The best sci-fi movies to watch on Netflix this October

Happy October, Polygon readers!

As we wind down into the final months of the year, the night grows darker and colder as we prepare for the last big movie releases of the year. If you’re looking for great sci-fi movies to throw into the mix on Netflix, don’t sweat it: I’ve got you covered.

Every month, we choose the best science fiction movies to watch at home on the platform, according to the time of year, what’s in theaters, or the vibes are straight up. This month, we have an epic performance, a cutting-edge blockbuster from . Parasite director Bong Joon-ho, and Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi thriller starring Tom Cruise.

Let’s go into it!

Dune

Image: Warner Bros

Director: Dionysius Villeneuve
Send: Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac

Denis Villeneuve has been something of a sci-fi teardrop over the past decade, adapting Ted Chiang’s critically acclaimed “Story of Your Life.” arrivaland even a sequel to Ridley Scott’s Iron runner. An adaptation of Frank Herbert’s work Feudal Space Dune It is the director’s last major effort, a two-part adaptation to conclude with the release of the second film; Dune: Part Twothe day before March

I don’t know if I have the chance to watch it Dune, there’s no time to catch up on the hype — it’s new on Netflix, and a great viewing opportunity. The story is epic, but familiar, centering on Paul Atreides (Timothy Chalamet), the heir to a powerful family whose patriarch comes into possession of one of the great and contested territories in the known universe: Arrakis, a desert planet home to spices. melange, a vital resource for interstellar travel. When Paul’s family is betrayed, he and his mother Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) are forced to flee into the wilderness to take refuge among the native inhabitants of the planet, who see Paul as the harbinger of a profound prophecy.

Accommodation Dune it’s a success: an amazing sci-fi story that strikes the right balance between action, political intrigue, striking visuals, and sweeping vistas. To be ugly Dune the experience is quite complete, while only the first part of a much larger saga, subtly introducing the audience to the rules and stakes of this world.

Snowpiercer

Image: The Weinstein Company

Director: Bong John-ho
Send: Chris Evans, Song Kang-ho, Tilda Swinton

What do you feel in the cold air? That’s Jack Frost picking your nose! We might be smack in the middle of fall, but in the immortal words of Ned Stark, winter is coming. What better way to prepare for the impending first snow of the year than a movie SnowpiercerBong Joon-ho’s dystopian action thriller starring Chris Evans and Song Kang-ho?

Nearly two decades after the ice age brought about climate change, the film follows the inhabitants of a self-sustaining train set up to bring the rest of the population home. Unfortunately, class division is built into the framework of this engineering miracle, with the wealthy class given free reign to live more comfortably in front of the train section and the lower class forced to toil in squalor behind. At the instance of an oracle, Curtis (Chris Evans) leads a rebellion among the tail passengers to capture the front section and strike Wilford (Ed Harris) the mysterious train creator. With a series of gripping action, phenomenal set pieces, and a gritty yet effective narrative about rebellion, survival, and race; Snowpiercer is a young sci-fi movie. And with Bong set to return early next year Mickey 17new sci-fi movie starring Robert Pattinson, now is as perfect a time as any to revisit this one.

The War of the Worlds

Image: DreamWorks Home Entertainment

Director: Stephen Spielberg
Send: Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Miranda Otto

You’ll never quite forget the sight of a man peeling off a broken windshield, bare, bloody hands, as a crowd descends in a minivan on Steven Spielberg’s screenplay. War of the Worlds. Channeling the hysteria and existential terror of a post-9/11 world, the film stars Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning as an abandoned shipyard worker and his daughter struggling to escape a brutal alien invasion.

Trekking across the country in hopes of reuniting son and daughter with their mother, the trio witness the horrors of not only the unfathomable machinations of this mundane threat, but also the violent desperation of their survivors. 2005’s The War of the Worlds It is a remarkable sci-fi drama and a cultural artifact of a time in which our own institutions were bound by an immeasurable reality of premeditated terror.