12 Scariest Sci-Fi Movies Of All Time

8. Gravity

Beyond The Black Rainbow
Warner Bros.

A more grounded (particularly in its ending, har har) entry, this award-earning effort from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban director Alfonso Cuaron takes place almost entirely in real time, utilising seamless CGI and long, fluid takes to build tension as our heroic protagonist, astronaut Sandra Bullock, and her cheeky, charming colleague George Clooney set to work repairing a minor issue on their orbiting space station.

Then an asteroid swoops in and kills off half the cast. Specifically, the half who starred in the Ocean’s franchise, the movie star who we presumed would be untouchable in a big budget blockbuster like this—is wiped out twenty minutes in.

What follows is an unrelentingly tense, immensely hard-to-watch thrill ride which follows a desperate Bullock as she scrambles to find any path back to earth and safety. Often only suitable for watching between trembling fingers, this intense thriller brings to life the desolate emptiness and unforgiving reality of space in no uncertain terms, and will leave you shook through to its miraculously relieving closing moments.

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