Science fiction cinema has always been a playground for imagination, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible and exploring profound themes through cutting-edge technology and storytelling. In 2024, the science fiction genre continued to thrive, delivering awe-inspiring moments in action movies like Dune: Part 2 and mind bending twists in films like It’s What’s Inside that captivated audiences and challenged their perceptions of reality. From sweeping vistas of alien landscapes to intimate, character-driven narratives, these films showcased the immense creativity of filmmakers who dared to imagine futures both wondrous and terrifying. The genre’s ability to blend thought-provoking concepts with visually stunning sequences has solidified its place as a cornerstone of modern cinema, drawing viewers into worlds where the extraordinary becomes believable.
This year’s standout moments demonstrate the versatility of science fiction as a genre, encompassing everything from deeply emotional human connections to exhilarating action set pieces. These scenes invite us to ponder questions of identity, humanity, and our place in the cosmos while thrilling us with groundbreaking visuals and innovative storytelling techniques. Whether grounded in hard science or delving into the fantastical, these cinematic achievements have left an indelible mark, inspiring audiences and sparking conversations about the future of storytelling. As we look back on 2024, these moments remind us why science fiction remains one of the most exciting and transformative genres in film.
Related
The One Problem Denis Villeneuve Must Overcome While Adapting Dune: Messiah
Less spectacle, more politics, and a genocidal hero. Will the third Dune film deliver a franchise-defining finale or succumb to hype?
Alien: Romulus – The Shooting Gallery
It should come as no surprise that the scene in Alien: Romulus where Rain is floating in zero gravity and shooting aliens is one of our favorite science fiction movie moments of 2024. The scene is an interesting cinematic experience. Not only is she shooting the aliens as they try and float to her, but she then has to avoid their acid bubbles that are created when she kills them.
The whole thing plays like a scene out of a video game, complete with the comically large gun she’s using in the shooting gallery. This movie restarted the Alien franchise, andthere are plenty of great moments. Honorable mention is the way that chest-bursting is reinvented, but as far as our favorite moments go, this one takes the cake here at GameRant.
The Substance – Monstro Elisasue
As is the case with a couple of the best sci-fi movies released this year, they also fall into the horror category, and there may be no film that does double duty better than The Substance. The movie about an aging woman who finds that with a kind of gooey face cream, she can become a younger version of herself is horrifying once things spin out of control.
Things spin out of control completely towards the end of the film when Sue wants to go out on the town without Elisabeth to sustain her physical beauty, so the desperate younger woman uses the leftover serum to create another version of herself. Unfortunately, that goes against the rules of The Substance. The mutated body, Monstro Elisasue, has a deformed Sue in front and Elisabeth’s face on the back. Eventually, in order to end her misery and stop horrifying people, she’s decapitated.
Dune: Part Two – Riding the Sandworm
Denis Villeneuve’s reimagining of the Dune franchise rolled right along in 2024 with Dune Part 2 and this movie involved one of the best scenes of the entire Dune series. Timothy Chalamet’s character continues to show that he is the one who was promised to the people by managing to hop on the top of a sandworm and ride it like someone might ride a horse.
It’s a scene that fans of the movie have been waiting for since this new modern version of Dune started hitting theaters and the moment definitely pays off exactly as people had hoped. The sandworms are absolutely massive and look like truly powerful creatures that only a certain type of person would even want to get on top of during the movie.
A Quiet Place: Day One – The Attack
A Quiet Place: Day One is a kind of spinoff of the first two movies that sheds a little more light on what’s going on in the world when the aliens arrive on earth. More specifically, it’s the moment that the aliens crash land on earth in New York City and craziness immediately ensues.
The moment is one of the best in science fiction movies precisely because while the audience knows exactly what’s happening during the moment, it’s still something that is hidden and and impressive with the dust that is obscuring everything. Right up until the aliens start taking people out.
It’s What’s Inside – The Ending Scene
It’s What’s Inside is a Netflix original science-fiction movie that is a kind of “what if” situation should there be a machine that allows a group of friends to put their consciousness into another person’s body. It starts off as a party game, but things go wildly wrong.
A good part of the movie focuses on Shelby and Cyrus, who are a couple with some real chemistry problems. At the end of the movie, Cyrus ends up in jail, being framed for a couple of murders that actually occurred when two friends were enjoying their new bodies a bit too much and fell off the roof. In the final scene, Shelby visits Cyrus in prison, and he thinks she’s there to straighten things out. However, she gives him a final kiss-off while visiting him. Earlier, Cyrus had sniped at Shelby to stand up for herself more, invoking a confrontation with a dental hygienist. She gives him the same phase he wanted her to give the hygienist and then hangs up the phone, leaving Cyrus to rot.
A Quiet Place: Day One
More
6 Most Brutal Deaths In A Quiet Place: Day One
The following kills in A Quiet Place: Day One aren’t gore-filled, but they are nightmarish.