Galaxy Quest is one of the greatest Star Trek tributes ever created, and it has a perfect blend of comedy and sci-fi. Tim Allen stars as Jason Niesmith, a very William Shatner-like actor who once starred in a sci-fi series called Galaxy Quest. Now, Jason and his former costars, Gwen DeMarco (Sigourney Weaver), Alexander Dane (Alan Rickman), Fred Kwan (Tony Shalhoub) and Tommy Webber (Daryl Mitchell) are barely making a living on the convention circuit.
Jason and the crew are soon recruited by aliens who believe that their TV show was a historical docuseries. That thrusts the Galaxy Quest actors into a real interstellar crisis and forces them to become the heroes they always pretended to be.
Galaxy Quest is streaming on Paramount+.
A.I. Artificial Intelligence is the movie that the late director Stanley Kubrick tried to make for years before he passed the project on to Steven Spielberg. That may be why it’s one of Spielberg’s darkest films, yet also heartfelt.
The Sixth Sense star Haley Joel Osment headlines the flick as David, an android built in a child’s body who can experience real love. David feels a genuine connection with Monica Swinton (Frances O’Connor), the woman he regards as his mother. When Monica’s true child is returned to her, David is abandoned, and he has to turn to a new friend, Gigolo Joe (Jude Law). More than anything else, David wants to become human and feel Monica’s motherly love. It’s a quest that may prove to be impossible.
A.I. Artificial Intelligence is streaming on Paramount+.
Christopher Nolan has a real knack for mixing science fiction and heart in Interstellar. and it’s still one of his best movies. Former astronaut Joseph “Coop” Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is given the chance to save his children and possibly the rest of humanity if he undertakes one last mission to find an inhabitable world before the Earth dies.
Coop’s mission with Dr. Amelia Brand (Anne Hathaway) only takes a short time from their perspective, but decades unfold on Earth as Coop’s now daughter, Murphy “Murph” Cooper (Jessica Chastain), struggles to find a scientific solution to get people off-world before it’s too late. In space, Coop’s heart breaks over missing his kids’ lives, and there are still sacrifices he needs to make in the name of the mission.
Interstellar is streaming on Paramount+.
As put forth by the late author Philip K. Dick, a minority report is something hidden in Precrime, a successful program that has all but eliminated murder in its test run. Minority Report was Tom Cruise‘s first collaboration with director Steven Spielberg, who cast the actor as John Anderton, the officer in charge of Precrime before its national rollout.
John is one of the most ardent supporters of Precrime, at least until the latest prediction states that in three days he will murder Leo Crow (Mike Binder), a man he’s never met. As John’s subordinates — including Danny Witwer (Colin Farrell) — hunt him down, every action he takes seems to bring him one step closer to his fated appointment with Crow.
Minority Report is streaming on Paramount+.
For their second film together, Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg tackled H. G. Wells’ famous sci-fi novel, The War of the Worlds. This movie modernized the novel and made a lot of changes, but it was still truer to the original story than the recently released Prime Video adaptation.
Cruise plays Ray Ferrier, an ordinary guy who is a failure as a father and a husband. But when the invasion begins, there’s nothing more important to Ray than protecting his kids, Rachel (Dakota Fanning) and Robbie (Justin Chatwin). Ray is no action hero, and even survival may be too much to ask for when the entire planet is under siege.
War of the Worlds is streaming on Paramount+.
Cowriter and director James Cameron really hit it out of the park with Terminator 2: Judgment Day. It’s not only one of the greatest action movies ever made, it’s still the gold standard for the Terminator franchise that no subsequent writers or directors have been able to top.
Instead of playing the villain again, Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s T-800 became the hero of the franchise by traveling back in time to protect John Connor (Ed Furlong), the future leader of humanity’s war against the machines. Standing in his way is the T-1000 (Robert Patrick), an advanced model whose liquid metal body and sheer ruthlessness makes it the deadliest Terminator yet.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day is streaming on Paramount+.
There’s a simple reason why Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is still considered to be the best Star Trek movie. Director Nicholas Meyer understood that the characters had to come first, and the story about Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) facing his mortality resonates to this day.
Ricardo Montalbán was a force of nature as Khan Noonien Singh, a conqueror from Kirk’s past who reemerges from exile with revenge on his mind. Montalbán is so charismatic that it’s easy to forget that he and Shatner never actually appear together here. Kirstie Alley also made her cinematic debut in this film as Saavik, the protegee of Spock (Leonard Nimoy), who is unlike other Vulcans because she wears her heart on her sleeve.
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is streaming on Paramount+.
Bumblebee opens with perhaps the best-looking Transformers action sequence ever put to film before settling down on Earth to become a story about a girl and her car. Hailee Steinfeld stars as Charlie Watson, a teenager who devotes herself to fixing a broken Volkswagen Beetle without realizing that it’s actually Bumblebee, a member of the heroic Autobots.
When Charlie fully repairs Bumblebee, she bonds with him and discovers that he was meant to defend the Earth from the evil Decepticons. Once Bumblebee is reactivated, the Decepticons come looking for him, and he may not be able to beat them alone.
Bumblebee is streaming on Paramount+.