Best "space" movies

[Mysterion]

I love it that Mysterion mentioned The Right Stuff - I love that film.

Thanks. Me too. I think it has been very much overlooked by a lot of people. It's a really nice piece of work by Phillip Kauffman, with some outstanding perfomances. Especially Sam Shepard as Yeager and Ed Harris as John Glenn. I pull it off the shelf a couple times a year and re-watch it.

 

[GhostFaceSaint]

Lets see; 2001: A Space Odyssey's been mentioned, so has Opollo 13, then their is also the sci-fi horror space movie Alien as well as the action film Aliens, Star Trek The Motion Picture, the Russian sci-fi film Solaris is pretty trippy, Star Trek VI The Undiscovered County for its politics though it only has a few "space" elements in it (the loss of gravity on the Klingon ship). I really can't think of much more that is space and good.

 

[Kelso]

Der schweigende Stern (released in the U.S. as 'The First Spaceship on Venus')

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPxCebwL6sA&feature=related[/yt]

 

[FluffyUnbound]

Yeah, The Right Stuff was a major oversight on my part.

Especially since I tend to like realistic depictions of space flight. It's hard to get any more realistic than The Right Stuff.

And I walked around for years after it came out saying, "Let's light this candle!" in just about any circumstance where it could be made to fit. [Because I'm a gigantic dork.] So that makes overlooking it even more appalling.

I think the entire cast does a great job, including the women. Ed Harris in particular stands out, as Mysterion notes. I even like Jeff Goldblum's comic relief bit part from before he was Jeff Goldblum.

 

[Dayton Ward]

I love it that Mysterion mentioned The Right Stuff - I love that film.

Thanks. Me too. I think it has been very much overlooked by a lot of people. It's a really nice piece of work by Phillip Kauffman, with some outstanding perfomances. Especially Sam Shepard as Yeager and Ed Harris as John Glenn. I pull it off the shelf a couple times a year and re-watch it.

You're not alone. I sometimes pull it and Apollo 13 for a little SpaceAge DoubleFeature Action.

 

[Mysterion]

I love it that Mysterion mentioned The Right Stuff - I love that film.

Thanks. Me too. I think it has been very much overlooked by a lot of people. It's a really nice piece of work by Phillip Kauffman, with some outstanding perfomances. Especially Sam Shepard as Yeager and Ed Harris as John Glenn. I pull it off the shelf a couple times a year and re-watch it.

You're not alone. I sometimes pull it and Apollo 13 for a little SpaceAge DoubleFeature Action.

Yup. And occasionally on a long weekend, I add a few episodes of From the Earth to the Moon into the mix.

 

[Soar_Dude]

I agree with all of the above and add the following
Battle beyond the stars
Ice Pirates
Last Starfighter
I have some more but can't think of them right now

 

[David A. Sobral]

It's a surprsingly little-known & overlooked (albeit recent) film called "Sunshine" from the director of "28 Days Later". The ending is kinda cliched but, the events leading up to it are really unique. If you don't know, it's about a mission to the Sun to "re-ignite" it as its' about to burn out with a HUGE nuclear weapon. Very cool because it's the ONLY movie (I think) that deals with the planet Mercury...not directly but, it's there.

 

[23skidoo]

Dark Star

Still hilarious after all these years, and the fact it inspired Alien makes it even funnier.

Alex

 

[Pingfah]

It's a surprsingly little-known & overlooked (albeit recent) film called "Sunshine" from the director of "28 Days Later". The ending is kinda cliched but, the events leading up to it are really unique. If you don't know, it's about a mission to the Sun to "re-ignite" it as its' about to burn out with a HUGE nuclear weapon. Very cool because it's the ONLY movie (I think) that deals with the planet Mercury...not directly but, it's there.

The ending was "kinda cliched" for a completely different kind of movie, in Sunshine however it was totally misplaced, random and pointless.

Shame because the first hour had the makings of one of the most enjoyable sci-fi movies i've seen.

 

[FluffyUnbound]

Can someone post the ending for SUNSHINE inside a spoiler tag? I've never gotten around to seeing it, because people say, "The ending is so stupid, don't bother," and I'd like to spoil myself and see if that's actually the case.

 

[Hyperspace05]

Can someone post the ending for SUNSHINE inside a spoiler tag? I've never gotten around to seeing it, because people say, "The ending is so stupid, don't bother," and I'd like to spoil myself and see if that's actually the case.

Well I certainly didn't think it was completely out of left field, and I enjoyed "Sunshine" quite a bit.

Spoiler: Sunshine Plot

The crew finds the Icarus I (they are in Icarus II) in a near-sun orbit, apparently dead. They search it and eventually leave, but one of the crew from Icarus I is still alive (and has gone mad due to the proximity of the sun), and he sneaks aboard Icarus II to sabotage the mission. He proceeds to kill off crew members one by one, but the mission is eventually successful.

I didn't think it was so unexpected, because the Sun's effect on the Icarus II crew was highlighted in the first scene, and there was talk about what happened to Icarus I from the beginning.

 

[Miss Chicken]

It is a miniseries rather than a movie but I would recommend Space Odyssey: Voyage to the Planets. IMDB desribes it thus

This two-part science fiction docu-drama examines the possibilities of a dangerous, manned space mission to explore the inner and outer planets of the Solar system.

I thought that it was realistic and most of the science was sound.

 

[Soar_Dude]

Robinson Crusoe on Mars!
Forbidden Planet.

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

Der schweigende Stern (released in the U.S. as 'The First Spaceship on Venus')

Yeah, for a "communist" low-budget movie from 1960 that was a pretty good flick. Somewhat unexpectedly, they even had a American crewmember who was not portrayed in a negative way.

It's interesting though what changes where made from the original East German/Polish version to the American version.
For example, references from the Japanese character about Hiroshima were cut (hence the American version is eight minutes shorter than the East German one). And the nationality of the spaceship's commander was changed from Russian to American as well.

But, with some minor "adjustments", this movie could be sold to the West.