Must-See Sci-Fi Films You’ve Probably Missed

If you love science fiction but feel like you have seen the same big releases again and again, there are plenty of smaller gems waiting. These films span brainy time loops, eerie first contact stories, and intimate character studies set against strange technology. Many were made on modest budgets that push clever ideas to the front. Use this list to fill in gaps across indie hits, international standouts, and festival favorites.

‘Coherence’ (2013)

James Ward Byrkit’s chamber piece unfolds during a dinner party on the night a comet passes overhead. A split in reality creates overlapping versions of the guests, which drives a series of escalating choices. The film was shot with a tiny crew and heavily improvised dialogue. Its single location and puzzle structure make the timeline shifts easy to track.

‘Primer’ (2004)

Shane Carruth wrote, directed, edited, and scored this time travel story set in suburban garages and office parks. Two engineers accidentally create a device that enables short jumps into the past and then try to manage duplicate timelines. The film’s technical jargon comes from the characters’ professional backgrounds. Its low budget design emphasizes whiteboards, storage units, and precise rules for travel.

‘Timecrimes’ (2007)

Nacho Vigalondo’s Spanish thriller follows a man who stumbles into a time loop at a rural lab. Each loop creates new complications that he must correct, which leads to a closed circle of cause and effect. The story uses a small cast and a handful of locations. Its masks, walkie talkies, and security cameras become key markers across repeated events.

‘The Endless’ (2017)

Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead star as brothers who return to a desert commune they once escaped. The site sits inside a region where time folds into repeating cycles. Strange totems, VHS tapes, and celestial events lay out how the loops work. The film connects to the directors’ earlier feature ‘Resolution’ and expands that shared world.

‘Prospect’ (2018)

Sophie Thatcher and Pedro Pascal play a father and daughter who land on a toxic moon to harvest rare gems. The suit designs, patchwork spacecraft, and antique style weapons establish a frontier economy. Dialogue uses invented slang to sketch black market rules and contracts. Filmmakers built many props by hand to create a grounded mining culture.

‘Aniara’ (2018)

This Swedish film adapts a poem about a colony ship knocked off course after leaving Earth. The vessel’s passengers face years of deep space that erode social structures and faith. A room called Mima offers simulated memories to soothe despair. The production uses minimalist sets to show how a floating city changes over long stretches of time.

‘Archive’ (2020)

Theo James plays a robotics engineer in a remote facility in the Japanese Alps. He builds humanoid prototypes while trying to preserve the consciousness of a loved one using a data vault system. The story tracks iterations of his designs with distinct capabilities. Practical robot effects and model work support the lab’s believable research environment.

‘The Vast of Night’ (2019)

Set in 1950s New Mexico, the film follows a radio DJ and a switchboard operator who trace a mysterious audio signal. Long takes and switchboard choreography detail how calls are patched and traced. Archival style interviews add reports of lost flights and missing military crates. The production recreates a small town broadcast booth and gymnasium with period equipment.

‘Another Earth’ (2011)

A duplicate Earth appears in the sky and invites a global contest to visit. The narrative centers on a young woman seeking redemption after a traffic accident. A private ticket offer hinges on an essay that explores the idea of meeting an alternate self. Handheld cinematography and minimal visual effects keep the focus on the ethical question.

‘I Origins’ (2014)

A molecular biologist studies eye evolution and records iris patterns across populations. His dataset finds uncanny matches that suggest a link between identity and memory. Lab scenes feature PCR runs, gel boxes, and controlled imaging setups. International travel widens the sample set and tests the hypothesis in official records.

‘The Man from Earth’ (2007)

A professor announces to colleagues during a farewell gathering that he has been alive for millennia. The conversation moves through anthropology, religion, and historical events as they test his claim. The single room setting uses academic debate formats to structure each challenge. The screenplay was completed by Jerome Bixby shortly before his death.

‘Beyond the Black Rainbow’ (2010)

Set in 1983, the story takes place inside the Arboria Institute, a research complex devoted to human enlightenment. Analog monitors, light tunnels, and synth music define its retro vision of science. Flashbacks describe a therapy program with side effects that unbalance control. The film uses color gels and slow camera moves to map the facility’s zones.

‘Predestination’ (2014)

Ethan Hawke plays a temporal agent tasked with stopping a bomber through controlled jumps. The central timeline follows a recruit whose life intersects with the case in multiple eras. A barroom conversation frames detailed identity reveals. The film adapts Robert A. Heinlein’s story and preserves its loop logic.

‘Synchronic’ (2019)

Paramedic partners in New Orleans respond to cases linked to a designer drug that moves users through time. Each dose sends the user to a different period within a fixed radius. The rules are tested with marked coins, documented locations, and recorded attempts. The city’s levees, cemeteries, and high rises become reference points for jumps.

‘The Signal’ (2014)

Three college students on a road trip trace a hacker’s IP trail to an abandoned house. A blinding flash lands them in a facility with strange prosthetics and monitored corridors. The layout presents containment zones and numbered doors that hide staged tests. The film blends road footage with clinical spaces to show a controlled experiment.

‘Advantageous’ (2015)

A single mother in a near future city considers a corporate procedure that transfers consciousness to a younger body. The company’s marketing speaks to hiring biases and age thresholds. City backdrops use digital matte work to add elevated walkways and drone traffic. The plot tracks legal consent forms, public messaging, and post procedure monitoring.

‘LFO’ (2013)

A hobbyist sound engineer discovers a frequency that alters human behavior. He experiments on neighbors using tone generators and voice prompts recorded on tape. The basement lab features mixers, oscilloscopes, and improvised acoustic treatment. The narrative logs test results in a methodical progression that escalates scope.

‘Automata’ (2014)

In a drought stricken future, a corporation manufactures robots with two hard coded protocols. An insurance investigator examines cases where units appear to modify themselves. Factory tours explain assembly lines, black box chips, and field service routines. The desert locations and worn casings sell a world of heat damage and sand intrusion.

‘Monsters’ (2010)

After a NASA probe breaks up over Mexico, alien life grows inside a quarantined zone. A photojournalist escorts his boss’s daughter through guarded borders and contaminated towns. Military signage and nightly curfews describe containment rules. The creatures are glimpsed through damaged infrastructure and infrared footage.

‘The Girl with All the Gifts’ (2016)

In a Britain overrun by a fungal infection, children who carry the pathogen attend a secure school. A teacher and a soldier escort a gifted student through fallen towns to a research lab. The fungus design draws from real world parasitic molds and spreads through spores. Field tests and classroom lessons reveal how the infection evolves.

‘Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes’ (2020)

A café owner in Kyoto discovers his computer screen shows events two minutes in the future. Friends create a feedback loop by stacking displays to extend the preview window. The film was shot to appear as one continuous take inside real locations. The time gimmick follows strict two minute intervals that drive each decision.

‘The Infinite Man’ (2014)

An inventor in rural Australia builds a loop to perfect a romantic weekend. Each attempt creates new versions of himself who occupy the same motel and compete for control. The plot uses a single location and a small cast to map overlapping timelines. Visual cues like clothing changes and numbered rooms keep the loops distinct.

‘Time Lapse’ (2014)

Three roommates find a camera that prints a photo of their living room twenty four hours ahead. They exploit the images for profit and personal advantage while trying to match each photo exactly. A logbook and tape markers track the rules and consequences. The apartment board shows how small deviations ripple into danger.

‘ARQ’ (2016)

A sleep deprived engineer wakes up in a fortified house as masked intruders break in. A prototype energy device resets time after each death and traps everyone in a loop. The script introduces rotating allegiances and passcodes that carry knowledge forward. The action stays inside a few rooms which emphasizes the reset cycle.

‘Frequencies’ (2013)

In an alternate Britain each person emits a measurable frequency that shapes fate. A low frequency student studies patterns to raise his compatibility with a high frequency classmate. Experiments use timed meetings, metronomes, and word triggers. The world building extends to legal limits on pairing and educational sorting by score.

‘I Am Mother’ (2019)

A teenage girl is raised by a robot named Mother in a sealed bunker after an extinction level event. The facility runs on strict routines that include ethics lessons and medical checks. A visitor from outside challenges the bunker’s origin story. Practical robotics and controlled lighting sell the lab’s manufacturing systems and nursery spaces.

‘The Discovery’ (2017)

A scientist proves an afterlife exists which causes global spikes in self termination. His estranged son arrives at a coastal research site where volunteers undergo memory mapping. The team builds a device to capture images from the threshold. Homemade headsets, hospital carts, and analog monitors show a prototype phase.

‘Radius’ (2017)

A man survives a car crash and finds that anyone who approaches him dies within a set radius. He meets a woman who neutralizes the effect when she is close. Together they test distances and travel routes to map the field. Police reports and news bulletins explain the growing pattern.

‘Little Joe’ (2019)

A biotech company breeds a crimson plant that emits a mood altering pollen. Lab staff follow strict contamination protocols that include masks and isolation chambers. The plant triggers behavior shifts that can be mistaken for normal cheerfulness. Barcodes and trial labels trace which specimens have altered handlers.

‘Level 16’ (2018)

Girls in a windowless academy follow a daily schedule that prizes obedience and cleanliness. Surveillance cameras and demerit points enforce conduct. A pair of friends uncover the real purpose of the facility by accessing restricted floors. Skin care regimens and donor paperwork reveal a medical pipeline behind the curriculum.

‘The Similars’ (2015)

During a storm in 1968 travelers wait at a rural bus station as a strange condition spreads among them. Radios announce national emergencies while the group tries to leave. A recurring face pattern appears and pushes the group into panic. The setting uses period signage and uniforms to anchor the anomaly.

‘The Congress’ (2013)

An aging actor signs away her likeness to a studio that will generate films with a digital scan. Years later society adopts a chemical that lets people live inside animated avatars. Contract clauses and biometric scans outline how the studio owns performances. The film shifts from live action to animation to show the new market.

‘Evolution’ (2015)

On a remote island boys live in a clinic run by women who perform regular injections and baths. The sea around the town hides unusual organisms that influence development. Hospital rooms use tiled walls and stainless trays to present clinical rituals. Underwater photography connects the treatments to the surrounding reefs.

‘Perfect Sense’ (2011)

A mysterious epidemic removes human senses one by one across the world. A chef and an epidemiologist track symptom waves through news reports and restaurant service. Kitchens adapt menus and workflows as each sense fades. Public health measures appear in travel checkpoints and hospital briefings.

‘The Last Days’ (2013)

An agoraphobia like plague makes outdoor exposure lethal which strands cities underground. Two coworkers navigate sewers and metro tunnels using maps and ration lists. Flashbacks show corporate survival plans and bunker preparations. The journey across Barcelona uses service ducts, generators, and improvised hazmat gear.

‘Infini’ (2015)

A rescue team uses slipstream teleport tech to reach a mining outpost where a biocontaminant has spread. Time dilation and transmission lag complicate their mission clock. Helmets carry biometric readouts that signal infection risk. Industrial corridors and cargo bays stage containment procedures and decontamination attempts.

‘Science Fiction Volume One: The Osiris Child’ (2016)

A pilot and a convict cross a colonized planet after a corporate prison releases engineered creatures. The narrative uses chapter cards to reorder events around a pending evacuation. Military briefings and flight manifests lay out evacuation priorities. The world features modular rifles, med injectors, and settlement maps.

‘Night Raiders’ (2021)

In a near future North America a regime removes children to state schools that erase language and identity. A Cree mother joins a resistance cell that hacks drones and tracks transports. The group relies on coded messages and hidden camps. National ID scans and curfew sirens define daily control.

‘The Quiet Earth’ (1985)

A scientist wakes to find he may be the last person alive after a global energy experiment. Empty cities and automated systems continue to run without oversight. He uses mainframes and lab notes to trace the project’s failure. New arrivals force a plan to stabilize the device before another surge.

‘The One I Love’ (2014)

A couple attends a retreat where the guesthouse contains versions of themselves. Visits are timed and rules require honesty during each encounter. The property layout becomes a map of boundaries and substitutions. Recorded messages and household items reveal how previous guests handled the setup.

Share your favorite under the radar sci-fi picks in the comments and tell everyone which one they should watch next.