When it comes to movies about space, the storyline opportunities are pretty much endless. A lot of wild stuff is going on in space, whether it's a space team running into a dire situation, an alien invasion from Planet X, or the ultimate fight between enemy realms. The sci-fi genre has been around forever and continues to push the envelope on what is possible.
As movies continue to be released, streaming platforms like Hulu have provided these gems to viewers who love this sub-genre. As movie-goers know, the options are endless; so to make things easier, here are the top 10 movies on Hulu that are about another world, according to IMDb rating.
Aniara: 6.2 (2018)
Aniara is a 2018 movie that centers on a group of settlers traveling to the planet Mars. After the ship is pushed off-course, viewers are pushed into a unique experience that isn't common in the space/sci-fi genre.
The movie falls in line with the likes of Hereditary, Midsommar, and The Witch, and while it's centered in space, it also digs its claws into the topics of purpose and belonging. Aniara explores the depths of the human psyche and brings to light the subject of consumption and the emotions that come with it.
Sputnik: 6.4 (2020)
Sputnik is a 2020 Russian sci-fi movie that was Egor Abramenko's first directorial debut and starred Oksana Askinshina as a young doctor named Tatyana Klimova. The military recruits Dr. Klimova to check out a man who survived an accident in space. The cosmonaut isn't alone, though, because he's been infected by an organism living inside him.
Set in the Cold War-era, Sputnik is an excellent sci-fi thriller intermixed with the horror genre that stands apart from the rest and shouldn't be overlooked. After viewers finish Sputnik, there are quite a few other similar movies worth checking out too.
Star Trek VII: Generations: 6.6 (1994)
In the 1994 Star Trek installment, Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) leads his team while ing forces with Captain Kirk (William Shatner) to stop a common enemy. Tolian Soran (Malcolm McDowell) plans to destroy a planet system to reach a complex realm named Nexus.
Star Trek VII: Generations is the seventh movie in the Star Trek franchise and is well-known for its adventurous storyline and one of the greatest pairings in sci-fi.
Pandorum: 6.7 (2009)
Pandorum stars Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster, and is set in a time when Earth's resources have been depleted. To save humanity, a space arc is bound for another planet and is a century-long trip. To maintain the ship's condition, a group of people is tasked to wake up in shifts after being in hypersleep mode.
On a routine check, when two crew awake to find the rest of their team missing, they realize they might not be dealing with a human murderer, but something far stranger and more threatening than they could have imagined.
Star Trek Beyond: 7.1 (2016)
Justin Lin, director of Star Trek Beyond, is known for being a part of the Fast and Furious franchise, and in 2018, he crossed over to this successful universe. The movie centers on the USS Enterprise and what's left of it after it's destroyed. When the crew finds themselves stranded on an unfamiliar planet with no sign of relief, they find themselves the enemy of a new evil force.
It's up to a ruthless alien warrior to rescue the team and get them back to where they belong. If the mission fails, the enemy could start a brand new war.
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country: 7.2 (1991)
Almost thirty years before Star Trek Beyond, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country was released. Directed by Nicholas Meyer, this installment stars William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and DeForest Kelley, and is considered a sequel to the television series that ran from 1966 to 1969.
The movie's storyline centers on the destruction of the Klingon moon and the peace that follows between the Klingons and the Federation. The USS Enterprise team is involved as well. When the situation doesn't go as planned, Kirk and McCoy (Kelley) are targeted for assassinating the Klingon High Chancellor (Robert O'Reilly). Can they prove their innocence before time runs out?
The Shape Of Water: 7.3 (2017)
The Shape of Water is considered one of Guillermo Del Toro's best movies, and even though it's centered on a creature from another world, the story is set right here on Earth. In the 1960s, a lonely janitor named Elisa Esposito (Sally Hawkins) discovers a scientific experiment in one of the top-secret rooms she's cleaning. Upon her first inspection, she immediately becomes intrigued by its presence.
Of course, Elisa isn't supposed to know of the amphibian being and forms an unspoken bond with it that is truly heartbreaking and beautiful. The Shape of Water tells the tale of how loneliness affects every living thing and the desperate measures one will take to hold onto a special bond.
Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan: 7.7 (1982)
The last Star Trek movie to make it onto this list is the 1982 movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. It's the 23rd century, and James Kirk is fronting the Starfleet Academy. Heading towards retirement, the USS Enterprise is used for training, but when an evil force named Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban) is back with a deadly weapon, Kirk knows his days of leading the ship aren't over.
After being exiled for years, Khan seeks out Kirk in a battle of good and evil. Does good always win, or will evil prevail this time around?
Arrival: 7.9 (2016)
Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, and Forest Whitaker star in Arrival, a movie about humanity being confronted with a mysterious presence. When a linguistics professor named Louise Banks (Adams) s a small team to investigate an alien ship, they realize the calm before the storm is now and that they must hurry to find out why 12 spaceships have landed in different areas on Earth.
Will the connection anger the otherworldly creatures, or will it prove history wrong that humanity and other realms can make peace?
The Iron Giant: 8.0 (1999)
The best space movie on Hulu is Brad Bird's The Iron Giant. The story centers on a small boy named Hogarth Hughes (voiced by Eli Marienthal) and the odd bond he has with a large robot from outer space. While the story seems heartwarming, a government official named Kent Mansley (voiced by Christopher McDonald) will stop at nothing to destroy the space creature before it's revealed to the world. It's up to the nine-year-old boy to protect his new friend at all costs and keep him safe at a local junkyard.
The Iron Giant is one of Bird's best animated movies, and overall, it is one of the best animated movies to come out of the '90s.