Summary

• Science fiction movies have often used satire and social commentary to explore real-world issues through metaphors and allegories.
• Movies like Idiocracy, Sorry to Bother You, and Galaxy Quest have successfully satirized topics such as anti-intellectualism, the class system, and the science fiction genre itself.
• Films like Starship Troopers and RoboCop have effectively used the sci-fi genre to critique concepts like warfare, authoritarianism, corporate greed, and the loss of humanity.

From RoboCop to They Live, some of the greatest science fiction movies ever made have used their sci-fi tropes as a vehicle for biting satire and social commentary. The science fiction genre has always used speculative scenarios and invented settings to reflect the real world. Sci-fi stories allow writers to use metaphors and allegories to explore real-world issues. Gene Roddenberry famously conceived Star Trek so that he could comment on contemporary social and political issues without addressing them directly. George Lucas drew on real-life dictators to portray the Emperor’s rule over a galaxy far, far away in the Star Wars saga.

Science fiction has been used as a vehicle to satirize all kinds of topics on the big screen. Idiocracy satirizes the anti-intellectualist turn that society has taken, Sorry to Bother You satirizes the class system and the allure of corporate America, and Galaxy Quest satirizes the science fiction genre itself with its tale of iconic sci-fi stars being whisked away to fight in an actual interstellar conflict. From Starship Troopers to The Stepford Wives, some of the smartest sci-fi movies of all time have used their pulpy sci-fi genre framework to lampoon a major social issue like war or misogyny.

10 Dark Star

John Carpenter, 1974

Dark Star is a wonderfully nihilistic hangout comedy set aboard a ship sent to destroy any planet that could jeopardize the colonization of other planets. The first feature from The Thing director John Carpenter and Alien screenwriter Dan O’Bannon, Dark Star is a student film that gradually expanded into a $60,000 feature. It’s a parody of 2001: A Space Odyssey with a countercultural hippie sensibility. Lo-fi effects like a beachball standing in for an alien add to Dark Star’s midnight movie charm.

9 Mars Attacks!

Tim Burton, 1996

Based on the Topps trading cards of the same name, Mars Attacks! is a pitch-perfect homage to the schlocky sci-fi B-movies of the 1950s. The movie has a star-studded ensemble cast that includes gleefully goofy turns from Glenn Close, Danny DeVito, Martin Short, Pam Grier, Michael J. Fox, and Jack Nicholson in a dual role. Mars Attacks! uses the familiar premise of an alien invasion to poke fun at ‘90s cynicism. It provided a counterpoint to the earnestness of Independence Day, which was released around the same time.

8 Galaxy Quest

Dean Parisot, 1999

Galaxy Quest satirizes science fiction itself. The cast of a Star Trek-style hit sci-fi show is abducted by an alien fleet that has mistaken the episodes of their series for historical records. The movie is a spot-on spoof of Star Trek and an affectionate take on diehard sci-fi fandom. The cast is led by three icons mocking their own profession: Tim Allen as a smug Shatner caricature, Sigourney Weaver as a gifted actor relegated to a one-dimensional role, and Alan Rickman as a Shakespearean thespian who resents his sci-fi fame.

7 Starship Troopers

Paul Verhoeven, 1997

Adapted from Robert A. Heinlein’s novel of the same name, Starship Troopers tells the story of a group of futuristic soldiers sent to fight in an intergalactic 23rd-century skirmish with an alien race of giant bugs. Much like its source material, Starship Troopers uses a war story about humanity’s conflict with a non-human enemy to neutrally ridicule the concept of warfare itself. It was initially dismissed by critics as an endorsement of fascism, but it’s since been recognized as a tongue-in-cheek lampoon of fascism.

6 Idiocracy

Mike Judge, 2006

Mike Judge’s follow-up to Office Space, Idiocracy, had a similar trajectory to cult classic status. Idiocracy imagines a future in which humankind’s collective IQ has been lowered as intelligent people have stopped having kids and unintelligent people have had a lot of kids. In the years since its release, Idiocracy has been jokingly described as a documentary, because its satire of anti-intellectualism and the corporate influence on politics has proven to be surprisingly prescient. It didn’t take 500 years like Idiocracy prophesized; it only took about 10 years.

5 The Stepford Wives

Bryan Forbes, 1975

Based on Ira Levin’s brilliant novel, The Stepford Wives is a classic paranoid thriller starring Katharine Ross as a woman who moves to the suburban community of Stepford and finds that all the other women there are suspiciously subservient to their husbands. The Stepford Wives is one of the earliest entries in the “social thriller” genre that has since been revived by Jordan Peele. William Goldman’s script captures the frustrating casual misogyny of the menfolk and the righteous indignation of the imprisoned housewife.

4 Sorry To Bother You

Boots Riley, 2018

The directorial debut of socialist activist Boots Riley, Sorry to Bother You, is an incisive critique of capitalism and the class system. LaKeith Stanfield stars as a telemarketer torn between his unionizing co-workers and the allure of a top-ranking corporate position. Somewhere around the midpoint, Sorry to Bother You takes a wildly unexpected left turn that makes it one of the craziest movies ever made. Stanfield anchors all the craziness with a nuanced, three-dimensional performance, while Riley’s screenplay touches on everything wrong with classism and corporatization.

3 Brazil

Terry Gilliam, 1985

Helmed by Monty Python alum Terry Gilliam, Brazil is a uniquely surreal take on the dystopian themes of Nineteen Eighty-Four. A low-level bureaucrat navigates a technocratic future society in search of a woman who has been appearing in his dreams. Gilliam brings his usual gonzo visual style and absurdist comedic sensibility to this Kafkaesque tale of technocracy, hyper-surveillance, and corporate statism. The filmmaker used Brazil as a vehicle to take out all his frustrations with the industrialization of the world.

2 RoboCop

Paul Verhoeven, 1987

On paper, RoboCop sounds like a brainless action movie: a futuristic police force reconstructs a dying officer as an unstoppable cybernetic killing machine and sends him out onto the crime-ridden streets of Detroit as judge, jury, and executioner. The movie does have plenty of explosive, exhilarating action sequences, but in director Paul Verhoeven’s hands, it’s also an incisive satire of authoritarianism, corporate greed, and the nature of humanity. Its portrayal of a robotic character losing his humanity is wholly unique.

1 They Live

John Carpenter, 1988

Roddy Piper leads the cast of They Live as a blue-collar drifter who discovers a pair of sunglasses that allow him to see the world for what it really is. He sees that the wealthy elite is made up of body-snatching aliens who have infiltrated human society. All the billboards and ments designed to brainwash people have direct messages like “OBEY” and “CONFORM.” With its use of alien invaders to satirize Reagan’s America, They Live is the most biting sci-fi satire ever made.