Movie Lists

The 14 Best Film Noir Movies That Define the Genre

In this exploration of the film noir genre and the cinematic movement where science fiction movies intersect with it, we examine how these genres blend to create intriguing hybrid forms. Movie genres, also referred to as genres, categorize films based on their style, elements, or themes. Within these genres, there are also subgenres and various hybrid genres that bridge the two primary movie genres.

One of these fascinating hybrid movie genres is tech noir. So, what are the distinctive features of this genre, which merges film noir and science fiction? How can tech noir movies be recognized?

We previously mentioned that tech noir is a hybrid genre. But what exactly is a hybrid genre? Hybrid movie genres combine two or more film genres; for example, the two genres that constitute tech noir are film noir and science fiction. Tech noir movies emerged from the intersection of these genres.

Hybrid genre movies, sometimes referred to as inter-genre movies, blend thematic elements from two or more genres or subgenres.

Tech noir movies exemplify a hybrid genre that combines elements of science fiction and film noir. Often referred to as cyber noir, future noir, or science fiction noir, tech noir gained popularity in the 1980s with films such as Blade Runner and The Terminator. Notably, director James Cameron used the term tech noir as the name of a nightclub in The Terminator, creating a referential connotation for this new genre that embodies both film noir and futuristic science fiction.

Tech noir movies contain many classic film noir elements, but they also explore science fiction themes. Most tech noir films feature characters similar to those in traditional science fiction, while their narratives reflect the storytelling style of film noir.


1.The Zero Theorem

The Zero Theorem

The movie was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Movie and the Golden Lion, the Venice Film Festival’s top prize, where the movie won an honorable mention.

Qohen Leth, a highly skilled but isolated computer operator, is tasked by the operator’s management with proving the Zero Theorem. However, this task, which will open the doors to Qohen’s increasingly developing sense of existential anxiety, pushes him into a deep search for meaning in the midst of a universe and life that will end as nothing.

Information about The Zero Theorem

  • Title: The Zero Theorem
  • Director: Terry Gilliam
  • Cast: Christoph Waltz, Mélanie Thierry, David Thewlis, Lucas Hedges
  • Release Year: 2013
  • Duration: 107 minutes
  • Country: United Kingdom, Romania, France, United States
  • Genre: Science Fiction, Drama
  • Available Platforms: Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV
  • IMDB Rating: 6.1/10
  • Language: English
  • Age Rating: 13+
  • Similar Movies:Brazil (1985),12 Monkeys (1995),Moon (2009)
  • Trailer: Watch the Trailer on YouTube
  • IMDb Link: The Zero Theorem on IMDb

2.Total Recall

Total Recall

After Douglas Quaid, a factory worker, visits Rekall, a company that implants false memories into its customers, promising to give them the life they want, the company begins to suspect that he is a spy. Things go terribly wrong, and Douglas finds himself on the run.

Information about Total Recall (2012)

  • Title: Total Recall
  • Director: Len Wiseman
  • Cast: Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel, Bryan Cranston, Bill Nighy
  • Release Year: 2012
  • Duration: 118 minutes
  • Country: United States
  • Genre: Action, Science Fiction, Adventure
  • Available Platforms: Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Hulu
  • IMDB Rating: 6.3/10
  • Language: English
  • Age Rating: PG-13
  • Similar Movies: Minority Report (2002), Blade Runner 2049 (2017), Inception (2010)
  • Trailer: Watch the Trailer on YouTube
  • IMDb Link: Total Recall on IMDb

3.Paycheck

Paycheck
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This movie was also nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Movie.

Jennings is the best engineer in the business. He is hired to do a special job on the recommendation of some coworkers. When the job is done, all memory of what he worked on is erased from his mind. Soon after, he is being hunted for something he doesn’t remember doing. Jennings has little time to figure out what he did in the past.

Information about Paycheck

  • Title: Paycheck – Reckoning
  • Director: John Woo
  • Cast: Ben Affleck, Uma Thurman, Aaron Eckhart, Colm Feore, Joe Morton
  • Release Year: 2003
  • Duration: 119 minutes
  • Country: United States
  • Genre: Action, Science Fiction, Thriller
  • Available Platforms: Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV
  • IMDB Rating: 6.3/10
  • Language: English
  • Age Rating: PG-13
  • Similar Movies: Minority Report (2002), The Bourne Identity (2002), Total Recall (2012)
  • Trailer: Watch the Trailer on YouTube
  • IMDb Link: Paycheck on IMDb

4.Tron Legacy

Tron Legacy

The movie, which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Sound Editing, also won two Saturn Awards.

The son of a virtual world designer goes in search of his father and finds himself in the digital world his father designed. Despite all its corrupt structure, he will soon gain an ally in the digital world. Meanwhile, the malicious program CLU, which dominates the digital world, plans to invade the real world and will do everything to prevent the intruders from escaping.

Information about Tron: Legacy

  • Title: Tron: Legacy
  • Director: Joseph Kosinski
  • Cast: Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, Michael Sheen
  • Release Year: 2010
  • Duration: 125 minutes
  • Country: United States
  • Genre: Action, Adventure, Science Fiction
  • Available Platforms: Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV
  • IMDB Rating: 6.8/10
  • Language: English
  • Age Rating: PG
  • Similar Movies: The Matrix (1999), Inception (2010), Ready Player One (2018)
  • Trailer: Watch the Trailer on YouTube
  • IMDb Link: Tron: Legacy on IMDb

5.Alphaville

Alphaville

The movie won the Golden Bear Award at the Berlin International Film Festival and was ranked fifth on Cahiers du Cinéma‘s list of the 10 Best Movies of 1965.

Lemmy Caution, an American private detective, arrives in Alphaville, a futuristic city on another planet. His outspoken and liberal character conflicts with the city’s ruler, an evil scientist named Von Braun, who forbids love and freedom of expression.

Information about Alphaville

  • Title: Alphaville
  • Director: Jean-Luc Godard
  • Cast: Eddie Constantine, Anna Karina, Akim Tamiroff, Jean-Pierre Léaud
  • Release Year: 1965
  • Duration: 99 minutes
  • Country: France
  • Genre: Science Fiction, Mystery, Romance
  • Available Platforms: Criterion Channel, Amazon Prime Video (availability may vary)
  • IMDB Rating: 7.6/10
  • Language: French
  • Age Rating: Not Rated
  • Similar Movies: La Jetée (1962), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Blade Runner (1982)
  • Trailer: Watch the Trailer on YouTube
  • IMDb Link: Alphaville on IMDb

6.AI Artificial Intelligence

AI Artificial Intelligence

AI, which received Oscar nominations for Best Original Score and Best Visual Effects, is a powerful science fiction movie classic with a BAFTA nomination and Saturn Award win.

In this futuristic fairy tale, a highly advanced robotic child named “David” hopes to become a real child in order to regain the love of his human mother who abandoned him. Like Pinocchio, he will embark on a long journey in the hope of finding his “Blue Fairy” who will make his hoped-for dreams come true.

Information about Artificial Intelligence (2001)

  • Title: Artificial Intelligence: AI
  • Director: Steven Spielberg
  • Cast: Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law, Frances O’Connor, Sam Robards, William Hurt
  • Release Year: 2001
  • Duration: 146 minutes
  • Country: United States
  • Genre: Science Fiction, Drama
  • Available Platforms: Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Hulu
  • IMDB Rating: 7.2/10
  • Language: English
  • Age Rating: PG-13
  • Similar Movies: Blade Runner (1982), The Matrix (1999), Ex Machina (2014)
  • Trailer: Watch the Trailer on YouTube
  • IMDb Link: Artificial Intelligence: AI on IMDb

7.Looper

Looper

Nominated for 4 Saturn Awards, including Best Science Fiction Movie, Looper is a powerful movie.

In the future, time travel has been invented. However, this illegal action is only possible with certain underground resources. Those who want to destroy someone send their targets back 30 years and take care of their business with the hired killers waiting for them. The life of Joe, who has become quite rich from these jobs, is going quite well until the day the mafia decides to “close the loop.” But now, Joe has to enter a violent conflict.

Information about Looper

  • Title: Looper
  • Director: Rian Johnson
  • Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, Jeff Daniels, Piper Perabo
  • Release Year: 2012
  • Duration: 118 minutes
  • Country: United States
  • Genre: Action, Science Fiction, Thriller
  • Available Platforms: Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Apple TV
  • IMDB Rating: 7.4/10
  • Language: English
  • Age Rating: R
  • Similar Movies: Inception (2010), Twelve Monkeys (1995), The Terminator (1984)
  • Trailer: Watch the Trailer on YouTube
  • IMDb Link: Looper on IMDb

8.Predestination

Predestination

The movie won awards for Best Science Fiction Movie and Best Screenplay at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival.

A top agent’s latest assignment leads him to hunt down the one criminal who has eluded him throughout his career. The movie presents audiences with a unique, surprising, and mind-blowing exploration of the chase, love, destiny, identity, and time travel taboos.

Information about Predestination

  • Title: Predestination
  • Director: Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig
  • Cast: Ethan Hawke, Sarah Snook, Noah Taylor, Madeleine West
  • Release Year: 2014
  • Duration: 97 minutes
  • Country: Australia, United States
  • Genre: Science Fiction, Thriller, Mystery
  • Available Platforms: Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Hulu
  • IMDB Rating: 7.5/10
  • Language: English
  • Age Rating: R
  • Similar Movies: Timecrimes (2007), Twelve Monkeys (1995), Looper (2012)
  • Trailer: Watch the Trailer on YouTube
  • IMDb Link: Predestination on IMDb

9.The City of Lost Children

The City of Lost Children

The movie, which was nominated for three Saturn Awards and also won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, is a fantasy science fiction classic.

In the movie set in a dystopian society, someone is kidnapping children. The perpetrators are Krank and his gang, and they are committing this crime to steal the children’s dreams. However, when they kidnap Denree, the sister of a fairground tyrant, One, someone will finally set out to find her sister.

Information about The City of Lost Children

  • Title: The City of Lost Children
  • Director: Marc Caro, Jean-Pierre Jeunet
  • Cast: Ron Perlman, Judith Vittet, Dominique Pinon, Jean-Claude Dreyfus
  • Release Year: 1995
  • Duration: 112 minutes
  • Country: France, Germany
  • Genre: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Adventure
  • Available Platforms: Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV (availability may vary)
  • IMDB Rating: 7.6/10
  • Language: French
  • Age Rating: R
  • Similar Movies: Delicatessen (1991), Amélie (2001), The Fifth Element (1997)
  • Trailer: Watch the Trailer on YouTube
  • IMDb Link: The City of Lost Children on IMDb

10.Minority Report

Minority Report

The movie, which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Sound Editing, was also nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Visual Effects at the BAFTA Awards. The movie, which won 4 Saturn Awards including Best Science Fiction Movie, is also nominated for 7 Saturn Awards.

A special police unit established in the near future is able to catch murderers before they commit their crimes. What is surprising is that a police officer in that unit is accused of a murder that he will commit in the future.

Information about Minority Report

  • Title: Minority Report
  • Director: Steven Spielberg
  • Cast: Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton, Max von Sydow, Kathryn Morris
  • Release Year: 2002
  • Duration: 145 minutes
  • Country: United States
  • Genre: Action, Science Fiction, Thriller
  • Available Platforms: Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Apple TV
  • IMDB Rating: 7.6/10
  • Language: English
  • Age Rating: PG-13
  • Similar Movies: Blade Runner (1982), The Matrix (1999), Total Recall (1990)
  • Trailer: Watch the Trailer on YouTube
  • IMDb Link: Minority Report on IMDb

11.Dark City

Dark City

The movie, which won the Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Movie, is among the science fiction classics.

A man wakes up in a bathtub and receives a phone call telling him to leave the room immediately or he will be caught. Before leaving, he finds a woman’s body in the house. A group of strangers soon catches him, but he manages to escape. However, he is followed by police inspector Frank Burnstead, who believes he is a serial killer. He and the strangers who follow him have special powers.

Information about Dark City

  • Title: Dark City
  • Director: Alex Proyas
  • Cast: Rufus Sewell, Kiefer Sutherland, Jennifer Connelly, William Hurt, Ian Richardson
  • Release Year: 1998
  • Duration: 100 minutes
  • Country: United States, Australia
  • Genre: Science Fiction, Mystery, Thriller
  • Available Platforms: Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV (availability may vary)
  • IMDB Rating: 7.6/10
  • Language: English
  • Age Rating: R
  • Similar Movies: The Matrix (1999), The Fifth Element (1997), Inception (2010)
  • Trailer: Watch the Trailer on YouTube
  • IMDb Link: Dark City on IMDb

12.The Island

The Island

The movie takes place in an extraordinary, even utopian society. We are in the 21st century. The main character, Lincoln, and everyone else in this society aim to reach the “Island,” and the way to do this is to win the grand raffle. However, when Lincoln comes to a point, he realizes that everything that has happened is a game. Both he and the others are essentially clones.

The purpose of their survival is to serve as a kind of spare part for the people they are clones of. When the time comes, they will provide organs to the real people they belong to. Deciding to rebel against this situation, Lincoln wants to escape from there and confront those who created them, and the adventure begins.

Information about The Island

  • Title: The Island
  • Director: Michael Bay
  • Cast: Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johansson, Djimon Hounsou, Sean Bean, Steve Buscemi
  • Release Year: 2005
  • Duration: 136 minutes
  • Country: United States
  • Genre: Action, Science Fiction, Thriller
  • Available Platforms: Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV (availability may vary)
  • IMDB Rating: 6.8/10
  • Language: English
  • Age Rating: PG-13
  • Similar Movies: The Matrix (1999), Minority Report (2002), The Prestige (2006)
  • Trailer: Watch the Trailer on YouTube
  • IMDb Link: The Island on IMDb

13.Gattaca

Gattaca

Nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Picture and an Oscar for Best Art Direction, Gattaca was also nominated for several Saturn Awards and won the Best Picture and Best Soundtrack awards at Sitges.

In a future society in an era of systematic eugenics, people are mapped out according to their DNA in a life path they believe is right for them. Young Vincent Freeman was born with a medical condition that prevents him from traveling to space, but he is determined to somehow infiltrate the GATTACA space program.

Information about Gattaca

  • Title: Gattaca
  • Director: Andrew Niccol
  • Cast: Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Jude Law, Alan Arkin, Gore Vidal
  • Release Year: 1997
  • Duration: 106 minutes
  • Country: United States
  • Genre: Science Fiction, Thriller, Drama
  • Available Platforms: Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Apple TV (availability may vary)
  • IMDB Rating: 7.8/10
  • Language: English
  • Age Rating: PG-13
  • Similar Movies: Blade Runner (1982), Minority Report (2002), The Island (2005)
  • Trailer: Watch the Trailer on YouTube
  • IMDb Link: Gattaca on IMDb

14.Brazil

Brazil

Brazil, which received Oscar nominations for Best Screenplay and Best Art Direction, was also nominated for two BAFTA nominations. The movie was re-released after undergoing a high-level restoration by the Criterion Collection.

Sam Lowry is a technocrat who is dissatisfied with his life in a dystopian and futuristic society. Sam dreams of a life where he can be with the woman of his dreams forever, away from technology and oppressive bureaucracy. One day, Sam finds the opportunity to meet Jill Layton, the woman he has always dreamed of and pursued. However, when the bureaucracy blames him for a series of terrorist bombings, the life he has just begun to put back together will be in danger.

Information about Brazil

  • Title: Brazil
  • Director: Terry Gilliam
  • Cast: Jonathan Pryce, Kim Greist, Robert De Niro, Ian Holm, Bob Hoskins
  • Release Year: 1985
  • Duration: 132 minutes
  • Country: United Kingdom, United States
  • Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Comedy
  • Available Platforms: Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV (availability may vary)
  • IMDB Rating: 7.9/10
  • Language: English
  • Age Rating: R
  • Similar Movies: 12 Monkeys (1995), The Fifth Element (1997), A Clockwork Orange (1971)
  • Trailer: Watch the Trailer on YouTube
  • IMDb Link: Brazil on IMDb

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