By Joshua Tyler
| Published
The horrors of World War 2 and the unleashing of atomic energy had the side effect of opening up a new world of creativity and speculation. The result was the birth of modern science fiction, as filmmakers explored the new ideas, fears, and scientific possibilities that were suddenly thrust upon them. Living in the 1950s meant living in a world where anything and everything felt possible, and no one knew what was going to happen next.
While you might assume the limited special effects of the era would make its movies dated and irrelevant, nothing could be further from the truth. The best of them made the most of what they had, and the stories those 50s sci-fi movies told became the foundation for much of what you now take for granted when you hit play on a new streaming show.
So grab your ray gun and hop in your flying saucer. These are the nine 1950s sci-fi movies that are still worth watching. We know because, unlike corporate-owned sites making lists like this one, we really watched all nine of them!
The War of the Worlds (1953)
The world has seen numerous adaptations of HG Wells’s classic alien invasion novel, both before and after the 1953 release of director George PAL’s version, yet none have done it better. Especially not that Steven Spielberg version. Sorry, Dakota Fanning.
The movie takes the book and contemporizes it, setting The War of the Worlds in the 1950s. It also changes the alien ships from Tripod walkers into sleek, floating ships with heat-spitting cobra heads.
The movie originally planned to use tripods, but it eventually chose something more feasible for the era’s limited practical effects. The change gives this version of the story a unique look, and the movie remains as effectively tense and suspenseful now as it ever was.
It’s also a perfect window into America of the 1950s, complete with all the innocence of weekly square dances and the hard-edged determination brought back by soldiers who’d just survived a world war and now found themselves in another one.
Godzilla (1954)
What started as a Japanese allegory for the horror of World War 2 has since become the longest-running movie franchise in film history. It was this 1954 Japanese feature that started it all.
Godzilla is called Gojira in his home country. But whatever you call him, this nuclear fire-breathing Kaiju is the ultimate sci-fi icon.
Sure, it’s just a man in a lizard suit stomping on miniatures, but you won’t mind. Godzilla is superbly shot, and the story is the original template for all of the giant creature attack movies you’ve ever seen. You should see it to enjoy the city-stomping action and to gain a better understanding of what the world was like as humanity tried to deal with the post-nuclear horrors of World War 2.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
In 1954, Walt Disney turned Jules Verne’s classic 1869 novel, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, into a big-budget, blockbuster movie. The movie was a hit, and no one else has made a significant attempt to adapt the book since.
It starred Kirk Douglas as harpooner Ned Land and one of Hollywood’s classic leading men, James Mason, as Captain Nemo. Mixing parts of The Mysterious Island, the underappreciated sequel novel, with the original novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, the film faithfully adapts the groundbreaking story.
Nemo’s rough, nihilistic edges are softened, but Mason does a fantastic job with the complex Jules Verne character, who is both a hero and a villain, depending on who you ask.
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
Released during the opening years of the Cold War, The Day The Earth Stood Still explores what happens when an alien named Klaatu arrives in peace, only to discover a fractured world rife with divisions.
There’s little action, and the special effects are rudimentary, but Michael Rennie’s performance as Klaatu is haunting and establishes a template for aliens Hollywood still uses today. This classic story has been retold over and over in one way or another since, but the original 1951 movie remains the best and serves as a reminder that humanity hasn’t advanced as much as we’d like to think.
This Island Earth (1955)
This Island Earth was created to lift the Sci-Fi genre beyond the realm of B-movie status. It didn’t quite achieve that aim; the film’s production is a mixed bag, and the story is uneven. Eventually, it would go on to be regarded as a cult classic.
This Island Earth is the story of a scientist who starts receiving mysterious deliveries of fantastical devices, accompanied by instructions on how to assemble them. When he’s finished putting it all together, he discovers he’s created a communication device and also completed a test. It’s a test to see if he’s worthy of helping out a race of aliens under attack from a malevolent force.
The most important and lasting legacy of This Island Earth is the influence it has had on the sci-fi genre since then. The movie is now regarded as a cult classic, and its DNA can be clearly found in modern Sci-Fi hits like Jodie Foster’s Contact and even The Last Starfighter.
Incidentally, though it wasn’t the movie’s intention, The Last Starfighter could easily be viewed as a sequel to This Island Earth. Not only is the premise similar, but so are the big-headed, white-haried aliens behind the events of the film.
Them! (1954)
Following World War 2, atomic-era paranoia was everywhere, not just in Japan but also in the United States. No one was sure what to expect next, resulting in movies like Godzilla and, in the United States, Them!
Them! is a very different story from Godzilla, despite also being about giant creatures created by atomic bombs. It operates on a smaller scale, starting in a remote desert with two cops investigating a series of murders.
Them! gradually broadens in scope, but slowly and methodically. It’s the story of giant ants, yes, but it’s also the story of competent and brave people doing all the right things to protect the world from the impossible.
Godzilla is a disaster movie, but Them! is a detective story, and it’s worth seeing for the performances and well-thought-out writing as much as it is worth seeing for the giant ants.
Forbidden Planet (1956)
More than half a century after its release, Forbidden Planet still stands as a monumental pillar in the field of science fiction cinema. With an unprecedented budget and innovative storytelling techniques, it was truly ahead of its time.
Directed by Fred M. Wilcox, it stars Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, and Leslie Nielsen—yes, that Leslie Nielsen. Forbidden Planet’s sizeable funds were extensively used for creative set design, groundbreaking special effects, and its innovative score.
The film is notably rooted in Shakespeare’s fantasy, The Tempest, with elements of the plot and character dynamics mirroring the Bard’s timeless play. In Forbidden Planet, the crew of the starship C-57D travels to the distant Altair IV to uncover the fate of a lost expedition, ignoring ominous warnings along the way.
As the only survivors, Dr. Edward Morbius, his daughter Altaira, and their robot servant Robby, present a mystery that grows more complex with the discovery of an unseen planetary force.
Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)
In the legendary words of Jerry Seinfeld, “Just a movie?! You don’t understand. This isn’t Plans 1 through 8 from Outer Space, this is Plan 9, this is the one that worked. The worst movie ever made!”
Plan 9 From Outer Space deserves it’s reputation as one of the worst movies ever made. It’s so bad, Johnny Depp made an Oscar winning film about how terrible its director, Ed Wood, was at his job.
So why watch it? This isn’t a good movie list; it’s a list of movies worth watching, and anything this uniquely bad is definitely worth watching.
Originally titled Grave Robbers from Outer Space, this bad movie’s plot involves an alien race, and their attempt to reanimate hordes of recently deceased humans to march into all of the world’s Capitals.
Despite its poor quality and laughably bad special effects, most fans of bad movies cite Plan as one of the best bad movies of all time. See the flying saucers for yourself, and let this film happen to you.
The Blob (1958)
There have been remakes and sequels since, but it’s hard to top the original. Released in 1958, the first version of The Blob, directed by Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr., is famous for its simple yet effective premise and contribution to the creature feature genre.
The Blob (1958) begins when a meteorite crashes near a small town, and an elderly man discovers a gelatinous substance attached to it. The blob-like creature quickly engulfs the old man, absorbing him and growing in size.
A teenager named Steve Andrews, played by a very young Steve McQueen, witnesses the attack but faces skepticism from the authorities when he tries to warn them. As the Blob continues to grow and consume everything in its path, it becomes a threat to everyone.
