20 Best Science Fiction Movies Released Since 2000

6. Tenet (2020)

From Christopher Nolan's filmography, Interstellar and Inception are worthy contenders for this spot, but neither dedicate themselves so completely to the genre as Tenet. Interstellar is a space movie that roots itself in reality as we know it (even if only conceptually, re. black holes), up until the final act; and Inception is an action heist movie for whom the sci-fi is fun but somewhat incidental, existing to move the plot forwards but far from the rigorous exploration of its own concepts in the way Tenet is. 

The film puts John David Washington into action as a CIA officer recruited by Tenet, a mysterious, extra-legal organisation that operates not only across the boundaries of law and state, but time itself. Because there exist objects with inverted entropy that possess the ability to move backwards through time, and there are ways of imbuing people with this entropy, enabling them to affect the causal course of things from the wrong direction. And, naturally, there is a megalomaniac – Andrei Sator (Kenneth Branagh) – seeking to use this to erase the world as we know it.

Tenet embraces the tropes of the action thriller while creating not only a novel approach to time travel, but one that represents a far more plausible approach to it than ever seen before. While the film has never enjoyed the fanfare and acclaim of its predecessors, it is an unflinching testament to the possibilities of the genre that demands your full attention.