10 Best Sci-Fi Movie Performances From 2024

Every year should have at least a few great sci-fi releases to be considered a good movie year, and 2024 undoubtedly delivered on the sci-fi movie front. From Dune: Part Two to Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga to The Substance, the past year saw plenty of sci-fi titles bringing audiences to theaters all over the world. In doing so, they immersed themselves in epic universal conflict, dove into the horrors of generating a younger version of oneself, or were introduced to more complicated sci-fi movies that needed to be viewed twice.

Several elements work together to make a truly great sci-fi movie masterpiece, but one with importance that obviously can’t be overstated is the quality of the performances given by the movie’s cast. The uniqueness that usually comes from a sci-fi plot allows actors to really stretch their muscles, something that has considerable chances of resulting in excellent performances as well as some pop culture-defining moments. 2024 had some incredible sci-fi performances, in both the genre’s best and worst titles.

10

Tom Hardy As Eddie Brock

Venom: The Last Dance

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As silly as the Venom movies are, Tom Hardy is committed. Venom: The Last Dance is the latest installment, which garnered more of the negative reviews the series has become known for but can still boast a dedicated niche following. The story picks up from the post-credits scene of Spider-Man: No Way Home, with Eddie and Venom suddenly finding themselves transported to Earth-616. Once they return to their own Earth, however, they have to deal with the consequences of their battle with Carnage and a new enemy chasing after them.

Hardy clearly enjoys playing the character of Eddie Brock, making him dance the line between undeniable charisma and complete cluelessness at what is going on at any given moment. He also manages to have incredible chemistry with Venom, which is enviable considering that the symbiotic is all CGI and also played by Hardy. His performance makes Venom: The Last Dance wildly entertaining, despite the movie’s other problems.

9

Pedro Pascal As Fink The Fox

The Wild Robot

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Pedro Pascal is no newcomer to the sci-fi genre, and his role in The Wild Robot proves once more that he doesn’t even have to show his face to deliver a great performance, just like in The Mandalorian. Pascal stars in The Wild Robot, which is now contending for an Oscar, as Fink the Fox. Sly and sarcastic like every good fox character should be, Fink is the first animal that Lupita Nyong’o’s Roz the robot meets after she crash lands on a remote island.

Fink is opportunistic but ultimately goodhearted, guiding Roz through her new life in a place she was never programmed to be in. When he reveals the deep hurt that loneliness has left at the center of his character, Pascal’s voice is enough to tug at the audience’s heartstrings in a classic tear-jerking moment that every animated movie has, designed to hit home for adults even more so than children.

8

Hugh Jackman As Logan

Deadpool & Wolverine

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Hugh Jackman might be a man of the theater who feels most at home doing musicals, but his return to the role of Wolverine — more than five years after his apparent demise in Logan — is yet another testament to how he has really made this character his own and that he may very well go on playing him until he’s 90 years old, just like Deadpool says in the movie.

“It’s clear from their performances that they gave 110% to this movie, and had a ton of fun filming it. Reynolds’ fast-talking, rude-mouthed superhero pairs well with the gruff, straight man stoicism of Jackman’s Wolverine; the actors’ comedic chemistry shines in every scene they’re in.” – Molly Freeman, Screen Rant’s Deadpool & Wolverine review

Jackman makes this new variant of Wolverine even more bitter and angry than the original ever was, a perfect counterbalance to Ryan Reynolds’ mouthy and quippy Deadpool. Their dynamic really is what Deadpool & Wolverine rests on. It’s also what has generated countless memes over the summer of 2024, as well as Deadpool & Wolverine‘s major box office success all over the world. After decades of playing the character, Jackman’s Logan is still a complex figure who can drive drama and comedy.

7

David Jonsson As Andy

Alien: Romulus

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Alien: Romulus is the latest installment of the Alien franchise, set chronologically between the first two movies— Alien and Aliens. Alien: Romulus follows a ragtag group of people trying to escape the Weyland-Yutani Corp who find themselves the new target of a whole batch of parasitic facehuggers and a new xenomorph. Space horror ensues, as it always should in any good Alien movie, this time with a particularly standout performance by David Jonsson.

Rain and Andy from Alien Romulus with a facehugger and xenomorph in a red background

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While there are plenty of great performances to go around in Alien: Romulus, Jonsson shines as the reprogrammed android Andy, whom protagonist Rain considers her adopted brother. Jonsson manages to strike a balance between emotions and detachment that characterizes many android characters, but he also perfectly switches it all up when Andy ends up reprogrammed once more and his allegiances shift.

6

Owen Teague As Noa

Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes

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Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is the fourth installment of the Planet of the Apes reboot franchise. The movie is set a long time after the ape Caesar’s death, when the apes are the undisputed dominant species on the planet and have established a varied society with numerous clans, while the surviving humans live in hiding. The Planet of the Apes movies of the 2010s mastered CGI which allows for performance subtleties, and Owen Teague steps up to fill Andy Serkis’ shoes with his own thoughtfulness on-screen.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

PG-13

Where to Watch

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Release Date

May 10, 2024

Runtime

145 Minutes

Cast

Kevin Durand
, Freya Allan
, Peter Macon
, Owen Teague
, Eka Darville
, Sara Wiseman
, Neil Sandilands

Director

Wes Ball

Teague stars as Noa, a young chimpanzee who one day meets a human scavenger capable of speech named Mae — and the two soon find themselves confronting the intimidating Proximus Caesar, a king who has enslaved several of his fellow apes and is forcing them to help him obtain human technology. While all in motion capture, Teague gives a nuanced and emotional performance that makes Noa a very likable and credible young protagonist.

5

Kristen Dunst As Lee Smith

Civil War

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Civil War isn’t exactly textbook sci-fi — nothing is set in space, there are no monsters or aliens or superheroes of any kind, and the story doesn’t take place thousands of years in the future. Still, dystopia is a genre that is more often than not associated with sci-fi. Civil War is definitely a perfect example of a dystopia movie that is too relevant for it to be a comfortable, lighthearted watch, spearheaded by a performance that is meant to reflect on one’s role in such a scenario.

Civil War

R

Where to Watch

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Release Date

April 12, 2024

Runtime

109 Minutes

Cast

Kirsten Dunst
, Wagner Moura
, Cailee Spaeny
, Stephen McKinley Henderson
, Nelson Lee
, Nick Offerman
, Jefferson White
, Evan Lai
, Vince Pisani
, Justin James Boykin
, Jess Matney
, Greg Hill
, Edmund Donovan
, Sonoya Mizuno
, Tim James
, Simeon Freeman
, James Yaegashi
, Dean Grimes
, Alexa Mansour
, Martha B. Knighton
, Melissa Saint-Amand
, Karl Glusman
, Jin Ha

Director

Alex Garland

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While Civil War gained mixed reviews upon its release, Kristen Dunst’s performance as the main character Lee Smith was universally acclaimed. Her character is a renewed and jaded war correspondent— named in a homage to World War II photojournalist Lee Miller — who travels through the civil war-torn United States to interview the authoritarian president who is soon expected to be captured while dealing with the many dilemmas of her job in the current circumstances.

4

Lupita Nyong’o As Sam

A Quiet Place: Day One

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Lupita Nyong’o gave two great sci-fi performances in 2024 — a brilliant voice acting example as the titular character of The Wild Robot, and arguably an even better one in A Quiet Place: Day One, the prequel to 2018’s A Quiet Place and the third installment of its ever-growing franchise. The strange horror series relies on Oscar-worthy actors like Nyong’o and Emily Blunt to deliver tense performances and elevate the often eerily silent setting.

Nyong’o stars as Sam, a terminally ill cancer patient, who finds herself — with her cat Frodo — in New York right as the invasion of the aliens who have completely altered life on Earth as we know it by the time the events of A Quiet Place roll around begins. Nyong’o shows off her incredible acting ability by capturing all the different and, at times, conflicting aspects of Sam, from sheer terror to a ferocious will to survive despite her terminal illness.

3

Chris Hemsworth As Dementus

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

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Every story needs a memorable villain, sci-fi more than many other genres — and memorable villains are made with great performances like the one Chris Hemsworth gave as the warlord Dementus in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. Maybe Dementus is not really a villain in the bigger narrative, but he is undoubtedly the one who completely derails Furiosa’s life and so the object of her revenge. Dementus is a product of the wasteland that George Miller created, over the top and brutal like almost everything and everyone else.

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8/10

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

R

Where to Watch

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Release Date

May 24, 2024

Runtime

148 Minutes

Cast

Anya Taylor-Joy
, Chris Hemsworth
, Tom Burke
, Alyla Browne
, Nathan Jones
, Angus Sampson
, Daniel Webber
, Lachy Hulme

Director

George Miller

Hemsworth plays Dementus with the perfect balance of indiscriminate bloodlust and grotesque humor, making his character a great, loud counterpart to Furiosa’s steely silence. Their final confrontation in the desert and his horrific ending are truly such stuff as sci-fi movies run on. The larger-than-life quality of both main characters lends itself to the feeling of a Wasteland legend coming together, the enigmatic story behind Mad Max: Fury Road.

2

Demi Moore As Elisabeth Sparkle

The Substance

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The Substance takes a more body horror approach to the sci-fi genre, telling the story of a once-celebrated Hollywood actress who would do anything to be as loved as she was when she was younger. That includes taking a mysterious substance that creates a perfect clone of her 25-year-old self through whom she can experience life and demands a psychologically complex performance from the lead actress.

Demi Moore’s performance as main character Elisabeth Sparkle has been front and center during the current award seasons, and she has already received various accolades, including a Golden Globe as Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy). Moore perfectly encapsulates the sense of grotesque that permeates the entire movie and delivers some brilliant satire, which contributes to The Substance being one of the most talked about movies of 2024.

1

Timothée Chalamet As Paul Atreides

Dune: Part Two

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If Dune: Part Two is the sci-fi movie of the year, then the performance sitting right at its heart also has to be the sci-fi performance of the year. Paul Muad’dib Atreides is the most grandiose role in Timothée Chalamet’s career so far, a complex leader torn between doing good and a terrible quest for revenge and, therefore, ultimately for power. Paul has always been one of sci-fi’s most controversial characters, ever since he was first introduced by Frank Herbert back in 1965, and Chalamet perfectly conveys that.

10-Sci Fi Movies Where The Villain Wins , Logan Marshall Green and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

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The scene of his speech at the Fremen gathering, where Paul finally declares himself the Lisan al-Gaib, is both powerful and chilling, just like Paul himself is. The impact Chalamet’s performance had on the internet is also apparent: Dune: Part Two generated a wide variety of viral memes and videos, starting with Paul’s declaration that he is “Paul Muad’dib Atreides, Duke of Arrakis.” Performances like this almost guarantee a compelling sci-fi movie, only elevated by the quality of the rest.