15 Best Feel Good Sci-Fi Movies

2. The Martian

There are few things more nerve wracking than an outer space survivor flick, and the likes of Alfonso Cuaron’s masterful Gravity have created some painfully claustrophobic nightmares of a death isolated in the depths of space which make Ridley Scott’s Alien look like a walk in the park.

But the Gladiator director’s 2014 effort, the Matt Damon vehicle The Martian, offers us a rare upbeat depiction of a stranded astronaut who pulls together with his trusty crew and defies the odds to make it off the red planet in one piece.

It’s still an intense thrill ride, but one which wisely avoids both the philosophical noodling of Ad Astra and Interstellar as well as the brutal bleakness of the aforementioned Sandra Bullock-starring Gravity.