6 Sci-Fi Movies You Need To Watch, According To Steven Spielberg

Spielberg has always been unusually open about the filmmakers who taught him how to make movies. He has described his film education as coming from watching Hollywood and international cinema, with directors like Alfred Hitchcock, Akira Kurosawa, Stanley Kubrick, and John Ford among his teachers. His favorite sci-fi movies make that influence very clear, spanning decades of film-making and several very different ideas about what science fiction can be.

6 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Directed by Stanley Kubrick

Steven Spielberg's reaction to 2001: A Space Odyssey is about as strong as a recommendation can get. He has said Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film had a "profound impact" on his life and was the first movie that made him feel like he was having a religious experience (via AMC). Spielberg has seen plenty of spectacular movies since then, but 2001 left a mark that never faded.

He also remembered just how strange the experience could be for audiences seeing the movie in theaters. During the Star Gate scene, Spielberg recalled a man walking toward the screen with his arms stretched out before seeming to disappear into it. People were so caught up in what they were seeing that they did not quite know how to react.

For Spielberg, the movie did not only show audiences something they had never seen before. It made them feel as though they had stepped into an entirely new world altogether, which is something Spielberg would spend much of his own career trying to accomplish.

5 Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)

Directed by George Lucas

Spielberg was a Star Wars believer before most people even knew what the movie was. George Lucas invited Spielberg, Brian De Palma, and several other directors to see an unfinished cut, and Spielberg had long told the story as though he was the person in the room who immediately saw something special in it (via Collider).

De Palma remembers things differently. He has pushed back on the idea that everyone else dismissed the movie while Spielberg alone understood its potential, saying that everyone who attended the screen has their own version of what happened (via Light The Fuse Interview). That disagreement has actually become part of the Star Wars universe lore, but it does not change Spielberg's longstanding affection for the franchise or his friendship with Lucas.

Star Wars was unlike anything else dominating theaters at the time, combining the adventure with entirely new levels of visual effects. Spielber would soon become one of the filmmakers defining the same blockbuster era, making his early enthusiasm for Lucas' movie less surprising in retrospect.

4 The Thing From Another World (1951)

Directed by Christian Nyby

There is a direct link from The Thing From Another World to Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Christian Nyby's 1951 movie ends with journalist Ned Scott warning everyone to "watch the skies" after the alien encounter. Spielberg remembered the line, and it became part of the story behind his own 1977 alien movie.

Watch The Skies was actually considered an early title for Close Encounters of the Third Kind (via IndieWire). The two movies do take very different approaches to extraterrestrial life, though. The Thing from Another World treats its visitor as a terrifying thread while Spielberg was more interested in the mystery of what might be out there. Still, that old warning clearly stayed with him.

It is very easy to see why Spielberg would have put a movie like this so close. Long before he was making Close Encounters, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and War of the Worlds, he was busy watching filmmakers use science fiction to make audiences look at the sky and wonder what they may find there.

3 Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956)

Directed by Terry O. Morse & Ishirō Honda

Spielberg's favorite Godzilla movie is not the 1954 Japanese classic iteration. It is Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, the 1956 American version starring Raymond Burr. Spielberg has said that was the only Godzilla he saw, which explains why he is so protective of his memory of it.

When the 1998 Godzilla came along, Spielberg says he deliberately stayed away. He did not want another version of the monster affecting the movie he remembered as a child, calling the Raymond Burr version his favorite Godzilla of all time (via IndieWire). For someone who would later direct Jurassic Park, that childhood connection fits.

Spielberg has also credited Godzilla, King of the Monsters! with influencing the way he approaches action. That influence can absolutely be felt throughout Jurassic Park, where the dinosaurs are not immediately shown in full. The director lets characters react, builds anticipation, and makes the audience wait for the reveal. That specific technique definitely makes the creatures feel much bigger and more frightening.

2 Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

Directed by James Gunn

James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy was the superhero movie that really impressed Spielberg. He told the Brazilian outlet Omelete in 2016 that he liked Richard Donner's Superman, Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, and the first Iron Man, but Guardians was the one that left the biggest impression on him (via IndieWire).

Spielberg particularly liked that the movie didn't take itself too seriously. He praised it for feeling new and for being free of the cynicism that has started creeping into superhero movies. He also liked that it did not feel as though every moment needed to be gritty to prove that the story mattered.

The director's explanation is pretty fitting. The movie has talking trees, a wisecracking raccoon, a 70s-heavy soundtrack, and a group of deeply dysfunctional heroes, but it still manages to land its emotional moments. Spielberg said he walked out of the theater feeling like he had seen something genuinely different, which is exactly the kind of reaction a movie like Guardians was built to get.

1 Dune: Part Two (2024)

Directed by Denis Villeneuve

Spielberg had a lot to say about Dune: Part Two when he sat down with Denis Villeneuve for DGA's Director's Cut podcast. He called it "one of the most brilliant science-fiction films" he had ever seen, then spent much of their conversation talking about Villeneuve's handling of Arrakis.

There was a way that this movie makes the desert feel like an ocean that really caught Spielberg's attention. He pointed to the constant desire for water, the sand worms moving through the sand like sea serpents, and the way Villeneuve shot the landscape itself. Spielberg mentioned being especially taken with the scene of Paul riding a sandworm, calling it "one of the greatest things I have ever seen" (via IndieWire).

He described Villeneuve as one of the filmmakers who can build entire worlds, alongside names like Stanley Kubrick, George Lucas, James Cameron, Christopher Nolan, Ridley Scott, and Guillermo del Toro. Considering how much of Steven Spielberg's own career has been based on creating worlds that audiences want to get lost in, it is quite the compliment.