10 Greatest Meta Sci-Fi Movies Of All Time

If War Games was the gamer's nightmare, the 1984 movie The Last Starfighter is the dream. This is the story of a gamer who finds out that not only is his game real, but is thrust into the role of the hero.

It's an epic adventure, in which a teen whose future doesn't look too bright has a single moment of glory when he gets the high score on his trailer park's Starfighter arcade game. Suddenly, he's abducted by aliens, who want to recruit him to fight an actual space war.

It's a film that innovates, with some of the most elaborate early CGI effects of the 80s. It gave the world the first computer generated space battles which are for their time, amazing. There's a lot of action, but the film never forgets to keep character at its core and always finds room for comedy, making for a thrill ride of androids, aliens and galactic warfare.

Sure, it's by no means a perfect film, and is dated in many regards by today's standards. But these issues are largely minor nitpicks on an otherwise wonderful movie. For many, this hero's journey through space will forever stand out as one of the all time best science fiction films of the 80s, or any decade.