15 Gorgeous SciFi Movies To Watch If You Loved Blade Runner 2049

15 Gorgeous Sci-Fi Movies To Watch If You Loved Blade Runner 2049

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1 15 Gorgeous Sci-Fi Movies To Watch If You Loved Blade Runner 2049

Fans who found themselves swept up by the dystopian look of Blade Runner 2049 should check out these 15 similarly gorgeous sci-fi movies too.

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Blade Runner 2049’s Oscar-winning cinematography and effects go a long way in making it one of the most visually stunning science-fiction movies of recent years, perhaps even ever, and it can leave its fans wondering if there are any movies within the genre that can live up to its incredibly high standard.

If you found yourself swept up by the dystopian look of the movie, and Roger Deakins’ breathtaking photography, then make sure you also check out these similarly gorgeous, as well as frequently grim and brutal, sci-fi movies too.

Updated on January 11th, 2021 by Mark Birrell: Blade Runner 2049 may have a long way to go before it can claim the kind of certified cult status that the original enjoys, but several years on it appears to be a comfortable modern favorite of movie fans the world over. This is no doubt in part because of how the movie’s visual style clearly drew a lot of inspiration from the classics of the science-fiction genre. We’ve added a couple of those, as well as a few more contemporary examples of stunningly good-looking sci-fi hits, to expand our list of handsomely shot movies that are both visually and thematically similar to Blade Runner 2049.

15 Arrival (2016)

Just less than a year prior to the wide release of Blade Runner 2049, director Denis Villeneuve released another highly-regarded science-fiction thriller hit with the Oscar-nominated and star-studded Arrival.

The movie views a nerve-wracking first contact situation through the lens of communication and linguistics, with the movie’s sparse set design, haunting music, and stand-out cinematography instantaneously establishing Villeneuve as a leading name in the genre.

14 Oblivion (2013)

Though by no means anywhere near as minimalistic as the similarly-themed science-fiction movie that it’s so often compared to–Duncan Jones’ also terrific Moon–writer and director Joseph Kosinski forged an aesthetically enveloping vision of the future with his ambitious epic, Oblivion.

The journey realistically shares its core themes with a number of sci-fi movies, both Moon and Blade Runner 2049 included, with its story of Tom Cruise’s discontented post-apocalyptic wasteland engineer, gliding over a ruined Earth and fixing menacing drones. Though full of more action spectacle than any other movie on this list, it’s still an interesting play on the noirish deconstruction of the hero narrative seen in Blade Runner 2049, as the glorified sci-fi janitor begins to understand the real plot behind his uneasily tranquil life as well as the reality of his own importance in the world.

13 Ex Machina (2014)

Artificial intelligence, identity, exploitative behavior, and psychological manipulation are explored in this stylistically slick thriller from longtime sci-fi movie fan-favorite screenwriter Alex Garland, who also made his directorial debut on the project.

The plot follows a low-level big tech employee who’s flown out to the reclusive lair of his enigmatic boss only to discover that he will be used as an assistant in the so-called ‘Turing test’ of a new and advanced humanoid AI. As his conversations with the convincing machine progress, questions of loyalty and safety begin to grow as the bizarre situation becomes increasingly sinister.

12 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Few movies can be argued to be as influential as Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and even fewer of them still are from the sci-fi genre.

Revolving around humanity’s quest to understand a mysterious monolith discovered buried on the Moon, the story is most remembered for its nailbiting conflict between the crew of a deep space exploration vessel sent to investigate the phenomena and the unforgettably psychotic AI system on board that turns against them. Many–perhaps even most–of the creative ideas in the movies on this list can be directly traced back to it as a point of origin.

11 Stalker (1979)

Another hugely influential science-fiction classic, yet a polar opposite to the filmmaking of almost everything mentioned here, Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker is both grindingly slow and achingly beautiful.

The plot concerns the titular ‘Stalker’, a kind of guide or smuggler who brings patrons into a non-descript ‘Zone’ created by unknown means and possessing otherworldly powers, and, as much as that may sound like a springboard for high-concept action and adventure, that’s about as much story as Stalker ever gives the audience despite being roughly the same length as Blade Runner 2049. It is, instead, a predominantly still and silent meditation on philosophical concepts which, coupled with Alexander Knyazhinsky’s astonishing cinematography, sparked a long-running fascination for it amongst cinephiles.

10 Annihilation (2018)

Alex Garland’s ambitious sci-fi horror movie clearly drew a lot of inspiration from Tarkovsky’s Stalker but injects a Hollywood action-thriller element for a decidedly more mainstream–but still quite thought-provoking–ride.

Annihilation takes a number of abstract concepts and visualizes them in often monstrous forms but always slows down to make sure the audience can have a good look. Rob Hardy’s cinematography brings out the most hallucinatory aspects of the descent into alien-fueled madness within the movie’s own version of an unforgettably mysterious, sinister, and otherworldly ‘Zone’.

9 A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)

As extensive as their personal and professional relationships were, Stanley Kubrick and Steven Spielberg aren’t overwhelmingly similar in a creative sense. The work of one can come off as being almost nihilistic while the other is really quite schmaltzy deep down.

This no doubt contributed to the audience’s initial feelings of tonal confusion with the finished product of Spielberg and Kubrick’s collaboration but, over time, A.I. Artificial Intelligence has proven itself as an ethereal movie experience that floats above most things that are considered achievable within the genre today.

8 THX 1138 (1971)

The feature film debut of Star Wars director George Lucas showed as much promise as you would expect from a filmmaker who would go on to irrevocably alter the medium 6 years later.

THX 1138 demonstrates a boundless dexterity with the visual trickery required to create a fictional world much larger than you could actually construct and often taps into some of the ideas prevalent in Philip K. Dick’s original novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” that the Blade Runner movies leave out. Like most of Lucas’ work, it’s something that’s been progressively tinkered with over the decades but its original nightmarish tone still shines through even today.

7 Logan Noir (2017)

Though in its original, colorized, theatrical form Logan is a good looking movie, the black and white version, Logan Noir, really draws attention to the lighting of certain scenes not to mention glossing over some of the blemishes left by the superhero genre’s need for lots of digital effects shots.

James Mangold’s somber, pensive, take on comic book movies creates a cuttingly real dystopia that’s often indistinguishable from our own time but mercifully littered with some impressively emotional landscapes befitting of its Western theme. There’s also a familiar theme of progeny that perhaps comes from Logan and Blade Runner 2049’s shared co-screenwriter, Michael Green.

6 Her (2013)

In so many ways, Spike Jonze’s Her is the exact opposite of Blade Runner 2049. One paints an overwhelmingly cold and bleak portrait of the future as a cautionary tale while the other paints something much more representative of our current reality that seems almost inviting.

Hoyte van Hoytema’s cinematography is so warm, and often enveloping, that it eases you into Her’s vision of the near future. It allows you to feel something more readily for its lonely characters lost in a sea of people and information.

5 Tron: Legacy (2010)

Before the more personal passion project of Oblivion, Joseph Kosinski’s very belated sequel to the 1982 cult Disney movie Tron updated the idea for a modern audience and transformed its famous digital world into something equally as visually striking as the original’s pioneering effects.

Against much darker backgrounds, the essential blue/orange color scheme really pops in sparse neon while Oscar-winning cinematographer Claudio Miranda marries modern computer-generated effects with Kosinski’s eye for architecture.

4 The Fountain (2006)

Darren Aronofsky’s quest into mortality via historical fantasy, romantic drama, and science-fiction is a spellbinding experience thanks in no small part to the movie’s ingenuity with macro-photography in lieu of digital effects.

The overall approach of practical over digital taken by Aronofsky and director of photography Matthew Libatque results in a rare high-concept, lower-budget, sci-fi that still holds up over a decade later when overabundant digital effects would have surely aged it horribly.

3 Beyond the Black Rainbow (2010)

Panos Cosmatos’ love letter to the sci-fi horror of yesteryear is a loving reconstruction of outmoded styles and captivatingly sinister color palettes.

Set mostly in the underground laboratory of a New Age cult, Beyond the Black Rainbow utilizes grainy 35mm photography for more than just nostalgia’s sake and creates a wholly unique experience that’s enhanced by its psychedelic rock soundtrack and unrelentingly darker moments, which fans of Blade Runner 2049 are sure to get a kick out of.

2 Interstellar (2014)

Christopher Nolan’s modern take on space exploration benefits hugely from the same warm romantic kind of colors that director of photography Hoyte van Hoytema brought to Her the previous year.

So much of the story concerns the coldness of space and feelings of hopelessness in the face of entropy but Interstellar is, at its heart, quite a sweet and sentimental movie that’s designed to rouse the spirits rather than dampen them.

1 Alien (1979)

Anyone who loved Blade Runner 2049 should, of course, see Ridley Scott’s original Blade Runner, but the director’s first foray into science-fiction is perhaps even more important to the development of the genre and arguably even more good-looking, even today. Scott’s classic sci-fi horror movie, Alien, has barely aged at all over the past four decades, with its production design remaining as fascinating to fans now as it was back in 1979.

H.R. Giger’s notable combination of organisms and mechanisms bleeds into more than just the iconic monster design. The swallowing of humans into machinery is one of the biggest themes of the movie and it’s realized throughout all of its aspects, from the sets to the story.

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