112 articles
My Stepmother Is an Alien
My Stepmother Is an Alien is a 1988 American science fiction romantic comedy directed by Richard Benjamin, in which Kim Basinger's alien seduces widowed astrophysicist Dan Aykroyd.
Night of the Comet
Night of the Comet (1984), also titled Teenage Comet Zombies, is Thom Eberhardt's sci-fi comedy horror about Valley Girl sisters surviving a comet apocalypse in Los Angeles; Atlantic Releasing's first nationwide release, it grossed $3.5 million opening weekend.
One Magic Christmas
One Magic Christmas: 1985 Disney-distributed Christmas fantasy-drama directed by Phillip Borsos, starring Mary Steenburgen and Harry Dean Stanton as angel Gideon; filmed in Ontario, released November 22, 1985, grossed $12.4 million.
Outland (film)
Outland (1981) is a Peter Hyams science-fiction thriller starring Sean Connery as a marshal on Jupiter's moon Io, a futuristic remake of High Noon; The Ladd Company's first film, released by Warner Bros. May 22, 1981, grossing about $17-20 million domestically.
Peggy Sue Got Married
Peggy Sue Got Married is a 1986 American fantasy comedy-drama directed by Francis Ford Coppola, starring Kathleen Turner and Nicolas Cage, about a divorcing woman who wakes up in 1960 after fainting at her 25th reunion; three Oscar nominations.
Project X (1987 film)
Project X is a 1987 Jonathan Kaplan comedy-drama starring Matthew Broderick and Helen Hunt, about Air Force radiation experiments on sign-language chimpanzees including Virgil, based on real Brooks AFB research.
Radioactive Dreams
Radioactive Dreams is Albert Pyun's post-apocalyptic sci-fi comedy, also dated 1984–85, starring John Stockwell and Michael Dudikoff as shelter-raised noir-detective wannabes hunting two keys to the last nuclear missile; a $210,212-grossing 1986 release with no proper home-video edition.
Red Sonja (1985 film)
Red Sonja (1985) is a sword and sorcery film directed by Richard Fleischer, produced by Dino De Laurentiis, starring Brigitte Nielsen, Arnold Schwarzenegger as Kalidor, and Sandahl Bergman as Queen Gedren; a critical flop, later a cult classic, remade in 2025.
Repo Man (film)
Repo Man (1984) is Alex Cox's cult sci-fi punk comedy, also known as a dark comedy about car repossession, starring Harry Dean Stanton and Emilio Estevez hunting a radioactive 1964 Chevy Malibu in Los Angeles.
RoboCop
RoboCop (1987) is Paul Verhoeven's Orion Pictures sci-fi satire starring Peter Weller as cyborg police officer Alex Murphy in privatized, crime-ridden Detroit; it spawned sequels, a 2014 remake, TV series, games, and a Detroit statue.
Robot Jox
Robot Jox is a 1990 American science fiction film directed by Stuart Gordon, written by Joe Haldeman and starring Gary Graham, about nations settling disputes through giant-robot duels.
Rouge (胭脂扣) (1987 film)
Rouge (胭脂扣) is Stanley Kwan's 1987 Hong Kong romantic fantasy drama adapted from Lilian Lee's novella, starring Anita Mui and Leslie Cheung. A 1930s courtesan's ghost returns to 1980s Hong Kong; it won Best Picture at the 1989 Hong Kong Film Awards.
Scanners
Scanners is David Cronenberg's 1981 Canadian sci-fi horror film about 237 telepathic scanners, in which agent Cameron Vale (Stephen Lack) battles renegade Michael Ironside; famous for Dick Smith's exploding-head effect.
Sexmission
Sexmission (Seksmisja) is a 1983 Polish sci-fi comedy by Juliusz Machulski, premiered 14 May 1984, about two men waking in 2044 in an underground world of women; a cult satire of totalitarianism.
Short Circuit (1986 film)
Short Circuit (1986) is a John Badham sci-fi comedy, also known by its tagline "Number 5 is alive," in which a military robot gains sentience after a lightning strike; it grossed about $40 million and spawned Short Circuit 2 (1988).
Short Circuit 2
Short Circuit 2 is a 1988 American science fiction comedy directed by Kenneth Johnson. The sentient robot Johnny Five helps his creator build a toy business in New York City.
Space Mutiny
Space Mutiny (1988) is a South African-American sci-fi film by David Winters and Neal Sundstrom, starring Reb Brown as pilot Dave Ryder stopping Elijah Kalgan's mutiny aboard the generation ship Southern Sun, infamous for reused Battlestar Galactica footage and its celebrated MST3K episode 820.
Spaceballs
Spaceballs is a 1987 American science fiction parody film directed by Mel Brooks that satirizes Star Wars, starring Bill Pullman, John Candy, and Rick Moranis.
Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone
Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone is a 1983 American science fiction adventure comedy directed by Lamont Johnson, starring Peter Strauss, Molly Ringwald, and Michael Ironside, shot in 3-D.
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is a 1982 American science fiction film directed by Nicholas Meyer, in which Admiral Kirk faces Khan Noonien Singh.
Starman (film)
Starman (1984) is John Carpenter's sci-fi romance starring Jeff Bridges and Karen Allen: an alien answers Voyager 2's invitation, is shot down over Wisconsin, clones a widow's dead husband, and races to Arizona. Columbia Pictures; Bridges earned an Oscar nomination.
The Abyss
The Abyss is a 1989 American underwater science fiction film directed and written by James Cameron, in which oil rig divers investigating a sunken submarine encounter alien life.
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension is a 1984 W.D. Richter sci-fi comedy starring Peter Weller, John Lithgow, and Jeff Goldblum; a box office flop that became a cult classic.
The Black Cauldron (film)
The Black Cauldron (1985) is Disney's animated dark fantasy based on Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain, directed by Ted Berman and Richard Rich. First Disney animated PG film and first with computer animation; a $25 million box-office failure released July 24, 1985.
The Boy Who Could Fly
The Boy Who Could Fly is a 1986 American fantasy drama written and directed by Nick Castle for Lorimar, starring Lucy Deakins, Jay Underwood, and Fred Savage; it won the 1987 Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film and grossed $6.3 million.
The Brother from Another Planet
The Brother from Another Planet is John Sayles's 1984 low-budget sci-fi comedy starring Joe Morton as a mute alien escaped slave adapting to Harlem while pursued by two bounty hunters; an allegory of race and immigration.
The Dark Crystal
The Dark Crystal is Jim Henson and Frank Oz's 1982 puppet fantasy film (93 min, Universal), written by David Odell with design by Brian Froud, about Gelfling Jen restoring a broken crystal against the Skeksis; it had no human actors and grossed $41.6 million.
The Dead Zone (film)
The Dead Zone is a 1983 American psychological thriller directed by David Cronenberg from Stephen King's 1979 novel, with Christopher Walken as a schoolteacher who sees the future through touch.
The Devil and Max Devlin
The Devil and Max Devlin is a 1981 Walt Disney live-action comedy-fantasy, also known by the working title Miracle Max, directed by Steven Hilliard Stern, starring Elliott Gould and Bill Cosby as a devil's agent, about a dead landlord who must corrupt three souls.
The Golden Child
The Golden Child (1986) is a Paramount action-comedy directed by Michael Ritchie, starring Eddie Murphy as Chandler Jarrell, the Chosen One rescuing a mystical Tibetan child from Charles Dance's demon Sardo Numspa; a top-ten 1986 grosser despite poor reviews.