Unlike their terrestrial counterparts, the best sci-fi romance movies of all time aren’t just filled with the usual grand romantic gestures and passionate moments. Instead, they use their sci-fi settings to explore human emotion in entirely new ways.
Sure, when you think of sci-fi, it’s doubtful your mind jumps to romance. Not when you’ve got intergalactic travel, alien invasions, twisted dystopias, and psychological thrillers all weaving their way through the genre. Yet, when sci-fi explores human emotion, it can create some of the most poignant tales of romance imaginable. Because what better way to formulate out-of-this-world love stories than by literally going out of this world?
Fortunately, the best streaming services are also home to some of the best sci-fi romances on offer, so there’s a vast opportunity to watch and enjoy. We’ve navigated these platforms and surmised the 10 best sci-fi romances of all time in the process. So, pick your next watch across Paramount Plus, Disney, Netflix, and Amazon Prime from the list below and find love in the most unusual of places.
10. Passengers
- Release date: December 21, 2016
- Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Pratt, Michael Sheen, Laurence Fishburne
- Director: Morten Tyldum
- Rotten Tomatoes score: 30% critics, 63% audience
- Available to stream on: Prime Video
Jim (Chris Pratt) and Aurora (Jennifer Lawrence) find themselves on a spacecraft travelling through outer space, but they’re the only two people awake. Everyone else is asleep for the 120-year journey to reach their destination. Unfortunately, Jim and Aurora have woken up early. With nowhere to go and nothing to do, they find solace in each other’s company. That is, until Aurora finds out what’s really going on.
Without spoiling it too much, Passengers is an incredibly touching, yet frustrating film, as far as romances go. You’ll be left wondering if there is truly a romantic relationship between the pair of them, or simply emotions and feelings being twisted and manipulated to work within the isolated and dire constraints they find themselves in.
Calling it a romance movie feels a little… icky, but there’s no denying that it makes for a captivating watch as Jim and Aurora spend their days together, learning how to love.
9. Avatar
- Release date: December 18, 2009
- Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver
- Director: James Cameron
- Rotten Tomatoes score: 81% critics, 82% audience
- Available to stream on: Disney+
James Cameron’s Avatar is many things, but at its core, it’s built on the relationship between Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana). After losing his ability to walk, Jake joins a mission to Pandora to start a new life (and take advantage of a unique technology that will let him walk again.
As an ex-military man, he joins up with the expedition to explore an alien planet. Here he meets the Na’vi (and sort of becomes one of them thanks to sci-fi tech), a race of tall blue aliens native to the world, and finds love with one of their kind.
It’s hard to explain why Jake and Neytiri work so well together without watching the build-up to their relationship across the first Avatar movie. Their story continues on in Avatar: The Way of Water, adding more layers and dimensions to their love. It’s an excellent sci-fi romance that showcases how love can thrive amongst people from the most different cultures and backgrounds.
8. Gattaca
- Release date: October 24, 1997
- Cast: Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Alan Arkin, Jude Law
- Director: Andrew Niccol
- Rotten Tomatoes score: 82% critics, 87% audience
- Available to stream on: Prime Video
Vincent Freeman (Ethan Hawke) lives in a future dystopia where eugenics siphons out bad genes, ensuring that children are born with the very best of their parents. Unfortunately for Vincent, he finds himself as one of the people born outside the eugenics program, and as such, is harshly discriminated against for this lack of ‘good’ genetics.
Known as an ‘In-Valid’, Vincent meets Irene, a ‘Valid’, who, though conceived in the new way of life, has her own flaw. And that’s what they bond over. The injustice they both fight against brings them closer together. While it’s a very real look at what eugenics could mean for society, it’s their relationship that holds together a very intimate look at the human emotions that could subsequently become involved.
7. About Time
- Release date: November 1, 2013
- Cast: Domnhall Gleeson, Rachel McAdams, Bill Nighy, Tom Hollander
- Director: Richard Curtis
- Rotten Tomatoes score: 71% critics, 82% audience
- Available to stream on: None
Tim (Domhnall Gleeson) can time travel. He learns it from his father, who invites him to explore time in whichever way he fancies, with a few specific rules. For Tim, it just so happens that woven into his timeline, the love of his life awaits. Yet, while he tries to make other moments of his existence make sense or change the past to avoid cruel fates, he finds he jeopardises the part he cares about the most — Mary.
I watch About Time at some point every single year. It’s not like a Christmas tradition or anything, but it’s one of the best examples of a feel-good sci-fi movie, with its glorious highs and heartrending lows, that I can think of. I think it’s because while it’s about time travel, it’s not really that complicated at all. It’s more about exploring the human emotions and fragility of relationships, all wrapped in a veneer of time travel and alternate timelines, that make this movie such a gem.
6. Wall-E
- Release date: June 27, 2008
- Cast: Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Jeff Garlin, John Ratzenberger
- Director: Andrew Stanton
- Rotten Tomatoes score: 95% critics, 90% audience
- Available to stream on: Disney+
Wall-E is a robot programmed to clean up the waste left over on a trash-riddled Earth. With humanity abandoning the planet, Wall-E traverses the world alone, until he meets fellow robot Eve and falls in love. While their relationship, at first, is confusing and strained, it’s the yearning for humanity and companionship that brings them together, showing that even non-humanoids can connect in a beautiful way.
Wall-E hopes to escape loneliness and, in doing so, finds different ways to express his love to Eve that are incredibly heartwarming. Behind it all, there’s the backdrop of a broken planet, but despite its darkness, Wall-E and Eve find hope and each other.
5. Ex Machina
- Release date: April 10, 2015
- Cast: Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, Oscar Isaac
- Director: Alex Garland
- Rotten Tomatoes score: 92% critics, 86% audience
- Available to stream on: None
There’s certainly something romantic about Ex Machina, but it’s also absolutely not what you’re expecting. Domhnall Gleeson makes his second appearance on this list as Caleb, a man who wins the opportunity to visit his boss, Nathan’s, home for a week. What he doesn’t realize is that Nathan has an unusual science experiment for him to take part in — talking to and testing his artificial intelligence robot, Ava.
Judging how human Ava can really be, they engage in conversations that become increasingly intimate, eventually developing into a romantic connection as they grow closer together. But, as she vies for a life outside of Nathan’s facility, emotions begin to become intertwined with the fact that Ava isn’t allowed to leave. Winning over Caleb’s admiration is at the heart of this movie, but it also asks a powerful question; does Ava have a heart at all?
4. Arrival
- Release date: November 11, 2016
- Cast: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, Michael Stuhlbarg
- Director: Denis Villeneuve
- Rotten Tomatoes score: 94% critics, 82% audience
- Available to stream on: Hulu
At first glance, Arrival is a suspenseful thriller or drama, not a romance. An alien invasion threatens Earth’s existence, and Louise Banks (Amy Adams), a linguist skilled in extra-terrestrial communication, is called upon to save it. As she spearheads a team tasked with understanding the reason for the alien’s presence on our planet, Louise quickly becomes an integral part of keeping the world at peace.
And that should take up pretty much all of her time, right? Wrong. In a very real look at humanity, her own personal emotions and relationships are still a core part of her being and experience. And it’s the relationship she shares with teammate and theoretical physicist Ian (Jeremy Renner) that forms an integral part of the entire storyline. It’s not a romance in the typical sense — don’t expect any moments of passion in between all the alien conversation — but it doesn’t need to be, as it offers a deeper experience.
3. Her
- Release date: December 18, 2013
- Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Scarlett Johansson, Amy Adams, Rooney Mara
- Director: Spike Jonze
- Rotten Tomatoes score: 95% critics, 82% audience
- Available to stream on: Prime Video
Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) is a lonely writer who invests in an AI system to help him with his work. Known as Samantha (Scarlett Johansson), she’s programmed to be of assistance to Theodore in every possible way, and as she learns and adapts to Theodore’s way of life, they develop a relationship that runs deeper than he could’ve ever imagined.
And while it’s hard to imagine romance between a human and a machine, that’s exactly why Her is a perfect exploration of the theme. Loneliness is a complicated emotion, but so is love. As Theodore navigates the fine line between isolation and connection, it’s the power of technology that seemingly offers a solution. It’s a truly innovative idea that couldn’t be told without its sci-fi edge..
It’s also nice to see an optimistic vision of our AI future and the beauty it could create, providing a nice counterbalance to the twisted or fearful dystopias that are rife in sci-fi.
2. Palm Springs
- Release date: July 10, 2020
- Cast: Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti, J.K. Simmons
- Director: Max Barbakow
- Rotten Tomatoes score: 94% critics, 89% audience
- Available to stream on: Hulu
Two wedding guests, Nyles (Andy Samberg) and Sarah (Cristin Milioti), find themselves stuck in a time loop replaying the same day over and over again. While that sounds like a perpetual nightmare, there’s an intense beauty in what they discover about themselves as they fight to escape it.
In a twist on the Groundhog Day premise, Palm Springs is an excellent balance that’s not too sci-fi and not too romantic. When married together, you find you’ve got the perfect kick-back and relax movie.
It’s also an incredibly well-executed and well-acted plot, with J.K. Simmons in particular playing out a troubled, yet hilarious character arc. And as Nyles and Sarah’s romance begins to flourish, there’s no escaping the fact that they’re stuck inside this time loop that threatens to remove any further meaning from their lives.
1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
- Release date: March 19, 2004
- Cast: Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo
- Director: Michel Gondry
- Rotten Tomatoes score: 92% critics, 94% audience
- Available to stream on: Max
Jim Carrey once again stuns in a serious role as Joel, a downtrodden man suffering through a break-up with his ex-girlfriend, Clementine (Kate Winslet), who chooses to delete his entire memory of her after finding out she’s already gone through the procedure. But when he starts to forget, he has to relive some of the fondest, and darkest memories one by one. And it’s in the best memories that he realizes he doesn’t actually want to forget it all.
It’s a sci-fi movie that puts an emotional relationship at its very core, exploring the complexities of relationships and whether, given the chance, we can change our futures by gazing back into our past. Memories are hard to recall at the best of times, but they can teach us something vital about ourselves. And that’s what Joel and Clementine have the unique opportunity of learning.
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