The 7 best sci-fi movies to watch on Netflix and other streaming services this April

Greetings, Polygon Readers! We’re officially halfway through April, the fourth month of the futuristic-sounding year 2023. This month, we’re broadening the playing field of our best sci-fi movies on streaming, reaching beyond Netflix’s terrestrial confines to explore previously unknown corners (and streaming platforms) ) of the universe.

Our April selections include contemporary dishes and eccentric cult classics, from the 2014 time-loop sci-fi actioner Edge of tomorrow starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt on David Lynch’s unfairly maligned 1984 adaptation of Frank Herberts Dune. Read on to learn all about the very best sci-fi movies on Netflix, Hulu, HBO max (soon renamed “Max”), and more.

Let’s get into it!

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Start

Year: 2010
Duration: 2h 28m
Director: Christopher Nolan
Form: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Elliot Page

Whether you think Start is overrated or whether you think Christopher Nolan’s intricately plotted, painstakingly rendered dream-within-dream robbery movie is the bee’s knees, you can agree on one thing: Start is one of his most influential films, if only because every trailer has to go now BWAAAAAAHHH.

Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Elliot Page and Tom Hardy play thieves who steal secrets from their targets’ dreams, hired by Ken Watanabe’s businessman to do the opposite: implant an idea into a rival’s mind without him knowing. ever realize he did. don’t get it at first. Someone’s past (literally) comes back to haunt their dreams, and complications ensue. —Susana Polo

Start is available to stream on Netflix.

Dune

Year: 1984
Duration: 2h 17m
Director: David Lynch
Form: Kyle MacLachlan, Virginia Madsen, Francesca Annis

Of all the so-called non-filmable classics of science fiction and fantasy, Frank Herbert’s is Dune is perhaps the most seductive. But it wouldn’t be such an intriguing challenge if it weren’t for David Lynch’s Dune – a fascinating, masterful absolute disaster.

The experience of watching Dune is the experience of ping-ponging between some of the strangest things you’ve ever seen compellingly on screen and some of the most mind-boggling choices you’ve ever seen outside of experimental cinema – sometimes from scene to scene. And yet you have to look Dune, with Kyle MacLachlan, Sting, Patrick Stewart, Brad Dourif, Dean Stockwell and many other actors absolutely committed to the job. If only so you can see the movie that turned Lynch away from Hollywood forever. —SP

Dune is available to stream on Criterion Channel.

Edge of tomorrow

Year: 2014
Duration: 1h 53m
Director: Doug Limen
Form: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton

Okay, stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Tom Cruise stars in this time-loop sci-fi action flick as Maj. William “Bill” Cage, a public affairs official who is arrested and then called upon to fight on the front lines against the Mimics, an invasive race of amorphous aliens vying to destroy human civilization. With no previous combat experience, Bill dons a powerful mech and is killed – only to miraculously return to life the day he first arrived to cover the war effort.

Together with Sgt. Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), a decorated soldier with a similar affliction, Bill must live, fight, die and rise from the dead again and again to devise a plan to defeat the Mimics once and for all. Here’s the elevator pitch: Aliens meets Top gun meets Groundhog Day. Doesn’t that sound cool… Hey, how are you? What do you mean you want me to explain the premise of Edge of tomorrow? Don’t know yet? OK, stop me if you’ve heard this one before… —Toussaint Egan

Edge of tomorrow is available to stream on HBO max.

Prey

Year: 2022
Duration: 1h 40m
Director: Dan Trachtenberg
Form: Amber Midthunder, Dakota Beavers, Dane DiLiegro

Dan Trachtenberg’s 2022 prequel to the Predator franchise isn’t just one of the best movies to come out of the series since… well, the 1987 one Predator starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Carl Weathers, but also one of the best movies of 2022 full-stop.

Set more than 200 years before the events of the original film, Prey follows the story of Naru (Amber Midthunder), a young Comanche woman who strives to earn her place among the warriors of her tribe. While performing her rite of passage, Naru crosses paths with an alien warrior from another world, one who has traveled through the vast rift of space to hunt the planet’s top species (i.e. humans) for sport. To save her people, Naru must fight alongside her brother Taabe (Dakota Beavers) to find a way to kill this mysterious creature once and for all. Light on dialogue and heavy on beautiful imagery and bloody violence, Prey harnesses the potential of the Predator franchise like no other. —AT

Prey is available to stream on Hulu.

After Yang

Year: 2022
Duration: 1h 36m
Director: Kogonada
Form: Colin Farrell, Jodie Turner-Smith, Justin H. Min

I thoroughly enjoyed it Beef, the new Netflix drama about two lonely, sad people who get involved in a traffic accident and are out to ruin each other’s lives. The only reason it’s not in our list of the best shows of 2023 is that I haven’t finished it yet, but I’m sure it will be soon. Steven Yeun and Ali Wong are fantastic as the two protagonists, but Justin H. Min also stars as Edwin, a local church leader who comes into contact with Yeun’s Danny.

Many people may know Min from his role as Ben on Netflix The Umbrella Academybut he also starred in one of the best movies of 2022: After Yang. After Yang And Prey couldn’t be more different, as far as 2022 sci-fi fare goes, but they both excel at their respective goals.

In After Yang, director Kogonada weaves a moving and beautiful portrait of a family of four: father Jake (Colin Farrell), mother Kyra (Jodie Turner-Smith), daughter Mika (Malea Emma Tjadrawidjaja) and AI helper/older brother Yang (Min ). When Yang’s system fails and the family has to say goodbye to him unexpectedly early, they mourn the loss and reflect on the impact he had on their family. While it’s a calm and thoughtful film, don’t mistake it for a downer – the opening dance number is fun and exciting, and the beauty of Kogonada’s visuals and the actors’ performances help to After Yang an absolute delight. —Piet Volk

After Yang is available to stream on FuboTV, or for digital rental or purchase at Amazon, AppleTV, Google Play, and Vudu.

Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind

Year: 2004
Duration: 1h 48m
Director: Michael Gondry
Form: Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst

Written by Charlie Kaufman (being John Malkovich, I’m thinking about ending things), Michel Gondry’s quirky romantic sci-fi drama Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind stars Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet as a dysfunctional couple who end up having all memories of each other wiped after a messy breakup. Despite this, they inadvertently meet again, unaware of their shared past.

When faced with this revelation, they are forced to face not only the question of what they mean to each other, but whether it is better to love and know heartbreak or never to have known such love at all . With a beautiful score composed by Jon Brion, Eternal sunshine is a whimsical, surreal and moving ode to love’s persistence in the absence of memory and the presence of sorrow. -AT

Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind is available to stream on Peacock.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Year: 2017
Duration: 2h 16m
Director: Luke Besson
Form: Dane DeHaan, Cara Delevin, Clive Owen

Based on the long-running French pulp sci-fi comic Valerian and LaurelineLuke Bessons Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is really just an excuse for the director to create a sci-fi future even more lavish and surprising than his own cult hit The fifth element. Is a bit miraculous? Yes! Is it good? Ehhhhhhhhh.

It is a film of contrasts. On the one hand, there are some alien cannibals who definitely cross the boundaries of good taste. But there’s also a hedgehog pooping spaceship fuel, and Rihanna, and an all-time use of “Space Oddity” in the opening scene. —SP

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is available to stream on Prime video.