10 Most Influential Sci-Fi Films Of All Time

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 87%

Despite blatantly taking a lend from a mixture of existing movies, comics, and animé, The Matrix would go on to influence more films than it borrowed from. The Wachowskis took threads from all corners of the cyberpunk genre and wove them together into something that audiences in the west had never seen before.

The whole man versus machine scenario had been popularised in the previous decade by The Terminator and in truth existed in various less-popular guises before that, but it was the way in which the Wachowskis approached the problem of fighting back that made The Matrix such a groundbreaking phenomenon.

This film was arguably more influential to the action genre than it was sci-fi, upping the bar for cinematographers with its fight scenes and introducing bullet-ballet to Hollywood. The gravity defying action sequences became the go-to style, and (with the help of David Fincher's Fight Club) The Matrix made 1999 one of the most important years in the development of modern cinema.

The following year the X-Men franchise was launched and instead of imitating the garish spandex outfits they wore in the comics, Marvel's mutants were decked out in the dark leather that The Matrix made cool. Films like Equilibrium, Underworld, Cypher (which even took its name from The Matrix character), and countless others also copied the techno-goth fashion.

Which other sci-fi films have been influential over the years? Have we missed any classics? Let us know in the comments below.