Best Action, Sci-Fi Movies of 2024

The Fall Guy (Universal)

A movie that got short shrifted at the box office, The Fall Guy deserved a better fate. Yes, it’s an action comedy movie that sincerely gives love to the stunt community that has built so much of modern Hollywood, but it’s also a true romantic comedy with real fireworks between the leads. Ryan Gosling bursts with Gosling charisma as a former stuntman who is brought back into the game to help save the directorial debut of his ex-girlfriend (a flirty Emily Blunt) after the movie’s action star goes missing. The action is super fun, the jokes land, and those crazy lovebirds have us rooting until the end. 

The Substance (Mubi)

Even when it’s on the nose and off the rails, Coralie Fargeat’s Hollywood satire via body horror never fails to be eye-popping. Bold in colors, close-ups, and all sorts of squishy and fleshy things, the movie centers on a fading star, played by Demi Moore, who delivers a standout performance that reminds us why she was always more than a member of the Brat Pack. (The scene where she gets ready to go on a date is heartbreaking).

After getting fired from her workout show, Moore’s star turns to a drug that creates a younger, more toned, version of herself. The younger version, played by Margaret Qualley (also a standout), quickly develops ambitions of her own. Fargeat looked at female violence via the male gaze with her 2017 feature debut, Revenge, and this time looks at the violence females do unto themselves, either through societal pressures or through their own psyche. As the body horror ratchets up to 11, the movie goes gonzo and just bat guano crazy.

Transformers One (Paramount) 

It’s crazy that the best Transformers movie in years, maybe ever, is this sci-fi animated feature that looks at the origins of the hero Optimus Prime and villain Megatron. Under Josh Cooley’s direction, it’s a tale of a brotherly friendship that slowly unravels (see also: Mufasa: The Lion King) as one of our heroes succumbs to the corrupting nature of anger and power. The movie’s trick is how it slyly but deliberately morphs its tone from an all-ages animated movie into something deeper, more engaging, and ultimately, heartbreaking as mortal enemies are forged. It’s the most human and emotional of Transformers movie, and that’s saying something considered there’s not one human at all in this underrated gem. It’s also just a darn good science fiction movie. 

Late Night with the Devil (IFC Films/Shudder)

A movie that would not be out of place on a VHS shelf in the back of the horror section, Late Night with the Devil is a mix of found footage and documentary footage about a late night 1970s talk show host named Jack Delroy, who attempts to boost Sweeps Weeks with an occult episode. What could go wrong? In the hands of writer-directors Colin and Cameron Cairnes, who tell the story in real time, the answer is … everything.  

David Dastmalchian is known for his key supporting work in the movies of Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve, but here he takes commanding center stage. He embodies it all — a grieving husband, a funny man host under network pressure, a secretive man desperate for fame and fortune. He unveils layers and carries the movie to its mind-bending and tragic end. 

Kill (Roadside Attractions)

It stars off as an Indian Die Hard-on-a-train: an Army commando (TV Laskshya, making his feature debut) and his friend hop a train to stop the love of his life from getting married in an arranged marriage when a band of thieves take it over. Things go, as they do in these kinds of things, south, with the movie briskly riding its rails in a poppy Hindu-language thriller kind of way. The movie then switches tracks at one key point, the title “Kill” comes up, and then the guardrails are off. “That Commando’s love has fallen on us like a bomb,” says one villain halfway through the movie when it becomes full-on action from coach to coach, as fists, blades, fire extinguishers and more get used in tight quarters. Directed by Nikhil Nagesh Bhat, Kill is filled with unending reversals and is surprisingly emotional as it doesn’t skimp out on the different ways parents react to losing family members.  

Longlegs (Neon)

Oz Perkins’ serial killer occult procedural is deeply creepy from the opening scenes, slowly tightening its grip around your throat in dread as it heads into the final, secrets-revealing act. Maika Monroe cements herself as a true queen of the horror genre as a different kind of final girl, carrying the movie on her weighted shoulders, as a dour and maybe clairvoyant FBI agent brought on to find the killer known as Longlegs. But all of the actors make the most of their scenes. That includes Alicia Witt as Monroe’s unnerving mother, who does everything she can to make sure her child is unharmed, and an unrecognizable Nicolas Cage, who makes an impact (pun terribly intended) as the Satan-worshipping slayer. 

The Wild Robot  (Universal Pictures) 

DreamWorks Animation’s adaptation of the Peter Brown book is an emotional rollercoaster of a movie. A survival thriller about a shipwrecked service robot (voiced by Lupita Nyong’o) who adopts an orphaned gosling is actually a heartwarming and heart-tugging story about the many aspects of parenthood (or motherhood).

Directed by Chris Sanders in a watercolor, concept art aesthetic, the movie is lush and vibrant, the character arcs of Roz the robot and Brightbill the gosling are finely intertwined, and the movie balances comedy, family drama, and even action towards a rousing conclusion. And let’s not forget the rousing score by Kris Bowers. Easily the best animated movies of the year.

Alien: Romulus (20th Century Studios)

The xenomorphs were back, baby, thanks to Fede Alvarez, who brought youthful energy to the science fiction horror franchise, and ramped up the body horror undertones that have always coursed through the Alien movies. 

Cailee Spaeny and breakout David Jonsson led the cast as young mining colonists scavenging a space station that turns out to have an unholy amount of face huggers. With standout set pieces that course with tension, thrills and the right amount of gore, the movie balances what audiences love about Alien movies, gives a welcome new spin on the old, and pushes things forward with some out-there ideas. It would fit perfectly on that VHS shelf of yours between Alien and Aliens.   

Wicked (Universal Pictures)

We’ll spare you the puns and play on words using the songs or a wizard’s glossary and get straight to it. The movie adaptation of the popular Broadway musical is a pure delight of song and spectacle, while never forgetting to make you cheer for (or hiss at) its characters. Jon M. Chu directs musical numbers like few others in modern Hollywood. Ariana Grande as the vain Glinda surprises and Jonathan Bailey as Fiero steals all his scenes. But it’s Cynthia Erivo as the green-skinned Elphaba that steals the show, perhaps no more spectacularly than the heart-tugging scene of trying to save her pride by dancing silently at the Ozdust Ballroom.

Maybe having this entry on this list won’t make us popular, but I’m a sentimental man, and I bet that after one short day, you’ll see that this movie featuring outsiders finding untapped powers, and uncovering something bad (like groups being rounded up for being different) is a perfect entry for the Heat Vision list. (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)

Dune: Part Two (Warner Bros.)

From the opening moments when the Harkonnen soldier squad gently and effortlessly defies gravity and floats up the side of the mountain to that betrayal of the heart in the film’s final moments, Denis Villeneuve has you in the palm of his hands, masterfully guiding you across the dunes and stars. No ceremonial seal is too small, no sandworm too big, no expression too subtle in this second chapter, which sees Paul Atreides rise from an outsider to leader to potential messiah of the desert planet Arrakis, much to the worry of his love Chani (Zendaya) but the delight of his mother (Rebecca Ferguson). Villeneuve is deliberate and meticulous in his world-building, with the same applying to the storytelling. All filmmaking elements are in top form here, from the acting to score to costumes to cinematography to sound design. The nature of religious power and belief, ideas of empire, and even the dark ties of bloodlines are explored more deeply here than the first movie. As epic as the first movie was, it’s the emotional undercurrent that elevates Part Two. While Villeneuve’s movies can seem distant, this one thrills the senses and engages the heart while awing you at the same time.