After a wildly successful run at the box office this spring, Dune: Part Two finally made its way to Max on Tuesday. The sci-fi sequel is currently the biggest movie of the year, and also one of the highest rated, with a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes.
It’s certain to fly up the top 10 charts on Max, just as the original did on HBO Max back in 2021, but once you’re done watching (or rewatching) Dune 2, here are a few other epic sci-fi flicks that you should watch on Max if you’re looking for more like it.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 opus paved the way for every major science fiction movie that followed. 2001: A Space Odyssey, written by Stanley Kubrick and science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, is about space travel, an alien monolith, a manipulative computer, and humanity. It’s astounding how well this movie holds up visually in an era of hyperrealistic CGI, but its themes are eternal, and it’s one of those movies everyone should see at least once.
Aliens
Not all sequels are winners, but Aliens is regarded as one of the best sci-fi sequels of all time. Seven years after Ridley Scott directed Alien, he was replaced by James Cameron for a follow-up, who chose to merge the deliberate horror of the first movie with the action of The Terminator. Sigourney Weaver has had plenty of opportunities to kick ass on screen throughout her career, but this was one of the first and remains among the most notable.
Ex Machina
Alex Garland’s feature directorial debut might still be his best. Ex Machina is a sci-fi thriller about a programmer who is asked by the CEO of his company to help him determine whether or not a humanoid robot can pass the Turing test. The movie stars (future Star Wars co-stars) Domhnall Gleeson and Oscar Isaac, as well as Alicia Vikander as the android.
RoboCop
Set in a futuristic, dystopic Detroit, Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 sci-fi action film RoboCop follows a cop who is murdered by criminals and then resurrected as a heavily armored cyborg by the megacorporation Omni Consumer Products. With no memory of his former life, he proceeds to brutally dispatch criminals in his new precinct, but eventually begins to remember the life he lost. It’s ridiculously violent, brilliantly satirical, and an absolute blast.
