50 Essential Sci-Fi Films of the 21st Century (So Far)

Post-Dark Knight, there wasn’t a budget Warner Bros. wouldn’t trust Christopher Nolan with, and Inception is the proof of that. The director’s first mega-budget, all-star feature that wasn’t a superhero movie, Inception marries his bold conceptual and philosophical ideas with blockbuster filmmaking, as the first in a strong run of epically cinematic sci-fi films.

Leonardo DiCaprio’s Dom Cobb is a professional thief who steals classified information and corporate secrets from the subconscious of his targets’ minds. But when he’s hired to do the opposite - to implant an idea in the head of business empire heir Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy) - he must hire a crack team of Nolan regulars, including Michael Caine, Tom Hardy, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, to plan and execute a descent through the many layers of the mind. As if that wasn’t enough, he’s being stalked through these dreamworlds by the memory of his dead wife, Mal (Marion Cotillard).

A grand analogy for filmmaking that doesn’t get too bogged down in this one idea, Inception offers a multitude of philosophical entry points, while bedding the whole thing in explosive action setpieces (and the deafening audio design to go with it), sharp dialogue, top-tier performances, and a twisty yet ultimately sensical plot. And that’s without saying anything of the technical wizardry necessary to bring some of these dream-state scenes to life; all but unmatched across the science fiction canon.