Best Space marine Movies
Ranked by how strongly each film carries the visual signature of space marine cinema — measured across 1,065 indexed frames from 16 films, against a 408,752-frame catalogue baseline. Not by box office, and not by vote.
Space marine films over-index on flight suit, control panel and metal wall — the objects that make the genre recognisable before a line is spoken.
- 1
Event Horizon (1997)
Paul W. S. AndersonDP Adrian BiddleIMDb 6.6TMDB 6.6See in full on FrameThrower →
In the year 2047 a group of astronauts are sent to investigate and salvage the long lost starship "Event Horizon". The ship disappeared mysteriously 7 years before on its maiden voyage and with its return comes even more mystery as the crew of the "Lewis and Clark" discover the real truth behind its disappearance and something even more terrifying.
- 2
Alien (1979)
Ridley ScottDP Derek VanlintIMDb 8.5TMDB 8.2See in full on FrameThrower →
In the distant future, the commercial spaceship "Nostromo" crew is on its way home when the crew picks up a distress call from a distant moon. The crew must investigate, and the spaceship descends on the small planetoid afterwards. After a rough landing, three crew members leave the spaceship to explore the area on the planetoid. At the same time, the ship's computer deciphers the message. When the crew realizes it is not alone on the spaceship, they must deal with the consequences.
- 3
Aliens (1986)
James CameronDP Adrian BiddleIMDb 8.4TMDB 8.0See in full on FrameThrower →
57 years after Ellen Ripley had a close encounter with the reptilian alien creature from the first movie, she is called back, this time, to help a group of highly trained colonial marines fight off against the sinister extraterrestrials. But this time, the aliens have taken over a space colony on the moon LV-426. When the colonial marines are called upon to search the deserted space colony, they later find out that they are up against more than what they bargained for. Using specially modified machine guns and enough firepower, it's either fight or die as the space marines battle against the aliens.
- 4
Starship Troopers (1997)
Paul VerhoevenDP Jost VacanoIMDb 7.3TMDB 7.1See in full on FrameThrower →
Set in the future, the story follows a young soldier named Johnny Rico and his exploits in the Mobile Infantry. Rico's military career progresses from recruit to non-commissioned officer and finally to officer against the backdrop of an interstellar war between mankind and an arachnoid species known as "the Bugs."
- 5
Jason X (2001)
James IsaacDP Derick V. UnderschultzIMDb 4.5TMDB 4.9See in full on FrameThrower →
In the Year 2008, Jason Vorhees is cryogenically frozen in a Government Facility in Camp Crystal Lake, along with scientist Rowan. Many centuries later, in the year 2455, Earth is uninhabitable, and humans have moved to another planet known as Earth II. However, a team of students awakens both him and Rowan on a spaceship known as the Grendel. Jason begins killing the students and crew of the ship. Along the way, he is upgraded to Uber Jason. It's now up to Rowan and the surviving students to stop Jason, this time on a spaceship.
- 6
Moonraker (1979)
Lewis GilbertDP Jean TournierIMDb 6.3TMDB 6.2See in full on FrameThrower →
James Bond is back for another mission and this time, he is blasting off into space. A spaceship travelling through space is mysteriously hijacked and Bond must work quickly to find out who was behind it all. He starts with the rockets creators, Drax Industries and the man behind the organization, Hugo Drax. On his journey he ends up meeting Dr. Holly Goodhead and encounters the metal-toothed Jaws once again.
- 7
Dune (1984)
David LynchDP Freddie FrancisIMDb 6.3TMDB 6.2See in full on FrameThrower →
In the distant year of 10191, all the planets of the known Universe are under the control of Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV and the most important commodity in the Universe is a substance called the spice "MELANGE" which is said to have the power of extending life, expanding the consciousness and even to "fold space" ; being able to travel to any distance without physically moving. This spice "MELANGE" is said to only be produced in the desert planet of Arrakis, where the FREMEN people have the prophecy of a man who will lead them to true freedom. This "desert planet"of Arrakis is also known as DUNE. A secret report of the space "GUILD" talks about some circumstances and plans that could jeopardize the production of "SPICE" with four planets involved: ARRAKIS, CALADAN, GIEDI PRIME and KAITAIN, a world at least visually very alike to Earth and house of the Emperor of the known Universe. The "GUILD" sends a third stage navigator to KAITAIN to ask details from the Emperor and to demand him the killing of young Paul Atreides, son of the Duke Leto Atreides of CALADAN.
- 8
Armageddon (1998)
Michael BayDP John SchwartzmanIMDb 6.7TMDB 6.8See in full on FrameThrower →
Due to a shuttle's unfortunate demise in outer space, NASA becomes aware of a doomsday asteroid that is on a collision course with Earth. It seems that the only way to knock it off course is to drill into its surface and detonate a nuclear weapon. But as NASA's under-funded yet resourceful team train the world's best drillers for the job, the social order of the world begins to break down as the information reaches the public and hysteria results. As high-ranking officials play politics with the effort, the drilling team all faces deep personal issues which may jeopardize humanity's last chance...
- 9
Lifeforce (1985)
Tobe HooperDP Alan HumeIMDb 6.1TMDB 6.3See in full on FrameThrower →
The space shuttle Churchill is assigned to observe Halley's Comet under the command of Colonel Tom Carlsen. They see a strange form attached to the comet and Carlsen goes with a team to investigate. They find three humanoid life forms in caskets and they bring them to the Churchill. However, Earth loses contact with the shuttle and the Space Research Center sends another spacecraft to search the Churchill. They find the crew dead and the shuttle burnt and one rescue pod missing. They bring the humanoids to Earth and soon Dr. Hans Fallada and his team discover that the Space Girl is a sort of vampire and drains the life force from people, transforming them into zombies. When the authorities find that Colonel Tom Carlsen has survived, they summon him to explain what happened in the Churchill. Carlsen tells an incredible story about the three aliens and he teams up with Colonel Colin Caine trying to save mankind from the evil vampires from space.
- 10
Planet of the Apes (1968) (1968)
Franklin J. SchaffnerDP Leon ShamroyIMDb 8.0TMDB 7.6See in full on FrameThrower →
Taylor and two other astronauts come out of deep hibernation to find that their ship has crashed. Escaping with little more than clothes they find that they have landed on a planet where men are pre-lingual and uncivilized while apes have learned speech and technology. Taylor is captured and taken to the city of the apes after damaging his throat so that he is silent and cannot communicate with the apes.
What space marine films are made of
How much more often each element appears in a space marine frame than in an average frame from the catalogue. A ratio, not a share — flight suit is not in most frames, it is simply far more common here than anywhere else.
- flight suit33.7×
- control panel12.8×
- metal wall11.1×
- stars10.7×
- helmet5.8×
- soldier3.0×
- skin2.9×
- sand2.4×
How space marine 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 space marine from the catalogue far more than they separate it from its neighbours.
- 12%low anglevs 5% baseline
- 11%high anglevs 6% baseline
- 13%interior indeterminatevs 7% baseline
- 24%dayvs 42% baseline
- 28%naturalvs 43% baseline
What breaks the pattern
Men In Black (1997) 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 1,065 frames from 16 films carrying the space marine 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/space-marine
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