For scientists and engineers looking for films that put technology, discovery and human choices at the center, this is a broad watchlist—not a definitive canon. Christopher McFadden’s 2021 selection for Interesting Engineering spans 1927 to 2015, mixing speculative science fiction with stories about scientific ambition, artificial intelligence, spaceflight and social change. It is arranged chronologically rather than ranked, and its author acknowledges a preference for films made after the 1970s.
The list is useful less as a technical syllabus than as a set of films that can prompt conversations about what people build, what they owe one another and what happens when powerful ideas leave the lab. The numbered list has 50 entries but names 51 films because one entry pairs Alien and Aliens.
How to use this watchlist
McFadden’s criteria include cinematic quality, range across genres and eras, originality, and personal favorites. That makes the selection an editorial recommendation, not a ranking or an assessment of each film’s scientific accuracy. Some titles imagine future technologies; others use science fiction to examine power, class, war, identity or survival. Watch them as stories, and treat their scientific premises as invitations to ask questions rather than as established fact.
The list’s chronology also offers a way to notice how screen visions of technology change over time. The source is Christopher McFadden’s January 10, 2021 article for Interesting Engineering.
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The 50 selections, in chronological order
1927–1968: machines, monsters and first contact
- Metropolis (1927)
- Frankenstein (1931)
- The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
- Godzilla (1954)
- Forbidden Planet (1956)
- Dr. Strangelove (1964)
- Planet of the Apes (1968)
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
These early selections set out several of the list’s enduring questions: how technology shapes society, what responsibility comes with scientific power, and how humanity might look from outside its own perspective.
1972–1988: automation, space and technological anxiety
- Silent Running (1972)
- Westworld (1973)
- Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
- Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986)
- The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
- Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)
- Blade Runner (1982)
- E.T. (1982)
- Tron (1982)
- WarGames (1983)
- Back to the Future (1985)
- Enemy Mine (1985)
- Transformers: The Movie (1986)
- RoboCop (1987)
- Predator (1987)
- The Running Man (1987)
- They Live (1988)
- Akira (1988)
This stretch brings together computer systems and automated threats, encounters with alien life, and imagined futures shaped by scarcity or social control. The pairing of Alien and Aliens is a single numbered selection in the source, though it is two films.
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1991–2009: genetics, networks and engineered worlds
- Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
- Sneakers (1992)
- Jurassic Park (1993)
- Twelve Monkeys (1995)
- Gattaca (1997)
- The Fifth Element (1997)
- The Matrix (1999)
- Minority Report (2002)
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
- Children of Men (2006)
- WALL-E (2008)
- Moon (2009)
- District 9 (2009)
- Avatar (2009)
Here, the list turns to cybersecurity, genetic selection, biotechnology and questions about memory and reality. It also uses speculative settings to examine the consequences of environmental damage, political exclusion and unequal access to power.
2010–2015: artificial intelligence, space and survival
- Inception (2010)
- Ender’s Game (2013)
- Her (2013)
- Snowpiercer (2013)
- Gravity (2013)
- Elysium (2013)
- Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
- Big Hero 6 (2014)
- Interstellar (2014)
- Ex Machina (2015)
The later entries revisit questions of artificial intelligence and human identity while ranging from space exploration to life under ecological and social pressure. The list ends with Ex Machina, but it does not claim that newer films are inherently more valuable; its author simply notes a slight bias toward post-1970s works.
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What themes connect the films?
AI, automation and control
Westworld, WarGames, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Her and Ex Machina place intelligent or automated systems in stories about agency, trust and the limits of human control. Sneakers brings the technological stakes closer to cybersecurity and financial systems.
Scientific ambition and ethical responsibility
Frankenstein and Jurassic Park foreground the risks that can follow from creating or intervening in life. Gattaca shifts the focus to genetic manipulation and the social consequences of using biology to sort people.
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Space, ecology and survival
2001: A Space Odyssey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Gravity and Interstellar look toward exploration and encounter. Silent Running and WALL-E connect technology with ecological stewardship, while Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, Children of Men, Snowpiercer and Elysium imagine societies strained by catastrophe and unequal resources.
Identity, society and power
Across the list, science-fiction settings become ways to test ideas about consciousness, reality, personhood and social order. Films about machines and alien life sit beside stories concerned with war, class, xenophobia and dependence on technology. Those subjects may be as relevant to discussion as the imagined inventions themselves.
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Honorary mentions
McFadden also names these films outside the numbered selections: Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, 3 Idiots, The Thirteenth Floor, Hugo, Good Will Hunting, Sphere, The Social Network, October Sky, Apollo 13, The Man in the White Suit, The Lathe of Heaven, Brazil, Ghost in the Shell, Galaxy Quest, Primer, The Incredibles, Serenity, Event Horizon and Pacific Rim. Their range—from historical and grounded stories to speculative science fiction—underscores that the source’s idea of a science-and-engineering watchlist is broad.
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