Travel through space, time, and genre as you parse EW's list of the 35 best scifi movies of all time. The 35 best scifi movies of all time Travel through space, time, and genre as you parse EW's list of the 35 best scifi movies of all time. By Randall Colburn :maxbytes(150000):stripicc()/RandallColburnauthorphotoe7e8b48d9f8645588439077e721a5f48.jpg) Randall Colburn Randall Colburn is a writer and editor at . His work has previously appeared on The A.V. Club, The Guardian, The Ringer, and many other publications. EW's editorial guidelines and Kevin Jacobsen on May 8, 2026 7:24 a.m.

Travel through space, time, and genre as you parse EW's list of the 35 best sci-fi movies of all time.

The 35 best sci-fi movies of all time

Travel through space, time, and genre as you parse EW's list of the 35 best sci-fi movies of all time.

By Randall Colburn

Randall Colburn

Randall Colburn is a writer and editor at **. His work has previously appeared on The A.V. Club, The Guardian, The Ringer, and many other publications.

EW's editorial guidelines

and Kevin Jacobsen

on May 8, 2026 7:24 a.m. ET

Rutger Hauer as Roy Batty in ‘Blade Runner’; David Prowse as Darth Vader in ‘Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back’; Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley in ‘Alien’. Credit: Everett Collection (3)

Who are we? How did we get here? And where are we going next? As technological advancement outpaces human understanding, people are left to wonder about our place in the universe. Have we optimized existence to such an extent as to render humanity irrelevant? Science fiction movies consider these questions and provide audiences with thoughtful, brilliant, and terrifying theories on issues of humanity, nature, God, science, and more of life's great mysteries.

Nobody knows what’s next for our species, but these films are full of intellectual wormholes into which audiences can dive. Here, in alphabetical order, are the 35 best sci-fi movies of all time.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Keir Dullea as Dr. Dave Bowman and Gary Lockwood as Dr. Frank Poole in '2001: A Space Odyssey'. Warner Bros. Pictures

Like so many of the best films on this list, *2001* feels alien. It has shape, weight, and a clear sense of itself. We leave it knowing we've seen something truly awesome, even if we can't quite articulate what exactly we saw. Stanley Kubrick's dizzying achievement towers in the pantheon of film like the monolith that beguiles its cast, a lush and indelible exploration of ideas that, more than a half-decade later, continue to fascinate: artificial intelligence, space exploration, the evolution of consciousness. So, too, do its audio and visual elements: The awe-inducing blare of "Thus Spoke Zarathustra," the space station's humbling grandeur, and the lonely drift of an unleashed astronaut, lost to the cosmos. One of a kind in any genre. —*Randall Colburn*

Where to watch *2001: A Space Odyssey*: HBO Max

Alien (1979)

Yaphet Kotto as Parker, Sigourney Weaver as Ripley, and Ian Holm as Ash in 'Alien'. Everett Collection

It's the endless expanse that sets the stage, the sense that, despite being surrounded by so much open space, there is absolutely nowhere to run. There's no dialogue for the first six minutes of *Alien*, nor is there music. It's just ambient sound, as cold and alienating as the crowded, grimy halls of the *Nostromo*, cinema's most notorious intergalactic haunted house. All the crew members — an out-of-this-world ensemble consisting of Tom Skeritt, John Hurt, Yaphet Kotto, and, of course, Sigourney Weaver — have are each other, so when a creature bursts from their buddy's chest and begins picking them off one by one, the ugly, pipe-strewn walls close in. Director Ridley Scott embraces the claustrophobia, embedding his Xenomorph into the fabric of the ship and, by extension, our nightmares. —*R.C.*

Where to watch *Alien*: HBO Max through May 20

Arrival (2016)

Jeremy Renner as Ian Donnelly and Amy Adams as Louise Banks in 'Arrival'.

Jan Thijs/Paramount Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection

What if, instead of fighting alien invaders, we made an effort to understand them? This heady sci-fi masterpiece from Denis Villeneuve tackles such a concept with thought and care, showing that a blockbuster doesn't have to be mindless. After alien pods mysteriously appear around the world, a linguist named Louise (Amy Adams, in one of her best performances to date) is brought in to try to crack the code of what they want from Earth's inhabitants. She ultimately discovers that their understanding of time varies from our own, leading to a deeply moving conclusion. —*Kevin Jacobsen*

Where to watch *Arrival*: Paramount+

Back to the Future (1985)

Christopher Lloyd as Dr. Emmett Brown and Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly in 'Back to the Future'. Ralph Nelson/Universal

It's wild that *Back to the Future* is one of the most beloved movies ever, one that families still gather around the TV to watch, given that its story centers on a teenager who unwittingly travels back in time only to threaten his existence after his mother gets intensely horny for him. On the other hand, the discomfort would overwhelm, but Robert Zemeckis' clever, fleet-footed direction and Bob Gale's inventive yet impeccably structured script endear us immediately to this world and its eccentric characters. It's a shockingly emotional movie, using its time-hopping adventure to witness that pivotal moment when a child learns to see their parents as, well, people. And, like any time travel narrative, it touches on the fragility of our realities, the notion that our fates hinge on the smallest of moments. One small move and the entire house of cards collapses. —*R.C.*

Where to watch *Back to the Future*: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

Blade Runner: The Final Cut (1982)

Rutger Hauer as Roy Batty in 'Blade Runner: The Final Cut'. Everett Collection

Pluck any quote from the mouth of Rutger Hauer's Roy Batty and you'll land upon a classic. "It's not an easy thing to meet your maker," for instance. He speaks as a human-engineered replicant, of course, but try turning that concept back on ourselves — what would we do if we met our creator? The ideas overflow in Ridley Scott's sci-fi masterpiece, a flop upon its release that, after receiving numerous director's cuts, has firmly planted itself in the cultural consciousness. But it's not all philosophy; *Blade Runner* is a spectacle, its choked, dystopian, post-capitalist cityscapes growing more and more familiar as the years pass. The film's exquisite clutter extends to its eccentric ensemble, a collection of enigmas that brim with weariness and wonder. —*R.C.*

Where to watch *Blade Runner: The Final Cut*: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

The mothership in 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'. Everett Collection

There are plenty of jokes to be made at the expense of Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss), the UFO obsessive in Steven Spielberg's *Close Encounters of the Third Kind**. *He abandons his wife and family for aliens! What a s---ty dad! But isn't this what makes Spielberg's movie so interesting, the idea that mysteries are sometimes so compelling that one can't help but chase them to the outer reaches? Like so many films on this list, it's a testament to the lure of science fiction, to a reality that exists outside society's portrait of a life well lived. —*R.C.*

Where to watch *Close Encounters of the Third Kind*: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

Contact (1997)

Jodie Foster as Dr. Eleanor 'Ellie' Ann Arroway in 'Contact'. Everett Collection

Robert Zemeckis' ambitious adaptation of Carl Sagan's 1985 novel is that rarest of films: a philosophical blockbuster. Jodie Foster is steely yet open-hearted as Ellie Arroway, a scientist who discovers schematics for a single-occupant space vessel buried in transmissions from a distant star system. As the vessel is constructed and Ellie prepares for first contact, a stacked ensemble — Matthew McConaughey, Angela Bassett, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt — navigates the tensions between science and faith with charm and nuance. Zemeckis, meanwhile, balances the script's bigger questions with white-knuckle awe. —*R.C.*

Where to watch *Contact*: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

Dark City (1998)

Kiefer Sutherland as Dr. Daniel P. Schreber (center) in 'Dark City'.

New Line Cinema/Everett Collection

"When was the last time you remember doing something during the day?" It's such a chilling line, and one that teases the mysteries at the heart of Alex Proyas' masterful *Dark City*. Set in a murky metropolis that echoes the paintings of Edward Hopper, the film stars Rufus Sewell as a man who, after waking in a hotel bathtub with no memories, stumbles upon the puppet masters who have long manipulated his surroundings. The pale, floating beings are called Strangers and their goal is to rebuild their dying alien civilization by unlocking the secrets of the human soul via frequent experimentation. That means injecting their subjects with new memories and rebuilding the city to explore new possibilities. It's eerie, gripping stuff, a sci-fi noir that raises the biggest question of all: How much of our lives are truly ours? —*R.C.*

Where to watch *Dark City*: Tubi

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

Harry Lauter as Platoon Leader and Michael Rennie as Klaatu in 'The Day the Earth Stood Still'. Everett Collection

To watch Robert Wise's *The Day the Earth Stood Still* today is to view it through the prism of film history; it's near-impossible for a modern audience to separate the movie (and Bernard Herrmann's score) from the iconography it helped popularize. Flying saucers, space lasers, hulking silver humanoids — to this day, they continue to manifest in homage, parody, art, and subversion. It's worth a revisit, though, as Wise's film, based on a short story by Harry Bates, remains an enduring (and fittingly cynical) work of satire. Nearly 75 years later, the thought of a unified front and nuclear disarmament remains as elusive as ever. Klaatu would stand even less of a chance. —*R.C.*

Where to watch *The Day the Earth Stood Still*: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

Dune (2021)

Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides in 'Dune'.

Warner Bros. Pictures/Legendary Pictures

Frank Herbert's *Dune* has bested not one, but two of cinema's best storytellers. David Lynch's '84 adaptation, though it has its defenders, was a critical and commercial dud, while Alejandro Jodorowsky crumbled beneath the weight of his own vision. In his adaptation of the first half of Herbert's novel, Denis Villeneuve opts for a sober approach that wisely emphasizes story and character over eccentricity. He also, though, understands that the grandeur of Herbert's vision is part of what makes *Dune** *so uniquely, well, *Dune*. Everything from the architecture to the sandworms that swim through these sweeping desert vistas is as massive as the spice war's impact on the saga's political and religious machinations. —*R.C.*

Where to watch *Dune*: HBO Max

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

Henry Thomas as Elliott (center, in red hoodie) in 'E.T.'.

Universal/Everett Collection

Who needs adults? *E.T.* is a marvel of the popular genre — a vibrant, sweet, funny, and magical movie. But one of director Steven Spielberg's most inspired choices is to cloak many of the film's authority figures (parents, teachers, government stooges) in shadow and silhouette. Why? Because a leathery little scamp like E.T. is lovable only in the uninhibited mind of a child; fear, distrust, and paranoia are born of experience and disappointment. It's not that adults are evil in the world of *E.T.*, it's just that their curiosity isn't rooted in compassion. Why help a creature phone home when there's use for him here? Kids don't think that way. *E.T. *doesn't, either. —*R.C.*

Where to watch *E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial*: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

The Fly (1986)

Jeff Goldblum as Seth Brundle in 'The Fly'. Everett Collection

*The Fly* is disgusting. It's also beautiful? Because you're rooting for Seth (Jeff Goldblum) and Ronnie (Geena Davis), and it's unfair that an errant fly joins Seth inside his new teleportation device, fundamentally altering his DNA and destroying his mind and body. People love to talk about David Cronenberg's penchant for body horror, but *The Fly* amounts to more than mere goopiness, serving as a gutting allegory for the ways physical and mental illness can ravage a relationship that was once beautiful. —*R.C.*

Where to watch *The Fly*: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

Galaxy Quest (1999)

Tim Allen as Jason Nesmith, Alan Rickman as Sir Alexander Dane, and Sigourney Weaver as Gwen DiMarco in 'Galaxy Quest'. Everett Collection

One of the first comedies to pay homage to the legion of sci-fi diehards that flooded the early internet, Dean Parisot's hilarious *Galaxy Quest* stars Tim Allen and Sigourney Weaver as the senescent stars of a bygone *Star Trek*-like phenomenon who are unwittingly swept up in an honest-to-goodness sci-fi adventure. The intergalactic Thermians, thinking Allen's Jason Nesmith and Weaver's Gwen DeMarco are truly the characters they play on TV, are relying on these conceited actors to save them from an all-too-real adversary. By positing the aliens as fans and offering these performers a real moment to be heroes, *Galaxy Quest* both satirizes and celebrates fandom, acknowledging the genuine impact fictional touchstones ultimately have on their most devoted consumers. —*R.C.*

Where to watch *Galaxy Quest*: Paramount+

Ghost in the Shell (1995)

Major Motoko Kusanagi (voice: Atsuko Tanaka) 'Ghost in the Shell'. Everett Collection

James Cameron, whose fingerprints will forever be imprinted on modern sci-fi, called Mamoru Oshii's *Ghost in the Shell* "the first truly adult animation film to reach a level of literary and visual excellence," per Far Out Magazine. Anime stans will surely take issue with such a sweeping statement, but his endorsement speaks to both the film's crossover appeal and the magnetism of its ideas. It follows Motoko Kusanagi, a cyborg public-security agent in 2029 Japan, as she pursues a hacker known as the Puppet Master, but the film isn't about the hacker's threat so much as our fear of it. What happens when technology overwhelms humanity? Is it to be feared or embraced? —*R.C.*

Where to watch *Ghost in the Shell*: Amazon Prime Video

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

Donald Sutherland as Matthew Bennell in 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers'. United Artists/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images

Yeah, it's a remake, but Philip Kaufman's spin on Don Siegel's 1956 film (and Jack Finney's 1955 novel) trades Cold War anxiety for post-Vietnam paranoia in ways that strengthen and sharpen the source material. The plot is more or less the same: A Bay Area health inspector discovers humans are being replaced by alien duplicates that possess none of the pesky emotions that make life lovely and unbearable. A blessing, perhaps? It was hard not to live in a state of distrust following Vietnam, Watergate, Chappaquiddick, and the assassinations of JFK and RFK. The true horror of Kaufman's *Invasion*, though, is that acquiescence gives way to McCarthyism; in conformity, old friends become new enemies. Also, what's the deal with that Robert Duvall cameo? —*R.C.*

Where to watch *Invasion of the Body Snatchers*: Tubi

Jurassic Park (1993)

A Tyrannosaurus rex in 'Jurassic Park'.

Murray Close/Getty

Few movies have ever rivaled the level of wonder and magic evoked when Laura Dern's Ellie Sattler witnesses a live dinosaur in person for the first time (as John Williams' majestic score swells) in *Jurassic Park*. Steven Spielberg's iconic blockbuster about a trio of scientists who investigate an island on which a business magnate has created a theme park of cloned dinosaurs will simply never be topped — no matter how many sequels Hollywood tries to spawn. After all, as Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) quips in the film, "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should." The 1993 original is thrilling, fear-inducing, and altogether entertaining, thanks in part to the then-innovative visual effects that still hold up today. —*K.J.*

Where to watch *Jurassic Park*: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

The Matrix (1999)

Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity and Keanu Reeves as Neo in 'The Matrix'.

Warner Bros./Courtesy Everett Collection

*The Matrix* is one of the defining movies released at the turn of the century, tapping into existential crises and technological anxieties of the time. Computer programmer Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves), a.k.a. Neo, has his entire perspective shaken upon learning that the world he lives in is a simulated reality called the Matrix, designed by hyper-intelligent machines that secretly use human bodies as an energy source. Neo joins a team of rebels fighting back against the machines to free humanity. Wildly ambitious and endlessly thought-provoking, *The Matrix* is a one-of-a-kind sci-fi epic, still resonant decades later. —*K.J.*

Where to watch The Matrix: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)**

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Metropolis (1927)

Rudolf Klein-Rogge as Rotwang (right) in 'Metropolis'. Everett Collection

One of the first feature-length science-fiction movies doubles as one of the most influential films of all time. Fritz Lang's stunning *Metropolis* unfolds in a futuristic urban dystopia, one heavily influenced by Art Deco architecture and flooded with Biblical imagery, where the rich live carefree lives above ground while workers toil below. It's the son of the city's leader, who has fallen for a working-class woman, who hopes to bring unity between the classes — a notion so naive that Lang himself scoffed at it in his later years. Still, the film's primitive effects dazzle to this day, as does the sweep of its imposing cityscape. —*R.C.*

Where to watch *Metropolis*: Tubi

Night of the Creeps (1986)

'The Night of the Creeps'. Everett Collection

Fred Dekker's cult favorite opens on some of cinema's goofiest-looking aliens before spiraling into a feverish homage to the B-movies of yesteryear. As hilarious as it is grotesque, Dekker uses its extraterrestrial threat as a springboard to a whole host of familiar horrors, from slack zombies and demon dogs to axe murderers and feather-haired frat bros. Horror legend Tom Atkins gets the best one-liners — "Thrill me" — and the chance to flex his flamethrowing skills. It's classic, Spanky. —*R.C.*

Where to watch *Night of the Creeps*: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

Nope (2022)

Daniel Kaluuya as OJ Haywood Jr. in 'Nope'. Universal Pictures

The latest of three features directed by Jordan Peele and released within a five-year period, *Nope* is a sci-fi horror set on a horse ranch outside Los Angeles. Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer play OJ and Em Haywood, siblings who inherit their family's business of wrangling horses for Hollywood projects after their father is killed by debris falling from a UFO. Determined to cash in and save their ranch, the Haywood siblings decide to take a photo of the otherworldly object to sell as proof of its existence. Written and executed in Peele's signature style, which straddles the line between social satire and genre love letter, *Nope *lassos the viewers' suspended disbelief while also interrogating the place where entertainment and exploitation intersect. —*R.C.*

Where to watch *Nope*: Peacock

Nowhere (1997)

Alan Boyce as H---job, Chiara Mastroianni as Kriss, Debi Mazar as Kozy, and Jeremy Jordan as Bart in ‘Nowhere’.

Fine Line Features/Getty

Some of the best sci-fi films use classic tropes of the genre to inform their characters' inner lives. While few would classify Gregg Araki's satirical, hyper-saturated acid trip of a movie as sci-fi first, its inclusion of a reptilian alien who terrorizes the streets of Los Angeles serves as a fun metaphor for this story of disaffected, alienated youth. Released in 1997, the film also highlights the end-of-the-world anxiety of the approaching millennium, and what this does to a group of teens whose whole lives are ostensibly ahead of them. —*K.J.*

Where to watch *Nowhere*: The Criterion Channel

Planet of the Apes (1968)

A still from 'Planet of the Apes'.

20th Century Fox Film Corp.

If concerns about white nationalism and immigration have taught us anything over the last several decades, it's that a vocal sect of white Anglo-Saxons are increasingly scared of losing their status as the dominant force in the United States. Franklin J. Schaffner's *Planet of the Apes* satirizes that anxiety, telling the story of an astronaut (Charlton Heston) who crash-lands on a planet in which apes are the dominant species, having adopted a human-like intelligence and speech, only to discover that (gasp!) the planet is a future version of the Earth he's always known. It's been parodied time and again — most hilariously as a musical on *The Simpsons* — but the film remains an entertaining and well-constructed adventure, a hair above the numerous sequels and spinoffs it spawned. —*R.C.*

Where to watch *Planet of the Apes*: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

Predator (1987)

Arnold Schwarzenegger as Dutch in 'Predator'. Everett Collection

Sometimes you just want to see the strongest, sweatiest men get their asses handed to them by an alien. John McTiernan's beloved brawler stars a never-better Arnold Schwarzenegger as the leader of a paramilitary rescue team sent to free hostages in a guerrilla-held territory of a Central American rainforest. There, flitting between the trees, is a humanoid creature with a plasma cannon and an invisibility cloak that proves more formidable than any guerrilla grunt. Yeah, it's funny — "Stick around" and "Get to da choppa!" are all-time Arnold one-liners — but McTiernan gets his hands dirty, too, immersing us in the jungle's terrors while building to a killer climax that strips away the technological frippery in favor of old-fashioned fisticuffs. Grisly, relentless, and dripping with machismo. —*R.C.*

Where to watch *Predator*: Hulu

Primer (2004)

David Sullivan as Abe in 'Primer'. Everett Collection

Made for just $7,000, *Primer* took home Sundance's Grand Jury Prize with what's got to be the most normcore depiction of time travel ever put to film. Writer, director, composer, editor, and star Shane Carruth elides exposition and layman's speak for realism, relying instead on scientific shorthand, technical jargon, and elliptical storytelling to spin this story of two not-so-eccentric engineers who somewhat accidentally invent a time machine. The 78-minute thriller is chilly and often opaque, but Carruth's narrative restraint allows the dread dripping from its philosophical implications to sink in that much deeper. —*R.C.*

Where to watch *Primer*: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

Solaris (1972)

Natalya Bondarchuk as Khari and Donatas Banionis as Kris Kelvin in 'Solaris'. Everett Collection

Though the two filmmakers weren't fans of each other's meditative space epics, Stanley Kubrick's *2001 *and Andrei Tarkovsky's *Solaris* both touch on a singular notion: What we perceive as reality on Earth takes on a different shape in space. In *Solaris*, a psychologist played by Donatas Banionis is sent to a space station orbiting a distant planet to diagnose whatever malady appears to have fallen upon its inhabitants. It isn't long before the strange affliction takes hold of him as well, spawning visions (or are they?) of his deceased former wife. *Solaris* demands patience from its viewer, but its philosophical explorations of human interiority and the manifestations of our most painful memories are deeply rewarding. —*R.C.*

Where to watch *Solaris*: HBO Max

Snowpiercer (2013)

Chris Evans as Curtis Everett, Tilda Swinton as Minister Mason, and Octavia Spencer as Tanya in 'Snowpiercer'. Radius/The Weinstein Company

Set on a speeding train in a postapocalyptic world undone by hubristic climate engineering, *Snowpiercer*'s tale of class warfare is thrilling, bloody, and not quite what it seems. Directed by genre alchemist Bong Joon Ho, who would revisit similar themes a few years later with the Academy Award-winning *Parasite* (2019), the film melds action with horror, humor, and a healthy dose of queasy drama. Chris Evans is as good as he's ever been as rebel leader Curtis, but Tilda Swinton steals the show as a toothy, grotesque spokesman for the upper crust. —*R.C.*

Where to watch *Snowpiercer*: Tubi

Stalker (1979)

Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy as Stalker and Anatoliy Solonitsyn as Writer in 'Stalker'. Everett Collection

Though very different movies, Andrei Tarkovsky's *Stalker *shares with his previous *Solaris *a concern with the otherworldly as it impacts the imperfect soul of man. Dense and dogged in its philosophical exploration, the film follows a writer (Anatoly Solonitsyn) and a professor (Nikolai Grinko) as an oddball known as the Stalker (Alexander Kaidanovsky) guides them through a mysterious, perilous, and heavily guarded site ominously called the "Zone." There, beyond a wasteland that can't help but summon visions of nuclear fallout, lies a room that's said to grant a person's innermost desires. It's this grand notion of human desire that's interrogated across the film, and while Tarkovsky offers no simple conclusions, it's the accumulation of the debate that lingers, that longing to know ourselves. —*R.C.*

Where to watch *Stalker*: HBO Max

Starship Troopers (1997)

Casper Van Dien as Johnny Rico (right) in 'Starship Troopers'. Everett Collection

Fascist imagery and thudding allusions to World War II-era propaganda films permeate Paul Verhoeven's *Starship Troopers*, but because the provocative Dutch filmmaker didn't explicitly spell out his satire, it went over the heads of many upon its release. But time has been good to the action-comedy, perhaps because its gleefully cynical portrait of nationalism and a war-hungry populace would resonate that much more in the years following 9/11 and the Iraq War. That said, those interested in the simpler pleasures of watching bugs go splat will also find plenty to like, from its gnarly, goo-slinging action set pieces to CGI effects that stand up to today's technology. —*R.C.*

Where to watch *Starship Troopers*: Netflix

Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

David Prowse as Darth Vader in 'Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back'. Lucasfilm Ltd.

*Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back* didn't need to be this good. Even if director Irvin Kershner, working off a screenplay by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan, had recycled everything that made George Lucas' *Star Wars* such a hit, it still would've drawn audiences in droves. But *Empire*, the gold standard of a sequel that surpasses its predecessor, turns a potential franchise into an honest-to-goodness saga. As Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) comes into his own as a Jedi, Kershner guides us through fresh locales rich in potential lore, punishing snowscapes and colorful cloud cities, while Brackett and Kasdan complicate an otherwise simple story with conflicted notions of good and evil. There's also that twist and the downer of an ending that chases it; decades later, the franchise is still trying to recapture that magic. —*R.C.*

Where to watch *Star Wars: Episode V —* *The Empire Strikes Back*: Disney+

Sunshine (2007)

Cillian Murphy as Robert Capa in 'Sunshine'. Everett Collection

The Sun is dying, and a bomb the size of Manhattan is all that can save it in this thrill ride from protean filmmaker Danny Boyle. Penned by Alex Garland, *Sunshine* transcends its sensational premise by grappling with how the vastness of space exposes the fallibility of man, forcing him to reckon with the prospect of an all-knowing creator. Boyle's dazzling, eye-melting direction finds beauty and terror in juxtaposing the smallness of man against the monolithic star. —*R.C.*

Where to watch *Sunshine*: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

The Terminator (1984)

Arnold Schwarzenegger as Terminator in 'The Terminator'.

Orion Pictures Corporation/Courtesy Everett Collection

The "unkillable killer" is a given by this point in genre filmmaking, but the sci-fi staple — think of *The Day the Earth Stood Still*'s Gort — cemented its place in modern action cinema with Arnold Schwarzenegger, a man whose massive, marbled physique may as well have been carved in another dimension. It's difficult to imagine anyone but the Governator playing the namesake of James Cameron's breakthrough blockbuster, which pits Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) and a time-traveling soldier (Michael Biehn) against a relentless cyborg assassin (Schwarzenegger) who slaughters without thought or remorse. It's thin gruel, but Cameron's eye for carnage is as poetic as his humor is wry. It's chaos that winks, a blueprint for many a cinephile's favorite era of action filmmaking. —*R.C.*

Where to watch *The Terminator*: HBO Max

Them! (1954)

James Whitmore as Sgt. Ben Peterson in 'Them!'. Everett Collection

Filmed before self-awareness defanged much of the '50s sci-fi genre, *Them!* is a relic of the "nuclear monster" era that, 70-plus years later, retains much of its original glow. Sure, it's about big ants terrorizing the States, but it's also about everyday people grappling with their justified fears of a post-nuclear world in which everything they've come to know has been tainted and made dangerous. Those ideas ripple, but there's also a queasy revulsion baked into the idea that the pests we've spent much of our lives stomping could do the same to us. —*R.C.*

Where to watch *Them!*: Tubi

The Thing (1982)

Kurt Russell as MacReady and Charles Hallahan as Norris in 'The Thing'.

Universal/Everett Collection

Though reviled upon release, John Carpenter's vicious remake of the 1951's *The Thing From Another World*, itself an adaptation of John W. Campbell's 1938 novella *Who Goes There?*, has established itself as one of the genre's most inventive, resonant, and gut-churning visions. Kurt Russell stars as MacReady, one of a handful of American researchers in Antarctica who encounter an alien parasite with an uncanny ability to infest and imitate its host. And while the assimilation process is plenty frightening in itself — the memes flood social media to this day — it's the ensuing paranoia that pervades, dividing this tiny community with an escalating litany of fears that mirrors any number of political and spiritual obsessions. —*R.C.*

Where to watch *The Thing*: The Criterion Channel

Under the Skin (2013)

Scarlett Johansson as the Female in 'Under the Skin'. A24

In different hands, this stark and disquieting adaptation of Michel Faber's 2000 novel could have been an effects-heavy sci-fi spectacle. Jonathan Glazer, the English visionary behind *Sexy Beast* (2000) and *Birth* (2004), saw a different story between the pages, one about a predatory alien's drift towards empathy on a planet whose citizens are only growing more isolated. Mica Levi's violent, viola-forward score will give you nightmares. —*R.C.*

Where to watch *Under the Skin*: Netflix

WALL-E (2008)

WALL-E (voice: Ben Burtt) in 'WALL-E'. Disney/Pixar

Pixar's ninth feature begins by indulging our most cynical fears: The world as we know it will one day be overrun by garbage, undone by corporate monopolization. A touch rich coming from a Disney-owned company? Sure, but *WALL-E*'s heart is in the right place, a story of an adorable trash-collecting robot alerting young viewers to the perils of environmental disregard and unchecked human consumption. Director Andrew Stanton treats his youthful audience as equals, elevating the animation with complex shots that mimic live-action cinematography and allowing them to unfold across long stretches that feature not a single line of dialogue. —*R.C.*

Where to watch *WALL-E*: Disney+

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The 35 best sci-fi movies of all time

Travel through space, time , and genre as you parse EW's list of the 35 best scifi movies of all time . The 35 best scifi movies ...

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Kentucky Lottery Cash Ball, Pick 3 Evening winning numbers for May 7, 2026

Kentucky Lottery Cash Ball, Pick 3 Evening winning numbers for May 7, 2026 Ray Padilla and Chris Sims, Louisville Courier JournalFri, May 8, 2026 at 3:30 AM UTC 0 Kentucky Lottery Cash Ball, Pick 3 Evening winning numbers for May 7, 2026 The Kentucky Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big. Here&x27;s a look at Thursday, May 7, 2026 winning numbers for each game. Cash Ball 04133034, Cash Ball: 07 Check Cash Ball payouts and previous drawings here. Pick 3 Evening: 970 Midday: 994 Advertisement Check Pick 3 payouts and previous drawings here.

Kentucky Lottery Cash Ball, Pick 3 Evening winning numbers for May 7, 2026

Ray Padilla and Chris Sims, Louisville Courier JournalFri, May 8, 2026 at 3:30 AM UTC

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Kentucky Lottery Cash Ball, Pick 3 Evening winning numbers for May 7, 2026

The Kentucky Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.

Here's a look at Thursday, May 7, 2026 winning numbers for each game.

Cash Ball

04-13-30-34, Cash Ball: 07

Check Cash Ball payouts and previous drawings here.

Pick 3

Evening: 9-7-0

Midday: 9-9-4

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Check Pick 3 payouts and previous drawings here.

Pick 4

Evening: 4-3-6-2

Midday: 6-4-3-4

Check Pick 4 payouts and previous drawings here.

Feeling lucky?Explore the latest lottery news & results

This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Courier Journal digital producer. You can send feedback using this form.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky Lottery Cash Ball, Pick 3 Evening winning numbers for May 7, 2026

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Kentucky Lottery Cash Ball, Pick 3 Evening winning numbers for May 7, 2026

Kentucky Lottery Cash Ball, Pick 3 Evening winning numbers for May 7, 2026 Ray Padilla and Chris Sims, Louisville Courier Journa...

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France reckons with Nazi-looted art in new Paris museum gallery

France reckons with Nazilooted art in new Paris museum gallery THOMAS ADAMSON Tue, May 5, 2026 at 4:36 PM UTC 0 1 / 0France Naziera ArtFrench painter PierreAuguste Renoir's painting titled Madame Alphonse Daudet is on exhibit at the Musée d'Orsay museum's new permanent gallery dedicated to socalled MNR artworks, pieces recovered after World War II whose ownership remains uncertain, in Paris, Monday, May 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus) () PARIS (AP) — The painting shows a girl in a bonnet and her younger brother staring across the Normandy coast toward an unknown horizon.

France reckons with Nazi-looted art in new Paris museum gallery

THOMAS ADAMSON Tue, May 5, 2026 at 4:36 PM UTC

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1 / 0France Nazi-era ArtFrench painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir's painting titled Madame Alphonse Daudet is on exhibit at the Musée d'Orsay museum's new permanent gallery dedicated to so-called MNR artworks, pieces recovered after World War II whose ownership remains uncertain, in Paris, Monday, May 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus) ()

PARIS (AP) — The painting shows a girl in a bonnet and her younger brother staring across the Normandy coast toward an unknown horizon.

The artwork itself faced an unknown future in 1942, when it was acquired in Paris for Adolf Hitler, one of countless works swept up in the Nazi plunder of European Jews.

On Tuesday, it went on permanent display in a new room at the city's Musée d’Orsay as part of France’s long-delayed reckoning with Nazi-era looting. The gallery is the first in the museum's history given over to the orphaned masterpieces of the Nazi era.

It is also the first such display in France where the paintings are hung so visitors can read the backs. The stamps, labels and inventory marks map how each piece of art moved from private homes into Nazi hands.

The painting by Belgian artist Alfred Stevens was originally earmarked for the Führer’s planned museum in Linz, Austria. But by 1943, it was reassigned to Hitler’s mountain home in the Bavaria region of Germany. The museum was never built following Germany's defeat.

Allied recovery teams — the Monuments Men made famous by the 2014 George Clooney film — finally found the painting after the war.

No heir came forward, and no one knows who owned it before 1942.

A collection of unclaimed art

The 1891 Stevens painting is not unique. It is one of 2,200 such artistic orphans in France — known as MNR, short for Musées Nationaux Récupération, or National Museums Recovery. These artworks were retrieved from Germany and Austria after 1945 and entrusted to French national museums in the early 1950s.

They were never claimed. The state does not own them but holds them in trust for heirs who may yet appear. The Musée d’Orsay holds 225 such pieces.

Marie Duboisse, a retired schoolteacher from Lyon, paused Tuesday in front of the Stevens painting.

“I have seen those three letters — M, N, R — at the Louvre. I never knew what they meant. I thought it was a donor,” she said.

Last month, the museum launched its first research unit dedicated to tracing the orphans’ rightful heirs, file by file. The effort involves six Franco-German researchers led by Ines Rotermund-Reynard, the Orsay’s head of provenance research.

The new gallery displays 13 such works.

France’s long-delayed reckoning

France is reckoning, in plain sight, with one of the longest silences in its postwar memory: the looted, sold and lost art of the Nazi era — and the French hands that helped move it.

Starting in the late 1960s, documentaries and historians began naming what France had done under the Vichy government that cooperated with the Nazis, including helping to send 80,000 Jews from France to their deaths and presiding over a Paris art market that grew rich on the property of the dead.

In July 1995, President Jacques Chirac stood at the site of the Vél d’Hiv roundup — the 1942 mass arrest in Paris of Jews who were then deported to Nazi camps — and said, for the first time, that the French state itself bore responsibility. In 1997, France launched a national inquiry into the plundering of artwork from Jews.

About 100,000 cultural objects were declared looted from France during the war. Some 60,000 were recovered. About 45,000 went home.

Roughly 15,000 had no identified owner. The 2,200 MNR artworks were chosen from that remainder.

For four decades, they were largely a dormant file. Between 1954 and 1993, France returned only four.

Chirac’s mea culpa, and the country’s slow reckoning with its own role, changed that.

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The Orsay has returned 15 since 1994.

The market that fed the plunder

The most recent pieces of art to be returned — by Alfred Sisley and Auguste Renoir, given to the heirs of Grégoire Schusterman — went home in 2024.

Inside the new gallery, the histories hang on the wall.

There is a piece by Edward Degas, a copy he made of a Berlin ballroom scene around 1879. The Jewish collector Fernand Ochsé bought it in 1919. Ochsé was deported to Auschwitz and killed.

There is another Renoir, a portrait of the writer Alphonse Daudet’s wife, sold to a Cologne museum in November 1941. No record names the seller.

There is also a painting by Paul Cézanne that was dismissed as a fake by a Louvre curator in the 1950s. Recent study suggests it may be real.

Daniel Lévy, a software engineer visiting from Strasbourg, stood at the Cézanne, looking at its back.

“You walk past these labels your whole life and you do not read them. Now I will read them," he said. "My grandmother lost some of her family in the camps. Some of these paintings were probably hanging in homes like hers.”

Paris was Western Europe's richest art hub in the early 20th century.

The Hôtel Drouot, the city’s main auction house, reopened in autumn 1940 and ran briskly through the Nazi occupation.

French dealers were among the conduits. German museums sent buyers, and Hitler’s agents took the best.

“The most important art market in Europe was concentrated in Paris,” Rotermund-Reynard said. “The moment the Nazis arrived in occupied territory, they had enormous buying power. They threw themselves at the market.”

Germans were eager buyers

Almost every museum in Nazi Germany, Rotermund-Reynard said, sent buyers to Paris to expand its collections. Those buyers drew on a market thick with looted and forced-sale property.

“Hitler himself wanted to build the world’s largest museum, in Linz, the city in Austria where he grew up,” she said.

Hermann Göring, Hitler’s deputy, traveled 21 times to Paris during the occupation to help himself to works taken from Jewish collectors.

“There was an enormous thirst,” Rotermund-Reynard said, “both for the possessions of Jewish collectors, and for acquisitions to expand the German museums.”

For Rotermund-Reynard, the works cannot be separated from the genocide.

“All of this is part of the history of the Shoah,” she said, using the Hebrew word for the Holocaust. “When you try to understand this drive to take from Jewish families, it is part of the terrifying Nazi ideology to erase Jewish life.”

Antisemitic acts in France — home to Europe’s largest Jewish community — hit 1,320 in 2025, according to the French Interior Ministry. Those near-record levels followed a sharp surge after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.

The gallery was not built to fight antisemitism, said François Blanchetière, the Orsay’s chief sculpture curator and co-curator of the gallery. But the consequences of the Holocaust must be repaired, he said.

“There is no statute of limitations on these crimes," he said.

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Source: Entertainment

Published: May 5, 2026 at 07:46PM on Source: RED MAG

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France reckons with Nazi-looted art in new Paris museum gallery

France reckons with Nazilooted art in new Paris museum gallery THOMAS ADAMSON Tue, May 5, 2026 at 4:36 PM UTC 0 1 / 0France Nazier...

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Starmer warns Iran’s attempts to destabilise British society ‘will not be tolerated’

Starmer warns Iran’s attempts to destabilise British society ‘will not be tolerated’ Athena StavrouTue, May 5, 2026 at 10:42 AM UTC 0 Sir Keir Starmer said attempts by Iran to destabilise British society “will not be tolerated” amid suspicion Tehran could be stirring up antisemitism. The prime minister said the government was investigating whether foreign states could be behind recent attacks on the Jewish community in the UK.

Starmer warns Iran’s attempts to destabilise British society ‘will not be tolerated’

Athena StavrouTue, May 5, 2026 at 10:42 AM UTC

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Sir Keir Starmer said attempts by Iran to destabilise British society “will not be tolerated” amid suspicion Tehran could be stirring up antisemitism.

The prime minister said the government was investigating whether foreign states could be behind recent attacks on the Jewish community in the UK.

Speaking to leaders of community groups, senior government ministers and police chiefs following a knife attack in Golders Green last week, Sir Keir warned there would be “consequences” if Iran were found to be responsible.

“One of the lines of inquiry is whether a foreign state has been behind some of these incidents,” he said.

“We are investigating, of course, all the possibilities. And we are clear that these actions will have consequences if that proves to be the case.

“Our message to Iran, or to any other country that might seek to foment violence, hatred or division in society, is that it will not be tolerated.”

The prime minister said the government was investigating whether foreign states such as Iran could have been behind recent antisemitic attacks in the UK (AFP/Getty)

Describing the situation as a “crisis” in the wake of the attack in north London last week, Sir Keir said new legislation would be rushed through to tackle “malign threats”.

The government has promised a new law to allow it to take action against state-backed groups amid calls for the proscription of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Sir Keir told the meeting that although essential, security is “not enough”, as he vowed to “deal with the forces that drive this hatred in the first place”.

“We’re clear-eyed about the fact that antisemitism does not have one source alone: Islamists, far left, far right extremism, all target Jewish communities,” he said.

“That is why this government has put in place the first coordinated national plan to strengthen cohesion and confront extremism in all of its forms.”

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Sir Keir Starmer speaks during a meeting with leaders from across society to discuss tackling antisemitism (Reuters)

Jewish communities across England are set to receive an extra £1m in government funding to pay for community safety work and projects aimed at countering antisemitism.

The funding follows the £25m announced last week in response to the attack in Golders Green to provide more security for the community.

Two Jewish men, Shloime Rand, 34, and Norman Shine, 76, were stabbed during a knife rampage through the streets of the north London suburb last week.

Alleged attacker Essa Suleiman, 45, appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday and was remanded in custody.

The attack, which has been declared a terror incident by police, is the latest in a string of violent incidents against Jewish people.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer (centre) and Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley (right) meeting emergency personnel from Shomrim North West London (Stefan Rousseau/PA) (PA Wire)

The location of the attacks is near where four Jewish community ambulances were destroyed by fire in late March.

Separately on Tuesday, counter-terror police are investigating an arson attack at a former synagogue in Tower Hamlets, east London.

Jewish security charity Shomrim said fire crews were called out to the building in Nelson Street, Whitechapel, east London, in the early hours. Minor damage was caused to a set of gates and a lock at the front of the building, the Met Police said. There were no reports of injuries.

At a meeting of senior figures from the police, representatives from the arts, higher education, trade unions and businesses on Tuesday, Sir Keir said the government has ordered an independent audit of how allegations of antisemitism are handled.

“This will be a hard-edge review of where systems are failing,” he said. “We will not, and cannot, accept complacency, delays or weak enforcement, and where inconsistency is found, it will be challenged and addressed swiftly.”

He also promised new action to implement a “zero tolerance” approach to antisemitism on university campuses and action in the arts.

Universities will now be expected to “demonstrate action” to tackle antisemitism among students, while the Arts Council will be expected to withdraw funding and claw it back from anyone who is found to promote antisemitism.

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Published: May 5, 2026 at 01:54PM on Source: RED MAG

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Starmer warns Iran’s attempts to destabilise British society ‘will not be tolerated’

Starmer warns Iran’s attempts to destabilise British society ‘will not be tolerated’ Athena StavrouTue, May 5, 2026 at 10:42 AM U...

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