on a boat, and it’s going around the world, looking for a dock to stop and offload the stuff and sell it, Biden wants barriers up at every possible port. And he wants factories in those places that are competing with the Chinese.

And a crucial fact to know here is that the United States and Europe, they are behind China when it comes to clean-energy technology. The Chinese government has invested a lot more than America and Europe in building up its industrial capacity for clean energy. So America and its allies want to deny China dominance of those markets and to build up their own access to them.

And they’re behind, so they’ve got to get going. It’s like they’re in a race, and they’re trailing.

Yeah, it’s an economic race to own these industries, and it’s that global emissions race. They also want to be bringing down fossil-fuel emissions faster than they currently are, and this is their plan.

So I guess, Jim, the question in my mind is, Trump effectively broke the seal, right? He started all of these tariffs. He started this trade war with China. But he did it in this kind of jackhammer, non-targeted way, and it didn’t really work economically. Now Biden is taking it a step further. But the question is, is his effort here going to work?

The answer to whether it’s going to work really depends on what your goals are. And Biden and Trump have very different goals. If Trump wins the White House back, he has made very clear that his goal is to try to rip the United States trade relationship with China even more than he already has. He just wants less trade with China and more stuff of all types made in the United States that used to be made in China. That’s a very difficult goal, but it’s not Biden’s goal.

Biden’s goal is that he wants America to make more stuff in these targeted industries. And there is real skepticism from free-market economists that his industrial policies will work on that, but there’s a lot of enthusiasm for it from a new strain of Democratic economists, in particular, who believe that the only chance Biden has to make that work is by pulling all of these levers, by doing the big subsidies and by putting up the tariffs, that you have to have both the troops training and the wall around them. And if it’s going to work, he has to build on the Trump policies. And so I guess you’re asking, will it work? It may be dependent upon just how far he’s willing to go on the subsidies and the barriers.

There’s a chance of it.

So, Jim, at the highest level, whatever the economic outcome here, it strikes me that these moves by Biden are pretty remarkably different from the policies of the Democratic Party over the decades, really going in the opposite direction. I’m thinking of Bill Clinton and NAFTA in the 1990s. Free trade was the real central mantra of the Democratic Party, really of both parties.

Yeah, and Biden is a real break from Clinton. And Clinton was the one who actually signed the law that really opened up trade with China, and Biden’s a break from that. He’s a break from even President Obama when he was vice president. Biden is doing something different. He’s breaking from that Democratic tradition, and he’s building on what Trump did, but with some throwback elements to it from the Roosevelt administration and the Eisenhower administration. This is this grand American tradition of industrial policy that gave us the space race and the interstate highway system. It’s the idea of using the power of the federal government to build up specific industrial capacities. It was in vogue for a time. It fell out of fashion and was replaced by this idea that the government should get out of the way, and you let the free market drive innovation. And now that industrial policy idea is back in vogue, and Biden is doing it.

So it isn’t just a shift or an evolution. It’s actually a return to big government spending of the ‘30s and the ‘40s and the ‘50s of American industrialism of that era. So what goes around comes around.

Yeah, and it’s a return to that older economic theory with new elements. And it’s in part because of the almost jealousy that American policymakers have of China and the success that it’s had building up its own industrial base. But it also has this political element to it. It’s, in part, animated by the success that Trump had making China an issue with working-class American voters.

You didn’t have to lose your job to China to feel like China was a stand-in for the forces that have taken away good-paying middle-class jobs from American workers who expected those jobs to be there. And so Trump tapped into that. And Biden is trying to tap into that. And the political incentives are pushing every future American president to do more of that. So I think we are going to see even more of this going forward, and that’s why we’re in such an interesting moment right now.

So we’re going to see more fortresses.

More fortresses, more troops, more money.

Jim, thank you.

You’re welcome.

Here’s what else you should know today. Intense fighting between Hamas fighters and Israeli troops raged in parts of Northern Gaza over the weekend, an area where Israel had declared Hamas defeated earlier in the war, only to see the group reconstitute in the power vacuum that was left behind. The persistent lawlessness raised concerns about the future of Gaza among American officials. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on “Face the Nation” on Sunday that the return of Hamas to the North left him concerned that Israeli victories there would be, quote, “not sustainable,” and said that Israel had not presented the United States with any plan for when the war ends.

And the United Nations aid agency in Gaza said early on Sunday that about 300,000 people had fled from Rafah over the past week, the city in the enclave’s southernmost tip where more than a million displaced Gazans had sought shelter from Israeli bombardments elsewhere. The UN made the announcement hours after the Israeli government issued new evacuation orders in Rafah, deepening fears that the Israeli military was preparing to invade the city despite international warnings.

Today’s episode was produced by Nina Feldman, Carlos Prieto, Sidney Harper, and Luke Vander Ploeg. It was edited by M.J. Davis Lin, Brendan Klinkenberg, and Lisa Chow. Contains original music by Diane Wong, Marion Lozano, and Dan Powell, and was engineered by Alyssa Moxley. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly.

That’s it for “The Daily.” I’m Sabrina Tavernise. See you tomorrow.

• May 14, 2024   •   35:20 Voters Want Change. In Our Poll, They See It in Trump.
• May 13, 2024   •   27:46 How Biden Adopted Trump’s Trade War With China
• May 10, 2024   •   27:42 Stormy Daniels Takes the Stand
• May 9, 2024   •   34:42 One Strongman, One Billion Voters, and the Future of India
• May 8, 2024   •   28:28 A Plan to Remake the Middle East
• May 7, 2024   •   27:43 How Changing Ocean Temperatures Could Upend Life on Earth
• May 6, 2024   •   29:23 R.F.K. Jr.’s Battle to Get on the Ballot
• May 3, 2024   •   25:33 The Protesters and the President
• May 2, 2024   •   29:13 Biden Loosens Up on Weed
• May 1, 2024   •   35:16 The New Abortion Fight Before the Supreme Court
• April 30, 2024   •   27:40 The Secret Push That Could Ban TikTok
• April 29, 2024   •   47:53 Trump 2.0: What a Second Trump Presidency Would Bring

Hosted by Sabrina Tavernise

Produced by Nina Feldman ,  Carlos Prieto ,  Sydney Harper and Luke Vander Ploeg

Edited by M.J. Davis Lin ,  Brendan Klinkenberg and Lisa Chow

Original music by Diane Wong ,  Marion Lozano and Dan Powell

Engineered by Alyssa Moxley

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Donald Trump upended decades of American policy when he started a trade war with China. Many thought that President Biden would reverse those policies. Instead, he’s stepping them up.

Jim Tankersley, who covers economic policy at the White House, explains.

On today’s episode

Jim Tankersley , who covers economic policy at the White House for The New York Times.

Background reading

Mr. Biden, competing with Mr. Trump to be tough on China , called for steel tariffs last month.

The Biden administration may raise tariffs on electric vehicles from China to 100 percent .

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