Sci-fi often finds itself exploring death, despair, danger, and destruction, but even the most grim stories sometimes find their way to a happy ending. While we love movies that end with uncertainty or the bleak affirmation that, yes, everything is terrible — sometimes we need a little twinkle of happiness at the end of act three.
Here are 10 sci-fi movies currently streaming that suggest maybe hope lies ahead, despite everything.
Edge of Tomorrow
There’s a reason this 2014 Tom Cruise-Emily Blunt action flick — about a soldier who dies every day before waking up again on the same day, endlessly trying to figure out how to defeat a powerful alien enemy — has only added to its many fans over the years. Yes, Cruise’s character meets his end in some incredibly gruesome ways, but his progression as a fighter, military strategist, and ever-more-decent human being is incredibly satisfying to watch. You already know he’s going to save the world, as Tom Cruise tends to do in his movies, but Edge of Tomorrow puts him on a particularly tough road to get there, and the catharsis feels very well-earned at the end.
Galaxy Quest
On Netflix through the end of May, this cult-beloved comedy imagines that a group of actors best-known for their increasingly vintage sci-fi series is kidnapped by aliens who believe they have legit outer-space battle skills. A killer cast (Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Tim Allen, Tony Shalhoub, Daryl Mitchell, Sam Rockwell) brings a ton of heart to this clever premise — and not only does the movie have a happy ending, there’s a happy future ahead for fans, now that there’s fresh life in that long-awaited Galaxy Quest TV series.
Bill & Ted Face the Music
Dean Parisot, the director of Galaxy Quest, makes another appearance on this list with this 2020 release that catches up with the goofy, time-travelling rockers played by Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, and finds they haven’t turned out to be the heroes the universe needs them to be. Fortunately, their daughters (Samara Weaving and Brigette Lundy-Paine) help them pick up the slack. While Bill & Ted Face the Music is likely nobody’s favourite entry in the Bill & Ted trilogy, it does have some guffaw-inducing interludes — and it certainly ends with a jubilant message about the power of music.
Free Guy
Ryan Reynolds stars as an average dude just going about his life as a coffee-loving bank teller — until he becomes self-aware and realises he’s a non-player character forever circling the same drain in a video game called Free City. Meanwhile, in the real world, the game’s designer (Jodie Comer) fights to regain control of her creation from the company that ripped her off. Their lives and worlds become entertainingly intertwined, and even though you know their budding attraction is doomed, Free Guy still finds a way to elevate everyone to a better place at the end.
Contact
Jodie Foster plays a SETI scientist who thinks she’s detected an alien signal in Robert Zemeckis’ 1997 adaptation of Carl Sagan’s novel. While Contact is far more cerebral than action-packed — and features a Matthew McConaughey performance that hovers between “eccentric” and “distracting” — it makes a surprisingly soulful impact. Yes, the twist ending could be interpreted as a bit of a downer, but the movie’s more about faith and the emotional journey of Foster’s character than it is about extra-terrestrials placing long-distance calls to Earth.
Hot Tub Time Machine
That goofy title offers self-explanatory shorthand for the plot of this raunchy 2010 comedy (containing certain moments of “humour” that are now rather dated). But it earns points for committing to its absolutely bonkers premise, imagining that a trio of washed-up and variously depressed friends (John Cusack, Craig Robinson, and Rob Corddry) reunite at a ski resort, where they unexpectedly travel back to 1986 — and, after a certain amount of bumbling, figure out what they need to do in the past to fix all the crummy aspects of their present-day lives.
Super 8
J.J. Abrams wrote and directed this 2011 sci-fi drama about a group of kids (including Elle Fanning) whose zombie-movie project is interrupted when an alien monster escapes its military captors and wreaks havoc in their small town. Of course, the adults are the real bad guys in this story, which blends a coming-of-age sci-fi tale with a bit of horror and a lot of horror-movie love.
Last Action Hero
It flopped at the box office, but has since become a surprising cult favourite. John McTiernan’s 1993 send-up of action movies follows a little boy who finds a magical movie ticket and is transported into the onscreen world of his favourite action star; shenanigans ensue when movie-world villains bleed into reality. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays the title character, as well as a version of himself, and the movie overall is packed with cameos — but this is really a tale about a troubled kid who goes through some sci-fi therapy to feel good about life again.
Tron
You can’t argue with a final act that sees the hero (a hero played by Jeff Bridges, no less) triumph in the video-game world he’s been unwittingly sucked into — then emerge into the real world with all the ammo he needs to prove his shifty co-worker is an idea-stealing arsehole. Also, Tron may have been released in 1982, but it has a timeless quality, with special effects that are somehow still unique and dazzling.
Highlander
In this cult classic, an immortal warrior must triumph over another immortal warrior to become… an elevated being with the power and inclination to improve the entire human race. Not only is there a triumphant ending, there’s a ton of outrageous fantasy action, as well as an excitingly weird role for Sean Connery.