In the hands of visionary directors such as Fritz Lang, Stanley Kubrick, Ridley Scott, or Andrei Tarkovsky, the sci-fi genre has evoked mankind's greatest hopes and darkest fears; imbuing generations upon generations of moviegoers with a sense of greater purpose in far-reaching explorations of the human condition and the unfathomable mysteries of the cosmos.
From the art deco skyscrapers of 'Metropolis', the congested dystopia seen in 'Akira', the smog-choked alleyways of 'Blade Runner', the barren wasteland of 'Stalker', or the dungy swamps of Dagobah where Luke Skywalker trains to become a Jedi in 'Star Wars'—we've pulled from over a century of cinematic history to round up the 20 best sci-fi films of all time
