The Best Science Movies on Hulu Right Now

Dear readers, we here at Paste are not the type of journalists to cower behind “alternative facts.” We represent the search for objective truth, and nothing less. When it comes to the truth, we serve it up wholesale with a steaming fresh pile of “I told ya so.” If you don’t like it, you can tell that story walkin’, broheim. Anyway, we’ve been in search of the best “science” movies on Hulu, and what we have is the tippy-top elite films that will not only entertain you, but you might just learn something along the way. Now, full discretion: this isn’t exactly hard science. So yeah, maybe more along the lines of “alternative facts” than we might’ve thought. Well. Whatever. We’ve got some interesting ones here, ranging from a post-apocalyptic search for water, a singing/human-eating plant, the sequel of all sequels and feature-length Twilight Zone episodes. Enjoy yourselves.

1. Lunopolis
Lunopolis is a trashy, made-for-conspiracy-theorists mockumentary about people who have been secretly living on the moon for years. There’s also a good bit of time travel and history rewriting going on as well. Now, this film isn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, a lot of it kind of awful. But the good kind. The bad acting, bad dialogue, shoddy graphics, awkward camera-work and amateur Photoshop skills all amount to a pretty compelling story. Despite all of the budgetary limitations, this is a remarkably interesting and thoroughly pulpy science fiction film.

2. Young Ones
Set in a future time that’s almost devoid of water, Young Ones is an ambitiously flawed futuristic western. Michael Mutha-effin’ Shannon (that’s his God-given middle name) plays a farmer in the desert, trying real hard to rejuvenate the soil to grow some sort of crops. Faced with a dying planet, water limitations and marauding bandits, Shannon is not expecting a new threat to his farm and his family: his daughter’s boyfriend. Once Nicholas Hoult decides to take Shannon’s farm as his own, things go straight to Greek tragedy as events unfold fairly violently. This is a great little sci-fi romp through family betrayal and the American West.

Most Popular

3. Dark City
Dark City is the beautiful collision between science fiction and film noir, giving us an atmosphere that is so thick you can almost feel it in the room with you. And that’s really the best way to watch this one: in a dark, cool room to really immerse yourself in the twisty story. John Murdoch wakes up in a bathtub in a grimy room with no recollection to how he got there. After he’s told to flee by Kiefer Sutherland, the film follows him into the streets as he’s chased by group of beings known as The Strangers who are frighteningly pale shape-shifter. (Think Nosferatu in a top hat and trench coat.) Laden with visuals inspired by the likes of Metropolis and Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, this is a fascinating and superb watch.

4. Twilight Zone: The Movie
What happens when you take one of the most ambitious television series of all time and pair it up with some of the greatest directors of ‘80s? Well, it’s a mixed bag at best. Told in four parts, this film takes the work of John Landis, Steven Spielberg, Joe Dante and George Miller reworking classic episodes in a colorized and sometimes terrifying format. Honestly though, you can skip the first two parts. Move right onto “It’s a Good Life,” which sees a group of people held hostage by a kid who can do anything he wishes, which is a weird, oddly freaky production design. But the crown jewel is “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” starring John Lithgow as a paranoid passenger on a plane who believes he sees something on the wing of the plane. It’s a super great ending to an otherwise so-so film.

5. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Wrath of Khan is one of those sequels that all other sequels will be measured up against for a long time. Here we have Admiral James T. Kirk coming up against one of his greatest enemies, Khan Noonien Singh, in his attempts to use the Genesis Device as a destructive weapon. This is pure 1980s sci-fi, complete with the “pew-pew” lasers and hair that just won’t quit. But the strongest performance here is Ricardo Montalban’s ripped abdomen, always peeking through a torn shirt or tunic or whatever.

6. Little Shop of Horrors
Little Shop of Horrors is a horror-comedy musical that follows Seymour, a nerdy florist who cultivates and grows Audrey II, a Venus flytrap-like plant that feeds and thrives on human blood. Audrey II is named after Audrey, Seymour’s coworker who he’s crushing on real hard. Starring Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene, Steve Martin and a whole host of classic comedy actors who all sing and perform a variety of catchy little musical numbers. Eventually, Audrey II begins to eat people and things get really dark really quick.