12 Sci-Fi Movies That NOBODY Understands

2. Waking Life

This entry is so obscure and experimental that we actually paused before referring to School of Rock helmer Richard Linklater’s 2001 effort as a “sci-fi.” It’s not that the film doesn’t tread genre territory frequently and fairly well—the various unexplained moments where our unnamed protagonist (played by the director’s muse Wiley Wiggins) floats off into the sky ensure that this flick takes place well outside our reality.

But the film is so offbeat and strange that the phrase “sci-fi”, like “fantasy” or even the much-maligned “arthouse”, doesn’t begin to encapsulate the rotoscoped flick’s bizarre winding sort-of-story, wherein the nominal hero wanders through life slipping between reality and dreams without warning whilst discussing life, the universe, and everything, man.

Far out.