Will Smith’s 5 Best Sci-Fi Movies Ranked

Will Smith is a bonafide film star, and you do not get to grow to be a film star in the event you’re not multi-faceted. Smith’s profession is one which clearly demonstrates his versatility after which some; he is received a physicality and swagger that lends itself simply to an motion movie lead, as seen within the “Unhealthy Boys” franchise in addition to motion pictures like “Suicide Squad” and “Vivid.” He has the emotional depth and soulfulness to tackle quite a lot of dramatic roles, as in “King Richard,” “The Pursuit of Happyness,” “Ali,” and “Six Levels of Separation.” He additionally has a pure comedian timing — honed throughout his years starring on the wildly profitable sitcom “The Recent Prince of Bel-Air” — which crops up in a lot of his performances, however has additionally led to successful main roles within the rom-com “Hitch” and Disney live-action remake “Aladdin.”

Regardless of his appreciable vary and his continued enchantment, Smith has one style above all of them to thank probably the most for his profession, and that is science fiction. Smith’s appearances in sci-fi motion pictures aren’t simply examples of the actor on the peak of his stardom; they’re all notable (and, generally, important) examples of the style itself. It is Smith’s well-rounded persona that makes him a terrific match with a style as malleable as sci-fi, as he is in a position to each delve into the headier elements of the style whereas additionally offering sufficient down-to-Earth irreverence to make these tales palpable for common audiences. No surprise the Wachowskis famously wanted him to lead “The Matrix.”

There are a couple of dozen-odd sci-fi movies during which Smith has starred, that means that followers of each the actor and the style are spoiled for selection. What follows, then, are the cream of the crop, the films that Smith infused with such indelible performances as to make them must-sees for a variety of individuals. They’re additionally, not coincidentally, among the movies that helped make Smith the star he turned, too, proving that relating to Smith and sci-fi, the connection is a really symbiotic one.

For years following its publication in 1950, Issac Asimov’s ebook “I, Robotic” had languished in improvement hell, with quite a few writers and filmmaking groups (together with the likes of Harlan Ellison) making an attempt and failing to adapt it into a serious movement image. A part of the issue is that the core tenets of Asimov’s work (particularly the Three Legal guidelines of Robotics) have been so seminal, that they’d already seeped right into a plethora of unrelated tales and initiatives by the point any film model was on the point of go. That is partially why 2004’s “I, Robotic” is barely urged by the Asimov novel; on no account is it a direct adaptation, however as a substitute honors simply how influential Asimov’s work had grow to be based mostly on the truth that this wholly unrelated film might be closely impressed by it.

In essence, the Jeff Vintar/Akiva Goldsman script (directed with visible aptitude by a post-“Darkish Metropolis” Alex Proyas) is a riff on 1988’s James Caan automobile “Alien Nation,” with a cop protagonist who’s prejudiced in opposition to robots being compelled to crew up with a robotic named Sonny (Alan Tudyk) to try to work out the trigger behind a sequence of mysterious, robot-related murders. The detective, Del Spooner, is performed by Smith with not simply an excessive amount of integrity, however a stage of specificity that helps bolster the character’s relatable humanity. Certain, Converse might have paid for some product placement within the movie, however Smith makes Spooner’s love of the footwear a personality trait, not simply an ungainly advert.

The core premise of “Gemini Man” — a veteran navy murderer discovers {that a} covert authorities program has cloned a model of his youthful self for black ops functions — is one that may be intriguing with nearly any film star, given the way it exploits the general public’s relationship with them on display in addition to the actor’s relationship with themselves. Certainly, “Gemini Man” was in improvement lengthy sufficient that it shuffled by a number of attainable main males. Although because the challenge started life within the late ’90s, the twin function of Henry Brogan and Jackson “Junior” Brogan was once regarded as a job for an older main man and his up-and-coming counterpart, a la “The Satan’s Personal” or “Mission: Unattainable — Ghost Protocol.”

As a substitute, by the point Ang Lee took the reins of the film in 2019, the filmmaker stumble on the novel thought of getting Will Smith play each roles, with results homes like Weta Digital and Park Street Put up making use of de-aging technology so Smith can appear as his younger self. This makes “Gemini Man” a movie utilizing de-aging tech that’s intentionally having a dialog concerning the expertise each inside and with out the movie’s narrative (following the earlier milestone, 2010’s “Tron: Legacy”). It is a very meta, sci-fi idea, and as such, Smith is the proper man for the job. What flaws the movie has are greater than made up for by this subtext, and whereas “Gemini Man” is not the perfect sci-fi film Smith stars in, it is actually probably the most thought-provoking.

Followers of Richard Matheson and his 1954 post-apocalyptic novel are properly conscious that “I Am Legend” has been tailored to the display a handful of instances, and whereas none of those variations may be referred to as definitive translations of the novel, they’re all fascinating in their very own proper, and worthy riffs on Matheson’s core premise. The place 1964’s “The Final Man on Earth” took the story into Gothic Horror territory with Vincent Worth and 1971’s “The Omega Man” was a gritty, Charlton Heston-led social commentary thriller, Francis Lawrence’s 2007 adaptation gambled on making Smith (and his character of Dr. Robert Neville) the middle of the movie in an enormous approach.

That gamble actually pays off, as BJ Colangelo succinctly puts it in her piece on Smith’s 10 best movie roles:

“…’I Am Legend’ is Smith’s so-far magnum opus. He spends the vast majority of the movie utterly alone, appearing in opposition to himself or his pet canine, and trades in his traditional smart-mouthed snark for the decided stillness of a scientist making an attempt to outlive the top of the world. This movie lives and dies by the effectiveness of Smith’s efficiency, and Smith’s efficiency is actually accountable for the movie’s large box-office success and continued legacy.”

Along with Smith carrying the vast majority of the film with aplomb, “I Am Legend” is yet one more indication of Lawrence’s prowess as a style filmmaker, one thing he continued to show quickly after this along with his a number of “Starvation Video games” entries. Finally, what makes “I Am Legend” particular is the way it takes a narrative that had been performed a number of instances earlier than and permits it to really feel recent and distinctive once more, sarcastically making certain that the supply materials continues to be, properly, legendary.

After “Unhealthy Boys,” the jury was nonetheless out on whether or not Will Smith was a real film star or just a savvy sitcom actor who parlayed his charisma right into a crowd-pleasing buddy cop film. “Independence Day” was the movie to place all that chatter to mattress endlessly, for whereas different luminaries throughout the movie’s ensemble forged are beloved for his or her contributions to the film (corresponding to Jeff Goldblum’s plucky pc nerd and Invoice Pullman’s rousing President), there is no query that Smith, taking part in Captain Steven Hiller, dominates each scene he seems in. His presence is the very important part that makes the whole film work in addition to it does: the place Pullman is significant for his earnestness and Goldblum makes the foolish technobabble of the plot go down easily, Smith is the beating coronary heart of a movie that makes an attempt to encapsulate the jingoistic spirit of the titular vacation with out turning the film right into a polemic, which is not any imply feat. In different fingers, “Independence Day” may’ve felt like a thinly veiled treatise on American overseas coverage; with Smith on the helm, it is a rollercoaster “cease the evil alien creatures” journey that anybody from any nation can take pleasure in (and to suppose, he almost wasn’t in it).

This was the intention, in fact, of director/co-writer Roland Emmerich and producer/co-writer Dean Devlin, to make a movie which harkened again to each the ’50s alien invasion B-movies and the ’70s catastrophe movie. If the film is trying to capitalize on any real-world allegory, it is the resurgence of UFO sightings and alien conspiracy theories, in addition to the overall apocalyptic ennui of the Nineties because the calendar approached the millennium. “Independence Day” is an earnest, pompous, fun-loving, knowingly tacky ode to humanity’s collective resilience and customary pursuits, the apotheosis of the feel-good catastrophe film. When an alien crash lands and Hiller’s first impulse is to march proper over to it and provides it a sock within the jaw, it is completely clear what sort of film we’re watching and that Smith is aware of it, too.

It is typical Hollywood math: take what labored earlier than, combine it up a little bit bit, and hope it really works once more. Within the case of “Males in Black,” it is clear that some studio executives noticed “Will Smith + aliens” and figured that the 2 went collectively like peanut butter and chocolate the yr earlier than, so why not repeat the system? The irony is that “Males in Black” is way from being any form of “Independence Day” clone; quite the opposite, it might be the anti-“Independence Day,” because it espouses continued diplomacy and charity between humanity and different species throughout the universe. Though the premise of the movie (particularly the title) is drawing from materials like comedian books (the film based mostly on Lowell Cunningham’s sequence of the identical title) and rampant conspiracy theories about secret authorities staff trying to cowl up the existence of extraterrestrials, the world of “Males in Black” is one which retains unfolding to find new concepts. It’s, for lack of a greater comparability, the “Star Trek” to “Independence Day’s” “Star Wars.”

The joyous, insightful, satiric, and intelligent combination of the movie is due largely to director Barry Sonnenfeld (who had simply come off a pair of equally insightful “Addams Household” movies and Hollywood satire “Get Shorty”) and author Ed Solomon (he of the subversively optimistic “Invoice & Ted” motion pictures), who infuse “Males in Black” with simply the appropriate quantities of candy and bitter. That combo may be utilized to the film’s leads, too: Tommy Lee Jones is grumpy, sarcastic perfection as Agent Ok, whereas Smith is all fish-out-of-water, wide-eyed surprise as Agent J, the 2 males lending the more and more wacky movie a mooring that is a lot the identical as one seen in “Ghostbusters.” “Males in Black” is a film with a ton of concepts, coronary heart, and wit inside it, a lot in order that it spawned two sequels which, although they do not attain the heights of this movie, stay worthy entries nonetheless. Smith’s look within the film is much more star-powered than “ID4” had been; in any case, that is the movie that started his semi-tradition of recording an unique track for every film (and to suppose, he almost wasn’t in this one too!). What “Males in Black” does greater than every other sci-fi film Smith stars in is solidify the actor’s energy; when showing within the style, Will Smith is out of this world.

Will Smith is a bonafide film star, and you do not get to grow to be a film star in the event you’re not multi-faceted. Smith’s profession is one which clearly demonstrates his versatility after which some; he is received a physicality and swagger that lends itself simply to an motion movie lead, as seen within the “Unhealthy Boys” franchise in addition to motion pictures like “Suicide Squad” and “Vivid.” He has the emotional depth and soulfulness to tackle quite a lot of dramatic roles, as in “King Richard,” “The Pursuit of Happyness,” “Ali,” and “Six Levels of Separation.” He additionally has a pure comedian timing — honed throughout his years starring on the wildly profitable sitcom “The Recent Prince of Bel-Air” — which crops up in a lot of his performances, however has additionally led to successful main roles within the rom-com “Hitch” and Disney live-action remake “Aladdin.”

Regardless of his appreciable vary and his continued enchantment, Smith has one style above all of them to thank probably the most for his profession, and that is science fiction. Smith’s appearances in sci-fi motion pictures aren’t simply examples of the actor on the peak of his stardom; they’re all notable (and, generally, important) examples of the style itself. It is Smith’s well-rounded persona that makes him a terrific match with a style as malleable as sci-fi, as he is in a position to each delve into the headier elements of the style whereas additionally offering sufficient down-to-Earth irreverence to make these tales palpable for common audiences. No surprise the Wachowskis famously wanted him to lead “The Matrix.”

There are a couple of dozen-odd sci-fi movies during which Smith has starred, that means that followers of each the actor and the style are spoiled for selection. What follows, then, are the cream of the crop, the films that Smith infused with such indelible performances as to make them must-sees for a variety of individuals. They’re additionally, not coincidentally, among the movies that helped make Smith the star he turned, too, proving that relating to Smith and sci-fi, the connection is a really symbiotic one.

For years following its publication in 1950, Issac Asimov’s ebook “I, Robotic” had languished in improvement hell, with quite a few writers and filmmaking groups (together with the likes of Harlan Ellison) making an attempt and failing to adapt it into a serious movement image. A part of the issue is that the core tenets of Asimov’s work (particularly the Three Legal guidelines of Robotics) have been so seminal, that they’d already seeped right into a plethora of unrelated tales and initiatives by the point any film model was on the point of go. That is partially why 2004’s “I, Robotic” is barely urged by the Asimov novel; on no account is it a direct adaptation, however as a substitute honors simply how influential Asimov’s work had grow to be based mostly on the truth that this wholly unrelated film might be closely impressed by it.

In essence, the Jeff Vintar/Akiva Goldsman script (directed with visible aptitude by a post-“Darkish Metropolis” Alex Proyas) is a riff on 1988’s James Caan automobile “Alien Nation,” with a cop protagonist who’s prejudiced in opposition to robots being compelled to crew up with a robotic named Sonny (Alan Tudyk) to try to work out the trigger behind a sequence of mysterious, robot-related murders. The detective, Del Spooner, is performed by Smith with not simply an excessive amount of integrity, however a stage of specificity that helps bolster the character’s relatable humanity. Certain, Converse might have paid for some product placement within the movie, however Smith makes Spooner’s love of the footwear a personality trait, not simply an ungainly advert.

The core premise of “Gemini Man” — a veteran navy murderer discovers {that a} covert authorities program has cloned a model of his youthful self for black ops functions — is one that may be intriguing with nearly any film star, given the way it exploits the general public’s relationship with them on display in addition to the actor’s relationship with themselves. Certainly, “Gemini Man” was in improvement lengthy sufficient that it shuffled by a number of attainable main males. Although because the challenge started life within the late ’90s, the twin function of Henry Brogan and Jackson “Junior” Brogan was once regarded as a job for an older main man and his up-and-coming counterpart, a la “The Satan’s Personal” or “Mission: Unattainable — Ghost Protocol.”

As a substitute, by the point Ang Lee took the reins of the film in 2019, the filmmaker stumble on the novel thought of getting Will Smith play each roles, with results homes like Weta Digital and Park Street Put up making use of de-aging technology so Smith can appear as his younger self. This makes “Gemini Man” a movie utilizing de-aging tech that’s intentionally having a dialog concerning the expertise each inside and with out the movie’s narrative (following the earlier milestone, 2010’s “Tron: Legacy”). It is a very meta, sci-fi idea, and as such, Smith is the proper man for the job. What flaws the movie has are greater than made up for by this subtext, and whereas “Gemini Man” is not the perfect sci-fi film Smith stars in, it is actually probably the most thought-provoking.

Followers of Richard Matheson and his 1954 post-apocalyptic novel are properly conscious that “I Am Legend” has been tailored to the display a handful of instances, and whereas none of those variations may be referred to as definitive translations of the novel, they’re all fascinating in their very own proper, and worthy riffs on Matheson’s core premise. The place 1964’s “The Final Man on Earth” took the story into Gothic Horror territory with Vincent Worth and 1971’s “The Omega Man” was a gritty, Charlton Heston-led social commentary thriller, Francis Lawrence’s 2007 adaptation gambled on making Smith (and his character of Dr. Robert Neville) the middle of the movie in an enormous approach.

That gamble actually pays off, as BJ Colangelo succinctly puts it in her piece on Smith’s 10 best movie roles:

“…’I Am Legend’ is Smith’s so-far magnum opus. He spends the vast majority of the movie utterly alone, appearing in opposition to himself or his pet canine, and trades in his traditional smart-mouthed snark for the decided stillness of a scientist making an attempt to outlive the top of the world. This movie lives and dies by the effectiveness of Smith’s efficiency, and Smith’s efficiency is actually accountable for the movie’s large box-office success and continued legacy.”

Along with Smith carrying the vast majority of the film with aplomb, “I Am Legend” is yet one more indication of Lawrence’s prowess as a style filmmaker, one thing he continued to show quickly after this along with his a number of “Starvation Video games” entries. Finally, what makes “I Am Legend” particular is the way it takes a narrative that had been performed a number of instances earlier than and permits it to really feel recent and distinctive once more, sarcastically making certain that the supply materials continues to be, properly, legendary.

After “Unhealthy Boys,” the jury was nonetheless out on whether or not Will Smith was a real film star or just a savvy sitcom actor who parlayed his charisma right into a crowd-pleasing buddy cop film. “Independence Day” was the movie to place all that chatter to mattress endlessly, for whereas different luminaries throughout the movie’s ensemble forged are beloved for his or her contributions to the film (corresponding to Jeff Goldblum’s plucky pc nerd and Invoice Pullman’s rousing President), there is no query that Smith, taking part in Captain Steven Hiller, dominates each scene he seems in. His presence is the very important part that makes the whole film work in addition to it does: the place Pullman is significant for his earnestness and Goldblum makes the foolish technobabble of the plot go down easily, Smith is the beating coronary heart of a movie that makes an attempt to encapsulate the jingoistic spirit of the titular vacation with out turning the film right into a polemic, which is not any imply feat. In different fingers, “Independence Day” may’ve felt like a thinly veiled treatise on American overseas coverage; with Smith on the helm, it is a rollercoaster “cease the evil alien creatures” journey that anybody from any nation can take pleasure in (and to suppose, he almost wasn’t in it).

This was the intention, in fact, of director/co-writer Roland Emmerich and producer/co-writer Dean Devlin, to make a movie which harkened again to each the ’50s alien invasion B-movies and the ’70s catastrophe movie. If the film is trying to capitalize on any real-world allegory, it is the resurgence of UFO sightings and alien conspiracy theories, in addition to the overall apocalyptic ennui of the Nineties because the calendar approached the millennium. “Independence Day” is an earnest, pompous, fun-loving, knowingly tacky ode to humanity’s collective resilience and customary pursuits, the apotheosis of the feel-good catastrophe film. When an alien crash lands and Hiller’s first impulse is to march proper over to it and provides it a sock within the jaw, it is completely clear what sort of film we’re watching and that Smith is aware of it, too.

It is typical Hollywood math: take what labored earlier than, combine it up a little bit bit, and hope it really works once more. Within the case of “Males in Black,” it is clear that some studio executives noticed “Will Smith + aliens” and figured that the 2 went collectively like peanut butter and chocolate the yr earlier than, so why not repeat the system? The irony is that “Males in Black” is way from being any form of “Independence Day” clone; quite the opposite, it might be the anti-“Independence Day,” because it espouses continued diplomacy and charity between humanity and different species throughout the universe. Though the premise of the movie (particularly the title) is drawing from materials like comedian books (the film based mostly on Lowell Cunningham’s sequence of the identical title) and rampant conspiracy theories about secret authorities staff trying to cowl up the existence of extraterrestrials, the world of “Males in Black” is one which retains unfolding to find new concepts. It’s, for lack of a greater comparability, the “Star Trek” to “Independence Day’s” “Star Wars.”

The joyous, insightful, satiric, and intelligent combination of the movie is due largely to director Barry Sonnenfeld (who had simply come off a pair of equally insightful “Addams Household” movies and Hollywood satire “Get Shorty”) and author Ed Solomon (he of the subversively optimistic “Invoice & Ted” motion pictures), who infuse “Males in Black” with simply the appropriate quantities of candy and bitter. That combo may be utilized to the film’s leads, too: Tommy Lee Jones is grumpy, sarcastic perfection as Agent Ok, whereas Smith is all fish-out-of-water, wide-eyed surprise as Agent J, the 2 males lending the more and more wacky movie a mooring that is a lot the identical as one seen in “Ghostbusters.” “Males in Black” is a film with a ton of concepts, coronary heart, and wit inside it, a lot in order that it spawned two sequels which, although they do not attain the heights of this movie, stay worthy entries nonetheless. Smith’s look within the film is much more star-powered than “ID4” had been; in any case, that is the movie that started his semi-tradition of recording an unique track for every film (and to suppose, he almost wasn’t in this one too!). What “Males in Black” does greater than every other sci-fi film Smith stars in is solidify the actor’s energy; when showing within the style, Will Smith is out of this world.