With a quarter of the century behind us, it’s the perfect time to reflect on the best that science fiction has offered so far. The genre has continued to push boundaries, delivering unforgettable performances that range from deeply emotional and character-driven to pulse-pounding action and spine-chilling horror. This list highlights the 25 best sci-fi performances of the 21st century, whether they moved us with raw emotion, thrilled us with high-stakes intensity, or terrified us with otherworldly menace.
25. Karl Urban – Dredd (2012)
“I Am the Law”
Paired with his best scowl, Urban brings to life Judge Dredd, the feared lawman of the post-apocalyptic Mega-City One. In a way, past interpretations failed (cough Sylvester Stallone cough). Urban embodies the unbreakable moral compass that defines the character. Never without his helmet, he fully transforms into the incorruptible machine, showcasing the character’s signature physicality as he battles his way through a seemingly never-ending apartment building.
24. Zoe Saldana – Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water
“I see you”
James Cameron’s late-career foray into the world of Pandora has raised the bar for what is possible in CGI, pushing the boundaries of visual storytelling. Within this breathtaking world, Zoe Saldana’s portrayal of Neytiri in Avatar and its sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, is a stunning example of performance-capture acting. Blending the physicality of motion with emotional depth, she imbues Neytiri with strength and grace, serving as the audience’s navigator through Pandora’s rich landscapes. Through her performance, Saldana conveys a profound connection to her environment and people, making Neytiri one of the most memorable characters in modern sci-fi.
23. Jason Schwartzman – Asteroid City (2023)
“Why does Augie burn his hand on the Quickie Griddle?”
Depending on where Asteroid City’s story is, Schwartzman is sometimes the patriarch, Auggie Steenback, a grieving father stranded in a small desert town in lockdown after an extra-terrestrial event. Other times, he’s Jones Hall, a slobby actor trying to find his character’s motivation. Schwartzman perfectly navigates the complex story within the story structure that Anderson uses.
22. Michael Fassbender – Prometheus and Alien: Covenant
“No one understands the lonely perfection of my dreams. I’ve found perfection here.”
While Ridley Scott’s modern take on his original sci-fi horror masterpiece is more interesting in thought than execution, one component stands to the best of the franchise. Michael Fassbender’s David, the Prometheus ship’s “loyal” artificial intelligence who becomes corrupted in his obsession over the ship’s discovery. Fassbender descends between the two movies into a cold, calculating force of destruction. By the end of Covenant, he is transformed is a terrifying egomaniac who envisions himself as a godlike figure. It’s just a shame that neither Scott nor Fassbender could conclude David’s story.
21. Timothee Chalamet – Dune Part 1 and Part II
“May thy knife chip and shatter.”
Chalamet brings to life Frank Herbert’s vision of the fake messiah, Paul Atreides. A boy torn between family loyalty and the expectations of a royal house, he is thrust into a harsh environment that forces him to rebuild himself. By subtly morphing his physicality, voice, and demeanor, Chalamet captures Paul’s gradual acceptance of his ‘destiny’ as the leader of Arrakis. His performance resonates as a well-tuned balance between vulnerability and the burgeoning power that defines the iconic literary character.
20. Haley Joel Osment – A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
“How can the Blue Fairy make a robot into a real live boy?”
The only child performance to make the list, Haley Joel Osment delivers a haunting portrayal of David in A.I. Artificial Intelligence. As a robotic boy programmed to love, Osment balances innocence with eerie artificiality, capturing David’s desperate yearning to be human. His raw, heartbreaking performance lingers, elevating Spielberg’s meditation on what it means to be real.
19. Ryan Gosling – Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
“All the best memories are hers.”
Unlike its predecessor, Blade Runner 2049 does not conceal its titular Blade Runner, K (Gosling), as a replicant. An artificial intelligence tasked with hunting his own kind, Gosling brings a unique twist to the story of a robot gaining sentience. He conveys a deep sense of loneliness and a yearning for more than the life he was assigned. Lost in the rain and darkness of futuristic Los Angeles, his performance gives Blade Runner 2049 its emotional core.
18. Matt Damon – The Martian (2015)
“In the face of overwhelming odds, I’m left with only one option. I’m gonna have to science the shit out of this!”
The Martian is an optimistic science fiction film, centered around putting aside differences and working together. Matt Damon’s portrayal of Mark Watney embodies this message. As an astronaut and botanist accidentally left behind on Mars, Damon’s performance is courageous despite constant setbacks. Most impressively, with few on-screen partners, The Martian rests on Damon’s charisma, and even with just a camera as his companion, he remains endlessly captivating.
17. Jake Gyleenhal – Donnie Darko (2001)
“I hope that when the world comes to an end, I can breathe a sigh of relief, because there will be so much to look forward to.”
In the cult classic Donnie Darko, Gyllenhaal is Donnie, a brilliant but mentally unstable teenager plagued by visions of a mysterious figure in a rabbit costume. In the first of many performances in a career designed to disorient his audience, Gyllenhaal bounces between reality and delusion. His descent into existential uncertainty is both unsettling and deeply compelling.
16. Tilda Swinton – Snowpiercer (2013)
“Order is the barrier that holds back the flood of death.”
Striking a less-than-subtle resemblance to a 20th-century British prime minister, Swinton is hysterical and unsettling as Minister Mason in Bong Joon Ho’s Snowpiercer. The sniveling mouthpiece of the train’s high powers Swinton is deliciously over the top showing utter disgust for the people on the back of the train she looks after. Dawning fake teeth and oversized glasses, Swinton crafted a villain that is hard to forget.
15. Christopher Abbott – Possessor (2020)
“Eventually, you realize that she isn’t the same person anymore. She’s not the person that she used to be.”
In Brandon Cronenberg’s Possessor, Abbott gives a two-faced performance. Playing a man whose mind and body are commandeered by an assassin using advanced technology in the not-so-distant future. Subtly shifting between two personas, Abbott balances Possessor‘s brutal physicality with such psychological depth. His portrayal is both tragic and terrifying: as the assassin, he is hauntingly emotionless and violently detached, while as the regular man, he conveys confusion and sorrow as he struggles to comprehend what is happening to him.
14. Emily Blunt – Edge of Tomorrow
“Come find me when you wake up.”
In Edge of Tomorrow, Emily Blunt is Sergeant Rita Vrataski, a battle-hardened war hero who is humanity’s last hope against an alien invasion. Blunt is relentless and utterly captivating in the role, bringing a physicality that establishes Rita as a modern sci-fi heroine, akin to Ripley and Sarah Connor.
13. Hugh Jackman – The Prestige (2006)
“No one cares about the man in the box, the man who disappears.”
In Christopher Nolan’s magician thriller, Jackman is Robert Angier, a gifted magician consumed by his obsession with his craft after a tragic accident. Jackman makes you feel every ounce of Angier’s pain and triumph, drawing the audience into his emotional and psychological descent.
12. Demi Moore – The Substance (2024)
“You’re the only part of me I don’t hate.”
The most recent addition to the list, Demi Moore plays Elisabeth Sparkle, an aging actress who uses an experimental drug to create a younger version of herself. Amid the blood and guts of The Substance, Moore encapsulates the central message of the film: a woman mentally crushed by the oppressive standards of a flawed society. The film’s outrageous satirical elements allow Moore to showcase a more over-the-top, slapstick side of her range, one she hasn’t fully explored before.
11. Kate Winslet – Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
“I wish you’d stayed.”
Winslet beautifully brings Charlie Kaufman’s script to life, making Clementine a whirlwind of spontaneity and charm impossible not to love. She and Jim Carrey (as Joel) perfectly capture the aching melancholy of a relationship slipping away, making their love story feel heartbreakingly real.
10. Joaquin Phoenix – Her (2013)
“Sometimes, I think I have felt everything I’m ever gonna feel.”
Phoenix delivers his most delicate and human performance in Spike Jonze’s Her, where he plays Theodore, a writer who falls in love with an artificial intelligence named Samantha. Phoenix embodies Theodore’s longing and loneliness. Never allowing himself to tap into the manic energy he is known for, Phoenix’s subtle performance compliments the film’s human story of connection.
9. Sam Rockwell – Moon (2009)
“You’ve been up here too long man. You’ve lost your marbles.”
As the only human on screen for the entirety of Moon, the film rests entirely on his shoulders, well, his two pairs of shoulders. He is Sam Bell, a lonely astronaut nearing the end of a three-year stint on a lunar base. When a cloned version of himself arrives, Sam realizes there is more to his mission than he believed. Sam Bell was the role Rockwell was born to play, allowing him to showcase his ability to balance deep, emotional nuance with an effortless comedic touch. He brings a raw vulnerability to Sam’s isolation and existential crisis while injecting just enough wit to make both versions of the character endlessly compelling.
8. Clive Owen – Children of Men (2006)
“A hundred years from now there won’t be one sad fuck to look at any of this. What keeps you going?”
In the post-apocalyptic London in Children of Men, humanity is on the brink of collapse after years of worldwide infertility. As Theo, Owens portrays a man who has long since lost his faith in the world but is thrust into the role of protector when he is tasked with safeguarding a miraculous pregnancy. Owen’s portrayal of Theo’s reluctant heroism is an incredible redemption story. His tough, cold exterior serves as a mirror to society at the film’s start, beaten down by years of trauma, yet gradually rediscovering the spark of hope and empathy.
7. Charlize Theron – Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
“Out here, everything hurts. You wanna get through this? Do as I say. Now pick up what you can and run.”
While Mad Max: Fury Road is titled as though it’s a continuation of Max Rockatansky’s story, it’s really more about the rise of Theron’s Furiosa, a big rig driver in the wasteland who defies her warlord to save his enslaved wives. Shaved head included, Theron is a badass who drives, shoots, and headbutts her way into becoming a modern sci-fi icon. Theron brilliantly avoids making Furiosa a retread of Max, a character broken down by the wasteland, instead creating a new character who still holds onto hope and strives to do good, as seen in her relationship with the enslaved wives.
6. Matthew McConaughey – Interstellar (2014)
“We used to look up at the sky and wonder at our place in the stars. Now we just look down, and worry about our place in the dirt.”
In Interstellar, McConaughey wisely forgoes the stoic, larger-than-life hero archetype, instead delivering a deeply human performance as a father torn between saving humanity and abandoning his children on a dying Earth. With little more than a close-up, he channels overwhelming grief, regret, and love, making the audience feel the crushing weight of lost time.
5. Scarlett Johanson – Under the Skin (2013)
“Do you want to look at me?”
As an alien predator disguised in human form, Johansson prowls the streets of Scotland in Under the Skin, luring unsuspecting men to their doom. At first, she is cold and mechanical, a hunter operating with ruthless efficiency. But as she begins to observe and experience humanity, cracks begin to form in her detached exterior. Through her quiet intensity and physical presence, Johansson sells the transformation, making Under the Skin not only a chilling tale on the surface but also a complex examination of human empathy.
4. Andy Serkis – Planet of the Apes Trilogy
“I always think… ape better than human. I see now… how much like them we are.”
By 2011, Serkis had already reinvented what could be done in the space of motion capture. However, there were and still have been no acting feet in the space more impressive than his three-film arc as “Cesar”. The ape who. Serkis transforms Cesar from a curious captive to a hardened revolutionary. Every conflict, betrayal, and heartbreak is communicated through a CGI face with very little dialogue. It might be hyperbolic, but genuinely, there was no other actor who could play the role than Serkis.
3. Michelle Yeoh – Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
“Of All The Places I Could Be, I Just Want To Be Here With You.“
There was no one else who could play Evelyn Wang better than Michelle Yeoh. As the immigrant laundromat owner who must traverse the multiverse to save her family, her business, and the universe, Yeoh brings her decades of experience to master the film’s over-the-top action and humor. However, the true beauty of her performance lies in the quieter moments, particularly in her relationship with her husband and daughter.
2. Alicia Vikander – Ex Machina (2015)
“Isn’t it strange, to create something that hates you?”
Vikander’s captivating creation, Ava, is the enigmatic AI at the heart of Ex Machina. Like the titular Caleb brought in to test her, the audience is kept in the dark on what exactly Ava’s purpose is. Vikander’s subtle expressions and precise movements make Ava feel eerily human yet distinctly artificial. Throughout the film, her intentions are intentionally unreadable, sowing doubt in the audience on whether her aim is Innocence or manipulation.
1. Amy Adams – Arrival (2016)
“If you could see your whole life from start to finish, would you change things?”
In Adams’s career-best performance, she plays Dr. Louise Banks, a linguist recruited to communicate with extraterrestrial beings who have landed on Earth. Adams’ portrayal is a quiet yet powerful exploration of grief and human connection. Her performance, especially in her interactions with the aliens, reveals Louise’s quiet strength and inner turmoil as she faces the challenges of establishing first contact. Her ability to convey profound grief and resilience with nothing more than a look makes this one of the most quietly moving performances in sci-fi history.
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