3 sure-fire Netflix sci-fi movies to watch this weekend (September 11 - 13)

Credit: Lucas Gouveia/How-To Geek Published Sep 10, 2026, 2:30 PM EDT Derek Malcolm has been covering the worlds of tech and entertainment for more than two decades. Before coming to How-To Geek in 2025, Derek was a contributing editor and writer for the A/V and Home Theater section at Digital Trends, where he wrangled and wrote everything from what to watch on Netflix to reviews, explainers, and guides on the latest Bluetooth speakers, turntables, projectors, and other A/V gear. Based in Toronto, Derek graduated from Humber College's Journalism program in 1999, after which he started covering the worlds of music, movies, TV, and celebrity for publications such as TV Guide, Hello! magazine, and Inside Entertainment. He then got the bug for covering tech and gadgets in 2006, when he served as editor-in-chief of Canadian tech magazine Connected for more than a decade. An avid skier, when all the snow's gone Derek can be found at home spinning vinyl with his daughter or cheering on his favorite F1 team, McLaren. Sign in to your How-To Geek account Netflix's most-watched list has been in a bit of a grim mood lately. The Whisper Man still sits at the top with its chilling serial killer vibes going, and don't even get me started on Death of the Pastor's Wife, which is still giving documentary fans the shivers and making them wonder about their neighbors. If you prefer your thrills (and existential dread) to come with supreme beings, Gundams, or people grown in labs (my top pick), Netflix also has a deep sci-fi shelf for its U.S. subscribers that is criminally under-browsed. I've pulled three below that promise to take your brain on a sci-fi trip this weekend. 3 The Fifth Element Bruce Willis and Milla Jovovich's world-saving space adventure Luc Besson started writing 1997's now-classic sci-fi adventure The Fifth Element as a teenager, but he could hardly know the quotable, meme-able cult hit it would become. With costumes designed by Jean-Paul Gaultier, and the 23rd-century world around them (from the flying cars to the vertically stacked futuristic cityscapes) designed by legendary French comics artists Mœbius and Jean-Claude Mézières, Besson's vision came to vivid life. It also happens to have a pretty cool sci-fi save-the-world story. Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis) is a former special forces grunt who's resorted to driving a taxi to make ends meet. But when a strange red-haired woman crashes through his cab's roof, he's dragged into a plot that could bring the demise of the cosmos. It turns out that the redhead, called Leeloo (Milla Jovovich), is a supreme, perfect being who can stop the whole thing, but only if Korben and priest Vito Cornelius (Ian Holm) can find four elemental stones before dangerous arms dealer Zorg (Gary Oldman) does. The Fifth Element has a modest 70% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes, but an 87% audience score, if that tells you anything about its cult status. Chris Tucker's screeching, flamboyant turn as galactic radio DJ Ruby Rhod alone is worth the price of admission. Get your Multipass ready. Cast Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Gary Oldman, Ian Holm, Chris Tucker, Luke Perry, Brion James, Tommy Lister Jr., Lee Evans, Charlie Creed-Miles, Tricky, John Neville, John Bluthal, Mathieu Kassovitz, Christopher Fairbank, Kim Chan, Richard Leaf, Julie T. Wallace, Al Matthews, Maïwenn, John Bennett, Ivan Heng, Sonita Henry, Tim McMullan, Hon Ping Tang Runtime 126 minutes Director Luc Besson Writers Luc Besson, Robert Mark Kamen Producers Patrice Ledoux Main Genre Science Fiction Budget $90 million Studio(s) Columbia Pictures Distributor(s) Columbia Pictures 2 Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: The Sorcery of Nymph Circe A rebel, a hunter, and a strange girl Of course, sci-fi doesn't always have to be live action, a fact that fans of the stratospherically popular Gundam franchise will vigorously attest to. The animated phenomenon has been going since the late seventies, but this 2026 movie, which just landed on Netflix on August 31, comes with SZA's Snooze playing over the opening. Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: The Sorcery of Nymph Circe is the anticipated second of three planned films adapting a novel trilogy by Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino. Word of warning first—it's not going to make much sense to you unless you've already seen part one, 2021's Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway, which is luckily also streaming on Netflix. With that said, fans and newbies to Gundam should buckle up for some incredible animation and crushing metal-on-metal duels between giant mech robots, as Hathaway Noa (Kensho Ono) leads a rebel group set out to assassinate key officials of a corrupt Earth government. Hathaway is also being hunted down by officer Kenneth Sleg (Junichi Suwabe), while the mysterious Gigi Andalucia (Reina Ueda) strangely draws both men in. Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: The Sorcery of Nymph Circe Release Date May 15, 2026 Runtime 108 minutes Director Shuko Murase Cast Kensho Ono, Reina Ueda, Junichi Suwabe, Soma Saito, Kenjiro Tsuda, Yui Ishikawa, Fukushi Ochiai, Shunsuke Takeuchi, Saori Hayami, Misato Matsuoka, Kohei Amasaki, Hikaru Tanaka, Yu Miyazaki, Ryunosuke Watanuki, Shunpei Kusano, Anna Nagase, Kazuki Kyan, Shūichi Uchida, Hayato Inomata, Hiroshi Shirokuma, Shinya Takahashi, Noriaki Kanze, Taiki Yamashita, Chiharu Sawashiro, Hiroki Yasumoto Writers Yoshiyuki Tomino, Yasuyuki Muto Producers Keisuke Kasai Franchise(s) Gundam Main Genre Anime Executive Producer(s) Naohiro Ogata 1 They Cloned Tyrone A dealer, a pimp, a working girl, and a government conspiracy Writer/director Juel Taylor's brilliantly funny sci-fi comedy They Cloned Tyrone got buried under the fanfare of 2023's Barbenheimer, but it's been building a much-deserved cult following ever since. Blending 1970s blaxploitation vibes with a modern social angle, the story takes place in the predominantly Black neighborhood called The Glen, where low-level dealer Fontaine (John Boyega) is shot dead by a rival dealer, but wakes up the next morning without a scratch. Besides Fontaine, no one is more surprised by this resurrection than flamboyant pimp Slick Charles (Jamie Foxx) and his sex worker Yo-Yo (Teyonah Parris), who saw him go down. The three hapless heroes start pulling at the strings of a government conspiracy involving a secret cloning operation and nefarious population control in The Glen, and maybe beyond. Boyega, Foxx, and Parris are the comedy trio you didn't know you needed, and they hold this stylish, funny, and over-the-top sci-fi mystery down for its two-hour runtime. They Cloned Tyrone really didn't get its due, but a 95% critics' score doesn't lie—you should put this on your watchlist this weekend. They Cloned Tyrone Release Date July 21, 2023 Cast John Boyega, Teyonah Parris, Jamie Foxx, Kiefer Sutherland, David Alan Grier, J. Alphonse Nicholson Runtime 119 Minutes Director Juel Taylor Writers Tony Rettenmaier, Juel Taylor Studio(s) MACRO Media Distributor(s) Netflix Netflix has a surprise vault of sci-fi movies Netflix has been killing it in the thriller and documentary departments of late (and that's great), but for those who want something a little more out there (be that in space or down an Earth-based science rabbit hole), don't cryo sleep on the service's sci-fi selection. If Apple TV is one of the other streaming services in your quiver, they've got some excellent science fiction we've rounded up, too. Subscription with ads Yes, $8/month Simultaneous streams Two or four Live TV No Price Starting at $8/month Stream licensed and original programming with a monthly Netflix subscription.