Some of the best science fiction films of all time feature mind-blowing plot twists, from Planet of the Apes (1968) to The Empire Strikes Back (1980). The feeling of watching a twist unfold for the very first time can never be recaptured, but once you’ve seen all the famous blockbusters, there are plenty of lesser-known sci-fi movies out there waiting to shock and surprise. Below are five films that do just that (and which definitely deserve more attention). And of course, so as not to ruin the reveal of the twists, I’ve done my best to keep this list entirely spoiler-free.
Pandorum (2009)
Event Horizon (1997), directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, had a tough time at the box office when it was first released, but is undeniably a cult favorite now. If you’ve already seen Event Horizon and you’re looking for a movie with a similar feel, then I present to you Pandorum (2009), which Anderson actually co-produced. Directed by Christian Alvart, Pandorum is set on a huge ark spaceship called the Elysium, which is on its way to a distant Earth-like planet. Two members of the flight crew wake up from hypersleep to find that all is not well aboard the ship. While trying to figure out what went wrong, the duo also need to be wary of a deep space-induced mental illness called “pandorum,” which causes paranoia, hallucinations, and violent behavior.
Pandorum was a box office flop when it was released and seems to have been largely forgotten since then, but it deserves to be rediscovered by fans of sci-fi horror movies. If an action-packed space adventure with horror elements and a few surprising twists sounds at all intriguing to you, then ignore the low Rotten Tomatoes score and give this one a chance!
Coherence (2013)
It’s best to go into Coherence with as little information as possible; all that really needs to be known is that a group of friends get together for a dinner party and then very strange sci-fi things start happening. Instead of talking about the plot and risking spoilers, I’ll sell this movie based on how it was made.
In a 2013 interview, director James Ward Byrkit explained that the movie started out as “a test to see if I could shoot something without a crew and without a script.” The film was shot in Byrkit’s living room and the actors improvised their lines so that the dialogue would sound natural. Actress Emily Baldoni said that the cast were merely given “a short character description” and “some notes on what to talk about,” while Byrkit and co-writer Alex Manugian “had all these secret storyboards around that we were not allowed to look at.” This means that twists in the story were often just as much a shock to the cast as they are to the audience. Even though Coherence is fuelled by a sci-fi concept, it manages to feel relatively grounded and realistic because of these genuine reactions.
Oxygen (2021)
Alexandre Aja is best-known for his horror movies, such as the 2006 remake of The Hills Have Eyes and Piranha 3D (2010), and while his French-language film Oxygen isn’t a horror film, it certainly begins with a nightmare scenario. Mélanie Laurent plays a woman who wakes up in a futuristic medical pod that she’s unable to open. She has no memory of why she’s in the pod or even who she is, and the inbuilt AI isn’t being particularly helpful. Being trapped in a confined space with memory loss is bad enough, but the pod is also running out of oxygen, so she desperately needs to figure out how to escape.
Oxygen proves that Aja is just as capable of offering slick sci-fi thrills as he is gory horror frights. While the claustrophobic plot sounds (and is!) gripping, it could easily have fallen apart due to miscasting, given the film’s focus on its trapped character. Thankfully, Laurent delivers a powerhouse performance, mastering the emotional demands of every twist and turn in this incredibly tense film.
Moon (2009)
Just as Mélanie Laurent’s performance is essential to the success of Oxygen, Duncan Jones’s Moon (2009) rests squarely on the shoulders of Sam Rockwell. Rockwell plays Sam Bell, who is working alone at Sarang Station on the far side of the Moon, mining a fuel alternative to oil that has been found in lunar soil. “Sarang” means “love” in Korean, but human connection is exactly what Sam is lacking. Much of the work at the station is automated, and with only an AI robot called GERTY as a companion, he’s desperate for his monotonous three-year contract to wrap up so that he can head home to his wife and daughter.
Sam has been experiencing some (presumably) loneliness-induced hallucinations, and one such phantom causes him to crash his lunar rover, after which he loses consciousness. What happens next belongs firmly in the realm of spoilers. Just know that this film—probably the best-known entry in this list—falls more on the side of being psychologically contemplative, rather than an action-fueled lunar adventure story.
The Call (2020)
Not to be confused with the American horror movie of the same name also released in 2020, Lee Chung-hyun’s The Call is a South Korean psychological thriller with an intriguing sci-fi concept at its heart. In 2019, Kim Seo-yeon (Park Shin-hye) is visiting her mother in her childhood home and finds an old phone that can make calls 20 years into the past. On the other end of the line is Oh Young-sook (Jeon Jong-seo), who lives in the same house but in 1999. Both women are dealing with family issues: Seo-yeon blames her mother for the death of her father, while Young-sook is being abused by her mother.
Although basically every movie about time travel has shown that messing with the timeline can be a risky business, Seo-yeon and Young-sook decide to use their connection to change their realities—hopefully for the better. But what follows is a briskly paced and highly twisty storyline that isn’t afraid to descend into darkness.
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There are, of course, many more twisty sci-fi films out there waiting to be discovered, but the less-famous examples aren’t always easy to find, so please leave your spoiler-free recommendations in the comments below!
Lorna Wallace has a PhD in English Literature and is a lover of all things science fiction and horror. She lives in Scotland with her rescue greyhound, Misty.
