HBO Max's science fiction shelf covers a lot of ground right now, from a movie that's nearly four decades old to a clone comedy from last year, with real emotional stakes tucked between the spectacle in almost every pick below.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse follows Miles Morales into a multiverse patrolled by an army of Spider-People, each rendered in its own distinct animation style. It's as much a showcase for animation technique as it is a story about a teenager fighting to write his own future.
Greenland 2: Migration picks up after the first film's asteroid strike, following the Garrity family as they search for a permanent home in the aftermath. It trades the original's countdown tension for the harder question of what survival costs once the immediate danger passes.
Superman leans into the character's earnestness rather than undercutting it, with David Corenswet playing Clark Kent as someone who still believes decency is worth the effort. It's a rare superhero reboot that reads as a genuine tonal reset for the genre rather than another retread.
Dune: Part Two completes Paul Atreides' arc on Arrakis, and it's unflinching about the cost of the path he chooses. The scale is enormous, but the strongest scenes are the quiet ones, full of dread, between Paul and Chani.
Dune, the first half, is patient in a way blockbusters rarely are, spending its runtime on ecology and politics before the action arrives. Watching it before Part Two makes clear just how deliberately the sequel pays off everything this one sets up.
The Substance stars Demi Moore as a fading star who takes an experimental drug that generates a younger version of herself, with increasingly grotesque consequences. It's a blunt, effective metaphor for the entertainment industry's relationship with aging women, built almost entirely on practical effects.
The Terminator is still a masterclass in lean, relentless plotting: a killing machine sent back in time, a woman who doesn't yet know she matters, and barely a wasted scene between them. It holds up as a thriller as much as a piece of science fiction.
Despicable Me turns a supervillain's plan to steal the moon into an unexpected story about found family, once three orphaned girls upend Gru's plans. It's lighter than most of this list, but its inventive gadgets and quietly sharp jokes still reward a rewatch.
The Meg sends Jason Statham up against a prehistoric shark thought extinct, in a monster movie that knows exactly how seriously to take itself. It's the pick for when you want scale and a shark without much emotional homework attached.
The Long Walk follows a hundred teenage boys ordered to keep walking forever or be shot, adapted from one of Stephen King's earliest novels. It's a survival story stripped of spectacle, built almost entirely on endurance and dread.
Companion centers on a getaway weekend that reveals one guest isn't who, or what, she appears to be. It plays its early reveal for both suspense and dark comedy, and works best going in with as little advance knowledge as possible.
Mickey 17 casts Robert Pattinson as a disposable worker who gets printed a new body each time he dies on a colony mission, until two versions of him end up alive at once. It's a sharp, strange satire about how easily a life can be treated as replaceable.
Twelve very different registers of science fiction, but each earns its spot on this list for a different reason. Pick the mood, then press play.
