Do you want your area motion pictures marinated in distress? You then’re in the precise place, as a result of we have rounded up the ten bleakest area motion pictures of all time.
It is satisfying when the evil empire will get its comeuppance, however there is a grim enchantment to sci-fi that wallows within the worst. Why? Partly, it is the acknowledgement that area generally is a scary, desolate place. As attractive as distant galaxies could also be, it might take only one catastrophic hyperdrive failure for a hot-shot pilot to finish up drifting helplessly within the void.
10. Solaris
Launch date: 1972 | Solid: Donatas Banionis, Natalya Bondarchuk, Jüri Järvet, Vladislav Dvorzhetsky
This Russian film, primarily based on Stanislaw Lem’s novel, is a gradual burn in comparison with a few of the different motion pictures on this record. Like Steven Soderbergh’s 2002 model, it sees psychologist Kris Kelvin travelling to an area station above the planet Solaris, the place he encounters a ‘hallucination’ of his late spouse that’s surprisingly stable.
Kelvin’s destiny is, nonetheless, extra closely telegraphed than in 2002’s Solaris. We be taught early on that Solaris is alive and producing these phantoms, and early scenes like Kelvin burning his thesis underline the load he is carrying on his shoulders. We’re invited to comply with him as he descends right into a spiral of grief and guilt.
9. The Black Gap
Launch date: 1979 | Solid: Maximilian Schell, Anthony Perkins, Robert Forster, Yvette Mimieux
The primary-ever live-action Disney film to obtain a PG score, The Black Gap sees a deep area crew stumbling throughout a spaceship, the USS Cygnus, positioned inside the occasion horizon of the titular phenomenon.
Admittedly, this film’s black gap science may not stand as much as scientific examination, however between the eerie music, the dreamlike particular results, and the faceless ‘robotic’ drones, the entire film oozes unease. The all-but-constant presence of the black gap, lurking within the background, seeds the concept that nobody on-screen will escape its maw. And, all these years later, the ending nonetheless lives on in our nightmares.
8. Silent Operating
Launch date: 1972 | Solid: Bruce Dern, Cliff Potts, Ron Rifkin, Jesse Vint
Silent Operating delivers a double whammy of environmental devastation and isolation, bolstered by a superb efficiency from Bruce Dern as Freeman Lowell. Earth’s forests are gone, and the one hope of restoring them lies in a number of multi-domed spaceships in orbit round Saturn, every dome containing a swathe of woodland.
Nevertheless, this glimmer of hope is dashed when the ships obtain the order to destroy their domes and the greenery inside. Simply what lengths is Lowell ready to go to safeguard this travelling greenhouse? Disobeying orders is one factor, however homicide? And what can he do with a bounty of greenery that nobody desires?
7. Alien 3
Launch date: 1992 | Solid: Sigourney Weaver, Charles S. Dutton, Charles Dance, Brian Glover
You’d assume that after shedding her daughter and discovering a brand new one, Ellen Ripley, the Alien sequence’s badass and Xenomorph-battling hero, could be due for a relaxation. Perhaps in William Gibson’s unproduced screenplay, however the model of Alien 3 that made it to screens is ultra-grim from the get-go.
As if crash-landing on a largely weaponless jail planet is not sufficient, David Fincher’s sequel kills off Hicks and Newt, Aliens’ solely different human survivors, and even the android Bishop has seen higher days. Add in a mid-movie revelation that seals Ripley’s destiny, and also you’re on an specific elevator to hell, taking place.
6. Sunshine
Launch date: 2007 | Solid: Cillian Murphy, Benedict Wong, Chris Evans, Rose Byrne, Michelle Yeoh
Sunshine is a phenomenal movie and is without doubt one of the greatest area motion pictures of all time. However being from the director and author of 28 Days Later (and that includes that film’s lead), it is also predictably one of many gloomiest. The Solar is dying, and Icarus II is on a last-ditch mission to reignite our star with a colossal bomb.
The manner of the crew, which features a pre-MCU Chris Evans and Benedict Wong, makes it clear they know this may very well be a one-way journey. Nevertheless, that does not put together you for the sheer quantity of tragedy and misfortune on show, which additionally reveals the destiny of the earlier, failed mission.
5. Moon
Launch date: 2009 | Solid: Sam Rockwell, Dominique McElligott, Kaya Scodelario, Benedict Wong
Moon is, at first look, a movie concerning the rigours of isolation. Astronaut Sam Bell is the only real human inhabitant of a helium-3 harvesting moonbase, having signed up for a frightening three-year contract. His solely firm is a robotic named GERTY, and whilst you can see the cracks beginning to kind, his contract is sort of up.
Or is it? As a result of he finds himself head to head with.. Sam Bell, revealing he isn’t the unique, however one among a number of clones, which transforms Moon right into a riveting exploration of identification and reminiscence. The film additionally floats the unsettling concept that firms do not should be a thousand light-years away to get away with unethical and/or unlawful habits. As thrilling as area settlement is, do not anticipate unions to be a giant deal on Mars.
4. Gravity
![Gravity - Official Main Trailer [2K HD] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/OiTiKOy59o4/maxresdefault.jpg)
Launch date: 2013 | Solid: Sandra Bullock, George Clooney
Poor Sandra Bullock does not even get to the Moon earlier than working into each astronaut’s worst nightmare; a spacewalk gone unsuitable. After the Area Shuttle Explorer is struck by particles, she’s flung into area on the shuttle’s arm, compelled to uncouple herself or face being pulled even additional into the void.
Whereas each Bullock and fellow actor George Clooney are identified for his or her extra upbeat roles, the pair nonetheless convey the chilling desperation of being misplaced in area. The Earth looms beneath them due to some beautiful particular results, nevertheless it would possibly as nicely be 1,000,000 miles away, and you will be proper up there with them. Gravity might take some minor liberties with realism, however the psychological picture of Bullock spinning off into area will hang-out you lengthy after the credit have rolled.
3. Love
![LOVE *NEW* Trailer 2011 [HD] // Angels & Airwaves Movie - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/YiYmAixzpMg/maxresdefault.jpg)
Launch date: 2011 | Solid: Gunner Wright, Bradley Horne
If Moon touches on themes of isolation, Love plunges proper in and does not come up for air. Filmed on a surprisingly low half-a-million-dollar funds, it options Gunner Wright (Useless Area’s Isaac Clarke) as Lee Miller, a solo astronaut aboard the ISS who loses contact with Earth.
What looks like a easy communications error is something however; the trigger isn’t disclosed, however humanity is simply gone, leaving Miller wanting down on a planet he has no technique of returning to. It makes these Boeing Starliner astronauts‘ prolonged ISS keep appear like a spa weekend, and unsurprisingly, his sanity quickly begins to undergo.
Bonus entry: Iron Lung
If that situation offers you the chills, it is also price retaining an eye fixed out for Iron Lung. Made by and starring YouTuber Markiplier, and primarily based on the sport of the identical identify, Iron Lung takes place in a universe the place each star and liveable planet has out of the blue disappeared. The one remaining people are those that had been on spaceships or area stations. Iron Lung crashed into theaters on January 30, 2026.
2. Excessive Life
Launch date: 2018 | Solid: Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche, Mia Goth, Andre Benjamin
We expect Excessive Life is without doubt one of the greatest area horror motion pictures, and for good motive. There’s not an alien lifeform in sight, however this different deep-space story, from French director Claire Denis, continues to be deeply discomforting from starting to finish.
Introduced in non-chronological order, it follows a gaggle of convicts — Twilight and The Batman’s Robert Pattinson included — who’re despatched to extract a black gap’s leaked vitality. No less than, that is the official clarification; a extra sensible one is that it is only a technique of disposing of all of them, Juliette Binoche’s unhinged physician included.
Whereas I will not spoil issues by providing you with the demise rely, in the event you’ve ever needed to see the grotesque results of spaghettification, that is the film for you.
1. Aniara
Launch date: 2018 | Solid: Emelie Garbers, Arvin Kananian, Bianca Cruzeiro, Anneli Martini
Aniara is such a bottomless pit of gloom that it, and it alone, deserves the title of bleakest area film of all time. Primarily based on Harry Martinson’s epic poem, it sees a luxurious starship, initially destined for Mars, drifting off beam and out of our photo voltaic system.
And.. that is it. With life help however no propulsion, the vessel is little greater than a floating coffin. We view this grim scenario via the eyes of a comparatively minor crew member, who operates the ship’s holodeck analog.
Her function turns into more and more essential because the passengers descend into despair and, as they more and more clutch at straws, do not anticipate a contented and even an ambiguous ending. In order for you a film that drives dwelling the pitfalls of area journey, that is it.
These are the bleakest area motion pictures you possibly can watch proper now. Wasn’t that enjoyable? Why are you crying? Oh all proper, for some cheerier viewing materials, we have additionally investigated the greatest sci-fi motion pictures, the greatest sci-fi motion motion pictures, the greatest asteroid motion pictures, and the greatest time-travel motion pictures.
