3 best sci-fi movies on Prime Video right now
While flashy blockbusters and well-known franchises tend to hog the spotlight, there's a deep bench of underrated, thought-provoking science fiction films that deserve your time. Some of those may very well be blockbusters on their own, like "Interstellar" — but when's the last time you took a moment to appreciate them?
Whether you're into alternate realities, time loop mind-benders or eerie glimpses of the future, there are tons of gems on the platform to dig into. Here are three of the best sci-fi movies on Prime Video that you can stream right now.
"Stargate" (the movie, not the series) kicks off with one of the most intriguing premises in sci-fi: What if an ancient alien device unearthed in Egypt turned out to be a gateway to another planet?
When one milquetoast linguist (James Spader) deciphers the symbols on the mysterious artifact, he's swept up into a top-secret military expedition led by a gritty, no-nonsense colonel (Kurt Russell). On the other side of the stargate lies a distant world that resembles ancient Egypt, ruled by a powerful alien posing as a god. And it's this ragtag team's mission to understand it, come hell or high water.
Watch "Stargate" on Prime Video now
"Coherence" begins as a casual dinner party between old friends but spirals into chaos when a comet passes overhead and warps reality itself. The power flickers and phone signals vanish, and the group of friends slowly begins to realize that their neighborhood may now contain multiple versions of themselves, each making different choices in diverging timelines.
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What follows is a race to determine who's who, who's a potential other, and what their other selves' true motives are. What's more, how do they get back to normal and to their "normal" world? This mind-bending cult favorite will keep you guessing until the very end.
Watch "Coherence" on Prime Video now
In a future where Earth is slowly becoming uninhabitable, former NASA pilot Joseph Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is recruited for a last-ditch mission. His job is to travel through a wormhole in search of a new home for mankind. No pressure, right?
What begins as a seemingly benign spacefaring journey quickly becomes something deeper as Cooper realizes nearly two decades have passed during his journey. He must come to terms with his startling findings and the future awaiting humanity as time ticks down.
Watch "Interstellar" on Prime Video now
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Scientists find Uranus is surprisingly warm, heating up the case for a new planetary mission
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Flight Controller Steve Bales And Tension That Led To Man's First Step
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Steve Bales: [Flight Director] Gene [Kranz] had said no other abort calls below 2,000 feet, except for low fuel. The Lunar Module didn't have an accurate fuel gage. Neither did we on the ground. But when the tank got to a certain level - I think a minute and a half left - you would be alerted to start a stopwatch. Suddenly Bob Carlton, the engine controller, is running the entire program with a stopwatch. Some 400,000 people had made and supported the vehicle, with billions and billions of dollars of taxpayer money, and it's now all up to a guy with a mechanical stopwatch [laughs]. Bob calls '60 seconds,' and CAPCOM relays that to Neil [Armstrong]. Normally, in simulations, at about 600 feet the crew is gradually descending, but in this case they're zooming horizontally above the surface, and we have no idea why. Turns out they needed to land long because a crater with boulders was just under them. Neil had to pilot manually to fly over the crater. That takes more fuel, of course. Apollo 11 "Eagle" ascent stage from the command module during rendezvous in lunar orbit. The lunar module, with astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin aboard, was making its docking approach to the command module following their historic landing on the lunar surface. Astronaut Michael Collins, pilot of the command module, made this photo. Bettmann Archive Next you hear, "30 seconds." I thought, "My God, we aren't going to make it." But then you see the contact light, meaning one of the vehicle probes has hit the lunar surface, followed by Buzz [Aldrin] saying, "Engine stop." Shortly after that, the historic call came down from Neil, "Houston, Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed." They only had 17 or 18 seconds of fuel left. That historic stopwatch, by the way, is now in the Smithsonian [National Air And Space Museum] in Washington, DC. Clash: Was anything special said to the controllers just before the Lunar Module started down? Bales: The [Mission Control] room was so tense you could cut it with a knife. I'm probably the most tense. I tend to get excited. Some of the older guys were a little cooler. So we were all sitting there, waiting for 15 minutes of blackout as the crew came around from the backside of the moon. Gene Kranz told the 30 or so of us to go from his radio loop to a special loop. His flight director loop was recorded and went around the world. This other loop, called conference, was private. After we all switched over, he said, "This is what we've waited our entire lives for. This is what we're going to do today. I have confidence in every one of you. I just want you to know this: However it ends, we walk out as a team.' Yeah, if I messed up, he was going to take responsibility, too, because he had picked us. Then he told us to lock all of the doors, because nobody was coming into or out of Mission Control until Apollo 11 either had landed, aborted or crashed. Clash: I realize most of the training you did was fairly intense. Any amusing anecdotes amongst all the seriousness? July 20, 1969: Edwin E. 'Buzz' Aldrin Jr., Lunar Module Pilot, During The First Apollo 11 Extravehicular Activity. (Photo) Getty Images Bales: The very first simulation we did was for a descent. I sat down and plugged into the console. Somebody came over and plugged in beside me. I looked up and saw it was [Director Of Flight Operations] Cris Kraft. He never did that with anybody. I was shocked. He knew how important this position was, knew the guidance guy would probably be in the hot seat during the actual mission. It was supposed be a normal simulation without any surprises. But, as we started down, the guidance system began deviating badly. When we got halfway down, I said, "Gene, abort," and the crew did it. Somehow, the program had been misaligned by a degree. Afterwards, Chris slapped me on the back and said, "Good job, boy!' I never saw him again. I think that was my training day, and I passed [laughs]. Another thing: As a controller, you learn to listen to at least four conversations at once, then pick out the one you really need to hear and ignore the others. I'm glad I lost that capability over time. I'd walk into a meeting or restaurant later in life and I could hear all of these people talking around me, what each was saying, and it started to bug me [laughs].
