Sunshine, 2007

With a stellar ensemble cast (Cillian Murphy, Chris Evans, Rose Byrne, Michelle Yeoh, Benedict Wong, Mark Strong, and Hiroyuki Sanada) and a proven director (Danny Boyle), Sunshine is well-deserving of a spot on this list. It follows the story of the Icarus II, a spaceship on a mission to drop a nuke into the sun in order to “re-ignite” it as it’s dying several billion years too soon. Sunshine’s scientific merit has long been a point of contention, but they call it science fiction for a reason guys, so sue me if I don’t want to think about the inevitable heat death of the universe and just want to stare at Cillian Murphy’s pretty eyes.

But Sunshine offers so much more bizarre beauty beyond Murphy’s baby blues—a gorgeous, awe-inspiring scene of the Icarus II crew seeing Mercury for the first time, the eerie vision of the sun’s terrifying power, sweat beading on a brow as they work on the ship in the vicinity of the sun. The sci-fi thriller will dazzle you in one moment and worry you the next, keeping you on the edge of your seat throughout. It’s not perfect, but Sunshine does what all good sci-fi should do: inspires you to wonder, to worry, to ask questions about the nature of the universe and man within it. — Alyssa Mercante