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There’s nothing quite as special or wonderful as a movie night. Whether it be with your family or friends, it’s always amazing cuddling up with a blanket, getting the popcorn ready, and popping in a bunch of your favorite films. And, now more than ever, we need to be stoking our kids’ (and our own) imaginations as we work to envision and build a better future. So, which fantasy and sci-fi worlds should your family explore first?
While you may hear “fantasy” and assume everything out there looks like Lord of the Rings, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. There are goofy, light fantasies like body switch comedy Little and superhero flick Shazam!, and there are serious, musing fantasies, like the time-traveling tale of police violence See You Yesterday and dystopian coming-of-age pic The Giver. There are re-imagined worlds, re-imagined creatures, and re-imagined ways of life in each carefully crafted fantasy universe. Our advice? Let your teen try them all — you’ll know it when they’re hooked.
As parents, we want to give our kids all the happiness in the world. If your family needs a little fantasy to get through these weeks, you’re not alone. Here are the fantasy and sci-fi movies that will inspire you, amaze you, and make you laugh.
A version of this article was originally published in June 2020.
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‘Harry Potter’
Image Credit: ©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection We couldn’t start a list of teen fantasy movies without the one and only Harry Potter franchise.
Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, the series follows teens as they become wizards, adjust to life at Hogwarts and face some deadly enemies.
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‘Divergent’
Image Credit: Jaap Buitendijk/©Summit Entertainment/courtesy Everett Collection In Divergent, a movie franchise based on a best-selling book series, viewers follow Tris, a determined young woman who defied her family and chose the Dauntless faction when she became an adult. But as she begins initiation, she find out she’ll never be able to fit it, one way or another.
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‘The Host’
Image Credit: Alan Markfield/©Open Road Films/courtesy Everett Collection Starring Saoirse Ronan, 2013’s The Host tells the unconventional love story of two humans finding each other when an alien species has taken over the planet. Soon enough, however, they become the aliens’ biggest targets.
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‘I Am Number Four’
Image Credit: John Bramley/©Walt Disney Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection I Am Number Four, a 2011 movie starring Alex Pettyfer, follows a story about an alien (Number Four) who’s on the run, moving from town to town trying to not sound any alarms. But when he finds love and connection in a small Ohio town, everything begins to change.
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‘Ready Player One’
Image Credit: ©Warner Bros/courtesy Everett Collection / Everett Collection Set in 2045, Ready Player One follows a not-so-distant future in which the world is dependent on OASIS: an expansive virtual reality universe. When the creator of the platform dies, his immense fortune is promised to the first person to discover a digital Easter egg. That’s when the protagonist Wade (Tye Sheridan) and his impressive skills come in.
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‘The Hunger Games’
Image Credit: Murray Close/©Lionsgate/Courtesy Everett Collection Speaking of film franchises, we couldn’t forget about perhaps the most celebrated of all, The Hunger Games.
The first movie follows brave teen Katniss as she takes her sister’s spot in the annual fatal competition between the districts in a distant dystopian future. Viewers then see her learn the ropes, defy expectations, and become a deadly threat.
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‘Project Almanac’
Image Credit: ©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection After finding his dad’s time machine project in the basement, David (Jonny Weston) and his friends have their work cut out for them in Project Almanac. While they finally make the machine work, they have no idea about all the consequences of their actions.
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‘The Maze Runner’
Image Credit: Ben Rothstein/TM and ©Copyright 20th Century Fox Netherlands. All rights reserved./Courtesy Everett Collection Another movie franchise on this list is the fan-loved Maze Runner. The series starts off with Thomas (Dylan O’Brien), a teen who finds himself in a tribe of other boys like him with no recollection of their past life and a maze surrounding them. As he starts investigating a way out, the first female member of their group comes to shake things up.
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‘Spirited Away’
Image Credit: (c) Walt Disney Pictures/ Courtesy: Everett Collection Oscar-winning film Spirited Away follows a ten-year-old girl who, while moving to a new neighborhood, enters the world of Kami. She finds her parents are turned into pigs, and she has to find a way to get them all out safely.
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‘Artemis Fowl’
Image Credit: Disney Enterprises, Inc. Artemis Fowl follows a 12-year-old genius who hunts down a secret society of fairies to help him on an adventure to find his missing father.
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‘Super 8’
Image Credit: Francois Duhamel/©Paramount Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection During the summer of 1979, a group of friends investigates a series of unexplained events after witnessing a train crash in their small town in Super 8.
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‘The Giver’
Image Credit: David Bloomer/©Weinstein Company/Courtesy Everett Collection In a world without war, pain, choice, or differences, a young man is chosen to receive an assignment and begins to understand the complex secrets behind his community in The Giver.
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‘Nightbooks’
Image Credit: Christos Kalohoridis /© Netflix / Courtesy Everett Collection Nightbooks is a fun, ghoulish time as scary story fan Alex tells terrifying stories each night so that he and his best friend don’t stay trapped in a wicked witch’s magical apartment forever.
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‘See You Yesterday’
Image Credit: Linda Kallerus, / © Netflix / courtesy Everett Collection Two Brooklyn teenage science prodigies, C.J. Walker and Sebastian Thomas, build make-shift time machines to save C.J.’s brother, Calvin, from being wrongfully killed.
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‘Mortal Engines’
Image Credit: © Universal Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection In a post-apocalyptic world where cities ride on wheels and consume each other to survive, Mortal Engines follows two people who meet in London and try to stop a conspiracy.
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‘A Wrinkle In Time’
Image Credit: Atsushi Nishijima/© Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures /courtesy Everett Collection After the disappearance of her scientist father, Meg, played by Storm Reid, is joined by Mrs. Who played by Mindy Kaling, Mrs. Which played by Oprah Winfrey, and Mrs. Whatsit played by Reese Witherspoon, who all help Meg, her brother, and friend travel through space to find her dad in Wrinkle in Time.
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‘Little’
Image Credit: Eli Joshua Ade / © Universal / courtesy Everett Collection Little follows a woman who is transformed into her younger self at a point in her life when the pressures of adulthood become too much to bear.
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‘Shazam!’
Image Credit: © Warner Brothers / courtesy Everett Collection. We all have a superhero inside us, it just takes a bit of magic to bring it out. In Billy Batson’s case in Shazam!, by shouting out one word, SHAZAM, this streetwise fourteen-year-old foster kid can turn into the grown-up superhero Shazam.
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‘Atlantis: The Lost Empire’
Image Credit: Everett Collection Atlantis: The Lost Empire is an underrated film that follows a linguist named Milo Thatch and a group of explorers that find Atlantis.
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‘Bumblebee’
Image Credit: © Paramount Pictures /Courtesy Everett Collection While on the run in 1987, Bumblebee finds refuge in a junkyard in a small Californian beach town. Then comes Charlie (Hailee Steinfeld), an almost 18-year-old and discovers Bumblebee, battle-scarred and broken.
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‘Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle’
Image Credit: Frank Masi/ © Columbia Pictures /courtesy Everett Collection Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, and Karen Gillan are sucked into real-life Jumanji. As they try to rescue one of their own, the players will have to brave parts unknown to escape the world’s most dangerous game.
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‘Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief’
Image Credit: Doane Gregory/TM and ©Copyright Fox 2000 Pictures. All rights reserved./Courtesy Everett Collection Starring a fresh-faced Logan Lerman and Alexandra Daddario, Percy Jackson & The Olympians follows half-blood Percy Jackson as he comes to terms with being half-human, half-son of Poseidon. But as he still adjusts to his new life, he’s set on a mission that could change the course of the world.
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‘The Darkest Minds’
Image Credit: Daniel McFadden. ©Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. All rights reserved/courtesy Everett Collection A group of teens has been declared a threat by the government after having been discovered to have mysterious and powerful abilities — Ruby, played by Amandla Stenberg, escapes and joins a group of other runaways who form a resistance group to fight back in The Darkest Minds.
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‘Ender’s Game’
Image Credit: Richard Foreman/©Summit Entertainment/courtesy Everett Collection Based on the best-selling novel of the same name, Ender’s Game follows Andrew “Ender” Wiggin, a gifted child who is sent to a military academy to prepare for an impending alien invasion. The 2013 film stars Asa Butterfield in the leading role, along with Harrison Ford, Viola Davis, and Hailee Steinfeld, among others.
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‘E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial’
Image Credit: © Universal Pictures/ Courtesy: Everett Collection. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is an absolute classic perfect for the whole family to enjoy. When the extraterrestrial lands near the house of young Elliott and his family, the kids take in the creature and protect him at all costs. The movie is directed by Steven Spielberg and stars Henry Thomas and Drew Barrymore.
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‘Haunted Mansion’
Image Credit: (c) Walt Disney/courtesy Everett Collection Starring Eddie Murphy, this topsy-turvy tale is perfect for either a magical movie night or a family movie marathon! Haunted Mansion follows a family who ends up in this mansion and soon realizes not everything is as it seems.
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‘Goosebumps’
Image Credit: Hopper Stone/©Columbia Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection Who doesn’t love a good Goosebumps tale? Starring Jack Black and Dylan Minnette, Goosebumps follows a young pair of teenagers who accidentally release monsters from R.L. Stine’s manuscripts.
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‘The Neverending Story’
Image Credit: © Warner Brothers/courtesy Everett Collection For the perfect throwback night, you need to watch The Neverending Story. The movie follows a boy who finds himself on a magical quest when he opens the pages of a mysterious book.
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‘Back to the Future’
Image Credit: Everett Collection No movie night is complete without one or all of the Back to the Future movies. The franchise follows a 17-year-old named Marty McFly and a doctor named Doc Brown who go back in time.
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‘How to Train Your Dragon’
Image Credit: ©DreamWorks SKG/Courtesy Everett Collection Adorable dragons, friendship, battles, and killer special effects?! What more could you ask for? How to Train Your Dragon is a heartwarming and fun tale that follows a man named Hiccup who befriends a dragon named Toothless.
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‘Alice in Wonderland’
Image Credit: ©Walt Disney Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection Alice in Wonderland is the definition of whimsy and fantasy, following a girl named Alice who fell down a hole into the magical world of Underland.
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