Best Alien planet Movies
Ranked by how strongly each film carries the visual signature of alien planet cinema — measured across 1,139 indexed frames from 15 films, against a 408,752-frame catalogue baseline. Not by box office, and not by vote.
Alien planet films over-index on humanoid, alien and moss — the objects that make the genre recognisable before a line is spoken.
- 1
Avatar (2009)
James CameronDP Mauro FioreIMDb 7.9TMDB 7.6See in full on FrameThrower →
When his brother is killed in a robbery, paraplegic Marine Jake Sully decides to take his place in a mission on the distant world of Pandora. There he learns of greedy corporate figurehead Parker Selfridge's intentions of driving off the native humanoid "Na'vi" in order to mine for the precious material scattered throughout their rich woodland. In exchange for the spinal surgery that will fix his legs, Jake gathers knowledge, of the Indigenous Race and their Culture, for the cooperating military unit spearheaded by gung-ho Colonel Quaritch, while simultaneously attempting to infiltrate the Na'vi people with the use of an "avatar" identity. While Jake begins to bond with the native tribe and quickly falls in love with the beautiful alien Neytiri, the restless Colonel moves forward with his ruthless extermination tactics, forcing the soldier to take a stand - and fight back in an epic battle for the fate of Pandora.
- 2
Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)
James CameronDP Russell CarpenterIMDb 7.5TMDB 7.6See in full on FrameThrower →
Set more than a decade after the events of the first film, learn the story of the Sully family (Jake, Neytiri, and their kids), the trouble that follows them, the lengths they go to keep each other safe, the battles they fight to stay alive, and the tragedies they endure.
- 3
Fantastic Planet (1973)
René LalouxDP Boris BaromykinIMDb 7.7TMDB 7.6See in full on FrameThrower →
Gérard Hernandezas Master Taj (voice)
Jean Valmontas Adult Terr / Narrator (voice)
Jennifer Drakeas Tiwa (voice)
Slaves and masters dominate the narrative of the faraway world of Ygam. Set around the lifespan of Terr, a minute human shaped Om slave, and pet, of the giant blue alien Draags. Escaping into the wilderness and with a device used for intellectual advancement of the Draags, Terr finds refuge and support from fellow Oms and using the learning tool, he finds that knowledge is power and then sets to use the new found knowledge to revolt against the Draag masters...
- 4
Luc BessonDP Thierry ArbogastIMDb 6.4TMDB 6.6See in full on FrameThrower →
In the twenty-eighth century, space station Alpha is a city where beings from different planets live together exchanging their knowledge and culture. Peace is granted by a human force, including Major Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and his partner Sergeant Laureline (Cara Delevingne). They are assigned by the Defense Minister (Herbie Hancock) to retrieve the last species of converter in a dangerous mission. They succeed and back to Alpha, unknown humanoids abduct Commander Arun Filitt (Clive Owen) expecting to steal the converter. They head to a forbidden area that is infected, but Valerian and Laureline follow them and disclose a hidden secret about the race and the infected area.
- 5
Planet of the Apes (2001)
Tim BurtonDP Philippe RousselotIMDb 5.7TMDB 5.8See in full on FrameThrower →
It is the year 2029: Astronaut Leo Davidson boards a pod cruiser on a Space Station on a rescue and recovery mission. But an abrupt detour through a space time wormhole lands him on a strange planet where talking apes rule over the human race. With the help of a sympathetic chimpanzee activist named Ari and a small band of human rebels, Leo leads the effort to evade the advancing Gorilla Army led by General Thade and his most trusted warrior Attar. Now the race is on to reach a sacred temple within the planet's Forbidden Zone to discover the shocking secrets of mankind's past - and the key to its future.
- 6
Prospect (2018)
Zeek Earl, Christopher CaldwellDP Zeek EarlIMDb 6.3TMDB 6.2See in full on FrameThrower →
A teenage girl and her father travel to a remote alien moon, aiming to strike it rich. They've secured a contract to harvest a large deposit of the elusive gems hidden in the depths of the moon's toxic forest. But there are others roving the wilderness and the job quickly devolves into a fight to survive. Forced to contend not only with the forest's other ruthless inhabitants, but with her own father's greed-addled judgment, the girl finds she must carve her own path to escape.
- 7
Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
Taika WaititiDP Javier AguirresarobeIMDb 7.9TMDB 7.6See in full on FrameThrower →
Imprisoned on the other side of the universe, the mighty Thor finds himself in a deadly gladiatorial contest that puts him against The Incredible Hulk, his former ally and fellow Avenger. Thor's quest for survival leads him in a race against time to prevent the all-powerful Hela from destroying his home world and the Asgardian civilization.
- 8
Man Of Steel (2013)
Zack SnyderDP Amir MokriIMDb 7.1TMDB 6.6See in full on FrameThrower →
A young boy learns that he has extraordinary powers and is not of this Earth. As a young man, he journeys to discover where he came from and what he was sent here to do. But the hero in him must now emerge if he is to save the world from annihilation and become the symbol of hope for all mankind.
- 9
Flash Gordon (1980)
Mike HodgesDP Gilbert TaylorIMDb 6.5TMDB 6.2See in full on FrameThrower →
American footballer Flash Gordon is thrust into the journey of a lifetime: joined with Dale Arden and Dr. Hans Zarkov, the three earthbound space travellers will soon become the first humans to encounter alien life, and try to stop the tyrannical alien warlord Emperor Ming the Merciless from destroying the Earth.
- 10
Barbarella (1968)
Roger VadimDP Claude RenoirIMDb 5.9TMDB 6.0See in full on FrameThrower →
The year is 40,000. After peaceful floating in zero-gravity, astronaut Barbarella lands on the frozen planet Lythion and sets out to find renowned scientist Durand Durand in the City of Night, Sogo, where a new sin is invented every hour. There, she encounters such objects as the Excessive Machine, a genuine sex organ on which an expert artist of the keyboard, in this case, Durand Durand himself, can drive a victim to death by pleasure, a lesbian queen who can make her fantasies take form in her Chamber of Dreams, and a group of ladies smoking a giant hookah which dispenses Essence of Man through a poor victim struggling in its glass globe. You can not help but be impressed by the special effects crew and the various ways that were found to tear off what minimal clothes our heroine seemed to possess.
What alien planet films are made of
How much more often each element appears in a alien planet frame than in an average frame from the catalogue. A ratio, not a share — humanoid is not in most frames, it is simply far more common here than anywhere else.
- humanoid119.8×
- alien41.2×
- moss9.3×
- armor9.0×
- tactical vest5.1×
- helmet4.8×
- tunic3.5×
- sand3.2×
How alien planet films are shot
Weaker signals than the objects above, and worth saying so: most dramatic genres skew dark and night-heavy, so these numbers separate alien planet from the catalogue far more than they separate it from its neighbours.
- 12%unknownvs 4% baseline
- 16%interior indeterminatevs 7% baseline
- 11%low anglevs 5% baseline
- 27%widevs 20% baseline
- 31%dayvs 42% baseline
What breaks the pattern
Predators (2010) is the least typical film here — it carries the least of what the rest of this list is made of. Which is either a failure of the genre label, or the most interesting film on the page.
Method
Every frame in the FrameThrower catalogue is tagged for shot size, lighting, time of day, camera angle, colour and the objects visible in it. This page aggregates those tags across 1,139 frames from 15 films carrying the alien planet label, and compares each figure to the same measurement across the whole catalogue (408,752 frames). Films are ranked by how closely they match the theme’s over-indexed elements, weighted by how distinctive each element is; one film per series. Only films with at least 20 indexed frames and 500 TMDB votes are listed.
Machine-readable: /api/list/alien-planet
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